Snopes.com

Have you ever heard that if you eat Pop Rocks and drink soda you will die? Well, it's not true.

No, I know, you know a guy whose cousin's college roommate's little brother did it and his stomach exploded. But no, that never happened. How do I know? I read about it on snopes.com.

Snopes is a website that deals with Urban Legends. Just about anything you've ever heard is on there. The website kind of freaks me out, though, mostly because I now know way too much about how many people have ever died at Disneyland and how (surprise: It's usually on Grad Night).

Anyway, here are five legends that surprised me. Are they true or false? You'll have to read them to find out... if you dare!

1. Music: The Beatles recorded an unreleased song called "Pink Litmus Paper Shirt"
2. Movies: One of the munchkins died on the set of The Wizard of Oz.
3. Old Wive's Tales: Chewing gum takes seven years to digest.
4. Horror: A fake mummy in a Haunted Fun House turns out to be real!
5. And from the Lost Legends section: Mr. Ed was a zebra!

Disneyland

So my mom came to visit me last week and we went to Disneyland (and California Adventure). Fortunately we missed the big Lakers parade which happened the day we left (I mean, go Lakers, but that would be a big crowd), but unfortunately the first day we were there was the last day for year-long passes and was so crowded they had to stop letting people in.

My mom is not a big ride person, and she's not as mobile as she once was, so we got her a wheelchair. I've heard that if you have a wheelchair you get into special shorter lines, and for some of the rides this was true! Pirates of The Carribean (I haven't seen it since they added Johnny Depp) had a REALLY short line near the exit for wheelchairs. Haunted Mansion also had a special line, but other rides, like Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, had only one line we all waited in.

California Adventure was not crowded at all. I'd never been there before. It was mostly 3D interactive movie things. I can't see in 3D (one of my friends said, "You have to use the glasses" - was that a joke??) so that was a bit of a drag. Yeah, I know, I'm weird because I can't see in 3D. Another thing I noticed about CA was that it was based almost entirely on movies I have never seen before like A Bug's Life and Monsters Inc. (and High School Musical 3). If you like those movies, you will probably have fun there.

Downtown Disney is a shopping area located between the two parks. You don't need a ticket to get in there. They have a movie theatre where my mom and I went to see Up, the new Disney/Pixar movie. I'm not normally into those Pixar movies, but my mom really likes them. This one was kind of sad, but the talking dogs were cute. Anyway, because it's an AMC theatre, you can take food in! My mom brought in a burger and I had cheese fries! I learned from a friend of mine who used to work for AMC that they'll let you bring in your own food. It's just cool.

That's my report from Disneyland, and now my vacation is over. It's back to work for me tomorrow.

Kitchen Appliances

I recently acquired three new kitchen appliances. Here's the scoop:

My addiction to caffeine finally won out and I bought a coffee maker. (Living close to Starbucks had prevented this for a while). I don't really have anything to say about the coffee maker yet; I made my first cup this morning and it was OK after I finally figured out where to put the water.

I also got a Magic Bullet. You know, they show the infomercials for it on TV. IT's a blender that makes things one cup at a time. I figured it would be easier to clean than a regular blender. I made a frozen blended coffee beverage this morning with it.

Finally, I bought a flip-over style waffle maker! You know, the kind they have at hotels as part of the free breakfast. I found this pancake/waffle mix at the grocery store that comes in a can like whipped cream - it worked well and there was no mess! It tasted pretty good, too.

So there you have it. I'm on vacation this week and I'm going to Disneyland, so I'll be reporting on that this weekend.