I blame the crackheads

For the fact that I can’t find balloons on the hill. Admittedly, we don’t have a Target or a Fred Meyer (thanks to those bastards at Kroger who closed down the one I used to go to), but if I can get greeting cards, wrapping paper and other party supplies at my local QFC, Bartells or Rite-Aid, why can’t I get balloons? I blame the druggies. I know that they can be used as some sort of drug paraphernalia (random side note, who knew that’s how you spell paraphernalia?)… I watch Law and Order, I know! I can get the shiny mylar balloons, but that’s not what I needed for my Brownie meeting tonight. We were discussing rocketry and displaced air and all that jazz. We were in need of long skinny balloons and put them in a paper bag and attach it to a straw then run the string through the straw so the ‘rocket’ would propel forward. While on our field trip, Matty P and I found a fancy schmancy toy store on the ‘nicer’ side of the hill. Matty wasn’t actually even sure it was a toy store, it looked more like a day care center. We went in and they had these really cool rocket balloons, just what I was looking for. Matty may have pointed out that they would make noise, but I think I may have disregarded that. We blew them up and let them go around the room. They were so amazingly cool! The balloons would fly all over the room. We quickly quit the string and paper bag part, it was much cooler just to do it this way. The kids were totally enthralled. The down part, that little noise that Matty tried to tell me about… the damn things were LOUD. That was kind of annoying. I sent the balloons home with them, which I’m sure their parents appreciated.