Happy Friday! Tonight is Rapid Fire (FiiiiiiRE!) at Alex's and Mikey's birthday celebration. Come on down and celebrate with us.

The Tid Bits:

1) Some folks do binge drinking or scarf down quarts of Tom & Jerry's ice cream, not me. Me, I have pea binges and want to run around singing "Pease porridge...". Every so often I have a day of Pea-a-palooza. I eat peas at every meal. Today is one of those days. I had leftover pea and pancetta risotto for breakfast (heavy on the peas), I had Peas & Potatoes (aloo muttar?) from India Sweet & Spices for lunch, and I have a bag of Trader Joe's Petite Peas in the freezer, so what should I make pea-ful for dinner?

2) Cell / mobile phones have been in the news this last week after a study conducted by insurance companies concluded that hands free cell phone talking is just as distracting and dangerous to driving as holding the cell up to your ear.

From the LA Times article:

A study of cellphone use by motorists suggests that they aren't any better off using a headset in the car than holding the phone to their ear: They're still four times more likely to end up in a crash and injured than if they weren't using the phone.

The survey, released Monday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said that using mobile phones while driving was just as dangerous whether they're chatting through a headset or holding on to the handset.

The statistical analysis, which compared phone records with the times of accidents, indicated that the risk was just as great across all age groups and in both sexes.

It's not just keying in phone numbers or calling up messages but the conversation itself that can be the most distracting, said Anne T. McCartt, the insurance institute's research executive overseeing the study.

Now what I would like to see a study on is: How does talking on one's cell with an ear bud or bluetooth wireless ear bud or a hands free set differ from talking to a passenger in the car? Does the brain differentiate tasks with a person present as opposed to a person on the other end of the phone call? Or is it just as distracting and dangerous to talk to a passenger as to have a cell conversation with a headset?

What do you think? When I drive I find that I can talk to a passenger and look forward to the road just fine and I can use my ear bud and look forward just fine, but if I have my cell to my ear then I can't see out of the side that the phone is on and I am distracted. And if Scruffy is in the car, all beats are off.

3) My roommate has been gone for a week and the house has gone to the birds. It is dangerous to live alone and requires discipline. I took out the vacuum on Monday to clean the carpets, have not done so, and the vaccuum is plugged in and in the middle of the living room walkway. I keep telling myself I will vacuum when it cools down. ;o)