Pool Noodles the Size of... Actual Noodles 🤣

A few months ago someone left a pair of pool noodles in our HOA's swimming pool. Y'know, pool noodles, those tube-shaped foam floats that are 4-5 feet long and a few inches in diameter. I don't know about others using the pool, but Hawk and I have certainly enjoyed grabbing a noodle to float around after exercising in the water during our many afternoons in the pool this summer.

The floats are wearing out, though. One noodle has broken into two pieces, and with both of them the closed cell foam is starting to degrade so that they don't float as well anymore. We figured we'd do a solid for the community and buy a few new noodles ourselves to leave out for everyone's enjoyment.

That brings me to the second half of the title of this post. There have been lots of funny pictures/stories on social media lately of people being scammed by buying miniature versions of things online. Like, a woman buys a skirt, cheap, and what arrives barely fits on her cat. Or buys a desk, cheap, and what arrives is a dollhouse-sized desk only a few inches across.

"Always check the size first," I chuckle to myself every time, "And don't believe a price that's too good to be true."

Now with that context I'll bet you can guess what happened next...



Yup, Hawk ordered a set of pool noodles at a fantastic price. It was, like, $6 for a set of 6. I thought they'd cost about $5 apiece. What a bargain! And what arrived were... pool noodles that are only 1 foot long instead of the 4-5 foot size we'd expected. These pool noodles are the length of... actual noodles! I've bought boxes of lasagna noodles bigger than this. 🤣

The good news is that these should be easy to return, since we bought them on Amazon. I still wonder, though... why does this product even exist? I can't think of why anyone would want pool noodles— and they are specifically labeled as pool noodles— this small. They're not useful for anything. I wonder if they're sold primarily to scam un-careful shoppers? Though that doesn't make much sense as long as returns are cheap and easy for the buyer.

Update: It turns out the noodles are NOT returnable. THAT is how this scammer makes money!

Piñaq Passion Fruit Liquor

When I was shopping at Costco two weeks ago I did a quick cruise of the booze aisle. Mostly I was walking down the hard liquor aisle to look at beer after turning the corner and come back up the beer aisle, but then at the bottom of the liquor aisle my eye was drawn to a colorful, bespoke bottle. Piñaq liquor.



Piñaq's label advertises that it's from Holland and is made with French cognac, passion fruit, and vodka. Oddly there's no mention of pineapple— odd since the bottle is very clearly shaped like a pineapple and the name is highly suggestive of pineapple (at least in Spanish, where piña is literally pineapple).

It wasn't until yesterday, on July 4th, when I finally opened the bottle. We had friends over and spent the afternoon at the pool. I cracked open the bottle for an apéritif as we dried off back at the house and discussed dinner plans.



Another nifty thing about this fancy bottle is that the bespoke top doubles as a stand. The cap with the pineapple leaves screws off the top and screws on to threads at the base of the bottle. It then turns the bottle into a nice display piece. (It's also easy to put the cap back on top to close up the bottle when you're done display it.)



As the liquor is a pre-mixed cocktail, and a fairly strong one at 17% ABV, I poured two shots over over a handful of ice in each glass. I drank one while our two adult guests split the other. Earlier in the afternoon we had discussed how we're all becoming alcohol lightweights as we get older. 🤣 ...Though the point of a liquor like this is to enjoy the flavor, not get soused.

The color of the liquor, as you can see in the photo above, is bright yellow. It looks artificial and is a bit of a turn-off, though it is at least somewhat the color of passion fruit juice. As for the flavor? It's pretty darn good. It's a sweet liqueur, sweet in a fruity way. The passion fruit flavor is good without being overpowering. Though to stretch out the enjoyment of the drink— without getting soused by filling the glass with liquor— one of my friends suggested filling the glass with a mixer like club soda or even Sprite. I tried another glass after dinner mixed with Sprite, and it was surprisingly good.

Would I buy it again? I'm not sure. I do enjoy the taste, but the price— even at Costco pricing— strikes me as a bit pricey for a pre-mixed cocktail drink. Overall I think I prefer Don Q passion fruit rum, which I bought home (along with 7 other bottles) from Puerto Rico 8 years ago. That was less than half the price... though that was 8 years ago... and I haven't seen Don Q passion fruit rum sold anywhere in the Western US. So maybe I will buy more of this Holland liqueur.