When Lisa and Piper came home earlier this week they encountered an unusual visitor in the breezeway.   A rogue gray squirrel grew tired of waiting for me to fill the bird feeders so he could have his lunch.  Brazenly, the little fiend climbed up the side of the house to the breezeway window, cut his way through the screen and scampered down into the room.  His objective was clear before him – a 40 pound bag of birdseed.  All his for the taking!  The side of the bag proved to be no obstacle and parted under a few snips of his teeth.  Before him now stood a many winters supply of food.  Wasting no time he set to filling his stomach with his prize.  His marauding was cut short by the arrival of Lisa and Piper.  Panic stricken he dove for what cover was available, ending behind the freezer.  Hiding in the compressor compartment he forced Lisa to move the freezer to motivate him to leave the feast.  Shooting through a door left open for his convenience he returned to his companions to share the much embellished tale of his successful raid.

:)

I’ve been the skinny kid all my life, and being a vegetarian, male, adult has only complicated the issue further. What am I talking about? People always comment about my weight. I know that wasn’t what you were expecting. For some reason a double standard exists that it is OK to tell someone how skinny they are and that they really need to gain weight (”You’re just skin and bones!”). But if I were to look at someone and go on a discourse about how fat they were or how important it is for them to lose weight for their general health I would be roundly casitigated as being rude and insensitive (and rightly so). In our culture women have extreme social pressure to be a skinny model. Well guess what: it is also true that American culture expects men to muscular linebackers. Curiously, women seem to go for the muscular line but aren’t so keen on the hulking type (look at some of the male heart throbs of my generation: Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, etc.).
Unfortunately, the news this morning tells me that things are only going to get worse, and I’m going to spend more time smiling and nodding at well intentioned people trying to pay me a compliment while essentially implying that I’m weak and undernourished:

Obesity, already at record levels in the USA, is set to be the norm for 41% of the adult within the next eight years – three-quarters of Americans will be overweight by 2015, according to a new study carried out by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They also predict that by 2015 almost 24% of children and adolescents in the USA will be obese/overweight.

So let’s do each other a favor. As the new norm of American society is established let’s just lose the weight comments. I promise not to mention the obvious when I’m looking at you if you promise to do the same. Because when push comes to shove, I’m not the one with the weight problem.

So I decided that I’m a single issue voter.  Barak Obama has come out and admitted that he is a huge Harry Potter fan and is eagerly awaiting the final installment.  Score one for Mr. Obama.  Call me crazy but I can’t help but wonder if the world would be a better place if a few more politicians read Good vs. Evil novels.

So Hillary, Richardson, Edwards, Kucinich: Where do you stand on Harry Potter?

It is my usual custom to not wear a jacket in the summer, regardless of the weather, believing that the little I get wet walking to and from my car at work isn’t going to cause me to melt.  Yesterday it was raining pretty hard when I left work and as expected I was a little soggy once I reached the car.  I had just left the parking lot when I thought to myself, “Boy, it smells like wet dog in here.”

Must be the car right?