K...Ouch!

As an early Christmas gift we have received a Ginzu set of knives that completely rule! You know you are special (cheap) when you get excited and cheery about knives that cut instead of saw. It has been awesome!

I keep showing Josh how great they are. The conversations usually goes something like this, "Josh! Look at how uniform my tomato slices are, check out our french bread, watch me dice these carrots with ease!"

"That's super wife. Just don't cut yourself. You aren't use to the cutting power of the Ginzu."

And he's right, so I've been squeezing it easy. But on Saturday we were in a rush, throwing together a side dish for a dinner party. I'm mixing ingredients together, Josh is cutting celery and all the sudden I hear, "OH MOTHER BEAR!" Yes...that is really what he said.

He sticks his finger in the sink and turns on the water for you see, the power of the Ginzu had won. Now I go into nurse mode, cold compress? pressure? band aids? I'm sure he's about to bleed out from a finger wound. Yeah, yeah I tend to over react, it's out of love. Don't judge me..... So I'm throwing out First Aid options and in a perfect Josh answer he looks at me and says, "Do you know how bad it is going to hurt to type the letter K this week? Every time it's going to be like click, ow!, click, ow!" His finger looks like a trauma scene and he's worried about typing the letter K. But I guess I can't blame him, it's a very important letter. I just used it 19 times to tell you this story!

Thank you

Tomorrow is Veteran's day and as a little salute to the Veteran's in my life I wanted to share the stories I remember most as told by my grandfathers about their time served during World War 2. I am thankful for the service that is given by those who have served (thanks Dad!) and those who do serve.

One Grandfather served as a Sergeant in the Philippines. He was in charge of a work crew of Filipinos who went out and worked cutting down bamboo each day. One particular day they were scouting a new area and came upon a stream. As Grandpa went to step into the water to cross an older Filipino man jumped in front of him, pointed at grandpa's shoes and signaled for my grandfather to allow this man to carry him across the water. Shoes were such a rarity and prize, the man could not allow them to become wet.... Now this is the moment I vividly remember as a child. Grandpa could not tell this story all these years later without tears shining in his eyes. I do not think my Grandfather ever had a day where he was not thankful for shoes. After several attempts to reassure the man that my Grandfather wanted to cross on his own, he finally allowed the man to carry him across.

Here in the United States, my other Veteran Grandfather met his dear wife. He tells of being on the town one night with other soldiers. They had stopped in a little place for dinner and all the tables were full except for one which had a few remaining seats. And they were in luck because the other seats were occupied by lovely ladies! (Side note: sometimes I think it would be a better world if we still shared tables) Grandpa began working his magic with the ladies talking with them and learning more about them. One girl in particular caught his eye who eventually became my Grandmother. But the story of the night that they both loved to share is that he said to one woman at the table, "You look like you have a little Italian in you." All the women at the table laughed and laughed, thoroughly confusing Grandpa. Eventually she stood up showing her pregnancy and announcing, "In fact, I do!"

You are the best as always!

I've always been interested in how phrases spread in society. Who first thought of "chillaxing" and why did it suddenly become an accepted term? Is chillaxing better than relaxing?

Two phrases have made a sudden emergence among my acquaintances. People are starting to say "Have a blessed day." and they are starting to say, "You are the best as always!!" Okay, maybe I watched too much PeeWee's Playhouse as a child but I feel like these are the secret words and I should yell every time I hear them! AAAAAH! then laugh and go about my day.

My friend and I were discussing the "blessed day" topic. Just once she said she'd like to answer with, "No." How awkwardly funny in the Michael Scott kinda way would that be... "Have a blessed day." "No." What would the blessing giver say? It does beg the question though if you think about it, is it your place to bless someone? How do you know they are religious and want to be blessed?

"You are the best as always!" has become the common email sign off when people are asking for things. "Can you shave my pet llama? You are the best as always!" Here is the sneaky part, it totally worked on me the first few times, I thought, I'm the best? Well heck yes I'll shave that llama! But now, I'm not so sure.... do I want to be the best carney at the carnival? Maybe this trick will work if we are ever invaded by aliens. "Hey space invader, can you not use poisonous gas on my neighborhood? You are the best as always!" It is the verbal equivalent of a Jedi mind trick.

Now chillax, leave a comment, You are the best as always! Have a blessed day!

Cars

About 3 weeks ago I was rear ended on the freeway, yes I'm okay. No Josh's pickup was not, to the tune of about $8500. I have learned some things from this experience, first that it is way better to get rear ended by a pickup when in a pickup. I think it would have been much worse for me if I'd been in my car.

Also I am grateful for my good insurance company. Okay yes, they are my paycheck (I work there) but they rule. I was not at fault, but they are covering my damages while the other company tries to blame me for it. Our life moves forward. People, pay for good insurance. It is worth every penny.

I have also learned that when karma provides you a Dodge Challenger as your rental car for the price of a Dodge Neon, you say THANK YOU! Do you know how many people check me...or maybe it's just the car...out now? I'm a hot ticket! Hey baby, yes it's my....rental. Whatever, I'm so hot right now.

In the midst of all of this our other car has just about died. So we are car shopping and Josh is being super agreeable. I should be happy right? Instead I'm all nervous! I know what I want in a 4 door, hatchback, kid friendly (we are hoping to adopt and all) but seriously I get to pick as long as it meets the budget? I am too.....me for this responsibility. I can't pick out a dress for church without changing three times and you want me to pick the car? This is going to be an adventure for sure. I pity the poor eager car dealer who pounces on me this weekend, can you say sucker?

Pray for us & the sales man.

Adverbally Addicted

Seriously, I'm addicted. Honestly, I didn't realized it I was doing it until recently. Truthfully, I was chatting with my friend GPJ and I realized that I was starting each sentence with an adverb. Interestingly, I don't do think I do it when I speak, I think it is only when I type. Surprisingly, now that I've brought attention to the condition, I find it really hard to stop.

Seriously, it is hard to stop.

Uncommonly, hard to stop.

Intentionally, I have to go back and correct my sentences to make them not start we an adverb. Obviously, I've become the adverb Yoda of the chatting world.

Awfully monstorous, no?

Lurve it!

Current list of things I lurve:

This text message from my brother

"September 2, 2010 - also known as 9/2/2010 - on that day, I will be dressed up like Dylan and will be looking for Kelly and Brenda. Brenda for the first part of the day, Kelly for the rest. I will get very angry when Donna gets thrown down the stairs. Reconcile with my recently released from prison father, only to have him be car bombed by mafia hit men. Then, have my newly taken in family steal all my money. Which would take me into an unrivaled TV dark place. Leading to me falling in love with the daughter of my father's killer. Her father hated me, tried to kill me, but accidentally killed her instead. Looking forward to it. It's going to be busy. We should have a 90210 party on that day."

Miranda Sings videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lMv9DsMuxM

I laugh until I cry. Josh describes it as seizures of laughter. It has been really great for homework breaks. Thank you my darling musical Mr. Xanadu for sharing this with me!

The Choir on BBC America

Josh stumbled across this show one day and I fell madly in love. A lovely show from England, the show follows choirmaster Gareth Malone as he works at an all boys school (and I think other schools in future episodes) creating the first choir the school has ever had. He goes from only having 30 boys signed up, to over 100 by the end of the year. He works with the boys individually and each week I come to adore some new boy. And...they are good little singers!! I was singing the song for days afterwards.

Now I was a choir geek so maybe that is part of why I like it so much, I miss choir. But I think more than anything, it reminds me that there is magic in this world. Magic in the simple joy of a child who find joy in singing, choirmasters who know that music can heal the soul and viewers like me who are cheering for their success. And though it wasn't perfect, it was a great success!

Lawry's Mediterranean Sundried Tomato & Garlic Chicken

It's one of those mix packets that you add to your food to make it tastier and boy did it. One more semester of school and I might start cooking again, but for now Lawry's Med Sundried Tomato & Garlic Chicken was delicious!

Head in the Clouds

Very rarely do we have a day in Phoenix where they sky is not radiantly clear blue. So I tend to notice when lovely clouds fill my cities sky. Clouds are a lot prettier when you don’t see them that often. I’ve noticed that two thoughts habitually cross my mind now when I see clouds. Alfred Stieglitz and the Simpsons.


If the clouds are spotty and perfectly poofy, I always hear “The Simpsons….” to the opening credits music. I thank Josh for this who will say to me, “It’s a Simpson’s weather day.” Bless him.

Alfred Stieglitz is the second thought. Stieglitz is a photographer who lived from 1864 – 1946 and was married to the more commonly known Georgia O’Keefe. Stieglitz has a fun name to say and he is very famous in the art world. I can guarantee you’ve seen at least one of his photos. In his late 50s, Al decided to start taking photos of clouds as a means to really show off his ability to take great photos of anything, no real subject matter needed. He’s a bit cocky that Alfred. But to his credit, they are breathtaking. Here’s the grip and why he holds a little portion of my conscious, a large portion of these cloud photos Alfred named after an emotion. A flurry of clouds would be “Anguish.” Airy full clouds would be “Content.” I may have at one categorized clouds as angry, but content? The thought had never crossed my mind at 19 when I learned about this collection. And to this day when I see clouds I Stieglitz them, I can’t help but try to put an emotion to my clouds. I wonder what Stieglitz would name them and if I’d agree. Maybe today the clouds we’d agree are simply “pleasant.”