blue2going

So where was our famous lake air conditioning yesterday? It was 90 degrees in the country and 87 by the lake, and very humid in both places. What a huge refreshing difference! Ha ha.

I tied white plastic bags on the garden fence to scare the deer by flapping and crinkling in the wind. So far it's only made my (usually very quiet) dog bark every time we let her out. Bet my neighbors love the appearance of the flapping plastic bags too. But then my place has always been somewhat of an eyesore, along with the guy next door's place. I don't know what his excuse is but mine has been that I have no garage, attic or basement for storage. Lucky for us all that we're pretty spread out on this road and that country people generally have a live-and-let-live attitude! We all get along fine, even the two richy-rich families with fancy houses on the end of the road. Their portion of the road is blacktopped (probably they had to pay for that) while the rest of the road is dirt and gravel.

I've thought of taking a photo of this place and putting it on my Christmas cards! I just could not do it, for one thing, I don't want any visitors. People think they are being helpful with great ideas for fix-up and remodeling. I wouldn't mind as much if they were also donating THEIR money for it! Brainstorming ideas comes easy and cheap if you don't have to do the work or pay for them. I can keep most visitors away simply by mentioning that I have "pet" spiders loose in the house--it does the trick. Despite my occasional whining, I kinda like it up here just the way it is. I just finished moving a bunch of water around in the storage bottles using a funnel. I felt just like a chemist!

I have put a photo of my dog on my Christmas cards one year. It's in retaliation for the sappy-sweet little posed professional portraits of kids and family on Christmas cards! I think my family was rather appalled, it wasn't even a great shot, she looked like a devil dog. She had glowing red eyes, an elf hat and some tree garland around her neck. Ferrets would be great on a Christmas card, especially if they were playing with their fangs hanging out. I could have them playing with destroying Christmas decorations, maybe I'll do that this year.

I've always been interested in business, companies and brands. The first time I went to college I was a Business Major. Here is an interesting lineup for you:

Business Week's 100 Top International Brands (in approximate order)

Brand/Company/Location
1. Coca-Cola Coca-Cola U.S.
2. Microsoft Microsoft U.S.
3. IBM International Business Machines Corporation U.S.
4. GE GE U.S.
5. Nokia Nokia Finland
6. Intel Intel U.S.
7. Disney Walt Disney Company U.S.
8. Ford Ford U.S.
9. McDonald's McDonald's Corporation U.S.
10. Marlboro Altria Group U.S.
11. Mercedes-Benz DaimlerChrysler AG Germany
12. Citi Citigroup U.S.
13. Toyota Toyota Motor Corporation Japan
14. Hewlett-Packard Hewlett-Packard U.S.
15. Cisco Cisco U.S.
16. American Express American Express U.S.
17. Gillette Gillette U.S.
18. Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch U.S.
19. Sony Sony Japan
20. Honda Honda Japan
21. BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG Germany
22. Nescafé Nestlé Switzerland
23. Oracle Oracle U.S.
24. Budweiser Anheuser-Busch U.S.
25. Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley U.S.
26. Kodak Eastman Kodak Company U.S.
27. Nintendo Nintendo Co., Ltd. Japan
28. Pfizer Pfizer U.S.
29. JPMorgan JP Morgan Chase U.S.
30. Gap Gap U.S.
31. Dell Dell U.S.
32. UPS UPS U.S.
33. Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs U.S.
34. Nike Nike U.S.
35. Volkswagen Volkswagen Germany
36. HSBC HSBC Britain
37. Heinz H. J. Heinz Company U.S.
38. Louis Vuitton France
39. Google Google U.S.
40. Kellogg's Kellogg's U.S.
41. MTV Viacom U.S.
42. Canon Canon Japan
43. Samsung S. Korea
44. SAP SAP Aktiengesellschaft Germany
45. Novartis Novartis Switzerland
46. Pepsi Pepsi U.S.
47. Harley-Davidson Harley-Davidson U.S.
48. UBS UBS Switzerland
49. Xerox Xerox Corporation U.S.
50. Ikea Ikea Sweden
51. Pizza Hut YUM! Brands, Inc.
52. Apple Apple U.S.
53. Gucci Gucci Group N.V. Italy
54. KFC YUM! Brands, Inc. U.S.
55. Reuters Reuters Group PLC Britain
56. Accenture Accenture Ltd. U.S.
57. Kleenex Kimberly-Clark Corporation U.S.
58. L'Oreal L'Oréal SA France
59. Philips Philips Netherlands
60. Colgate Colgate-Palmolive Company U.S.
61. Wrigley's Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company U.S.
62. Yahoo! Yahoo! Inc. U.S.
63. eBay eBay Inc. U.S.
64. Avon Avon Products, Inc. U.S.
65. Chanel Chanel S.A. France
66. Nestlé Nestlé S.A. Switzerland
67. Kraft Kraft Foods Inc. U.S.
68. Duracell The Gillette Company U.S
69. Danone Groupe Danone France
70. Motorola Motorola, Inc. U.S.
71. Levi's Levi Srauss & Co. U.S.
72. Rolex Montres Rolex S.A. Switzerland
73. adidas adidas-Salomon AG Germany
74. Hertz Ford Motor Company U.S.
75. Panasonic Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd Japan
76. Hermes Hermes International France
77. BP BP p.l.c. Britain
78. Tiffany & Co. Tiffany & Co. U.S.
79. Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. U.S.
80. Porsche Dr. Ing. H.c. F. Porsche AG Germany
81. Zara Industria de Diseno Textil, S.A. Spain
82. Shell Royal Dutch Petroleum Company Brit./Neth.
83. Smirnoff Diageo plc Britain
84. Caterpillar Caterpillar Inc. U.S.
85. Moët & Chandon LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton France
86. Audi Volkswagen AG Germany
87. Hennessy LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton France
88. Hyundai Hyundai Corporation S. Korea
89. Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson U.S.
90. Heineken Heineken N.V. Netherlands
91. Prada I Pellettieri d'Italia S.p.A. Italy
92. Nivea Beiersdorf AG Germany
93. ING ING Groep N.V. Netherlands
94. Starbucks Starbucks Corporation U.S.
95. Nissan Nissan Motor Co., Litd. Japan
96. Armani Giorgio Armani S.p.A. Italy
97. Cartier Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA France
98. Bulgari Bulgari S.p.A. Italy
99. LG LG Electronoics Inc. S. Korea
100. Siemens Siemens Germany