Love ‘Em or Leave ‘Em 5k

Todays Meaningless Monday post is about the upcoming 5k around Seattle’s Green Lake called the Love ‘Em or Leave ‘Em Valentines Day Dash 5k (super long title for a fun run). I did this race last year as a fun run and surprisingly I had fun. All my other 5k’s I was serious, wanted to get a good time and all that. But this race  I ran with my mom and we talked, laughed, pointed at people in their costumes (I know so rude) and hammed it up for the photographer during the race.

It was awesome to see people dressed up in costumes, some really creative ones, some just decked out in fun clothes. We saw people running in cardboard hearts that fit over the top half of their body including their heads and then we were outraged when they passed us. I mean how can they run faster than us in that bulky costume?

After the race we scored on some good freebies, hung out for a bit and then headed home to shower. A fun run might be meaningless to some, you pay $30 to run around  Green Lake on a saturday. You can do that any day of the week (including race day) for free. But it was really fun.  I’m looking forward to it this year and dare I say I might wear something festive? Gasp!

It’s not to late to sign up. Click here for the details. Don’t worry about your time, this is a fun run/walk so relax and enjoy yourself! Word to the wise, arrive early to find parking!

20 Most Recognized Aromas

Sometimes a smell can take you back to a vivid memory. In the Northwest the smell of rain is a constant smell that we sometimes forget about since it rains SO MUCH here. The smell of the salty ocean air, the recycled smell of air on the airplane, babies (Do I even need to go there?). The list goes on and on.

Ever wonder what the most recognized smells are? Wonder no more, here is your Meaningless Monday trivia!

A Yale University study was done in which 200 people were asked to identify 80 common aromas. While we do not have the entire list, the twenty most recognizable, in order, are:

1. Coffee
2. Peanut butter
3. Vicks VapoRub
4. Chocolate
5. Wintergreen oil
6. Baby powder
7. Cigarette butts
8. Mothballs
9. Dry cat food
10. Beer
11. Ivory bar soap
12. Juicy Fruit gum
13. Orange
14. Cinnamon
15. Lemon
16. Tuna
17. Banana
18. Crayons
19. Cheese
20. Bleach

Source: Crayola

Fruit or Vegetable?

Image via Wikipedia

Welcome to Meaningless Monday. Yes this is primarily a blog about Real Estate or Living in the Puget Sound but sometimes it’s fun to have meaningless knowledge. So today, our conversation starter is whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable.

One of my boys loves tomatoes, cherry tomatoes to be exact and he was telling us they were his favorite vegetable. We had to inform him it was a fruit and he argued with us that he read it in a book about vegetables. So to set everyone straight we went to Wikipedia.com for the answer.

According to Wikipedia, botanically speaking a tomato is a fruit (so are eggplant, cucumbers, and all squashes including zucchini and pumpkin) but in 1887 there was a duty placed on vegetables but not fruits and the tomato became a legal matter. This issue went all the way to the Supreme Court who in 1893 decided the tomato is a vegetable because of how it’s used, with dinner not in desserts.

So a tomato is both a fruit (botanically) and a vegetable (legally). Lawyers were tricky even in the late 1800’s.