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Cyclopentane?

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We were at our usual boba tea place last weekend, and I saw that the little fridge full of ice cream snacks strangely said "CYCLOPENTANE" on the side. Now, I'm fully aware of the chemical structures and IUPAC naming conventions for these things.  What I couldn't figure out was why any law would require these coolers to mention cyclopentane in these big blocky letters.  It's not a refrigerant.  There is a long and wild history of refrigerants and propellants, running through the CFCs wrecking the ozone layer in the 90's, and further history of how these chemicals are constantly being replaced with safer chemicals with less environmental impact.  But cyclopentane is not one of those, unless maybe they stopped with the substituted halogen hydrocarbons altogether. I forgot about it until we saw this outside a resort in the mountains of Ramona CA this weekend:   I tried explaining to Anne that C5H10 is cyclopentane, and it's so weird that it's labeled again...
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Really Not a Trap

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This is just a fun little moment from one of our gaming sessions a few months back.  Sometimes the whole point of a sign or symbol is to be amusing.  This deeply nerdy gamer item fits the bill: It's not a very welcoming welcome mat, and we always stop to comment on it.  After all, isn't that exactly what an arch-fiend would write if it WAS a trap?  And the reason to buy a good gag item is to have fun making up gags about it?  
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Target Weekly Specials?

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We walked into a Target at the local mall this weekend, and their "Weekly Specials" board was seriously not special.  There were no deals, just posters of legal dumps, disclaimers and warnings. Next to that was a set of 5 trash/recycle bins, because things have become this complicated.   There's Landfill, Glass/Plastic/Aluminum (which I guess is the classic recycle bin), then COmpost & Food Soiled Papers (this ridiculous new category where consumers got duped into cleaning the plastics that the big companies can't clean at the industrial scale), then MP3/Cellphone/Ink (really?), and behind the metal detector (really?) is Plastic Bags. Just rules and complications here.  The checkout lines were so long we didn't even think of shopping there. We just passed through to the main mall.  You know, if you only go the big malls once or twice a year, enough shops open and close that they're almost different malls each time...
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A Library in the Mall?

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We had heard that the Escondido Public Library building is undergoing major renovations and the whole library would have to move for a year or two.  Then we heard it was going to move to the local mall, and we just couldn't picture how that was going to work. We finally stopped by to see how it looks. I have to say, by breaking it into separate sections with well designed signage, it looks like it belongs here.  Here's the main library, the Children's Library, and the library bookstore.   The highlight is this little ladybug chilling on a leaf, reading a tiny book.     Nicely done.
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Dixon Lake: Salmon & Snakes

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Once you start looking for odd signs, it's hard to go anywhere for a nice afternoon walk without seeing signs around every corner.  Here are two from our visit to Dixon Lake (Escondido CA).  "Salmon Poisoning Disease" at the fish cleaning station and a bin for dumping all the snakes. It's good to know that there's a fish-borne illness.  Better than not knowing.   But the snake can had us thinking halfway home: were there snakes in there when we took the photo?  How many?  Were they feeling "rescued" or just baking in the sun?  Was that can just for the park rangers to use?  It seems like, if that was the case, they would know what the can was for without alarming everyone.  Maybe they have to say there are snakes because people will drop their trash into anything that looks like a can, no matter what the can says ... but maybe (just maybe) "Snake Rescue" will register as being the wrong place to drop your dirty paper plates. Even after w...
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Love and Boba, part two

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One of the tea shops we go to has a blackboard and a talented artist who puts messages there.  See "Love and Boba" here .  For a while, this one said "Happy Spring".   At the end of June I pointed out that it's been summer for more than a week now. So the chalkboard changed to this picture of sharks circling. No commentary, just not sure what happened.  Thumbs up for the artist, for making this spot a little more human.
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Take a Ball ... Heck, Take All of Them

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At the dog park in Rancho Bernardo, there's this optimistic little box that says, "Take a Ball, Have a Ball."  That's a fun idea. There's even a little plea to think about other people.  "Leave a ball for your pals."  But what always happens is, people are more likely to take than give.  So boxes like these always end up empty and full of dust. 
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