Saturday, July 05, 2008

"Around the world in 80 days"

My Nana had a music box in the shape of a little bird in a cage that played that tune. The bird would hop back and forth from perch to perch as it played. I actually think it was her sister's. It's amazing what we remember isn't it? I thought of my Nana this weekend too.

Anyway, I thought of flying around the world in a balloon after reading this story about a man in Oregon who took off for the Idaho border in a lawn chair rigged with over 150 helium-filled party balloons. I mean, who hasn't as a kid thought, "if I only had enough of them I could take off..."?

He is equipped with a BB gun and a blowgun for popping balloons if he gets too high and three 15-gallon barrels of cherry Kool-Aid for ballast to release if he gets too low.

What I want to know is, why cherry Kool-Aid? Why not just water? And if he needs to pee will he need to shoot out a balloon or two?

We had a wonderful 4th in NYC. The backyard oasis was rocking with kids, food, and fun. Then I was treated to the Macy's fireworks over the East River from the balcony of my friend's new co-op. The view was amazing. Plus I saw some good old friends.

Girlie-Girl leaves for camp in Oregon tomorrow. Biggest One lands 6 hours later. Maybe they'll see Balloon Man. We plan to kill time on Boston Harbor. Hopefully we won't capsize. That would suck.

2 comments:

dw said...

Glad you had a nice 4th. I thought of you that day, remembering the first 4th we were all together in 2001. Speaking of balloon man, I posted a somewhat, um, erm, similar story in my LJ. :p

Anonymous said...

omg I remember the bird, I wish we still had it. I had no idea that was the song.
sniff sniff