Early to Church... A First Time for Everything

Monday, January 05, 2009 Posted In , , , , , , , Edit This 3 Comments »
Yesterday was the first Sunday of the New Year... and I was sooo excited, not because it was the first Sabbath of 2009, not because it was a lovely sunny day, not because I didn't have to drop kick the kids into the car.... it was because we now start church at 12.30pm! By jove, the church is TRUE!

(I know some people prefer early start church, but I am allergic to waking up early. I get hives and it's just horrible. People see me and scream, "What is that THING?" and it all turns into a bad taste B movie.)

But, we had a grand start... all the children were squeaky clean and in their uncreased, unstained, un cat-furred glory, ready to go EARLY! (I'm sure they won't make a habit of it.)

Even the small disaster of running out of nail polish remover with three red nails left didn't faze me. But I prepared an answer for those who might notice and be bold enough to ask me what in the blazes was I thinking, going to church like that?
"Scientists have discovered that glancing at three red, chipped and hideous fingernails stimulates a subconscious response to eat less." (Or, put you off your food completely.)

Jarheads and Harleys

Monday, October 20, 2008 Posted In , , , , , , , , , , , Edit This 1 Comment »
So anyway, we were invited to MM's cousins home for a Sunday afternoon family dinner. When we pull up to the apartment complex, the security guard (alias Gestapo Lady) approaches and writes down our license plate number, asks us who we're going to see then calls him to confirm we are not enemy spies. Then we are given a set of 'rules and regulations' for the complex, and MM has to sign it... all the while, the security camera is trained right on us. I was very tempted to make faces at it but didn't want us get us kicked out so very stoically eyed the thing instead. (OK, I stuck my tongue out at it, but only once.)

Then, to add a little more indignity, we were told we could not take our vehicle to the apartment but could park it at the gate and walk up (yes, UP!) to his home. I should've worn my hiking boots.

This check-point debacle made our host J very annoyed and he vowed to "bash them" later.  I wouldn't like to get on his bad side. He's a Marine.

So, we had a nice quiet dinner with J and his son and girlfriend and room mate and her boyfriend and another couple of friends and various children... did I say quiet? No, this was unmistakably a BBQ 'party' complete with ear bleeding music.  Did I say music?
Wrong again.

I was about three million miles outside my comfort zone. This is not how I envisioned spending my sabbath. MM and I looked at each other then each dove in. We were going to make the best of it. We were there for J, to meet his baby son and his girlfriend and that meant we had to be in his world for a while...

So, I ignored the "music" and the alcohol and the abundance of skin and ink on skin and just started talking to whoever would talk back. 


Just before we left, one of J's friends (griller extraordinaire) told us the recipe for the steak marinade that we all wolfed down. Soy sauce and beer.
Oh....beer you say....oh.
"I could really taste the beer." he says.
Oh.... right.....uh huh...hmmm.

On the way home the kids said, "Now we know what beer tastes like!"

Meat.



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