whatnot wednesday.

*i hope you had a lovely easter weekend. we sure did! and it was made even lovelier by post-easter candy sales on monday. i was crushed to discover that BOTH targets i went to were swept clean of my precious mini eggs. but, i discovered these little guys that are an acceptable (but still not as awesome as the original) stand in:

i bought four bags. i probably should have bought more, but i still haven't given up hope on finding mini eggs on sale! and i think i've uncovered what it is that makes the mini eggs superior (because i can clearly claim expertise in this area since i have consumed multiple bags of both). it's totally the candy coating. and not just the ratio of coating to chocolate, but also the coating itself. it's a little thicker on the mini eggs and it stays on better, so you don't have those little coating flakes at the bottom of the bag or eggs with only half their coating. and i feel like the fact that the mini eggs have a matte coating (versus a shiny coating), makes them tastier. and it makes me feel like it's *slightly* less chemical-y, since one would think it takes more chemicals to make something shiny, versus matte. no?
probably not.
i can't believe i've written this much about chocolate eggs.
i need help.

*so, vanity plates are huge in our area. i'd say as many as a third of the license plates are vanity plates. some of them are funny (the best i saw was on a REALLY ugly car and the plate read: OK LAFF). some of them are clever. and some of them are fun to try and figure out when you're stuck in traffic. but others are just plain lame. last week, we saw a license plate that said SAM PARK. and i'm thinking it's probably the dude's name (and he's probably korean). hmmm...do you really want your name on your license plate? doesn't that make it super easy for people to track you down and remember you? for example, if you were fleeing the scene in your getaway car, witnesses could just tell the police, "SAM PARK did it!!!"
not that i'm planning on doing anything bad and then fleeing the scene or anything...;)

*have you seen that new show "happy endings"? it's okay. not hilarious, but fairly entertaining. in the preview commercials, it was described as being "like 'friends,' but not as white!" huh? not exactly sure what that meant, but it cracked me up. that comment was probably funnier than the actual show. ;)
anyway, i was watching it, and i as obsessively often do, i looked up the cast on imdb.com (i heart that site -- anyone else?). and i was so sad to discover that half of the cast is younger than i am. for some reason, the fact that they have sitcoms about people my age and younger, makes me feel old. i used to watch sitcoms and think "haha, that's funny! someday, i'll be able to relate to that!" and now i watch and think, "oh yeah. i remember when i could relate to that."

*know what else makes me feel old? faceb00k profile pictures. every once in a while, an old classmate's status or activity will pop up in my news feed and i'll click on their profile, look at their picture, and then gasp and think, "good gracious! when did they get so OLD?!" and then i remember, oh, wait. i've aged, too.

*one of my favorite singer/songwriters is ingrid michaelson. she's fun and cheeky and quirky and she writes great music and lyrics. i just love her. apparently, so do advertising execs. because recently, two commercials have ruined two of my favorite ingrid songs. the hair*cuttery used "maybe" in one of their commercials -- and i have NO idea why. that commerical makes ZERO sense. plus, do you really want to pair an advertisement for your business with lyrics that say, "maybe, in the future you're gonna come back..."? shouldn't you be a little more confident in your product and say that people will *definitely* want to come back?? i don't understand. anyway, after that, i can't listen to that song and not think of that blonde chick standing in the street with a pouty look on her face, showing off her hair.
and now, e*harm0ny has gone and used "everybody" in their commercials. and admittedly, the lyrics to that song are quite appropriate for e*harmony's product, but still! i don't want to think of dr. neil when i'm singing along to one of my favorite songs!
if someone uses "the chain" or "lady in spain" in one of their commercials, i'm going to be so sad.

*i'll end with a confession:
up until three years ago, i had no idea that asians had different earwax than (most) other ethnic groups. and the way i discovered this is rather amusing. i was in the middle of a reading lesson with a (non-asian) student and noticed a dark brown, sticky substance in her ear. i thought it was dried blood. i thought she was BLEEDING FROM THE EAR. so, i stopped our lesson, and took her down to the school clinic and told the nurse, "i think the inside of her ear is bleeding." she took a look and then laughed and said, "oh, that's just earwax! it's different from your earwax, but that's what it looks like."
oh.
i was embarrassed. and then grossed out. and then quite curious. and i also finally understood why it's called earWAX. ha!
and it also made me realize why, growing up, my non-asian friends looked at me as if i had two heads when i mentioned my mom cleaning my ears with an ear pick.
you know, these:

{source}

i know, they look like tiny torture devices, but don't knock 'em til' you try 'em. 'cause it feels awesome.

oh, and in case you're worried about the safety of using an ear pick, don't worry. because these newfangled ones come with a handy dandy LED light.

{source}

off to go pick my ears now.
kidding!
maybe. ;)

{edited to add a clarification}: you can read all about earwax here. it's actually quite interesting. and plenty gross, so don't click on over if you have a weak stomach. here's the gist, taken from the page itself: "There are two distinct genetically determined types of earwax: the wet type, which is dominant, and the dry type, which is recessive. East Asians and Native Americans are more likely to have the dry type of cerumen (gray and flaky), whereas Caucasians and Africans are more likely to have the wet type (honey-brown to dark-brown and moist). Cerumen type has been used by anthropologists to track human migratory patterns, such as those of the Inuit." <-- how COOL (and bizarre) is that?!

so, to sum it up, east asians and native americans have dry earwax that is yellowish to grey (more like the consistency of dirt) and caucasians and africans have wet, light to dark brown earwax that is more like the consistency of wax.

and that's probably more than you'll ever need to know about earwax.

if that's not whatnot, i don't know what is.

;)


come and join the whatnot wednesday party and link up with elizabeth!