You have no idea how excited Cassie and I are for today’s HumpDay! It’s Leap-year Day, or just Leap Day, if you prefer. I have some fun and interesting facts for you regarding Leap-year Day. These are found in an article by Allison Baker and Jennifer Pritchard in the Life & Style section of Winnipeg Free Press. I hope you enjoy!!
- “Julius Caesar is said to be the “father of leap year.” Ancient Egyptians created the basis for the modern-day calendar. But by Julius Caesar’s time, it had slipped out of sync with Earth’s seasons. The 355-day Roman calendar called for an extra 22- or 23-day month every two years to keep the seasons on track. So he decided to create a 365-day calendar, but the actual calculations were made by Caesar’s astronomer, Sosigenes. Sosigenes added one extra day to every fourth February. Why February? It was the last month of the year in Roman times.”
- “Anthony, Texas, is the self-proclaimed Leap Year Capital of the World. In 1988, the chamber of commerce in the little town on the border between New Mexico and Texas voted to sponsor the Worldwide Leap Year Festival and Worldwide Leap Year Birthday Club. Partiers celebrate with a parade, hot-air-balloon rides, a carnival and a gathering of people born on Feb. 29. To learn more about the festival go to www.leapyearcapital.com.” Okay, so I went to the URL for the Leap Year Capital of the World and they have a week-long agenda filled with activities to celebrate this once-every-four-years event. Part of the celebration includes a reenactment of the first ever Leap Year Capital Birthday Celebration, which was held in 1988. So, this is what I’m picturing…as with any reenactment, I assume people will be clothed in dress of that period. Hmmm…do you see why this is funny? I’m picturing a bunch of Leap-Year celebrants with 80′s rocker hair sprayed up and ratted, tight-rolled jeans and leg warmers (because it is winter, after all), and neon sunglasses carrying big boom boxes on their shoulders. But, I could be wrong…
-”Greek superstition claims that bad luck will come to couples that marry during a leap year. Allegedly one in five engaged couples in Greece will avoid planning their wedding during a leap year.”
- “Leap day is also when women were once officially allowed to step outside of tradition and propose to their beaus. According to legend, St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick in fifth-century Ireland about women having to wait for so long for a man to propose. St. Patrick’s solution was to allow women one chance that only came around every four years to take the initiative. In 1288 Scotland supposedly made the tradition a law and any man who declined a proposal in a leap year had to pay a fine ranging from a kiss to payment for a silk dress or a pair of gloves. Today North Americans call this tradition Sadie Hawkins Day, invented by Al Capp in his cartoon strip Li’l Abner, but there is debate over whether it’s Feb. 29 or Nov. 15 — the date the cartoon was first published.” For the record, if I lived in 1288 and couldn’t get my beau to pop the question, I’d be asking every man I could just so I could get turned down and and pick up a few new things. I mean, silk back in 1288…not practical, but a girl still has to feel pretty.
- “A leap year is a year in the Gregorian calendar with one extra day added to the end of February, making the month 29 days long. The day was established to keep the seasons and the calendar in sync. A year is measured by the amount of time it takes the sun to return to the spot directly above the Earth’s equator.
Although it actually takes 365.2422 days, we round it to 365. But this results in an error of 0.2422 days, or almost six hours, per year. After 100 years this calendar would be more than 24 days ahead of the seasons, but leap day makes up for the inaccuracy. Years that end in 00 would only be a leap year if they are divisible by 400. So 1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 was.” …okay, that I didn’t know. The year 1900 was not a leap year? Glad I wasn’t asked that on Jeopardy! I would have lost…
-”Someone born on leap day may be called a leapling. They usually celebrate their birthdays on Feb. 28 or March 1 in common years.” …that kinda sounds like a baby bird or something. Can you imagine some big beefy guy whose birthday is today and you walking up to him and saying, “Happy Birthday, Leapling.” Haha…that would be funny.
There are a lot of names listed in the article mentioned herein of people who were born on Leap Year Day. Click here if you want to read them all, but this one cracked me up. Hand to God, this is this dudes name, and he is famous for being born on Leap Year Day because he has the longest name and it uses every letter in the alphabet. The name is: Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenberdorft, Sr! What makes it better is he’s a Senior, which means he had the guts to give this name to his son.Hilarious. I seriously love this name for several reasons. First, because he gave it to his son. Second, I love that whomever named him felt it just wasn’t complete with out Uncas, Xerxes and my all-time favorite, Yancy. Yancy?! I just imagine little Adolph playing in the school yard with his little friends and his mother, annoyed because he is late for dinner, calls him by his full, given name (as mothers often do when they need to be stern with their children). After a minute or two, she finally gets to Yancy and I just see all the boys calling after him, “Yancy! Oh, Yancy, you’re mommy’s calling you!!” And little Adolph, with his head hanging and his hands in his pockets, kicks the dirt and says, “Aw, c’mon guys. Quit it, will ya?” And finally, you’ve just gotta love the last name. I mean, I took four semesters of German and I still need a serious chest cold to make it through all those syllables (I’m German, so I can say that!).
If you use an unmanaged Ethernet Switch in your panel then I want to share with you the benefits of bringing it to the outside of your panel through our E5 GracePort. Here’s a quick video from a customer who uses our E5.
As you can tell from this video, one of the main benefits is bringing the diagnostic capabilities of the Ethernet Switch to the outside of the panel. This design change makes your worker safer and more productive. Second, when you pair this product with the Inside-Outlet, you can also test and rest your GFCIs safely from outside the panel. As with any GracePort, we can customize this to meet your precise programming needs and we can even add your company logo! Click here to download the datasheet for the E5 Ethernet Switch. Then, give Inside Sales a call at 800-280-9517 and have them work up a part number for you.
Happy Friday everyone!! (Okay, confession time. It’s not Friday…well, not for me. It’s actually Thursday morning. I have to write tomorrow’s HumpDay post today because I am traveling up north for a work thing. And wouldn’t you know it, for the first time this year, we are having a ‘Snow Emergency’ today and tomorrow …uh, well, that would be yesterday and today for you.) I hope you all had an awesome week and are excited about your weekend. I know I am!!
Okay, for your funny this Happy Friday I am going with an old standby – Sniglets!! I think we should have an extra promotion this week. Okay, here’s the deal: The five people who use the most sniglets in a sentence and make us laugh the hardest will win a $5 gift card to Starbucks! Click here to enter your sentence! Winners will be voted on by the Grace Staff!! Good luck!
Generica (je-ne-r-kuh) n. Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where you are: fast food joints, malls, Walmart, etc. See also Generada – Features of the Canadian landscape there are exactly the same no matter where you are.
Xerox Subsidy (zere – ocks sub-suh-dee) np. Euphemism for sneaking free photocopies at the workplace.
Sgum (sgum) n. that disgusting white, foamy residue which forms in the corner of your mouth when chewing gum is well past its flavor threshold.
Kidoozled (ki-doo-zuld) adj. Used to describe parents who erroneously assume that other people find the pranks of their offspring as charming as they do.
Smellucination (smel-loo-suh-ney-shuhn) n. Thinking you smell something you really don’t.
Wheelberg (wheel-burg) n. A large lump of snow and ice that builds up behind a car wheel when it is driven through snow.
Napture (nap-ture) n. A refreshing, fantastic nap. The best sleep ever.
Bi-sacksual (bye-sack-shu-ul) adj. Able to accept either a paper or plastic sack for groceries at the checkout without any sense of guilt.
Embarrassmentosis (em-bae-ris-men-toe-sis) n. The fear of being embarrassed.
Googleganger: A person with your name who shows up when you google yourself.
Pupkus (pup-kus) n. The moist residue left on a window after a dog presses its nose to it.
Peppier (pep-yay) n. The waiter at a fancy restaurant whose sole purpose seems to be walking around asking diners if they want fresh ground pepper.
Karmageddon n. It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.
Typo-blindness (ty-po blind-ness) n. The inability to recognize a typo in your email until after you’ve pushed the “send” buton. Also applies to blog posts. And me. This really applies to me. ( haha, did you get my joke?)
Happy HumpDay to you! This week we thought we would do something a little different. It’s been a long while since we did a Get To Know You survey, so I thought we would do one this week! But, before we get to that, I have some funny stories for you first! I hope you enjoy them!
- A woman was reporting her car as stolen and mentioned there was a car phone in it. The cop taking the report called the phone and told the guy who answered that he had read the ad in the paper and wanted to buy the car. They arranged to meet and the thief was arrested.
- Employed by the human-development center of a corporation in the Midwest, my friend trains employees in proper dress codes and etiquette. One day as she was stepping onto the elevator, a man casually dressed in just jeans and a golf shirt got on with her. Thinking of her responsibilities, she scolded, “Dressed a little casually today, aren’t we?” The man replied, “That’s one of the perks of owning the company.” #DOH!
- A 45-year-old Amy Brasher was arrested in San Antonio, Texas, after a mechanic reported to police that 18 packages of marijuana were packed in the engine compartment of the car she brought in for an oil change. According to police, Brasher later said she didn’t realize the mechanic would have to raise the hood to change the oil. (I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, stupid should hurt.)
- We’ve shared this one on the past, but it soooo is worth re-posting: When a man attempted to siphon gas from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find an ill man curled up next to the motor home trying to steal gas and plugged his hose into the motor home’s sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges saying it was the best laugh he’d ever had.
- David Posman, 33, was arrested recently in Providence, Rhode Island, after allegedly knocking out an armored car driver and stealing the closest four bags of money. It turned out they each contained $800 in pennies, weighing about 30 pounds each, and slowed him to a stagger during his getaway so that police officers easily jumped him from behind.
- Okay, I don’t know if this one is true or not, but if it is…wow!: Californian Bill Helko was thrilled when he had the winning numbers in the local lottery, the first prize being $412,000. He straight away went and ordered a Porsche, booked a family holiday in Hawaii and had a champagne dinner with his wife and friends at an expensive Hollywood restaurant. When he went to pick up the winnings he found that 9,097 others had also won first prize and his share of the winnings was about $45. (Can you return a Porsche?)
- R.C. Gaitlin, 21, walked up to two patrol officers who were showing their squad car computer equipment to children in a Detroit neighborhood. When he asked how the system worked, the officers asked to use his I.D. for an example. Gaitlin gave them his driver’s license, they entered it into the computer and moments later they arrested Gaitlin because info on the screen showed he was wanted for a two-year-old armed robbery in St. Louis. If that’s true, that is hilarious!
Happy Friday everyone! This week seems to have gone fast for me. How about for you? I hope you all had a wonderful week and are looking forward to a great weekend! I have a few funnies for you today. Let me know which one is your favorite!
We are opening up the March Pizza Party list, so if you want to win a pizza party for you and up to 25 people in your company or department, sign up!! Cassie will be calling people next week to get them scheduled! Have a great Friday and weekend. We’ll catch ya on the flip side! In the meantime, here’s your funny for this Friday!
First, let’s start with this funny video about a frog with an axe to grind! I’m sure you will agree…this guy totally deserves what he gets for messing with that frog like he did! LOL x 2!! Frog Gets Even
Now, for some funny sayings:
Google: If you can’t find it in 3 minutes or less it doesn’t exist.
I may not know Karate, but I know a baseball bat!
The Mind of a Teenager: When I say, “I cleaned my room,” I usually mean I made a path from my door to my bed.
I can’t undo mistakes. All I can do is make more mistakes and hope the original one gets diluted.
Depression: When you feel the need to knock the stupid out of someone but you know the jail time isn’t worth it.
Dear Sleep, I know we had problems when I was younger, but I love you now.
People say love is the best feeling, but I think finding a toilet when the situation is “urgent” is better.
When I die I’d like someone to keep updating my Facebook status just to freak people out.
Fish have a 30-second memory. So, they must spend their life thinking: “Shoot! I’m drowning! Wait, it’s okay, I’m a fish. Shoot! I’m drowning! Wait, it’s okay, I’m a fish!”
If I found out I only had one week to live and could go anywhere in the world, I think I would go to the hospital because that sounds serious.
Oh, I’m sorry…did the middle of my sentence interrupt the beginning of yours?
If people winked in real life as much as they do in texts this world would be a pretty creepy place.
I decided to go for a run today. Got to the end of my driveway and decided I wanted cinnamon rolls. Walked back. Best. Idea. Ever.
The funny thing about Facebook is you can talk about one person and it makes 20 others think it’s about them.
I’ll call it a “smart” phone the day I yell, “Where’s my freaking phone?!” and it answers, “I’m here! Under your jacket!”
If you are grouchy, irritable or just plain mean there will be a $10 charge for putting up with you.
Hello, HumpDay-ers!! Hopefully you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day! I just have to say that last week’s giveaway was probably my all-time favorite! I wish I could have given a Valentine’s package to everyone. For those who wondered, the giveaway was a 2-day special from Shari’s Berries. Day one consisted of a dozen red roses being delivered followed by a dozen jumbo chocolate-dipped strawberries on day two. From what I heard from the three people who won, things went off without a hitch. Yay!! I’m so glad!
Well, this past weekend I watched the Grammy’s mostly to see Adele’s triumphant return, but partly to see how they handled the whole Whitney Houston death (and was I glad I tuned in! Jennifer Hudson’s performance of “I Will Always Love You” was pretty spectacular!).
For the record, I’m the sort of person who has a love-hate relationship with celebrities. I like who I like (usually because they have maintained a level head and are still grounded amid the chaos of being well-known and over-paid) and I don’t like who I don’t like (probably because they are talentless and arrogant…you know, like Kayne West, Paris Hilton, all of the Jersey Shore and the Kardashians, and whomever else E!, Bravo or TLC round up to do a reality series). But regardless, celebrities – those with or without talent – are probably my favorite to poke fun at. So, let the poking begin…
In a slideshow found on The Daily Meal titled Celebrities’ Backstage Food Demands, we learn about what the industry calls a rider. According to Wikipedia, “a rider is a set of requests or demands that a performer will set as criteria for performance.” As I’m sure you can guess, some of these are pretty fantastic (and by “fantastic” I mean fantastically frustrating and annoying.) For example:
- Selena Gomez requests Turkey sandwiches, but NO WONDER BREAD. (See, I’m the kinda girl who would throw one Wonder Bread sandwich in the mix just see if she notices…)
- Michael Buble wants one bottle of premium single malt scotch and a local team hockey puck (uh, the puck would be from the pee-wee team…)
- Adele requires individually wrapped, freshly made sandwiches, which should not include chili, vinegar, tomatoes, or citrus
- Katy Perry needs a water cooler dispenser with SIGG bottles for each crew member (okay, that’s nice…she’s thinking of her crew) and freeze-dried strawberries.
- Jerry Springer requests lox and bagels with cream cheese and a cafe mocha from Starbucks. Oh, and all this stage smoke (you know, the mood-setting smoke they use) must be pina-colada scented. I hate it when my smoke doesn’t smell like the islands…
- Tenacious D (whoever that is) requires a bottle of brown mustard “(must be VERY tasty and delicious)”…wow. Isn’t taste pretty subjective? I mean, what if I think one brown mustard is awesome and he thinks it’s gross?
- Jennifer Lopez needs apple pie a la mode in her dressing room. Her dressing room must be completely white, full of candles and flowers, and have a “large comfortable chair for hair and makeup.” (I didn’t know you spelled ‘high maintenance’ with JLO…)
So, the first time I learned about these riders was a couple of years ago while watching Celebrity Apprentice. One of the funniest TV clips I’ve ever seen is of Country music star Trace Adkins taking care of the Backstreet Boys (BSB). Here’s how it pretty much went down: Big ‘ol boot-wearin’, honky tonk Trace is having a sit-down with the preppy pretty-boys with their moussed hair and manicured nails. Trace is saying (pretty much) hey, so this event is for charity, so will you agree to go without some of these items? The BSB reply with blank stares then they ask for wheat grass juice. Trace has no idea what it is and is disgusted to learn it is, quite literally, the juice from (yep you guessed it) wheat grass. Ew.
The next scene is what makes this so darn funny. Here is the clip from YouTube. I know some of you work at companies that block YouTube, so for that I am sorry. Forward this to your home computer and watch it there…it will soooooo be worth it. I mean, there is nothing funnier than a horse-ridin’, lasso-weldin’, manly-man dealing with a bunch of prissy, ‘you-now-know-why-they-put-the-boy-in-Backstreet-Boys’ kind of guys. Hil – FREAKING – larious!!
Recently, I was made aware of a cool site called Arc Flash Forum. It is a global community for arc flash and electrical safety, so I encourage you all to check it out. While there, I read a pretty cool article titled “The History of Arc Flash and Electrical Safety” by Jim Philips. This article was originally published in Electrical Contractor in May of 2009 (click here for a link to the EC article). Here’s part of the article for your reading pleasure:
It seems like the more you attempt to learn about arc flash and electrical safety, the more confusing it becomes. A mixture of -letters such as OSHA, NFPA 70E, NEC, IEEE 1584, ASTM F1506 seem to be the secret language used by the electrical safety industry. Who created this alphabet soup of standards, and how did we get here?
Parts reprinted from Arc Flash Forum: Electrical safety practices, codes and standards were not created overnight. In fact, they have evolved over a very long period of time and continue to change. As confusing as it may appear, most people just want to know two main things:
- Which standard applies to me?
- What am I supposed to do to be in compliance?
Answering these two questions is not as easy at it sounds. Because many of the standards are intertwined, the requirements of one standard often rely on information found in another. Just sifting through it all can be quite daunting. To get a better understanding of each standard and its requirements, I thought it would be best to start at the beginning.
1882—Edison and Pearl Street
…with the flip of a switch at 3 p.m. on Sept. 4, 1882, Thomas Edison’s Pearl Street generating station ushered in the age of commercial electrical power systems. Illuminating more than 50 incandescent lamps. This was a historic moment that changed the world forever. Edison’s generator, or dynamo as it was called at the time, was the largest in its day, producing an astounding 100 kilowatts (kW) of power, which would be enough to power around 1,200 lamps. Pearl Street generated direct current (DC) electricity. Just a few years later…[click here to read more]
ou have no idea how excited Cassie and I are for today’s HumpDay! It’s Leap-year Day, or just Leap Day, if you prefer. I have some fun and interesting facts for you regarding Leap-year Day. These are found in an article by Allison Baker and Jennifer Pritchard in the Life & Style section of Winnipeg Free Press. I hope you enjoy!! 
sponsor the Worldwide Leap Year Festival and Worldwide Leap Year Birthday Club. Partiers celebrate with a parade, hot-air-balloon rides, a carnival and a gathering of people born on Feb. 29. To learn more about the festival go to www.leapyearcapital.com.” Okay, so I went to the URL for the Leap Year Capital of the World and they have a week-long agenda filled with activities to celebrate this once-every-four-years event. Part of the celebration includes a reenactment of the first ever Leap Year Capital Birthday Celebration, which was held in 1988. So, this is what I’m picturing…as with any reenactment, I assume people will be clothed in dress of that period. Hmmm…do you see why this is funny? I’m picturing a bunch of Leap-Year celebrants with 80′s rocker hair sprayed up and ratted, tight-rolled jeans and leg warmers (because it is winter, after all), and neon sunglasses carrying big boom boxes on their shoulders. But, I could be wrong…
There are a lot of names listed in the article mentioned herein of people who were born on Leap Year Day. Click here if you want to read them all, but this one cracked me up. Hand to God, this is this dudes name, and he is famous for being born on Leap Year Day because he has the longest name and it uses every letter in the alphabet. The name is: Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenberdorft, Sr! What makes it better is he’s a Senior, which means he had the guts to give this name to his son. Hilarious. I seriously love this name for several reasons. First, because he gave it to his son. Second, I love that whomever named him felt it just wasn’t complete with out Uncas, Xerxes and my all-time favorite, Yancy. Yancy?! I just imagine little Adolph playing in the school yard with his little friends and his mother, annoyed because he is late for dinner, calls him by his full, given name (as mothers often do when they need to be stern with their children). After a minute or two, she finally gets to Yancy and I just see all the boys calling after him, “Yancy! Oh, Yancy, you’re mommy’s calling you!!” And little Adolph, with his head hanging and his hands in his pockets, kicks the dirt and says, “Aw, c’mon guys. Quit it, will ya?” And finally, you’ve just gotta love the last name. I mean, I took four semesters of German and I still need a serious chest cold to make it through all those syllables (I’m German, so I can say that!). 
Peppier (pep-yay) n. The waiter at a fancy restaurant whose sole purpose seems to be walking around asking diners if they want fresh ground pepper.
In the meantime, here’s your funny for this Friday!
who wondered, the giveaway was a 2-day special from Shari’s Berries. Day one consisted of a dozen red roses being delivered followed by a dozen jumbo chocolate-dipped strawberries on day two. From what I heard from the three people who won, things went off without a hitch. Yay!! I’m so glad! 