Je comprends en peu le français

"I understand French a little."

Our attempt to learn French continues, and it seems to get funnier each day. Our recent adventure in learning the "eu" sound (as needed in the sentence above) reminds me of a great story my Father-in-law Tom and Mother-in-law Thea often tell. When they were living in France Thea, who is Dutch and therefore is more familiar with the sounds made in French speech, tried often to help Tom learn French pronunciation better. There are 2 sounds for "u" that the French make that are very hard for the American ear to distinguish. So there were endless times when Tom would say something and Thea would attempt to correct the "eu" sound. One day Tom said something, pronouncing the "eu" wrong, and of course Thea automatically corrected him

"U" he said.
"Eu" she said.
"U" he said, trying to stay calm.
"Eu" she said a bit more forcefully.
"U" he said, not able to stay so calm.
"Eu!! Eu!! Eu!!" she exclaimed in exasperation.

Tom looked at her with concern, "are you having a problem?"

Needless to say she is feeling very exasperated with OUR current serious mispronounciation of this particular sound right now. So, you will often find us walking through the house practicing our "U" sound, and each time we say "U" you'll hear from another part of the house "Eu!!!" It must just drive her nuts.

Our beautiful seahorses

Dave just took some more pictures of our adorable seahorse tank that I couldn't resist sharing. This tank is 150 gallons, so it's huge and we are going to have to dismantle it when we leave for France. We are really going to miss these guys.




Isn't this one a beauty? The seahorses are very aware of what is going on outside the tank. When I come close to the tank they completely ignore me. But when Dave comes near the tank, especially in the morning when it's feeding time, they get very excited. This one is waiting to be fed. It's like he's posing for Dave. Feed me first. Aren't I so pretty?



This is Jacque. He is our very, very industrious cleaner shrimp. Dave calls him his little monster. He has an "office" in the tank. This is where the other fish, on a swim-in basis, come to get their scales and gills cleaned. Jaque's business has been really good evidently because he has gotten HUGE since he openned shop in the tank. Of course he is so industrious that he always gets a good share of the frozen shrimp that are put into the tank at feeding time too. You should see him. He has all of his little shrimp legs stuffing food into his little mouth. My mother-in-law has given Jacque the nickname Homer because he always looks like he's stuffing his face as fast as he can during feeding time. Num, num, num, num, num. The fish guides say that these cleaner shrimp grow to be a maximum of 2 inches. Jacque, however, hasn't read the fish guide and continues to grow to brave new lengths.




Another hide and seek picture of one of our shy little seahorses. Can you find him?



Meet Rocky Outcropping. She is the fattest fish in the tank. A friend of ours named her this because one day he was looking in the tank and suddenly one of the rocks moved!!!! But this rock is all personality.




Here is a couple doing their "love dance." When a seahorses are ready to mate (and the mate often!), they begin an incredible gorgeous mating dance. Starting in the morning, the first sweep across the sand at the bottom of the tank. Then they spiral around each other up to the top of the tank. Through the day they follow each other around, wrapping thier tails, spiraling their bodies around each other, he chases her a little, then she chases him a little. About mid-afternoon he starts to open his pouch to display it as if to say "hey baby, see how big mine is." Then eventually she delivers her eggs into his pouch to be fertilized. He carries the eggs in his pouch to gestation.



This is what happens when you act foalishly and don't use protection.

Our little seahorses. I just love them!

Mahna Mahna

Good morning Everyone!

There is one other thing regarding the dance performance on Sunday that I can't resist sharing with you. One of the soloists in the contest did an absolutely fabulous dance to the song Mahna Mahna. She had everyone laughing out loud. Owen was with us at the contest and he and Dave couldn't remember the name of this song while we were there. Owen did some research on the song, and came up with this terrific video clip. I hope you enjoy it....

http://www.devilducky.com/media/7452/

I still can't believe we won!

Hi Everyone!
I got some very cute comments about my "We Won" blog. Comments included "great to hear you won, but what the heck happened at the competition?" So here is the follow-up blog with more details.

The People's Choice Belly Dance Competition is all about dancers choosing their favorite dancers out of their peers. It always feels like such a big compliment when you win a competition like this, because it says that your peers admire what you have created. There are 3 major categories in the competition: solos, duets, and troupes. Each category is awarded 1st through 4th place awards by the audience voters.

In the troupe division, there were only 4 troupes that were competing. The show put us off kilter a bit though. Several performers in early categories didn't show up, so the show was running really early. (A belly dance show running early?! Unheard of!!!!) I had a bunch of friends and family who were coming to see us at 2:45pm, and I was planning on arriving at 2 so I had time to relax and watch some dancing before I went on. At 2, just as I was pulling up to the theater, I got a call from one of my fellow dancers. “Where are you?” she asked breathlessly. “They’re running early, so were going on in 15 minutes!” OMG! Now my adrenalin was rushing through me and when I got inside we all tried to figure out how we were going to compensate for the dancers that weren’t going to be there on time.

At 2:10pm Dave showed up with his Dad and my parents and a friend. Thank goodness! And at 2:15 we went on. We were only missing one dancer, but she showed up as we were dancing the first dance, and jumped in on the second dance. Woohooo!!!! We all got to dance most of the set! And what a set it was. We had flying double veils, scimitars, Tai Chi fighting swords, and of course, hip shimmies to knock you off your seat. It was an incredible display of group innovation because all of us chipped in to create the pieces. We were so excited to perform the set, and the whole place went still when we started. We got everyone’s undivided attention. It felt magical.

When I left the stage, it felt like we had done really well. But, it turned out that after the performance, several dancers were really upset. I guess things hadn’t gone as well for everyone as I thought.

But we all had good attitudes. We came. We danced. We got to show the world what we could create as a team. We debuted Tai Chi fighting sword belly dancing to the world!!!! That was cool! Now we could enjoy the rest of the show and hope to win next year. We all changed back into street clothes since we figured we weren’t going to have to look gorgeous for the awards part of the show. People only really look at the 1st and 2nd place winners usually.

So, when they started announcing troupe awards we were all huddled together and expected to be the first to walk up to the stage. But they called another troupes name. Hmmmmm……okay, 3rd place is better than we thought. Great! But then for 3rd place they called another troupe. Now we were all a bit confused. We took 2nd place? Really? But then they called yet another troupe name. HUH????!!! What?!!!! There must be a mistake. We all stood still and quiet until they finally called our troupe name, as if we weren’t really sure what was going to happen. And then when they said it, we screamed like a bunch of teenagers. We screamed and stood still. It took us a minute to realize we needed to move towards the stage. We all walked looking completely stunned. It was the most incredible experience! We really had no idea we even had a chance to win. What an absolutely delightful surprise!!!! I am still in complete disbelief that it happened, but e-mails keep flying around saying “We won! We won! We won!” So it must have happened. Yippeee! I wanna do that again!

I know you want to see pictures, but none of the pictures that Dave took came out. If I get any good ones from anyone else, I’ll post them as soon as I get them. Thanks everyone for all your congratulations e-mails. I feel like a superstar!!!!

Vote for your favorite new Monopoly city

Hi Everyone!

Hasbro is creating the New Monopoly Here and Now game and is taking votes on 22
cities in the US. Each city represents a color group in Monopoly with three
"properties". When the votes are tallied, each city's properties will
have their order set by the number of votes, and the city with the most
votes will become the coveted blue properties (Boardwalk, Park Place).

Currently it looks like New York has the most votes. I'd much rather see San Francisco get all the blue properties. Wouldn't you? Vote today!

http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/

In the blue box in the middle of the page, click on the flag that says "vote now".

We won! We won! We won!

OMG! My belly dance troupe danced in the People's Choice Belly Dance competition this afternoon, and after all those months of hard work, we won. We took 1st place in the troupe division! When they announced that we took 1st place we were all in such shock that it took us a moment to start moving towards the stage to get our trophy. Anyways, I just wanted to tell the whole world "We won! We won! We won!!! Woohoooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!"

This is a picture of me warming up with my veils. I love my veils!

Dave, you are....um....

Hi Everyone! After my last post I got a couple of adamant e-mails stating that so much sap should not be posted on-line. I even got something from a complete stranger asking for relief from the gag factor. So, with my head hung low I removed the oh so romantic dedication to my wonderful husband. Then, today I was having dinner with a friend and she said "I was reading the song on your last blog post and then all of a sudden, when I was only half way through, it disappeared! Where did it go? I want it back!!!!!!"

So, here is the song again, without all the introductory sap before it. For those of you who didn't tune in before it was removed, it's up to you to imagine what I wrote that caused all that ruckus.

Live Like You Were Dying by Tim McGraw

He said I was in my early forties
With a lot of life before me
When a moment came that stopped
me on a dime
And I spent most of the next days
Looking at the x-rays
And talking ‘bout the options, talking
‘bout sweet time
And I asked him when it sank in
That this might really be the end
How’s it hit ya’ when you get that
kind of news
Man, what’d you do (he said)

I went sky diving I went rocky
mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds on a
bull named Fumanchu
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I’d been denying
And he said one day I hope you get a
chance
To live like you were dying

He said I was finally the husband
That most the time I wasn’t
And I became a friend a friend would
like to have
And all ‘a sudden going fishin’
Wasn’t such an imposition
And I went three times that year I lost
my dad
And I finally read the good book
And I took a good long hard look
At what I’d do if I could do it all
again…and then

I went sky diving I went rocky
mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds on a
bull named Fumanchu
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I’d been denying
And he said one day I hope you get a
chance
To live like you were dying

Like tomorrow was a gift
And you’ve got eternity to think of what
you did with it
What you did with it…what did I do with it

I went sky diving I went rocky
mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds on a
bull named Fumanchu
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I’d been denying
And he said one day I hope you get a
chance
To live like you were dying

France, here we come!

It's official. We're moving to France on Feb 1st 2007!!!! Oh My Gawd! I can't believe it's finally happening. Dave and I have been working towards this for 5 years now, and his company has finally committed to supporting us in this adventure.

Now comes all the planning. We started trying to learn French this weekend. Have you seen the new Steve Martin Pink Panther movie? If not, have you seen the trailers for it? Do you remember the scene where Clouseau is trying to learn how to pronounce, "I want to buy a hamburger" like an American? Now imagine that in reverse. That was Dave and I on Saturday. Every time we tried to speak we both broke out in hysterical laughter. It made actually talking very difficult.

The first thing we learned is that the French speak as if the have a static disturbance in their voice. Pardon is something like Pa (static) doh (like Homer Simson says). That one word provided over an hour of entertainment for us. Dave does an amazing job with what he calls the French dial tone. You know how when we are thinking we say "uhm"? Well when a Frenchman thinks he says "uuuuuuuuuu" which sounds like the phone is off the hook. Pucker lips, then open them, now go "uuuuuuuuuu". It was very distracting. Every time Dave got stuck on a word he would do his French dial tone, and I would fall off my seat laughing. We are in such big trouble. I hope the French are kind to us. I've melted many a Frenchman's heart with my sweet innocent big brown eyes look in the past. Do you think that trick will work for a whole year? I guess we'll find out.

Okay, so the language thing is on its very precarious way. Now to think about other logistics. Where are we going to live? City, burbs, country? How the heck are we going to find a place? What should we do with all of our stuff here? How about our cars? Should I sell my adorable little yellow Mini (how will I live without Minibabe)? I don't think I should take a car with me if we are going to live in Paris proper. So much to think about! I'm in overdrive!!!! Help! Any advise you wanna share? Let me know.

I'll keep you updated as the adventure progresses.

SFWAR Update

Hello there Everyone!
Regarding the blog I posted a few weeks ago (I've copied and pasted it to this blog too), I just want to say thank you to everyone for your generous donations. As you know, this is a cause that is very close to my heart, so I really do appreciate all your support in sponsoring my walk.

Several of you have mentioned that you tried to go to the web-site and make a donation, but that there was no place to note that you were sponsoring me for the walk. So, here are the instructions on what to do:

Go to http://www.sfwar.org/
click on the link on left that says "get involved"
click on the link on left that says "support us"
Click on the grey box in middle of page that says "donate now"
Go through the whole donation process (3 short pages), and at the bottom of the last page there is a "comments" box. This is where you note that you are sponsoring me for the Walk on April 29th.

I hope that helps. If you have any other questions, please let me know. Again thanks so much for your generous support. I'll let everyone know how the walk goes.


Blog of April 3, 2006
Hello there Everyone,



On April 29th, 2006 hundreds of folks committed to putting an end to sexual violence will march in solidarity through San Franciscos Mission Neighborhood in what will be San Franciscos first ever Walk Against Rape. Dave and I are proud and honored to be participating in the birth of this exciting and historical event by joining in this first walk. As a tribute to sexual assault awareness month, Walk Against Rape is an opportunity for the communities of San Francisco to come together to raise money and awareness around sexual assault.



By participating in Walk Against Rape, I will be raising funds for San Francisco Women Against Rape (SFWAR) in the following areas:



Providing resources for the 24-hour Rape Crisis Line

Creating Support groups for survivors of sexual assault

Forming support groups for young men

Providing eight to ten weeks of in person counseling per client

Increasing education and community organizing to end sexual assault

Giving presentations to teens in their schools



Every two and a half minutes, someone living in the United States is sexually assaulted. As a volunteer at San Francisco Women Against Rape, I have committed myself to the movement to end sexual assault. Please join me in this commitment by sponsoring me to Walk Against Rape.

On behalf of thousands of people affected by sexual assault, I am requesting a pledge donation. All proceeds will benefit survivors of sexual assault. I have agreed to raise $2000 but I need your help. Would you kindly consider making a pledge to help me reach my goal? Any amount you can afford will help. You can make your tax-deductible donation online at www.sfwar.org no later than April 22nd. There is a comments section where you can just put my name (Monica Sawyer) so that SFWAR knows that you are sponsoring me. Thank you, in advance, for your compassionate support.



SFWAR is an organization that provides resources, support, advocacy and education to strengthen the work of all individuals, and communities in San Francisco that are responding to, healing from, and struggling to end sexual violence. We believe that no single individual, organization, foundation, or business alone can stop the epidemic of sexual assault, but by responding as a whole community we each bring our piece of the solution.



Please join me in being a part of this solution.



With Love,

Monica

Seahorse Hide and Seek

I just wanted to share this insanely adorable picture of one of our seahorses. I hope you enjoy it.