Why don't my roses look like my neighbors?

I got an e-mail from someone recently saying they kept an eye on me through my blog which prompted me to think that maybe I should update it just a tiny bit more often. Japan is going to be on the side burners, but I may update it at some point.

The title of this post is a reference to a TV Ad for Time/Warner Cable. Apparently the evil overlords at Adelphia and Comcast were defeated recently by Time/Warner, and they now feel it necessary to tell us with commercials every 15 minutes. This particular quote comes from an ad where some stressed out people are worried that now that they have a new company they will no longer receive e-mail, etc. A nice, clean-cut Time/Warner guy assures them that they can answer all their questions. This of course leads to questions like: Why does my husband always disappear when it's time to do the dishes? And: Why don't my roses look like my neighbor's?

"That seems like a strange question to me." Tech Support said.

"Um. I don't really think so." I say.

"Well, why would he want that? What is he asking?" Tech Support said.

Growing confused and a little disbelieving I am having this conversation I say: "I think his neighbor's roses are nicer and he wonders what they are doing to get them that way."

"Oh." A pause. "You know what I thought he meant, right?"

And I didn't. But a moment later it dawned on me. He thought the guy was saying: Why don't my roses look like my neighbors? Without the apostrophe. He thought the man wanted his roses to look like his neighbor's human faces.

Sometimes Tech Support is on another planet I think, though we now laugh whenever that ad comes on (9 million times a day - I watch too much TV).

In other news my cucumber plant made 3 cucumbers before dying, my worm bin is going strong, one of my best friends arrived in Japan last night and is going to be there for a year teaching English and I already miss him, and I now work part-time at The Knitter's Studio.