Wednesday, April 30, 2008

31 Cents, Baby!

It's that day again- hope everyone got their fill of Baskin Robbins ice cream. Last year, I distinctly remember being allowed to buy only one scoop. At the branch we went to today, the limit was 10. Oh, geez. I think I got (I was a little rushed): Strawberry, cherries jubilee, chocolate chip, and Heath Bar. The cherries with melted Heath bar were yummy.

So, as our good friend Barney from TV Land would say, "Scoop up!"

Oh, also I learned some unfortunate details about my roommates: they love pink bumble gum ice cream. Gag.

{Pictures to come.}

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

American Idol

Well, I used to be able to say I'd never seen an episode of American Idol, but this year when they came to San Diego, I decided to watch the auditions episode. It was... meh. I could see why people were entertained by it, but I wasn't terribly impressed. Then a few weeks ago, I started going with Britt over to Ryan's house for TV Thursday, where they watched the two nights' American Idols and that week's The Office, and I started getting to know the contestants, and I got somewhat hooked. But just for this season.

All that to say, as I'm sitting here watching tonight... how in the world is Jason Castro (or as I like to call him "the hippie") still in the running? He sings the exact same kind of songs, in the exact same way, and he has no personality. Why do these silly American girls keep voting for him? Dude, vote for the kid! He's stinkin' rocked every song I've seen, and the judges can't find anything bad to say about him.

PS- I like that Syesha goes on barefoot. I would totally do that. She's just standing there, facing Simon, in her cute dress and no shoes. I love it.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

The Difference Between Girls and Boys

Ha! So I'm in the process of trying to get my laptop back up to full optimal performance, which for me involves a lot of deleting and reorganizing files. I found an MS Word doc that I'd kept with fun quotes from the roommates and our guests over the years (kind of the things that didn't make it onto the actual quote wall), and I found this great one from the Great M&M Poker Night of 2005. Sonia and I had Muruk, Boston, and Donald from New Mexico over during Thanksgiving break and we tried this varation to Texas Hold 'Em after we'd just spent the day down at Point Loma. Anyway, here's the conversation upon sorting out the M&Ms and dealing the cards:

Me: "Wait! I need to get my camera!"

Boston: "Girls and cameras." (Accomanying eye roll.)

Me: "Wait a minute! All I heard today from Donald and Darrin today was 'I wish I had a camera!'"

Donald: "That's different! That was the beach, this is M&M's!"


And the accompanying scrapbook page I did of the night: :)

The Future

So yesterday I got a peak into what the future will be like. I had to make a trip up to Vista to pick up a banner for work. A nice little two-hour road trip in the middle of a Wednesday, just what I like.


Anyway, I decided to stop for fast food while I was there, not really because I was hungry but mostly because I had downed half of a Mickey D's 42 oz coke on the way up and really needed to stop somewhere before I made the return hour trip home. The only thing I found was this ritzy looking Jack in the Box off the 78 freeway (by the way, who even knew the 78 was a freeway in San Diego?), so I stopped in there for a chicken sandwich.


Holy cow. First off, Vista must be a wealthy town, because the Jack in the Box interior was furnished like a Starbucks. Sleek modern looking tables and chairs, plenty of people in suits eating salads, and a whole ambiance to boot.


But the ordering line is where it got impressive. As I stood at the counter, being kind of ignored by the three people bustling around behind there, I noticed a machine just to the left of me. It kind of looked like a free standing ATM machine, except the screen was flashing ORDER HERE TOUCH SCREEN TO BEGIN. Pretty clear what it's purpose was, but still I thought, no way, they're still going to give me the option of ordering at the counter, right? It's not a computer-order-or-nothing place, right? Wrong. They continued to ignore me as I stood there, until finally a girl came out from the kitchen area to take my order by punching it all in the machine for me. (I could have figured it out.) They're clearly trying to wean people off the face-to-face ordering we've all grown accustomed to by doing this directly in front of customers so they catch on, although she punched in the order so fast I only caught glimpses of the various screens as they flashed by.





I'll admit, I was impressed. The machine had the whole menu, prices, flashing lights and buttons, credit card slots, all the things Americans are attracted to in technological advancement. I tried to find a picture online, but the closest I got was this ugly Taco Bell/KFC hybrid that is big and clunky and clearly last year's model:






So there you have it, friends. The Future of fast food. Pretty soon, these things will make our food internally and spit it out seconds after we complete our order. I give it 4.25 years.



Also, while I was searching for this pic I found another fun one here. Gotta love those beautiful Golden Arches:



Monday, April 7, 2008

What I'm Thinking Between 11:40pm and 12:06am on a Monday

Haven't really written anything in awhile, so in an attempt to keep my blog hoppin', I give you...(insert drumroll here)... my thoughts.

11:41 pm:
I'm really, really craving some Fresh and Easy dill pickles right now. Those things crunch like cucumbers and I could eat a whole jar right now.


11:43pm:
How does one come up with a storyline like Harry Potter? I mean, seriously. I think there was a little acciendo creativity going on over there.

11:44pm:
The highlight of my night was going to be watching How I Met Your Mother for the first time at its regularly scheduled time since I finally finished the DVDs and got caught up. But there was a stupid college basketball game on tonight instead.

11:51pm:
I really need to clean my desk.

11:58pm:
Why are boys and computers so slow?

12:06pm:
Why am I so hungry? I think it's bedtime.





Thursday, April 3, 2008

Thought of the Day

So here's what I'm thinking today:

It started in Romans 5:3. I was looking up some Bible verses that deal with being anxious and this one popped up, one that I've heard before:

"But that's not all. We also brag when we are suffering. We know that suffering creates endurance, endurance creates character, and character creates confidence."

And I was thinking, why is Paul bragging about suffering? The answer I came up with is that the kind of suffering that produces endurance and character, etc., is the kind that totally sucks when it's happening, but is ultimately happening to make something else happen further on down the road, something we don't see now, but we'll have needed to go through this stuff in order to get there.

And then I caught this verse, which I think is my favorite verse for now (these things are so subject to change):

"I consider our present sufferings insignificant compared to the glory that will soon be revealed to us." (Romans 8:18)

Wowzer! And so what I immediately think of here is the suffering that comes to us by Satan's hand. Last night at small group we were talking about how Satan doesn't try to knock us down in one fell swoop; no, he does it all sneaky like and chips away at us little by little, either by distracting us or discouraging us. Anything to keep us from what we are supposed to be doing for the Lord.

So I think to myself, what if all this anxiousness, this discouragement, these distractions aren't really about me right now at all? What if they're about the me I'm supposed to be, what if I'm destined for something amazing, and these attacks are Satan's way of dragging me away from that path, slow and steady so I don't see it coming?

What a sneak that little guy is!

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

So here's why I love

the youth venture kids: they have got so much stinkin' personality it's not even funny. Except that it is funny. It's actually ridiculously funny. Last night went from singing lullabies to a girl who was trying to sleep on the couch, to figuring out what names we looked like besides our actual given ones, to getting my car washed out back, to "Do you want to hear a riddle? Okay, I'm going to a picnic and I'm bringing a black balloon. What are you bringing? ... Nope, you can't bring that. Nope, not that either."

Remember those riddles? I remember going through that phase around fourteen. It's fun watching these kids go through all the phases we did when we were younger. Like magic tricks. We were in love with magic tricks for like a month in junior high. It must have hit the current eighth grade a few weeks ago, because every kid at youth venture suddenly had a deck in their back pocket at all times and "Pick a card, any card," became the most overused phrase.