Snips and Snails and Paintball Tales

Ah, teenage boys. What weird creatures they are. Scary thing is, I feel like one myself sometimes. I guess that's to be expected since there are usually at least three of them at my house at any given moment. When I was a little girl, I once made a wish to be surrounded by boys for the rest of my life, but somehow this wasn't exactly what I meant.

I don't know which is worse; getting up at a ricockulously early hour to do the paintball team drop off, or riding home in the afternoon with a car full of sweaty, paint splattered boys. I was on paintball carpool duty yesterday, and since I'd already gotten away with having the Colonel doing the early morning drop off, it was my turn for pick-up. I actually quite enjoyed it.
I like hearing the conversations that 15 and 16 year old boys will have. I like hearing stories from "on the field." I particularly got a kick out of my sons friend who climbed into the front seat of my car and asked completely deadpan, "So Donna, can I buy you a drink?" Shit, I'm still laughing about that.
So anyway, after watching dozens of discarded yet still un-splattered paintballs being eaten by a gathering of crows, there was some argument in my mini-van about what paintballs are made of. I have decided to find the answer myself and end the war, right now.
Here it is.

The outer skin is made from gelatin, and the fill is made from Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) and colored crayons. Here's a really interesting video.

Other places you'll find PEG are:
Sex lube, laxatives, skin creams, toothpaste, cough syrup, Visine eye drops, foam rubber, Dr. Pepper and spandex.
PEG has been used to preserve objects which have been salvaged from underwater, as it replaces water in wooden objects to prevent them from shrinking when dried.
It has also been found to speed spinal cord recovery in guinea pigs, and is being tested for use in tattoo's.

All that and a paintball too. Who knew?