One question answered, plus shopping!

Okay, I promised to answer your questions. The first one up is Becky The Absent-Minded Housewife, who asks, "When snow melts, where does the white go?" I had no idea, so I Googled it. A rather dry scientist says, "The 'white' did not really exist on its own - it was a property of the arrangement of the water molecules in snow, and disappears as soon as that arrangement is changed."

There's a much more in-depth answer, with plenty of interesting details on glaciers and photons, from Hannah Holmes at discovery.com. Check it out yourself. The bottom of the page has links to other "The Skinny On..." articles, such as the must-read piece on Why Asparagus Makes Your Pee Stink". Interestingly, about three quarters of people may say that asparagus doesn't make their pee stink. But guess what? If you take the non-stinkers' pee and let a stinker sniff it, boy howdy, does it ever stink! Some people just don't know how bad their pee smells after they've eaten asparagus.

That puts me in mind of an old joke I love. As told here:

A woman goes into the doctor's office and says, "Doctor, you have to help me...I've got this problem: You see, I can't stop farting. I fart all the time, only they are silent and don't stink. As a matter of fact, I've farted 20 times just now while talking to you."

The doctor fills out a prescription and tells the lady, "Here, take these and come back in a week."

So she leaves and a week later comes back to the doctor's office. "Doctor, doctor, you must help me! Now things are worse. I'm still farting all the time, they are still silent but now they smell something awful. You must do something! What were those pills you gave me?"

The doctor replied, "Oh don't worry. Those pills were just to fix your sinus condition; now we'll work on your hearing problem."

Shopping? Yes, I mentioned shopping. I just placed a sizeable order with Amazon. First, "The Electric Company" DVD for Ben, because Flea just got me in a tizzy about it, and Ben thinks Letterman looks groovy.

Second, another copy of The Incredibles on DVD, because Ben gouged our first copy by getting it wedged in the DVD player.

Third, "Summer Bridge Activities" for kindergarten to first grade—a workbook to keep Ben's brain alive this summer so he's ready to kick ass in first grade. (Per the teacher's recommendation.)

Fourth—and this is where I'm a bad girl—I just dropped ninety bucks on "Like, Omigod! The '80s Pop Culture Box (Totally)" box set of 142 songs. Mona had confessed to buying the '70s version of this, but you know what? I'm an '80s girl. I'm interested in less than half the songs on the '70s discs, whereas most of the '80s songs inspire nostalgia, an embarrassing amount of "Ooh, I wanna hear that song!" Like, I don't need to hear Billy Squier's "The Stroke" more than once, but just once? It'd be kinda funny. I see only one Duran Duran song in this compilation, but that's okay because I have Rio on CD already (and in previous lives, I had the record and the tape). A little Cyndi Lauper, Human League, Thompson Twins (I had the hugest crush on that guy—bonus points to anyone who can remember his name), "Major Tom (Coming Home)" (I bought the album, complete with songs in German), Naked Eyes, Kajagoogoo (c'mon! Kajagoogoo!), Night Ranger's guilty pleasure "Sister Christian," Deniece Williams' "Let's Hear It for the Boy" from Footloose ("Maybe he's no Romeo, but he's my lovin' one-man show..."). Sure, I'll have to skip over Starship's "We Built This City" because it is an abomination unto music, but CDs make it so easy to skip the crap. I could go on, really I could, but I must stop before this devolves into an "All '80s, All the Time" blog.

In comments on the last post, both Ken/Cazique and Charlie offered earnest recommendations that I buy a card reader rather than a USB cable for my camera...but as it turns out, that USB cable was right on my dresser all along. (I'm not the most organized at completing the unpacking process after a trip.)

Up next (by which I mean another day), more reader questions will be answered. But my goodness! Some of those questions are mighty personal. I'll do a combo for Mona's questions, and cover my first first time and my second first time. E. wants to hear my courtship story. Jeezalou, that's an old tale! I will have to get in the way-way-back machine for that one, too. And then I'll fake an answer for Midwestern Deadbeat's question about the origins of the "Orange Tangerine" name.