Call to Action--Stop Same-Sex Marriage in California

The California Supreme Court recently ignored the voters view and is making same-sex marriage legal on June 16th. I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman. If this passes and becomes common in most States (as California is a predecessor in new laws often) when will it end? Will parents be able to marry their children? Will siblings be able to marry their siblings? Will spouses be able to legally marry multiple spouses? If same-sex marriage becomes legal, where is the limit? PLEASE, if you want to keep marriage between a MAN and a WOMAN (and you're a California resident) you can sign a petition here

The information below from the Liberty Council/Grassfire Website
May 16, 2008

Liberty Counsel Will Ask California Court To Stay Opinion Until Californians Vote On Marriage

www.LC.org

Liberty Counsel intends to file a motion asking the California Supreme Court to stay its opinion pending the outcome of a vote in November on a state constitutional amendment that could preserve marriage as the union of one man and one woman and overturn the Court's opinion.

Californians may have the chance to overturn the Court's order by amending the state constitution. Over one million signatures in favor of the California Marriage Protection Act are being certified and voters will soon know whether more than 700,000 are valid so that the Act will appear on the November, 2008 ballot.

A stay of the Court's order is needed so that California does not create confusion by recognizing same-sex "marriage" for five months and then suddenly stopping after the amendment passes and the Court loses jurisdiction over the issue.

Please pray that the Court agrees to stay the order so that the people of California can have the last word on protecting marriage in that state.

Read our News Release for more details.

The White House issued a statement about the Court's decision: "President Bush has always believed marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman. It’s unfortunate when activist judges continue to seek to redefine marriage by court order – without regard for the will of the people. Today's decision by the California Supreme Court illustrates that a federal constitutional amendment is the best way for the people to decide what marriage means. President Bush remains firmly committed to protecting the sanctity of marriage."

We must pray that our next President does everything possible to make sure that a federal marriage amendment is actually passed!

Sign the Federal Marriage Amendment Petition at www.LC.org

Ultra Pasteurized

Yes, I am blogging about milk today. Take your average milk. Yum. Goes well with cookies, cake, lasagna, babies, the list goes on.

See, your standard milk container

Or is it your standard milk? Look closely with the help of the micro feature on our awesome camera. That's right! It's not even June yet but this puppy's got a June 28th expiration date!

That's why the title of the post is called Ultra Pasteurized! That's how we roll abroad in the military.

Silly Korea

I don't mean to but it just seems too easy to find random funny things in Korea. Some of these pictures were taken walking around 5th day Market. Yes, every fifth day (5th, 10th, 15th...) there's a big market downtown. Hope you get a laugh out of it:
If you ever need an Amblunce come to Korea!
Thank goodness the U.S.A. Army Military (not just Army) is performed by Soldier--anyone else wouldn't be qualified enough.
Anyone up for some Donky Fried Chicken??? I mean, really, is this Donky or Chicken here? Or a flying leprechaun guy with a black eye specialty dish?
Notice the "Spontaneous Amusement Park" up ahead. Let's get a little spontaneous guys and put a permanent road sign up!!!
Wow, a waterproof raincoat! Why didn't someone think of that before?
Some people have the most random writing on their tee-shirts. We wonder if they even know what it means. This shirt looks innocent with its child-like rocking horse but the writing was somewhat off, maybe you'll think something else or we just have imaginative minds...
Okay, and this shirt above is the perfect example of shirts not even completing sentences. Some we saw have an entire paragraph on them and either don't make sense and/or don't complete a thought. I wonder if that's how certain tee-shirts with foreign writing in the States are. I used to have a tee shirt with Chinese characters, hopefully no one took a picture of my shirt and posted it on the internet because it was so random.
If Birkenstocks scare you then try Birkin Sticks, a smaller form of stocks. How funny is that? They've got the foot symbol and trademark circle-deal but they're sticks not stocks. We've seen watches that are a good prices and purses too but how are you supposed to know if they are real? By the way, if anyone wants a good knock-off ritzy purse, let me know!

On another note, the pool on post is now open for business=happy happy fun fun. I was only going to go there for an hour or so but ended up staying 3 thanks to the sun and good conversation. Rain yesterday, sun today. I hear summers in Korea can be humid, hot, and wet...this should be interesting. What is your favorite thing about summer?

Army Wives!!!

It seems like forever but Army Wives is coming back to the screen! I so excited. I so I so excited! (you gotta sing that in your head). The faster it comes out on TV, the faster it comes out on DVD and then you can just watch all the episodes at your leisure or at your opposite of leisure :) The Lifetime Series of Army Wives is actually based on a book, a non-fiction book by Tanya Biank. I had no idea the show was based on real characters and events. I'm right in the middle of reading the book and wanting to read slower to savor it but read faster to find out what happens. Next season starts up on June 8th...I am seriously thinking about having a countdown but I will most likely have to wait to watch it anyway. At least it's starting up again! Hallelujah!

Wolmido Boat Cruise

We got to go to Incheon to ride the Wolmido Boat Cruise. I wanted to go to this instead of the DMZ because there would be performances during the cruise, specifically dancing. And I thought it'd be something more birthday-ey for Rick's birthday fun thing. We paid $25 each to ride the bus down there with MWR. When we got there we realized the subway goes there for about $3 each. We also had to get up super early to catch the bus. Oh well! If we ever want to go back, we'll know how to get there. We made the most of it while there!
This is at the top of some stairs in the park. These faces were on different posts. I just wonder, did the city draw these or some random artist? Kind of...different. Rick tried to imitate one.
Come eat here...you can see what you're going to eat while it's still swimming around. An interesting marketing idea. Koreans do seem super healthy and it's probably in part due to how much seafood they eat. What is up with Americans having to eat beef and chicken?
General MacArthur's statue. He landed here and saved the area (that's paraphrasing :)
Rick got a little carried away trying to be like all the smokers we see. Luckily it wasn't lit.
Us by the Chinatown gate. It was cold so I'm wearing Rick's sweatshirt. This picture was taken right after we bought some fruit at a little store. I was trying to ask the lady how much for the strawberries but I don't think she wanted to deal with me because she kept waving her hand like no, go away. Okay...

This video below is hilarious! When we first got on the boat we thought this would be the room where the show was. It turned out to be one huge dance party with lots of older people! I'm talking grandmas and grandpas throwing down a beat to techno music. In fact, Rick and I just sat there for the longest time watching until an older lady pulled me onto the dance floor!

We finally did find the performances and they were Las Vegas-ish, meaning not very much clothing on the girls and fairly cheesy. So the whole day was a little different than we imagined but we had a fun time overall. Now we just have to get to the DMZ.

HukiLau

The Post here had a Hukilau a couple weeks ago to celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage. Not only did I get a righteous sunburn but...
...we got to eat pig...
...we got to see traditional Korean dress and dances...
...the cutest kids gave us a pacific cultural fashion show...

...and I heard the best Avril impression!
All in all it was a good day.

Baby Shower Games

Some ladies in the branch and area threw a baby shower for Lindsey who is expecting in late June. Some of the ladies involved came up with some really clever ideas. Have you ever seen a diaper cake before? For the longest time before the shower I thought it was going to be a real cake, the kind you eat, but good thing there was lots of good food to eat cuz this cake was made out of plastic diapers.
Next to the cake is some handmade wrapping paper; handmade by a two year old.
These are babies we had to make out of play-do. They came out looking like aliens to me. A couple other fun things we did was a memory game of words having to do with being pregnant and getting a corresponding candy bar if you guessed the word. We also did a baby shower mad libs game that was fun. I'm all about silly party games! At this point Lindsey is all about getting this baby out of her tummy. Yea for baby showers and new babies!

Under the Subway

The other day while going to the 5th day market I noticed the under-the-subway-hanger-outers. I've noticed the furniture there before but don't remember seeing anybody on the furniture. I think that's funny. Maybe they call themselves the under-the-subway gang. Either way, they don't have much of a view but I guess that way nobody has to worry about getting a sunburn.

They probably wondered why I was taking their picture. Maybe they tell their wives they are selling something, but I think they secretly hang out and watch the people go by all day.

Food in Korea

I like Gimbap and for me that is a big step! It might be because our last night in Tokyo we ate at the famous restaurant Kill Bill was filmed in, Gonpachi. We got one of the fixed menus and I had no idea what I was eating. This is different for me because I generally consider myself not a seafood person. This was actually good, it didn't even taste like how fish smells, and I wasn't stuffed afterwards. I only wish we would have taken pictures of what we were eating. This is a picture of gimbap (which I thought was Kimbap until I googled it).
I don't think there is any seafood in gimbap except seaweed perhaps but it's still adventurous eating.

Did you know there was such a thing as black garlic? Neither did I, until I drank some. It kind of tasted like molasses.

Black garlic inside a cup for all you non-believers.
A new discovery--Ritz crackers with yogurt. Has anyone seen these in the States? I think it is so weird when I find out a brand name I am used to sells something in another country I have never seen before. I feel betrayed or something, shouldn't they disclose this information on their box or somewhere on their website? Maybe it's there, I haven't checked.
A regular old Ritz cracker with a bit of sweet yogurt.
Something else amusing we found this "Good Restaurant" sign. I'm sure it is good and a rating system of sorts (like Zagats) but how simple the words "good restuarant" are.
Maybe there's a money back guarantee in case you're not satisfied.

On The Subway

Finally, something we can understand!

We got a kick out of these the other day on the subway. (Yes, the strangest things amuse us.) Luckily, there are pictures to go along with the words so we more or less get the message. I have to say getting around in Korea definitely has it's challenges. Sometimes there are signs in places that I think might be important but I really have no idea what those signs are saying. For all I know, it could be "Quicksand ahead, stay back!". The language is so different I can't even try and guess what these symbols mean. Yes, I had planned to take a Korean class but I haven't quite done that yet. Anyway, enough about me, onto funny Korean things!
Yes, that man is pinching her buttocks. I haven't quite noticed that yet but I have noticed older men reeking of alcohol nighttime or midday. It's fairly common for men to get sloshed in the bars before coming home.

But I do have to say that if you have young children in Korea they will get stopped, touched, and ooh-ed and aah-ed at just about anywhere you go. I can't figure out if this is because the people I'm with who have kids are non-Korean kids or just super cute kids but Koreans really like the kids I roll with.
No making out in the subway. Got that? Wait until you're outside to make-out, you might make the guy sitting next to you extremely jealous.
I can't exactly figure out what is going on here. Is he drunk and spilling on her (look at his eyes) or is he just drinking and spilling? What do you think?
Although there aren't many beggars I've seen compared to what I'm used to, you do get the occasional person walking through the subway possibly with a music player around their neck and a white cane. They seem rather humble and not expectant of receiving money and I often give in but would rather help them out with food or something else.
The seats on the subway do seem rather small probably because Koreans are generally tiny but I don't like getting pinched between seat hoggers either way! Or maybe that's the picture below...what is the picture above saying? Don't poke girls in the chest or don't read over someones shoulder?
And that's today's edition of subway findings. Join us next time for something else about Korea!