Happy Holidays

I hope you all had a happy holiday season. Apollo got just what he wanted for Chrismakkah. How my parents got his wish list, I'll never know.



He likes it very much.

VOTE FOR GIGI!

Okay people, we've come together with I Can Has Cheezburger. Now let's make a difference in a certain bunny's life.

Gigi is on the photo database for icanhascheezburger.com!

My friend has captioned her and we need YOU to vote 5 cheezburgers for it.


This is it, folks. This is gametime.

VOTE 5 CHEEZBURGERS!

P.S. I'll let you know if any other captions for Gigi come up. Chula's up there, too, so I'll keep you posted.

I noticed we can now easily upload videos. I like this. I don't have many videos, but now that I know I can upload them, I will spend more time finding mundane things to tape so that you feel obligated to watch them.

But first I must test this new fandangle whatzit. I give to you Loon Song, otherwise entitled A Loon Singing.



You'll notice it has three notes. This song is a cry to its loon partner asking where it is. An easy way to remember it is to sing "Where aaaaaare yooou?" in the same three notes as the song. If done repeatedly, this won't annoy anyone around you at all.

Buried Treasure

As I was saying, Christina's been moving. She hasn't moved in 5 years. Sure, she moved down the hall once during that time, but she's never actually had to go through her stuff... other than the bedbug adventures, but we won't talk about that.

Throughout this process, every now and then I'd get a phone call about some item or other that we had forgotten even existed, and should she keep it or maybe I wanted it? It's my job to say No, you don't want it, please throw it out. I'm an irreplaceable member of the moving team. Without me, there would be no room in her new home.

As she was going through more stuff than the average person accumulates in 5 years, she came across two disposable waterproof cameras. There's only one thing that these little precious containers could contain: irreplaceable evidence of the Florida snorkeling trip three Christmases ago with my folks.

Christina handed them over to me to develop with the frugal reminder that there was still some film leftover in the camera. You know, because I need underwater cameras so often and there's nothing better to use than three year old film.

I developed them right away with little hope they contained anything good since the film was so old. To top it off, it had been a cloudy day making underwater pictures doubly hard to come out. I must admit they came out better than I expected. You can even tell there's a fish in some of them.

I went through one gray photo after another until I came across one picture that made it all worth it.

Mom.


I'm pretty sure she flipped over at some point.

In-Laws. Geez.

My sister Christina has been moving. This would make sense to you if you knew that she got married and was moving in with her husband. But you don't know all that because that was during blog hiatus. Let me update you. *deep breath*

ChristinagotmarriedinChinatoherclownboyfriendina
clownweddingduringaclownfestivalinaballoondress.

*whew*

Oh heck, I like ya. I'll tell you the whole story.

When we were growing up, there was one photo of Mom and Dad's wedding, and she was wearing black. "No, navy blue, Kathryn, I didn't wear black to my wedding." Yes, Mom. Sorry. And Mom was wearing a navy blue dress.

The happy couple was surrounded by the Papua New Guinea villagers who attended their wedding. There were fruits and decorations, making it quite the make-shift festival considering they had less than a couple of hours to prepare. My parents were never ones for a long engagement. Everyone was there, from old to young. All were happy. "You forgot that I think a baby got dropped during the wedding ceremony, and I didn't even hear it." Yes, Mom. A baby got dropped. What a joyous occasion it was.

After the wedding they telegraphed their parents telling them of the wonderful news that they had found someone and married them while off in the Peace Corp half a globe away in 1970. The families were ecstatic.

"I don't think Daddy put that much in there, Kathryn. You had to pay by the letter in telegrams." No no, you're right. The telegram was much shorter.

So that's true love. It's Grandpa yelling at Grams how he's "gonna kill him! just gonna kill him!" at the news of his new son-in-law. This tradition that must be kept alive.

This October, my sister performed in a clown festival in China with her fiance Seth. There were jugglers and stiltwalkers and unicyclers and balloon artists. And did I mention the clowns? There were American clowns, Chinese clowns, Scottish clowns, heck all sorts of clowns.

Christina has made it a habit of traveling the world and making people laugh. When she does this we all wait patiently for her to come home so that we can see pictures of performances and listen to first-hand experiences of marvelous food. What we do not do is stare at our phones hoping for a call. So when my phone rang with Christina's voice on the other end, I knew something was up, and I figured it had something to do with her appendix.

"Check your email." Christina said.
"What?"
"Check your email."
"Like right now? I could check it later and email you back 'cause Pedro's off at the moment and I'd need to boot him up."
"Check it now."

We waited for Pedro to start which is an awkward moment when you're on a long-distance call from China. I opened my email and there were these pictures:











I stared a few seconds, letting my brain compute. There were clowns, no big deal. Christina and Seth were not in clown makeup, again not a surprise. Christina was wearing a dress. This was unusual. A white dress. This was newsworthy. I had questions, but they must be asked in order of importance since time was short.

"What is that dress made out of?"
"Balloons."
"Does Mom know?"
"She will when she checks her email."

Ah, the romance continues. I must admit I'm kind of bummed. I've always wanted a telegram.

FAQ

• No, they are not in Paris. That's an Eiffel Tower replica.


• Yes, Christina really is a clown. Yes, Seth is, too.


• Yes, Dad has met Seth. They were both on the canoeing trip.


• No, Mom has not met him. She does know him rather well after all his phone calls since Christina's emergency appendectomy in Italy. Mom will meet him during the holidays since she's taking a trip up here.


• No, he has not met the Texas family yet. Yes, I think Seth loves her enough that he will survive at least one trip down there.


• Yes, his parents like Christina. They live in Rome. I agree, that's far more fabulous than Texas.


• Christina and Seth's ceremony was in English. Mom and Dad's ceremony was in Pidgin English, a mix of English, German, and local languages that was created so there would be a universal language in a country where each village has its own dialect. Mom and Dad didn't understand diddly. I'm not entirely certain my parents are legally married.


• Christina and Seth met in Afghanistan. No, I don't make this stuff up.

Okay, maybe one more

When I found this one I kept laughing out loud so I thought I'd share. There are some real geniuses out there.

Click on it for all its supreme glory.