Friday Fragments

Another week has flown by and it's time once again for Friday Fragments hosted by Mrs. 4444 over at Half-past Kissin' Time.  The idea is that during the week lots of things happen that are interesting, but not big enough to be a post all on their own (though I can ramble on with the best of 'em), so come Friday we round those bits up and put them together.  Let's get started!


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The cute little Basset Hound doing his thing in the divider this week is in "honor" of our hound, who is actually a Basset/Beagle mix, which are called Bagels.  I shared in a meme earlier this week that he (Elvis) loves him some people food.  That's a bit of an understatement.  His devotion to the quest for people food is unswerving and undying.  Once he has the scent, his vision and focus narrow to that one single objective....FOOD!  He even taught himself to sit up and beg for maximum cuteness and irresistibility.  It's that single-mindedness that leads him to eat just about anything that crosses his path, whether it's actually food or just came into contact with food once.  It can be funny or worrisome.

This week our Chubby Monster (as we've dubbed him) found Cody's stash of mini Hershey bars in Megan's room.  We were a bit concerned since you hear so many dire consequences of dogs eating chocolate and there were quite a few wrappers lying about so we were keeping a closer eye on our boy.  He seemed a bit off his feed (not that he quit eatting), but not sick.  The night after his chocolate adventure he, uh, had a wee bit of an accident.  In the living room.  That Megan found.  With her bare feet.  Definitely blaming the chocolate on that one, but other than really ticking Megan off, no harm done.  Elvis still didn't seem quite his usual self, though.

Then yesterday I was in my bathroom doing my hair when I heard Elvis begin to make those noises that let you know he's about to throw up out in the hall by the backdoor.  Fortunately, Megan heard it, too, and went running because no dainty little hacker is our boy.  No sir, he blows like Vesuvius!  After a moment I heard Megan yelling and expressing her disgust.  Seems Chubs gifted her with a large pile of undigested Hershey wrappers.

He feels much better now.


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Back in 2001 I went on my first missions trip to the Navajo reservation in New Mexico and Arizona (it covers more area than that, but that's where I was).  The denomination/organization our church was affiliated with organized teams made up of teens and adult leaders from across the country to go to several mission fields each year.  We stayed at one of the missions out there, but for part of our time we, along with a large group of Navajo and mixed heritage kids, went to a very remote camp in the mountains (remote enough that no one could tell us with any certainty if we were in New Mexico or Arizona!).

At the camp we taught lessons, played games, did crafts, paddled canoes, learned about each other's cultures (those kids were fascinated by Pennsylvania, which they imagined to be some sort of ultra green utopia), and bonded over the campfire.  Most of the kids came from Gamerco, NM which is a, well...mixed culture neighborhood (barely above the "slum" level) and not actually on the reservation.  There are Navajo, Hispanic, and African-American heritages at play in Gamerco.  The kids from there watch TV, listen to rap and hip-hop...and sadly become involved in drinking, drugs, and violence at an early age.  Some of the kids were from Hooghan Nizhoni Church, which is on the reservation and not far over the Arizona border.  The kids from there are strictly Navajo, but still influenced to some degree by outside culture.  Then there were the precious few girls...four of them...that came under my specific care.  They were from Tsaile.  Tsaile is in the heart of the reservation and the natives who go there are the most traditional, the most uninfluenced by the outside world and it was a minor miracle that they were there.  The Navajo from Tsaile were, at that time anyway, very resistant to the idea of sending their children off for a week with whites.  Given how the U.S. has dealt with Native Americans I can't say I blame them.

The Tsaile girls were assigned to me, because of the language and cultural difficulties and also because they were older than the others at 14-17 years of age.  We thought they'd be too much for any of the teen leaders.  I have to admit, it was a rough week.  Those differences caused a few problems and they LOVED to pull pranks on me....something I tried to take in good humor....until it involved reptiles.  It was very hard to make inroads with them and we never knew if we were getting through or how they felt about things, etc.  They were so quiet and stand-offish.  Still, at the end of the week they asked for my address and phone number to keep in touch.  I heard from the youngest one a couple of times, but that was it.

Yesterday I checked my phone messages and found one from the oldest Tsaile girl.  I was floored!  I called her back last night.  It is still hard to talk to her because of language and culture (it was like pulling teeth!).  I tried not to drag it out too long since it was long distance and she wasn't saying much, but I asked about her life (she told me a little), answered the couple of questions she asked me, asked her if everything was going okay (it crossed my mind that she'd called after 10 years because she needs help) and she said it was all fine, so I gave her my e-mail and my Facebook name so she can keep in touch if she wants to beyond "painful" phone calls.  I hope she does.


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My stress levels are through the roof over tomorrow's car show. 

First of all there was the man who bailed on making the dash plaques for me...on Monday!  I found someone else and I finally saw the proof for what he's doing last night.  It is totally NOT what I wanted, but I am over a barrel since we advertised that we'd have them.  I sat and told the guy exactly what I wanted, where to put the logo, that I wanted the date on it, etc.  There's no date, the logo is not where I wanted it and instead of one little car in the corner opposite of the logo, he's got a little car stuck after every word.  It looks like crap.  He didn't put any thought into the design at all.  I am beyond disappointed (especially since this business gets a lot of sign work from our church) and will not be using this business again.

Second, I am, of course, worried about the turn out.  Both of entries and of looky-loos.

And third, depending on what station you watch, tomorrow has either a chance of rain or is going to be a total washout.  Really?  We've hardly had any rain all summer except for late afternoon storms and it's going to pick tomorrow to rain all day?  It can't.  It can't.  It can't!


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Today is Tim's last "official" day of work before vacation.  Unfortunately he has to go down to one of the plants he built on Sunday.  What he has to do won't take long, but has to be done when the plant is shut down and Sundays are the only time that happens.  After that, though.....he is off for the next two weeks.  Yea!!  No big vacation plans.  We're just chilling at home, getting some things done, maybe taking a day trip or two.  The beach would have been nice, but it just didn't play out this year.  Next year!


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I finally called this week and scheduled a time to do my driving instruction and road test and another for my physical.  I was feeling so proud and accomplished.  Things were getting done!

Then Tim asked me last night when I was ever doing the driving time? 

Tuesday at 10:00, I said.

Isn't that when you start at the gym with the trainer, he asked?

And my physical is was scheduled for Thursday.  At 10:00.

D'oh.