What I Learned This Week - 12/27/13

1.  According to my youngest, snickerdoodle cookies should be made of Cheese Doodles and Snickers bars. No. They should not.
2. For OCD people like me who hate sitting at wobbly tables in restaurants and bars because they will spend twenty minutes creating origami leveling solutions from napkins, silverware and matchbooks, I give you the Wonkey (http://www.thabto.co.uk/wonkey.html).
3. There are now electronic socks that can track walking/running steps, speed, calories, distance travelled, and grab data about your walking or running style. No, they don’t make your feet less stinky.
4. One of Android's original software architects admitted that Google had "to start over" the day the iPhone was announced, erasing two years of development – because their phone looked so “90’s”.
5. I like the theory that the internet is full of cats because dog people actually go outside.
6. True love is when your wife asks you where to go to dinner and she agrees with your first suggestion.
7. Whenever I go to a movie with my oldest, the group we’re with will set over/under betting odds for the amount of times she’ll cry during the movie. For the movie the Hobbit the line was 2, the result was 4. For the Hobbit 2 the line was 2, yes she was over – but in her defense Orlando Bloom makes me cry too.
8. I’m surprised how enjoyable it is to watch my oldest’s expression whenever Orlando Bloom makes an appearance on the screen.  Apparently her friends have the same feeling since whenever he arrived on screen, everyone turned to watch her reaction.
9. Students from MIT made news this week due to a miscalculation of truck towing capacity - accidentally sinking a pick-up truck while trying to test out and launch a new RC boat. Engineering students from Wyoming call that “Saturdays”.
10. I’m going to get vanity plates that read, “SIGN” and “A SIGN” – so the next time you shout to the almighty to show you a sign - boom. There I am.
11. In many areas where fracking occurs (many rural), ozone levels have been measured orders of magnitude above normal. Although scientists understand the generation process they have yet to figure out what the direct catalyst is to make these levels so high. 
12. My oldest recently learned that she was sent to the principal’s office in first grade due to a potty mouth.  I don’t know what’s funnier, the fact that she’s appalled by that or the fact she still uses the word that got her in trouble. 
13. According to my middle child, Squirrels in garbage cans are scary.
14. If you walk with my oldest, she will wave back at every inflatable or stuffed animal on display that posed in a waving manner.
15. Added to the list of “Things I never want to see again”, highlights of the Neti Pot World Championships.
16. Most people put “lol” in Facebook posts because the original statement seemed too harsh and they didn’t want to re-write it. *lol*
17. I’ve decided not to worry much about what I eat between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. I will worry about what I eat between New Year’s Day and Thanksgiving.
18. The movie, “The Exorcist” turned 40 this week. It still creeps me out.