… I will be propped up in a lounge chair, reading a book, and sipping a daiquiri. Hubby and I have finally managed to book a Caribbean vacation.

We like to go each spring, but last year didn’t work out. After our honeymoon, we learned all-inclusive resorts are the way to go.

In 25 days we’ll be in Jamaica!

Where, exactly, I can’t tell you.

Not because I’m worried that one of my many three readers will stalk me, of course.

It’s because I won’t know where I’m going until the week before we leave!

A few of the resort chains have “secret” packages where they just place you wherever they have the most unreserved rooms. All are in Jamaica, and all look great-looking resorts.

In fact, I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to go to, anyway. This way, it’s up to them!

At a minimum, we saved about $200-300 on the lowest room category at the least-expensive resort, but there’s a chance we could be upgraded and/or wind up at a pricier resort. (All are similar in amenities.)

I like the odds — I’d have probably booked the cheapest room at the cheapest resort!

They all have free wifi.
Hmm, will I be a dork and blog from my vacation?

No, it’s not funny that a woman was groped by a crazy man. But the situation is just too ridiculous.

Sure, I’m usually looking for weird things in the news, but I actually saw a partial clip for this on Headline News and had to look it up.

Captain America, Armed With Burrito, Arrested in FL
This was the first article I read. It contains the following paragraph:

She says when officers arrived at the scene they asked all the men in Captain America uniforms at the bar to take part in a line-up. That’s when the woman pointed out her alleged harasser.

But it neglected to explain why a bar might be full of men dressed as Captain America.

So I looked up a few more that provide the full story:

Captain America Arrested with Burrito in Pants

Police: Burrito Packing Super Hero Turns Villain

It’s a strange world.

I wonder if the person who wrote the first headline is an Atom and His Package fan.

… what illegal products can be purchased at my local supermarket?

I couldn’t let these go. This caught my eye a couple days ago, when I was searching for some lighter news:

Japan firm apologizes after toilets smoke, catch fire
4/16/2007
TOKYO (Reuters) – Twenty-six smoking toilets, and three more on fire, put a Japanese toilet maker in the hot seat on Monday.

Toto Ltd., known for its high-tech toilets with bidets that have blow-drying, air purification and seat-warming functions, apologized to consumers and offered free checks and repairs after some of its toilets with bidets and heated seats sent up smoke and three caught fire.
full story

Two days later:

Another toilet-maker in the hotseat
4/18/2007
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s second-biggest toilet maker INAX Corp. has joined porcelain powerhouse Toto with tales of smoking toilets and burning bidets.

INAX, owned by JS Group Corp., said it had not made public seven cases of malfunctioning “washlets” — a combination toilet and bidet common in Japanese homes — that smoked or caught fire from 1991 to 2005.
full story

My favorite quote from the second article:

“We’ve been promoting a culture of washing one’s backside since 1980…”

Yep, a culture. Maybe something got lost in the translation?

Anyway, this article has an accompanying video.

I usually keep things more light-hearted around here. The only “current events” I mention usually come from the “Odd News” section.

But I can’t ignore the tragedy at Virginia Tech yesterday.

Headlines all over the country describe a “Rampage” and a “Massacre.“

But the VT campus newspaper reports “Heartache.”

To the thousands of students living on campus, what was once a safe haven will never feel the same again. Especially to those directly affected, their lives are changed forever.

For everyone all over the world reeling from the news, it is another unfathomable, terrible event we are forced to wrap our minds around.

Why did this have to happen? What would possess a man to kill senselessly?

As the events unfold, we can only hope for some explanation. Some way rationalize the horror.

But there may not be an answer.

I hope the survivors can recover some semblance of their former lives. I hope the campus can recover and feel like home again.

And I hope we never become desensitized to violence.