“Bigfoot, the Garden Yeti” statue

Bigfoot garden statue

Who on earth has ever thought that their garden needed to be improved with a 28″ tall hand-painted resin Sasquatch?!?!?  I particularly like the review on SkyMall.com in which one person that bought it says “Bigfoot is very cool lookin, I will be putting him in the garden, hidden behind a bush“.  Yes, if I were you, benchking405, I’d hide it behind a bush too…

Or if you’re needing more than one fake critter in your backyard, you could always purchase the meerkat gang.  These are apparently so incredibly detailed that a review from Neve states “…Neighbors thought they were real!“.  Well Neve, you have pretty stupid neighbours.

"Meerkat Gang" statue

For sheer WTF factor though, you need to come indoors to find the Face Trainer - only 10 mins per day will apparently fix your face without the need for a facelift.  I suggest that if you buy anything from the SkyMall website then (1) you are my SPOTD, and (2) you wear the Face Trainer backward to hide your shame.

Face Trainer - aka, "Mask of Shame"

Yesterday evening  one of our Wilson guards on Swanston St was robbed of  his key set which contained the master keys for all the buildings on main  campus.  On investigation his explanation seems to be valid although he  is of the view that the two young men involved were trying to steal his two  way radio, not the keys.  The police have been informed but no keys have  yet been handed in.

Today we received another email from the security office advising the missing keys had been recovered inside one of the campus buildings.

Now, which is the more likely explanation?

1. The security guard was robbed of his key set by thieves who subsequently entered one of the buildings, dropped the keys and left without stealing anything.
2. The security guard dropped the keys accidentally inside a building, realised later and made up an elaborate tale about being robbed by persons unknown.

I suspect that guard is getting extra special questioning at work today to determine the veracity of his claimed version of events.  If it is the second option and he did make up the story, he’s an unfortunate SPOTD but probably would have gotten away with it if the keys were found outside a building.  If it was the first option, it’s nigh impossible to explain unless the thieves duplicated the keys and then placed them inside a building so they could later steal at leisure without everyone being on high alert.  Time for CSI Miami to investigate…

CSI: Miami investigation into the missing keys

After finally speaking with one person who rang me whilst at work, I found out my phone number had been in last week’s Frankston Leader newspaper.  I rang the folks at the Frankston Leader to find out whether it was a one-off article or an ongoing advertisement and found it was the former, so I expect the number of people contacting me to drop rapidly next week.

So far this week, I’ve had to respond to 8 phone calls and 1 text message seeking further information about rescuing cats.  Given there are a number of stray cats in my area, it’s tempting to catch them and mail them to Frankston to solve two problems at once…*grin*

SPOTD definitely goes to the person in the article who provided the incorrect phone number.

• 41C in Las Vegas @ 7pm Fri
• 11C in Melbourne @ 12pm Sat

After five weeks travelling through the European and US summers, the re-entry into the depths of a Melbourne winter is not going to be enjoyable…

Di is reading over my shoulder and notes that at least I am still wearing long pants and closed shoes here in Vegas whilst she is wearing short pants and sandals so will be more upset with the thermal change.

At 6pm on a Friday night, they’ve closed for the evening.

WTF?

There is a pre-printed laminated sign that implies this is a regular event, advising potential customers to go to the opposition food venues.

I was not the only person foiled by this decision - there were other customers also walking up to the store prepared to order and then spending their dollars elsewhere.  SPOTD definitely has to go to the foolish person who came up with the theory that closing a Burger King right before an evening meal is the best approach to serving their customers.

However, in the interests of ensuring everything is available on the internet, here you are.

This shirt almost glows in the dark!

It was a bargain purchase ($3.22) from the Goodwill store in Naples a couple of days earlier.  Many people admired it when I wore it - people would stop and stare and I just know they were thinking “man, that guy is so stylish - I wish I had a shirt just like it!“…*grin*

Even Di liked it so much that she would often step further away from me whilst we were walking down the street.  Not out of shame, of course, but just to help give others a better view of my stylish apparel. Isn’t she considerate?

In 2001, when we were last driving around the USA our dollar was $0.48 USD and everything was prohibitively expensive.  When you need to think twice about whether you will buy two hotdogs or share one for lunch, you’re not going to be able to rent a convertible.  This time, things were a bit different - the dollar is better ($0.83USD) so this was a real possibility.  Di booked a a Chrysler Sebring convertible through RhinoCarHire which essentially rented the car from Alamo at 50% of the cost of going directly through Alamo?!?!  When we got there, we expected a boring white/silver colour.

Instead we found we had received a bright red Ford Mustang which on the “awesomeness” scale of 1 - 10, scores at least 12.

Ford Mustang convertible: motoring awesomeness

Because we travel light, we had no issues with the amount of room in the boot /trunk and our bags (and extra shopping) fitted with plenty of room to spare.  Also, it goes like a friggin’ rocket and with fuel still a bargain at ~$2.64 per gallon ($0.69/L) on average, it doesn’t matter that every time we took off from a traffic light, this beast growled with all the power it could muster as I’d plant my foot and cheer loudly.

In case you’ve found this site as part of your research into one of the following search terms:

• how much luggage can i fit into a Ford Mustang convertible
• how big is the trunk in a Ford Mustang
• how big is a Ford Mustang trunk
• how much space inside a Ford Mustang convertible trunk

: here’s a picture of all the luggage we were able to fit in the boot / trunk.

How much luggage can you get into a convertible?

Also, here is a video of fitting it all in:

Horatio Caine reviews the choice of transport

Now, nine years later, we’re in a better position and can afford to pick up some of the attractions we missed so spent today inside the Roman forums and Colosseum. It was worth the wait – they were quite impressive constructions and were enhanced with the benefit of the internet developing much more than it had been in 2001 so we had plenty of self-supplied resources obtained through the generosity of others and a healthy dose of our own pre-travels research.

It’s surprising how much more one can know about a block of marble when one has read about that particular block of marble before, and how that enhances the experience. Even some of the free sights we revisited today were substantially more interesting because we’d learned more about the reasons for the existence, and some of their history.

Expecting a tin-pot little airline we were pleasantly surprised to find a spacious, comfortable cabin where economy standard was actually better than business class domestic on Qantas. The snack served for the evening flight was a beverage, plus salami/salad roll. The seats still had lots of padding and the leg room was phenomenal – I could both get my legs under the seat in front and stretch them to 95% full stretch. That is definitely not a typical experience and I was left wishing we were flying LOT from Rome to Orlando, not American Airlines.

We did find SPOTDs in the form of an Italian tour group returning from Krakow. One woman managed to lose her ticket and spent the boarding period emptying every bag and case she had with her until finally she discovered it in her purse. There was also a silver-haired Italian who was chomping down on a short (unlit) cigar with the top four buttons of his shirt undone so we could all admire his chest hair.