43.75%

Okay, okay.
I understand that this is the nature of this business.
I get that running for President of US has a lot at stakes, and you've got to use whatever you can.

But, I can't stand those negative (and stupid) emails that circulate around anymore!!
They don't get the facts right (or they intentionally manipulate the facts); they dig out any personal issues that probably have been resolved long ago that do not concern their campaigns any longer, and they don't even have enough courtesy to use correct grammar! (Talk about being natives!)

I recently got an email titling, "Obama's 'Not Exactlys.'"
In it, the email claimed that Obama is 50% Caucasian, 43.75% Arabic, and 6.25% African, therefore he would become the nation's first Arab-American president if elected, not an African American president. Then it goes on about how his name has Arabic origin (which also shares African origin as well).

First of all, how do you get 43.75%/6.25% split?
He's 1/16 African is what I'm getting--that means, his grandpa was a quarter African?

Anyhow, wouldn't this whole thing just make him an American? Since when are minorities required to lable ourselves with the racial distinction? I thought that was our choice. And by the same method, wouldn't it make Obama Caucasian-American president, rather than Arab-American, seeing that he has more caucasian in the mix than anything else?

My boys are 50% Asian and 50% Caucasian with a bit of Native American on the Caucasian side. They both have Japanese middle name. Their mom is not an American citizen.

Do all these things disqualify them from being just Americans? If they were to run for President (well, you've got to aim high, right?), am I somehow going to be the nasty stain in their pedigree?

I tend to be more conservative on many issues by nature. As a non-voting permanent resident, I've always had the luxury of sitting back and analyzing without really getting caught in it. But this year's campaigns are seriously giving me a sad insight into what is really going.

Let the Man Talk: Adventures Aboard USS Lexington

I have a soft spot for the Boy Scouts. Where I'm from, everyone was in the scouts. So, just like school, you had a good mix of kids from all social strata. It's a bit different here in Texas.

My friend, Collin, and I took our boys to spend the night on the aircraft carrier, the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi. Seems that October Rachid, the person who volunteered to go, hates February Rachid. After a four-hour drive, we arrived and immediately noticed that we'd be sharing the adventure with 300 other scouts and their parents. To be blunt, the scouts were nerds. And I probably beat up some of their parents in school. That's all well and good, except that when you share close quarters with a group of people for whom personal hygiene is not a high priority, it tends to matter a bit.

I'm kidding. Mostly.

The adventure began immediately when, as we were waiting in what would be the first of several lines to come, Jay needed to go to the bathroom. The only one on that deck was clear across this massive boat. When we got there, he was dying in anticipation and began to relieve himself early. It was a race to get most of the pee in the toilet. I lost that race.

We were given bunks stacked three high with mattresses, judging by their condition, that hadn't been changed since the ship was launched in '43. At 6'6", I knew that there was a good chance I wouldn't be comfortable.

Food was next and we were served a fantastic dish of chili dogs. It sits especially well when served in a dining hall that smells like wet dog and one has to duck permanently to get from one place to the next.

The museum itself was cool as could be and it was great to read about the history of this ship. Were we to have followed the intended four hour exploration, it would have been incomparable. Unfortunately, the smart people left at 5:00 and they locked the grounds and we were stuck. After that, we had to endure the following:

1. No beer.
2. A bird that used us for target practice and hit Collin right on the hand as he was eating. Sure, it was funny because it wasn't me, but still...
3. A boy crawling up on one of the guns and dangling from it, sent our hearts to our throats.
4. No beer.
5. Screaming boy scouts running around, climbing on everything while old, volunteer vets chewed them out for lack of respect.
6. Several vomiting boys adding their own contribution to the hallowed ship. One threw up on my chair just as I stood up.
7. Our boys, while on a ship of great historical import, fought over coins for broken and run down video games in the rec room.
8. Dinner that was just... indescribable.
9. A shared bathroom that had last been cleaned when the mattresses had been changed. ...As in, never.
10. Lost car keys that seemed to doom us to another day in Corpus Christi until the Service Dept. at the local dealer opened up. We later found them after several hours searching.
11. A man who snored so loud throughout the night that there was no hope of sleep.
12. One of our boys getting sick at night, throwing up in his sleeping bag and then dry heaving throughout the morning.
13. A flag ceremony that was so over-the-top patriotic (and I'm pretty patriotic), that it bordered on farce. It was like something out of SouthPark.
14. Another one of the boys getting sick half way home and vomiting all over the car.
15. No beer the entire freakin' trip. None.

Still, none of it really mattered. In fact, we were laughing the whole time. Our boys enjoyed the heck out of it, and that was enough.

Can you believe what Rachid had to endure? ...Boo-Hoo!
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How Much Would You Pay For Your Kids' Self-Esteem?

Can you put a price tag on looking nice?
How do you know when it's reasonable and when it becomes a joke?

I think everyone pretty much knows that the cost of dental (and medical) care in America is horrible, but how much of that stuff is actually neccessary to begin with? I really doubt that I periodically had the "vitamins for the teeth" gel applied when I grew up, and my teeth are just fine. ...Well, aside from the obvious lack of vitamins, anyways.

I'm ranting about this today because I "had to" take my boys to the dentist for their 6-month checkup (which, I must admit, is a good thing).

After the diagnosis we received 6 monthes ago that my 6-year-old Jay needs a "Phase 1 treatment" (in which they use an expander to correct the alignment of the arches) as a prereq. for the regular braces and having to take out the $300 spacer only after wearing it for a whole whopping month, we finally had a normal dentist's visit where they cleaned their teeth and told me that there was no cavity in either boys' teeth. Hip, Hip, Hooray!

While they ran into the lobby in order to play millions of the latest games they have out there, I stayed at the counter scheduling the next 6-month visit and realized that it was costing me $200+ in order to have the doctor "check" their teeth. Her almighty wisdom that says "their teeth are just fine" is worth two-hundered bucks??? Seriously? Or is it the utility bill for all those gaming machines that everyone seems to have such immense difficulties peeling our kids off of?


I know that the fact that we don't have to drag our kids to the dentist is priceless. Jay sometimes even wishes that his treatment would actually hurt him a little so that he can negotiate for more tokens in order to qualify for a bigger prize...

At the end of the day, I am one of those parents who would do anything in my power to keep my children's self esteem as high as possible. ...And I'm not sure if that's such a good thing.


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HOSPITAL: Right Back Where We Started From...

Man, oh, man.
Can my life suck anymore?

After enjoying and celebrating a whole day of our newly won health, my body decided that I needed to add yet another disease I have not caught previously under my belt: pneumonea.
As if catching an old person's disease isn't enough, I ended up going on a coughing rampage, which resulted in low oxygen saturation, which then caused my lips/arms/legs to go numb, which landed me in an emergency room.

Those of you who know where I live, I happen to belong to the healthcare network that has the worst emergency care imaginable. Yeah, that one! While our dear friend, Janice, stayed with the boys, Rachid and I waited at the lobby patiently, had a couple more breathing attacks, waited some more, whitnessed a suicide-attempt patient get wheeled in, breathed in who knows what, waited even more not so patiently, took a nap, started to feel better... and... walked out. Without even seeing a doctor after 3 1/2 hours of waiting and waiting and waiting.

As we walked toward our car in a half empty parking lot, Rachid promised me that he'd either shoot me or shoot me up with something if I ever have to go back to that ER in our future.


Pucker and his soda-bottle penguin, Fire Louis

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Weekend Overview

Man, what a sucky weekend...
It's been so cold here in central Texas for the last week or so--I sometimes wonder if we did not go down south enough when we decided to relocate.

My friend, Irene, once said that she would never consider living in a place that does not have Chili's. How odd, I thought, but it turns out to be one of the wisest words that have ever been spoken in the history of mankind.

When your child gets sick, burning up 104+ degree barely hanging on to his life, and, in a desperate attempt to save your beloved, you decide to share this burden by eliminating any personal space existed between yourselves as if that would somehow reduce his sickness, you get a miserable household with nothing good to eat for dinner.

The level of misery is further elevated when this happens on the date-night and your dinner plan for your children involves your babysitter fixing a meal with the least nutritious value and the equal amount of adult appeal, such as Chicken Dino and Easy Mac.

The unexpected significant other comes home, excited for a magical night of witty conversation and devine exploration of his palette, and he finds two lumps of flesh, one staggering on top of the other, silently begging for mercy with lifeless teary eyes that should only belong to miserable creatures, like Chinese water baffaloes.

At this point, the only choice left for those unaffected is either give up any hopes left and join the club or run for your own life as fast as you can away from the deathly scene, muttering something like, "I have a plan," and order Chili's to go while you run to the nearest Walgreen and load up on the Cold-EEZE tablets and nose swabs and candies and whatever else you happen to see. You secretly take all of those on the drive home and magically show up at the house with dinner far better than anything else you could have whipped up with the chilled air that was left in the fridge as a main ingredient.

Being the "fixer" in our marriage, Rachid simply chose the latter...




My handsome (guitar) heroes... back when we were alive.

Good or Bad: Self Improvement

I am one of those people who welcome change.
I love setting new goals in the name of "self improvement," and I enjoy that whole quest for the betterment.
I look forward to new experiences, and I have never been "too scared to do" anything in my life. (...Ok, aside from some crazy rollercoasters!)

Because of this quality that I possess, I was able to move 1/2 way across the world without possessing the language fluency, which led me to the decision to jump into the unknown world of international marriage at a fairly young age.
I never understood why people get "stuck" in unhappy situations. Isn't it easier to fix the problem and do something about it than not?

The problem, however, is when you enjoy change so much, it is excruciating to actually HAVE to stick with the routine.
I 've always looked at my life in stages, and when you actually get to the place where I need to stay the course, there is nothing more unexciting.

What the hell am I talking about?
It's the infinite "maintenance" stage of dieting.

In the anticipation of my big three-o birthday last year, I finally hired a group of fitness gurus that made me give up some of my most favorite food and exercise like there's no tomorrow. The result? Pre-baby body! (Well, as close as I can get to it without once again hiring another group of gurus that can turn back the clock.) I've finally lost that impossible "last 10 pounds" plus a bit more just in time for the new decade of my life.

Being so enthusiastic about making changes for better , I've always been able to diet well. When I set my mind to it, I always had fairly easy time dropping weight or toning up. What gets me, instead, is that never-ending, boring, and steady maintenance efforts.

Nobody really tells you how much harder it is to keep the weight steady once you lose some pounds. With the new, lighter, healthier frame, you actually struggle more to burn off calories. You're already eating like a tiny little bird, and there's really not much more that you can cut out from your daily diet. All of a sudden, the whole new regimen becomes a part of your daily life that you cannot escape from, and as I sweat away on my Elliptical trainer, I keep picturing these poor lab mice caught on the running-wheel...