I was sent this link for free rice and now I can't stop sneaking over and trying to play. I am not as bright as my friend who sent it, but I must admit, at one point when I missed two in a row, I was downright offended by the number :).
If you're the kind of kid who read the dictionary for fun, or you simply want to test how much knowledge you've retained from the word of the day toilet paper, I highly recommend this site.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Mother Knows Best
So apparently my mother isn't trying to over medicate or to cause me extra pain in my life, no matter how much it seems that way. The last two springs I have been sick as a dog with symptoms that match up completely with the flu (and then this year I had a side of dehydration to add to the fun). It is the worst feeling ever. I still feel slightly ill thinking about it. So I sucked it up and took my woosy self to the flu clinic at cvs today.
The woman asked if I was feeling ok. I didn't mention my neck which has been sore for five days (I am such an overachiever I managed to have the sore muscles even before the flu shot) but I did mention that I am scared of needles (or as my mother puts it, a baby). She said it wouldn't hurt and I said they always say that and the last time I got one it had to go twice. I don't think I was instilling confidence. . . . She gave me the shot though and I didn't cry (though I did tell her it hurt when she asked, but not that badly). I stuck around for 10 minutes promising to tell her if I felt light headed (which I had since the moment I walked in). I haven't died yet though and it's totally worth the pin prick of a shot if I don't get the flu.
Monday, October 15, 2007
The City on the Hill
Sunday, my first Boston roommate came into town. We asked her what she'd like for dinner and she said Chinese. There are a lot of Chinese places we like in china town, but somehow route one (the Las Vegas of Massachusetts) was on our mind. My roommate suggested Kowloon, which sounds like fun, but wasn't the draw I was looking for. I wanted something big, really big, enormous even. So we went to East Manor (formerly weylou), which is supposedly the largest restaurant in Massachusetts and sits high on a hill slightly away from the rest of the enormous restaurants begging for attention with their giant neon signs.
It was great. The place itself was just kitschy enough to satisfy everyone's desire (there is an escalator up to the second floor and lots of dragons and a network of bridges in one area) and the space was huge. They have a buffet with over 150 choices for dinner. There was a soup bar, a sushi bar (with a sushi chef making food right there, he even made suzib an eel nigiri as she stood there because she'd said she liked eel). There were some traditional dim sum buns and even frog legs. It reminded suzib and I of the place we'd been in flushing, we didn't like it quite as much, but we kept comparing the two. I found out today, that they're owned by the same people. So it makes sense!
Really, that's all for this post. I just wanted to tell you that East Manor lives up to everything you could desire from the largest restaurant in Boston.
It was great. The place itself was just kitschy enough to satisfy everyone's desire (there is an escalator up to the second floor and lots of dragons and a network of bridges in one area) and the space was huge. They have a buffet with over 150 choices for dinner. There was a soup bar, a sushi bar (with a sushi chef making food right there, he even made suzib an eel nigiri as she stood there because she'd said she liked eel). There were some traditional dim sum buns and even frog legs. It reminded suzib and I of the place we'd been in flushing, we didn't like it quite as much, but we kept comparing the two. I found out today, that they're owned by the same people. So it makes sense!
Really, that's all for this post. I just wanted to tell you that East Manor lives up to everything you could desire from the largest restaurant in Boston.
Monday, October 8, 2007
And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street
My boy reserved October 7th far in advance. I had already planned something for us on the sixth, but a month out he asked for the 7th. I asked him what we were doing assuming that it was something with his 30 something friends. He didn't respond to either email when I asked. Later I asked him in person and he said it was a surprise.
Time went on and I asked more questions. He said, "you said you liked surprises, don't you want it to be a surprise?" I do like surprises, but then I get scared that whatever someone thinks will be a pleasant surprise won't really be that great and I am terrible at feigning enthusiasm (just ask any number of my engaged friends).
I had said I'd like to go to water fire on October 6th and that we could have that as a day just the two of us, but as the day approached I was more worn out/tired/sapped of energy and we decided just to cancel.
Sunday came and I was still tired and didn't really want to get out of bed for church. I am glad I did though, the sermon was good and on a section of John I like (Peter being asked three times if he loved Christ, as if to redeem him for the three times he denied Christ. I LOVE Peter, I love his enthusiastic/impetuous love of Christ). It was Communion Sunday and the pastor tends to run long anyway. My boy looked at his watch several times. As soon as church let out we pushed our way out using every short cut we knew. I asked if we were in a hurry. My boy tried to play it cool. It was obvious we were in a hurry.
We got on the train to North Station, and I guessed our destination. He was taking me to the Circus. He had gotten the best seats in the house. We were practically on the stage. It was amazing. He even offered to buy me the cotton candy (I LOVE cotton candy) several times, but I refused, because I cannot support charging $10 for cotton candy even if you get a cheap hat thrown in. I was also disappointed that the circus is no longer three rings. But the motorcycle globe and the trick horse riding was as good as ever (though the Canadian mounties had some better formations at their show at the fair :)).
After the circus my boy took me to dinner at this cute little place in the North End where we were practically by ourselves. The food was good and the service great (since there was a guy at a table for one and one family downstairs).
We finished by getting cupcakes at lulu's (not as crowded as mike's or modern) and went home where I took a nap and my boy watched the game.
A perfect day.
P.S. After that last post, I promised my dad and my best friend I'd be back to my bitter self, so here's a tidbit for them. While at the circus I told my boy I'd only been to Ringling brother's once as a child and the two things I remember from the show are being so excited about seeing the unicorn and my dad leaning over and saying, "it's just a goat with a horn glued to its head." and then my cousin getting a sno cone and I wasn't allowed to have one (in retrospect it's probably because it cost so much). My boy bought me a sno cone in an elephant stein. We carried it proudly for the rest of the day.
Time went on and I asked more questions. He said, "you said you liked surprises, don't you want it to be a surprise?" I do like surprises, but then I get scared that whatever someone thinks will be a pleasant surprise won't really be that great and I am terrible at feigning enthusiasm (just ask any number of my engaged friends).
I had said I'd like to go to water fire on October 6th and that we could have that as a day just the two of us, but as the day approached I was more worn out/tired/sapped of energy and we decided just to cancel.
Sunday came and I was still tired and didn't really want to get out of bed for church. I am glad I did though, the sermon was good and on a section of John I like (Peter being asked three times if he loved Christ, as if to redeem him for the three times he denied Christ. I LOVE Peter, I love his enthusiastic/impetuous love of Christ). It was Communion Sunday and the pastor tends to run long anyway. My boy looked at his watch several times. As soon as church let out we pushed our way out using every short cut we knew. I asked if we were in a hurry. My boy tried to play it cool. It was obvious we were in a hurry.
We got on the train to North Station, and I guessed our destination. He was taking me to the Circus. He had gotten the best seats in the house. We were practically on the stage. It was amazing. He even offered to buy me the cotton candy (I LOVE cotton candy) several times, but I refused, because I cannot support charging $10 for cotton candy even if you get a cheap hat thrown in. I was also disappointed that the circus is no longer three rings. But the motorcycle globe and the trick horse riding was as good as ever (though the Canadian mounties had some better formations at their show at the fair :)).
After the circus my boy took me to dinner at this cute little place in the North End where we were practically by ourselves. The food was good and the service great (since there was a guy at a table for one and one family downstairs).
We finished by getting cupcakes at lulu's (not as crowded as mike's or modern) and went home where I took a nap and my boy watched the game.
A perfect day.
P.S. After that last post, I promised my dad and my best friend I'd be back to my bitter self, so here's a tidbit for them. While at the circus I told my boy I'd only been to Ringling brother's once as a child and the two things I remember from the show are being so excited about seeing the unicorn and my dad leaning over and saying, "it's just a goat with a horn glued to its head." and then my cousin getting a sno cone and I wasn't allowed to have one (in retrospect it's probably because it cost so much). My boy bought me a sno cone in an elephant stein. We carried it proudly for the rest of the day.
Friday, October 5, 2007
God is good, All the time/ All the time, God is good
My friend's sister is a pastor and she had the hard task once of talking to her congregation after three of their congregants had died, one of them being just a baby. She said:"Back in my Youth Ministry days I took my youth group to a conference. The preacher there was an African American minister who would yell at us, 'God is good!' and we would respond, 'All the time.' and then he would say, 'All the time.' and we would yell back 'God is good.'
She talked about how especially the baby's death "hurts and makes it nearly impossible to say, "God is good all the time.' But that is why it is important that we come together as a fellowship of believers so that we can help one another find the words to praise God. The Apostle Paul in I Corinthians tells us the following: 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.'We are here today to both be consoled and to do the consoling. We are here today to build one another back up and remind each other that God is good and the Congregation responded: all the time, and then I said All the time God is good"
I wish I had remembered this long ago email last night. It might have helped. I found last night really hard and really depressing. One of the guys from the common is dying. He knows he's dying. We know he's dying. It's only a matter of time, and not that much time either.
He became a Christian this year and his facing faith testing things that many Christians don't face until far into their walk.
Last night it kind of hit home. He's usually stubborn and pretty good at appearing healthy (he hates for people to see him when he's not at 100%). Last night he kept throwing up from the pain and he could barely walk. He admitted to me that his doctor told one of his concerned friends, "he looks fine on the outside, but on the inside he's really far gone, he's really deteriorated."
He's been talking about Halloween a lot recently. I didn't get why. It's not a major holiday by any stretch of the imagination. But every week he keeps asking if we'll have special muffins, orange muffins for Halloween. I realized last night, it's because that's as long as he thinks he'll live. It's like when my grandfather knew time was short and aimed for just the turn of the century (which sadly he didn't even make).
He already told me that when he goes he wants chocolate muffins and he wants people to know they were from him. I am telling you now, they will be the best damn cupcakes I can afford.
Someone in our group a couple weeks ago asked what we were going to do when he does pass away. We're not grief counselors and it will affect others out there. Our pastor pointed out that he's not the first person out on the common to die, and he's right, but he's the first person out on the common that we've grown close to, that has become an integral part of our Thursday night's, who has joined us in our walk as brothers and sisters in Christ to die.
I know there's the cheezy song from Michael W. Smith about friends are friends forever. But last night all I could think about was a song we sang when I was in college that was called the benediction, here are the lyrics:
She talked about how especially the baby's death "hurts and makes it nearly impossible to say, "God is good all the time.' But that is why it is important that we come together as a fellowship of believers so that we can help one another find the words to praise God. The Apostle Paul in I Corinthians tells us the following: 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.'We are here today to both be consoled and to do the consoling. We are here today to build one another back up and remind each other that God is good and the Congregation responded: all the time, and then I said All the time God is good"
I wish I had remembered this long ago email last night. It might have helped. I found last night really hard and really depressing. One of the guys from the common is dying. He knows he's dying. We know he's dying. It's only a matter of time, and not that much time either.
He became a Christian this year and his facing faith testing things that many Christians don't face until far into their walk.
Last night it kind of hit home. He's usually stubborn and pretty good at appearing healthy (he hates for people to see him when he's not at 100%). Last night he kept throwing up from the pain and he could barely walk. He admitted to me that his doctor told one of his concerned friends, "he looks fine on the outside, but on the inside he's really far gone, he's really deteriorated."
He's been talking about Halloween a lot recently. I didn't get why. It's not a major holiday by any stretch of the imagination. But every week he keeps asking if we'll have special muffins, orange muffins for Halloween. I realized last night, it's because that's as long as he thinks he'll live. It's like when my grandfather knew time was short and aimed for just the turn of the century (which sadly he didn't even make).
He already told me that when he goes he wants chocolate muffins and he wants people to know they were from him. I am telling you now, they will be the best damn cupcakes I can afford.
Someone in our group a couple weeks ago asked what we were going to do when he does pass away. We're not grief counselors and it will affect others out there. Our pastor pointed out that he's not the first person out on the common to die, and he's right, but he's the first person out on the common that we've grown close to, that has become an integral part of our Thursday night's, who has joined us in our walk as brothers and sisters in Christ to die.
I know there's the cheezy song from Michael W. Smith about friends are friends forever. But last night all I could think about was a song we sang when I was in college that was called the benediction, here are the lyrics:
So between chanting God is good All the time/All the time God is good and repeating in my head, If the Lord should bring us back together, may we be in his arms till then, I plan on getting through this -- God willing -- and helping those around me get through it too. In the meantime, it's taken a long time to write this blog with a couple of near misses on tears. So if you could pray for him, for his family, for us out on the common, I'd appreciate it.My Friends May You Grow In Grace
And In The Knowledge Of Our Lord And Savior.
My Friends May You Grow In Grace And In The
Knowledge Of Jesus Christ
Chorus
To God Be The Glory Now And Forever,
Now And Forever Amen (Repeat)
I Pray Tonight If We Learned From One Another, May We Glorify Him.
And If The Lord Should Bring Us Back Together,
May We Be In His Arms Till Then.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Sarah Jackman
When I was little my grandfather used to sing Sarah Jackman to me and I loved it. I mean it's a fun song, it has my name in it, what could be better?
Today I was reminded of the song when someone I haven't spoken to in ages sent me a random email. It turns out I was included on the email accidentally. She did ask me how my life was going (since we haven't talked in well over a year). She has settled into married life and had a baby since the last time I saw her. The biggest news in my life is that I have started taking a multivitamin.
I am not jealous of where she is in her life. I mean I am still in the pining for a puppy stage and then realizing it's far too much responsibility for me (perhaps this is what happens to people when they wait too long to get married, at 20 I wanted five kids). Anyway, it got me to thinking about accomplishments and what I do with my life.
Another friend of mine said to me this week, I don't know how you do it. I just couldn't keep up the pace you do. That's really sweet and yet, when I look back on what I do week to week I usually can't pin one big thing down. . . .
Unlike most products of the 80's I wasn't raised to think I could change the world. My parents were too much the realists to implant that kind of self-esteem crap into my sister and I. Yet, sometimes I look back on how days fly by at a break neck pace and wonder what I am doing.
Another friend once told me people don't like me because of what I do, they like me because of who I am. I have a hard time understanding that, because who I am is so wrapped up in what I do. My Tuesday night small group is studying James and he's pretty emphatic that if you have faith you do. You don't just listen, you act.
I do act, I am busy (and at this point, a lot of the time I'm not too busy, just booked), but when someone asks me what I have been up to it's still hard to show something exciting or interesting I have been up to.
Perhaps I just concentrate more on one of my favorite passages from Rats (which I recommend you read if you haven't):
Today I was reminded of the song when someone I haven't spoken to in ages sent me a random email. It turns out I was included on the email accidentally. She did ask me how my life was going (since we haven't talked in well over a year). She has settled into married life and had a baby since the last time I saw her. The biggest news in my life is that I have started taking a multivitamin.
I am not jealous of where she is in her life. I mean I am still in the pining for a puppy stage and then realizing it's far too much responsibility for me (perhaps this is what happens to people when they wait too long to get married, at 20 I wanted five kids). Anyway, it got me to thinking about accomplishments and what I do with my life.
Another friend of mine said to me this week, I don't know how you do it. I just couldn't keep up the pace you do. That's really sweet and yet, when I look back on what I do week to week I usually can't pin one big thing down. . . .
Unlike most products of the 80's I wasn't raised to think I could change the world. My parents were too much the realists to implant that kind of self-esteem crap into my sister and I. Yet, sometimes I look back on how days fly by at a break neck pace and wonder what I am doing.
Another friend once told me people don't like me because of what I do, they like me because of who I am. I have a hard time understanding that, because who I am is so wrapped up in what I do. My Tuesday night small group is studying James and he's pretty emphatic that if you have faith you do. You don't just listen, you act.
I do act, I am busy (and at this point, a lot of the time I'm not too busy, just booked), but when someone asks me what I have been up to it's still hard to show something exciting or interesting I have been up to.
Perhaps I just concentrate more on one of my favorite passages from Rats (which I recommend you read if you haven't):
Next time, that's going to be my answer when someone asks me what I have been up to.On the way, we ran into an acquaintance, a guy whom we knew from high school who knew nothing of our rat endeavor -- a central paradox of life in the city is that in the midst of several million people, each of whom seems to live a life in complete anonymity, you can run into someone you know. As we greeted our friend, I moved the trap from my right hand to my left hand so that my right hand would be free to shake his. As I did this, I noticed that the guy looked down at the trap but didn't say anything.
Then he looked up and said "So what are you guys up to?"
I was practically bursting with my answer, of course. "We're going to try and trap rats, " I said.He looked me up and down and nodded hesitantly. Then he looked at Dave and said, "So, Dave, What are you up to?"
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
I don't feel inspired, but. . . .
I thought I would share that we took our annual trek to the fair. It involved a lot more time spent eating and a lot less doing other things. While I love eating (especially fair food), somehow, it meant that the fair wasn't an overwhelmingly fair experience this year.
We tried to capture fair-ness by going into the grange building, but we saw a sad little display of handiwork and a few jars of relishes and jams for sale. The livestock area was overrun with alpacas, which were cute, but certainly weren't beautiful jersey calves eager to suck your fingers. There was a fun goat fashion show where people showed off clothes they'd made using the goat hair (and dragged the obliging goat along often with a matching collar). There was also a sheep shearing demonstration, which some of our crowd seemed to enjoy, but we sat too far back to totally enjoy (though the run away sheep was some short lived excitement).
The tackiness promised in the mutual of omaha wild kingdom electronic animal exhibit was not even fully realized since it was such a tiny exhibit. Also, the shark demonstration was much smaller than it appeared in the brochure and lasted about 20 minutes total, another disappointment. The chinese acrobats, a fair staple, were nowhere to be found this year, apparently replaced by drumming (which we didn't go to out of mourning for the acrobats).
Looking back, aside from insanely large corn dogs and other treats (including the not to be missed cheese curds, which one contingency of our group consumed three times over), my favorite part was the Canadian Mounties Musical Ride. It was amazing what those horses were capable of (and so much cheaper/more interesting than seeing the lipizzaner stallions).
So yes, I was sort of disappointed in this year's big e, but will I go back next year? Absolutely. Every year is a new experience there full of new memories. Wanna go with?
We tried to capture fair-ness by going into the grange building, but we saw a sad little display of handiwork and a few jars of relishes and jams for sale. The livestock area was overrun with alpacas, which were cute, but certainly weren't beautiful jersey calves eager to suck your fingers. There was a fun goat fashion show where people showed off clothes they'd made using the goat hair (and dragged the obliging goat along often with a matching collar). There was also a sheep shearing demonstration, which some of our crowd seemed to enjoy, but we sat too far back to totally enjoy (though the run away sheep was some short lived excitement).
The tackiness promised in the mutual of omaha wild kingdom electronic animal exhibit was not even fully realized since it was such a tiny exhibit. Also, the shark demonstration was much smaller than it appeared in the brochure and lasted about 20 minutes total, another disappointment. The chinese acrobats, a fair staple, were nowhere to be found this year, apparently replaced by drumming (which we didn't go to out of mourning for the acrobats).
Looking back, aside from insanely large corn dogs and other treats (including the not to be missed cheese curds, which one contingency of our group consumed three times over), my favorite part was the Canadian Mounties Musical Ride. It was amazing what those horses were capable of (and so much cheaper/more interesting than seeing the lipizzaner stallions).
So yes, I was sort of disappointed in this year's big e, but will I go back next year? Absolutely. Every year is a new experience there full of new memories. Wanna go with?
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