This fascinating video delves into the mind and the perception of time and how our children view things differently than we do.

Special thanks to Shari Rubin for creative input into today’s comic. . .

© 2010 by Debbie Glade, Smart Poodle Publishing. All rights reserved.

Click here for last week’s comic.

Rachel went into a German Bakery, German Bread Haus in Fort Lauderdale and bought this gingerbread woman. The owner said “Why are all gingerbread men smiling? They don’t have to smile. This one is sad because she has oil all over her bikini from the BP Oil disaster.”

This has been a week of oddities. The following events have all taken place in the last seven days:

1. My daughter was shopping at Target and overheard a man on his cell phone saying, “It’s only your belly. Don’t be afraid of your belly. Just look down and see it. It’s just your belly. Now don’t make me come out there and tend to this. I said don’t be afraid of your belly!” HUH? OMG!
2. I have been preoccupied lately as usual. A couple of mornings ago, I went to make my fruit shake after my workout. I took the pits out of some cherries (this is a lot of work), cut up an apple, and put it in the blender with some almond milk and a splash of honey. Then I went to the freezer in the laundry room to get some ice to make this concoction more like a shake. Rather than reaching in the freezer to get ice, without thinking, I managed to reach into the dog food bin and put 2 heaping scoops of Buffalo Blue dog food into my shake. OMG. (Needless to say, I had to start all over and throw it all out.)
3. My daughter drove to the park to go rollerblading one afternoon. She came home and said she had put her cell phone on the roof of her car, sat on the seat to take off her skates and then forgot to take the phone off the roof of the car and drove away. So she and I raced back to the park to look for the phone. It was nowhere in sight. No one turned it into the office. So we drove back home looking on the ground, with no phone to be found. When we got home, my daughter stayed in her car while I used the house phone to call her phone. She could hear it ringing somewhere outside. Lo and behold – that damn phone had slid down the rear window of the car and got wedged in between the window and the trunk. The funny thing is that she has a thick Jesus sticker on the phone, and we believe it helped the phone stay in place. It made it through all that driving and over speed bumps and around corners, baking in the hot Florida sun. OMG! Literally.                               
4. I won’t name names, but someone I know went to a wedding in San Francisco. That someone did not pack enough fresh underwear, so he had to travel home commando. That someone had to go through the new x-ray security screening! He got some interesting looks from the security guards. HAHAHAHA. OMG.
5. I was out walking the dog today. Two teen girls pulled over, almost hitting me with their car. They were overwhelmed by Darwin, had to pet him, invade his personal bubble and take his picture. They asked me about 100 questions, struggled with their cameras, put their faces in my dog’s face, let him lick their mouths over and over again. It was a bit weird, but things got weirder when a man stuck his head out of his truck and said, “Is that some kind of a bear you are walking?” Inside and out, this truck was full to the top with junk. The only view out was a pumpkin-sized hole out of the driver’s side of the front window. The side and back windows were oozing with junk. There was no visibility out. I assumed he just lived in there, and the truck did not run; I was wrong. The guy started to drive away with that one small clearing in the front window! If I had a cell phone, I’d have called the police. OMG!
6. I was contacted about a month ago by a journalist through another writer friend to be interviewed for a long article in a national weekly news magazine. My name was not used. One of my daughter’s friend’s Mom sent me an email to tell me she read a most interesting article I should read. It was the one I was interviewed for. What is the likelihood of that? Of all the thousands of articles out per week, this was the one I was interviewed for, but there was nothing in that article that revealed I was one of many people interviewed!!! OMG.

Weird week.

Today we have a special guest columnist, Simone Barbato, age 18, who was inspired by an insect she discovered in her swimming pool. Smart Poodle is particularly fond of this story because the insect is one that is common in Costa Rica. . .

You are listening to Nature Stories with Simone.

Today, I saw a stick bug! It looked like this:

I have never before seen a stick bug of any kind except in the form of pixels on a screen, so this sure was a delight! (If you could hear my voice right now, you may think to yourself that you’ll be getting annoyed any minute now, even though I’ve spoken less than four sentences, and you’ll also be thinking that my voice bears NO resemblance whatsoever to Brad Neely’s voice.) I was swimming in the pool, as I always am when I encounter nature, when I saw a very thin creature swimming on the surface of the water. As usual, my ignorance led me to be quite frightened by the fragile, moving twig. Also as usual, I felt the obligation to rescue the critter from the dangers of the sea… or a pool. Its antennae and pointy butt caused me to be worried that it may try to attack me in some way, so I attempted to get it out of the water without touching it. The flimsy, unmoving twigs surrounding me were of no help. I was forced to create a tsunami that would wash the stick bug ashore. (My voice has now rested at a normal tone, and you are no longer distracted by a strange, unusual sound. This parenthetical, however, is distracting you.) I knew for certain that the bug was still alive, but he seemed to be playing dead. I thought that maybe the water was gluing his legs to his twiggy body, so I used a relatively strong, unmoving twig to move the legs and body of the previously-moving twig. After positioning the bug in a standing position on a dry spot of concrete or whatever my patio floor is made of, I continued swimming. For several laps (this is a measurement of time for the time being), the bug stayed in the exact same position. Then, after a while, I looked for it again, and it was gone. I searched the grounds (literally, the ground) for its slender body, thinking it couldn’t have gone far. Unfortunately, it was gone for good, back into the wild of my backyard.

Thank you for tuning in to Nature Stories with Simone.

Thank you, Simone, for sharing your most creative story and excellent artwork with our readers. Please send us more as nature inspires you in the future.

I don’t usually read other reviews of books and movies before I write one myself. But I was so impressed with Despicable Me, I had to read what others had to say about it. The thing about reviews, in my opinion, is that reviewers often over analyze movies. What is the point of dissecting an animated movie made for kids? It’s okay to say that you just really liked a movie because it made you feel good.

I read that the movie copies other movies, has stereotyped characters and does too much to try to make you love it. As for me, I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED IT. I don’t care what the producers borrowed from other movies, if in fact they did. And I am so glad they did too much to try to make me like it. Simply put, this movie is adorable. I smiled a lot, giggled and was charmed out of my seat.

The action-packed story is about a funny-looking, Russian-accented villain named Gru (Steve Carell), who tries to outdo another villain, named Vector (Jason Segel). Gru has flashbacks about his disapproving mother (Julie Andrews) while he plot to steal the moon. The story involves 3 cuter-than-cute little girls and a whole bunch of tiny pill-capsule-looking creatures, who work for Gru in his basement laboratory. The characters in the movie are all either odd looking or darling cute. If you are sensitive to overweight people, you may be slightly offended by some of the obese characters, many of whom are mean. But you’ll have to admit they are mesmerizing to watch – especially villain loan shark Mr. Perkins (Will Arnett) with his triangular-shaped head and mushy, southern-belle-talking Miss Hattie (Christen Wiig) from the adoption agency.

The youngest of the three girls in the movie, Agnes (Elsie Fisher), is so charming, she will melt your heart. Her voice and facial expressions are darling. And the little creatures who work for Gru generate a whole lot of laughter from the audience.

In the theater, when the movie was over, everyone in the audience clapped and cheered. One boy got up and danced through the credits. That’s how I know it was a great movie. And unless you have no heart or are one of those over-analyzing critics, you too will cheer when you see delightful, Despicable Me.

© 2010 by Debbie Glade, Smart Poodle Publishing. All rights reserved.

Click here for last week’s comic.

Please read my article/interview Wandering Educators with my brother, Eric, who just returned from the Maldives.

You all remember Kevin Huo, the amazing 5th grader who won 1st Place in our “I Love Costa Rica’s Rain Forest!” Contest – 4th-5th Grade Category. Well now Kevin has done it again. He just returned from Washington DC  where he received the River of Words Environmental Art & Poetry “One Square Block” Grand Prize Award.

“Our goal is to help children become informed, engaged and inspired citizens of the places they live,” added River of Words co-founder and executive director, Pamela Michael. River of Words (ROW) is a Berkeley-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting literacy, creative expression and community awareness of our most critical environmental concern: water. It was co-founded by U.S. Poet Laureate (1995-1997) Robert Hass and writer Pamela Michael to help young people make a personal and lasting connection to the environment.

Kevin’s Entry, Birds Over the Bay depicts birds, inspired by the artist’s memories of seeing ducks in his yard and birds flying over the sea near his CA home.  You can’t help but smile when you see Kevin’s artwork. He uses vibrant colors and captures nature in such an inspiring and mature way. This is just one of many awards Kevin has one for his artwork. And he”s only 11 years old! Click here to read our interview with Kevin, which was published in January.

Birds Over the Bay

For the Grand Prize Award, Kevin received a trip to the River of Words Environmental Art & Poetry Award, Ceremony, where he attended a luncheon and public reading at US Capitol -  The Library of Congress – on June 30, 2010 The ceremony was emceed by River of Words co-founder, former US Poet Laureate,  Robert Hass, recent winner of the both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.

After the ceremony, Kevin visited and met with California Senator Barbara Boxer in the Capitol, Washington DC, where he presented his 2010 One Square Block grand prize & 2010 River of Words Watershed Art & Poetry winning art work to Senator Boxer.

Kevin and his parents got to meet CA Senator Barbara Boxer following the awards ceremony

Kevin is not just an artist, but a true environmentalist.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who is looking forward to Kevin’s next artistic masterpiece.

Congratulations Kevin!