Planet RMFO Blog

This morning, I was watching the Today Show. Normally, I rather enjoy the Today Show. I have this weird crush on Matt Lauer, and Meredith Viera doesn’t annoy me too much. Also, I want to be Ann Curry when I grow up.

But today, they had this NBC correspondent on there who, when she was in college, gained 40 pounds. Okay, that’s not too uncommon, but, whatever. And when she realized how HUGE she was (really, she was not that big) she took those pounds right off. Went from a size 4 to a 14 in 11 months. And, she was on the Today Show to share her secrets with a world full of fatties.

Here’s the part where I started to get really agitated. I’ve always struggled with my weight. And I am fully aware that when I gain weight, it’s because I’m making poor decisions when it comes to eating and exercise. But, for me at least, it’s so much more than a physical thing–eating and exercising are very related to emotions and state of mind for me.

Which is why this woman’s “secrets” annoyed me so much. Here they are, with my snarky responses.

-Cut back on unhealthy foods: Oh. My. Gosh. I never thought about that! She should totally write a book about that. Because I always heard you should eat MORE unhealthy food to lose weight. I guess I should mark the all-cheesecake diet off my list.

-Work out three times a week: Wait. You mean, working out helps you lose weight too? Seriously? I thought that treadmill in the basement was just a moving buffet.

-Drink a lot of water: Water, huh? I could have sworn my doctor told me that Coke was the key to weight loss. And sugary juices. And milkshakes. Especially milkshakes.

Great skinny one. Your weight loss tips have changed my life. I’m so glad you were brave and strong and came on tv and showed one picture of your fatty self. That must have taken so much courage.

Oh, and then she held up her “fat jeans.” Y’all. They weren’t fat jeans. They were ugly white tapered leg jeans, but they were not fat jeans.

I’m not diminishing her weight loss. It’s great that she recognized unhealthy patterns in her life, visited a personal trainer one time, then dropped ten sizes. Bravo. But I hate how she only addressed, in my opinion, one very small side of weight loss/weight gain/healthy living.

But maybe I just don’t get how easy it is!

Stephanie tagged me to share 6 unspectacular quirks about myself:

1) I love the History Channel. I have been known to sit and watch shows like Cities of the Underworld and Surviving History for hours. Seriously.

2) I don’t do well with music that is not in tune. For example, I cannot watch American Idol before they get to Hollywood. (And even then, sometimes…) I have this weird head tilt thing that happens, as if to say, “You’re almost there…I know that you can get that note to not be flat!”

3) While we’re on music, I can be listening to music and singing along with it, while typing something completely unrelated. Still don’t know how I do that one.

4) When eating vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup (which I LOVE), I have to mix them up completely before I eat it.

5) I don’t always like constraints. For example, I don’t want to come up with a 6th quirk right now, so I’m not going to. HA. Take that!

(Women’s Bible Study reflections based on the “Glory Questions”: Meditating on God’s Word to be Transformed from Glory to Glory)

Acts 3:1-10
Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, “Look at us!” And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene–walk!” And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God; and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

God can heal. He heals the physical. Even more difficult is the healing of the heart and He does that as well. Through Christ, we are healed in mind and spirit. We may still bear outward infirmities, but we are given the power and the tools (Scripture, His Spirit) to be made whole. He takes broken lives, lives that have given up, lives that have been given up on and restores them. We have no choice but to go into His temple and praise Him. Rejoicing over Him who took us from our despair and brought us into His rest and His love. If we truly lived in this, lives would be different. Relationships would be easier because we would view those around us with the same eyes that we were viewed with by God. This should cause us to enter His temple with praises, but since we so often choose not to live in this manner, we seldom return to Him the praise that is due Him. It is easier to live in or brokenness, telling ourselves that we are, in fact, no broken at all. The more we tell ourselves that, the more we believe it. We find those “friends” who will feed into that lie and ignore the counsel of those friends (true friends) who will speak truth and the knowledge of His healing into our hearts. The world tells us it is ok to be broken. And it is, but that brokenness is no an end, as they would have you believe, but rather a jumping off point from which the healing can begin. Refusing to be open to the healing that is so necessary condemns us to a life of bitterness and often solitude, as we no longer trust those around us. In order to live a life that is open to healing, we must trust those around us to speak His truth into our hearts and minds. We must be continually in the Word, “continually devoting [ourselves] to prayer”, as it says over and over again of the disciples. This means even when we don’t feel like it. Even when we’ve slid back and aren’t feeling “whole” or “healed” at the present moment. Of all the ways to receive His words of healing and promise, I need to work on meditating on His Word. This tool of the Glory Questions is giving me the opportunity to do so. I just need to continue to grow in the discipline of doing it. The encouragement of those around me in Bible Study is a great help toward this end…or beginning, as it truly is.

This morning, as I was sitting at my desk, drinking my coffee and working on some important library things, I began hearing . . . a noise. A noise coming from the trashcan. I tried to ignore it. I thought, “Surely there is nothing in the trashcan. La la la la la. Nothing in the trashcan.”

And then I looked down at the trashcan and I saw something move. I went out into the library and proceeded to freak out in front of my assistant, a parent, and a student. (I later offered the student a bribe so that he would never tell anyone what he had seen.)

My assistant, who is nicest person at my school and awesome in every way, took charge. She put a board over the top of my trashcan and went to the office to get someone to page the janitor. Then she came back and talked me down. When the janitor came in the library, I went out. Because I DID NOT WANT TO SEE WHAT CAME OUT OF THE TRASHCAN. I went to the front office, where they made fun of me and also commiserated with me about the freakishness of it all. The janitor proceeded to take care of the situation. I saw him in the hall and he said that everything was taken care of. And then he walked away in his cowboy boots. It was like a scene in a movie. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly right there in my school.

So, do you want to know what was in my trashcan? A SPIDER. A GIANT SPIDER GIANT ENOUGH TO MAKE RUSTLING NOISES IN A TRASHCAN. In a lot of ways, that seems worse than a mouse. At least mice are supposed to rustle. SPIDERS SHOULD NOT BE LARGE ENOUGH TO RUSTLE PAPERS. My assistant and the janitor made shapes that indicated that the spider was as large as my hand. And also they told me that other spiders have been sighted in the school. Giant spiders. Taking over my school. You can imagine how happy this makes me. If you don’t hear from me again, it’s because giant spiders ate my face.

Hey, um, if you are kind of terrified of spiders, I would definitely not click on this link. Because it is almost as horrifying as my story. You’re welcome.

This is my dinner from a few nights ago. It took about 20 minutes to put together, thanks to the wonders of Trader Joes. The pasta? Thats lobster ravioli and yes its a good as that sounds. The asparagus? Yeah I bought a pound of frozen asparagus for the same price a small bundle would cost me. Usually frozen veggies taste like frozen veggies, but not these. They tasted like they had never been frozen before. That is the beauty of Trader Joes, their food is just so good, frozen or fresh! Oh those round patties? They are from IKEA, they were tasty too. But this post is about my love for Trader Joes.

Ive grown up on Trader Joes growing up in Southern California. My family would shop there over the grocery store. It wasnt a health food store, but it was cheap and had a lot healthy choices. Most of the store is full of products that Trader Joes themselves has created. Other part is of the best brands and types of foods they cant seem to make better. I was sad to leave Trader Joes when I moved to Carolina. I thought for a very long time that this state didnt even have one till I found out that an hour away is a Trader Joes. It is worth the drive and the gas to get the foods that I love. I adore artichokes and there was no way I was paying $4 bucks for one like the grocery store wants me to pay. Trader Joes? 4 for $3s! New to me - boxed soups from Trader Joes and I was not disappointed.

Maybe one day my town will wise up and invite Trader Joes into its community. That day could not come soon enough.

Ten years ago on Friday, Adriene and I went on our first date. We went to a Georgia Tech-Duke football game and went out to dinner afterwards. We celebrated our ten year anniversary by … going to a Georgia Tech-Duke football game and going out to dinner afterwards.

Of course, ten years changes a lot. This date to Bobby Dodd Stadium was special because it was the girls’ first football game ever. We had fun taking them downtown to our usual tailgate location and letting them play with some of our friends. I think they were happy to get out and play outside on a beautiful fall morning, too. Realistically, I didn’t expect them to make it past the third quarter, and maybe not even to halftime. Sure enough, around the middle of the third quarter Gracie was ready to leave and made sure we knew, so we made an exit stage right. I think we still managed to see a good portion of the game, at least, so no complaints here. Georgia Tech had a pretty good hold on the game, leading 17-0, by the time we left so we felt okay getting ahead of the traffic.

We took the girls out to my parents’ house and gave them a little bit of grandparent time while we snuck out for dinner. After dinner, we drove to Suwanee to see Caedmon’s Call in concert at a nice little outdoor venue. The beautiful weather continued through the day and into the nice and we enjoyed sitting on the lawn together and listening to the music.

Caedmon’s Call knocked out “Lead of Love” and “Hope To Carry On” in a hurry and then settled into a couple songs from Overdressed. It was kinda a hodge-podge lineup with Mandy Mann filling in for Danielle and Randy Holsapple playing the hammond organ in place of Josh. (Someone on the stage said “Mike Love” when Cliff introduced Randy which got a laugh out of everyone on stage.) I’m not sure who was playing bass, I didn’t recognize him.

Always eager to talk about football, Cliff Young asked us about “hand signs” for various universities. In Texas, this is a big thing as each school has their own hand sign. He asked if Georgia had a hand sign, (we have a hand sign for Georgia, but it’s not appropriate around children.) Andy said, “I’m in Georgia so I’m supposed to say Go Bulldogs….. what sport to do they play?” God bless him, he’s trying.

Andy’s solo during “Hold The Light” keeps getting longer and longer. This is not a bad thing. I wonder if hanging around The Smoakstack is rubbing off on Andy. He played “Canada” and “New Beginning” during his little solo set.

The band wrapped up with “Share The Well” and “Hands of the Potter”… great little show at a fantastic place to spend a fall Saturday night.

Our first date ten years ago lasted about seventeen hours as we went to the football game, out for dinner, and attending a fraternity party late into the night. From the time we left our house at 8 AM on Saturday until we rolled into my parents’ house after the concert around 10 PM, we had logged a 14 hour date this time around. It’s good to see some things don’t change in our relationship.

Pictures of the weekend!

So we moved this weekend. Our landlord had a hold on an apartment and the other leaser fell thru and after negotiating just paying the difference in the rent and deposit for this month we decided to take it about two hours after we saw the place.

The apartment has so many things we like. I loved our hardwood floors but the carpet in this place is fabulous berber and I can live with it. The fridge and freezer are twice as big as the other place. There are washer and dryer hookups. There is ample cupboard space. Their is lots of counter space. We gave up closet space but the closets are decent and make a lot more sense then in the old place. Their are lots of outlets, all three pronged and light switches instead of pull strings.

There is a hallway between us and the next door neighbors and the upstairs neighbors are only over part of the apartement. That brings up the most important fact. WE ARE DOWNSTAIRS. I liked being upstairs because it was economical as far as heat went but it was impractical to bring furniture and impractical for my parents who really would like to visit more often but simply couldn’t physically handle climbing our stairs.

Our real reason ultimately for desiring a two bedroom was that we really wanted a place to bring a child into and that other apartment was simply not practical for that purpose. The layout in this place is great because you can visually see what is going on in the living-room while in the kitchen but by putting up a gate you can block acess to the kitchen. The small future child’s room is off from the kitchen and our room is on the other end of the apartment and the bathroom is inside our room. I like the convience of that although it isn’t the best for company. Our bedroom doesn’t have any windows but I like that because the rest of the living space is bright and I like sleeping in darkness. 

I am meeting with the home finder friday and then in a couple weeks we have our first sit down meeting. The home finder is actually a family friend so that helps it to seem less overwhelming. I have Friday and Monday off and I will hopefully be able to get the majority of things in order.

We were priveledged to have help yesterday and we have an offer of dinner for tonight at Phils aunts and then the last of our packing and moving. We have meetings on both Tuesday and Thursday for trainings with foster care. Two more months until we are certified resource parents.

The move happened really quickly and that was hard but at the same time I didn’t have enough time to worry about it which was nice. I also couldn’t procrastinate because I knew it was better to just get as much done as quickly as possible. Phil’s grandmother showed up and helped pack dishes in the old place before we even gotten back from the new place. We had help from a family friend with a truck. We also had a couple kids/teenagers that I used to babysit who helped carry lots of stuff. 

Now for the more annoying stuff like changing our addresses on everything I am not looking forward to but I am sure it will be alright. I have a week off at the end of this month and I think it will be wonderful to have that time to settle in.

Sorry guys. I’m not really in the mood to write up another humorous, completely original blog post this morning. I’m feeling frustrated and stymied on all fronts.

I just spent the first 45 minutes of the day trying to pierce my tongue with the three-hole puncher from my desk. I couldn’t fit my stupid tongue in there very well, and so when I slammed down on the handle, it just ripped a the tip off, and now I’m dripping blood all over the front of my shirt like a damn Civil War amputating surgeon.

Don’t worry, though, it was a completely sterile procedure. I squirted a bunch of Purell all over the three-hole puncher before I stuck my mouth on it.

It’s just so frustrating that nothing in my life ever works out for me. I must be the unluckiest person alive. I mean, first I lost my job in 2002 and now this!

It’s situations like this that make you start to question your last decade of rampant drug abuse…

• Jeremy Casella
  Jeremy recommends the Fleet Foxes record. So do I.
  (tags: fleetfoxes cjh_comment)
• Album Detail - Omaha Bible Church
  D. A. Carson audio from a weekend seminar titled "Making Sense of Suffering".
  (tags: audio sermon)
• Empire Magazine’s 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time
  I've watched a bunch of these, but this will give me some ideas for my next trip to the video store.
  (tags: movies lists)

Things I’ve linked recently:

• Jeremy Casella
  Jeremy recommends the Fleet Foxes record. So do I.
  (tags: fleetfoxes cjh_comment )
• Album Detail - Omaha Bible Church
  D. A. Carson audio from a weekend seminar titled "Making Sense of Suffering".
  (tags: audio sermon )
• Empire Magazine’s 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time
  I've watched a bunch of these, but this will give me some ideas for my next trip to the video store.
  (tags: movies lists )

Next up in the blog book review series, courtesy of Mulnomah Publishing: For Young Men Only: A Guy’s Guide to the Alien Gender, by Jeff Feldhahn and Eric Rice. (Usual standard disclaimer: Mulnomah sent me a free copy, I agreed to review it.)

Apparently For Young Men Only (we’ll just call it FYMO for the rest of this review) is the fourth book in the For… …Only series; the authors have already written For Men Only, For Women Only, and For Young Women Only. Each book professes to unlock the mysteries of the opposite gender to the target audience. FYMO, then is targeted at teenage boys, I’d say probably in the Junior High to High School age range. In chapter one, the authors lay out the purpose for the book:

…we want to help teen guys understand, talk to, listen to, get to know, learn from, care for, enjoy…maybe even impress a girl. Sure, it’s not quite as lofty a goal is stopping terrorism or bringing back the glaciers. But it’s something smart guys care about - and smart girls too. Understanding how girls think can make a huge difference in your happiness now and in the future. even better, a crash course in Girl 101 can put you way ahead of most other guys, who will spend the rest of their lives being totally confused.

In the book you’re holding, enlightment starts with you. You bring your legendary genius. We bring our shocking data. Pretty soon you can get inside her head.

The remaining chapters of this short (150 5″x7″ pages) book are filled with topics like these: “Why ordinary guys have a real chance with great girls”; “A code breaker’s guide to baffling female behavior”; “Why girls go from ‘love’ to ‘get lost’ so fast - and how to keep from getting crushed”; “How to talk and listen to a girl without looking like an idiot”, and, last but not least, “The truth about girls, guys, and sex”. Frankly, I’m a bit too far past high school to remember if this stuff would’ve been helpful or not, but it’s all reasonable advice. Be yourself. Listen. Be sensitive. Don’t have sex before marriage. Let her see the “real” you.

Where I run into difficulty with FYMO is in figuring out who I’d recommend it to. It’s purposefully not a “christian” book. No scripture is referenced. All the arguments driving the “what to do” and “what not to do” are based on surveys of what girls like and want, and on lots of basic psychology. It feels a lot like what you might read in a normal magazine targeted toward highschoolers. Which is fine, as far as it goes. But if I ever have a son, by the time he’s old enough to be reading this book, he should be thinking over these things with some spiritual depth that is nowhere to be found in this book.

My other big difficulty with FYMO is that the authors assume, and appear to view as perfectly fine, a fairly broad range of physical intimacy among their teenage audience. Call me out of touch with modern times, but I don’t want my 9th grader who is reading this book to assume that having a series of dating relationships in high school in which he is snuggling, kissing, and “making out” with girls is the right thing to do. As a Christian father, I would assume (and expect) a higher standard.

I can imagine that teenage boys could learn a thing or two from this book if they were willing to sit down and read it. And what they would learn would be helpful, as far as it goes. My hope, though, is that Christian parents would provide enough training and guidance to their sons that the sons would be able to pick out the helpful insights while recognizing that the authors’ worldview is some distance from what it should be.

[For Young Men Only can be purchased at Amazon.com. Find out more about the book at foryoungmenonly.com.]

on Saturday i went into NOLA with some youth group people to participate in some mission work. it was me, one other adult, and three kids from our church. we were meeting up with people from other youth groups to do some stuff in the 9th ward. they broke us up into different groups to go do 4 different projects and mixed up the groups so different people from different youth groups would meet each other. i led three other guys to go move mattresses in preparation for a giveaway next week. basically we showed up at a flooded out gym at a church, and moved mattresses and box springs inside to stack up against the wall. the mattresses were donated from a hotel in Dallas and are going to be given away to people in the neighborhood in the next week. initially we started with an 18 wheeler full, so it was a daunting task at first to see what looked like an endless trailer full. in addition, there were supposed to be 10 people to do the job, but we only had four due to the small number of people helping today. we got it done though, even though we were undermanned, and had some fun along the way.

however, it wasn’t all total awesome fun time. we’re a united methodist youth group because we’re at a UM church. i get that. we got shirts today with a GIANT UM logo. at lunch we had to read these devotionals that were like a page and a half long. then when we got back to the church we originated from, they had a whole worship service, complete with communion. it just seemed too complicated to me. the shirts, i can deal with a logo on the shirt, but a huge logo? the devotional at lunch, reading that sheet of paper, just seemed a little much. when we finally got to the prayer, the kid that said it said a great one. why couldn’t we just have gone with that? then after, the worship service, we had been out all day doing work, we were tired, and yet i felt like i was sitting through a service that was for the leaders to make themselves feel good at leading worship. the first song had lyrics like “I am free indeed” and yet i was sitting there thinking i was trapped and not free! there was also this part of the service where the different groups got up to the front to talk about their project, so i went up there when my group did. the leading pastor asked us a trick question almost. we’re up there and all talked about our day and how hard we worked, and the guy asks us if any of the people there at the old gym were members of the church we were at. we had no idea, but we didn’t think so, which we responded with, but then he says “well, there was one lady who was a member of the church.” dude, what was that for? i should have asked him that. we finally were able to leave at 4:30.

the main thing though was going out there helping people. i was proud of the guys i worked with, and of all the other kids who showed up. i just wish the adults involved wouldn’t have made the rest of the day so jampacked with irrelevant stuff.

I am the oldest of five children. We span nearly ten and one-half years from oldest to youngest, four boys and then a rather special little sister. Today we reach something of a milestone: that youngest of the Hubbs children, our sister Rebecca, turns 21. To honor her on her birthday, I thought I’d pull out some photos. Unfortunately, I don’t have any really OLD ones to post.

(She’s the one in the middle in this picture, with my wife Becky on the right and Aaron’s fiancee Emily on the left.)

At Andrew’s wedding this summer, with her oldest brother:

She’s HOW old?

Happy birthday, sis! We love you lots!

The above is what a friend of mine told me during a discussion/disagreement on worship.

Umm… thanks?

I just find it funny, since just a few years ago, I was on my way to becoming a dyed-in-the-wool (Reformed) Southern Baptist.  Also funny, because the guy who said this is arguably more Presbyterian than I am.

Things I’ve linked recently:

• prayers for blowouts » Blog Archive » Cameron Strang Hates Cubs Fans
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Katherine gives you a look into her corner of the world by writing about the process of becoming foster parents.

This morning, three of my friends and I participated in the Women’s Only 5K Walk and Run. Two of us ran and two of us walked. I ran almost the entire thing. Almost! Except for this one thing that happened at the end. Which I am going to tell you about.

At the very end, we were approaching the finish line, and I was like, “Yay, I made it!” And then I realized it was a fake-out, and we were going to have to climb a hill, turn the corner, and come back around to the other side of the road for the actual finish line. NOT. COOL. I had to walk for about 30 seconds. I was so sad. I was so close to running the whole thing, but I had put my last burst of energy into making it to where I thought the finish line was. It was nice having the finish line be at the bottom of a hill, though. I will say that.

Also, apparently someone passed out or got hurt or something, and when the paramedics on bicycles were trying to get to her, one of them hit me. That was right at the end as well. So let’s just claim that I had to walk because A GUY ON A BICYCLE HIT ME. That is a better story anyway. (He did seem genuinely sorry. I forgive you, paramedic guy, and I hope you made it to the other person in time.)

Our time wasn’t as good as either of our previous two races, but this was a really really crowded race. There were a few bottlenecks, especially at the beginning. And then over this one really narrow bridge. So I am satisfied with my race, even if it wasn’t my best time. At one point, my friend said, “People who are really concerned with times aren’t going to be happy.” I am not really concerned about my time, and I think it would have been at least a little bit better if not for the bridge and the really slow start.

Special thanks to Meredith Brooks for her song “Bitch” that came on just as I was climbing one hill. Yeah! I kicked that hill’s butt, thanks to her! Also, special thanks to Kanye West for his song “Stronger” that come on when I was on that other hill. I don’t think I would have made it without you, Kanye.

The overall feel of the race was very cool. When I went to pick up my packet last night, I stood in a long line with a bunch of other women and I was surprised at how, “WOOO! Girl power!” it made me feel. It was nice to feel like we as women were doing something that could really help other women. I like to do my part to help kick cancer’s butt.

There were lots of supporters along the race. The supporters really do give me a burst of energy, and I appreciate them being willing to stay out there and cheer us on. But my favorite supporter was a guy with a giant bra stapled to a poster. That guy really wanted us to fight breast cancer.

Dear artist who painted the Starbucks window,

“Pumpkin” is spelled not spelled “p-u-N-p-k-i-n”

I don’t even know how to pronounce that.

Coridally,

Brian

This afternoon, I dropped off my carpool buddy and drove home. And then I saw a thing of beauty and a joy forever, something that made me turn my car around so I could drive by again. It was just that awesome.

In case you can’t read it, it says, “Obama supporters can steal our signs but not our right to free speech.” As you can see, I made Mike go back with me so I could take a picture of it. I asked him if he thought that it was some kind of official sign these people would have gotten from the McCain offices. Maybe something they printed due to rampant stealing. Mike pointed out that an official campaign poster wouldn’t make Palin look like a giant compared to McCain. Which is true. I hadn’t really considered that. It does make her look freakishly tall. And, if this comment is from the same guy, it does appear he had it made himself.

For the record, even though it should go without saying, I don’t support stealing signs. Stealing signs is lame. People should be able to put whatever signs they want in their yards. Also, if the signs get stolen, what will I count? But I have to confess that I kind of want to go steal that sign so I can hang it over my couch. Look at it. It’s awesome. And it’s not the only sign in the yard!

That one reads: “Thank you American Soldiers. 50,000,000 free Iraq/Afghanistan.” When I saw it this afternoon, I thought it said “50,000 free Iraq/Afghanistan” and I couldn’t figure out what the 50,000 free would be. This makes much more sense.

Looking at the signs and the flags and the general splendor, well, I have a theory. The people stealing the signs? Could just be the neighbors.

Official sign count for the day:

McCain: AWESOME.
Obama: Just some regular yard signs, aka WEAKSAUCE.

(I hope you are impressed with the drive-by photography. The flash kind of broke while I was trying to take the picture, so I’m pretty sure we were spotted. Because we were sitting there for much longer than we intended. Probably we should consider careers as private investigators.)

1. This evening Laura and I are going to Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. It’s a time where people in our church get together and share each other’s food and apparently also get to know each other in the process. I’m making vegetarian past and good old fashioned meat pasta. I can’t be bothered to be innovative for tonight.
2. Again last night… four hour of sleep. This is not good. At all. I went to be at 2300, 2400, 0100, 0200, 0300, 0330, 0400… and the last one was the one that took. But now I’m functioning on nothing more than diet cola and coffee.
3. Laura dropped by the office to say hello and bring me some food. Good wife, that one! And not just because she brings me food.
4. I’m voting NDP this election. I like Jack Layton, I like a lot of their platform, but I especially like their IP stance. Ever since I saw Charlie Angus debating Jim Prentice in the House of Commons, I’ve kind of warmed to the party. But with the Green Party’s current leadership — she looks and talks like a troll and not even a funny GNAA troll or something, plus she seemed out of touch and just a little dumb — looking a little lacklustre, who else to vote for? Certainly not the Liberals, curse their rotten bones. Absolutely not the Conservatives and their Rove-style politics. So there we go.
5. Canadian parliamentary politics is pretty interesting. The only thing that matters in these elections is the PM. All his MPs vote with him on all matter except the rare free votes. All his backbenchers vote with him unless they’re resigned to being backbenchers for the rest of their careers. I don’t like this. What’s the point of having MPs if they can only vote as the PM wills? We may as well just vote for a 4-year dictator and his assorted civil servants: After all, what are the MPs doing but spearheading policy issues for the PM and party brass? The MP voting and selection process is broken and meaningless.
6. I don’t like change any more. I generally don’t like new people. I like the people I already know and the faces I’m already familiar with and the places I’m used to going. Maybe that makes me old or something, but I don’t mind. The only thing I really like is new music. I can get into new music.
7. Oh, and I pretty much hate a lot of worship music. It’s bland, boring, artificial, meaningless junk for the most part.
8. Soon I will be at home cooking a mean. This is good.

It’s Tuesday night, and Im walking down the hall of the third floor of Henderson. Ive just left my Creative Writing class, and the stale, musty smell of the building hangs in the air. As I head for the double doors at the end of the hall I can hear the mummur of another class still in progress. I linger for a moment against the hall to catch the sound of a video the class is viewing. Some preacher is talking about God’s love and the forgiveness found in Christ. I head through the doors, walking down the three flights of stairs that will talk me to the level floor. When I walk outside I am suddenly engulfed by the cool, brisk fall air. It’s night, and I can vaguely make out some of the stary sky that has escaped the light population given off by scattered lamps on campus. Down the hill to my left is the three story Psychology building all brick and stoic. In front of me several yards off is the square, brick, ironically sterile art building. Off in the distance I can hear a song being sung by strong, young voice of a guy who wants to be famous one day. His acoustic guitar echos out of the small gym, and escapes into the night air. This is a paused moment. The crispy air rushes into my lungs as I breath in deep, my ears strain to drink in the raspy melodies, my eyes hungrily search the stary sky, and my feet slowly march down the hill. It is moments like this I have learned to stop and experience them for all they are worth. Its the space and time between point A and point B. Its the time that no one, not even myself, demands anything. I shove the “shoulds” out of my mind and take the moment in. Its the scrap of space left over after a schedule has been cut out. Its in these times where I escape and find refugee. Sometimes this time looks like my long drive home from school with the windows down, the radio off, and my eyes fixated on the horizon. Sometimes this time looks like Thursday afternoon, when my school week has ended but its not quit the weekend yet. I daydream, and wonder around in my mind about my life and what it is and what it will be and what I am learning in it all. That space in between the points, that time in between time is where I recharge. Medition…slowing down…smelling the roses…whatever some one wants to call it…I crave it. And I wasnt even looking for it. It found me.

For your Friday pleasure, we’ve dusted off this very old Rock TV from our underground vaults!

This particular video is almost ten years old now, long predating my involvement. You will, however, hear Todd Luker’s voice during the narration, and you have Ryan Pickett to thank for the severed arm shot, which is perhaps the highlight of the video.

The skit itself has some decent laughs, in my opinion (setting aside the fact that it was a blatant SNL rip-off, which was a Rock TV speciality in those days). Watching it today, it’s clear how much the production values and writing in our ministry have improved over the years, but funnily enough, we rarely get the sort of rapturous response that this video received back in 1999.

Also, keep your eyes peeled for a 10-year old Micah Darling.

Enjoy!

Come to the pool with me!

Hurry up, the pool will be closing soon! Together we can laugh and shout in the splish-splashing sunshine!

If we get there soon, you can sit atop my shoulders as we glide through the pool and delight in the summertime sensations! Then we can all come crashing down into the cool, renewing water. Our frowns will be washed away down the rivers of chlorinated eternity!

Come, slather my torso with suntan lotion that I might avoid the sun’s forbidden rays. Be sure to use a lot, because my upper body is substantial, and I don’t want any part of my skin to escape your lotion-soaked palms.

Hold my hand as I jump into the pool! We will enter the 9-foot oasis together! I don’t ever want you to leave me, do you understand? Never leave me.

The pool is fun!

Now slip below the surface with me and shout out underwater secrets that you would otherwise not tell a soul! It will be a slippery tickle-treat! Ready? Here goes!

Could you understand me? You could? Really? What did you hear me say?

Uh, no, that’s not what I said. I would never say that – that’s really gross! What I actually said was “lollipops can come true.”

Yeah, I know that doesn’t make any actual sense. I guess I was just surfing on the emotion of the moment.

I love the pool!

My close friend and Rock TV mascot Todd Luker spent Friday morning at the Minnesota State Fair, presumably sampling the available foodstuffs and viewing the disgustingly obese animals lying in repose in various barns found on the premises. As luck would have it, he happened to pass the FOX 9 booth just as our old friend and meteorologist Keith Marler was sitting to greet passersby. Todd was nice enough to drop in and visit with him on my behalf.

Apparently Keith brightened up immediately when told that Todd acting as ambassador for the John Larroquette Project. Grabbing a promotional photo, he started muttering excitedly about how he hadn’t visited the site in a few months while vehemently scratching his pen across the faces of his co-workers. See for yourself…

Fine work, Keith Marler. Your gracious spirit and secret weirdness are a blessing to our otherwise oppressively chirpy morning airwaves. I’m glad you ruthlessly censured M.A. Roscoe with your Sharpie the way you did. Somebody seriously needed to shut her up. Tom Butler doesn’t seem so bad, but I figure he was just caught in the crossfire.

Maybe this is off-topic, but what do you suppose it would be like to be roommates with Keith Marler? Does he seem like the kind of guy who would leave a sink full of dirty dishes for a couple days? Does he snore? Worse, does he have sleep apnea? Does he have a CPAP machine for his sleep apnea? Can he afford one?

What say all of us pitch in for Keith Marler’s CPAP machine? The guy needs his sleep, and it’s the least we could do, given all that he’s done for the community here at the John Larroquette Project.

My dearest Vaughn.

As I hold your clammy, spindly hand in mine, I am reminded that yours was the face that I most longed to see while I was in my box. Yours was the smile I ached to gaze upon after the strident lashings to my butt-skin ceased. During those long months, I thought of you as often as a wolf thinks of warm, nourishing rooster blood.

Now I delight in the sight of your broad, blemished face as we are together again. Looking into your eyes is like looking into the eyes of a fine, obedient German Shepherd. You are sturdy and true like a tetherball pole, yet supple and giving like John Goodman’s hairy belly. You are, in a word, the finest human specimen since Jesse Owens.

It appears our time together is up, and I must be going. It saddens me to leave you, but I find solace in the fact I’ve got a bunch of pudding waiting for me. Seriously, that pudding tastes really good. It’s green and tastes like the memories of my grandmother.

If I can be honest, it looks like we didn’t make a love connection today. It was nice to meet you, though. Don’t give up on eHarmony just because of me.

So, a few days ago, I decided that saying “the” Dairy Queen is MUCH more fun than just saying Dairy Queen. Try it. And tell me you didn’t laugh.

In the small rural town where I grew up in Virginia, the Dairy Queen was an important part of my social upbringing. It was not only one of the few eating out options, it was also where everyone gathered after high school football games and when the weather got warm we often went there after school for a 62 cent ice cream cone.

Oh, the stories from the Dairy Queen. When I was growing up, our Dairy Queen was local run, so we had lots of food items there that aren’t on your typical Dairy Queen menu. We had pizza burgers, which, to this day, I’m not quite sure how to describe. There was some mozzarella cheese, cooked inside of a burger that was tinted red by…pizza sauce? I don’t know. It hurts to think about it too much.

At the Dairy Queen, there was a group of “regulars.” Most were retired, and they always sat in the same hard plastic booth. When I was a child, they often ordered me a “kiddie cone” which is the smallest ice cream cone known to man. Seriously, it’s basically the size of my thumb. But it was free, and I thought it was the best thing ever. Free ice cream! Come on, who does that anymore! They were simpler times.

When I outgrew the kiddie cone, I moved on to the blizzard. Ah, the blizzard. There’s nothing like cracking your tooth on a frozen m&m nestled in soft serve ice cream at the Dairy Queen.

My cousins and I often frequented the Dairy Queen after youth group volleyball games. Otis would drive his sister, Amanda, and I around in his little S-10 truck, with Amanda squished in the middle trying to avoid knocking the gear shift into reverse. I was usually in charge of holding the Blizzards, and I would tuck them between my knees.

One day, as we were leaving the Dairy Queen parking lot, Otis pulled out in front of a car that was moving faster than we thought. We all screamed and then…there was a blizzard of Blizzards. I guess I squeezed my knees together as we peeled out of the parking lot, and blizzard shot out of the cups. There was blizzard dripping from the ceiling and coating the windshield. Otis’ truck smelled like soured milk for weeks.

The Dairy Queen is different now. The regulars have mostly passed away, and kiddie cones are no longer on the menu. There’s a drive-thru now, and the booths aren’t nearly as full as they used to be. I miss the old Dairy Queen.

But I still have my memories of the Dairy Queen. Sweet, ice creamy memories.

Things I’ve linked recently:

• prayers for blowouts » Blog Archive » The Schnoz Report: Week 5
  (tags: cjh_comment )

I’ve had an easy time deciding who to support for president for pretty much every election cycle since I turned 18. This year, though, the choices are not so easy. I’m a life-long conservative with a distrust for Democrats but a growing distaste for the Republicans. Which makes this next sentence a very difficult one for me to say: unless something drastic changes between now and November 4, I’m voting for Obama.

Now, let me work out some of the reasoning behind this, for my own mind if nothing else. Let’s group it around three broad areas: economy/domestic policy, war/foreign policy, for lack of a better term, “morality” issues, and, finally, general personality issues.

Economic/Domestic Policies

• I have a huge distaste for the tax-cut promise pandering. Both sides think that they’ll get me to vote for them by promising me more money (i.e. “tax cuts”). I’d rather they told me why they need to spend my money, and then we’ll figure out if I can pay a little less.
• I’m not much of an economist, but it’s clear that things are pretty hosed up right now. That’s probably the fault of both the Bush administration and the Clinton administration before that. I don’t think anybody has a magic bullet to fix it right now.
• Short conclusion: this area doesn’t really make me favor either candidate over the other.

War/Foreign policy

• As far as the war goes: I think both candidates will have to more or less do the same thing - slowly withdraw troops as Iraq becomes more stable. Both sides know that leaving immediately would cause big trouble in Iraq, so they won’t do it. So they try to recriminate each other to score political points. Ick.
• Maybe I’m foolish here, but I think an Obama win would force the rest of the world, Europe especially, to take a long, hard look at themselves. It’s been too easy for the past decade to just blame George W. Bush’s America for all the world’s ills. When the European’s darling is in the White House and there are still problems in the world, they’ll have to start looking further for how to fix problems. (Or, they’ll just still blame GWB for everything… )

“Morality” Issues

• The biggie here is abortion. I have a real difficulty wanting to support anyone who is in favor of legalized abortion. But we have to look practically at it, too. Aside from appointing Supreme Court justices, there’s not a lot the president can do about abortion law. I may need to just hold my nose here.
• And about those Supreme Court justices. The traditional right-wing position is that a liberal president will get to make several appointments, thus turning the Court to the left. But let’s look at who’s likely to retire from the USSC: Stevens, Rehnquist, maybe Breyer? Liberals all. Which means even if Obama replaces them with liberals, the Court’s ideological balance won’t change much. The conservatives Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito are comparatively young and healthy, unlikely to leave their seats any time soon. So, I see this as a non-issue.
• Another thing I want to lump into the “morality” bit: health care. This is one place where I’m increasingly convinced the hard Right has gotten it wrong for a while. We have a moral obligation to provide health care for those who can’t afford it. Now, I’m skeptical about the effectiveness of government-run health care, and I don’t think the USA will end up with a fully-socialized system akin to the Canadian or British ones for a while yet, but we should find a way to make sure people are cared for. i think Obama will have a better focus in that regard.

Miscellanea

• The VP candidates: the debate last night cemented it for me. Palin isn’t totally incompetent, but she isn’t ready for the number 2 position, either. Let’s put it this way: if something happened to Obama, I wouldn’t be afraid for my country to have Biden in the White House. If something happened to McCain, I’m not sure I could say the same thing. I like Sarah Palin, I like the idea that someone like her could make it to this point, but the hopes that she was the great savior of the Republican party have been dashed over the past few weeks. If she wants a political future, I propose this: get that corrupt Senator Stevens out of office and let Palin replace him. Give her some time to get used to the national limelight and bone up on the issues. Then let her come back in 4 or 8 years.
• John McCain. I respect his years of service to the country, but I’m not really sure that we’d get anything different from him than we’ve had from the previous administration. All the talk of “reforming” is great for the stump speech, but much harder to do when you’re in office, especially if you’re dealing with a Congress controlled by the opposition party.
• Barack Obama. For whatever it’s worth, I like the idea that America could elect a non-WASP to be president. I like his notion of change, though again I’m skeptical of just how much of it will translate from the stump to the office. I don’t think for a second that he’s the messianic non-politician that some want to make him out to be (can anything non-corrupt come out of Illinois politics?), but I think he’s different than the Harry Reid-Nanci Pelosi school of Democrats we’ve been afflicted with for lo these many years.

In conclusion: most of it’s a wash. Obama takes it just based on health care, VP, and general “change”. So, that’s my ramble. I’m sure this will greatly please some friends and family and greatly shock others. Feel free to agree, disagree, argue, whatever. I’m just hoping that next time around there’s a candidate I’m actually enthusiastic about voting for.

with the main project where i work eventually ending, the mother company set up an internal job fair to place people so they wouldn’t have to get laid off. i’m not technically on that project anymore, but i am looking for a new job, so i printed off some resumes and went after work yesterday. i was kind of nervous before, because i wasn’t really sure what i wanted to do or where i wanted to go. the job fair had EVERY unit of the company and every location, which made it about 15 or 20 different sets of people to talk to. i ended up talking to the people closely related to the 3 jobs i’ve already applied to, as well as people involved in the jobs i’d like to do. i’m not really sure straight engineering is my bag anymore, so i’m looking for a change in location and job function. the people last night sounded like they could help me accomplish both. i was very encouraged leaving to go home, because the people sounded legit in their “send me your resume and we’ll get this ball rolling” thing. it’s not something i have not heard before, but last night they sounded like they meant it. one guy was even ready to give me his cell phone number if he had any questions, but i declined. work numbers are fine with me unless you’re the CEO of the company. i’m going to email my resume off to the people i met last night today and we’ll see what happens. it sounded like i’ll have options, so i hope they all come through.

speaking of my resume, i was a little self conscious about it because it’s been the same basic format for years. i have my jobs listed then bullet points listing highlights. i saw one guy’s resume on one of the tables while i was talking to someone and it had his name and address at the top, then his job listing was like one big long paragraph! seeing that made me feel a little better about my resume.

i got home about 7:40 and decided not to go to small group that started at 7:30. instead, i kept on my pace towards the half marathon and ran 4 miles. it’s been getting cooler here, so running last night was fantastic. i even felt good after the first mile….(it’s always the hardest i think). i have to run 6 miles on Saturday which i’m not looking forward to, but i’m going to try.

Man, I’ve been sick lately! In the past two weeks, I’ve thrown up 10 times, had two migraines, and am currently working on a sinus infection. So in honor of my poor health, I will share with you a story about being sick. Aren’t you excited?

Six years ago, I was living by myself in a small basement apartment in Nashville. One night, I woke from a sound sleep with a raging case of the flu. Like, sleep on the bathroom floor because you can’t stray that far from the toilet flu. It was, in a word, horrible.

This was the first time I had lived alone, so the next morning, I realized I needed medicine, gatorade and jell-o. And there was nobody who was going to buy those things for me. I managed to get dressed, and set off for the grocery store. Where, I couldn’t find anything. Every few steps I would lean my head against the bar of my shopping cart, not sure if I could keep moving. I may have even cried when I realized that the jell-o was on the other side of the store.

When I arrived back home, I realized that if I died that day, nobody would know. It was a Friday, so my employer wouldn’t even be concerned until Monday. My landlady wouldn’t know until she started smelling something funny. So I called my mom, and told her to call me every six hours to make sure I was still alive. She thought I was kidding. I wasn’t.

In case you were wondering, I did survive. I color-coordinated my meals (red Popsicle, red jell-o, red Gatorade) and I created a Thera-flu creation that I’m pretty sure is illegal in 43 states.

I’m relieved to have friends now who offer to bring me soup when I’m sick. Even if they don’t color-coordinate.t

Things I’ve linked recently:

• Man meets whale - a National Geographic photo
  Pretty amazing.
  (tags: photo underwater whale system:filetype:jpg system:media:image )
• This moment in conservative intellectual history - Crunchy Con - "…the reason [Palin] has sounded so godawful in some of these interviews is because she did a godawful job in those interviews. And until shown otherwise, it is fair to surmise that she did a godawful job because she doesn't know what she is talking about. And THAT should worry all of us, even as we heartily wish for this woman of high character and principle to rise to the challenge." - tags: SarahPalin politics Election2008

Lately, I’ve been trying to get back in touch with the music world after taking about a year hiatus while getting into the groove of motherhood. One of the first steps I took was to see what was in my iTunes library, and tried out the new Genius feature that will recommend things to you based upon what you already have in your library.

It was during one of these perusals of my iTunes library that I discovered that I must have had a momentary lapse of sanity on several occasions, because there are quite a few songs that I do not recall downloading at all there. At first, I thought I could blame one of my late night bouts of insomnia and heartburn during my pregnancy (and therefore the cause was obviously “pregnancy brain”), but no, the songs were all downloaded BEFORE I got pregnant. So, I’m at a loss as to what happened.

Here are the ones I have no memory of downloading:

- “The Human Hosepipe” by Harry and the Potters (I’m blaming this one on Kari)
- “Hysteria,” “Supermassive Black Hole,” and “Starlight” by Muse (I’m thinking I’m going to have to blame my emo/goth/intellectual alter ego for these)
- “Angel” by Aerosmith (WHAT THE HELL?)
- “Ana’s Song” by Silverchair (I… have no good explanation.)
- “Song 2″ by Blur (WOOHOO!)

Has anyone else had this happen? Oh, just me? That’s what I thought.

This evening I went for one last run before the race I am running on Saturday.

(Aside: This race raises money for free mammograms for women who can’t afford them. Here is an actual conversation about that I participated in today.

OTHER TEACHER: So, what is this race all about?

KARI: It raises money for free mammograms for women who can’t afford them.

OTHER TEACHER: . . . How did you get involved with that?

KARI: I heard that this race has the best goody bags.

That’s right! I’m classy like that. I want some free stuff!)

As I was running, three teenaged “gentlemen” in a white car with Florida license plates drove by me and yelled, “Sexy!” To those gentlemen, I would just like to say, “The only reason I didn’t flip you the bird is because I was too busy keeping the McCain/Obama sign count on my fingers.” I am deeply dedicated to the sign count.

I have an interesting thing to report to you! Recent polls I have seen have put North Carolina in “too close to call” territory. (Oh, Dan Rather, what will we do on election night without you to talk about states being too close to call? And going on and on about how Florida is a hot tamale? Or was it Texas? No, I think Texas was a big taco. Those were the days.) Today’s run of 3.25 miles yielded the following results:

McCain signs: 5
Obama signs: 5

My neighborhood is also too close to call! Somebody get Dan Rather down here to talk about frogs with handguns.

I ran a route that I’ve never run before, but close to my house I did notice signs in yards that had not previously had signs. Most of the run was free of signs. Lush green yards uninterrupted by political signage. McCain pulled way ahead, and then, at the end, I had three Obama signs that tied things back up.

So that’s the end of the political content of this post. Except that I do want to say that we considered creating a drinking game for the VP debate that we are about to watch. Each of us could have one red cup and one blue cup. Whenever one of them said something stupid, we’d drink from the appropriately colored cup. Let’s face it, with the two of them, chances are high that something crazy will be said. But we are too lazy to actually organize things, so we’ll probably just sit and watch and drink something boring like water. It’s a school night, okay?

I actually think the chances are higher that Biden is going to say something crazy, because I don’t think there are going to be follow-up questions, and where Palin seems to make the statements that seem the craziest to me are when someone tries to pin her down. I’m not sure that’s going to happen, so she should be able to just stick to her talking points. Biden and his diarrhea of the mouth could make this one memorable. I love the debates. You just never know what’s going to happen.

Go ahead and say it: Kari is a NERD. It’s true. I can’t help it.

A rare no art day.

I was throwing the coffee around from before sunup until around three today, and managed to soak myself in warm soy milk. By lunch I sat down to eat with cold, soy soaked pants, feeling exhausted and achy. The cooler weather this week has brought about a season of crazy. People need coffee…and they’ll cut your grandmother for it given half the chance.

Afterwards I spent the rest of the day moving furniture, the evening putting furniture together, and feeling like I’ve done enough for the day, even though the day isn’t quite over yet.

So add writing this to the list of accomplishments.

Douglas Wilson posted this quote, and it’s too good to not pass along.

I wish you well. May your table be graced with lovely women and good men. May you drink well enough to drown the envy of youth in the satisfactions of maturity. May your men wear their weight with pride, secure in the knowledge that they have at last become considerable. May they rejoice that they will never again be taken for callow, black-haired boys. And your women? Ah! Women are like cheese strudels. When first baked, they are crisp and fresh on the outside, but the filling is unsettled and indigestible; in age, the crust may not be so lovely, but the filling comes at last into its own. May you relish them indeed. May we all sit long enough for reserve to give way to ribaldry and for gallantry to grow upon us. May there be singing at the table before the night is done, and old, broad jokes to fling at the stars and tell them we are men . . . The road to Heaven does not run from the world but through it.

(Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb, p. 180).

I sent an email this morning which sent me thinking about a familiar quote, which in turn sent me thinking about one of my favorite sets of stories: the various adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a multitude of mysteries featuring the odd detective between 1887 and 1927, and Holmes has been studied, quoted, parodied, and dramatized ever since.

I was first introduced to the Homes stories by Lydia back in, oh, 1989 or so. (I was probably 12 years old.) After borrowing her volume (I’m thinking it was A Study in Scarlet and The Hound of the Baskervilles) and devouring it no time, I proceeded to borrow whatever I could from the library, and eventually bought “The Annotated Sherlock Holmes”, a ridiculously large book containing not only all the stories, but also illustrations, explanations of some of the period references, and, most amusingly, studies as to the “actual” dates of the mysteries, piecing these together from descriptions of cultural events, weather, and moon phases in the stories. This book was equal in size to my father’s Strong’s concordance, but I lugged it around anyway, reading in the car, reading while my brother Ryan took his piano lesson, reading pretty much anywhere I could get away with it. I was that sort of kid.

I recall distinctly driving my mom a bit batty with that annotated Holmes. One of the readings in my literature book somewhere in early high school (recall I was home-schooled) was a Holmes story, so, rather than read it from my lit book, I read it from the Annotated Holmes. Afterwards, Mom got out the discussion questions, and question number one was “when did this adventure occur?”. It’s supposed to be a straightforward question; after all, the story told the supposed month and year right in the first paragraph. But no, I wasn’t going to pay attention to that. I quickly gave her the supposed “actual” date that the editor of the Annotated had surmised. She gave me a quite baffled look, and then, well, I had some explaining to do.

Holmes is one of those characters who, once you know, you start seeing references and allusions to all over the place. One such reference several years ago gave me the opportunity to email long-time New York Times columnist (and favorite of mine) William Safire to correct him. (In retrospect, I must have been one of dozens, if not hundreds, to do so.) He had quoted Holmes’ line about “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time”, correctly attributed it to the story “Silver Blaze”, but then slipped up by saying that “Silver Blaze” was the name of the dog in the story. Oops. (Silver Blaze was a racehorse.) I got an automated reply email from the NYT, but was more excited to receive a two-line email response later that day which, by all appearances, was from the columnist himself.

I go back to Holmes every once and again to enjoy an old friend. The Annotated still occupies a rather large chunk of bookshelf in my basement, not too much the worse for wear after having been dragged around for nigh on twenty years of my life. Many years and many readings have not “withered” or “staled” the stories quite yet. I look forward to the day when I can pass on the adventures (and the giant volume) to one of my little readers at home.

[The title of this post is a quote from The Adventure of the Empty House, wherein Holmes slightly modifies the line from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra.]

Things I’ve linked recently:

• 36 Hours of Alarm and Action as Crisis Spiraled - NYTimes.com - Fascinating and scary picture of the financial crisis as its first days played out. - tags: financial news
• GFMorris.com » Thirty! | Day #1 - - tags: cjh_comment
• Elsewhere in Dreams » Blog Archive » Bullet Points for a Tuesday Evening - - tags: cjh_comment

I may have made a mistake this morning.

I’m not sure yet, but I’m starting to wonder if the pink shirt I’m wearing was a miscalculation. Does it make me appear an effete intellectual? Will its color cause my students to lose their regard for me as I mindlessly drone on about the depletion of the Brazilian rainforest to make room for greater ethanol production? Does my pink shirt make me look like a dude who digs dudes?

It’s not my fault, you guys. My wife encouraged me to do it. She said something about how all my blue shirts look the same and she wishes she could throw all my blue shirts onto a bonfire and be rid of them forever. I don’t remember her exact words (I wasn’t really focusing on her - I was thinking about the Constitutional Convention of 1789 again).

At any rate, my point is that I fear I look like a fine British dandy in my pink shirt today. It’s probably too late for me to do anything about it, since I don’t have a back-up shirt in my desk drawer, and topless teaching is frowned upon these days in our litigious society. I am so miserable right now, you guys.

On the plus side, I haven’t brushed my teeth for a couple days now.

Painting is something I thought that I’d like to be able to do for a while now, but it’s been a very slow process for me. When I was learning to use markers (and I’m still learning) I had tried initially to use color and the drawings turned out like poo. So I stopped using them for a while. Then I thought I’d just add some gray highlights on my black and white ink drawings for emphasis. After doing that for several months I thought, “Hey I can add a little more variety of grays here and there. No problem.”

Before long I was doing fully rendered graytone pieces. What I didn’t know at the time was that I was learning value, and learning to use values in graytone was going to make the transition to color much easier. Once I picked up the color markers after a year of using only various grays, it was suddenly apparent that the time spent learning to utilize value was well spent.

So now with a few years of understanding how color works, I’m trying to learn watercolors. Watercolors are difficult, I think, for anyone to use in a way that renders things semi-realistically…at least it is for me. I’d like to learn oil and acrylic paints one day, but I’m starting with the cheaper of the mediums right now. This afternoon I finished up my first watercolor painting that I think works, though it’s far from perfect. But given the magnitude of my past failures with the paint, today was a bit of a break through in learning how to manipulate it.

Things I’ve linked in the past 24 hours:

• George F. Will - A Vote Against Rashness - "We are waist deep in evasions because one cannot talk sense about the cultural roots of the financial crisis without transgressing this cardinal principle of politics: Never shall be heard a discouraging word about the public.

  Concerning which, a timeless political trope is: Government should budget the way households supposedly do, conforming outlays to income. But the crisis came partly because so many households decided that it would be jolly fun to budget the way government does, hitching outlays to appetites.

  Beneath Americans' perfunctory disapproval of government deficits lurks an inconvenient truth: They enjoy deficits, by which they are charged less than a dollar for a dollar's worth of government. Conservatives participate in this, even though deficits fuel government's growth by obscuring its cost."

  George Will gets it right.

• Elsewhere in Dreams » Blog Archive » Bullet Points for a Tuesday Evening -
• The Shaman and the Chicken Bones [Topic: Creation and Food] - "These pastors either don't know any better, in which case they cannot be trusted to handle the sacred text of Scripture, or they do know better but are afraid of the coterie of health ladies in the church who are propagating this kind of nonsense, in which case their cowardice disqualifies them."
• FIRST THINGS: A Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life - "This much, I think, is clear: Without an allegiance to beauty, art degenerates into a caricature of itself; it is beauty that animates aesthetic experience, making it so seductive; but aesthetic experience itself degenerates into a kind of fetish or idol if it is held up as an end in itself, untested by the rest of life. "
• prayers for blowouts » Blog Archive » The 2008 World Series of Worship Leaders -

I can’t believe that it has been over two years since I’ve posted here. I blame it mostly on Jason! A lot has happened in the last couple of years. I quit my job, took a drive around the country and then moved to a somewhat remote area of northern [...]

Things I’ve linked in the past 24 hours:

• Shifting Mind » Postalicious - This little plugin will supposedly give me a lot more customization options for my daily delicious.com link dump.

It’s October 1st, which, among other things, means it’s time for the baseball playoffs. This has long been a favorite time of year for me. I love watching baseball, or if a TV isn’t available, listening to it on the radio. And today we get a trifecta, with the meat game of the baseball sandwich being the Chicago Cubs starting a home series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

No sense in me adding to all the blather about the Cubs; just watching Sportscenter this morning they had features on “The Curse” (including the goat, the black cat, etc), the 100-year drought (there have been 4 states added to the USA since the Cubs last won the World Series!), etc, etc. As Lou Piniella said yesterday, the time for talk is done. Now it’s time to play ball. I’m too biased to make any good predictions here, but, as I told Richard on the phone this morning, I’d love to see a Cubs/WhiteSox cross-town World Series… as long as the Cubs win it.

Go Cubbies!

[Wrigley Field photo by wallyg via Flickr.]

• Elsewhere in Dreams » Blog Archive » Bullet Points for a Tuesday Evening
  (tags: cjh_comment)
• My Beef with Calvinists | Irish Calvinist
  Written by a Calvinist. A call for humility and compassion.
  (tags: theology debate calvinism)
• Ten Years of Grace (Josh Harris)
  (tags: cjh_comment)
• Op-Ed Columnist - Revolt of the Nihilists - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com
  "The American century was created by American leadership, which is scarcer than credit just about now."

  David Brooks FTW!

  (tags: politics opinion leadership)
• Jeremy Casella's blog
  (tags: cjh_comment)
• prayers for blowouts » Blog Archive » Kurt Warner Will Take That Check
  (tags: cjh_comment)

Back in June our local Photo Club held it’s annual Photo Hunt, I did blog about it. Our club reconvened after the summer break and one of the things they did was announce the results…I came in second place out of 21 photographers, I guess my 50mm lens came in handy!

I even received a funky trophy too!

so i got home tonight and went running along my usual route. of course i took the trusty nano along, using the nike+, but i failed to click on the playlist with my running songs. i ended up shuffling ALL of the songs on the iPod. my luck continued as the songs shuffled into my ears were slow songs. initially i thought it would suck, but it got me thinking about my pace. i kept a much more even pace tonight than i have the past two weeks, and actually had a better time. maybe running to A Fine Frenzy and slower Ryan Adams isn’t such a big deal after all. i don’t plan on trying it next time, but i guess if i notice a difference, i’ll go with the slower songs again.

when i went to upload my run, i started a training program for a half marathon. according to the schedule, i should be able to run it by Christmas. i guess we’ll see about that.

work was okay today i guess. i was having a conversation with a couple of co-workers at my desk when BO guy randomly rolled his chair over to offer us some walnuts he had in a big ziploc bag. just another day at the office!

We may have gotten Directv for the NFL, but we’re keeping it for the high school football. This is the best show on TV you guys. Are you watching it? You should be watching it. Tonight! It starts tonight! I love this show so much. (Also, this song. Do you know it? It’s called “Devil [...]

Sept 1 - Mmmm… raspberry lime paleta. Sept 2 - The meeting I wasn’t prepared for got canceled, again. Sept 3 - Really great class on Ecclesiastes. Sept 4 - Excellent brisket tacos for lunch. In Dallas. With my family. Sept 5 - Shop shop shop shop shop. Sept 6 - I survived my high school reunion. Sept 7 - I [...]

My husband is at worship practice. I am here in our apartment and other then the cars driving by on the street and the sound of my hands typing on the keyboard it is awful quiet here in our apartment. I don’t mind the quiet or being alone as much anymore. I have grown used to it.

I work as a nanny to a baby girl and spend most of my days with her. I love my job and most of the time, despite having to get up at far too early of an hour in the morning (5:30 am) and long hours I look forward to the work of it. It isn’t unfamiliar to me, I was the head teacher to a class of 10 infants, 8 at a time with an assistant teacher made for chaotic days. Lately though the work has meant a different thing to me.

I guess the change has been in how I look at it. Before when I worked in this field I didn’t see it as something that was obtainable to me and now I am filled with hope. Phil and I are in the process of becoming foster parents and I have faith that someday I will also give birth naturally. I know the Lord will be faithful to us. It has been just over a year since we took that leap of faith to start trying.

Each month that passes I am a wash of emotion. I wonder if we are too unprepared financially, do I have the patience, what would it really be like? Then I wonder why it seems like all the babies go to other people when I feel like this is what I was born to do? Why can that lady on the reality show have 18 and I am left with empty arms. I know God has gifted me to care for children, sometimes it feels like they will always be someone elses.

Waiting has never been my strong suit. I waited 26 years to be kissed. I wonder what it will truly be like that day I lay eyes on that sweet baby. I know no one ever is really fully prepared for all that entails. When we started filling out the foster care/adoptive parent paperwork though it started to feel a little more real. When we signed parent #1 and parent #2.

Heres hoping….and praying….

• It’s rare that I blog in the evening, much less that I assemble a list of bullet points in the evening, but I haven’t had a moment to slow down today.
• The economy may be slowing down, but business is heating up at work. We’ve had several really solid sales days. If we could keep that up — by getting the salesmen to actually be on the road selling things! — we’d be rolling in it. Part of our current success is several new contracts with Bombardier and Heroux Devtek. Our tooling is knocking them dead. Though not literally, I hope.
• Listening to Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm is an exercise in noticing they used to be fun and interesting to listen to but are no longer fun or interesting. Several big producers and big albums later and they’re just well-coordinated noise. Remember “Positive Tension”? Great song.
• Nathan was playing a Collective Soul song at work today. It reminded me of a more innocent time, when the Mix 99.9 played actual music, and I was dating Laura #1. Not a particularly great time in my life, but still, a more innocent time. I drove a blue Saturn! (Was it blue?) It had those seatbelts that automatically sealed you into your seat but annoyingly required the lap belt to be done up manually. In any case, the point of this point is: Collective Soul sucks. They always have, and they always will. They aren’t innovative. They’re bland. They aren’t interesting. They’re stale. If you like them, that’s fine; just don’t expect me to share your excitement.
• How I Met Your Mother is in the download queue! Yes!
• It strikes me that morality is, after all, innate. A priori. Arts and Letters is right on that count.
• Part of me wants the US government to bail out the banks. Another part of me wants the US government to nuke the banks from space. I’m torn.
• Cats can really smell up a place real quick. Especially younger cats.
• I’m reading “Dune” again right now. It’s a lot more interesting than I remember. But it’s still ruined by its surrounding novels, the prequels especially but also the sequels. Neither Herbert’s continuing vision or his son’s diving into its past have added anything to “Dune” but taken much away. It should be the only book in the canon.
• I got something like 4 hours of sleep last night. I rather hope some of my friends’ sleep problems aren’t catching or anything like that.
• People using the laptop on the toilet really freaks me out. What if, right now, you were talking to someone and you had no idea they were sitting on the can? That’s uncool!
• I’m making a main course for a thing our church does. It’s called “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and it’s a basically a way for people to meet other people they might not know. It’s pretty much awesome, but I haven’t the foggiest clue what to make for it. Do you people have any good recipes I should make? Keep in mind I can do multiple dishes!

I figured I’d continue the art theme.

Someone paid me a little money for a sketch back in May at an event at the local comic shop, and it took me nearly 5 months to get to it. So I figured I should do it up right since they had to wait so long. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, it’s a complicated costume.

When I do these marker-rendered pieces the last step is applying white acrylic ink for highlights. Today I realized this is probably my favorite step because to me it’s the point where the drawing seems to pop to life.

I finished reading Richard Adams’ Watership Down last night and, when adding it to my reading list, found it rather difficult to describe. Figuring that few of you ever look at my reading list, (which is fine,) and knowing that my attempt amused me, I thought I’d post the description here, too.

This is a hard novel to describe, not because it’s nondescript, but because short descriptions would leave out so much. It’s a story about rabbits. Let’s try this on for size: if Tolkien were to have written a story the length of one of the LotR books, and set it in modern day, and narrowed the scope from “save the world” to “find a new place to live” and written it about rabbits instead of hobbits, you might get something like Watership Down. I enjoyed it.

Wow, it’s been a week since I’ve posted an update on The Coffee Experiment. I think it’s really time to stop calling it an experiment, and just call it a new normal part of my everyday life. I’ve consistently been setting the timer to have the coffee brewed for me in the morning, and it’s done a good job at keeping me going through the day. At the moment I’m still working through the bag of Starbucks dark roast that’s been in the freezer. I imagine it’ll take me another few weeks to get through it. After that, I’ll head down to Brewed Awakenings and decide what to try next.

Speaking of Brewed Awakenings, I hung out there for a while on Friday morning and tried a couple different drinks. First, Nate suggested a Don Correllejo, which is a double-shot espresso with Mexican chocolate added. Yummy. After that I had some of their daily light roast, which was also good, even drinking it black. I need a job where I can just spend mornings hanging out down at the coffeehouse. That would rock.

One funny thing I found out when visiting my folks this past weekend: it seems that my mother, a life-long coffee-disdainer, within a day or so of the start of my Coffee Experiment yet having not yet read about it on my blog, took up the coffee habit herself. Sounds like it’s so far, so good for her as well. I think everybody in our family now drinks the stuff.

So, wow. I’m now a coffee drinker. I feel so grown up.

Last night as I was grading exams, I came across this wonderful illustration:

Look at it. It’s me. I’m all there. The carefully unkempt hair, the sour pucker of disdain, the trapezoidal eyeglasses, and the eyes closed in contemplation of my life’s squandered possibilities. It was less like an essay explaining the effects of the Neolithic revolution and more like a mirror into the recesses of my own soul.

What does the dark, shadowy figure to the left of me represent? Some sort of dark doppelgänger? Is his scribbly presence an omen of impending death? His vague, half-formed lurking distresses me. I wish he would depart and leave me in peace.

This blog entry has darkened my spirits. I will end it now, before the gloom fully enshrouds me. I love you all very, very much.

Goodbye.

I babysat our neighbors’ son a couple of weeks ago so that they could go to an open house at their daughter’s school (which is also Mike’s school). He did not so much like being left behind. But he likes me, so I think he was a little bit conflicted. “I like Kari, but I don’t want Mommy and Daddy to leave! What will I do?” Well, what he did was hold on to me. And he got a little bit too heavy for me, to be honest, so I sat down with him in the chair and rubbed his head for a while. And then he fell asleep.

Now, I am the least maternal person I know. I don’t have a particular desire to have kids of my own, though we might, someday. But even my grinchy heart was touched when this sweet little boy fell asleep on me. (I did not tell his parents that he had a power nap on my watch. I am not that stupid. I want them to let me keep hanging out with their kids.) It wasn’t a feeling like, “Oh, I want one of these.” Just, “I can see why people do want these.” That’s as far as I can go, okay?

And then he woke up. Now, I am not a parent. But things like this make me think that there is no way I could ever BE a paren