Where’s a Red Card foul when you need one?

In Soccer, when a player commits a foul, he is faced with a red or yellow card, depending on the severity of the foul. The referee actually runs up to the player and holds up the yellow or red card. This is similar in nature to the yellow flag being thrown during a football game. In "Dodgeball, a True Underdog Story" do you remember what they used to signify a penalty?
I wish they had a similar approach to offending conversations. We need something when someone has said something really offensive or really, really dumb.
Last night I was at the grocery store in the bulk food area. I was weighing a container of steel cut oats. The salesperson responsible for the bulk food came up to me and said "Wise choice, going with the steel cut oats. They are much better for you than the rolled oats." I was under the assumption that all oats were created equal so this caught me by surprise. I told her that I really liked the consistency better and did not realize there was a difference. She went on to tell me about how the rolled oats were heated and pressed under big iron drums and that nutrition was lost in the process. She spoke with authority on the subject and being fairly new to nutrition, I let her speak. After a short while though, my BS detectors were alarming and she started losing credibility. According to her logic, rolled oats = evil, steel cut = good. I could understand such a vigorous stance if we were deep frying balls of oatmeal made from rolled oats, covering them with powdered sugar and selling them at county fairs (note to self – invent new junk food idea!). Since I was not sure and I did not want to be rude, I let her go on about the subject but as soon as I got home, I googled the heck out of it and found that there is no nutritional difference. The biggest difference is consistency (like I thought) one being mushy and the other being like the bulk food lady, Nutty. At times like that, I really wished Alton Brown or Dr. Oz would have run up, got in her face and threw down a red nutrition facts card foul
Oatmeal Funnel cakes, you heard it here first!

Saturday at Town Lake

I know, it is a very boring title but that is what this is about so, I have to skip titling it something exciting like "Sandra Bullock called me,, Again!".


First off, a public service announcement; I follow several Blogs that I find interesting and inspirational. One of the more inspriratioanal ones is by author Seth Godin. Seth (yes he and I are on a first name basis), is an author of several books that discuss business transformations. He has been referred to as an "agent of change". I think as an agent of change he gets to carry a badge but no gun. His Blog is at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ and it is very interesting. He not only posts stuff about business but also items that are more personal. One of the items that he recently wrote about was "accepting limits" and he ended the entry with the following "And isn't it even worse to write off a person or an organization merely because of what they are instead of what they might become?"


Okay, down to the lake. First off the lake in downtown is officially called "Lady Bird Lake" but used to be called "Town Lake". It is still "Town Lake" to me. Lady Bird makes it sound like Austin used the random noun generator to name the lake. It could have just as easily been named "Tricycle Jerky Lake". Many people have no idea who Lady Bird is. Children of the 60's know, most Texans know, other than that not many people know who she is. Saturday, I was down at Town lake, for a rare afternoon run. I do not usually get down there at this time of day. The trail was packed with people. Runners, cyclists, walkers, families, dog walkers,, you named it. Being down there at this time and seeing so many people, there were lots of opportunities for observations.

• First off, high praise for me, I had a great 14 mile run.
• First criticism goes to me, for not looking at the schedule and running 4 more miles than I needed to.
• There was a guy, (Yes a man) who was wearing the T-shirt with "PINK" on the front of it, part of me hopes that you live alone because someone should have warned you when you left the house and the other part of me hopes you accidentally pulled your daughter's t-shirt from the dryer and did not pay attention. Either way,, yuck…
• I stopped to assist a visitor to Austin. He had a map out and was looking lost so I offered up some help. He was looking for the bridge near his hotel, he could not remember the bridge name,, it was the "something And Richard bridge". Evidently, not too many people know who Ann Richards is. (see also Lady Bird).
• There are two forms of idiocy down on the trail, there are the idiots who do not make their kids wear helmets while riding their bikes and then there are the other idiots who make the kids wear helmets and they don't. Please note, there are more than two forms of idiocy, these are just two examples. (see also, PINK t-short guy and not looking at the schedule guy)
• There was a woman down there who had the coolest Batman utility belt,, it had two water bottles, a pouch, a cell phone and a iPod. Any more equipment on there and she would need some Bat-suspenders to hold it up.
• Best words of wisdom came from a Mother who, after her kid fell down said "Don't fall down".
• Baby Joggers – Fun for some kids, vehicles of torment to others.
• Too many butt crack wedgies to count, not that I want to, I am just saying.