Our Worthy Religion

A statement analysis: It has been said that “Christianity is not a religion; it is a relationship.”
I believe it is both.

Christianity is a relationship with our triune God, and it is a religion of beliefs and practices for all of life that flow from this relationship.

Christianity is a relationship with God, the Father, our Maker and Creator. We are to humble ourselves before His sovereign power, and obey everything He has commanded in His Word. We are to fear Him and revere Him. We are to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Christianity is a relationship with Christ, the Son of God, our Savior and Redeemer. We are to rejoice in the work of Christ, whose sinless life and death on the cross satisfies the justice of God, and reconciles us to God. We are to place our trust in Christ alone to save us. We are to submit our lives to Him. He is our Lord.

Christianity is a relationship with the Holy Spirit, the third person in the trinity of God, who exalts Christ to the glory of God the Father. We are to yield to His sanctifying guidance. We are to pray in His power. We are to be filled and sanctified by His presence, which leads us to be more like Christ.

Christianity is a relationship with our neighbor. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves and give unselfish attention to their needs. The Command of Christ to love one another is expressed in the way we build each other up in the church and proclaim the gospel to the world.

Christianity is clearly a relationship. But it is also a religion, which can be defined as the practice of our faith, or the working out of our right relationship to God.

The Bible says that “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (Jas 1:27)”

It says that God chose us before the very foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him, that He predestined us to be adopted into His kingdom in Christ (Eph 1:4,5). It says that we are “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which He prepared beforehand “ (Eph 2:10).

Christianity is a religion, in which we are saved by grace, and not by our good works. But it is a religion of faith that produces good works. The Bible says that “faith without works is dead”(Jas 2:17). Those who trust in Christ will most certainly bear the good fruit of their faith. Jesus said that “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8).

In conclusion, I believe Christianity is a relationship that produces a worthy religion. And this religion is worth proclaiming and worth defending.

As we walk by faith in the power of the Spirit, let us be a light to the world and pierce the darkness with the gospel.

To the glory of God

Tackle it Tuesday ~ September 30th

My tackle it tuesday...

Laundry

Scrapbook Layouts x2 (long over due)

The bus story.

The images you see here shows the outer and inner view of a bus that I intend to recommend to a leading IT company.

My husband accompanied my son to his first job in a global IT company. After nearly two hours of orientation, all the new recruits (approx 300) were asked to wait considerable time to board a bus that was supposed to take them to a hotel where accommodation was arranged.

My husband was not allowed to board the bus but he happened to follow the bus in a taxi. The bus that must have been as old as my son (22 years) could use a parking in an open ground while raining.

I know about the simply superb looking buses built by Carpenterbus.com. Global IT companies need to maintain their standard all around and staff transportation is an important section in any company where compromise on the quality of transportation will bring down the company’s image.

To buy a bus exactly as per the picture here, contact 1.800.370.6180 or visit the link to get a free quote.

Proud Fish

Since this is "our" blog... here is a fish that Kent IS proud of. It is 9.1 lbs. That is all I know.

Enjoy.

There's No Room for Anything Else

From today's Metropolitan Diary in the New York Times Metro section:

Dear Diary:

I was on the express bus one recent morning going to work, and a young boy sat in front of me with his mom. She was obviously taking him to work with her.

The mom asked her son if he had remembered his Sidekick smartphone and his wallet and his iPod and if he remembered where he had put his papers and pens, and he began rummaging through his backpack to produce the items. He had obviously forgotten something, because his mom asked him: “What is in your head? What are you thinking about?”

He looked at her a moment and said: “Summer reading. I have poems in my head. There’s no room for anything else, just poems.

Amy Soricelli

Angel Alert

Today is the feast of Gabriel, Michael and Raphael, the archangels. Or as God likes to call them, "My homies."

My mom has this great friend; whenever someone needs prayers, Mom or others will call her, and this person she will send out an "angel alert" to get things moving. I have, in fact, heard messages on my parents' answering machine from the lady declaring an alert and asking everyone to get praying.

What do angels do -- they intercede, right? Whether it's feeding Jesus in the desert, informing Mary that God has a surprise coming her way, or battling evil spirits, angels roll up their sleeves and get involved. At various times they are God's soldiers, his emissaries, his voice, his royal court -- but always an embodiment of his spirit. To talk about angels is really to talk about God's love, God's kingship, God's active justice.

There's also that image of the angelic choir. Sometimes we hear that that's what we have to look forward to -- we'll all be part of the angelic choir, praising God. I love to sing, so sign me up. Although -- if we're talking harps and clouds, and everyone laughing energetically at everyone's jokes, I may have a previous commitment. (As a sometime joke teller myself I have to say, sometimes the funniest moments are the ones where you fail abysmally. Don't get me started.)

Anyway, the angelic choir: it reminds me of a creation story I read in The Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien's prequel to the Hobbit & the Lord of the Rings. Tolkien imagines God and his angels (Iluvatar and the Ainur) out there before the existence of everything, and each angel has a song that God has given them to sing. They sing alone or in small groups, and it's nice, but maybe a bit fragmented.

Until, that is, God draws them all together and conducts them. Their melodies brought together are an astonishing, wondrous creation -- in fact, it is the creation. Their song is the story of everything brought to life. It rolls on and on, magnificent, until one angel -- there's always got to be one -- begins to resist the group's melody and put forwards his own, creating dissonance and conflict. Some of the Ainur stop singing as he and others take on this alternate melody with strong voices.

But God works with the dissonance, as well, drawing it in and allowing it to become a part of the song. Melkor and his mates resist, getting louder, more opposed, but God works with it once again. The music that emerges "was deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came."

This might be an interesting image for us. Like the angels, God gives us individually and together songs to sing. And that act of singing (which means not necessarily singing but whatever it is we do, using our medicine, as the Lakota say, or our mojo... letting your freak flag fly)... that activity is very important. It's not just a hobby or a sideline or silly nonsense, but the means by which we create and heal and help redeem the world and one another.

So stay out there, pay attention to the conductor and keep on singing.

Weekend in Pictures

Weekend Pictures:

Kent was in a wedding Saturday afternoon, here we are.

We went fishing Sunday afternoon. Kent wants everyone to know that he has caught much bigger fish than this one.
And here we are as the sun set... awww.

Menu Plan Monday ~ September 29th

For more menu plans please check out orgjunkie.com.

~ Monday ~
breakfast - cold cereal, orange juice
lunch - blt bagels, apple slices
supper - breaded chicken pieces, french fries, salad
dessert - ice cream

~ Tuesday ~
breakfast - cold cereal, orange juice
lunch - ham wraps, apples slices
supper - garden vegetable soup, HM buns
dessert - apple crisp

~ Wednesday ~
breakfast - smoothies, bran muffins
lunch - homemade mac n' cheese
supper - beef stir fry
dessert - apple crisp

~Thursday ~
breakfast - waffles
lunch - leftovers
supper - turkey breast, mashed potatoes, veggies
dessert - apple pie

~ Friday ~
breakfast - smoothies, coffee cake
lunch - leftovers
supper - HM pizza, salad
dessert - apple pie

~ Saturday ~
breakfast - pancakes
lunch - toasted tomato sandwich
supper - pork chops, potatoes, veggies
dessert - cupcakes (I promised my daughter)

~ Sunday ~
breakfast - muffins, bagels
lunch - leftovers
supper - spare ribs, ranch potatoes, veggies
dessert - baked apples

Reliance begins the cut.

The news that Reliance Retail is sacking technical staff didn't surprise me at all. I thought they will first close some of their retail outlets first. I already wrote about my experience with them and I foresaw some news on the lines as reported.

I think Reliance is far too big now to carry on business efficiently. The areas of lacuna are inefficient HR, the purchase department that lacks sincerity while procuring quality goods.

I truly wish Reliance Retail all success and they can achieve this if they have good administrators. The top executives of the company seems to be cooling their legs and they need a look in.

Wake up Reliance! India needs you.

An Important Announcement

Good morning. People have been asking about my return to America Magazine. My start day has been scheduled to be this coming Monday, September 28th.

However, I have decided to delay my restart for the time being on account of the great economic crisis facing our nation.

This is not a decision I make hastily. I look forward to a time when I can start my job again. However, in light of the difficult financial situation before us I feel that at this time it would constitute an act of reckless irresponsibility for me to return to work.

Until this situation is resolved, I will be spending my time imagining solutions for the problems our country faces at a nearby Starbucks and abroad.

The coming days will undoubtedly be difficult ones, and I hope you will join me in some small way to shoulder our share of the burden.

God bless you all, and God bless America.

Jim McDermott

Footy, Pt. 3 -- Results

The Grand Final -- fantastic. Hawthorn v. Geelong, with Geelong last year's champion and the clear favorites. A very, very close game for much of the go. In my limited experience this is quite unusual. Usually one team surges ahead 15, 20 points, and then the other rushes back. It's a game of wild and unexpected shots of momentum (another reason I like it).

But in the 4th quarter, Hawthorn pushed ahead, winning in the end by a margin of about 30 points. A great game.

And watching it, at the Australian Hotel, I noticed a couple other great and wild things about AFL. Like guys unapologetically wearing striped socks that go all the way to their knees. You have to love that.

Or the clock -- in AFL, each quarter is 25 minutes, and the on-field clock runs constantly. However, every time a team scores, the officials keep track of the time required to get the ball to the center of the field, where they have a sort of reverse jump ball (the ref throws the ball down very hard, it flies into the sky and the teams try to get it). That "lost" time is added back by extending play beyond the 25 minutes. But how long can vary widely, depending on how much scoring or other things have occurred. So, as a bystander, it adds great anticipation. You just don't know when time is going to be called. I love that.

The bar was filled with Australians, and we were there until about 4am, eating and drinking. It brought back many good memories.

A last little observation: Players on the winning team are called up individually; the championship medals are placed around their necks by small children (I'd say ages 5 or 6). They receive their medals, then shake the children's hand and give them championship hats. It's a wonderful little tradition. I'm sure it means heaps to the kids.

Literally compact flash card..

We had to unpack a big suitcase to confirm if we have put in the really compact flash reader that my son bought recently. My husband assured me that he has kept it inside a pouch but I wanted to recheck. This compact flash drive is very important for my son during his job training.

This literally compact flash card is a USB powered device that came with extension cable of about one meter length and manual is a fast one that runs at about the speed of your hard drive.

There were a lot of choices of compact flash readers at memorysuppliers.com, but my son liked this (see picture) sleek and compact piece and he was sure it would serve his purpose. The cost was also very cheap; we bought it for only $14.00

Ah, at last it was there exactly as my husband said.

Dollar Store!

I love the Dollar Store! I found this frame & easel for $1! Yeah!

A little gaudy, maybe I will paint it? Maybe not. It's at my office.

Kent is in a wedding this weekend and some family is coming into town. I will try to take pictures of the festivities. Hope you have a great weekend!

Meatloaf Recipe

A request was made for my meatloaf recipe. Kent is a meat and potatoes kind of a guy sooo.... I have a low-calorie meatloaf that really is good. There are only 1,000 calories in the entire meatloaf, with five large servings at 200 calories a piece - not bad! So here here it is:

1 lb of ground turkey, make sure it is 93/7 fat percentage

1 medium onion, chopped

put turkey & onion in skillet and brown

Chili Sauce is the secret!
in a large mixing bowl put:

put 3/4 bottle of chili sauce

4 or 5 pieces of crumbled bread with a low calorie count

several shakes of low-sodium soy sauce

2 squirts of ketchup

1 tea spoon of pepper

1 tea spoon of paprika

1 tea spoon of cumin

1 egg whitesspray meatloaf pan with Pam

put 2 pieces of bread on bottom of pan to soak up extra grease

(you don't have to eat this part... but it sure is good!)

mix meat & onions into large mixing bowl put into meatloaf pan

pour remaining 1/4 bottle of chili sauce on top

sprinkle a little splenda brown sugar on topbake at 350 for 20 minutes!

Easy to use language learning software.

I didn’t know people are interested in learning foreign languages still. I assumed the craze for other languages subsided long back. It was in the year 2001, when my son wanted to learn Japanese though I counseled him to learn Spanish. Even my husband chipped in his support and showed his knowledge of a few Spanish words. He belonged to the age of good old western movies and thus developed a liking for Spanish language, Spanish food and even Spanish women! (How dare?)

So, when a few weeks earlier one of students showed me a few audio teaching aids that contained Spanish language software, I was surprised but was happy too that people sustained interest in foreign languages. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the Untied States and the official language of over 21 nations.

My student boasted of her newly developed knowledge by throwing in a few trivia and here is one that amused me.

"Basque (native name: euskara) is the language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain and the adjoining region of South-Western France."

My student informed other students of the class about Transparent.com, a website dedicated to selling language learning software. They sell audio CDs. Language learning suites for more than 100 languages. (No my native language was not among the 100) (Smile)

Every language learning software teaches one, the pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary of the language under study. Their language teaching aids are used by top universities across the world, Foreign Service Institutes and Defense department.

Footy, Pt. 2 -- The Game

THE MCG -- a glimpse of Heaven? It just might be. Click to get the big picture.

So -- here's the game (and check the post below first if you wondering what the heck we're talking about):

Imagine an enormous oval. HUGE -- much bigger than a baseball stadium, for example, or a football field. (Football field: 100 yards -- 300 feet long. The MCG oval: 172 m x 118 m -- 565 ft. by 387 ft. HUGE.)

And at either of the long ends of the oval is a set of double goal posts -- the middle pair looking just like football goal posts, but without a middle bar, and a smaller pole on either side of the middle. (The middle poles are called goal posts; the end ones are called behind poles.) If a ball is kicked or bounces through the middle pair, six points are scored. This is called a goal. If the ball is punched into the goal poles or kicked/punched between a goal pole and a behind, or hits a pole, one point is awarded. This is called a behind.

When a team scores, the fans behind their goals raise and drop these enormous colored pom-poms. Much fun.

The ball, like the field, is an oval -- in fact, it looks a lot like our own football, but a little squatter on each end, and a bit thicker. You can kick the ball to your teammates or to try and score a goal. You can punch the ball to pass it to a teammate. Or you can dribble the ball if you want to run with it. (The ball must be dribbled for every 15 m you run.)

But you can't pass it. Actually, same is true in rugby. You can kick, you can do an underhand toss backwards -- but no passing. Far as I have seen, that's unique to our gridiron.

The game proceeds a lot like soccer, but with a team of punters who played basketball in their spare time: -- guys running up and down the field, hard as they can, dribbling the ball occasionally, passing the ball to one another either by punching it or kicking it, trying to get close enough to the goal posts to score a goal or a behind. If you pass the ball or run with it, you can be tackled -- and there ain't no pads. (Same in rugby. These guys are tough, I tell you.)

On the other hand, if you kick the ball and it is caught, everyone has to back off. He can choose to run, in which case opponents can bring him down; but if he kicks it himself to another teammate, the opponents cannot obstruct him. So, you'll see some teams do a lot of kicking.


You can just see the goal posts here. Click for a better view.

If a ball is caught within 50 meters of the goal posts, the guy catching it will usually step back and then try to score a goal. Again, because he caught the ball, that shot is not obstructed. He just gets to take it. SO -- a big moment of excitement in the game often happens when a guy catches the ball in that zone. (Which is really weird when you don't understand the rules. The first time I went, all of a sudden there would be these enormous ROARS from the crowd, and I had NO IDEA why. No goal had been scored, no great move had been made. Just a catch -- and everyone's going crazy. Seriously -- it was worth it to go just for that experience of being so out of touch.)

The game moves very, very fast and has astonishing shifts of momentum. I can't tell you how many games I've listened to or watched where one team is up by 28, 32 points, and it all turns around. And then turns around again. Unlike soccer, scoring can occur quite frequently, such that the end score looks like that of a basketball game or even much higher.


(For instance this game, the end score was 128 to 80. Scoring, by the way, is done in terms of goals and behinds -- so, looking at the score total again, Essendon had 19 goals and 14 behinds for a total of 128 points.)

A last thing -- and probably I put it last because I understand it least -- tackles. If you're moving with the ball, or you've been punch-passed the ball, the opponents want not so much to tackle you -- this isn't football, there are no downs. They want you to either lose the ball (of course) or to hold onto it. If you hold onto the ball when you could have passed it and you're tackled, you lose possession. (Actually, everyone in the crowd screams HOLD! Then you lose possession.)

So them's the rules. I could go on and on with more -- it really is a most extraordinary, exciting, explosive game.

But I'll tell you just one more thing, and that is, when I knew I loved it. My first game -- lots of screams I didn't understand, all by myself; so at halftime (there are four quarters, by the way, as in football), I'm wondering, do I stay for the whole thing or at some point have I seen enough? For some reason I stuck around.

So the game ends, Carlton wins, their supporters (teams in Australia have supporters or barrackers) go crazy -- apparently Carlton and Collingwood have some really diehard fans. Think Yankee fans.

And then, music begins to play, and the crowd begins to sing the Carlton Blues song. Which, to my mind, sounded a little bit like the old Budweiser beer song -- bum bum bum bum, here comes the king, here comes the big number one, bum bum bum bum, Budweiser beer, the king, is second to none -- seriously, it has that sort of an easy, upbeat charm to it.

And they sang it over and over and over again.

I got to say, it charmed the socks off me. Really. By the time I left the MCG I had a Carlton scarf, a shirt and a new love.

Won't you join me?

Footy, Pt. 1 -- GRAND FINAL!

In Australia, the big fall/winter sports are rugby league, rugby union and Australian Rules Football. Each -- depending on which your state you're in-- is called "footy". Yeah, I know -- in conversation, it can be a little confusing. But only, I suspect, for someone not from there. Because in New South Wales (where Sydney is) and Queensland (to the North), footy is definitely rugby, and probably rugby league. (Rugby Union is a variation with I think a smaller set of teams and popularity. Rugby League is the international game that you've probably heard about.) In South Australia, Western Australia and above all in Victoria, where most of the teams started off (and many remain) in the neighborhoods of Melbourne -- footy means the AFL.

I love this sport. Love it. In my two stints in Melbourne I saw five games, all at the footy mecca, the MCG. (Short for Melbourne Cricket Grounds. I was calling it the McG until I got tired of the blank stares I received from Melbournians.) And tomorrow -- well, Saturday, Aussie time -- is the AFL Grand Final. I'm not exactly sure whether we're talking the Australian version of the Super Bowl, but I will be finding out, because... I'm flying back for the game!

Ok, second best. Starting at 1am Saturday I will be posted up at the Australian Hotel, a bar on 38th Street, with who knows how many others, tuned into the finals match, Geelong (ja-LONG) v. Hawthorn. There are actually at least 5 places in Manhattan showing the game live -- you have to love Manhattan -- and I've checked out three. All assure me they will have Australian beer and meat pies and the game live, but only the Australian is the real deal, an Aussie hangout with real Aussie beers all the time, some nice photographs of the country, and one station with Australian sport on all the time.

(A quick note: "Hotel" -- in Australia, a hotel is basically a bar that has a couple rooms above the shop. Think "pub" with a guest room.)

So as you sleep soundly Saturday morning, have a little think of me. And pray I can stay awake. 1-4am -- not my best hours. But it's my belief that a regular supply of James Boag beer and meat pies will sustain me. We shall see...

Les Misbarack

Check this out.

Thanks to Giovanna Slon. Michael Gilson, this is for you.

Thankful Thursday

I feel I have so much to be thankful for but most days I need to be reminded of the many blessings in my life. So today I am going to concentrate on those blessings.

I am thankful to be a stay at home mom of 4 wonderful children.

I am thankful to be able to homeschool our youngest special needs child.

I am thankful that I am married to a wonderful man who truly is the light of my life.

I am thankful for my house and the fact that it is a home with lots of love and warmth.

I am thankful for the cooler weather that is here now.

I am thankful for my good friends and family.

I am thankful for my online friends, rubymoms and blog readers.

I am thankful that I live in a country were you are free to worship without persecution.

Please skip over to visit with Iris for more Thankful Thursday's. You will really receive blessing after blessing when you read what these special women have written. Each and everyone loves HIM, you can feel it on their page. Thanks Iris for hosting!! http://www.eph2810.com/

Big demand for Ultrasound Technicians.

The last 15 years or so, the world is witnessing abundance of job opportunities. As technology is taking giant strides and as it is also so diverse, newer field of education and career are being opened up. This again requires qualified teachers to impart training in myriad faculties.

When I went to college, there were a maximum of 7 or 8 faculties only. Of course the world also didn’t develop that much at that time. We had very limited career opportunities such as teachers, clerks, accountants.

Now, I am surprised at the number job opportunities in every field. Take for example the health care industry in which there are more than 30 different paramedical courses are available.

One of the recent developments is the ultrasound technology in the health care industry. In the case of pregnant women this ultrasound technology is widely used to help manage and care for the fetus.

There is growing demand for ultrasound technicians but the demand is not met adequately and the reason being the lack of awareness of ultrasound schools.

The schools that impart training on ultrasound technology require plenty of exposure and I am happy to introduce career-education.net, a web site that has a database of top class ultrasound schools in the U.S.

They say that one may opt for a 2 year Associate’s degree or 4 year Bachelor’s degree program in ultrasonography in order to gain the required skills and qualification.

Visit the link to learn more about Ultrasound Schools.

Friends & Family!

This past weekend I got to spend some wonderful time with my family and two of my best friends.

Two of my three brothers, Spencer & Trey, being goofy before the game.

My Mom made me the most wonderful strawberry cake from scratch. She has been making this cake for my birthday since before I can remember. Katy & Heidi: I think there are years of pictures of us at bday parties with a cake just like this one!My dear friend Amber came over for a really LONG time to catch up. Thanks Am! She just got married a month ago (I set her and her husband up).

My other good friend Stephanie came over also for a while, but she would only take pictures with her boyfriend.... so she only gets a shout-out.

This is my favourite time of year. I just love Autumn!
The crisp air... not having to use air conditioning or heat.
The way the leaves crunch as you walk on them.
Heck even racking the leaves and jumping in them is fun.

Time to get things at the house winterized.
Time to close the pool.
Time to clean out the gardens.

Happy Fall!!!!

Fashion Schools in the U.S.

The transformation was complete. I could not take my eyes off the bride. And the proud costume designer was all humility. She looked so young.

The wedding reception was hall was crowded with guests and I identified quite a few VIPs that included a famous woman entrepreneur, two film directors and a number of film stars. The bride was my ex student and she was getting married to a software engineer working in Los Angeles.

The bride finally introduced the costume designer to the guests. The immediately became the star of attraction. She is a graduate from a leading fashion school in the U.S.

Though she is running a high profile fashion designing studio, she came to help her bride friend as the occasion demanded her skill.

The designer gave a brief introduction to fashion-schools.org, how it helped her to join the best fashion school and how the school has turned her into a pro. She narrated with fond memories about her education and training at the International Academy of Design and Technology, Detroit.

I think she has inspired quite a few youth at the wedding reception.

Reliance Fresh found wanting.

I already said that I like anything Reliance and that includes Reliance Communications, Reliance Petro and Reliance Fresh. The last mentioned is a retail outlet of groceries, vegetables, fruits, soft drinks, ice creams and staples.

There is an outlet very near my house and I used to frequent there for my home needs. Of late, I noticed a dire shortage of billing clerks. Out of three or four billing counters, only one was functioning and naturally, the girl at that counter is overloaded and frequently escapes due to fatigue.

Two days, before, I went to Reliance Fresh with my son, filled up the shopping cart and waited for the lonely billing girl but she simply wasn't interested in doing her work. She saw us and a few others waiting to pay their bill but still gave us scant notice.

We eventually left frustrated leaving our shopping cart at the billing counter.

I respect you Reliance but do you respect your customers?

Zing!

Australian Cartoons Comment on the Economy






And a few from the New Yorker, too...



In the New York Times of September 22nd, columnist Paul Krugman says some are calling the Paulson bailout plan "The Authorization for Use of Economic Force," after the disastrous "Authorization for use of Military Force" that gave the Bush administration permission to invade Iraq.

Yikes. Uh...let's not do that.

Rainbows and Vowels

So, before my Mexican adventure (see last Thursday), I spent a relaxing, remarkable week in Honolulu. I saw a lot of rainbows. I mean, like, all the time.















Rainbow over Diamondhead.


Another rainbow, later. Not only is it a full rainbow -- if you click for a bigger view, you'll see it's a double.


This one actually seems to come all the way to the ground.

There were also a lot of vowels. Apparently, it’s against the law in Hawaii for words to have more consonants than vowels. Seriously. And you have to pronounce every vowel separately. Forget about all your fancy dipthongs. Akamai: it's not Ah-kah-my, it's ah-kah-mah-ee.

Some fantastic Hawaiian street names (and my pronunciation guesses):
Kakaako -- Kah-ka-ah-ko.
Mokauea Street -- Moh-kah-oo-ay-ah.
Puunui -- Poo-oo-noo-ee. 6 letters, 4 syllables.
Piikea Street -- Pee-ee-kay-uh. I found that double 'i' almost impossible for my brain to register.
Kamehameha Park-- I couldn't get this. I was always saying Kamayhamayhamayha.
Uaiena Street -- Oo-ah-ee-ay-nah. 6 letters, 5 vowels, 5 syllables.

My beach experiences were limited to Ala Moana, a little beach not too far from Waikiki. It was quiet and beautiful and spectacular.

Ahhhh.

Giving the Kid a Break

I took down my Palindrome post. Just seemed too easy. (But congratulations to my friend Regina, who has decided to move to Houston and become an astronaut for NASA. She can see the moon, after all. What more does one need?)

But seriously, doesn't it just seem wrong on some level to go after Gov. Palin too much? She's just a kid in the political system. How dare anyone judge her by the standards we would anyone else. Shame on all of us!

According to the New York Times, the Governor will be meeting with Henry Kissinger this week.

This is me holding back.

Weekend Happenings

I was in Fayetteville this weekend and had a great time with my family. My Dad just got back from 3 weeks in Burma, Nepal and India where he was training pastors in discipleship. A lot of these pastors know how to lead someone to Christ, which is a great start, but they do not know how to help the young Christian grow in their faith. So my Dad was teaching them crucial stuff about making disciples and multiplication of Jesus followers. He told us some great stories and here he is in his Nepalese get-up:

If you know my Dad, this is a classic picture of him. Pretty funny stuff, but normal for him.

He brought back some awesome gifts. K.K. and I are wearing the

pearl earrings he got us, thanks Dad!

Menu Plan Monday ~ Sept 22nd

For more menu plans please check out orgjunkie.com.

~ Monday ~
breakfast - smoothies, fruit
lunch - ham wraps
supper - tacos, salad, rice

~ Tuesday ~
breakfast - waffles, orange juice
lunch - chicken salad sandwiches
supper - chicken legs, roasted potatoes, carrots

~ Wednesday ~
breakfast - smoothies, muffins
lunch - pasta salad, carrots n' celery n' dip
supper - beef stir fry

~Thursday ~
breakfast - cold cereal
lunch - leftovers
supper - turkey breast, mashed potatoes, veggies

~ Friday ~
breakfast - smoothie, coffee cake
lunch - leftovers
supper - pizza, salad

~ Saturday ~
breakfast - waffles
lunch - toasted tomato sandwich
supper - garden vegetable soup

~ Sunday ~
breakfast - muffins, bagels
lunch - leftovers
supper - spare ribs, ranch potatoes, veggies

Buy new and remanufactured automotive ac compressors.

This website-discountcompressor.com is probably one of a unique one dealing exclusively with ac compressor for all kinds of automobiles that includes Mercedes, Ford, Audi, Hyundai and many more.

In this website, one can purchase high quality a/c compressors and other allied components such as condensers and evaporators. You can either buy new ones or remanufactured.

By husband’s brother is an expert in finding out where one can buy remanufactured parts and accessories for cars. He has two cars and both are fitted with all sorts of modern accessories and gadgets including a small fridge.

Discountcompressor.com extends up to 3 years warrant on all its products. The promoters of the site call the website as “Automotive A/C Headquarters”.

Guest houses at Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry is just a 3 hour drive from Madras. We used to visit the ashram quite frequently but of late, our visits have become dearer. Time dear is one commodity that can't be purchased.

We never stayed in the Ashram's guest house. Yesterday, my husbad's friend told him that she stayed in one the ashram's costly guest house that is not open to all. The guest house is located in a serene atmosphere, just opposite the beach.

The rooms were named after various English words such as Passion, Serene, Love, etc. Only snacks and coffee or tea were available in the canteen. Most of the cottages have a meditation room and laundry service is alo available in all the guest houses.

Information on Culinary Schools in U.S.A

The legend goes like this: the chef of a billionaire film star was drawing more salary than his PRO. Some people might raise their eyebrows but knowledgeable persons and high socialites know this to be true as they too may be paying a king’s ransom to their kitchen head.

In the floor above our house lives a pastry chef that exhibits his talents in 5 star hotels only has rented a separate garage to park his four luxury cars. He once was talking to my son and fed his ideas of making him a chef but my son preferred computer processors to food processors.

This pastry king was a graduate of California Culinary Academy and has worked in luxury liners, as a personal chef for a film star before coming back to India.

If by chance, you are motivated by reading this blog post and set your eyes to become a world class chef, please go to culinary-schools.us, a directory of leading culinary schools in the U.S.

Or, if you would like to specialize in cakes and bakes, there are 28 featured culinary academies listed by Culinary Schools. You can also look for them by location of your preference. Read reviews of schools before you decide to apply.

Apart from information on education, you can also get a fair of idea of career opportunities. In summary, Culinary Schools USA is a great resource for students leaving school, unemployed persons, house wives and prospective employers of hospitality industry staff.

Excellent resource for aspiring nurses.

While people decide on their career only after the age 22 or so, some decide much earlier due to family circumstances. I know of a girl student of mine, who wanted to attend a top notch nursing school in the U.S. and she was so serious about her desire that she volunteered in a local hospital nearby for more than 8 months.

Her parents were against her goal but this girl had her foot firmly down. I would not say she had the basic qualities to become a nurse but the doctors at the hospital she was volunteering had different opinion.

Seeing her determination, they groomed her initially to some extant and helped her to search for the right nursing school through nursing-school.org, the best of resources for aspiring nurses.

It is a web site that helps you to search for nursing schools by location, by degree and by career.

I am yet to hear from her after she went to the U.S. three years before.

Apron Contest

I so love aprons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have entered into this contest to hopefully win! There is a weekly giveaway at Confessions of an Apron Queen! Hurry and join in and you may win!! And you get to pick the apron! YEA! The contest ends Monday, September 22nd!

9/21 Let's talk books this week

9/21 Let's talk books this week.

1. Name a few of your favorite books.
My favourite book as a child was Dr Seuss, In A People House I would always make family members read it to me over and over again. I have to say as an adult only one favourite book comes to mind and it is Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. I do like many different writers right now Jodi Picoult is a favourite read of mine.

2. Is there an author that you don't like, yet so many people seem to love?
Not that I can think of I just really don't enjoy any romance books at all.

3. Name a book to film adaptation that you really like.
Little Women

Name one you think was done poorly.
One is not really coming to mind but I am sure I do have some.

4. Where do you buy your books?
thrift stores, yard sales, local bookstore, Sams Club

5. What genre do you read the most?
I would have to say I like to read a mix of genres.

6. What genre do you dislike?
Romance are my least likely read.

7. Is there a book that has changed your life?
Absolutely. Animal Vegetable Miracle I highly recommend this read for everyone.

8. Have you ever met an author? What author would you like to meet?
This is a good question one which I can't even answer. I don't think I could just pick on author there are too many good ones out there.


till next time...