I was reading this morning about the resurgent popularity of gold prospecting in California. Given the current state of the economy, it’s not surprising. The article I read mentioned that during the California Gold Rush of 1849, it is estimated that only 20% of the available gold was ever mined. That means there’s 80% left. That’s a whole lotta gold!

Now, speaking from personal experience, there is plenty of gold in the rivers of California to make a pretty decent living if you’re willing to put in the work. I have panned rivers between Modesto and Sacramento and amazingly, I found gold each trip. I didn’t hit the mother lode, but it was fun. I really wish I lived in the area, because panning for gold would be my weekend activity. Spending time in the fresh air, by the river, making money, what could be better?

Panning and mining for gold does take a small investment for the proper equipment, but to get started, all you really need is a basic gold panning kit which consists of a gold pan, a snuffer bottle, and a glass vial to store the gold you find. You can usually pick up one of these kits for $15 to $25. If you’re looking for more information about panning for gold, there are plenty of books about gold prospecting to help you get started.

Now, I know some of you are probably thinking, “Well, that’s all well and good if you LIVE in California, but I can’t afford to take a trip out there just to pan for gold. And even if I could, I don’t think I could find enough gold to pay for the trip AND make a profit.” Who said you need to go to California to pan for gold? You can actually order gold panning concentrates online and pan for gold in the comfort of your own home! Each of these 1.5 pound bags of gold panning concentrates is guaranteed to have gold in it.

There’s gold in them thar hills! Go get it.

“Brandy! Throw more brandy!”

The Great Race simply has the best pie fight on film EVAR. It starts with Professor Fate (played by Jack Lemmon) falling into a hugemongous cake. He then chucks a cake at his co-conspirator (I won’t go into plot detail here), who then fires back. It slowly escalates until pies are a-flyin’ every where. The white-clad hero of the story, the Great Leslie (played by Tony Curtis), manages to wander through the entire fight without getting so much as a speck of pie on him until… well, I won’t give it away. Watch the clip below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0BOOgW7rHE

This movie has a star studded cast and many familiar character actors: Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Jack Lemmon, Peter Falk, Keenan Wynn, Larry Storch, Dorothy Provine, Denver Pyle, Vivian Vance, and more.

The Great Race is available on DVD at Amazon. It’s worth the purchase price. Blake Edwards movies usually are.

Well, one of my buddies responded to my little game of blog tag about five places she’d like to go. I found myself having to comment on them, so here I go.

1) I’d like to check out Atlanta too. In fact, I’d like to check out the entire state of Georgia. Back in the fourth or fifth grade, we had to do a class project on another state and I chose Georgia. Hmmm, I wonder if any of my buddies can figure out why. LOL.

2) Hawaii. Good taste, girl! Btw, I will have you know that the last time I stayed on the island of Oahu, we stayed at that hotel you see in the beginning of Hawaii Five-0. They screwed up our reservations. I mean, really, did you think when we booked the room that we REALLY wanted one bed for four grown women? I don’t think so.  Someone screwed up. We were lucky though because they gave us a penthouse suite at no extra charge. It was one door down from the end where Jack Lord stood! And yes, I went over and stood exactly where he did and hummed the Hawaii Five-o theme. Khee!

3) New York City. No desire whatsoever to go there. Nevah evah. You’d have to drag me there kicking and screaming. LOL.

4) Scotland/UK. Let’s go. Now! I’ll pay…

5) I would love to go to Germany. I’m sure my husband would too. We both have German roots and he’s a huge WWII buff, so a trip to Germany, and perhaps France and the aforementioned UK would be a great history lesson!

Perhaps I should retire now so I can make sure to get all this travelin’ in.

Here’s a little blog tag challenge for my friends (and any of you out there reading who’d like to participate). Name five places you’d like to go. It doesn’t have to be a place you’ve never been before, just a place you’d like to go again.

1) Hawaii – Hawaii is always at the top of my list. It’s just a beautiful place and a nice getaway from the hustle and bustle.

2) Las Vegas – I luvs me some slot machines. I have to get to Vegas every few years to drop some dough and do my part for their local economy.

3) Southern California – My home… I miss it sometimes.

4) Alaska – I’ve heard the cruises there are spectacular and we’re not too far away here in Washington.

5) Ireland/Scotland/UK – I’m really into genealogy and a lot of my roots are in the UK. I’d love to visit the lands of my ancestors.

So, what are five places YOU’D like to go?

I ran across this video the other day, quite by accident. I was once again lost on YouTube looking for scenes from Blazing Saddles. I found the fart scene from that movie, which led to a farting Star Trek video (which is fodder for another post), which in turn led to this video, the Farting Preacher. The hubby and I were rolling. Tears were literally streaming down our eyes from laughter. I sent it to a friend and she couldn’t even finish it, she was laughing so hard. There is nothing as funny as a well-timed fart and whoever made this video is a comedy genius! Enjoy… The Farting Preacher.

No, when I say “The Sinister Minister” I’m not talkin’ about the professional wrestling manager, James Mitchell. I’m talkin’ about the song by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones! I ran across “The Sinister Minister” last week on iTunes when I was looking for some mood music. I wanted something a little funky, a little dark, a little mischievous for a story I was working on. Well, this song fit the bill. Once I heard it, I had to download it.

The Sinister Minister was very conducive to my creativity. I wrote about 8 pages one night (which is a lot for me). I just looped it and started cranking on the story. By iTunes’ count, I’ve played it 162 times already (and yes, it’s playing in my rockin’ Bose® around-ear headphonesright now!) and counting.

Take a listen and let me know if you love this song too!

Hey, here comes play #163! Hehehe…

With so many different languages and cultures around the world, sometimes things get lost in translation. This was very evident to me the other night while perusing YouTube. There is no end of videos, most of them pretty hilarious, that take full advantage of misunderstandings and mistranslations between languages. Here are a few of my favorite examples:

Dschinghis Khan’s “Moskau!” as “translated” into English by Buffalax. This isn’t really an English translation, but rather what the song sounds like if you assume it’s sung in English, which it isn’t.

The next video never ceases to crack me up.

And once again, Dschinghis Khan with “Samurai”.

Now, here’s a clip from Bulgarian Idol. Apparently, this lady is attempting to sing “Without You” by Mariah Carey. However, she calls it “Ken Lee” and well, her English pronunciation isn’t all that great. LOL.

A long time ago, I watched the great Mel Brooks movie “The Producers“. I recall my favorite character being Lorenzo St. DuBois as portrayed by the late, great Dick Shawn. I recently ran across a video clip of Lorenzo’s audition for Springtime for Hitler. This scene always makes me laugh. Shawn’s rendition of the song is funny enough, but coupled with his groovy dancing, the hip high boots, and the Campbell’s soup can hanging around his neck, and it’s just over the top. The song starts off lighthearted and lovely, but quickly devolves into a rant against society. I can relate. LOL.

I’m not sure, but I think the chick in the background with the guitar might’ve gone on to become one of the Robert Palmer girls.

And while I’m posting, I think I’ll play blog tag and challenge my friends to post an amusing video clip, some light-hearted musing, or something outrageously funny.

I think I’ve learned my lesson. Never, ever, under any circumstances, clip my budgie Peanut’s wings anywhere but the enclosed bathroom. The last two times I clipped them, she’s gotten away from me after the last wing was clipped and hidden away where we couldn’t get to her.

The first time it was under the fridge. Fortunately, that ordeal only lasted about 40 minutes and we were able to get her out once we figured the fridge rolled out of its spot.

This time, however, she made a break for the stove and it resulted in a three hour ordeal. We tried coaxing her out. We tried setting out seed. We tried putting the cage with our other budgies nearby so their calling would coax her out. No dice. So, we finally tried pulling the stove out, an ordeal in itself. Little did we know that there were holes in the side of the cabinets next to the stove. We spent the next two hours tearing the kitchen apart, trying to figure out how to get this scared little bird out alive while doing the least damage to our kitchen.

Fortunately, I was able to push back some particle board in the cabinet far enough to get a stick in and coax her backward to the space behind the stove. Before we could grab her though, she made a beeline for the space between the stove and the cabinet on the opposite side. At that point, she completely disappeared. We didn’t know if she was in the stove or in the cabinet. We tried probing carefully with a stick in both areas to find where she was. Nothing. We had no clue where she was and we just about thought all hope was lost.

We searched the stove. Nothing. We pulled it out as far as we could and my husband got behind it to check the cabinets. I got him a longer stick to probe with. At this point, I was in just about full panic mode and about ready to pass out from hypoglycemia (hadn’t eaten anything yet and it was late afternoon).

A few minutes later, a little squawk let us know that our wayward budgie was indeed under the cabinets. A few minutes of work sweeping the stick through the hole in the cabinet resulted in the appearance of a teeny little budgie head poking out the hole. My husband gently coaxed her out a little further, then grabbed her. As he stood up, he bumped his head on the microwave overhead and our little escape artist flew off, making another break for it. I caught her mid-air, held her close to my chest, and quickly hustled her into the bathroom to wash all the dust and gunk off her. Then it was back into the cage for her, where she’s now sitting nice and dry and sufficiently preened. She’s sitting, staring at me, no doubt planning her next escape.

Our little adventure resulted in a little “remodeling” of the kitchen, but we consider it an improvement. We’ve done away with the carousel in the corner cabinet and will be putting shelves in. Hubby cleaned up and put everything back in its place. We both took showers, I ordered pizza, and we crashed on the couch for the rest of the night.

This week, we’re going to Home Depot for some “bird proofing” supplies. I think we should change that little parakeet’s name to Trouble.

For some reason, tonight I got the urge to take a walk through the 80’s. I checked out some websites that listed top 40 hits for the era. I found some old favorites. I found some stuff that I couldn’t believe I actually listened to at the time. I found some of the videos on YouTube. It was a great trip down memory lane. Let me share some of it with you.

I’m sure I’ll be adding more posts on the 80’s. I’ll also be adding some lyrics from some of my faves in my lyrics section. In the meantime, feel free to comment and add some of your faves.

I Love a Rainy Night – it’s such a beautiful sight, love to feel the rain on my face, taste the rain on my lips.

Big Shot – Ok, not quite 80’s, but I was so into Billy in the 80’s. You hadda be a Big Shot, dintcha?

Hazy Shade of Winter – Nice Bangles cover of the Simon & Garfunkel tune. Hang on to your heart, my friend.

Roll With It – When life is too much, Roll with it, baby

I totally loved Level 42 in the 80’s. I still have one of their albums on vinyl somewhere.

Lessons in Love – I’m not proud, I was wrong, and the truth is hard to take.

Something About You – But making mistakes is one of life’s imperfections…

Running in the Family – Our dad would send us to the room, he’d be the voice of doom…

A little Georgia Satellites…

Keep Your Hands to Yourself – Got a li’l change in my pocket goin’ jang-a-lang-a-lang…

And who could forget Peter Gabriel?

SledgeHammer – You could have a bumper car bumping, this amusement never ends.

Somebody’s Watching Me – I’m just an average man, with an average life. I work from 9 to 5. Hey, hell, I pay the price…

Who Can It Be Now? – Who can it be knocking at my door. Go away. Don’t come ’round here no more!

Down Under – Do you come from a land down under?

Abracadabra – I heat up, I can’t cool down.