Yoda and Paul and the Domino Trail

Flickr photo by Micah Taylor, creative commons
In my youngest child's quest not to be BORED OUT OF HIS MIND this summer, he decided to enter a contest held by Klondike Bars. (Arteries in both our bodies stood up and cheered to find out that this did not involve eating massive quantities of ice cream. Our taste buds, however are still in mourning.)

For this "Grab the Remote" challenge, entrants had to make a video in which a lazy person uses some kind of homemade contraption to retrieve his TV remote from a coffee table, with the condition that he remain with his derriere firmly planted in the couch/easy chair.

Sam was inspired by Mousetrap, a game we loved to play for the one-and-a-half weeks before we started losing pieces. You know the game?


Yep, that's it.
He asked me to help him a little with the camera work, (unfortunately this was after my second cup of coffee, so it's a teeny bit shaky,) but I think it turned out great. Take a look for yourself!

Yey, Sam!
He had a great time doing it, setting up the chain of events, one leading to the next, until the remote was in his hot little hand.

His "this will knock this, which will knock this, which will knock this" narration nudged my brain to fire off its own domino trail.

To start, my noggin woke up a funny little voice way back in the Star Wars corner of my brain.

"Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."

Yoda led me straight to a Liberty Mutual commercial (at the end of the post,) which in turn took me over to the apostle Paul.

"...we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
Romans 5: 3-5

I heard my brain recite it, and then I looked it up and studied it again.
Sorry, Paul. Saying it might sound nice, but it's awfully hard to truly rejoice in suffering, even though I know it will build character, make me a better person, yada yada yada.

But then I looked at my boy, and I thought of all the times all three of my kids have struggled/suffered/floundered a bit. Sometimes I've chosen to dive in the pool and yank them out of the water, coughing and sputtering. But other times I've let them flounder just a while, even though it's hard to stand there watching, because I know that there are things they need to learn, lessons they can only get through their own floundering. It's some of the most difficult work of parenting for me, letting my children learn things on their own, work things out by themselves in their hobbled-together, inexperienced way. It takes a lot of self control on my part to resist the urge to always be the fixer, but sometimes I know I have to do it for their sake.

Surely this is part of the mystery and great love of God, that he sets us free to work things out on our own, even though he could step in like Superman and save the day. There are times I just don't understand why he doesn't act more, when horrible pain and suffering are allowed to occur. But I know God is good and loves us with a love too big to understand. I trust I'll understand one day.

Wow, that's heavy stuff. And to think it all started with Klondike bars.
Now I want ice cream!

So how about you? Does this post spark any ideas of your own? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Love, Becky
PS. Don't miss this Liberty Mutual commercial. Love it!

Babies!

I know what I'm doing this Mother's Day weekend!
Have you heard about Babies? It's a documentary, shot like a wildlife feature, by French film director Thomas Balmès.
Are babies the new penguins? I can't wait to see for myself!

Apparently there's no narration. We follow four babies from birth through their first year and are free to make our own conclusions about parenting, child development, and the universality of the human experience.
We'll meet Hattie from San Francisco...


Byar, from Mongolia...


Ponijao, from Namibia...


And Mari, from Tokyo.


Maybe I'm so excited about the film because it's been way too long since we've had a baby in our house. Though I don't miss the sleepless nights, the spit up on the shoulder, and all those poopy diapers, how my arms long for those sweet embraces, a good smelling baby head, and those tiny little feet!
Anybody have a bébé I could borrow? I'll give it back, I promise!

So what do you think? Have you heard all the hype?
No? Take a look at the trailer and I bet you'll be hooked.

Have a great Wednesday, y'all! And if you've got a baby at home, give the sweetie a mushy kiss for me!
Love, Becky

Butt Drugs and Other Commercials I LOVE.

Homemade commercials used to drive me nuts. You know the kind I'm talking about. The ones that make you reach for the remote. The ones with the guys in used car lots, waving their arms around and yelling at the camera.

But ever since Rhett and Link came into my life, I'm in love with the genre. Remember Rhett and Link? I've included them in several previous posts.

Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal are North Carolina boys, life long best friends, and self-proclaimed "Internetainers." They're also heroes to my son Sam, who chastised me all the way to school today for putting up this blog post before he has a chance to read it over and make sure I got everything right. Can you tell he's probably their biggest fan? He checks out their blog every single day, and updates me on any Rhett and Link news.

But the Ramseys aren't their only fans. Now that word has gotten out about their ingenious commercials, Ellen came calling, and so did George Lopez. And no wonder! Take a look at the commercial Ellen featured on her show.


Crazy, huh?
I love that they use the real people who own the businesses or work there or shop there. They capture what the community is like, and they do it in a quirky, funny way. Their commercials do more than sell a product. They tell a story.
Sometimes it's a weird, slightly frightening story, but it's always funny.



Here's their first commercial to win my heart. I can't get enough of it.

That just cracks me up. George Lopez liked it so much that he got Rhett and link to make a commercial for his favorite local business, Donut Prince.
You've got to watch it.



Isn't that darling?
There are so many good ones, but sharing more than four is probably excessive.
You can always check them out at ilovelocalcommercials.com.

So what do you think of these ads? Personally, I'd much rather watch Rhett and Link's commercials than most shows on TV!

Have a great day, y'all!
Love,
Becky

PS. Sam will probably tie me to a kitchen chair and lecture me for days on end if I don't give a shout out to our all time favorite documentary, Looking for Ms Locklear. It's another Rhett and Link production and we first saw it on PBS, before we became Rhett and Link crazy. It's won tons of awards. Take a look!

Buy Me Some Peanuts and...

Today's Wonder of the World is...Hometown Baseball Games!

Flickr photo by Iscan
I should admit up front that I'm not really a baseball lover.
Maybe I should have titled this post All the Reasons I Love Baseball Even Though I'd Rather Sweep Up Dog Hair Than Watch the Game (Unless My Kids Are Playing.)
No, I think that's a little long.

So we went to see our hometown minor league team, The Greenville Drive, on Friday night.

Don't worry. I'm not going to try to tell you much about the game itself, except to say that we played the Asheville Tourists (who have a much better team name than we do) and we skunked them. That's Sam talk for saying we beat them by a large margin. I didn't really notice the score.

Allow me to share all the non-baseball things I LOVE about going to games.

1. The trolley ride!

Woo hoo! I know I sound like a country mouse, but it's not like I live in San Francisco and get to ride a trolley every day. This trolley takes you from the parking lot to the stadium. And that lovely boy with the sunglasses is a boy I'd be happy to adopt if his parents ever would let me. He's a friend of Sarah's and the rest of us as well. Hi Justin!

2. Polite baseball players on display who seem delighted that someone wants their autographs.


3. Baseball park food!

Flickr photo by gardenwife
Yum. I ate up my hot dog so fast that I didn't even think to take a picture of it, so I'm showing you gardenwife's hot dog. From the looks of the stadium, she probably paid more than $7 for her ticket to the game. As you can see below, the seats at Fluor Field are quite a bit closer to the action.

This pic reminds me of another thing I love about Greenville Drive games.
The free tee shirts they throw out to the crowds? No...

4. Reedy Rip'it!

Isn't he cute? And I heard that ever since he had that run in with police a few years ago, he's much better behaved.
Just pull out a camera and he'll ham it up with just about anyone!


4. The Kiss Cam!

Flickr photo by glowbird
Maybe it's France's fault for teaching me to love the kiss, but I'm just crazy about this custom. If they point the camera at you and your sweetie--or friend or date or stranger--you're supposed to kiss while everyone watches. It's hilarious and sweet and I just love it.
You may have noticed that that pic is a flickr photo too. I was too busy doing hopeful puckering to take a photo.

5. The field itself.

Oh yeah, that's right. There was a ballgame going on out there too. But even if there wasn't, it's a fine place to spend a Friday night. I mean look at it. It's lovely.
You can see that it's not a very big stadium. Fluor Field is modeled after Fenway Park, since our team is affiliated with the Boston Red Sox.
See, let me show you the rest of it.

Sam sits with us for part of the time, and runs back and forth to the lawn, hoping to catch a foul ball.


5. Shoeless Joe Jackson's house was moved across the street from the stadium and serves as a museum. Joe was a Greenville boy, getting his start on one of the textile teams in town.

Flickr photo by dbelcher5761
Plenty of folks wanted to name the team after him, calling it the The Greenville Joes, but they took a vote and The Drive won.
I like the Joes better, personally. But I shouldn't really get to vote, since I only go to the games to watch the racing banana.

6. The Vegetable/Fruit Races!

I'm not sure what the deal is about the racing fruit/veggie, but I do know that the banana won and was kind of obnoxious about it. I thought that the broccoli and peach handled the loss pretty well, much better than the manager of the Asheville Tourists, who got thrown out of the game for kicking dirt on the umpire.
Such drama. You just don't find that in the vegetable/fruit world.

6. Fireworks!

What a great way to end a nice evening!

So tell me, do you ever catch a game on the weekends? What parts do you like best? What's your favorite ballpark snack? Boiled peanuts, anyone?

Have a wonder-full Monday, y'all!
Love, Becky

A Treasure Trove of Touristy Tackiness

Today's Wonder of the World is...Terribly Tacky Tourist Traps!

Flickr photo by Melodist
Can you say that five times fast? (Gotta love a tongue twister!)
Try it now before I plunge us into the bizarro world that is South of the Border. The kitsch overload just might leave you speechless!

Do you like the tacky? Or does it make you break out in hives?
I LOVE tacky from afar. Not so much up close.
Please, my friends, I beg you. Share your tackiest tourist traps with me. I'll show you mine if you show me yours!

Long, long ago my parents took me and my brother on a car trip to Florida. We headed south on I-95 and before long we started seeing billboards.
Ticky tacky billboards like this, but less politically correct.

Flickr photos by tom.arthur
Yes, I know they're still not PC, but believe me, they used to be worse. And there used to be more of them. Like every other mile.
I remember one of them said, "Keep yelling kids. They'll stop."
So of course Steve and I kept yelling. We had to know. What was this wonderland called South of the Border? And what sort of genius made up slogans like "You never sausage a place!" and "You're always a wiener at Pedro's!"?
See?

Flickr photo by obethwan
We crossed the border into South Carolina and then we saw it! There on the horizon, the big sombrero in the sky!

Flickr photo by tom.arthur
My father refused to stop. Can you believe that?

See, it even stunned the C-SPAN crew during last year's election.
Who wouldn't be impressed with our own tacky version of the Tour Eiffel?

(Blurry Photo by me)
If nothing else, you can at least visit Pedro's bathroom.

Flickr photo JuanJ
Who knows who you might see there.
Maybe the future chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Board!

Flickr photo by plate of the day
It's true! Ben Bernanke worked at South of the Border during his summers home from college. I wonder if he wore a poncho.

If you go, be sure to ride the Ferris wheel...

Flickr photo by jakilevy
and tell me why it's named that.

There are several fine dining establishments to try.

Flickr photo by lovesitsinthelobby
(A Diner!)
And plenty of tacky junk to buy.

Flickr photo by eclectica miami
Rest assured they've got velvet paintings too.
And plenty of fireworks, as if I need to tell you that. It's South Carolina. We LOVE explosives!

Flickr photo by Cary Scott Photography

If you have an urge to pose on a cement giraffe, Pedro's got one of those too.

Flickr photo by lis_glass
Oh Pedro. You're tackiness astounds me.

Flickr photo by point&click

So share, people! What tops the tacky-meter near you?
Who wins the Tackiest of Them All?
Like Napoleon, I vote for Pedro!

Have a wonder-full Friday and a super weekend!
Love, Becky

A String of Pearls

Today's Wonder of the World is...the Pearl!

Flickr photo by GlossyRock
Talk about turning lemons into lemonade! Hooray for the lowly mollusk, which, when a parasite or bit of pesky organic matter sneaks inside its shell and irritates it to death, creates a pearl to seal it off!
Hmm. I wonder if we could apply that concept to other more human like irritants?
It's something to ponder.
But back to pearls...

Flickr photo by Melinda van den Brink
Eww. A little gross there. But I could sink my fingers into all that gushiness if it would get me some pretty pearls around my neck.

Almost all pearls in jewelry today come from pearl farms, like this one.

Flickr photo by cocodaikos
Not a bad place to work, I think.

Unless you were the poor guy that had to pry open the giant clam that birthed this baby.

Wearing a string of pearls like that one might land you in the hospital.

I think I prefer these.

Flickr photo by thelewisfoti
Wait! Those aren't strings of pearls, though they are every bit as lovely.

How about this one?

Flickr photo by Epiclectic
I bet you know the song, even though you might not recognize the title. Hop over here and I'll prove it to you.

I also love this string of pearls.

Flickr photo by mythlady
The string of pearls plant! Isn't it interesting?
Just wait until you see the flower!

Flickr photo by joeysplanting
Freaky! I think Dr. Seuss invented it.
Speaking of wacky pearls, how about this one...

Howww-deeee! It's Minnie Pearl!
Mmm. That chicken looks tasty.
I'd sure love to sit down with a drumstick and a good book.
(What? Everything goes great with fried chicken.)


Have you read Girl With A Pearl Earring? I read it several years ago and loved it.
That photo of the cover, though, really doesn't give the painting justice. Here, take another look.
Vermeer's colors are more intense.

Breathtaking.

Here's another amazing pearl.

I love anything by Steinbeck. How about you?

I also love anything by this Pearl.

(If you're in a rush, Ms. Bailey starts to sing at the one minute mark. I LOVE the way she cleans house!)

Have a wonder-full Monday, y'all! I hope you have a pearl of a day!
Love, Becky