Celebrate November 28th 2009!

It's finally here, Buy Nothing Day has arrived. Woo Hoo! Save your money for the next day, because on Friday we are celebrating Buy Nothing Day!

http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd

Faith- Powder Puff Football

Faith playing Powder Puff Football. I heard she put a few freshmen in the hospital! ;)

God!! Where??

From Scott, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." Atheist Bus Advertisement in London!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/21/religion-advertising

FUNNY!!!1

Sunday- Greenpeace Rally Monday- Sugar skull

This time I got Kati and Katika to go to the Greenpeace rally in Encinitas. It was fun! It was at the beach!!
We listened to a few short speakers, including HS students and little kids from Children for Peace. Kati brought home a Stop Global Warming Sign and put it up in her yard. We also had a short march down the beach with some banners and got our pictures taken by the local press.
Today after work, I painted a sugar skull. It's all I can do not to eat it, but the lady who was directing us, said she didn't know who made them or how they made them, still...... it looks yummy!

My Candle Light Walk with Amnesty International

Tonight I was very lucky to attend the 20th year of the North County Amnesty International Candle light walk.
First we had a few speakers, the most prominent was Rebiya Kadeer, a human rights activist and former businesswoman in China. She is actually Uygahursan (wugers) a separate country that China invaded just a year before they invaded Tibet. The first picture is of Rebiya and me.

Then we were all give signs that depicted people who had been killed, raped, and detained only for speaking their rights. My sign had a picture of Shi Tao ( shur tawo) who was arrested and detained for using Yahoo mail to send his critical opinions of the Chinese government to others. That picture is second. Shi Tao is still in jail. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT Shi Tao!

At 61 Rebiya Kadeer is an advocate for the rights of the Uyghur people in East Turkestan (aka
Xinjiang Province in northwest China), she established a multimilliondollar
trading company and worked to provide opportunities for
disadvantaged Uygahurs. Previously held up as a model of Uyghur success,
she fell from government favor after she began calling upon the People's
Republic of China government to change its repressive policies against the
Uyghurs. Kadeer spent nearly six years in prison before being released to
the U.S., after which she has continued advocating on behalf of Uyghur
human rights. Kadeer’s children and other family members have
frequently been persecuted by PRC authorities in retaliation for her
human rights advocacy. CLICK HERE to read more about Rebiya!

Overall it was a very inspiring event despite the atrocities we learned about. It' so much more horrible to hear from someone about their imprisonment or rape than when I read it or see it online. If you'd like to receive e-mail updates from Amnesty International CLICK HERE you can sign petitions and speak your voice without leaving the house, thereby helping others and standing up for what is right.,
Thank you for reading, Leah :)

Tailgating Picture

Tailgating, it means something completely different in Texas. from Alan.

Dollar Bill Creations

From Scott, here are a few of the dollar bill creations/origamis.

Dilbert says Hi.

From Scott, a Dilbert Cartoon,
http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-04-09/

Picture for Crystal

Remember this? I think it was Julias birthday. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Cake!

weddings and funerals joke

When I was younger I hated going to weddings.

It seemed that all of my aunts and the grandmotherly types used to come up to me, poke me in the ribs and cackle, telling me, 'YOU'RE NEXT'.

They stopped that shit after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

This is from Gammy Jeanne.

Pictures from the OVIEDO & MANRIQUEZ family

Here is a link to pictures from the Oviedo (& Manriquez) side of our family. I got this link from Mary, Tia Carmen's cousin. http://www.biteyourbum.com/

It's weird seeing people that look like us who I never met or don't remember meeting.

Enjoy!

Garfield minus Garfield

From Scott a link to Garfield(less) cartoons, http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

News Archive Search on Google

This is from Scott.

News archive search provides an easy way to search and explore historical archives. In addition to helping you search, News archive search can automatically create time lines which show selected results from relevant time periods.

http://news.google.com/archivesearch

Leah's Volunteer Graduation

Here is my picture from the Voices For Children volunteer graduation. It was more formal than I imagined, luckily I dressed nice.
I am now an official Case Assessor and will have the privilege of helping to assess every child's file that goes through the foster system.

I am really looking forward to learning about the foster system so I can be a foster parent in the future.

http://voices4children.com/

Mission: Voices for Children, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, endeavors to ensure that abused, neglected and abandoned children who have become dependents of the San Diego County Court will have a safe and permanent home.

A few new things for August 2008.

PETA wants to by a Sea World Park, release all the animals to sanctuaries and replace them with virtual exhibits. Read the full story here, http://www.cbs8.com/stories/story.138302.html

Hamlet 2, What you didn't think there could be a sequel because everybody dies in Hamlet? Haven't you ever heard of a time machine or a sexy Jesus? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giBWNkRta5o

Quail Gardens

Here are pictures from our trip to Quail Gardens this week. We went with Cecila Rodarte ( she runs the FORCE, in Oceanside, where we do an annual fund-raiser)! Can you find the elephant on the roof??

PUNS from Scott!

1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons.
The Stewardess looks at him and says, 'I'm sorry, sir,
only one carrion allowed per passenger.

2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says, 'Dam!'


3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft.
Unsurprisingly, it sank, proving once again that, you can't have your kayak and heat it, too.


4. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, 'I've lost my electron.' The other says, 'Are you sure?' The first replies, 'Yes, I'm positive.'


5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.


6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. But why they asked, as they moved off. 'Because,' he said, 'I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer.'


7. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named Ahmal. The other goes to a family in Spain ; they name him Juan. Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that s he wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, 'They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal.'


8. A group of friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to 'persuade' them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.


9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know , walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him (Oh, man, this is SO BAD, it's good) a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.


10. And, finally, there was the person who sent ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh.
No pun in ten did.

Petra, Scott, Justin and Doug go hiking.

Justin, Petra, Doug, and Scott hiked up above Silver Dollar Lake near Bierstadt peak. Then we made our own trail up above the lake Murray to the top of the ridge and very near Argentine and Flat Top peaks.. There was a very nice meadow on top of the mountain with a lot of marsh, as there was no obvious declivity for a stream to follow. It was an amazingly pleasant meadow and very relaxing Except for the thin, cold air, the amazing views, and the beating our legs were complaining about, it seemed entirely too flat and bucolic to be ~13,000 feet in elevation!

Leah & Shuk Mei- in SD 7/2008

My friend Shuk Mei visited from Phoenix for a few days. We went to The Japanese Friendship Gardens (the gate), Birch Aquarium(I touched a sea slug, that felt like jello), Little Italy (we had the best pizza), Biking around Mission Bay(it totally wore us out), and of course the beach! It was nice and cool weather that Shuk Mei really enjoyed. Seriously does anybody like the temps in Phoenix???

Leah's Yosemite Trip

Yosemite was so much fun. The first day we climbed over huge slippery boulders to Bridalveil Falls, then biking around the valley. The second day we rafted down the river and I lost my sunglasses, but then later on I found a $10 bill in the river so it worked out even! The third day we hiked up to Vernal Falls, it was amazing, we got soaked from the mist and made it to the top. It wasn't the easiest 3 mile hike for a 5 and 9 yr old, but Lucas & Chloe did well.
We got to roast s'mores and saw a bear and some deer. We went on a lot of bike rides and swimming because it was HOT!! Luckily there weren't any mosquitos. We had this concrete and canvas cabin/tent and a bear locker to store anything with a scent( food, lotion, etc.)
I took way more pictures, but didn't want to put them all up. :)