Jeff passed his qualifying exam!!!

Woot!

Another case of lost in translation

Last week I asked the father of one of my young women where his wife worked. He answered, "Herd sheep." "Wow!" I replied, "That must be tiring." After that I had several conversations with the young woman where I said things like, "So do you have sheep dogs to help?" "That's really late for your stepmom to be outside." etc. etc. etc.

Then last night I dropped the young woman off at a discount store called "Dirt Cheap" so that she could meet up with her stepmom. I made the comment, "Wow! Your stepmom is really busy! Two jobs!" Then it hit me, Herd Sheep, Dirt Cheap. One and the same. I felt so stupid. They must have thought I was batty asking them if they had sheep herding dogs etc.

Alabama: Flying rolls, spitting guanacos, charging tigers

Dear all,

J. here. Howdy.

Well, we got back from our little jaunt to Alabama yesterday, and I thought you'd like to see the pictures:

Here we are at "Lambert's Cafe," home of "throwed rolls." Yep, they throw food at you as you eat. Hopefully, you can catch it.

In our comfy room at the Comfort Suites. (What an appropriate name.)

We ate brunch at Hazel's Nook, this little hole-in-the-wall. I liked the sign on the wall.

Even the decorative roosters were getting into Mardi Gras.

That goat was trouble.

This is a guanaco, related to the llama. In a guanaco pack, the tallest one is dominant, so this guy and I got into a power struggle--his ears and posture show that he's trying to stand as tall as he can. (I won, but I was afraid he'd spit. I'd seen him do it twice.)

Melanie and a wallaby.

...the wallaby.

This goose tried to eat Melanie's shoes.

...and we fed the donkeys with some of our Hattiesburg friends, who were also in town.

But, of course, we were there for the young tigers. Behold:

The tigers LOVED this bedsheet--it was covered in straw and tiger urine and chicken guts, and they went crazy when we'd play matador with them, charging us and biting at the sheet and crawling all over it.

The Photo That Made My Day

I got an email the other day with this photo attached. It completely made my day. Just look at these cute Ticos (Costa Ricans)! Their mom, Elena, got baptized about seven years ago while I was on my mission. The oldest girl on the left, Jazmin, was just a baby when I was there. Next is Nairobi, and then Melani. I'm still waiting to find out the little boy's name.