Today we joined some friends at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. It's definitely an interesting crowd that you meet at a renaissance festival. It had been raining most of the day, so we also met quite a bit of mud. Why the the Ren. Fest.? Well the boys are all about knights and battles, they both recently filled up their good behavior charts so this made a good reward, and we were celebrating the rite of passage of Elliot starting kindergarten next Wednesday. The jousting was the most anticipated attraction. The kids ended up being most interested in the various games and the cheap plastic golden coins that you got as a reward for the games you paid to play.

Here is a bit of jousting footage:

I love salsa...especially "Jack's Special". From an article of the same title by Karen Collins on MSNBC.com:

Salsa has become a more popular condiment than ketchup, according to some sales reports. Most say this points to Americans' growing love of hot and spicy foods and interest in ethnic foods. Salsa can also help us meet the goal of working more fruits and vegetables into a healthful and delicious diet.

Salsa actually means sauce, and traditionally has referred to a very specific combination of tomatoes, onions, cilantro and spice from chili peppers...

A tablespoon of a condiment, whether ketchup or salsa, cannot supply a very large amount of nutrients, no matter what the ingredients. But in larger portions, the various vegetables and fruits in salsa can supply a wide range of antioxidant vitamins, natural phytochemicals (such as lycopene in tomatoes), and the mineral potassium that is in such short supply in our diets.

Via the July 21 issue of The Week, an article in The Washington Post by Stephanie McCrummen reports that:

Spending on luxury bathrooms -- those costing at least $8,000 -- will be $22 billion this year, compared with $7.3 billion in 2003, according to the Market Forecast Report, published by the trade magazine Kitchen and Bath Business.

That is 10 times what the U.S. government will spend on AIDS research this year. It is six times the annual budget of Kenya.