The wide world of SPORTS DRINKS...
...it seems that they're not just for sport anymore...

SOUNDS LIKE A SHREWD BUSINESS MOVE TO ME: Years ago, when I used to run, I drank sport drinks like they were going out of style. These days, I don't run, but I still like a cold bottle of whatever replenishing beverage I can get a hold of. Just off to my right, as I'm posting this, there sits a half-full bottle of Gatorade fruit punch. I've noticed, that when you're really thirsty, Sport Drinks tastes great, but if you're not especially thirsty, they taste "weak". Can't figure that out. But anyway, yeah, I like my Sport drinks. Gatorade has made an interesting move: In the beginning, Sport Drinks were designed to re-hydrate you after a period of prolonged exertion. But now, there's a sport drink that's designed to re-hydrate your body AFTER A NIGHT'S SLEEP. And, you don't have to be an athlete to sleep. The bulkiest couch potato has to sleep, after all. Of course, there's always the possibility that you might undergo strenuous activities by sleepwalking, so maybe there's something tangible to this after all.

And, if the Gatorade bottlers have their way, you, whether yer an athlete or not, will drink the new "GATORADE A.M."; designed to replace fluids you expended while sleeping. So in addition to getting athletes coming and going, they've tapped into a new market: The non-athletic human sloth who happens to be thirsty after tossing & turning all night. That makes sense, especially if getting out of bed is the hardest thing you do all day. And, the way I feel most mornings makes me think, "I musta ran a marathon in my sleep." I am a walking safety hazard before I've had morning coffee. However, I have an idea for Gatorade to try: They oughta make a milk-flavored sport drink that you could pour on your bowl of cereal. Or, perhaps, they could create a coffee-flavored sports drink with a shot of caffeine to replace your morning cuppa joe. These product revisions would serve to combine the sport-drink-imbibing-process with a normal morning routine. I think I'd better send off for one of those "invention kits" that get huckstered a lot around on early-morning infomercials, so no one else can steal my bright ideas.

THE EARLY MORNING MSNBC WATCH: Now that Don Imus is long gone, MSNBC is trying its darndest to fill the three-hour slot that Imus used to fill. Last week they had some bald yuppie guy with one of those shiny cue-ball heads trying to sound oh, so topical, and I suppose he was okay. This week, there is a rather attractive lady, Stephanie 'something', and she actually sorta looks like a female Imus...and, she's kinda got the same mentality. I was kinda shocked when, on her first show (Monday of this week), she said she is doing the MSNBC thing, because (and I quote), "I'm a MEDIA WHORE". I'll bet that line had MSNBC execs thinking about jumping out the window of the tall skyscraper their company is located in. She is probably worth watching, but I'm set in my ways. I MISS IMUS. He did NOT commit enough of a sin to be BANNED. Certainly everyone should be fair to everyone else. But we're human. Mistakes are made. Imus made a mistake. GET OVER IT!!! I can't help but think that right now, Don Imus is a pariah of sorts; he's radioactive. I've got a google news alert on his name, and stories are still appearing which paint Imus as an old mean ogre, about how irrelevant he is in today's politically correct society, yadda yadda yadda. So no one would consider hiring him right now. Maybe he can fly under the radar for a while, then go on talk shows and try to rehabilitate his image. That's how people like Alec Baldwin do it, after all. And Baldwin's recent answering-machine diatribe directed at his little girl is much worse than anything Imus said.

COASTING IN OREGON: Guess what...it rained today. And it's supposed to be kinda rainy for the next few days. How about that...rain on the Oregon Coast. A novel concept, that. Before I moved, people would tell me, "you might wanna think twice; it rains a lot down there". And my standard comeback was "well, you don't have to SHOVEL rain!" Something I'm looking forward to is a more 'temperate' summer than what I'm used to. Up in North Idaho (where I escaped from), it's a definite four-season area...snow in winter, heat waves with humidity in the summertime...here, I'm told that summer temperatures usually revolve around 75, maybe 80 tops, which is great because I'm not a "heat" person, never have been. "Warm", yes, "ultra-hot", no. I am noticing that my usual spring allergies haven't happened yet here; maybe the coastal winds have something to do with that...keeping the air circulating. But, ah yes, there are drawbacks. You know how everyone is saying gas prices are higher on the coast? Well, lemme tell ya...$3.35 a gallon at a Shell fill-em-fast station. Me, I scouted around, and I saved money! (If you can call $3.14 a gallon gas a 'saving' thing!)

PARAKEET GAMES: I think I must have the world's craziest parakeets. Clyde, the male parakeet is a non-stop chirping and squawking machine. Bonnie, on the other hand, destroys everything I put in the cage. But, I've noticed something. I think they actually "play" sometimes. The game goes thusly: Clyde will be on a lower perch at the far side of the cage; Bonnie will be on the high perch at the near end of the cage. Clyde will then fly across the cage, up to where Bonnie is. She'll pretend to peck at him; Clyde flies back down to the lower perch, then he flies back up to where Bonnie is, this time landing on her other side. She'll peck at him again, he'll fly back down, he'll fly back up, she'll peck, he'll fly down, fly back up.....you get the idea. And then, they'll "zigzag" around the cage; Clyde will fly up to the high perch, Bonnie will fly down to where Clyde was, then she'll fly back up to where Clyde is, and he'll fly back down to where Bonnie was. Over and over and over again. And sometimes I wonder, just why do I continue to keep these weird birds? I actually have to get away from them sometimes. Ah, but then Bonnie will clean her feathers and Clyde will chirp, chirp, chirp away as an oldies station plays in the background; Clyde might just be the first-ever rock and roll parakeet. So I keep 'em, what can I say? One of my favorite times of the day is when I have breakfast with my parakeets. They, with seeds, me with frosted flakes.
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As you've witnessed, this post started out with Sports Drinks and ended up with Parakeets. Some bloggers specialize in one area, or areas related to that one area. Not me. I have no format. Anything can land here, and often does. No format here. Although, if you think about it..."no format" is a format, right?