Size, does it matter?

A study with mammals proves that the group with the promiscuous females has males boasting the biggest testicles, but had the smallest brains. On the contrary, when the females were faithful, the males had smaller testes and larger brains.
A research study was done at Syracuse University biologist Scott Pitnick on bats. They are the second largest group of mammals (behind rodents) with about 1,000 known species.

Men, I know women say all the time that size doesn’t matter, but it does matter, at least in this study!

“The study offers evidence that males -- at least in some species -- make an evolutionary trade-off between intelligence and sexual prowess, said David Hoskens, a biologist at the Center for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter in England and a leading authority on bats' mating behavior.”

Pitnick's team looked at 334 species of bats and found a convincing contrast in testes size. In species with monogamous females, males had testes starting at 0.11 percent of their body weight and ranging up to 1.4 percent. But in species where the females had a large number of mates, Pitnick found testes ranged from 0.6 percent to 8.5 percent of the males' mass (in the Rafinesque's big-eared bat).

"If female bats mate with more than one male, a sperm competition begins," Pitnick said.

"The male who ejaculates the greatest number of sperm wins the game, and hence many bats have evolved outrageously big testes. Promiscuity is known to make a difference in testicle size in some other mammals. For example, chimpanzees are promiscuous and have testicles that are many times larger than those of gorillas, in which a single dominant male has exclusive access to a harem of females.”

Pitnick's research suggested that in those bat species with promiscuous females, the male's body used more of its energy to enhance the testes -- giving it the greater adaptive advantage -- and lacked the energy it needed to further develop the brain.

The study found that in more monogamous species, the average male brain size was about 2.6 percent of body weight, while in promiscuous species, the average size dipped to 1.9 percent.

To my knowledge, there has not been any human studies to support this evidence. So, gentlemen....size doesn't matter....at least in this case ;)

My gratitude

I want to give a special thank you to those that have given me awards or a tribute in some way. I have added Royal Tributes and Awards to my sidebar. There, you will see I have added the link of how you have made me feel special. I apologize if I have left any out. If you do not see something in particular, please let me know and I will gladly add it to my box of goodies.


These are a few samples of the art done in my honor.
I love it...Thank you Henri!


Thank you to all my friends that come visit me here at the castle, you all make it worth while every single day.

~ hugs to all of you!

Gotta love these!

Got milk?



"I don't THINK so!!"



Who said two heads are better than one?



"Halt, who goes there?"

Have a great weekend everyone!

Hugs to all :)

Five weird things!

I was tagged by Captain Carl and Ceri.

I am to list five weird things about myself, then tag five others to do the same.

1. I like to look at guy's shoulders and arms. I mean, I like the other areas too, but that is the first thing I look at.

2. I organize my closet ~ all shirts together, then blouses, then sweaters, then dresses, then skirts, then pants. (all facing the same direction and by color) Uggghhhh....I know...OCD!

3. I ALWAYS go commando when wearing a sweat suit! *giggle*

4. When I eat (haven't had in a long long time) homemade devils food cake with homemade icing...from the slice I have on my plate, I eat the cake part first, then the icing last (oh so good).

5. When I write something at work or home (form, letter, note), I will most likely start a new sheet if I mess up. Uggghhhh....I know...OCD!

You guys are getting to know too much about me. I had this same tag a while back. I was going to reuse it, but I didn't want to be accused of cheating! haha So, I gave you something new. If you guys can find it in my archives, you will see five other things weird about me. ;)

I have tagged a lot of people in the past, so I give you all a reprieve this time. Please help me not feel so weird and give me some of the weird things you do!

Oooh, that's rough!

Such a caring couple!

A husband wrote the following letter for his wife and left it on the dining room table:

"To My Dear Wife,
You will surely understand that I have certain needs that you, being 50 years old, can no longer satisfy. I am very happy with you and I value you as a good wife. Therefore after reading this letter, I hope that you will not wrongly interpret the fact that I will be spending the evening with my 18 year old secretary at the Comfort Inn Hotel. Please don't be upset. I shall be back home before midnight."

When the man came home late that night, he found the following letter on the dining room table:

"My Dear Husband,
I received your letter and thank you for your honesty about my being 50 years old. I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that you are also 50 years old. As you know, I am a math teacher at our local college. I would like to inform you that while you read this, I will be at the Hotel Fiesta with Michael, one of my students, who is also the assistant tennis coach. He is young, virile, and like your secretary, is 18 years old. As a successful businessman who has an excellent knowledge of Math, you will understand that we are in the same situation, although with one small difference. 18 goes into 50 a lot more times than 50 goes into 18. Therefore, I will not be back home until sometime tomorrow."

Be safe

Have a safe weekend!!!!



LOOK AT THE DRESS CAREFULLY!
(you may click on the picture to enlarge)

Have a great weekend everyone!

~ xoxo

Pour some sugar on me!

I got this from Jiggs....no not the sugar, but the quiz! ;)

Your Stripper Song Is

Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard "Love is like a bomb, baby, c'mon get it on Livin' like a lover with a radar phone Lookin' like a tramp, like a video vamp Demolition woman, can I be your man?" Break out the baby oil, you rock it old school.

What Song Should You Strip To?

Still no Narnia

If you don't feel like reading the whole post....
Here are the highlights:
After much trouble, we got batteries for our watches...for free.
Best Buy has a doofus for a manager, and spending over an hour in the store which should have been only a few minutes caused us to miss the movie ~ The Chronicles of Narnia.
We ended up at the bar in a popular Mexican restaurant. Had many margaritas :)
Some stranger guy thought he might be on a crowded dance floor rubbing up all on my backside while I was sitting at the bar.
Ended up having loads of fun, but never did see the movie :(

It started off just like a normal Saturday night. Boyfriend and I decided to go to the movies to watch The Chronicles of Narnia. We figured since we were going to be in this certain area of the city, we would first stop at a particular jewelry store beforehand. We both needed a battery for our watch.

If you only knew the trouble I have had trying to get a new battery for my watch. I first went to a mall close to my house in hopes I could just run over there and have a new battery within a matter of minutes. I went to all 3 jewelry stores in this mall. It turns out that my watch needs a press to put the back on, as it is water resistant. The last jewelry store recommended me taking it to another jewelry store (where they send their repairs) at the other mall (near the movie theatre). The jewelry store that was recommended was actually where the watch was bought and also has a jeweler on site. Ok, well, so much for saving a few minutes.

The next day, I went to the recommended jewelry store where the watch was bought. The employee said, “Oh I am sorry, but the press broke today, so we will not be able to do it.” I figured there had to be at least one other jewelry store in this mall that had a press and could do it for me.
WRONG!
I went to all of the other jewelry stores in the mall, each one sending me to the next. I had no idea that it would be so hard to get a battery for a watch. I only had one option left, since I did not want to leave it at one of the stores. I would have to keep checking back for when the store’s press was fixed.

So back to Saturday night…

We entered the jewelry store, the employee asked if they could help. I took off my watch and asked if they could put in a new battery, as the watch was purchased at this store. She inspected it, and did not seem too sure of herself. She went to another gentleman in the store, and he said sure, this can be done.
Then boyfriend presented his watch and said he needed the same thing. She immediately spoke up and said it couldn’t be done because the watch was not purchased there, and they did not want to be liable if it broke.
WHAT?
Boyfriend said, “I know it wasn’t purchased here, but I bought the battery and the lifetime warranty package from here.”
Then the man spoke up and said he could do it. He took the two watches in the back then a few minutes later came out and handed them back to us. The man acted as though he was going to do us a favor and only charge for one battery – boyfriend’s.
The man whispers, “I am only charging you for one battery”. (He wasn’t going to charge for mine since the watch was purchased there).
Boyfriend said, “Oh, ok thank you, I had the warranty for a lifetime battery anyway”, thinking the guy was charging for mine.
The man got a surprised look and said, “Oh, never mind then, here is your card, have a nice night.”
That was cool, they replaced both watch batteries for free.

We went on to Best Buy with a little over an hour to spare before the movie started. Boyfriend had ordered an item online for pick up in the store. He had received confirmation that it was ready for pick up. This should be a quick trip in and out, then off to the movies.
WRONG!
It was the most unorganized mess I have ever seen. No one knew what was going on. Finally after waiting for 30 minutes, the manager was called to the customer service counter.
What a doofus!
He came up, asked the rep what the situation was, she told him.
He never once looked at us, or even acknowledged that we were there. He went into the back. The next thing ~ I saw was him putting little brackets on the front wall, without any word to us. Ok, this ticked me off.

You know how much I dislike confrontation….I made a b-line straight to this guy.

I asked him if he was the manager and he said yes. I proceeded to tell him how unprofessional and rude he was and that he didn’t even look at us, talk to us, or anything. Then on top of that he abandoned us.
He then said “Well, I have someone looking into it”.
I continued telling him that as the manager, he should have informed us and not gone off to do a tiddly winks job as we had been there for more than 45 minutes without any satisfaction.
That finally spurred him on to go look further.
Well, we never did get the item.
The manager going to the shelf where the item was supposed to be for the third time, never made it appear.
He would not even substitute the same brand in different increments (totaling the same amount) because they were not exactly the same.

We finally told him just give us a raincheck for the item at that price.
We then got the name of his supervisor.

To make a long story shorter, we were in the store over an hour and missed the movie.

We ended up going to a popular Mexican restaurant and settled in at the bar.
It was Saturday night and very crowded.
Even though the guy right behind me must have thought he was on a crowded dance floor and backed it up against me, we had some fabulous margaritas, and the night ended much better than it started.

It's another Monday

Here's one question to help you decide how you should spend the rest of your day......

There is a mute who wants to buy a toothbrush. By imitating the action of brushing one's teeth, he successfully expresses himself to the shopkeeper and the purchase is done.

Now if there is a blind man who wishes to buy a pair of sunglasses, how should he express himself?

Think about it first before looking down for the answer...














He opens his mouth and says. "I would like to buy a pair of sunglasses"

If you got this wrong - just put those jammies back on and go back to bed.

Have a good Monday!

~ xoxo

Just an assortment!

A guy can dream, right?




Different strokes....





May be helpful in direction.






The end!

Memories of Calzone... and Good News!

I am so sad that Calzone is gone.

I am happy to hear that he has spared himself. He is not gone. It appears he was in trouble, therefore faked his demise. Therefore, the special photos of him at my castle are no longer a secret.

I am sorry Calzone, when I thought you were gone... I wanted everyone to see your lighter side and share my fond memories of you romping through the grounds here.

The endearing sentiments of his nature that were expressed in past tense will actually no longer apply, as he is still in the present.

I think these photos will surprise a lot of you, as this is not what you would expect from him in his typical everyday life.

He was such a funny dragon. He had such a tough exterior around most people, but I remember seeing him in a different light.

I just want to share of few of my favorite photos of him.





In this first picture, I had found him playing in the garden of my Castle on a nice warm spring day. I had to tell him to stay out of the flowers, but he loved to roll around on the open grassy areas.





He used to love the shade near the boathouse.
Sometimes he would just lie on the pavement, hang his head over the edge of the walkway, unroll that long dragon tongue and lap up the water from the inlet until his heart was content. I guess he needed to cool off that fiery hot breath of his.... and boy was it hot.























This was his favorite thing to do....swim in my moat. He would terrorize the swans, but he never really meant any harm to them.
Strangely, I only have one swan now.

Sometimes I wouldn't even know he was coming over, I would just hear him out there doing cannonballs and splashing around.
Have you ever seen a dragon doing the backstroke? Haha, I haven't either, although he claimed he could. I would watch him sometimes trying to float on his back and it was like a tidal wave from him kicking so hard.
Poor baby, I know he wanted to do the backstroke so badly.

If you only knew how many of my imported Persian rugs that he ruined.
He would forget to dry off before coming inside and he would track in moat sludge.

At least, the last time, he used the towel I left for him in the garden.

Usually after a long hard swim, he would come in and curl up next to the grand fireplace in the Great Chamber.
I would rub his cute little dragon chin, or the spot in the crook under his left wing.
He would be all warm and cozy, and would roar, I mean snore himself to sleep.

Oh, such great memories, I will truly miss him. Every Castle needs a protector and he was mine.

I do have good memories. I am glad you are still around to keep a watch over this Castle Calzone.

My King Kong ?

Boyfriend and I went to see King Kong a couple of weeks ago. After the movie, we both said the same thing.... It had a familiarity to something that had happened to me previously.
A couple of years ago, on a nice sunshiny spring day, we went to the zoo.
It was a perfect warm breezy day and all of the animals were outside, versus being inside their indoor cages.
I won't go into all of the beautiful animals that we saw...Oh, the White Tiger.
He was so gorgeous; I would say my absolute favorite.
He was lying off to the side, not being sociable. This frustrated me, as I wanted to see him up close.
At the end of the day, we went back to take a look at the Big Cats on the inside.
As soon as we (no one else was around) got to the window where the White Tiger lived, he came right up to the window and stood as if he were posing for us for nearly two minutes ~ inches away from the glass. It was just out of the blue. He walked up in front of us and just stood there showing himself off, almost as if he had realized how much I wanted to see him up close. He then went back and laid down in his original spot, which was too far away for good viewing.
I was thrilled.
...Oh, sorry, I got off track a bit.
That wasn't what reminded us of King Kong.
We went to see the monkeys. They were so cute, swinging and playing.
Then we went on to the area where the gorillas were. The gorillas were in a huge open grassy area with trees and hills to run around. There was a ravine in between the grounds and the area where zoo visitors could view them, behind glass. There were several people already there looking at them.

I was wearing a red jacket.
As soon as I walked in, the Big Boy saw me.
His head turned and he looked right at me.
As I walked in further, he continued to watch me, never taking his eyes off of me.
He even showed off a little by standing up~pounding his chest and screeching.
This went on for a while.
I leaned over and asked boyfriend..."Is it just me or is that gorilla looking at me?" He laughed and said "No, he is watching you and apparently he likes you."
I waved a little and he never took his eyes off of me.
After a while we decided to leave.
He stared at me the entire time, until I was out of sight.
Boyfriend said they pick up on scent, and he must have liked the way I smell.
I say, it was the red jacket.
Nevertheless, it was a bit bizarre.
So, after King Kong, we were both thinking the same thing, and had a good laugh....the memory of my gorilla friend at the zoo.

A and Z and all in between

Ripped off from Alicat.

A is for age: A day older than yesterday...thankfully!

B is for Booze of choice: Margarita with good tequila or some nice wine

C is for career: Insurance Underwriter

D is for your dog's name: No dog now, but would love a golden retriever

E is for essential items you use everyday: Soap, toothbrush/paste, razor, brush, clothes, shoes

F is for favorite song at the moment: Don't Fear the Reaper ~ Blue Oyster Cult (many others....from past and present... Ecstasy Heaven ~ Simon Townshend is beautiful)

G is for favorite games: haha, definitely not board games!!!!

H is for hometown: Birmingham

I is for instruments you play: Played the flute in grammar school and learned a tiny bit of guitar in college, but nothing now.

J is for jam or jelly you like: Blackberry or Rhasberry jam

K is for Kitties: Cody and Darbi

L is for last kiss: Today

M is for most admired trait: Loyal friend

N is for the name of your blog crush: hmmmm....can't tell! ;)

O is for overnight hospital stays: Meningitis many years ago

P is for phobias: Flying

Q is for quotes you like: There are many, but to name one...The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

R is for biggest regret: I have a few, but have learned from them

S is for sweets of your choice: cheesecake or good Belgium chocolate

T is for the time you wake up: 6:15 CST

U is for underwear: Must not give away all my secrets ;)

V is for vegetable you love: almost all except greens and beets

W is for worst habit: Most likely one of my tendancies towards OCD

X is for x-rays you've had: lungs (every time I get pneumonia), foot/ankle (no broken bones, but terrible tears in tendons and ligaments), shoulder (torn rotator cuff), mouth (of course from the dentist)

Y is for yummy food you make: Roastbeef, chili, spaghetti with meatballs and some yummy desserts

Z is for zodiac sign: Virgo

~ *hugs*

Yucky

Nothing today....this cold I had turned into the flu :(

~XO

Such Style!

I stole this from Jonathan

My style is shown below, what is your style?

Your Seduction Style: The Charmer

You're a master at intimate conversation and verbal enticement. You seduce with words, by getting people to open up to you. By establishing this deep connection quickly, people feel under your power. And then you've got them exactly where you want them!

What Is Your Seduction Style?

Yes, I have a fear of flying!

I used to love to fly on an airplane when going out of town. In fact, as a child I wanted to be a flight attendant when I grew up. It seems that as of the more recent years, I have become scared of flying. I am not exactly sure why, maybe years of movies about airplane crashes, or maybe it is just simply that I have absolutely no control as a passenger of an aircraft.
Regardless of why, the bottom line is that I am nervous about flying.

In the not too distant past, I was going to Florida to spend a week during Thanksgiving with my parents, in which I was to fly. Now this was not the first time I had flown, not the second or third either. I have flown many times in the past, but it just seems different now. As the time got closer and closer, I became more and more nervous about it. My father then told me, that he was going to be in Birmingham the weekend before my trip, so we could fly back to Florida together. That was a little comforting, but he has flown his whole adult life, traveling for his job almost every week. He was immune to it. He is the complete opposite of being nervous when flying. He can fall asleep the second the airplane begins to taxi down the runway.
Now, I know it must seem silly to most of you, thinking "why is she so nervous about flying; it is safer than driving a car; there is more of a chance of someone being hit by a bus, or whatever the statistics are....”
Well, I just cannot help it.

So, the day we were to fly out, dad and I were enjoying brunch at the country club with my sister, her family and my boyfriend. Then dad announces..."I have a surprise for you!" Then he said, "We are not flying commercial, we are flying on the corporate plane!" (Notice I did not say the corporate JET, but PLANE.) I think my face lost all color, and I became as white as a ghost (so to speak). My heart starting racing and I felt as if I was going to be sick.
Then my little niece could see the fear in my eyes and asked "Are you scared? I am sure you won't crash."
Ok, that made me feel better!!!
I couldn't even respond as no words could get past the huge lump in my throat.
Boyfriend reached over, grabbed my hand and just looked at me with his big dimple faced smile. Then he spoke the words I could not even force out...."she is terrified". Of course, my dad then started saying how much better it is because there is no airport hassle, and it is a direct flight instead of having to reconnect in Atlanta (which by the way is a nightmare of airports).
Sorry, I was still not convinced, but I talked myself into calming down.

After brunch, boyfriend drove dad and me to the little airport where the little plane was.
When I say little plane, I am not kidding....4 seater!
Once we were inside the airport, dad introduced me to the pilots (a young man, well probably my age, and a woman ~ neither were dressed in a uniform).
Uh, wait a minute....shouldn't they at least be wearing the uniform that has the little stripes on their shoulders and, I don't know, maybe some wings on their chest or something?

Okay, my stress level has reached an all time high at this point. I excuse myself to ladies room. When I return, the pilots...yes the pilots, are loading the suitcases on the plane.
Dad and I will have the whole plane to ourselves, all 4 seats!

With tears in my eyes, I go over to boyfriend; he puts his arms around me, kisses me on the forehead, leans over and whispers....."Can I have your computer?"
At least he made me laugh!
As we settled in our seats on the plane, the pilots went over the safety procedures and then told us where the cold drinks and snacks were.
Ok, here we go, the plane is moving.....so far, ok!
‘Hmmmmm.....I can still see the pilots, and the entire cockpit!’
I am actually watching them fly this plane. For a minute I am in complete amazement and forgot that I was petrified, but that only lasted for a minute.
I was clinching my hands on the armrests. We were building up speed, and about to take off. I look across the aisle (all 2 feet of it) and my dad is asleep!
So, now I am all alone in this plane....up up up we go.
Oh my goodness!
Ok, it's not too bad, pretty calm actually! I started to relax a bit. Then it was just amazing. The sun was peeking through the clouds below us.
WOW, clouds below us!
It turned out to be one of the best experiences I have ever had. It was better than the commercial flight, smooth, direct and no airport hassle. I even took pictures while up in the clouds.

I won't say that I am not afraid of flying anymore, but I do think that experience has helped.