Communion crunch

At the church I go to, we sometimes take communion as a congregation. Each person is given a little piece of bread and a tiny cup of grape juice. The bread is a little bitty crunchy square cracker that tastes kind of like a wheat thin. After the pastor blesses the bread, everyone eats the cracker at the same time. The funny thing is that when it's really quiet and I don't chew my cracker right then, I can hear the resounding crunch of every person in the room biting down on and chewing their cracker at the same time.

Coming soon to a theater near you: Sara's War

I am happy to say that I won my personal war against at&t. It's a long and painful story which involves talking to 10+ at&t representatives including 2 supervisors in 4 or 5 different departments, including the Retention department (what is Retention? Think about it. It's customer retention. Last resort central. They could not help either, by the way). Maybe I'll tell it someday. Suffice it to say, I GOT WHAT I WANTED.

Lesson? Keep bothering them. Argue. Threaten to cancel. You will eventually come out on top.

Ha ha

Global warming: The newest religion

Do you ever feel squashed by post-modernism?

MLK, Jr. quote via The Irresistible Revolution

"To our most bitter opponents we say: Throw us in jail and we will still love you. Bomb our houses and threaten our children and we will still love you. Beat us and leave us half dead and we will still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory."

That is a beautiful example of radical grace.That is the kind of grace that Jesus preached and continues to preach to this day.

By the way, the Simple Way recently experienced a huge fire in their neighborhood. Go to their website to see what happened, what they are doing about it, and what you can do to help.

www.thesimpleway.org

Funny word

"Separatrix"

What do you think it is?

Also known as: virgule, solidus, slash, diagonal, or stroke.

Who knew that something so seemingly simple could have so many names?

If you aren't reading this website every week, you should be.

I thought I was the only one who couldn't get no. 5 out of my head

This is really funny. I saw this on digg. It's the top 10 songs that people get stuck in their heads. I have had experience with 5, 2, 9 and, of course 1.


1. Other. Everyone has his or her own worst earworm.
2. Chili's "Baby Back Ribs" jingle.
3. "Who Let the Dogs Out"
4. "We Will Rock You"
5. Kit-Kat candy-bar jingle ("Gimme a Break ...")
6. "Mission Impossible" theme
7. "YMCA"
8. "Whoomp, There It Is"
9. "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
10. "It's a Small World After All"

The other day I had "Low Rider" by WAR stuck in my head for some reason, and also that song from the flea medicine commercial with the cute puppy singing, "I ain't got bugs on me, I ain't got bugs on me...!" That puppy is so cute, isn't it? I like it at the end of the commercial when he starts walking kind of sideways.

This bugs me

A pet peeve of mine since I got back to Texas is that people call the pronunciation of Spanish by Spaniards a "lisp." You may or may not know this, but is Spain the correct pronunciation of the letter "z" and the soft "c" is a voiceless "th" sound like in "theater." Because Americans are used to hearing South American Spanish, which pronounces the "z," the soft "c," with the "s" sound, when they hear a Spaniard (or someone like me, who speaks Spanish with the Spaniard accent) it sounds to them as if they were lisping, and they call it so accordingly.

Then, you get this story about how one Spanish king had a lisp. So to make him feel better, all of the people around him began to speak as he did. And there you have it=why Spaniards lisp. This is all complete crapola.

Okay people. A lisp is a speech defect. It means that the person speaking with a lisp is not pronouncing words correctly. Like they are defective in some way.

This is the real story. The "th" sound was evident in Spain even before the Spanish travelled to the New World. The sound developed from the sounds associated with the cedilla (ç) and the "z." So the original pronunciation of the "z" and the soft "c" is as a voiceless "th."

However, in some areas of Andalucia they started pronouncing them as an "s." One of the articles that I read says that this might have been because of the strong the Mozarabic influence in the south. People from Seville and other places in Andalucia still speak like this today (some also still use "ustedes" instead of "vosotros" which is another difference in the use of the language).

Well, I bet most of you didn't know this, but many of the famous explorers and "conquistadores" from Spain were from Andalucia. As were many of the subsequent Spaniards that immigrated to the New World. They were the original "mispronouncers" of the the "z" and the soft "c." They removed themselves from their original population and the "sss" stuck.

So if we are to say that someone is mispronouncing, who would it be? I, for one, would have to say that no one is mispronouncing. I believe that language is alive and it evolves as cultures evolve. I also speak American English, which is different than British English. If I say that the British have a speech impediment because when they pronounce the "r" they open their mouths more, that would be stupid.

So please, stop saying that Spaniards have a lisp. It's insulting.

A homeless bum

Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." Luke 9:58

Have you ever thought about that?

Anniversaries

Tomorrow is our 5th anniversary. As I say every year, it's feels like an eternity...

We were actually married at the court house on May 23rd, but our wedding ceremony at the church was on June 29th. I recognize the first date, but Jose recognises the second date. He always gets what he wants.

It was also a year ago that I wrote about my family reunion. We are going again this weekend. Remember last year when I fell in the lake and nearly killed myself? Remember how my little cousins suffered from post traumatic stress disorder for about 5 hours after witnessing the fall? (Well, they did.) Remember cornhole??? Those were some good times. Well, those times are gonna look like crap compared to this weekend's times. This weekend's times are gonna ROCK!

Again a new layout

Now blogger lets you change stuff on your template a lot easier than before. I like change. I just want to note that the photo behind my title was taken from this flickr site. This guy takes some nice photos, people. He was in Granada and took pictures of a lot of my favorite places.

Check out this guy's Spain flickr set as well. It's completely awesome.

A snippet of my life

Say goodbye to the spelling bee and hello to a running update on my life! Jada introduced this to me.

Twitter!

Conclusion to Christian v. Athiest

Here is the last installment.

Part 6

So poignant in light of current times

Stolen from michellemalkin.com:

Do you recognize the artist?

Part 5, y'all

Wilson v. Hitchens, part 5

I don't know if this is the last one. They said it would be throughout the month of May and this is the last day, so maybe it is.

I changed my template...cool!

Here's a new template. I know, it's just another Blogger one, but I wanted to see something different. I was getting tired of the green one.

Anyhoo, we went to my mom's this weekend. Here are a few pictures.

We drove together in Amber's car. We met in Lampasas and we left our car at the hospital. I spent the entire weekend thinking that our car was going to get towed.

One of the many warnings on a gigantic combine (that's for cutting wheat). They are apparently very dangerous. You could get pelted with flying arrows.

My mom put Amber and I to work. Where was Jose? Watching the Sci-fi channel.

It's still very flat out there.

Last but not least, my GRANDMA! She's so cute. We played Skip-bo for about an hour.

Wilson v. Hitchens, cont.

Here are parts 3 and 4 of the online correspondence between Douglas Wilson and Christopher Hitchens, continued from my last post on the subject:

Part 3

Part 4

Very, very interesting.

Market for cat dentures? HERE!

I just got back from picking my cat up from the veterinary dentist, yes, that is what I said, the VETERINARY DENTIST. Or more specifically, the veterinary dentist/oral surgeon. She had to have 11 rotten teeth removed.

It cost $1150.00uch.

Moral of the story? Take care of your pet’s teeth, or be prepared to have various body parts removed.

Spellalicious

Check out the awesome new thing in my sidebar. It's from one of my fave dictionary websites, thefreedictionary.com.

It's just under the site meter. Spelling bee!

UPDATE: Sabrina

Hey, do you guys remember Sabrina?

This notice is currently appearing on her homepage, findsabrina.org.

NOTICE:
Our Investigators and Law Enforcement believe that Dara may be
attempting
to come back to the
United States.

Please be vigilant, and report any sightings to your
local law enforcement.

Watch out for Dara!

Guess who came to visit!

This little guy showed up yesterday in the tree outside our apartment.

This, my friends, is a lesser nighthawk. According to the range map on whatbird.com, Austin is a little north of where he usually hangs out.

He didn't even care that I was standing below waving an empty paper towel tube at him and taking his picture. He just opened his little eyes and looked at me and then went back to sleep. I love him.

Atheists v. Christians, Times 2

There is something in the air this month. Two new debates between Christians and Atheists are out on the web. Check them out.

1. Christianity Today is publishing a correspondence, all this month, between Douglas Wilson (Christian) and Christopher Hitchens (Atheist).

Here is part 1 and part 2.

So far, it's very interesting and promises to get even better as the month goes on. There will be more installments, so bookmark it and check back.

2. ABC online is doing a debate series called "Nightline Face-Off". The series will be about various themes, and this first one is between Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron of "The Way of the Master" and two people from the "Rational Response Squad," Brian "Sapient" and a woman named "Kelly" (those are not their real names).

The Way of the Master is a organization that is dedicated to "seeking and saving the lost the way Jesus did."

The Rational Response Squad is a group that is dedicated to "blaspheming the Holy Spirit" and confronting the "irrational claims" of religion.

Personally, I found that Kelly and Brian (especially Kelly) both acted and spoke with such a condescending and arrogant tone. They just came off as so unlikeable. On the other hand, Ray and Kirk spoke in such a loving and kind way. You could hear gentleness and genuine care in their voices. You really could hear the difference. There is one lady in the audience that yells at Ray and he speaks so kindly in return.

The link to the debate is here, also here.

Let me know what you think!

cognitive dissonance

n. Psychology -A condition of conflict or anxiety resulting from inconsistency between one's beliefs and one's actions.

Don't we all suffer from this?

NASAfied

We went to NASA last weekend.

It was pretty much awesome.

These are moon rocks. They look like blue cheese.

As a completely unrelated side note, I'm totally getting some of this:

It's caffinated soap. Awesome!

Jose's birthday yo

Tim, you were right. Here are the fotos. Jose's (34th) birthday!

Maybe I have a weird sense of humor

I don't know why, but I think these are so funny. It's just that there was this cheesy commercial in Spain about them and the way that the say the name in Spanish is hilarious. I feel bad about it. It's very insensitive of me to laugh at another person's incontinence problems.

Childhood Transgender Barbie Project

I've told some of my friends about this. I've wanted to write about it for a while because it is so funny. I wish I still had her/him, but I must have sold her/him in a garage sale (which is what I did with everything I owned as a kid...I needed that 50 cents!).

Anyway, this is the deal. When I was little, my friend, Tennille, and I liked to play "Cinderella" with my Barbies. However, I only had 3 of them and no Ken. So, we needed a Prince Charming, see? One day we had one of the best ideas that has ever occurred to a couple of 9-year-olds.

Now, I had this one Barbie that had lost the little swivelly part that is attached to the neck and makes the head turn (I know you know what I'm talking about. Who hasn't pulled Barbie's head off at least once?) Since she didn't have this particular part of her doll anatomy, we had to shove her head down onto her neck which gave her an extremely square chin, a weird, deformed face and an abnormally short neck.

Well, she was the chosen one. This is what we did:

First order of business: breast removal. We went to my dad's shop, i.e. the building in the backyard where all his tools were, and found the belt sander. I am sure that we were not even supposed to touch it, but ignoring that fact, we turned it on and sanded those boobs right off. Because I was a child, I mistakenly thought that Barbie was a solid mass of plastic. I was, of course, wrong. She is hollow, people. Now, Man-Barbie had to large holes in her chest.

Next order of business: new hair-do. We cut it all off. She looked like she had bad hair plugs. Prince Charming could NOT have bad hair plugs, and the horror of that possibility lead us to our next epiphany.

I had this knock-off Barbie that that I got in Knox City at a store called Perry's. It probably cost about a dollar. This fake Barbie was completely bald and came with three wigs. Of course, I had already lost two of the wigs (and the doll). The only wig that I had left was the blond fro. The wig was made of a thick plastic half-sphere. It looked more like a round, skin colored hat with hair coming out of it than an actual wig. Well, we glued it to Man-Barbie's head. He now had a blond fro and a permanent abnormally large noggin with an 1/8 inch ledge rising up off of his forehead (and around the rest of his head). It also covered his ears to half way down.

Viola! We had our Prince Charming! Unfortunately, we could never get the feet to stand flat, as opposed to the perpetual high heel stance. I could never think of any tool in my dad's arsenal that could fix that.

I wish I had a picture of this thing. It was like my Frankenstein's monster of childhood. It was probably the ugliest doll that ever walked the earth. Needless to say, though, Cinderella loved him and lived happily ever after! Every time.


Addendum: I also gave one of my other Barbies a short haircut and then proceeded to dye its hair black with a Marks-a-lot marker. That one I still have. Next time I find it, I'll take a picture.

Inspired experimentation

I was so inspired by the man on the travel channel that I went to a Mexican food restaurant and ate a tongue taco.



It was good.

Maybe next time I'll try a brains tosada...okay, maybe not.

It's official, Spainish foods are bizarre...

There is a show on the travel channel in which the host goes to different countries and eats the weirdest food that he can find. So, last week he went to Spain. Here is a list of what he ate:

* Angulas (baby eels)
* Whole roast suckling pig - - tail, ear, tongue, eye, brains
* Baby squid in their own ink
* Crunchy pig ears
* Snails
* Grilled octopus
* Rabo de toro (bull’s tail)
* Callos (casserole made of blood sausage and tripe)
* Ox
* Maruca eggs (dried fish eggs)
* Criadillas (bull’s testicles)
* Deep-fried pork fat
* Tripe
* Jamón Ibérico (air-dried ham made from black-footed Iberian pigs)
* Percebes (gooseneck barnacles)
* Clams
* Langostinos (large prawns)
* Red shrimp
* Rodaballo (Spanish turbot)
* Spiny lobster
* Buey "mustard" (giant Mediterranean stone-clam innards)
* Razor clams
* Deep-fried worms
* Crickets
* Horchata (beverage made with almond milk and tiger nuts)
* Calf’s brains
* Arros de pages amb crestes de gall (rice with rooster combs)
* Nitrogen-cooled sake sorbet with lychee nuts
* Pine-nut meringue

From this list I have eaten (or drunk) snails, grilled octopus, rabo de toro, callos, jamon ibérico, clams, langostinos, and horchata. I don't like snails or clams or callos that much, but the rest of the ones that I have tried are really good.

Actually, Spaniards do eat a lot of strange seafoods. It is a peninsula, after all. If you go to the fish market, you don't just see fish, you see all of these weird kinds of marine animals too, many of which are still alive. It's like going to a macabre aquarium. Jose used to chastize me for going up and touching them all the time.

My friend saw the show and she said that the host didn't like horchata. I couldn't believe it! It's not the same kind of horchata, made of rice, that you get here. Like it says in the list, it's made of tiger nuts (chufa). Let me tell you, it is sooooo goooood!

Since I have a little experience in this field of study, I want to add a few other foods to the list that the host didn't try. He didn't go down to Andalucía after all! One thing that he didn't have on his list, which is something that my in-laws eat, on occasion, in there own home, is something called "sangre frita." That is, "fried blood." It's coagulated chicken (or pig) blood fried and mixed with a sauce of tomatoes, onion and peppers. At least that is how my mother-in-law makes it. I tried it once and didn't like it.

Another dish that comes directly from Granada is called "tortilla de sacromonte" or "Sacromonte omelette". This omelette has brains and testicles of lamb in it. I never tried it, nor do I desire to. That's mad cow disease just waiting to happen.

The other "bizarre food" that Americans find gross is morcilla. However, I love it. Yum! When Jose and I go back to Spain to visit, all we want to eat is jamón, morcilla, and cheese. And me, I also want to drink wine.

Well anyway, the host has been to places where the food is a lot weirder...do any of you know what a balut is? It's a delicacy in the Philipines...check it.

Monthly post

My friends had the nerve to get hitched in Jamaica and then just have a measly party for the rest of us here in Austin.

Actually, the party was great. beautiful. awesome! For reals, it rocked. I was so mad at myself for not taking more pictures. There were people there that I hadn't seen in years and years. I just didn't FEEL like taking pictures (yet another reason why I shouldn't let my emotions rule me).

Well, anyway, here's the happy couple and cute Nico:

Aubony envelops moi (for a change):

Here's what a woman pregnant with twins looks like (NOT me, her):

Of course I took more pictures that that. Or, I should say, that Jose and Tori took more pictures than that. I think I might have taken one.

On a slightly different note, sorry for the scant posts. I've been chillaxin' over at Myspace. At least I'm doing better than Jada. As of now, she hasn't posted in over 2 months. I don't feel so bad. Thanks Jada! I'll try to live a more interesting life and then post about it.

Star Trek is...

Okay. Jose and I just watched the very last episode of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, and I cried.

I cried, people. THAT is how much I love Star Trek.

Cool evangelical (oh my!) magazine online

Check it. Geez Magazine. Linked to the simple way people that I talked about earlier.

2 things

1. Last night I saw a U-haul trailer driving down I-35 with a vacuum duct taped to the side of it. I guess the trailer was just too full for the vacuum to fit. I can just hear the conversation, "Oh no! The trailer's full and the vacuum is still not packed! What can we do! ...I know, hand me the duct tape!"

2. Jose came back from Sweden and brought these little gummy candies that the Swedes like so much. Some of them taste like salty licorice, which is something that those crazy Scandinavians love. I never thought that I would like it, but I have to say, it's growing on me. It's strangely additive...

And finally, here's a little something extra:

The Simple Way

Don't go to this website if you don't want to have your lifestyle challenged.

I went to church with Jada last week and the Sunday School teacher read from a book called The Irresistible Revolution (order it here or here). The author, Shane Claiborne, is a part of this group/organization/community called The Simple Way. His book and the way that these people live is causing me to really examine the way that I live. I want to live the gospel instead of just studying it. I want to impact the lives of the people living in poverty here in Austin. I want to help them and show them that they are loved. There are so many men and women on the street corners with next to nothing. How can I justify buying the things that I want without thinking of those who have nothing at all?

The quote that has been most on my mind from the book is a quote that the author says came from the mouth of Mother Teresa.

"We are called not to be successful but to be faithful."

I want to be faithful to God and live in a way that glorifies HIM.

Jesus says that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. What does that mean in my life?

Oh, you guys

Jose has been in Sweden visiting Manolo & Co. for the last two weeks. How have I spent my time you ask? Well, I have NOT spent it cleaning up after myself. That's for sure. My apartment was so messy. I had time today to pick up, wash dishes, wash clothes, etc. Life is so hard.

I am forming an ugly Myspace habit too. That site is like crack. I can't get off of it. I have looked up just about every name in my brain.

While I am thinking of it, I have a question. Do you people notice the crazy spam email titles? Besides the ones about finding people to have sex with and the ones that tell me I can have a bigger wee, the rest have the funniest names. Here is a short list:

snuck outdid
or seep it say
The go draftsman
seemingly derive
her chromatography he waylaid
it my prone
if also panel boy republic

Interesting...One time I saw this website where this guy would take these random subject lines and illustrate them. It was really funny, but I can't find it now. I personally like "her chromatography he waylaid" the best. I think we need to collect the funniest ones and when we have enough, we can write an entire play using only spam subject lines as the dialogue. Then we can put in on Youtube. Awesome idea!

And finally, not to be snuck outdid by my friends, it was icy and cold about a month ago and here are my pictures of it:

Ooh, la la la la la

I have succumbed to the incessant and overwhelming pull of the monster called MySpace. I have a myspace page. There. I did it. Enjoy it.

Olive! Shoes! Lovin'!

Jose! Yellin'! In the background!

Interesting investment made by Jose

Jose bought a whole bunch of movies the other day for $1.99 each. Some of the discs even have two movies for the price of one! Here are the names and some taglines:

Kill, Baby...Kill!
Creature-"Death is no escape from an alien nightmare!" [wise words...]
Warriors of the Wasteland-"Can mankind survive without humanity?"
Alien Contamination-"A new plague on Earth will come from the stars!"
Slave of the Cannibal God-"A bloodthirsty cult that hunts for the taste of human flesh!"
Devil Girl from Mars-"Mankind's greatest threat is a single woman!" [Condoleezza?]
Bronx Executioner-"The fate of the city belongs to one man..."
First Spaceship on Venus
The Killer Shrews [my favorite so far]

I actually watched some of Bronx Executioner and I have to say it is really, really bad. Jose just sits there watching all the bad parts over and over again and laughing.

Embarassing moments...brought to you by a 12 year old

Last night we went to the airport to pick up Tori. As we were standing at the baggage claim waiting for her suitcases, a beige colored bag was coming down the chute and Tori said, "That's an old lady's bag."

So, I was under the impression that she actually saw an old lady with the bag so I asked, "Really? How do you know" Did you actually see an old lady with that bag?" She said, "No it just looks like an old lady's bag."

As these words were coming out of her mouth, an older man reached out and picked the bag up off of the carousel, looked over at Tori and said, "it's NOT an old lady's bag!" He was smiling and laughing, but Tori was so embarrassed! She turned bright red. It was funny.

Manolo, Jose's Cousin...has come!

Manolo:

Manolo's ugly twin:

Happy New Year.

For New Year's we went to my mom's house. She lives in a little town called Munday, Texas. There's not a whole lot of things to do there. You wouldn't know it from all the pictures we took.

We went to Knox City, which is about 10 miles West of Munday:

Memories! From the corners of my mind...! My grandma lives here and I basically grew up going to Knox City and doing country bumpkin stuff.

We went to this store in Knox City (it's called Pepper's, if you ever want to go there):

Where you can buy stuff like this:

We also rode a Ryno. It's like a souped up golf cart. And camo!

We went all over the cotton fields behind my mom's house. It was so fun, especially going over bumps.

Jose told me to take a bunch of pictures of him on it (this isn't even all of them):

How many pictures did he take of me, you ask? Well, I'll tell you.

Two:

The flatness:

These are cotton modules:

See our tracks?

Amber rode it too:

And we saw some pigs:

Since we didn't go for Christmas, we opened Christmas presents:

Amber in the jungle:

On New Year's Eve, we played an eternal game of dominoes and ate grapes (a Spanish tradition). Jose said "boobie storm" (ask me about it). There are no pictures from that momentous occasion.

On the 2nd of January, 2007, my mom was sworn in as Treasurer of Benjamin County. Congratulations Mom! In the afternoon, we went to Witchita Falls. On the way, there is a camel ranch. That day, three of them were out by the road. So we walked up to the fence and, lo and behold, one of them decided to come closer and check us out. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera so we didn't get to take any pictures (I got this picture off of Flickr). The camel that came up to see us was white. It let us pet its nose, but it tried to bite me twice, too. It was so cool!

On our last night there, we ate ice cream at Dairy Queen:

AWESOME.