Bing Yao

Bing Yao means "Sick burn" in Chinese.

At first I thought it meant "Sick bird", but then I realized I wasn't hearing it correctly.

How do I know this? We went to dinner last night with English. Yes, English is a person ... not a language. Isn't that a cool name? Her mother, Ebby, told us that if we ever have a daughter we are welcome to "borrow" the name. I never actually asked English for permission, but I suppose I don't need permission at all. It's a free country after all. (How many times did you use that expression when you were growing up?)

Anyways, back to Bing Yao.

English is in the Air Force linguistics program in California. She is learning Korean. However, for some reason, the one expression she taught us, was a Chinese expression. You say this when you "get" someone. When you give them a sarcastic jab.

We used it the rest of the night. We used it for expressions that were not anywhere close to a sick burn. And English said she would now, never be able to say "Bing Yao" again -- we had ruined it for her.

Oh well.

We ate dinner at Applebees. I'm not normally an Applebees fan. I think that's because Applebees is where my cousin Sarah waitressed her first year in Kentucky, and all the horror stories ruined it for me. But it is growing on me. We also stopped at the T-mobile booth. My phone had been acting funny. I couldn't download any ring tones or games or anything and I could barely hear people talk. I think the speaker was busted or something.

JB thinks these problems may be due to the fact that I drop my phone, say, twice a week or so. Usually I drop it on the tile in the house or on hard pavement. I'm not so sure, but whatEVER.

So we lengthened our contract, and I got a new phone. JB didn't want to feel left out so, he too, got a new phone.

Anyways, my new phone, is quite snazzy. It is pink. Last night we spent over an hour browsing and downloading ring tones. I wanted to have a different ring tone for JB when he calls then when the rest of the world calls. I gave the rest of the world "Cotton Eyed Joe" and JB "My Baby loves me". We decided that we could only pick two songs each as they cost $2.49 a piece, and you can really get carried away. JB has already re-picked the Mission Impossible theme song for his "rest of the world". I'm not sure what he has chosen for me.

We had some good laughs listening to some of these songs. JB joked that he would use the "looney tunes" theme song for anyone in our family. I can now see why my old students got hooked meandering through the ring tone selections. Especially these new HiFi selections which actually sound like the real thing (not like someone playing the accordion trying to sound like the real thing.)

Anyways, I write this post to tell everyone that I got a new phone. "Bing Yao" on all of you!