Quiz for my Peeps

So, Angie posted this on her blog yesterday. Apparently there's some fun floating around the internet. You put your music on shuffle, copy the first line to the first 25 songs and then challenge people to name that tune.

Well, I did this, but, as I looked over my list, I knew none of you would know any of the songs. So I cheated and listed the first 25 songs that I knew you all would know.

But then I realized that 25 was too many. No one reading this blog is going to think about 25 songs...so I cut it down to 15. Which is probably still too many...

But here it is anyway:

1. I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day
2. …, …, …, …, I’m begging of you please don’t take my man
3. You’ve got your ball, you’ve got your chain tied to me tight tie me up again
4. Comin’ out of my cage and I’ve been doing just fine
5. Here’s the thing: We started out friends but it was all pretend
6. If you change your mind, I’m the first in line…
7. You say I only hear what I want to
8. Eddie waited till he finished high school. He went to Hollywood, got a
tattoo.
9. Shorty get down. Good Lord.
10. I know your eyes in the morning sun. I feel you touch me in the pouring rain.
11. Just like the white-winged dove sings a song
12. If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?
13. Well, on a cold and gray Chicago morning another hungry baby child was born…
14. … falling on my head like a new emotion
15. Girl, I must warn you. I sense something strange in my mind.

Enjoy!

Silently Stalking Other Bloggers

OTRGirl,

I am slowly stealing your life, so watch out. I am not a little fat for stalking...

Everyone else,

I did not steal the following from OTRGirl. I think she pre-stole it from me.

1) Pandora.com: You put in a song or artist and it generates a stream based on that. It's pretty cool. Jem's "Come on Closer" resulted in Hilary Duff's "Hold On," which is not an indictment on Pandora's system, but it's a little strange. They're lucky I secretly love Hilary Duff with her new giant horse-teeth.

Oh, and, no Sis and Vanessa, I don't mean that Jem...

2) The following is an ABC list of stuff. I think it's self-explanatory, so don't ask any questions...

ABC meme

Accent: I have no accent. I stand by this statement. I was, however,recently roundly mocked for my use of the phrase "That light needs fixed." I contend that "to be" is implied, as in "the car needs washed," or "the floor needs swept." No one agreed with me, but Joan did defend me with: "Oh yeah, they say that all over the Ohio Valley." Which lumps me in with Wheeling !?! Thanks for nothing, Joan.

Booze: Everyone knows I'm a teetotaler...

Chore I hate:Easier question: Chores I like, Answer: None

Dog or Cat: People with cats push them around in strollers, so, dog.

Essential Electronics:iPod. Oh, and my Palm now that I can track my finances appropriately!

Favorite Cologne:Der, GoldenSpy...

Gold or Silver: Silver unless we're talking bars, then it's gold all the way.

Hometown: Columbus. Reprazentin' for the 614!

Insomnia: I'm awake right now, so...

Job Title: Office Operations Director or, more affectionately, Ood.

Kids: I don't have any, but I see them on the street sometimes. And, yes, sometimes I kick them.

Living Arrangements:3 guys, one house, no rats. Allhamdulillah

Most admirable traits:Umm. All of them? Really, I would say that I know when to be quiet and I get the job done

Number of Sexual Partners: People, this is a family website. This question will offend the children. But if they complain directly, I will kick them.

Overnight Hospital Stays:None that I can remember, at least not any where I was the one in the room.

Phobias: I am afraid of roaches, but I wouldn't say I'm phobic. I just think they're going to eat me. Seriously.

Quote: "People in Hell want ice water"

Religion: Christian. Yay, Jesus!

Siblings:4 sisters, two older and two younger. And, no, I don't need your pity.

Time I wake up:Let's see. The morning meeting is at 8:30, so...8:27

Unusual Talent or Skill: I know all the words to "Careless Whisper" by Wham! and I can sing it in the grocery store.

Vegetable I love: Does corn count?

Worst Habit: I don't really pay attention

X-rays:I have always been pro X-Ray. Some of my best friends are X-Rays.

Yummy foods I make: My pea dumplings are TDF

Zodiac Sign:Aries, or, if your Chinese, Horse. Or, if your fundamentally against this type of thing, I don't know my sign. I don't follow that kind of thing...

Spring in K'Stan

A Team Slogan

I revealed our team mascot yesterday, so, I thought that today I might reveal our team slogan. But first a little back story.

The Kurds are much more blunt than Americans and, when said Kurds are speaking English, the problem is even worse. Here are some examples:

Joan was told repeatedly by one of her elderly neighbors that she was fat. This was driven home by incessant pokes to Joan's stomach.

Lucy was told by D-Dog that rice and beans were making her fat.

One of us is always being told that our Kurdish skills are lacking in comparison to one of the other team members. This is often said in front of the other team member. "Doris is so smart. Why is your Kurdish so bad?"

But the topper - the one that birthed a slogan - was said to yours truly. It wasn't meant to be mean, but...

...we're at a picnic at Dukan and all of the guys decide to walk to a nearby castle/fort/ruin thing on top of a giant hill. We start up and I get the following from a really kind Kurdish friend:

"You're a little fat for hiking."

And, while this is pretty much true, I still don't like to be told. But, I can't keep something that good to myself and I told the whole group.

So now Joan is a little fat for walking, Lucy is a little fat for finance reports, Stanley is a little fat for the internet, Doris is a little fat for "right now," Wally is a little fat for his secret love and, well, I'm a little fat for most things...

A Team Mascot

Our team has a mascot. That's him on the left (well, in the picture on the left, he's on the right.) His name is Fat Mannequin and he stands guard at a store in the bazaar.

He was one of the first "people" to greet us when we arrived in our city, and he's been a landmark ever since.

We even refer to him speaking to other people. As in:

Other people: "Where'd you find those awesome Man Man Spider Fashion shorts?"

Us: "Oh, right by Fat Mannequin."

Other people: *blink*blink*

This usually meets with blank stares and results in a lengthy explanation, but we don't let that stop us. I mean, how can you live in this city and not know Fat Mannequin? It's like not knowing Mam Jalal or Pak City!

Working Early...

I had to post again because I realized that I forgot to post this with yesterday's stuff.

This blog is a friend of a friend here in K'Stan. And it's fantastic, so, if you feel like rooting around in a stranger's life, this is a good one!

And so this post gets the appropriate attention: a picture!

Nothing to Say, but...

It seems like things are heating up in the blogosphere. (Please note that my use of the term "blogosphere" in no way represents acceptance of that term as an actual word) The AVHG has gone from insane to profound (at least my comments) in one short day, a fellow worker has started her own work (check back for the official unveiling), I've discovered a great blog from someone that I know here in K'Stan (I've added that link to the right), Mom and Sis have both updated, Jason is writing some great things and Jenel let us know that she and Jason are a little insane.

Good time, good times...

In the real world things are heating up, too, I guess. Spring has hit K'Stan and it's beautiful. After the drab (and COLD!) winter, this is great. We're all enjoying being outside before the temp breaks 100 and we all want to kill each other, but are, alas, too hot and tired to really do it...

D-Dog and the Chicken

All the restaurants in K'Stan have fantastic names, like Love Time pictured above. Soon I hope to visit Sea Town and we eat at Batam all the time, which means Yummy.

There's also a place called the Eiffel Tower restaurant which actually reads as "The Evil Restaurant" in Kurdish script. I was going to attach a picture of that, but ya'll can't read Kurdish, so what was a hearty guffaw for us would have been a shoulder shrug for you and, let's face it, it's a lot of work to post a picture for just a shoulder shrug.

In related news, we've hired a cook. I may have already posted this info (?), but I can't remember so, if you're reading this for a second time, afu...but it's very exciting. Kurdish food can be very good when it is ....

I have to stop and note here that I just convinced Joan to eat a cookie out of the trash!!!

... done well, and D-dog is fantastic!! I had perhaps the best chicken ever for lunch. Don't ask me how she cooked it because I don't know. And I don't care. It was awesome.

Enough food talk for today.

AVHG Gone Wild

If you haven't been reading the Abbington Village Home Group page, then you've been missing out. Yes, Craig posts some really thought-provoking things, and, yes, the group responds with a lot of insightful comments, but I mean specifically the discussion surrounding their recent movie night.

I particularly loved the following two comments:

"So last night we did a test and we found out that (despite trying hard not to
be) Criag is a boy, Brandi is mostly girly with a little boy, Angie is half and half, and Megan is a cat. Again, this is why I love this group, Multicultural, Multispecie-al, aaahhhh. "

Posted by Cristi and the following from Craig.

"You better check yourself girlfriend....trying to come in here with that weak
stuff."

I'm not really sure what's going on at home, but it sure is fun to read...

Pour Femme

I finally got up the energy to make the long and dangerous trek to the scanner. Which is 15 to 20 feet away in the living room, which is a separate room from the office. But, I think all of my effort was worth it. Now you can fully appreciate GoldenSpy. (Well, 99% appreciate. I cut of part in my scan...)

Rest assured that I am fully "Licensed to Thrill" even though this picture would seem to suggest that I am only "Icensed to Thrill." I can promise you that this is not the case.

In other news: it's Easter. I hope everyone found their Easter Basket this morning. I also hope that everyone finds any and all eggs that they've hidden. More importantly I hope everyone finds faith in their risen savior. If not, Jason's latest blog update might be of some use, so check it out.

Also, we have hired a cook/cleaning lady for the office and she started today. This is great news! Today we're having Kufte for lunch which is like meatballs wrapped in rice and is very good. Today we're also having newly vacuumed rugs and someone else doing our dishes!

Good times.

Not Stolen from Jason...

Let's call the idea "borrowed" instead.

Get your own blogcloud here.

Licensed to Thrill

I had a pretty good 28th birthday here in K'stan. We had a Mexican feast and it was wonderful.

We invited some Kurds and had a good time. We all wore funny hats. Well, we all wore the same funny hat which we passed around. And I got some great Kurdish gifts, like a bottle of "Golden Spy," which was pour femme, but how can one expect the Kurds to read French?

It was this gift which gave me my license to thrill. So now I can do it legally!

So, in response to the above, Angie wrote:

I'm so glad that you had a cool birthday. Hey, I didn't understand what you wrote about the bottle of Golden Spy...and french. Would you please tell me again in English? I'm sure all the pieces are there for me to understand, but for some reason it's not making sense to me. It sounds like you got a bottle of wine, but the label was in French; and you didn't realize that the Kurds would even read French. And then, you went and got drunk, like you always do whenever there's alcohol present, and went on a killing spree while wearing your hot new cowboy hat.

Is that about right?

I guess I should clarify that Golden Spy is perfume.

28!

This picture has nothing to do with my birthday, but feel free to post your birthday wishes anyway!

;-)


Yeah, I'll have the Sweet and Sour Sand, please.

So, I went to Kirkuk...

... and had a great time.

Did you that Kirkuk claims to be the burial place of the biblical Daniel? Neither did I, but I saw the place where he is buried.

Well, I saw it from the car. As we drove past. Kirkuk isn't exactly what one would call "safe for tourism."

Contrary to what one might expect, I had a very relaxing weekend: watching TV, hanging out with (cool) Americans, eating Pizza Hut pizza (neither rice nor beans in sight!).

Unfortunately, on the last night I started feeling a little "under the weather." Sis will know what I mean... Anyway, I wasn't well and in the morning I felt terrible.

On the way out they packed us into bullet-proof vests (better safe than sorry, right?) and we were on our way. We only wore the vests until we were out of the city, then we took them off.

As we drove home I started to feel really nauseous. Now, I'm not one to feel car sick, but that didn't stop me from blowing chunks all over the side of the road, did it? I was miserable, so I asked the driver to stop. And there, in the rain, on the side of an Iraqi highway, I was sick for the first time in years, I think, and I was left wondering: When, exactly did I eat rice?

Ah, good times in Kurdistan.