My little baby dog - okay so maybe not so little...

Okay, so I officially agree: my dog is fat. I was walking him the other day and we passed one of my neighbors. She said, “Oh, what a cute dog. And fat.” And then my roommate had a friend over and he said my dog looked “well fed.” In case you were wondering, if you tell someone that their dog is well fed, it’s the exact same thing as telling them that their dog is fat. And if you tell someone their dog is fat, they aren’t going to like you.

So just because I say that Dylan is a tub o’lard doesn’t mean that YOU can.

So I’ve started measuring his food to make sure he’s not getting too much dog food. Now if I can just cut out the table scraps, too…

I also bought him some more toys. Did you know they don’t make very many dog toys that either A) don’t squeak, or B) aren’t made of some sort of rope that sheds worse than my dog? I finally found a few. His favorite toys are the tennis balls. He LOVES them. We have to play with two, though. If I’m about to throw one, he’ll drop the one he just fetched. But if we only have one, he likes for me to take it from him. It’s a game I call tug-o-fetch.

Anyway, I’m hoping that with the cut back in food and the increase in play with the tennis balls will cause him to shed some pounds.

If I had a digital camera, I’d take a picture of him and post it for the “Before” picture. But I don’t.

Languages

I’ve always been amazed by people who could learn other languages. I’d like to someday. In the meantime, I'll just make fun of other people that learn other languages.

Anyway, as most of you know, I really like words. Which will hopefully explain why I like the Babelfish translator site so much. My friend Shad is taking Russian, so he decided to take the normal phrases that he uses quite frequently and translate them into Russian. I thought it might be fun to then take those words and translate them BACK to English. See below for the results of this experiment.

*Disclaimer: Yes, these are phrases that Shad uses with at least moderate frequency. The last one he uses several times a day.

First I will list the original English phrase and then the same phrase translated to Russian and back.

Smell my feet.
Smell by my feet.

You really hate me.
You actually hate me.

I don’t know what to tell you.
I do not know to say you.

Are you mad at me?
You sumashedshi on me?

Then I tried it again translating to Chinese and back.

Smell my feet.
Smells my foot.

You really hate me.
You truly hate me.

I don’t know what to tell you.
I did not know any tells you.

Are you mad at me?
You live my gas?

That last one concerns me a bit...

Chai tea

I never was a Starbucks fan. Nothing against Starbucks, I just didn’t like coffee and assumed there was, therefore, no reason for me to ever step foot inside one. Oh, how I was wrong. First, a friend introduced me to the Chai Tea Latte. Pretty good. Not quite chocolate milk (my fave!) but it made me feel a little more sophisticated drinking a hot drink at Starbucks. (That should clue you in a little as to my level of sophistication…) Anyway, I then discovered the VANILLA Chai Tea Latte. Now this is praiseworthy. Seriously, I look forward to my weekly trip to Starbucks on Sunday mornings before church. Yes, I only allow myself to have one per week. The ‘tall’ which is Starbucks talk for ‘small’ is $3.41. I’m not doing that every day. Oy vey.

Anyway, I have discovered something else that just might allow me to enjoy my hot drink more than once a week. I found the Vanilla Chai Tea Latte Mix by Oregon Chai.

So I was looking at the package today and I found this:

Mispronunciation of Oregon Chai
may result in derisive snickering.
Oregon \or-y-gun
Chai \eye with a ch in front
At least they are upfront about the fact that they make fun of people.