Of Kurdish Superstars and Pie...

I spent the last couple of days in sunny southern California helping the next team to Iraq learn Kurdish.

Which makes sense given my superior fluency with zimani kurdi...

I got to visit the family I lived with last December. It was pretty sweet. The first night we went to a fundraiser where Kurdish singing sensation Chopi performed. I did not get to meet her.

I spent the next two days between training and visiting all the while being surrounded by Chopi rumors. On Monday night she was to come to Nancy's house to say good-bye. I tried to mill around long enough to meet her, but she never showed.

Or so I thought. She showed up 20 minutes after I left!! I did not get to meet her. Again.

But that night we did go buy pie for Nancy's son, Tad. Tad loves pie. Pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, apple pie, pecan pie, banana cream pie. He loves pie.

Well, they went to the store and came back with no-sugar-added apple pie. As he got back in the car, he showed it to me and said "Tryin' to watch the old waistline."

He also said the following earlier in the evening:

"I never drink anything yellow. There was this guy who bought a Mountain Dew once. You can guess what happened next."

Honestly? I had no idea what happened next. I laughed and told him so. He laughed and then told me that he didn't eat or drink yellow foods because they could be pee and he wouldn't know. I imagine that was the point of the Mountain Dew story, but with Tad you can never tell.

I hear Chopy's coming back to California for a big Kurdish New Year's celebration. Maybe I can meet her then.

Joan in da House

I don't know at what point Joan ceases to be Joan and becomes her real self again. Maybe she'll never be that other person again.

Regardless of what you call her, she's here in town now. We had a little get-together for her last night. It was pretty fun. I even made Kurdish food. (Doris, I did a pretty good job, but I needed more salt. I may be ready to step up to something harder now.)

I am traveling to Phoenix tomorrow for "debrief" whatever that means. Then I will go to San Diego to help with training. Along the way, I'll get to visit Lucy - the person, not the dog.

Wedding plans are coming along. E-invites have been sent out to people for whom we had e-mail addresses. Paper invites are probably going out later this week.

All in all, not to bad for someone with no job and no money!

Why, Exactly, Are There Snakes on This Plane?

This morning from 11:00 am to approximately 12:59 pm, I was a part of the year's most exciting- and aptly named- motion picture experience.

That's right. Snakes on a Plane.

I give it 4 and a half out of 5 stars.

Too Slow

Angie beat me to the punch on two posts: the church and the van, but I'll post anyway.

First: The van.

Angie is now the proud owner of a 1991 Plymouth Voyager minivan. If you've ever seen Brandy's van, then you know what I'm talking about. Only it's maroon.

It's nice to have wheels again, and it's always nice to get a free car.

Second: The Church.

We have an official wedding site! Isn't that great. This is a picture of the church.

See Angie's blog for more exciting details on both the van and the church.

Primarily Comfort

I decided to add another post here. Partly to prove that I am doing things not related to television. Unfortunately for me, I left the television on (tuned to music videos, of course) and I saw something that could not go unnoted.

Josh Gracin has new teeth. Not only that, but he took the Hilary Duff route which means that he looks like a completely different person. Or like a horse of a different color, if you will.

Key word horse. Nice choppers, Josh.

I came back tonight to post a link to the Soma Digest. Soma is an English-language newspaper from Kurdistan. It mostly focuses on Sulemania and Erbil. I was excited to remember it and to be able to check it out again. It's pretty good and it's an easy way to keep up on those crazy Kurds.

I am most excited by the advertisements on the site. They're mostly for places I know and, in some cases, people I've actually met. Also, they're pretty funny.

Welcome home, Lucy and Stanley!!

And Now... A Twist

I am well aware that the following post may only strengthen the perception that I am not doing anything but watching television, but I can't help myself.

As you may know, Erika won HoH on BB7 on Thursday. Following Kaysar's eviction, things were looking bad for Janelle. But, thanks to technical difficulties during Thursday's HoH competition, it had to be replayed. And Janelle won!

Booyah.

Oh, and wedding plans are moving along well. But those are secret. Sorry.

Nicaragua in the House

Team Nicaragua is officially home, so welcome back! Right now the Brandies are sharing heart-warming stories from their 10-day visit to the Arms of Love children's home in the NIC.

The most important story that I've heard so far (because it relates to me) is that Doug reads my blog! Hey, Doug!

It kind of makes me regret the harping on and on about BB7. But, let's face it, not enough to stop. I mean did you see the last on? Kaysar instead of James! Crazy.

Speaking of overseas readers, I hope that the Chandlers are still checking in! Hey, Neil and Clare!

And speaking of the Chandlers (the world's greatest hosts), Joan is on her way to London. Stanley, Lucy and Joan all left IQ today. On Sunday they'll reach London where Joan will spend a week. Stanley and Lucy will continue on to the states.

Welcome home Stanley and Lucy!!

Quoteof the Day

"No. We are not going. Because it's three dollars. AND there are no real freaks in it.

Escept for a 27 inch lady. And that's like 2 feet."

- Kate

The Power of Janelle

There's a lot going on in my life, yes. And there's a lot of sitting around as well, but I have two bits of info.

1) Janelle totally won POV tonight. I am so glad I'm home for this.

2) I washed my ipod shuffle over the weekend. That's right. I put it in the washer with my dirty laundry. When I took it out it wouldn't turn on or anything. No surprise, right? Well, the surprise is that today it totally flickered to life!!! I charged it, loaded songs and it totally works now. Just as if it had never been run through the washer.

Ok, so I am reading what I wrote and thinking, how sad that this is what my life has come to...

But then again I have a resurrected ipod and Janelle is in the house for another week, so I can't be too sad.

Surprise! It's a Computer...

Yeah, I guess that would be nice, but this is neither a surprise nor a computer. Mostly it's rambling. Which is better by far.

I added Angie's blog back to the list on the right. Since she stopped posting satellite photos of my house in K'Stan (Dear Mr. Terrorist, My boyfriend lives here. Oh, and he's an American. I know how you like Americans.), I decided to restore her linking privileges.

I tried a new restaurant today when I visited Katja and Julie today. We went to Oodles. It's an Asian noodle bar. I have been waiting for a quality noodle bar for years. This one's pretty close to quality and closer than most others around town - and by others I mean the millions of Chinese buffets. Check 'em out at www.gooodles.com.

I'd also like to give a shout out to Nikki and Miranda who I saw on Monday. The gave me a hard time for not being active on MySpace.com. I'll try, ok? Miranda is using it to look up the retarded kids we went to High School with and then she dates them. And yeah, Miranda I know. They're not really retarded. The proper phrase is now "Mentally Disabled."

Angie and I registered for wedding gifts, too. No, we don't have a church officially, yet, but we have officially put in our request for the Jack Lalane Power Juicer...

You can check us out at Crate & Barrel, Target and Sears. (That's right. I said it. Sears.)

Angie said that old ladies like to buy towels and I said that old ladies like to shop at Sears.