Great Burger @ Betty's Burgers!
I just finished eating a really good 1/2 pound burger at a new hamburger stand here in Santa Cruz. Betty's Burgers just opened where Costa Brava Taqueria used to be. Right where Seabright Ave crosses the railroad tracks - across from Java Junction.

It just opened today and was already BUSY. Only open til 4 for a bit, then they will be open til 10 or 11.

Thin little crunchy fries. Marianne's Ice Cream. Veggie or chicken burgers too.

They cook with some mesquite in the fire, so it adds a great flavor to the meat.

Give it a try.

Burger, small fries, small drink: $8 or so.

The Wordless Duck!!!


Those fine folks over at Oriental Trading Company sure sell some fine, deeply spiritual, faith building products!

And I'm sure this is not the worst example of selling most ANYTHING by putting "Jesus" somewhere.

Isn't our faith in our Lord Jesus more valuable than cheap plastic crap, or mints with verses on them?

Does anyone really think that this duck might help my 4 year old grow in his understanding of God's great love and the amazing sacrifice Jesus made for us?

More likely it would further blur the difficulty he already has distinquishing between reality and fantasy when it comes to Jesus, Santa, and the Power Rangers...

Yuck!

Stinkin' Cars...

Its one thing to put $s into a car or motorcycle or ??? that you like, or love, or at least can tolerate!

Mechanic wants $500 to put a new water pump in a car I really don't even like!!!

About a year ago, Chuckk ask my little guy Andrew,

"Are you excited about riding home with your dad in his cool car?"

"My dad doesn't have a cool car - he has THAT car!!" pointing at my 87 Mercury Topaz...

Even the 3 year old knew the truth... drats...

UPDATE: Hey, I just saved $100! Bill was ONLY $400 to replace a water pump that Kragen sells for $32... drats again...

...got unagi?

Went to lunch with a Jr Higher today - we'll call him Brad (not his real name). China One - huge buffet of pretty good Chinese food. It's easy to REALLY hurt oneself at that place!

Billy (not his real name) is telling me about his summer - kayaking, day trip to San Francisco, seeing Pirates 2 at the Drive In.

Talk of sushi comes up. I say its nasty. Fred (not his real name) likes it. Especially unagi.

What's unagi? Its sushi made with eel. Ewwwww! In my mind eel is like a really big worm. And I don't eat worms - though my dad did once... by accident... that's another story...

Barny (not his real name) starts telling me all about unagi. And my interest grows less and less.

Kerry (not his real name) has built up his interest so much, that he (not his real name) decides to ask if China One has unagi!

Tall Asian waitress walks by so Andrew (not his real name) politely (no, really!) says,

"Excuse me, do you have any unagi?"

Tall Asian waitress looks at him, and with no pause or hesitation reaches into the inner recesses of her apron pocket, and places a pile of napkins on the table... and walks away.

Huh? Peter (not his real name) and I look at each other quiziacally... What just happened?

My friend AWan determined said waitress is probably pretty new to the US. I'm pretty sure she knows Coke, Diet Coke, Orange and Sprite.

I guess unagi is not one of the words she's learned yet...

When I dropped Adam (not his real name) off at home, he called out to his mom saying, "Hey mom, I brought you some unagi!" Then handed her a napkin.

We laughed.

Amazing creativity in the hands of kids!

Click here to see which levels of sound you can hear:
I hear funny noises
Let me know how high you can hear. I can only hear about below 14.1 kHz

What prompted me to blog this?

New Leaf Market downtown Santa Cruz has tried to disuade young punks from hanging out on the sidewalk in front of the store. The thinking is these young uns drive away people who actually have $s to spend.

Other stores with similar struggles have resorted to a device called a mosquito. Its a speaker that blasts out annoying sounds... but only at a level that people 20 +/- years and under can hear! Some random story about the speaker. So I walk by and don't hear a thing. But gheschell and jsims would cover their ears and scream about the sound!

Here's where the creativity comes in: some ingenious folks have tranformed these "age discrimiating" sounds into ringtones. You and your friends in class know you've got a call or text message, but not your teacher!

If you're 40, you're thinking, what an aweful idea! If you are 15, you're likely saying "sweet" or "cool" or ??? (insert current phrase used to express great pleasure...)

Here is a story about the ring tone thingy.

I read about this stuff on Guy Kawasaki's blog along with other stuff about teens.

Doing Something right!!!

I gotta be honest. Much of "Christian" media is really lame. Dare I mention the Left Behind movies...???

So it's REALLY cool to see some folks pull off something that is so creative, out there and off the wall - all to tell the Good News of Jesus in a way that is so NOT lame!

The Hume Lake staff at Meadow Ranch are portraying the Apostle Peter and his interactions with Jesus in Liminy Snickets meets Nightmare Before Christmas meets Dr Suess sorta way...

Check out a bit here http://www.humelake.org/cephas/

Its almost beyond description. Its not the "media" quality of the thing, its the creativity! They are off the hook wacked out nuts!!!

• Jesus has a flaming orange suit.
• Peter has a pointed yoke around his neck with various faces that he tries on that are chained to the yoke.
• The disciples can't help but pick their noses as Jesus goes off to talk to the Sun (Father) before he is betrayed. He comes back asking "can't you keep from picking your nose for just a little while?"

Way to go Hume Lake staff. You guys have taken a big risk to try something creative, fun and super thought provoking.

Derek - you're off to a great start!!

Some might not like it... Keep pressing the envelope anyway!

SUCKER PUNCHED!!

Worst Feeling Possible... Maybe

Allison's class had an early Father's Day Picnic at Highland's Park. Wouldn't miss it for the world!

The competition heated up when the third graders were ahead of the dads 10-7 in the kids vs dads softball game.

I'm up to bat. 2 outs. 2 runners on. We could win this thing!

Allison comes over to pitch to her dad... oh what a sweet moment!!!

Until I smacked the ball REALLY hard... right in her gut!!!! Wailing girl. Screaming girl. Crying girl.

Felt like a total heal... King dork dad of the picnic... Biggest looser...

Instead of being like the stud dad who hit the ball so far he walked the bases, I was the dad who ended the game by sucker punching his daughter...

Ah crap...

Brilliant teacher (really, I'm not being a jerk... at least about this) ended the picnic by doing the ol' water balloon toss! Allison was laughing and smiling again by this time!

Thanks Mrs Hutchinson! You da best!!!

Next time I'll try bunting...