I'm screwed if insanity is hereditary

New report cards came out last week.  Alex made the A-B honor roll again.  I'm happy to say each of his grades went up at least 3 percentage points and he got 99% in spelling, which was his weakest subject at the start of the year.  He's been working hard this semester.  I gave him $10 for his hard work.  His daddy did too.  Mama & Dad sent a card with $20 today and his Gramma and Grampa are sending something too.  I'm so proud of my baby.  Hard work paid off.  Literally. 

My mama is so generous.  Of course, I don't know when the hell that started cuz all I got for my A-B honor roll as a kid was yelled at for not making straight A's  ...crazy old woman.

more movies

Alex and I saw Stranger than Fiction at the dollar show on Saturday.  It gets two thumbs up from us.  Not exceptional, but pretty darn good.  Will Ferrell impressed me for the first time since Elf.

I rented Water.   It was well-acted, well-told...just brilliant.  I cried and cried...have tissues handy.

I'd settle for Magnesium Chloride

"

Melting Snow & Ice with Salt          By Anne Marie Helmenstine, PhD., Your Guide to Chemistry

Colligative Properties and Freezing Point Depression

If you live in an area with a cold and icy winter, you have probably experienced salt on sidewalks and roads, used to melt the ice and snow and keep it from refreezing. Salt is also used to make homemade ice cream. In both cases, the salt works by lowering the melting or freezing point of water. The effect is termed 'freezing point depression'.

How Freezing Point Depression Works

When you add salt to water, you introduce dissolved foreign particles into the water. The freezing point of water becomes lower as more particles are added until the point where the salt stops dissolving. For a solution of table salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) in water, this temperature is -21°C (-6°F) under controlled lab conditions. In the real world, on a real sidewalk, sodium chloride can melt ice only down to about -9°C (15°F).

Colligative Properties

Freezing point depression is a colligative property of water. A colligative property is one which depends on the number of particles in a substance. All liquid solvents with dissolved particles (solutes) demonstrate colligative properties. Other colligative properties include boiling point elevation, vapor pressure lowering, and osmotic pressure.

More Particles Mean More Melting Power

Sodium chloride isn't the only salt used for de-icing, nor is it necessarily the best choice. Sodium chloride dissolves into two types of particles: one sodium ion and one chloride ion per sodium chloride 'molecule'. A compound that yields more ions into a water solution would lower the freezing point of water more than salt. For example, calcium chloride (CaCl₂) dissolves into three ions (one of calcium and two of chloride) and lowers the freezing point of water more than sodium chloride. Here are some other de-icing compounds:

Chemicals Used to Melt Ice

Name	Formula	Lowest Practical Temp	Pros	Cons
Ammonium sulfate	(NH4)2SO4	-7°C (20°F)	Fertilizer	Damages concrete
Calcium chloride	CaCl2	-29°C (-20°F)	Melts ice faster than sodium chloride	Attracts moisture, surfaces slippery below -18°C (0°F)
Calcium magnesium acetate (CMA)	Calcium carbonate CaCO3, magnesium carbonate MgCO3, and acetic acid CH3COOH	-9°C (15°F)	Safest for concrete & vegetation	Works better to prevent re-icing than as ice remover
Magnesium chloride	MgCl2	-15°C (5°F)	Melts ice faster than sodium chloride	Attracts moisture
Potassium acetate	CH3COOK	-9°C (15°F)	Biodegradable	Corrosive
Potassium chloride	KCl	-7°C (20°F)	Fertilizer	Damages concrete
Sodium chloride (rock salt, halite)	NaCl	-9°C (15°F)	Keeps sidewalks dry	Corrosive, damages concrete & vegetation
Urea	NH2CONH2	-7°C (20°F)	Fertilizer	Agricultural grade is corrosive

"

movie review

Alex and I went to see A Night at the Museum this weekend.  It was rather entertaining.  I expected another movie where all the good lines are in the preview.  Nope. Even though I knew it was coming, I still laughed right out loud when Steve Coogan said, ""It's 'Octavius', Mary.""  Mickey Rooney was so cute in it!  Yes, he is still alive.   

It's probably one I'll end up owning on dvd.  It entertained a 9 yr old with no fart jokes or toilet humor.  If you have kids in the 7-12 range, take them and you'll both enjoy it.<

I miss snow

Don't read this if you expect me to have a point.  I don't.

Snow would fall and I would shovel the sidewalk and my parking space and throw down some salt.   I'd wake up early to make clean off my truck and slowly drive to work.  Sure I had $400 NIPSCO bills for 3-4 months, but we made it through ok.

All summer long, I hear everyone down here talking about how we need rain.  Dallas needs rain...wish it would rain...rain would be nice.  I have no idea what the hell these people want rain for.  It rained for two days and all the fucking streets are flooded.  Most folks can't drive when it's sunny and dry...there were 204 accidents in Dallas today...just Dallas, not counting the surrounding cities because of RAIN.  Power is out in Fort Worth because the ice is too heavy for the power lines.  Any time there is rain and ice, the power goes out.  It's never occured to the power companies to put up sturdy power lines. 

Driving on ice isn't like driving on snow.  I'm not talking about occassional patches of ice.  I'm talking about a rock-solid 2 inch sheet covering every piece of drivable roadway.  It sucks a lot of ass. 

You may be wondering why the salt doesn't melt the ice given that it's sunny and the ground is relatively warm.  God knows I was wondering when I had to drive to work in it last year.  Texas doesn't lay down salt.  The cities down here put down pretty, golden sand they sell at Toys R US for kids' sandboxes....it's good for sand blasting your paint job, but it doesn't do shit for the ice. 

I was also confused as to why every time I turned around, the cabinets were open.  It's so the water lines don't freeze.  They don't bury water lines down here more than a couple of feet.  The lines freeze in the winter...don't get me started on trying to get cold water in the summer.  

I'm sure that half the staff will call of on Monday and the rest will be 2-3 hours late.  I'm one of 3 people who's actuallyon time when the weather is bad.  Now I can't be on time any other day, but inclement weather makes me look good.

It was 75 degrees when I went to lunch on Friday.  By 5 oclock it was 40 degrees.  That's why I stay sick.  I'm all annoyed and aggravated.  And it's not just the weather.  But it's colder than a witch's titty so that's what I'm gonna focus on.

chocolate masochism

I'm a pain in the ass.  I've never denied it because, well, because I can't.  I also have a sprinkling of sweetness in me.  I'm like a store brand cookie with extraordinarily good chocolate chips.  I'll never be confused with a Chips Ahoy though.  I won't bet you bite a chip because my chips are scattered randomly. 

 

Sometimes someone will take a big bite knowing it will be full of chips and be confused when all they have is a mouthful of cookie crumbles.  But if all they ever wanted was chocolate, they wouldn't have reached for a cookie.

 

I know chocolate people.  I bet you know some, too.  So sweet all the time.  I don't know how they do it.  It's not in me to be sweet all the time.  I find it tiresome.  It takes effort to be good all the time.  Effort and I have never been friends.  Plus, on some level, I must enjoy the bitter taste of sadness.

 

At times, I sit in sadness; I marinate in the bitter.  Happiness never seems real or permanent.  Even when I'm happy, I'll take a taste of sad.  Today I announced to my coworker that I have a new cd.  He said, ""As long as it's not The Smiths.""  Technically, no.  It's Morrissey.