Strip Pooper (photos included)

Not to be confused with Strip Poker.

It never fails. Whenever Sadia gives back to the community, she always strips down to her birthday suit before delivering the goods.

I asked Sadia why she shed her clothing to do the deed. Her response was simply that she needed to "get comfortable".

We all have our own dumping routines, some which have taken years to forge (our routines that is).

Ordinarily, I can appreciate a level of comfortability on the throne, but where does she get this disrobing ritual from? I haven't the foggiest.

What's most intriguing is how dutifully our children pave their own way in this world?

This Year I Lost 10 Pounds.

Today I found them.

Thanks, Brad

There has been a correction to my last post:

Thank you Brad for the oversight.

Apparently I overlooked a few (three) zeros in my crunching. Yet, not surprisingly, my panties remained bunched.

What if we narrowed the field to 150 million people? I'm guessing not every citizen pays taxes? I wouldn't mind a $4,000 dollar bail out/stimulus/welfare check (or whatever they're calling it these days).

Americans are SUCKERS!!!!

You know? I’ve been thinking about this whole "Economic Bailout Plan" and it's got my panties in a bunch!

$700 BILLION. BILLION???

As in a 7 followed by 11 zeros…?

Here's a better idea.

How about giving $2,000 to every tax payer in America?

300 million people X $2,000 = $600 BILLION.

Now wouldn’t that solve all of our problems AND save us $100 billion?

Please shoot holes in my theory…

Birthday Dish

Teddy makes growing old an event to look forward to. For starters, he showed up unexpectedly at my job on Friday to take me out to lunch. When he arrived, he wasn't empty handed. Draped across his arms were a dozen of the most stunning long stemmed roses I've ever seen. Typically, I don't like a whole lot of ta do over my birthday. However, I was extremely blown away with the extent of his plans.

He organized a family excursion that night to Medieval Times, in Buena Park. I love that place. It's the one destination where grown ups can act like complete fools without fear of reprisal. I had a blast! My voice is still recovering from all of the screaming. The girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves as well.

Also, since Sunday was our 6th wedding anniversary, Teddy arranged an afternoon family picnic at the Irvine Regional park. He even remembered to pack extra goodies to toss to the ducks in the lake. I didn't get many photos during the picnic, mainly due to the fact that I wasn't able to attend (but that's a blog for another day). I did, however, manage to get some footage of Sadia trotting on a miniature pony at the park. Can somebody say, whiplash? Of course, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to add a little flare to the clip.

Sadia's pony ride. Enjoy!


Birthday celebration at Medieval Times.

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Twenty-one years ago today, a precious baby girl was born to a young family in a modest home in LA. That child's name? Dionne Lynette Glenn. :)

Pragmatic

Me: Sadia, what makes you cry?

Sadia: Onions.

Me: Onions make you cry?

Sadia: Yes. They hurt my feelings.

Fireproof

Dionne Sincire
1976
2008
Anaheim
11-15
Triangle Complex Fire
Frailty and volatility
Plans disheveled
Family exiled to Esperanza***
The best of human nature is not fireproof...

I'm still sorting through Saturday's experience. Since everything was so chaotic and incongruent, that is how I have been working through my thoughts these past few days. My recollections are so disjointed. The last statement of this poem is not meant to be the defining moment of my ordeal. It just sums up some of the perplexity of human nature that I witnessed--that internal struggle which prompts us to do evil instead of good.

A woman, clearly distraught over not being able to return to her home stood on the street corner and berated one of the evacuation officials. Why would you mistreat the very people who are here (probably on a voluntary basis) to save your life? Though her actions seem absurd from a rational perspective, the prospect of losing everything in a matter of minutes is anything but rational.

Moments after evacuation shelters were established, con artists arrived pretending to be insurance agents trying to scam victims of what remained of their life savings.

A few looters were caught scavenging through evacuated neighborhoods.

Some hotels in our area raised room rates by 30% hours after mandatory evacuations were issued.

After searching for hotel rates online, I Googled "Triangle Complex Fires, news", to get updates on the fire and evacuations, and clicked on the first "news" link that came up. The link navigated me to a porn site.

***Esperanza is a reference to Esperanza High School, which was established as one of the evacuation centers that night. We didn't actually go to an evacuation center. In an effort to hold on to some normalcy for the girls, we elected to stay with family instead. The use of the word here is meant to be ironic. Inspite of the interplay of man's propensity for evil in times of devastation, there is still hope. Maybe I'll write more on that later.

12,600 People Evacuated

We were counted in the number of the 12,600 Anaheim Hills evacuees yesterday, who clogged the 91 freeway, which was flanked by a 20 foot fire wall marching up a 10 mile belt of dry hillside. We spilled out onto adjacent streets congesting major arteries leading out of the city, as police officers, firefighters and other emergency vehicles--parting a sea of cars traveling in the opposite direction-- weaved in and out of traffic . Many of those municipal employees raced to join the front lines of the blaze--some while reconciling the reality that their own homes were simultaneously being vanquished by the inferno.

Several fixed winged air crafts performed reconnaissance overhead. It seems ridiculous, but each time they flew by I ducked behind the steering wheel. The roaring of the DC10 engine was amplified, as the craft's belly all but nudged the ridge lines and rooftops of the nearby landscape. It looked like a war zone. I felt like I was in the middle of an H.G. Wells radio broadcast. The chaos was psychologically disturbing.

Neighbors use words like "apocalypse" and "Armageddon" to describe the mushroom cloud of soot that plumed in the air.

Fortunately, we are the lucky ones. As we returned home this afternoon, unsure of whether the Triangle Complex Fire--as it is now being called-- was merciful to our modest home, we marveled at the landscape, which now resembles a checker board pattern with alternating charred and unburned patches of brush.

Thankfully, our small condo community went unscathed. Our home is intact. Yet, some of our neighbors in the foothills didn't fair as well. With reportedly 86 buildings damaged or destroyed, 14 homes lost, and 280 apartments burned to the ground here in Anaheim Hills, acknowledging my family's chance good fortune is awkward.

It's hard to make sense of what just happened. I think I'm in shock. I can't even begin to describe the randomness of it all.

The blue "X" on the map above illustrates our location relative to the spot fires outlined in red. Our area was evacuated shortly after 1:00 pm yesterday. I'm still processing the whole ordeal. More to follow.

Fire Evacuations

I just want to let family and friends know that we have safely evacuated from our home in Anaheim Hills, CA. Everyone got out safely. More later.

Cute test

I stole it from Robin.

Dionne's Dewey Decimal Section:

940 History of Europe

Dionne = 495445 = 495+445 = 940


Class:
900 History & Geography


Contains:
Travel, biographies, ancient history, and histories of continents.



What it says about you:
You're connected to your past and value the things that have happened to you. You've had some conflicted times in your life, but they've brought you to where you are today and you don't ignore it.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

A Change is Gonna Come

Recorded by Sam Cooke in 1963

I was born by the river
In a little tent, and o
just like that river
I've been running ever since

It's been a long long time coming, but I know
A change is gonna come, oh yes it will

It's been too hard living
but I'm afraid to die
'cause I don't know what's up there
beyond the sky,

It's been a long time coming, but I know
A change is gonna come, oh yes it will

I go to the movie and I go downtown
Somebody keep tellin' me
don't hang around

It's been a long time coming, but I know
A change is gonna come, oh yes it will

Then I go to my brother
and I say brother help me please
But he wind up knocking me
back down on my knees

There have been times that I thought
I couldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on

It's been a long time, but I know
A change is gonna come, oh yes it will

Penny for your Thoughts...

I Am

I am awake and focused
I wonder what tomorrow holds
I hear the humming of change
I see shoots springing from the soil
I want to impact the world
I am awake and focused

I pretend to be a statue
I feel the crack inside
I touch my voter's registration card
I worry about the rigid world
I cry that the moment has already passed
I am awake and focused

I understand this new chapter in history
I say let's freeze time forever
I dream of a better life for my children
I try to keep moving my feet
I hope we keep moving our feet
I am awake and focused

Prop 8

Like some of you, I vacillate back and forth with my views on Prop 8. I do my best to educate myself on both sides of the argument. And like many of you I have concluded that the matter is not as black and white as some might have us believe. But of this I am sure: My views about the proposal must be grounded in wisdom and not just fine sounding reasoning either for or against it.

There is never a shortage of opinions on anything and everything. Some people might even try to persuade you with the wisdom of their thoughts. Yet, I believe that it is neither the one who argues the most articulately, nor the one who expresses his viewpoint most vehemently who is the wisest. Wisdom is proven over time.

Presumably we all think our arguments are best. However our conclusions, if they are to be considered wisdom at all, must stand the test of time.

Trends in philosophies and ideologies come and go. Yet, still God's word is timeless. Whenever we express our views, we have a moral obligation to do more than merely present logical thinking. We have a duty to base our life choices in scripture, and let time validate the wisdom of our choices.

Diane, Brian was right.....

Numbers was a bear. But I did it! I finished it. :)

A huge "thank you" to Allison, Wooster, and Sarah for your words of encouragement. I am currently fighting the flu, but holding to my commitment dutifully!

And now off to Deutoronmy!

Leviticus Points to Christ

Holy, consecrate, pure, blood sacrafice, and clean are a few of the words that I believe point to the theme of the book of Leviticus. The purpose of this book is to punctuate God's nature. He is, in a word, Holy.

God meticulously dictates the laws relating to the priests and Levites and to the forms of Jewish ceremonial observance. His expectations for the Jews are spelled out so explicitly, that it emphasizes God's character the more. The message is clear. He is pure. I couldn't help but view myself differently in light of who God is.

I felt overwhelmed as, verse after verse, God's matchless qualities caved in on me like an avalanche. I could hardly breathe under the weight of His perfection, and there is but one thing that can be offered to a perfect God-- more perfection. It almost seems a futile effort to live up to His standard.

As I combed through chapters upon chapters of requirements, my unholiness was magnified. The more I read, the more I understood that I could never measure up. The burden of impossibility is an all consuming fire, and the inferno engulfed any silly notion that I may have espoused of my own goodness. But, I'm so glad that the bible does not end here. Oh thank God for the GRACE that is extended to believers under the new covenant!

If it were not for grace, where would we be? Well, for starters, we'd still be required to offer daily sacrifices to atone for our sins. I was repulsed by the sheer amount of blood that God required of the Jews for purification. Was there anything they could do or could come into contact with, which would not render them unclean? Indeed, that is the question.

I think I gained a keener insight into grace through faith after reading this book. Though God's invisible qualities remain unchanged, His holiness demonstrates our need for Christ's shed blood on the cross the more.

Ironically, Leviticus, the book which illustrates God's establishment of the priesthood, also confirms our absolute, unequivocal and irrevocable need for Christ, who is our Great High Priest. And in doing so, it quickly dismantles any illusions that we may embrace of self importance or goodness.