Lookin’ Our Best

Got three weddings coming up this weekend: two friends and one sister. Thought I’d do them each proud by posting pics of when we was at our finest.

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit

Ever heard of a game in which two people compete to be the first to say “Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit” to each other on the first day of the month?

It becomes more challenging and exciting when the competitors live on different continents.

In anticipation of a friend’s question...I did take the two pictures below, both of them at Badlands National Park this past summer. The picture of the complete rabbit was my first attempt.

The second picture – the one in which I captured two-thirds of the rabbit – was a later attempt. I guess you could call what I photographed in the second picture a “rabb”.

Hmmm...kind of reminds me of someone who introduced me to this silly game.

C'est la différence.

Cowboys ride into the sunset.

During Ramadan, North African riders ride toward breakfast at sunset.






The conductor in the Johnny Cash song had all “pig iron”.

North Africa has livestock.

Reversed

I rejoiced this afternoon when I learned that airplane restrictions were reversed, allowing me once again to carry toothpaste and contact solution onto airplanes. This especially delights me, in view of my upcoming long weekend in the United States.

In fact, I intend to carry a fair amount of luggage between North Africa and America. My parents notified me this past weekend that a GE reverse osmosis water filter arrived at their doorstep for me transport back to its future location at my apartment complex.

That reverse osmosis contraption got me thinking. You know, some folks claim to learn through osmosis. This expression, based upon a slight misuse of what osmosis actually is, generally refers to placing a textbook under one’s pillow, in hopes of absorbing the knowledge contained within the textbook during sleepytime.

I sometimes wonder if I go through an unlearning process of reverse osmosis, whereby knowledge from my brain actually leaks into my pillow at night.

Miscommunication

I was socializing with friends the other evening, drinking coffee and eating apple crisp. During the course of conversation, a friend mentioned that she had received pictures of her nephew. In fact, these pictures were of the “you can hold them in your hands” variety, rather than of the “you can see them on your computer” variety. Pictures from home are a big deal when you live in North Africa.

My friend mentioned that one of the pictures depicted her nephew, holding a beater. Her nephew is two or three years old. Imagine, then, my surprise when the word I heard was not beater, but beer.

Folks at home, try saying beater five times fast. Can you sympathize with my confusion?

Another friend of mine also heard beer and commented something to the effect of, “Wow, I guess you start them off early.”

This comment apparently did not register with the recipient of the pictures, because one of the next things out of her mouth was something to the effect of, “It reminds me of when I used to make brownies as a kid.”

I was somewhat amused and intrigued by this, so I asked something to the effect of, “Does your family have a tradition of making beer-battered brownies?”

The look on my friend’s face expressed something to the effect of, “How does your brain manage to produce such random comments?”

Then the room became chillingly silent. While I was unable to pinpoint what I had done wrong, I had the unmistakable impression that it was very, very bad. At that moment, I wanted to be whisked away to a place where no one was staring at me and the crickets were not so audible.

After spending a few minutes reconstructing the conversation, we sorted out the miscommunication.

The moral of the story: The word whisk communicates a similar concept to the word beater, and it is less likely to lead to misunderstandings about toddlers’ use of alcoholic beverages.

Nearly missed it...Arrr!

I be glad that me bucko reminded me o' Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Since others have blogged pirate-y things, I suppose I should blog my favorite pirate joke. Here goes…

Question: Did you hear about the new pirate movie?
Punchline: It’s rated Arrr.

Do I look like a pirate in this picture?

Now in the diaper section…