Calling Home

So as I mentioned in my post yesterday, today (well, yesterday for me... still today for the States) is Justine's 18th birthday. So I called home hoping to catch her. Instead, I got my younger sister Maddison (who gets more witty and hilarious every time I talk to her, btw).

Maddison: Hello?

Me: Hi!

Maddison: Hiii...?

Me: Is Justine there?

Maddison: Uhhhh... no? I don't know where she is... who is this?

Me: Sydney.

Maddison: My sister Sydney?

Me: Yes!

THEN we finally get the excited "HIIIIII SYDNEY!!!" That's what we were looking for! hehe

So after some unimportant but funny chatter she askes, "Did you hear about Dad?" Sadly, the first thing that comes to my mind is the time a couple years ago when he broke his leg skiing and drove the whole way home with it still in his boot (he knew it was broken)... after skiing down the rest of the hill on it... THEN finally got my Mom to take him to the hospital to get it x-rayed and a cast.

So I say, "No... what happened?"

(stiffled eye roll and giggle [yes, I can HEAR an eye roll!]) "I'll let him tell you. Here he is..."

So a heavily drugged Dad gets on the phone...

Me: "Hey! Maddison said something happened..."

Dad: "Yeah, It's no big deal, I just wrecked my motorcycle (dirtbike)..."

(pause)

"I broke my collarbone on both ends.... And I hit a cow."

Me: "You HIT A COW*???" haha

So he basically tells me that he was going to pass Maddison on a blind corner and spooked a cow who then ran out in front of him... How many people can say they crashed their dirt bike by broadsiding a cow??? haha I thought the story was awesome. So needless to say, poor Daddy is laid up on the couch (on the vacation time he'd already taken!!!) with pain killers, ignoring doctor's orders to use the sling and stay out of the garage working on stuff! :)

I DID eventually get to chat with Justine when I called her cell phone... girl's already moving fast, she went on a date last night with a 21-year-old! (A boy who IIII actually had a cruch on back in 6th grade!!! haha) But she seemed to be enjoying her summer vacation and the prospect of being an adult now.

Calling home is never uneventful! Haha! ... It's always something, huh?

* Note to all cow enthusiasts, the cow was uninjured in the making of this accident.

Blood Money

So if there was ever something worth mentioning, it is this. Here, there is this law where if you hit and kill someone in a car accident, you have to pay their family basically what they are "worth" as a punishment (and sometimes jail time too, depending). But, in light of this, it is not very uncommon for these workers here (see construction worker below balancing on flimsy wood a hundred feet off the ground) to decide their 5 bucks a day just isn't supporting their families back home. They will choose instead to jump in front of vehicles so their families can get money. Sad huh?

So this weekend we grilled on our roof again (we missed last week because of the tournament). Marcelo, one of the coaches, and Rainy, his wife, came too. I met Rainy at the tournament sitting in the VIP section and she is an AMERICAN! Has family from Idaho no less, lol. Go figure, right? So, needless to say we bonded right away. She is a very interesting person too. She is a former Marine who then contracted with the DOD in Iraq as a translator for interrogations. She speaks perfect Ababic (Iraqi dialect). So it has been great. We went to the mall on Wednesday and she told me what the prayer call says, and taught me some other words in Arabic. How cool is that?

So the roof was fun. Especially having them over. Marcelo is going to be training Stu in private lessons (we figure might as well take advantage of this opportunity... as always). Here he is teaching Kaden! haha

Kaden wating his sunglasses.

Smiling Joshy.

Stu getting "punched" in the face... By Jeff.

Matt showing off his mad dance skillz.

Oh yeah! Do the "Q-tip"!