What Exactly Am I Missing Here?

When My Elmo Came Back To Life

Yes, I have a Tickle Me Elmo. I was given my Elmo on Christmas back in 2000. Why? Well, that’s a very long and boring story, but my wife had found one and decided I needed it. Anyway, move forward 14 years and we are sitting in present time and Elmo has been up on a shelf for a better part of ten of those years. Oh, sure, he would come out to flawlessly dazzle the kids when they were younger but he was always returned to his perch high in the corner of my closet right next to Chucky and other things I collected at one time. He probably hasn’t been touched or looked at in at least five years and the only reason I am writing about him now is because of what happened a few weeks ago.

I remind y’all, this is a true story. We can get into stuff I have collected/accumulated at another time since I hear the questions coming already. But, a few weeks ago I was laying in bed watching some TV about 2 in the morning when out of the blackness I heard a thump in my closet. Even though it has wood flooring, it was a rather muffled thud to say the very least. I got up, opened the door, and when I turned on the light I had the shit scared out of me. Elmo was on his back on the floor giggling his happy little ass off. WTF indeed!

I wasn’t concerned about his fall, but him giggling razzled me a bit. I didn’t even know it had batteries still inside. Bad ass Energizer batteries. Here’s the catch, I took the batteries out at this point to test them, my meter registers them as beyond dead. Freaky! It gets worse. The following morning I put brand new, straight out of the never opened pack, batteries in the Elmo and the thing was as dead as a doornail. Upon investigation, meaning I had to “operate”, I found the lead wires corroded and not even connected to either terminal.

At this point I wonder if I dreamt everything the night before. Did Chucky push him off the shelf, did the Six Million Dollar Man help, was Luke Skywalker involved in the plot? Perhaps all the conditions were right for Elmo to get one more giggle. Question still remains, how did he fall from behind everything else in front of him for 20″ and then off the shelf to floor? Nothing else on that shelf was out of place, just the empty spot against the wall where he has always been. After some electrical repairs I placed Elmo back on his perch, hopefully there won’t be any more problems.

Look Once. Look Twice. Now WTF?

Strange Picture In My Phone Gallery

I was just getting ready to start uploading somestuff here and came across the above strange picture in my phone’s gallery. Having strange pictures here is not the issue, the issue is the fact that the picture was in my camera gallery dated yesterday. Now, I was doing some work yesterday fixing a leak in the ceiling of my mother-in-law’s kitchen, but never once was my phone out. Yet, somehow this picture was snapped. Strange, right? In case you wondered, I applied the watermark just prior to the post, it wasn’t already on there, now that would have been just freaking creepy.

If You Want Strange, We Got It

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting on my back deck and saw something strange way off in the distance. I called for my son and told him to take a ride down past the pond to see if he could find out what I was seeing in the distance. He sent the above picture in a text to me. Is this truly strange? It is strange in my opinion because it is a cluster of 30+ balloons tied together in a bundle in a place that I would figure almost impossible to get into. But, as we can see, the balloon cluster has found it’s way into the swamp I have fenced off in the northwest corner of my property. They are on my property but in an area that is fenced off to keep the small kids out. So, we have a mystery to try to figure out how they got where they are. If they “dropped” in then they had to drop missing thorn covered trees plus they landed in thorny brush. I can’t see how they would have blown in horizontally either because I would think it would be even more treacherous than falling in. Anyway, I thought this was puzzling and a strange phenomena so I decided to share simply because it shouldn’t be. In almost 8 years this will be the first bit of trash ever to make it into the swamp through all the gnarly undergrowth. Any ideas or thoughts y’all would have to offer are readily welcome.

The Human Mind Is A Strange Place

Reminiscence Of Japanese Kit Kats

While I was doing something completely different this morning I stumbled across a picture which displayed a Kit Kat made in Japan which was in a flavor I can’t begin to imagine as a candy flavor, it was wasabi. Almost instantly I was taken back to Japan in a rather pleasant memory. I was reminiscent of the different flavor chocolates I saw personally while I lived there. Before I go any further, I must admit I have one true weakness when it comes to chocolate and that is the original Kit Kat, I can’t stop eating them if they are near me. So, I thought it would be fun to take y’all down this path of mine while I explored the seasonal and regional flavors of Kit Kats offered over the years in Japan. Unfortunately for me, the different flavor varieties didn’t start in Japan until 1996, well after I was gone, and that was a date I had to look up since I never recalled seeing any variations. Let me just make a quick housekeeping note here, the three images used here today were found during an internet search on Google.

 Here is a sample (not all inclusive) of flavors of Kit Kats found in Japan over the years. Japanese Kit Kats are generally categorized in 3 categories: Regional, Seasonal, or Evergreen.

Yuzu Chili

Citrus

Soy Sauce

Cherry

Wasabi

Sakura Macha Green Tea

Sweet Potato

Aloe

Blueberry Cheesecake

Miso

Edamame

Pickled Plum

Custard

Grilled Corn

Purple Yam

Shinsu Apple

Red Bean Sandwich

Strawberry Tart

Pancake

Black Honey

Orange

Strawberry Cheesecake

Watermelon with Salt

Salt and Caramel

Pumpkin

Espresso

Caramel Macchiato

Pineapple

Wa Guri (Chestnut)

 Bubblegum
Mango
Rose
Lemon Vinegar
Iced Tea
Cucumber
Kinako
Apple
Kiwi
Peach
Cantaloupe
Green Grape Muscat
Beet
Pepper
Kobe Pudding
Banana
Lemon Chocolate
Apple Vinegar
Ginger Ale
Ramune
 

Now, as mentioned above the list, this is not the all inclusive end all list of the flavors of Kit Kat to be found in Japan. But, it’s a nice sample so y’all can see some of the flavors that might be considered “bizarre” in the United States. For those of y’all that can read Japanese, the Nestle Kit Kat Japan website is supposed to have resources which include keeping up to date with all the new releases as well as worldwide shipping for purchases. I also understand that there are many Kit Kat gift packs that can be bought on Amazon.com and eBay.com for those of y’all thinking about it. Is a gift pack of off the wall Japanese Kit Kat flavors something that someone gives as a gift? If so, keep me in mind.

Like I mentioned, as far back as I can remember I have one favorite chocolate candy I really enjoy eating and that truly is the original Kit Kat. Included in my reading this morning I also found that there are more than a handful of countries which produce the Kit Kat. Some of those have produced other flavors as well, might be fun to do a little bit more research on all of that. Which makes me wonder if the production of Kit Kats in the United States will ever try some new flavors. So, if the heads of Nestle are reading this right now just let it be known I have a few flavor ideas. And, not just no, but hell no, one of them definitely is NOT bacon.

 

Family Picture With Santa

Standing Room Only?

WTF Is This A Can Of?