Can someone please tell me why one household needs 8 phone books??? We keep getting new phone books, all from different companies, and I cringe at the thought of all the trees that gave their lives just to be thrown away. I mean, really, even in a Metro area (which I'm sorry, Raleigh just doesn't qualify as) you don't need 8 different phone books. I plan to recycle the books (if my husband who has no patience for such things doesn't get to them first) but the recycling center that takes phone books is 30 miles away so is it really worth wasting the fossil fuel to get there?

AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Get your mind out of the gutter - I'm talking about the animal.

So I was driving down to meet SanDee for lunch today and the route takes me by the nuclear power plant. Said plant sits next to a lake, convenient for emergency cooling not to mention some excellent fishing so I've heard. I've driven the route many times since I used to work with SanDee and in so doing have seen a number of unusually large animals splattered along the side of the road. I attribute their large size to drinking contaminated lake water, but that's just my personal theory. (C'mon, how else do you explain a box turtle roughly the size of a large pizza?) Anyway, today's roadkill selection was a beaver that, I kid you not, was bigger than my dog. According to Wikipedia, beavers can grow up to and over 55 lbs. The one I saw today clearly proved that. Wondermutt weighs 33 lbs and was easily half the size of this rodent. The rodent has shorter legs, of course.

All Cars Would Be Yellow If Not for the Matchy-Matchy Laws

Teacher: So, as you can see, this car in the picture reduces air resistance and can accelerate faster.
Student #1, chuckling: Yeah, and plus, it's yellow, so that makes it faster, too.
Teacher, laughing: Haha, yeah, very true.
Student #2: Wait, really?

--Physics class, St. Ann's School

Overheard by: Mike N

via Overheard in New York, Mar 4, 2007

Saw Zodiac last night. I was anxiously awaiting this film, as I am a huge fan of the suspense thriller genre and a fan of David Fincher's work in general. While Zodiac did not generate the armrest-gripping, edge-of-your-seat, jump-out-of-your-skin suspense that say Se7en did, it was a captivating movie. I had no idea it was almost 3 hours long and was shocked to look at my watch when the movie ended. Given my short attention span, I generally find it difficult to sit through films more than about 2:15. In fact, I'd rather stick a fork in my eye than watch Dances With Wolves.

Anyway, the cast of Zodiac was fantastic and Robert Downey, Jr should get some kind of award for his portrayal of the booze-swilling, coke-snorting Paul Avery. Then again, that probably wasn't much of a stretch for him. I thought he did an amazing job, though, seriously. And the costume and set designs were incredible. I wondered how they'd pull off the late 60's/early 70's looks without being over the top and distracting. They managed to do it superbly - fairly accurate with chronological fashion/design details so that the background stayed just that - background - and you didn't sit there going "omigod, LOOK at those bell bottoms!". I did think once or twice how frustrating police work must have been at the time, without e-mail, fax, DNA testing, etc., but that was about it.

While the film was not what I expected, I enjoyed it a lot. Well worth the $8.75 ticket price.