Random Thoughts, monkey-with-a-camera edition

• People always say you shouldn't go grocery shopping when you're hungry. It is also bad, I've learned, to go shopping when you're NOT hungry. I become wan and listless and decide against everything. "Rice? Eh. We probably don't need it." "I'm sure two cans of tomatoes will be plenty for the foreseeable future." "Blech, there's so much cereal here! Who would ever EAT all this?" Then I get home and realize we won't last the week with what I've gotten.

• A cute young woman from church called the other day, and without further pleasantries, asked if I would be at the Young Women's activity that night. "Er, no, not tonight," I said politely. I hung up totally baffled. I got released as YW President over a year ago. Did she just…not…notice?

• The other day as I was making dinner I accidentally slid the whole handful of angel hair pasta out of the package before the water was even boiling. I didn't dare set it down (fearing rolling/breakage) so I just wandered around clutching it awkwardly one-handed and occasionally dropping vegetables, or failing to chop them up with the knife in my other hand. Then the doorbell rang and I opened it, pasta clenched in fist. I saw the lawn-spray guy look down at the angel-hair, look up at me, and decide not to say anything. I, in turn, refused to be ashamed of my pasta hunk and didn't say anything apologetic either. We carried on an entire conversation like that, both of us grimly aware of the pasta, but determined not to mention it.

• I love Hugh Nibley's wonderfully cynical "gas law of learning":

"Any amount of information no matter how small will fill any intellectual void no matter how large."

• Every time I read about a new start-up company, the story sounds exactly like this: "We were just two moms who were looking for high-quality organic baby-care products/soy-based handmade wooden toys/French-inspired classic children's clothing/environmentally-responsible maternity wear that doesn't sacrifice style/quirky bamboo-fiber stationery and earth-toned baby announcements----but we couldn't find any, so we decided to start a company and make it ourselves!" I just wonder, why don't these people ever find each other in their initial searches for products? It would save everyone a lot of trouble.