The Hippo and the Tortoise

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.


The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.


"After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond.

"The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years," he explained.





"The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother . If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.




They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added.


This is a real story that shows our differences don't matter much when we need the comfort of another. We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures, look beyond our differences and find a way to walk the path together.


I say Amen to that!

Wedding marathon

Some body please include me on the loop. Because I don't know what's going on everywhere I turn "Bang" a wedding is happening. I have so many wedding invitations I am not sure if my budget can handle all the wedding gifts.

This is how my social calendar looks/looked like:

Thursday 6/22/2006 My cousin wedding

Saturday 6/24/2006 My niece wedding

Monday 7/3/2006 My friend wedding

Tuesday 7/4/2006 My ex-boss wedding reception

Saturday 7/8/2006 Another friend wedding


This is just for next week or two. And we are still counting. Now my brother is talking about getting married. My nephew is been hitting also. I am just wondering when everyone will take a break?

Oh-lala.... Well are you being bombarded with wedding invitations too?
The uncomfortable thing about it is at each wedding everyone is looking around or asking you " So, when is your turn?" My answer ( I just smile ) and ask do you want me to get you something?


(sigh)

New Benz

New Benz - No Steering wheel; for Rs. 2.5 crore ONLY.........
A friend of mine E-mails this pictures to me tell me, how do you like it?







"Life doesn't turn out the way we plan....

Drama Day

Drama # 1
Okay, this morning while having a coffee break with my Boss and another co-worker.
I say to my boss I am going to have to do another PTO forms (personal Time Off). Another because I had requested some time off to go to Buffalo, NY this weekend. I will be there from Thursday thru Monday. Then I got couple of calls and e-mails yesterday about a friends wedding in Baltimore, MD on July 3RD and my EX-Boss who just got married few months back and she is doing her reception on 4TH July.
So I am trying to figure out which one to go to. Then my co-worker jumps at the occasion and says to my Boss (Oh, I will need some time off too. For my Family Reunion). Out of nowhere this discussion turned sour. My Boss and my co-worker couldn't come to an agreement. And both were look at me to tell them who was in the wrong. I look at them both for a little while turned around went in my office started working. My expression (Your figure it out). Thank God a half an hour later they both cooled off and started apologizing to each other. So I come in and start making fun of the whole situation. We all had a good laugh after all the tension dissipated.

Drama # 2
While driving with my mom to take her home, somehow the conversation turned to:
Mom: You got paid today?
Me: uhhhh... Yes (thinking oh oh)
Mom: So what are your plans?
Me: ummn (making faces) Well I have things to take care of.
Mom: Like what?
Me: like my Cell phone bill, Cable bill and don't forget I am going to New York tomorrow.
Mom: Humn, I can't believe you are just wasting so much money on petty stuff. You have to learn to save your money. Anyway I though you were saving up on getting a car? Or you forgot already?
Me: come on, Mom. We are not going to have this conversation. I planned this trip like 3 months ago. I can't just back out now. Plus to have you mind at ease I dint forget about the car. It's going to be my car anyway so why are you stressing?
Mom: I am your MOTHER it's my ROLE to stress over YOU and her regular spiel followed
Me: (I am pretending not to hear. So I don't get myself in any more unwanted topics)


Drama # 3
Remember my post "So embarrassing" on March 5,2005. Well I didn't learn my lesson then. But I can tell you that I definitely learned it today.
On my way home from work. My car started shaking a little. Then it was running really slow. So I am thinking maybe I am not pushing the accelerator.
But as I soon found that. It wasn't the case. I was out of OIl and GAS. Well I have a goal card that I placed in front of me which is blocking the instrument panel of my car. So when the lights have been flashing of low oil and low gas. I didn't see warning light . Lucky before my car completely stopped I had made a turn in a public park and called for help. I call this other co-worker that was still at the office and asked him if he could stop by the Park on his way home. I explained the situation when he got to me. Thank God it only took him 2 min to get to me after the whole thing happened. He was already on his home.
Me: (looking at him with the I am sorry eyes)
Him: (shaking his head) and he muttered Chicks
Me: I am sorry
A long story short we went to gas station together I bought some gas and 2 quarters of oil with his help. Then I was all set to go.

Traffic Jam and Preposterous Drivers

Wuuusssaaaa!! (rubbing my ears)
Alright, it's 1:45PM and finely got a chance to take my lunch. I decided to go home because I had to take care of something. I get to the 1st light BANG guess what?
Traffic Jam. Since I had a book on the passenger seat I decided to read couple of lines until the traffic starts moving. Anyway I seat there for almost five to six minutes before the the traffic start moving again.(It's summer time so the whole city is under construction)
As I was going by the over pass I could see below that there was another traffic jam in the freeway. So I decided to take the local route instead of the highway. It's usually doesn't take more than 15 minutes to get home. Today it took a little more than that.
Now on my way back things went a lot smoother. Until 3 miles from work then some
driver that was ahead of us probably had time in his/her hand, so she decided to stop and give the school bus access first. I am thinking to myself NOOOO you didn't. She didn't just do that. God damn it why would stop in the middle of the road while you have priority over which person to go 1st to give the school bus access.
I mean how stupid is that? it's not like the school bus was going tobe stuck there for ever. There was not much traffic. I realized that at that moment she/He wasn't in a hurry so automatically assumed that it was cool to do what she/he did.
I only had an hour for my lunch by the time that happened I was going to be back at work at least 5 minutes earlier. But you know with each bus stop and those bad kids taking there sweet time to get off the bus it took forever to get out that road. I ended up being late. Isn't school supposed to be out anyway? I thought the last of school was last week. Am I missing something? Anyway Wuuusssaaaaa! ( rubbing my ears)
Remember the movie Bad Boys II that's where I got the "Wuussaa" from. It does work.

**Post**A**No**Secret**

Tagged by Papillona

Once upon a time I declined your friendship...But you never gave up on me. Today I am glad we're

Thank You,

Diamond

Love is in the air

===>

I






AM






IN






LOVE






WITH






MY



























Pants

So, so comfortable!

:)

# 109

Without conflict there is no growth, and the most challenging conflict is whithin ourselves.

# 108

Life is tough, even when it deosn't have to be.

Sweet November

Last night I was flipping thru the channels until I came across this movie. I had forgotten how much I loved it the last time I saw it. I just love it! I am repeating myself by you get where I am coming from.

If you are a romantic you definitely need to see this movie. It's very .... Sweet!

So I stayed up and watch it til the end. I went to bed around 2:20am this morning. Which was not bad since I didn't have to be at work until 10:00am.

Junk Food Day

Do you ever have one of those day that from the moment you wake up in the morning until in the evening you can't get off your routine.
Well today was Junk Food Day for me. On my way to work I decided to stop at a store to get some fresh bread and some jelly. And maybe cereal if I found what I liked. I had 10 minutes to spare before my time was up. I walked in and did one round and came out with: bread, jelly, cinnamon buns, two cups of chocolate ice cream.
I got to the office and found my colleague had brought glazed donuts. So I get one of the donuts then 1 hour later I am looking in the fridge. Found Pizza leftovers that we had for lunch the day before from Papa Johns. After my tackling some more work I do another round to the fridge and got a popsicle. Then 30 minutes later I had to to the post office then Federal Express so I took another popsicle since it's seemed pretty hot outside.
I get back in and have lots of water. It was really as hot as it seemed outside the office.
Then 2 hours later on my lunch hour I ate Cheeseticks from Papa Johns and the ice cream.
When I got home from work I forced my self not to make any trip to the fridge. I chilled from 6 to 7:30 pm then left the house to go meet up with some friends.
While there I got hungry so I made a stop at the vending machines. And got some Cheetos and a Hershey's chocolate bar. That was around 9:30pm. Thank god I shared it with my friend. So I didn't consume all of it. We were celebrating a friend's achievement so we had a chocolate and vanilla cake with lots of icing. That was around 10:30 pm. I just got home half an hour ago and I am staying up a little bit so I can digest all those sweet, fatty food before I go to bed.
Crazy huh? And to think that all day yesterday I only had a bowl of cereal in the morning and couple slice of pizza during lunch that was it.

M / Diamon / now Chocolate?

Okay since the weather got a little nicer the past couple of weeks. Well the weather basically got really warm, no correction it got HOT, in the past few days the average temperature has been in the 90's. Which I really don't mind thanks to the guy that invented Air Conditioning!

Anyways my intentions were not talk about the weather but mostly how they are so many people are out and about due to it. Since we had plenty of activities in the city so more chances of being interactive than usual. Plus people are just in a better mood in the summer. (Love is in the air)
The funny thing is that I can honestly said that in the last weekends I don't know how many times I was referred to as "Chocolate". I know Americans have a tendencies of comparing skin color with food. See why the nation is obese but to get back on the subject.
Every day that I have been out either by myself running some errands or with my nieces the guys that want to talk to me referred to me as "my beautiful chocolate". My cousins are much lighter than I am so for them it's "Caramel" well at least the ones I hang out with.
This is not the first time that someone called me "Chocolate" but it just happened numerous times in a span of few days.
At the post office, the bank, the Asian Festival,at the club, at work, my cousins party on campus, just to name a few places. And all I repeat within two weeks I don't know what's happening but.... I don't know. I feel like a piece of chocolate roaming the street if you know what I mean.

Alright I am done rambling. If you haven't guessed yet, let me let you in on a secret ( I ramble when I am sleepy) So with that said I bid you all good night! I had a long day so I am not going out tonight. You never know though, after I take couple hours of sleep I might feel up to it. The night is still young!

:)