Brandon Notices

What do you think when I show you this picture of a pair of raggedy, non-corn-fed puppet chickens?



If you thought of Foster Farms, then you would be correct. But isn't there something a little odd here? You saw a picture of two disgusting, inferior chickens, and you thought of Foster Farms? I'm sure that this isn't the image that Foster Farms wants to portray, so it's a little unfortunate that I think of Foster Farms when I see this chicken duo.

This black neighbor cat has repeatedly visited our back porch over the last week or so, and more recently, it's been sleeping on the porch swing. It's even pretty friendly and lets me sit next to it and pet it. This neighbor cat, which has big ears and I think is named Midnight, is making my own cat, Garth, paranoid. Garth is usually friendly around people he's familiar with, but he absolutely HATES to see strange cats near his house. He even hisses through the screen door. My cat really needs to learn some manners.

Oh, I just realized that I already wrote about this cat a month ago.

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

Notice that there's nothing along the lines of "nor someone's car parked in front of the mailboxes" in there, and that's the main reason why we haven't been getting mail recently.

Our neighbors have a very steep driveway, so their visiting company parks at the foot of the driveway, in front of the mailboxes. Lazy Mr. Mailman refuses to step out of his mail truck to deliver our mail, which is kinda sucky. He'll take the time the next day, however, to write "Couldn't deliver; car blocking mailboxes" on everyone's mail.

I've asked the USPS if there's something I can do, but I'm pretty sure they're only going to tell me that we're SOL. The police also say they can't do anything about the cars. I'm sure there's some law documented somewhere highlighting that you aren't supposed to park in front of mailboxes.

A few of the little neighbor kids these past few days have really gotten into playing Ding Dong Ditch. They've been playing it and off all day today, so I thought it would be fun to set up a camera so I could watch a live feed of the porch remotely.

In the feed, I saw Jesse run under the porch. Then I saw Davey run up the stairs with toddler Patrick shortly in tow. After Davey rang the door bell, I took a still from the feed. Davey stumbled quickly down the stairs and hid under the porch, but Patrick just stood on the porch, not knowing to hide. I watched as he stood there for what was probably about 20 seconds. Then I saw them all dash away together in the background. A minute later, I stepped outsie and told them that they would have to do a better job than that, because I could see everything they did. I told them every event that I could remember from the video, pointing out that Patrick stood on the stairs far too long. Jesse asked me how I knew all that, so I presented them a printed copy of the still I took, which you see to the right. They were surprised and thrilled to notice the webcam in my window.

A little while later, I set a single wrapped popcicle on the porch and then quickly went inside to watch as they all three walked up on the porch and grabbed the popcicle. I later learned that Jesse alone ate it, because his tongue was orange. After that, they rang the door bell, asking me for gumballs, but we got rid of those a long time ago. Patrick was upset about not having a popcicle, and I explained facetiously that they were all three meant to split the orange-flavored one, but I shortly after that chucked two more popcicles into the yard. Davey ate one, and I scolded Jesse for starting to eat a second one instead of giving it to Patrick.

A bunch of us are eating at Azteca. The waitress serving us was very strict in reminding us of the "one per table" clause of a coupon Mom wanted to use. However, she really didn't care to listen to my reasoning that our party is sitting at what is actually THREE tables, pushed together. Only when it comes to coupons does the definition of "table" change.

Tuna Noodle Gratin. It sounds really good, doesn't it? The picture on the box makes it look very appetizing, but when I went ahead and microwaved the meal, it ended up looking like slop. The box says that there is a "creamy sauce", but I would never have guessed from the picture that there would be so much of it! I wish there were more crunchy breadcrumbs, too, but they just kinda got buried under the sauce.

I know it's usually a given that the picture on the box will look better than the actual product, but come on, isn't this a bit of a stretch here? I'm not saying the food tasted bad—it was quite delicious, actually—but it just didn't look that good.

I'm still hungry. These things never fill me up.

This afternoon, Dad pointed out to me that a black cat was lying down on our back porch (and this is upstairs), nestled comfortably in the barbeque grill cover on the ground. I quietly unlatched the sliding door and approached the cat, who at first seemed a bit apprehensive, but continued to lie down. I should point out that this cat has been on our porch before. Last time, it meowed nonstop, and even after I had given it some kibble, it remained in the yard and loudly meowed for quite a while.

I sat on the porch swing and the cat rubbed against my legs. It was shortly after I had started petting the cat that Dad brought Garth to the screen door, which was shut; neither of us had any intention of opening the screen door. Garth stared out the window as the neighbor cat approached him. They looked at each other for a moment, then Garth scrunched up his face and let out a loud hiss. The neighbor cat backed up a bit, and Garth scrunched his face and hissed again. The neighbor cat then fled the porch, running down the stairs.

My cat is a jerk.

I am very excited for the new Super Smash Bros. Brawl game that is supposed to come out later this year. I've been checking out the latest updates about the game on the official website. In today's update, they provided some pictures of Pikachu, which happens to be the character I've been using since the original Smash Bros. game was released 8 years ago. I thought something was a little odd about the Pikachu in these pictures, though. I think I figured out what is wrong. Pikachu is naked.

I've always used Pikachu in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and I've always had him wearing the spiffy green hat. I guess it's because it looks whimsical. I think the hat is supposed to be a fedora (or maybe it's a homburg—I'm not really a hat expert, as I rarely wear them myself); Pikachu's other hat choices in Melee include a pointed blue party hat and a red cap that resembles Ash's old hat from the anime. My point here is that I suppose I'm not used to seeing Pikachu without a hat!

I'm pretty sure that I've read that Nintendo is going to include costume changes in the new game, so I'm hoping that it's a given that Pikachu will continue to have a variety of hats to choose from, especially the beloved green hat. Except for the occasional hat, costume changes so far through the Smash Bros. series have been limited to color changes. I wonder if Nintendo's planning on entire outfit changes. I'm sure there are some purists who would rather see Wario in his classic yellow-and-purple overall ensemble rather than the new biker outfit he'll be wearing (personally, I love his biker outfit); it would be neat to have the option to choose between the different clothes.