WARNING: Cubanism can strike at any moment!

My friend Pam lives in the town (hamlet? community?) of Hanford in Central California.

She and her husband, Gene, go for walks in the evening and this is what they see:

It's a toad.  A TOAD, people.
Can you say, "Gross me out in twelve different ways???"  Eeeww!

Eric and I go on a nightly walk and this is what we see here in Mission Viejo:

(Okay, so it's a little blurry.  Disclaimer: Eric had the camera and took the picture and besides, unlike TOADS, bunnies move pretty quickly, but that's not important right now.)

See the sweet furry cuteness that is this little cottontail bunny?  We have tons of them around here.  Aaaw, sooo cute....

We live in South Orange County, I'm pretty sure it's against the law for TOADS (eeeww!!) to live here.  Double Eeeww!

When the bunny popped out, my mind went first to Pam's picture and I thought, "what if it had been a TOAD?? Eeeww!!"

And then, my Cuban synapses started firing randomly as they tend to do in moments like this...

Me: "Sapo* is 22."   

Eric (who has lived with me and my Cubanisms for all of these 16 years): "We're going to Vegas in a few weeks."   

And then we just kept on walking as if that was the most normal conversation in the world.

Ay, Dios mio!

(*Sapo means TOAD in Spanish, which corresponds to the number 22 in the Charada China. -  See this post for explanation.)  Or refer to the chart below and leave your questions in the comment section.  =D

 

ADDENDUM:  11/7/08 : Since it seems the toad vs bunny question is digressing into "who's our favorite frog" I'd like to nominate the following classic Warner Brothers cartoon - where Michigan J. Frog sings "Hello My Baby."