sign #78 proving that I am, in fact, a dork

There are two totally obscure 'national days' within a week of each other that both bring incredible amounts of joy to my heart.

1. September 19th was National Talk Like a Pirate Day. How fun is that?! I am, for the record, horrible at talking like a pirate (which any of you who follow my twitter feed probably noted), and I don't know any pirates. But I did love the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies (yeah, all of them), and I did buy a t-shirt that says "To err is human...to Arr is PIRATE". I wore it out to dinner on Saturday night, and got a few funny looks, but one "Ohhh...that's right...it's Talk Like a Pirate day comment". It made my night.
   
   
2. Today is National Punctuation Day. Oh, the corners of my heart that are lit by the celebration of all the little squiggles, dots, and dashes that - used correctly - help us communicate with each other. At least that's what the grammar nazi in me says.
   

See? Total dork.

baked beans

I have a can of Heinz Baked Beans that lives in my desk drawer along with all my work snacks and other such paraphernalia.

My English friend who was working here in Houston for a couple of months insisted on leaving it with me when he left...in February. Since I eat like a hobbit, I have seen it about 50 times (2 or 3 times a day, 5 times a week) since then.

Now, what my English friend apparently didn't know about me is that I think I can count the number of times I’ve eaten baked beans in my entire life on two hands – including the 3 years I lived in England, where they are a diet staple along the lines of our Mac & Cheese or PBJ sandwiches. [Aside: the beans section at every grocery in England is about as varied in selection as our cereal aisles. I'm not exaggerating.]

I’m not sure why it took me six months to share this random bit of life with you, my dear reader(s?), but it’s probably due to the fact that I don’t feel like I’ve got 2 working brain cells to rub together but am desperately trying to do some work in my currently jet-lagged state, and I just went rummaging for yet another snack to keep me going. And then I saw the beans...

So, what does one do with one random can of non-perishable food that will never be eaten? It would be weird to just drop the one can in a food bank barrel. Right?