Whatever I Think Of!: 2026

Friday, September 11, 2026

25 Years Later

25 years. Seems hard to imagine. I'll always remember what I was doing on the fateful morning, and I'm sure others will too.

Thursday, September 10, 2026

13 Things About Sodas

Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose.

Last Friday, for my trivia class at work, I chose soda as the topic. I got my questions from two You Tube videos. Here are few things I learned (see below to see the videos):

Dr Pepper was founded in 1885, predating Coca-Cola by a year.
Schweppes, founded in 1783, is responsible for creating carbonation used in sodas.
Cream in cream soda refers to cream of tartar.
Diet Rite was the first diet soda.
7Up predated Sprite.
Faygo was created by two bakers, using cake-frosting recipes.
Sunkist is not a soda company, but a California circus growers' co-op.
Diet Coke was released in 1982.
Mr. Pibb was originally called Peppo, until Dr Pepper filed a lawsuit.
Tab's name referred to "Keeping tabs on your calorie intake."
The name Mountain Dew is slang for moonshine.
Root beer originally contained sassafras, which was banned by the FDA in 1960. Since then, artificial sassafras has been used in root beer.
Birch beer, made from a tree bark, is mostly found in the Northeastern US.

These were the videos from which I derived my questions for the class:

I had jotted down the names of the videos, but when I searched for them on Youtube at work, I mistakenly played another video that had the exact same title as the first one above, from a different Youtube channel. I did not realize this until the video was nearly over and I got ready to play the second one shown above. The one I showed by mistake is here. The info in this video about Schweppes is what made me realize my mistake, as did the lack of info on RC Cola and Diet Rite in this video. I still learned a lot of info.

Tuesday, September 8, 2026

September Issues

I had a flashback to watching the documentary The September Issue on DVD via Netflix. I don't know what made me want to add it to my queue, though it may have been hype over the film at the time of its release. I have never fully read a copy of Vogue or any other fashion magazine. I just don't want to find some clothes that may be too expensive for me to afford!

Rather my September issue is:

1. So when do I begin decorating? I ask myself. I still haven't found anymore pumpkin buckets as of yet. The Goodwill hasn't put out all their Halloween stuff yet--that is, the racks of glittery gowns, medical scrubs and school uniforms they pass off as possible costumes. No buckets either (I found some there one year). The search continues. I only hope to get the stuff on the lawn up before the first of October, which falls on a Thursday this year.

2. A heat wave is expected in my area of California this week. We've got a lot of water at home, so that's prepared. I already expect the hot weather to make me sleepy.

3. Still trying to decide on a costume. I keep looking at ones I have already one, such as the 50s, 60s, and 80s, as not a lot of the other ideas have jived just yet. I could always do a variation on the ones I've already done. But more on this later.

September has always been a weird month. Seeing Christmas stuff out in stores before it's even Halloween. Yes, there already are some Christmas items at Dollar Tree, though not a whole lot. Target, on the other hand, still hasn't put out the Halloween stuff, except for a few things on the shelves near the front entrance. I saw some pumpkin candy holders, but they were the ones made out of cloth. The school display is till up, last I looked.

It's supposed to be the end of summer, but here in California, we've come to expect warm weather well into the fall. I'm never surprised to see the hot weather continuing into October. Just what season in CA is it anyway?

Thursday, September 3, 2026

September Bookish Bingo

The card for September is here.

My Books:

311 Pelican Court--Debbie Macomber (6 squares): DNF Last Month, Physical Book, Shelf Love, Book Club Read, Free Space, Cover is Busy
A Whale of a Tale--Rob Scotton (1 square): Audiobook
The Saturday Night Ghost Club--Craig Davidson (4 squares): Free Book, Author New to You, Not in a Series, Amateur Detective
The Girl Who Smiled Beads--Clemantine Wamariya (2 squares): E-Book, Surprise/Secret
A Gift For a Ghost--Borja Gonzalez (4 squares): Library Book, Music, Historic Setting, Treasure
Plum Tea Crazy--Laura Childs (2 squares): Tea/Coffee, Revenge

Monday, August 31, 2026

What Should and Shouldn't Be Renamed

Should not be renamed, so it doesn't come to this:

Now this should be renamed:

Sunday, August 30, 2026

Nearing the "Ber Months"

It just seems to come faster every year!

I've already been to the Spirit store several times this month. I haven't decided on anything yet, as many of the ideas I like I've already done! But there's till time.

Pumpkin buckets seem hard to find, but I have gotten four so far, three orange ones from Walmart and one blue one from CVS. The bucket from CVS was more expensive, but I just had to have this one. Walmart only had orange buckets and CVS only had blue ones. So far no luck finding used ones at Goodwill. There are some at Walgreens, but they too only have orange ones. I'd like to get some in other colors, if I can find any. The buckets I bought are pictured below:

I was surprised to still see light stakes at Dollar General, but no pumpkin buckets. I expected the light stakes to be gone before the end of summer, that's why I bought them before summer began. This has happened in the past when I've wanted to make this decoration. Here is a video of the instructions. It's short one, and shorts don't seem to allow embedding. I was unable to find the large stakes shown in the video.

Thursday, August 27, 2026

Thursday 13

Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose.

I'm using the graphic I made this week :)

RIP to both Dolly Parton and Tim Curry.

Thursday, August 20, 2026

13 Photos From Spirit Halloween

Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose.

Once again, I am stealing a graphic from Blue Country Magic.

As I said yesterday, the Spirit Halloween store in my town is now open. Here are more pictures from my visit on Tuesday this week.

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

The Border Between Summer and Fall

Yes, that is what it is coming to. Weather in my area hasn't been particularly hot, but warm enough to feel sleepy by midday.

Unlike last season, when the city too to long to approve the opening of Spirit Halloween (did not open till after the first of October), the store is now open. I've been by twice so far. Not ready to decide on anything, but so far not a lot of interesting stuff just yet, none I would jump on right away. Some displays look a little empty, which could mean they're still receiving shipments. The store wasn't completely crowed in the two times I've been so far. Here are some pictures of the display in the middle of the store that I took on yesterday's visit. (Other pictures to come).

I've been trying to find pumpkin treat buckets for a lawn decoration I've been planning (more on this another time). So far where I live, I've only seen them at Walgreens. Also looking on Amazon, but not sure about that yet.