Carmen San Diego

Dave and I are huge geography dorks. We LOVE to look at maps, facts about countries, and to memorize capital city names. Often when we are bored one of us will turn to the other and ask a question like, "What countries border Turkmenistan?" or "What is the capital of Mali?" and the other will immediately jump at the challenge. We never tire of looking at the world maps in the back of the magazines on the plane. In fact, that is one of the highlights of the trip. Let's just say that John will be well prepared for his elementary school geography bee.

And that brings us to the topic of Carmen San Diego. Did you ever play that computer game? Dave and I loved it. I would play it for hours. I remember getting a clue and being unsure about what location to travel to in order to catch the criminal. I would consult the 1991 World Fact Book (it came with the game) and then make a decision. "Maybe she is in Kathmandu!" So I fly to Kathmandu, go to the bank (clip clop clip clop... those are the sounds it makes as I walk to the bank) and I ask the teller if they have seen anyone like the criminal I describe. "No, we haven't seen anyone like that around here," he replies. "NO!" I say to myself. "I should have gone to Cairo!" and so I loose that round and my detective status remains unchanged. Oh well.

We have such fond memories of that game that we have joked about naming our daughter (if we ever have one) after Carmen San Diego. So if we have twin girls we can name one after Corrie Ten Boom and one after Carmen San Diego. Corrie Ten Boom (insert our last name here) and Carmen San Diego (insert last name here). hmm... I don't think they would have many friends. And I think we should think twice about naming one child after an amazing Christian heroine and the other after a serial bank robber. But come on, folks. Carmen San Diego is what they would call a "proper" criminial. She robbed banks the old fashioned way, not by these newfangled ways like through a Nigerian email scam.

Well if you made it this far in this post, here you are rewarded with a picture of the kid and his "friend-girl" Reagan. Cheers!