Long time, no post. 

I must say I get pretty caught up in my days and basically feel overwhelmed most of the time.  So it seems, sadly, that my blog is what goes lacking! (Along with the laundry, vacuuming, etc.)  I have certainly thought about posting things that have happened and tell myself that “I’ll get to that tonight”.  But y’all know how that goes…it doesn’t!  Usually, my blog fodder ideas get condensed into 150 character or less Facebook statuses.  So, there ya go.

But today, Jacob and I had one of the best laughs we’ve had in a while and I had to share before the day got away. We’re on our lunch break, so here goes.

We’ve been studying recently about how our fine nation came to be…from colonies to a country.  These last couple of weeks, we’ve been reading the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  Thanks to my friends at Schoolhouse Rock, we have memorized the Preamble.  Can’t stop singing it either!  I must say that the Constitution is quite the snooze-fest (sorry, but it is), but I rather enjoyed the Declaration of Independence, which I shamefully admit that I had never read before this week…not that I remember anyway.  They really slammed on my boy King George III.  You should read it some time. 

Anyway…as we were reading and deciphering the Bill of Rights today, we found ourselves at the 10th Amendment trying to figure out, in “regular person terms”, just what in the heck it means.  I gotta say that I’m still not completely clear on it, but it’s something about the power of the states and the people and blah blah blah, which led us to visit our friend Google to try to make more sense of it.  Then we started talking about how states can make some laws of their own, apart from the federal government (as long as they don’t violate the Constitution, of course!) and how stupid some of them are.  Which led us back to our faithful friend Google to look at some of the dumbest of the dumb. 

Which brings me to the reason we have all gathered here today…a Letterman’s Top Ten, of sorts:

Top Ten Dumbest State Laws (according to Jacob and Joell)

10. In California, it is illegal to pile horse manure more than 6 feet high on a street corner. (“Hey, hon?  Can you get me the the tape measure?  <sigh> Looks like Trigger might have put us over the 6 ft mark again…”)

9.  In Alaska, it is considered an offense to push a live moose out of a moving airplane. (Dead ones, no problem, though.)

8.  In Illinois, it is illegal to drink beer out of a bucket while sitting on a curb.  (Consider yourselves warned, all you curbside beer bucket drinkers!  Just go stand in the alley with your bucket o’ beer, would ya?)

7.  In Kansas, it is illegal to hunt whales.  (Ummm, last time I checked there was no ocean in Kansas…is there something I’m missing here?)

6.  In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry an ice cream cone in your pocket. (Makes you wonder what kind of devastating tragedy prompted this law to be put on the books, doesn’t it?)

5.  In West Virginia, it is illegal for children to attend school with their breath smelling of wild onions. (“Dang it, Maw, I dun tole you not to put them thar onions on my sammich and now I dun landed myself up here in the pokey!”)

4.  In Georgia, it is illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp. (Okaaaaaaay??)

3.  In New Jersey, it is illegal to slurp soup.  (Dang, how else am I supposed to eat it??)

2.  In Texas, it is illegal to emit obnoxious odors in an elevator. (Sorry folks, but you better hold it in till you get to your destination.)

AND…Drum Roll Please!

1.  In Florida, it is illegal to fart in a public place after 6:00 pm on Thursdays. (But any other day of the week you can just let her rip, apparently??)

And with that, because I know all my friends love Schoolhouse Rock just as much as I do, but mainly because I want y’all to have this looping through your brain with me, (Hey, I don’t want to suffer alone), I give you, THE PREAMBLE 70s Schoolhouse Rock Style. Enjoy.