Every once in a while something comes along that surprises me.  And then every once in a while something comes along that gives me pause and makes me question how I was living my life.  How in the world did I live without this?

Introducing my new favorite toy, the Pledge Fabric Sweeper for Pet Hair!  It's both ingenious and revolting all at once.  Ingenious because it's twin half rollers pick up and deposit hair quickly into the clear receptacle.  Revolting because grasping a clear polypro handle full of pet hair is nothing close to normal.  No matter, this little gizmo works better than I could have imaged.

The box may say that it must be thrown away after it is full.  But au' contraire!  This beautiful thing can be emptied by carefully removing one of the rollers.  I recommend removing them small pin first.

Not to sound too much like a commercial, but for all of you pet owners that have shedding pets, go get one right now.

As some of you may have read, a small bug flew into my coke bottle a while back.  What was once a small annoyance, is now seriously bugging me.  The gauntlet has been thrown.  What you are seeing above, is what is known as a fungus fly.  Tiny little bugs that breed in moist soil.  That is a problem.  We have quite a few potted plants.  These little buggers are numerous enough that we actively googled how to get rid of them.  It appears we will need a two pronged attack.  The first salvo in our war has been fired.  Sticky pads or strips.  Our dead friend above is stuck to a Glue Board by Real Kill.  He's not alone.

One of our plants seems to be ravaged by these rotten things.  If this is why one of our beloved plumeria has gone black, woa be tide you little critters.  No expense shall be spared in chemical bombing your little butts to the dirt from whence you came!

If you too are having a problem with fungus fly's, we tried the vinegar in a dish method.  Didn't work.  Just get yourself to a garden center and arm yourselves with glue boards and fly strips.  Put them in and around your potted plants and laugh maniacally as the rotten bugs are gloriously trapped in a sticky grave.  There's no reason to spend this happiest of new years eve's surrounded by bugs instead of friends.

During our trip to Yucaipa, I finished The Last Stand of Fox Company.  It proved to be a good read.  I'm sure war buffs, especially those that are knowledgeable about the Korean War, just loved the treatment and intense detail given to the week long struggle for Fox Hill.  Along the way, I learned quite a few things.  MacArthur was not the polished hero Koreans accept him for.  30 nukes along the Yalu river to form a cobalt riddled fallout "border"?  Yeah, he was nuts.  Napalm first reared it's truly ugly and devastating head during the Korean War as well.

The book did take me a long time to read.  The intense detail and frequent use of words I did not know had me reaching for my phone to get translations of words that looked like English but couldn't possibly be.  In the end, the book left me feeling like I had accomplished something.  It also gave me a better understanding of the intense relationship between the US and Korea.  That the country I am from, and the country my parents are from, are forever linked through the strong binds of war.  A war that never received glory.  A war that left a nation divided.  A war that never truly ended.

To keep my tradition of reading books that are nothing alike, I then picked up Malcom Gladwell's Outliers. I haven't quite finished it yet, but so far it's been an entertaining read.  I did get my blood boiling when he began using cultural references to describe a race.  A reflex action.  As Koreans have not yet become a ruling minority in the US, yeah I'm touchy on how things are treated when Koreans are spoken about.  Once I see a Korean American President I'll declare victory and won't be so touchy on the subject.  Still, it's an entertaining read.  The arguments presented are reasonable on the surface, but hopefully readers do understand that they appear reasonable only on the surface, and that more reading and investigation are required before taking his words as gospel.  This is a book really for entertainment, though wrapped in an intelligently written form.  Sadly, I'm sure the internet generation will read it and believe every word.

Two books nearly devoured.  And sadly, as I am now home, I feel satisfied.  Odd isn't it?  Whenever I go on vacation, I am typically severed from the internet in my most digestible format.  My desktop computer.  It seems, that since I can not read my endless suply of blogs and webzines, I instead revert to books to fill the void.  A real epiphone moment for me.  For sure I should read more books.  Maybe I should get an e-reader?  I don't know.  It would be nice to have less books that simply take up space on our shelves.  Then again, a wall full of books we've read is a powerful tangable ego booster.  The library would be cheaper.  A kindle would be cooler.  A wall full of books would be bragging rights and totally make my head bigger.  Yeah, I should just keep buying paper books.  It's good for the economy too.

I'm in a reading mood these days.  On our way home from Las Vegas, I picked up a couple of books for the flight and unfortunate delay home.  I managed to finish Craig Ferguson's American on Purpose while flying over great planes.  It was a suprisingly good read.  Truth be told, I have a crush on this man.  I secretly pushed his Marie Claire survey numbers through the roof .  In all seriousness, he is my favorite late night talk show host.  It use to be Conan, but since he's gone to the big time, his show has lost the feel it use to have.  It's almost as if his "there's nothing to lose" attitude has been replaced with how do I be my version of Leno.  Conan will find his way again though.  Right now, watching Conan in his new time slot, is like watching his first season in the old time slot.  Things are forced.  Laughs don't come easy.  He's looking for his mojo.

Craig on the otherhand, is on a tear!  To me, what really makes his show work, is that he's really taken the late night talk show format and really made it his own in a new way.  Conan has always had his intellectual jokes and self depricating wit.  But Craig is actually sharing about himself while he is self depricating.  His guests come on as more friends having a conversation than just spokespeople for a movie or show.  The double entendre's are ridiculously frequent and that may hurt him a bit when he takes Letterman's spot, but I really hope he doesn't move.  I hope he doesn't get boxed in like Conan is right now.

His memoires are much like his monologues.  Stories told in his rhythm.  This rhythm made it ridiculously hard to read the second book I picked up though, The Last Stand of Fox Company.  I couldn't have picked two different types of books if I tried.  Eh, it's not like I was at a Barnes & Noble.  I was at Hudson's.  So far however, it is a good read.  My head just isn't in it right now though.  I usually love military books, typically of the Tom Clancy variety.  Maybe it's the fact that this is based on a true story and the grit is real and heavy, where as Clancy's are, well, fiction.

So, I'm looking for another book to read.  Earlier this year, I read the Otori Trilogy by Hearn.  The first book was terrific, but by the third book, I was rather upset and didn't want to read the fourth book, The Harsh Cry of the Heron.  From the reviews I've read, this book will throw a laser guided katana sword directly into your heart and cause you to throw the book out the window while cursing Japanese obscenities and writing more in kana to the author.  I'm invested though.  I've already read the trilogy.  I could read the prequel book,  Heaven's Net is Wide.  But this may make me want to read the much hated fourth book. The Amazon reviews say this book is a good one though.  Argh, the dilemma!

The magic of the internet somehow led me to  Schulz and Peanuts.  But I'm not sure I want to read a book that paints the author of Peanuts to be some sort of lonely wretched man.  Biographies that generate controversy between the author and the friends and family of the auto are not worth my time and money.

So for now, I'm thinking of picking up Playing the Enemy.  The book behind Invictus.  We'll see though.  At 288 pages, it's going to be a quick read that may again throw me into the waiting swords of the Otori before long.