Sea Otters Play Basketball

Next time I'm harassed by a sea otter while surfing, I'm going to pass her a basketball and point to the hoop.

"Does This Board Make My Butt Look Big?"

This video could also be called, "Is My Butt Too Big for This Board," or "Does This Board Make My Butt Look Big?" It isn't that my friend's butt is big, it's just that the board is very, very small.

Seriously, though one thing I have to say about all of my friends is this: they all make me laugh. I hope I do the same for them because in life we have two choices we can laugh or we can cry. I know I do a lot of both, but it's usually the laughter that gets me through the crying...................

I love y'all!

Angels Are Real 3

Gio painted this picture at school. As I was studying it, I noticed an angel, in the upper, middle portion of the picture.

"Gio, look, I think that's you're guardian angel," I say.

"What does a guardian angel do?" asks Gio, not sure if a guardian angel is a good thing to have.

"A guardian angel keeps you safe," I say.

"Good," says Gio.

As I gazed at his painting I wondered if it is his guardian angel. So far he's saved my life, and one other. Gio kept me from going surfing at a spot where there happened to be a shark attack exactly when I would have been there.

Here's how he saved my life.......

He grabbed a shark book, one with a Great White Shark jumping out of the water, with its mouth wide open, while hysterically screaming, "shark!"


I think she's smiling for the camera. Yikes!

I had been having a sharky feeling at this spot for a few weeks. So much so that I had paddled in not one, not two, but three times, in a two week period. As a rule, surfers don't paddle in. It isn't cool. Surfers are the epitome of cool. At least we like to think we are.

Gio's hysterical shark screaming, hit a nerve. A nerve I'm glad I recognized and listened to.

"Nope, I'm not surfing today, no way no how," I say.

Within a few hours, I got a call there had been a shark attack at Marina Beach. Thanks Gio!

Then, the other day, Gio saved Briar's life.

"Would you ever see Briar again, if he gets hit by a car?" Gio asks my friend as we are riding bikes.

My friend was pulling the trailer that contained Gio, and Briar secure in his Pet Pak, or so we thought.

A few minutes later Gio's screaming, "Briar's getting out!"

Somehow, Briar managed to escape from the zipped Pet Pak. He started heading for the road, as a very large truck was approaching at 50 mph. I think I blocked Briar with my bike, because he suddenly he switched directions, and ran into a motor vehicle free field.

"Phew!"

I believe in angels. I believe they help us everyday, all day. The trick is listening to our angels, and not analyzing the information. All we need to do is be. Being, as opposed to doing, allows divine inspiration to flow through us. What a joy it is to have a three year old for a role model. Thanks Gio!

"Other Boys Wear Pink"

It's hard to resist the clothes at Costco. Sometimes, it's as if they are calling me by name, "Wendy come hither and give us a looksie, won't you sweets?"

Mental note: Find medication to silence the clothing voices at Costco. I hear I can buy said medicine at Old Navy, with any $100 clothing purchase.

I do resist buying the Costco Mom jeans, now. But in the past, when I didn't even have kids, I couldn't resist. Please, don't tell anyone. Now, if only I could get my husband off the Dad jeans at Costco.

"But I like the 12 dollar jeans," says Stefan.

When it comes to buying clothing at Costco, I try to restrict my purchases to socks and pajamas. Just the other day, I picked up a pink pj top.

"Is that your pink shirt?" asks Vinny, while we are standing in line, waiting to check out.

"No, I bought it for you," I tease.

"Well, I'm not going to wear it," he answers with a grimace.

"Fine, I'll keep it for myself, if you don't like it," I say.

He rolls his eyes.

We are close enough in size to pull off a clothes swap, especially if he wears something a bit larger and I go smaller. Just the other night, I wore his jacket in a pinch. I had forgotten mine.

The sleeves were a little short, it didn't smell good, and I'm not even going into the nasty food stains, but it was realllllllly ca-ca-ca-cold. Too bad it wasn't pink.....

The bagger happened to be eavesdropping in, on our conversation. She specifically took interest in Vinny's pink clothing protest.

"Boys can wear pink," pipes in the bagger. "It's very stylish. My grandson wears pink and loves it!"

"Other boys wear pink," answers Vinny.

I know the bagger was trying to help me get my son to, at least, try the pink shirt. If she only knew I was teasing him, I'm sure I'm the one who would have been getting the lecture.

H1N1 Influenza A

"Stop coughing on me!" says Vinny. "Gio's been coughing a lot. I think he may have picked up the swine flu."

And this proves a little bit of education, can go the wrong way.

"Did they talk about swine flu at school?" I ask.

"Yeah," says Vinny.

"What did they say?" I ask.

"I don't remember, that was a long time ago," Vinny says.

Two days ago is a long time for a seven year old I suppose.

Yet, even my kid, who seems oblivious to just about everything of concern, such as flushing the toilet and washing his hands, is paranoid about the swine flu. Oooops, I mean H1N1 Influenza A, the old technical name for swine flu, is back in style.

The name, H1N1 Influenza A, was adopted by the World Health Organization to save the lives of pigs. The swine flu name association was causing countries to ban pork and call for the murder of innocent pigs. The spread of H1N1 Influenza A, formerly known as swine flu, has nothing to do with pigs.

H1N1 is a combination of a pig, bird and human flu virus, but cannot be contracted by eating pork, that's what they are saying today, anyways.

"Phew!" say the pigs. "That was a close one."