Days like waves on the ocean

Every one's daily life ebbs and flows somewhat like the waves on the ocean. Sometimes there are flat days and sometimes there are wavy days with lots of peaks and troughs. Every now and again on the ocean two wave peaks come together to form a particularly high and powerful wave and the same kind of thing happens in peoples lives.

Today(Wednesdays in general) are a double peak day for us for the rest of the year. On Wednesdays the kids have school (of course) followed by swimming lessons in the afternoon, followed by LOGOS which is a kids fellowship program run through our church. This means the day starts around 6:30 am and does not stop until 7:30 pm. A double or even triple peak day!!!

Today is the first peak day this year.

I am a benefactor of this day because I can get a little extra work in, take time out for some exercise or get some much needed things done around the house. I am guessing that I will try to get a little extra done around the house b/c I am sure Melissa will be completely spent by the end of the day.

Bush Speaks Out on Myanmar

In his speach to the UN president Bush spoke about the situation in Myanmar! He also indicated that there would be further sanctions against the military goverment there.

CNN covered the speach here


This comes on the heals of continued protests in the country by monks and students. These are apparently some of the largest protests against the goverment in nearly 19 years.

We are of course very excited about this news and very happy for our refugee friends. Esther told us that her dream is to return to Myanmar in 5 years to help people there.

Very exciting news from our perspective and long over due.

So True!

A friend just sent us this video, and it is so true for anyone (unless they are wierd) with kids!

Either way it is definitely the truth for our house. Enjoy!

Our friends have moved on

Well the time finally came on Tuesday for our friends to move on to another place. We so much enjoyed our time with them and I think they with us. We definitely had some cultural exchanges which were awesome! Melissa has an absolute fire in her belly now about helping more refugees and has also motivated friends and neighbors to help too! She is on a mission!

Here are a few more pictures to share.

John and baby Tuesday.

Paw Paw, Mel, Esther.
Out for ice cream.

Wonderful Cooking

One of the very unexpected benefits of having our guest is the wonderful cooking we are being treated to. Esther has been treating us will all sorts of tasty meals from a curried shrimp with bacon to sausage with fresh vegitables and plenty of asian spices, chili's etc.

I am being spoiled because everynight this week she has made something special, beef, fish, egg, awesome. Our wok has never had it so good! The smells permeate the house and make everyone's mouth water!

I have taken some of this yummy food for lunch as well.
This morning she is working on some special made with chicken, i cannot wait to taste it when I get home!

Quick Update on Our Guests From Burma

Just a quick update to say everything is going really well with our refugee guests. They have shared with us more about where they came from and one even volunteered to cook some traditional meals for us which were hmmm, hmmm great!

Here are some additional links on the welcome house and the refugee camp they came from.

Here is some background... All of the people in the Sunnyvale Welcome house are Burmese/Karen...
http://www.jubileecampaign.co.uk/world/bur5.htm

They come from a refugee camp in Thailand called Mae La
http://www.churchworldservice.org/Immigration/archives/2007/06/165.html

John

Opening Up the House to Those In Need

Sometimes you just have to have faith. When Melissa called me as I was boarding my flight home from Washington D.C. yesterday (9/7/07) and asked if we could host refugees from Myanmar (formally Burma) I have to admit I was at first somewhat stunned but then decided to listen to and trust the universe and agreed. They would be coming that day and in fact would arrive before I even got home.

So we now have 2 women and a baby staying with us. They are Karen which is an ethnic group in Myanmar and have been living in a refugee camp in Thailand for years to avoid persecution by the government. Apparently one of their villages had been burned as well as many other atrocities over the years. There is some additional background information here.

One of the women is named Esther, one is Paw Paw and the baby is Tuesday (apparently it is customary to name a baby after the day on which it was born). Esther speaks a bit of broken English and Paw Paw speaks no English.

So today is really the first full day and everything is going really well. This kids have adjusted extremely well and even play with the baby who is 8 months old.

I'll certainly keep everyone up to date on the status. They are only supposed to stay with us for a week.

Why I Will Never Use Blockbuster Again

I have finally had it with Blockbuster and plan to never use them again.

The other day I went into Blockbuster to rent movies with my kids. This typically involves getting 1 for each of the kids plus one for Melissa and myself for a grand total of 4. We also occasionally buy popcorn or some other movie related candy and the bill can be $20 or more.

On this particular occasion we went to the checkout counter with an aforementioned load of goodies with the plan to watch some movies over the next day or two. The person behind the counter told me that there was a "block" on my account and that we could not rent movies until we "paid" for the movies we had previously rented. Now we don't always return them promptly (note we only started renting again when they created there much promoted "no late fees" policy) but we always return them. I asked them to check for the movies and the person turned and pulled out the very movies in question from a drawer behind the counter where they had apparently been sitting for several weeks (we had been on vacation).

Now they wanted me to pay for movies they had in their possession and had been keeping out of circulation (denying themselves revenue). The total they wanted me to pay was in the neighborhood of $60. By my simple math if they had kept those movies in circulation (they were reasonably current kids and mature movies) they could have almost certainly generated more than $60 worth of revenue. In addition they were staring at another $20 from me at that moment.

The person behind the counter did not seem to see the fault in the Blockbuster logic or was unable to do anything about it (no manager was on hand on Saturday afternoon). I was flabbergasted, so we dropped our movies and candy (much to the disappointment and protestation of the kids) and walked out.

Now all was not lost b/c the Safeway in the same shopping center recently installed a video rental kiosk which only costs $1.50/night so we were able to save the day and get some entertainment for that night.

The straw that broke the camels back is that the other day we received a collection notice from Blockbuster for the movies (which are certainly still in their drawer) for the $60 odd dollars.

So, not only have they not gotten the revenue for the movies in the ensuing 3-4 weeks, they have also missed out on several additional $20+ rental opportunities from us. This means that their idiotic policy has cost them more than they are asking me to pay and now it has cost them a customer FOREVER!!!

On Saturday I plan to march in there, pay the X$#%@W$ $60 and show them my application for Netflix where I have many friends happily renting away.

Idiots. Don't use Blockbuster, boycott them now.