Reno 97805-1280

A brief glimpse into our tax dollars trying to work: Me: "So how have your first few days of school been going?" Nic: "I hate it! They're always saying 'No' to me. I just want to sit in the front of the class and tell jokes." Wifie: "Well, now. There aren't many places that aren't going to say 'No' to that." Nic: "Well, then I say they're all fired!"

I'm loving Burns RV Park. Or I had way too much caffeine on today's road trip that things are firing on extra cylinders (two posts in one day). OK, both. Anyhoo, something caught my eye. When Reno-based Washoe Health System spent lord knows how much time, energy and money on re-branding itself a few years back, "Renown" rose to the top. I don't know who pitched it, but maybe it was somehow, somewhere etched in his memory. (Why "his"? Read on.) OK, national brand, but different industry. We can get around that legally and still leverage a national name. And an adjective in the dictionary. It's a win-win, right? Oh... My... I'm torn between two parting thoughts, so here's both: I can now see why "Renown" was the "#1" recommendation Perhaps the focus groups just didn't include enough men to answer that "What's the first thing that crosses your mind when I say..." question

Saw a sign in the men's bath at Burns (Ore.) RV Park. Since I heard that The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks has quite the backlog for approving/posting submissions, I'll put it here with my 2c: So...you (sign scribe) are going on record for directing us (readers) to refrain from touching the switch but are actually paraphrasing someone because if it were you, you would turn out the light? Regardless, if you are just being emphatic about the importance of not touching the switch, that red box does the trick all by itself.

Let me get this straight. Your friends refer to your business as "Anibel's Dessert House and Cafe", but the rest of the world knows you as "Mr. Cheesecake". No wonder you haven't yet committed to a bona-fide, overhead marquee for your biz. ... ... ... No, wait. Did you mean your company name was form-ER-ly known as "Mr. Cheesecake"? Oh, well now that clears things up. Honestly, I think it's the fault of the sign company that continues to hire people who cannot proofread...

Dateline: Last Friday Nic: "Tee-hee!" Me: "What's so funny?" Nic: "I just peed in the pool." Me: "Whoa! Not cool." Wifie: "Nic, we told you that it's OK to pee only when you're in something like Lake Tahoe." Nic: "But...we are in Lake Tahoe." Technically, we were vacationing in the Greater Lake Tahoe area at the time...

My apologies in advance to all who did the grin-and-bear-it thing with Hoover -- and all he brought with him -- any time between 1993-2008. I came across this ad a week ago. (Shown; those "crazy eyes", although a different color, bear a strikingly eerie resemblance dontcha think?) Makes me wonder how the course of history would have been altered had Da Hoov taken on a regimen of herbal remedies. Would I still be living in that 1 BD apartment off Eastlake Ave.? Would there be fewer postal carriers on the defensive or a glut of ladies undergarments? Hard to say. But given his extraordinary will, I think history wouldn't have changed one lick. And Da Hoov would have taken the meds, as we would an after dinner mint, and muttered in a language as clear as day to any dog whisperer: "Is that all you got?!"

So true (esp. the part about extra screws): IKEA's Four Letter Words