Toys that make you laugh

I don't often go out with my dog. I should more often. It brings much adventure and laughter. Let me explain. I have a small, white bichon frise. In case you're not familiar, that's him in the picture. Cute, right? Well, he thinks so. His name is Snow. So, we took him to get some ice cream. Okay, let me re-phrase, we went to get some ice cream, he came with us and ended up eating some too. While we were sitting outside with Snow, a woman and small girl walked up to us. The little girl was about 5. Her mom (I presume) said, ask the lady if you can pet the puppy. Snow is beyong puppy stage, btw. So, the little girl starts petting Snow. He behaves very well and even blesses her with a couple of doggy licks. The little girl seems to be enjoying all of this. And then out of nowhere, poses the question. "What is that on his belly?" At this point, I freeze, thinking "surely she doesn't mean his male-piece, does she?" But what else is on his belly? I stay silent as she asks the question again. At this point I am fearful that my mom is going to explain to the little girl just what is on his belly. Thankfully, the mother jumps in and says, "Honey, that's just a toy. Come on now, it's time to go." Well, as soon as they walked off, my mother and I bust out laughing! A toy! Yep, I suppose it is a toy. I never quite thought of it that way. What's worse is that poor little Snow never got to use his toy (was that a TMI?). But at least the mom didn't lie to her daughter, she just didn't tell her the whole story. Not sure what I would have said. Maybe I will use that line one day.

Houston Marathon

I learned a lesson this week. Your first goal when running a marathon should always be to finish. It is too big of a physical endeavor for anything less. I spent the 3 days before the marathon sick in bed. I came down with the flu on Wednesday at work. While I tried my best with lots of rest, it apparently took a lot out of me. Even yesterday I was still plagued with serious congestion. I couldn't breathe out of my nose at all! Thanks to my friend Rhonda, who suggested I try Claritin-D. It worked liked magic and I realized around 1:30 this morning that I would be able to breathe normally again. I awakened feeling refreshed and energized (lots of adrenaline was pumping). As I began the race, I felt fine. But by mile 3 I knew I was in trouble. I was trying to keep my original goal pace, but it was just too fast. I was already tired. Too keep this short ( :-) ), I'll tell you things came to a head at mile 13. I thought I was going to pass out if I had to run up this overpass, so I walked it. A blessing in disguise! I felt much better and decided I would just take it slow the rest of the race. So, I finished the race at a nice trot. It was a struggle every step of the way. It's too bad I was not able to enjoy the run as much this year. But I am extremely thankful for my 4 hour finish. I couldn't have done it without the Lord's strength as I had none of my own. Thanks for all your prayers and support.

I'll let you know when my next one will be as I haven't decided that yet. :-)

You never know

I suppose when people look at me they don't automatically think to themselves, "I bet she speaks Spanish." In high school, I used to battle with friends and other students trying to convince them that yes, in fact, I was fluent in Spanish. Well, just recently a couple of events have happened which point to the notion that perhaps you shouldn't just talk about someone right in front of them in another language. They could understand you!

The first incident was at work. I was there late as usual and it was trash day. Now typically they come by, empty your trash can, and vacuum your office (if you're not there). If you are there, they ask if you want your office to be vacuumed. Of course, this assumes that you are in an office, which I am no longer, but you'll have to wait until the next post to hear about that one. So, back to the story. There was quite a bit of scrap/trash in the hallway because everyone was cleaning out their offices. Three people come by to pick up the trash that day. Does it really take 3 people to do this? Anyway, they sort of ask if the pile in the hallway is trash. Three of us in the offices right around there respond yes. But for some reason they look at me as if I am the one deciding this. I repeat (in English), yes this is trash. So what does the little crew proceed to do? They look at each other and one of them says in Spanish, "she doesn't know what she's talking about. That's not trash." Now at this point, I was already seated back in my chair. If I were a bit more confrontational or cared at all what these people thought, perhaps I could have shot back, "Si, yo se de lo que estoy hablando y eso es BASURA." But no, Holy Spirit in charge, I held my tongue. Personally, I think it was an easy out that resulted in less work for them. But what do I know?

Now lets shift the scene to the car wash place. It was a beautiful Friday afternoon. I got the afternoon off and decided to run some errands. It was so nice to sit outside while I waited for my car to be washed. Once the two ladies drying my car were done, they waved the towel in the air and beckoned me over. I soon got up and started walking toward them. I look at the one extending a receipt toward me and smile big. I get a smile in return while at the same time she says to the woman next to her, "Asi quiero estar yo. Quiero estar haci de flaca." Translation: "That's how I want to be. That's how skinny I want to be." Now while this comment about me was more flattering than the previous, why do they assume that I won't understand what they're saying???

It's really a strange thing. I suppose that it would be less probable walking into a nail salon and expecting to understand the Vietnamese flying around me at record pace. But Spanish is a pretty common language. And even if you're not from a Spanish-speaking country or have parents that are, there is still a good chance that you speak it. So, my little advice to those out there. Be careful of what you say. You never know who understands what you are saying.

High School Musical 2

I can't say that I spend much time watching the Disney channel. And before last Friday, I had no idea what High School Musical was. Well, I got a crash course in this latest craze. I heard about it first on the radio. They were announcing the release of the new movie that evening. I heard that teachers across America were planning movie parties for their students and that kids everywhere were going to be glued to their TVs that night. I wondered what all the hype was about? It's just another Disney movie, right? On Friday night, I went to church to help out with our Girls Night. This is basically an all-night retreat (like a lock-in) we do for all the junior high and high school girls. The kids were excited because someone was going to be DVR/Tivo the movie and then bring it up to the church so they could watch it later that night. Well, I didn't stay for all the into-the-wee-hours-of-the-morning activities, so I didn't actually see it that night. Bu fortunately for me, Disney decided to air the movie multiple times throughout the weekend. I finally saw it Sunday evening. I was only going to watch so that I could stay in the loop with the latest craze in the lives of high school students. Therefore, my expectations were pretty low. But I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. It was a cute movie, funny at times, and had some catchy tunes. The movie was totally clean, which was nice to see. I was pleased to see some quality programming on TV. Now, of course, I want to learn the cheesy little songs. And I want to see the first movie (High School Musical). It comes on in a couple days, so I'll definitely have to DVR it! By the way, my favorite song was "You are the music in me."

Google's Street View

I recently discovered one of Google's latest inventions. It's called Street View and is available on the Google Maps webpage. It's nice in that in contrast to Google Earth, you don't have to download anything to your computer to see it. For cities that have been photographed, you can see real photo images of streets and intersections. It looks like Google goes around and takes pictures at every intersection and along every street. You see everything from buildings to sidewalks to people and cars. So far only NYC, San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Las Vegas, Orlando, Miami, and the great city of Houston have been photographed. It is very cool in that it allows you to see a 360 view of any particular street. You can also traverse the street in any direction. But the funniest thing I have discovered about this is a blog that keeps track of funny pictures that get posted on Street View. Here's the link to that site:
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-06-03-n48.html
My personal favorite is the guy "caught taking a leak." There's just no privacy anymore! ((-*

Enjoy!

Gelato

I have been slacking again. I can't believe it's been so long since I last wrote. I decided tonight that I couldn't let the month end without sharing a thought here. As I look at the last couple of posts, I see that I have been a bit serious of late, so perhaps I should lighten things up a bit. If you know me however, you probably realize that serious is more the norm for me than not. But no worries, "lightening up" is on my list of things to do. (-;

One of my loves in life is ice cream. I could eat the stuff everyday for every meal. I like all flavors, all kinds. If we go to the basics, I do have a preference of chocolate over vanilla. But the latter is good too because you can always put chocolate syrup on top! My all time favorite kind of ice cream is gelato. That stuff rocks! For those of you who live in Europe or frequent often, you know what I am talking about. A few months back, a friend told me about a place that sells gelato here in the States, in fact, in the great state of Texas. They have a special family-owned recipe direct from Italy. It's made with whole milk instead of cream and has top-notch ingredients. The place is called Paciugo's (http://www.paciugo.com/) and fortunately for me there is one in Houston now. Praise God! I did some research on their website and learned that they all but spell out how you can have one of your very own Paciugo's. I started to get excited dreaming about my very own all-I-can-eat gelato establishment. They have an application online for a franchise. They give you some steps on how to get set-up and they even list out what it will cost to open a new store. Well reading that must have been when I awakened from my fairy tale dream. Ouch! It can cost up to $372,000 to open one of these dreamlands. So there ended any bright ideas of starting my very own Paciugo's. However, my time on the site was not a total loss. I did learn that they are opening a location just minutes from my house near the Willowbrook Mall next Spring. Wahoo! Now I won't have to travel over 30 minutes to enjoy my very favorite treat on earth. A little bit of heaven just got closer.

Love God, Love People, Nothing Else Matters

Several years ago after reading Purpose Driven Life, I decided that my mission in life would be to love God and to love people. I thought to myself, success at the end of my life would be for people to say at my funeral, "she loved God and she loved people." Well, apparently I am not alone in my pursuit in life. This past Friday, I attended the funeral of one who achieved this lofty goal and did it well. Dan Reiter was the victim of an unfortunate car accident. He was a young 22 who had just graduated from college. My relationship with Dan stems from my involvement in my church's student ministry. Dan and I were part of a team that went to the Dominican Republic about 6 years ago. I was a leader on the trip and Dan was one of the students. That trip was a magical time and I have experienced nothing like it ever again. We all had such a blast and saw God work in tremendous ways. The whole time I knew Dan, I was always impressed with his upbeat attitude and unending kindness towards people. He always went the extra mile to help others. His impact is far reaching as evidenced by the over 1000 comments left on his Facebook page since his death. I am so blessed to have known such a wonderful person. And now I am inspired anew to a live a life that matters; to live a life driven by the pursuit to love God and to love others. Below is a quote from Jim Elliot that was part of Dan's funeral service.

"God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you Lord Jesus." -Jim Elliot, 1948