Ok, my Dad is the hardest person to buy for for Christmas and his birthday.  Why?  If he sees something he likes, he buys it.  Right then, right there.  (serious impulse buyer at times).  When he came to visit us in Europe, we were in town and we got to the end of the street and I asked my Mom where Dad was and she said, “Shopping”.  He literally went from store to store hitting almost every store on the main street.

Anyway, Krista and I are about practical gift giving and so we like to know what people want/need and give towards that (and vice versa).  But some people have a very open idea of what they want (huge lists that take that old printer paper that’s continuous to fit it all) so it may be easier to say WHAT YOU DON’T WANT!

Try this out – in the comments area, say what you DON’T want in the following areas:

1. CD (or artist or music genre):
2. Book (or author):
3. Restaurant Giftcard:
4. Retail Store Giftcard:
5. Tool/Gadget:
6. Type of Clothing:
7. “For the house” type gift:

Now name one thing (keep it under $50 or 50 Euros) that you wish someone would get for you. Who knows, maybe that one person out there is reading this too.

Please comment only to play along.  No rant or raves about commercialism and all that as you can do that on your own site – I’ll probably blog something about that later this month anyways.  Thanks.

PS – This is not my original idea.  I’m stealing it from this blog.

I know the title of this post probably had some of you really wondering (especially my parents) however a little bit ago I went to visit a friend who was in jail.  As I entered, this car was in the parking lot (see picture which has a car with “Just Married” across the back).  My first thought was “Wow, that must have been some wedding if they ended up here!!!” and my second thought was “I would love to know the full story behind why this car is here!!”

I love to hear stories.  I think we all love to hear stories.  That’s why TV and movies are so popular.  The winner of a big song contest in Europe (EuroVision) a couple of years ago said that they reason he won was because he told a story.  We all have stories to tell and we all have stories to listen to.  Some stories are simple like those told by a child.  Some stories are complex like those told by a politician.  Some stories are true like those told by Mother Theresa.  Some stories are made-up – again like a politician.  Some are based on truth but parts are embellished to enhance it like the folktales of our ancestors (who really was “Little Red Riding Hood” seriously?)  While others are pieces of fiction but are so lifelike, you wonder if the story really isn’t true.  Sometimes a story is inside another story (kinda like the “dream within another dream” in the movie Inception).

Tell me – what’s your story? (Leave a comment below or email me)  Now, when have you asked somebody else what their story is?

Sidenote:  Ok – a little jail humor:  A young guy gets locked up in prison sentenced for life.  After the lights are turned off, guys in the cell block start yelling out numbers.  “23!!!” and then everyone starts laughing.  “102!!!!” and more laughing.  The next morning, the young guy goes up to one of the old timers and asks, “Why were people shouting numbers and then everyone started laughing?”  The old timer responded, “Well, we’ve been locked up here so long that we found ourselves telling the same jokes over and over again so instead of telling them, we just gave each one a number and now we just yell out the number and we all know the joke.”  So that night as the lights are turned out, the young guy starts hearing the numbers chimed out.  “88!!!” and people respond with a snicker.  “45!!!” and roars of laughter filled the cell block.  Finally, the young fellow decided to blurt out “34!!!” but no one laughed.  The next morning, the newbie asked the old timer, “What is joke ’34′?  Why didn’t anybody laugh?”.  To which the old timer answered, “It wasn’t the joke, its just that some people can tell a joke and others can’t.”

I’ve got a lot of blogs in my head but not enough time in the day to put write them down so until I am able, I just wanted to share with you a video from our sending church this last Sunday.  Since coming back to the US, we’ve been introduced to a series of Old Spice commercials (see one of them here) which I find hysterical.  So when Sunday morning came around and they showed this introduction to a new sermon series, I about fell out of my chair laughing.  Hope you enjoy it too.

PS – Can’t see the video – go here .  Plus, the “actor” is our Mission’s Pastor and yes ladies, he’s single.

I went to the doctor yesterday about some problems I’ve been having with my shoulder.  After a fairly quick examination, the doctor thinks that I have tendinitis in my shoulder and prescribed some pills and some physical therapy.  I should be back to normal soon.

However, when I got my prescription filled and looked at the box of pills, I was wondering if the doctor was trying to say something about me.  After all, he prescribed me   Retardtabletten .   I honestly burst out laughing when I saw that.

In all seriousness, Retardtabletten just means that they are SLOW dissolving tablets.

[Ok, I know this is politically incorrect to joke about and I'm in no way implying anyone other than myself is retard in this situation.]

The other day while Krista & I were going for a walk:

K:  The grass is growing and green.

Me:  Yep.

K: The trees are getting leaves and the flowers are blooming.

Me: Yep

K: I think spring is here.

Me: and so are the allergies (awwwcheeeewwww!)

(Update:  Woke up to our car having frost all over it so I guess mostly spring is here)

Alex and I the other day after I was getting him to do some chores around the apartment:

A:  Why do you always ask me to do all this stuff?  I’m just a kid.

Me:  Why do you think I had a child?

When you travel around the world there are times you’re going to see things that are politically incorrect from where you come from but not for the location you are in.  Like in some places, it perfectly fine to ask someone how much they weigh (or even guess for that matter) but you wouldn’t ask them their first name as you have to wait for that information because its personal.  You’ll also sometimes see things you wouldn’t think you’d see like in a record store the label “Black Music” (not a translation – it was in English) for the Hip-Hop/Rap music or like, in the picture to the right, that when literally translated is “Black Man’s Chocolate” as it’s a dark chocolate.  Political Incorrectness is something that is regional – not necessarily international so it’s always good to try to understand the local culture as asking for someone’s first name could be like calling someone a bad name.

Krista and I like to have date lunches as we don’t have readily available child watchers here being so far from family so we use the school as a babysitter.  After all my trips recently we decided to have a big date and go to Subway.  Might not sound like much to those of you that live in the US but this is one of the treats we like to have.  The closest Subway is about 20 minutes away in a town called Loerrach where we park in a parking deck and then walk through a pedestrian area filled with shops to go to the restaurant.  Our time at Subway was wonderful as we ate our subs and talked about life.  I love these times.  Anyways, we decided to get going back to our car and as we were walking along I looked down to see what I thought was a piece of paper.  Several people in front of us walked past it and one even almost stepped on it.  As we got closer I realized that it wasn’t a piece of paper but was 50 Euros.  I was in shock.  I picked it up and showed it to Krista who couldn’t believe it.  We stood there looking around waiting to see the hidden camera and find out that this was some kind of joke but we didn’t see anything.  I was literally holding it up at head level showing it in different directions to see if anyone would pop out saying they were looking for it.  We didn’t know what to do.  We weren’t in a store where we could turn it in but instead were out in the middle of the walk way.  We waited there looking around for anyone that looked to be searching for something.   Nobody around was looking for anything other than how to get out of the rain.

So the thought came through our heads – “God must have wanted us to have 50 Euros!”

Then we both thought – “Great but what’s going to happen to us that we are going to NEED 50 Euros!” I’ve been paranoid ever since putting it in my pocket.

Yep, warped.

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PS – Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!!

A Swiss guy, visiting the U.S., pulled up at a bus stop where two locals were waiting.

“Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen?” he asked.

The two Yanks just stared at him.

“Excusez-moi, parlez vous Francais?” he tried. The two continued to stare.

“Parlare Italiano?”

Other than a glance at each other, there was still no response.

“Hablan ustedes Espanol?”

Still nothing.

The Swiss guy gave up and drove off. The first Yank turned to the second and said, “Y’know, maybe we should learn a foreign language.”

“Why?” the other replied. “That guy knew four languages, and it didn’t do him any good.”

[Note:  Provided by Mike at www.mikeysFunnies.com Also, I just have to say, I haven't met a Swiss person who didn't speak some English.]