Go-Girl! Women Pee Standing Up!

So here's something you just don't see everyday -- a silicone device that allows women to pee standing up.

It's called GoGirl and it happens to be produced, marketed and sold right here in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

I just can't help but blog about the GoGirl. That's because I already blogged about the subject over a year ago. Back then my post was about a device called P-Mate. It also was a "female urinary device" that would allow women to pee standing up. It, too, was from right here in the Twin Cities.

This new device, the GoGirl, differs from the P-Mate in that it is made of silicone instead of cardboard. The GoGirl is reusable whereas the P-Mate was more of a one-time-use sort of thing.

Apparently the GoGirl is going great guns, selling all sorts of inventory. Well, good for them.

I, however, have a different question: What is it about the Twin Cities that has produced two companies selling basically the same product -- and a strange one at that?

Plantation Homes in St. Francisville, Louisiana

GoNomad recently published a story I wrote about a touring plantation homes in Louisiana.

I stayed in a small town called St. Francisville. It was a quiet place dripping in Spanish moss and oozing in Southern charm.

John James Audubon, the famous bird watcher, spent a part of his life living in this neck of the woods. And befitting his legacy (maybe?), I encountered a turkey there!

If you're interested in the story, you can read it here:

St. Francisville, Louisiana: Plantation Homes, Spanish Moss and Southern Hospitality

If you'd like to read some of my blog entries from this trip, you can do that here:

Louisiana Blog Entires

Beauty Queens and Butter

One of my favorite parts of the Minnesota State Fair is stopping into the dairy building to see the butter heads.

Every year, about a dozen young ladies compete for the title of Princess Kay of the Milky Way.

The Minnesota Dairy Association crowns a winner at the start of the fair and for the next year, she acts a representative of the state's dairy industry.

All of the candidates get their likeness carved out of a block of butter. The butter heads are life size and each girl gets to take hers home and keep it!

Hotdish on a Stick @ MN State Fair

If you're from the Upper Midwest, you know what a hotdish is.

If you're not, then let me fill you in -- a hotdish is a casserole. Minnesotans love their hotdish. There's no better type of comfort food when the temperature hits negative numbers.

However, the hotdish on a stick at the Minnesota State Fair may be taking the hotdish love a bit too far.

This year, hubby and I decided to give it a go, and for all years yet to come, I think we will both pass on the hotdish on a stick.

Here's how it was made: meatball, tatter tot, meatball, tatter tot, meatball, tatter tot, meatball were stacked on a stick. Then the whole thing was dipped in a cornmeal batter. Then it was deep fried. And then it was served with a small side of cream of mushroom soup for dipping.

Anything On A Stick @ MN State Fair

It's time for the Minnesota State Fair!

If you live in the Twin Cities, you just can't escape the state fair. It's held in St. Paul and for two weeks it messes with traffic all throughout town.

Plus, every TV and radio station in town ditches its regular digs to broadcast live from the fair.

Rumor has it the Minnesota State Fair is the second-largest in the country -- after Texas.

The best thing about the Minnesota State Fair (do I have to pick one?) is that nearly all the food is served on a stick.

There is the pork chop on a stick, which is always a fine choice.

And this year there was something new -- bacon on a stick. The bacon slice was super thick so that it could fit on a stick. It looked like a heart attack and so we passed, but plenty of others were trying it out.

The best part about the bacon on a stick booth was a sign that was tacked up on the side. It read:

"Bacon is sex in a skillet. It's the ultimate aphrodisiac for all living things -- except pigs, of course."

High School Students & Summer Study Abroad

Last week I interviewed some high school kids from the Twin Cities who spent part of their summer doing a science experiment in Costa Rica.

They were there studying leaf-cutter ants. But they also got a hands-on experience when it came to encountering a developing nation. They spent 10 days in a rural environment where roads were dirt, phones were scarce and Internet was nonexistent. Yet they would all go back and do it all over again.

In preparing for the article, I spoke with their chaperon and program administrator, who also happens to be a guidance counselor at their school.

She said today's kids can't wait until they are juniors in college before they have a study abroad experience. Colleges and universities are looking for incoming students who are already able to think beyond their communities.

As to why parents of high school students should look into abroad experiences for their kids, the counselor said: "Globalization is happening everywhere and now these kids are a part of it."

If you'd like to read the final article, here it is:

Travels Abroad Expand Horizons

Dragon House -- Americans in Vietnam

I go back and forth between whether I'm a fiction or a nonfiction reader. Currently, it seems, I'm all about the fiction. Maybe that's because it's summer and I'm looking to lose myself in a story.

This past month I read an advance copy of a book called Dragon House.

It's released this month (September) but I've had a copy for several weeks now. I got it from the author, John Shors, who I met via email back in June. I read another one of his novels, Beside a Burning Sea, which has a haiku-theme, and reviewed it for my haiku blog. Then I sent him an email requesting a haiku interview.

He agreed and you can read the result at Haiku By Two.

But the interviewed opened a line of communication and as it turns out, we're both travelers. He told me about his newest book, Dragon House, which is set in Vietnam, after finding out I had traveled there, too. Before you know it, he was sending me an advance copy.

I liked the book and was able to picture the Saigon setting so clearly. The basic plot is that two Americans go to Saigon to open a home for Vietnamese street children.

There are some twists, of course. What would a novel be without some complications along the way? And a love story, too, because everyone likes a little romance.

What I found most interesting about the book was the way in which the author was able to turn his travel experiences into a novel. At the end, in the acknowledgements, he talks about a street child he met on one of his travels who inspired one of the characters in the book.

I, too, have a pocket full of stories about street kids I've encountered in my global wanderings.

It all got me thinking about how writers mine their own experiences to craft other tales -- and about how I might do the same...