Pretty schweet

I saw this on Inside Edition yesterday; it was all filmed in one take.

Pork and Beans?

The other night at our kick-off picnic, I walked past a group of boys (young kids). A father of one of the kids was kneeling down in front of him trying to help him with his shorts zipper, which looked to be about halfway down. I don't know if he was trying to help him get it up or down, though, because I heard one of the other kids exclaim, "That sounds like it would HURT!" Couldn't help but wonder if there was a little Something About Mary moment going on there.

At D'Angelo's over lunch

[I approach the buffet from one room as a man approaches from another room; the restaurant is quite empty]

Man: You guys got that song in my head!
Me: Huh? [thoroughly puzzled]
Man: Are you with that guy singing "The Hustle"?
Me: Uh...I don't know, I'll have to check...
Man: Now I'm singing that song. He was singing the dang "Hustle"! That song's from the disco days...

[When I return to my seat, I find out that, yes, apparently I was "with that guy singing 'The Hustle.'"]

Remember the "Mansiere" or the "Bro"?

The other day I saw the oddest thing walking down Spencer. And by that I mean the oddest thing was walking, not I was walking and saw the oddest thing. There was this man walking wearing a white...tube top, I guess. It reminded me of the Mansiere/Bro, except it wasn't covering his nipples, so it wasn't really functioning as such.

Tourism-drawing rooster killed by dog

[[ok, what happened isn't really funny, but this reads pretty funny...]]

SCIO, Ore. (AP) — Big Red, a rooster who drew tourists with his daily stroll down Main Street, died this week after getting mauled by a dog.

The Rhode Island Red was attacked Tuesday while walking to his home at the Scio Feed and Country Store in this town of about 700 people. The dog leaped through the open window of a parked car and pounced on the rooster, said Marian Heikkila, who had cared for the bird.

Heikkila said Big Red staggered for several steps before collapsing at the front door of a veterinarian’s office. The cause of death was broken ribs and internal bleeding, the Albany Democrat-Herald reported.

“I just said ‘Oh Red,’ and he took a couple of breaths and died, and then everyone started crying,” Heikkila said.

So it's been a while

In the past month or so, I've...spent a week at Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp and turned 25. In fact, I turned 25 at RMMC. Gosh, I guess I haven't done a whole heck of a lot... Yeah, took the youth group on a service trip to RMMC a couple of weeks ago. We did a lot of painting (the main lodge, if you're familiar with the camp), split and stacked wood, and dug a trench for a propane line. It was good times. The group was good and without drama (yay!). It was good to be away from work and home for a while but also good to get back. On our day off from working, we went rafting on the Ark. It was fun but not quite as exciting as I expected. The trip also marked my last official duty as youth leader! A highlight of the summer occurred soon after returning from Colo.—the party at the Waltners'. It was great to see everyone there. On the 4th, we went on a historic tour of Newton, which was quite interesting. I was not aware of the Chisholm Trail stagecoach ruts that are very near to my house. I didn't blow anything up for the 4th, but my brother had some unique items to explode, so that made for good times. Also saw the Newton show, which did not disappoint. This last weekend had a couple of belated birthday celebrations—took off Friday afternoon for shopping and then ate at P.F. Chang's, and on Saturday had a family celebration at Passage to India. And Cold Stone twice. Mmmmmmm. Ok, well, looking forward to the wedding at the end of the month, heading out to Colo. another time, and probably counseling at camp.

sweet flicks

{{EDIT: In a [self-created] lull at work, I decided to just go ahead and make a blog listing of movies I'm watching. If you're interested, find it here (movie list).}}

Ok, now that I feel some level of closure with that other situation, I'm ready to talk about two kick a$$ movies I saw last weekend.

• Lords of Dogtown — It might have something to do with this longtime fascination with skateboarding that I have, but I LOVED this movie. I thought it was so awesome. Now I want to take skateboarding lessons and see the related documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys.
• Cars — Packed with celebrity voices, one of the story lines this movie contains (pertaining to the Insterstate system) I found particularly interesting and, I thought, was unexpected. Plus, it includes a sweet one-line commentary on SUVs at the end. What does this movie leave me wanting to do, you ask? Take a trip (or two) covering all of Route 66.

Check 'em out!

<3 the family

In spite of everything (or maybe because of everything) this past week, I've had some really good times. I'm mostly talking about some really good family times. A death in the family creates this situation where all of a sudden you're spending a lot of time with relatives, some of whom you rarely see and when you do, it's during a several-hour reunion where there's a lot going on. Our time together during the last week was very precious, including tears and laughter. With some of them, I feel like I have this whole new bond. I certainly don't wish it would have happened this way, but nevertheless, I'm glad that part of this past week happened.

sad news

On Friday afternoon (June 9), my aunt died. She was my dad's younger sister and was diagnosed with breast cancer about three years ago. Hospice had been called in a couple of weeks ago when it was determined that she could no longer receive treatment. At the beginning of last week, doctors could tell that she didn't have much longer; her lungs were beginning to fill with fluid. Thursday afternoon, she took a turn for the worse and stopped really responding (at least with words). I and my parents spent Thursday evening at her house with her, my uncle, several other family members, and some of her friends; I feel so grateful for this time that I could be with all of them. Early Friday morning, she became very quiet and her breathing became very shallow; they discontinued giving her morphine. By Friday afternoon, she was gone. A lot of us have shed a lot of tears already, and it's difficult to yet imagine when all the tears might be cried out. She was one of the sweetest people ever and we'll all miss her greatly.

farewell today
travel on now
be on your way

go safely there
never worry
never care
beyond this day

farewell tonight
to all joy and to all delight
go well and go peacefully
we can't keep your majesty
be on your way

make ready for the last King of May
make a cardboard crown for him
make your voices one
praise a crazy mother's son
who loved his life
who loved his life

farewell today
travel on now
be on your way
can't bear the very thought
that we could keep your majesty
be on your way

make ready for the last King of May
make a hole in the crowd for him
raise your voices up
lift your loving cups
to his long life
to his long life

make ready for the last King of May
make a hole in the sky for him
raise your voices up
drink your loving cups
to his long life
to his long life

—King of May, Natalie Merchant

highlights

Ok, now that I've embarrassed myself with the last post (as if you guys didn't already know I'm lame like that...), here's a post of my highlights from the last few weeks:

• several diet coke/mentos fountains a couple of weeks ago


• a dry ice explosion in a front yard...obliterating grass and inverting the blown off top of a pop bottle


• the guess who concert last weekend


• a rockin' good time at newell's with a fun group of people when tine, lisa, and nick were in town


• discovering tequiza


• finally seeing an anvil shoot...it was awesome


• and probably the biggest highlight...my new bike! (pictured below)

lame tv post

1. I rented the first disc of the first season of laguna beach over the weekend. No matter what anyone else says, it doesn't hold a candle to the o.c.


2. I can't believe the series finale of everwood is on tonight. That's my favorite show. CW made a grave mistake canceling it. And I can't believe they're bringing back 7th heaven. wtf? Why did they have this 2-month long "Good-bye to the Camdens" ridiculousness and then bring it back? The only mention of everwood's series finale was at the end of last week's episode. That's it! I already hate CW. Except for one tree hill...

p.s. I love that spellcheck suggests "overdose" for "everwood."

I'm so excited!

Perfect for a consumer like me

I am definitely a consumer who likes to try new things. That's probably a reason candy sells so well to me...ok, I really just like it also. But they do a good job coming up with inventive NEW! variations on a theme. Come on, who can resist the inside out Reese's Cup? Seriously. Anyway, though I've been this type of consumer for the product I am about to tell you for a long time, but I just realized last night that it is the perfect product for a consumer like me: toothpaste. Think about it: there's always some new flavor or claim it makes, but it's not bad for you (like candy)—it's actually good for you, and you're never going to stop using it, so you don't have to feel bad buying new boxes of it when your other tubes aren't even used up yet. Like last night—I didn't need new toothpaste, but I started looking at it and ended up buying two boxes. Doesn't this flava flav sound good: Crest Lemon Ice? And doesn't this sound intriguing: Colgate Oxygen? Yeah, I thought so too.

Break food doubling as Brian's birthday cake

(Leah, if you still read this, does this look semi-familiar? Though, this time it is supposed to be a cat. I realized this is my 3rd animal-shaped cake.)

Observe a moment of silence

This weekend I lost my rearview mirror in a tragic high five accident.

Random commentary my boss found

Radical Hollywood Star Inspires College Play

(College = Bethel.)
It's one of those things that hilarious...in a sad, sad sort of way.

[In case it expires, find the full text here: Radical Hollywood Star Inspires College Play]

just plain irksome

I've realized that it's not when someone disagrees with me that gets me, it's when that person has a completely illogical way of arriving at his/her opinion. It drives me nuts. Mostly because I can't even begin to think about how to talk about it with that person. I would have much easier time with someone simply telling me, "What you're doing offends me morally," than that person saying s/he doesn't like it for some other reason that makes no logical sense and also for some reason does not apply to another person engaging in the same behavior.

There. There's my vague rant/vent. ... vagrant vent...

Bethel has a new president!

Barry C. Bartel

Restaurant commentaries

I was racking my brain (oops, accidentally typed "brian," which would have had a completely different meaning all together...) for something semi-interesting to post since it's been a while now, and I realized, "Wow, I ate at a lot of restaurants this weekend." Here's a review:

The Breadbasket (Newton): I'm sad to say that I think the tastiness factor of the BB has gone down. My verenike and gravy were not as flavorful as I remembered. :( They have added bohne berrogi, which is cool, but the sauce is more like sweetened condensed milk than what I think of as true bohne berrogi sauce. [ :( #2 ] They still have the most kick-ass horseradish sauce though.

Great Wall (Hutchinson): We chose it for its Mongolian BBQ, and it was tasty. And also well-priced. You can eat from the full Chinese hot buffet and/or the Mongolian BBQ (an all-you-can-eat Mongolian BBQ) for supper for $7.99. Lunch is $6.25. I did only one plate of Mongolian BBQ and, while the selection is not quite that of the Mong. BBQ I've been to in KC, I thought the taste was just as good.

Italian Garden (Wichita): I've eaten at this restaurant a number of times, and I continue to think it's an excellent value. A meal of lasagna (of which I took half home and had for supper the next night) that comes with cooked carrots and snap peas, salad, and breadsticks costs $6.25, I think. They make their own pasta, and the breadsticks are my favorite breadsticks. There are at least two locations, and I prefer the atmosphere of the one on 21st Street.

Which of your teachers are always with you?

My first grade teacher speaks to me nearly every day—in my mind. Almost any time I am walking down stairs, I hear her say, "Never walk down stairs with your hands in your pockets." Because, obviously, if you tripped, you'd be screwed and you'd probably smash your face all up at the bottom. It's a common sense thing, but her face speaking those words always pops into my mind when I'm on the staircase, especially when I have my hands in my pockets (which I then promptly remove). Funny, because she wasn't even particularly one of my favorite teachers.