Try it with our new fattening celery

So we have this monthly department-wide meeting over lunch today at work, and the tradition is that the monthly birthday people supply the lunch for the group.  This works out well for me, since the December dinner is a big Christmas party meal thing, but I digress.  The February crew today did Italian, and in what I assume is an effort to be sensitive to folks of all diets and tastes, one of them made (presumably delicious) low carb spaghetti.

Let's run that back again.  Low. Carb. Spaghetti.

I know of two good reasons to eat spaghetti other than it being tasty.  The main one is carb loading.  Spaghetti, while delicious, is beneficial because it gives distance runners such as myself wonderful slow burning carbs that give extra energy for races and strenuous workouts.  It's the best thing ever.
The other one is that spaghetti is dirt cheap.  I imagine low carb spaghetti, whatever it is, is probably much pricier than run o' the mill awesome carb filled spaghetti.

So this abomination known as "low carb spaghetti" is like spaghetti with all the inherent benefits of spaghetti removed.

Fun, True Facts about the National Anthem of Norway

I have hated the Norwegian national anthem since before I started kindergarten for reasons we might touch upon another day.  It involves a Commodore 64 and one of my sisters.

1.  The name of the anthem is "Yes, We Love This Country."  Look, people of Norway, I'm happy that you love your country, but this reeks of desperation.  You might as well call, "It's a Dump, but it's OUR Dump."

2.  The first stanza tells us why the Norwegians love their country:  literally thousands of people live there, and it is above water.  "Come to Norway!  Not too crowded!  You probably won't drown!"

3.  The rest of the first verse tells us to think of our father and mother and the saga night that sends dreams to earth.  I know from my early education via Commodore 64 that Saga was a Norse Goddess, but that's really the only clue I have to decipher that part.

4.  The second verse details the great heroes of Norwegian history.  Harald uniting the country, Sverre speaking against Rome.  That sort of thing.  As far as I can tell, there have been no Norwegians of note since their king was excommunicated by the Pope a thousand years ago.  They should consider re-writing this verse so it includes A-Ha.

5.  The next two verses are about how Norway has defended itself from invaders using farmers with axes and their wives.  This leads me to believe that no foreign power really wanted Norway all that much.  They also proudly state that they burned their land if they were defeated.  Even Norwegians are ok with destroying Norway.

6.  There's a nifty verse about how much they like Sweden and Denmark.  Neither Sweden nor Denmark have a similar verse in their anthems about how much they like Norway.  This is telling.