Rambling Bits and Bytes

GRUB'd

2011-05-16T21:06:00.012-04:00

In my last post, I talked about how I had built my dream computer with two hard drives, each with it's own Operating System (OS). One is Windows 7 and the other is Ubuntu. At that point I was using the Basic Input-Output System (BIOS) to select the hard disk with the OS I wanted to load, and one of my future goals was to figure out how to add Windows 7 into the GRUB bootloader which is used for Ubuntu.

I accomplished that goal last night. I did some research first, searching for articles on how to set up GRUB to point to Windows 7. I read three of them and they all talked about editing a file named "menu.lst". I wrote down the syntax for adding Windows 7 to this file, booted into Ubuntu and proceeded to conduct a search for "menu.lst". It was not to be found. Not to be deterred, I started poking around.

In the articles I had seen a reference to the path "/boot/grub". I opened a terminal window and changed directories to that location.

There I saw a file named "grub.cfg" I opened it up with vi and this is what I saw.

This gave me the necessary bits of information I needed. I first proceeded to "/etc/grub.d", which is a directory.

I used vi to read the "README" file. Based on that, I was able to determine that I should edit the "40_custom" file. I used the command "sudo vi 40_custom" to edit the file. Using the "sudo" command temporarily elevates your privileges to that of root, which is the owner of these system files.

I used the syntax I had learned from the articles to add the entry enclosed in the box above. I then proceeded to the directory "/etc/default".

Once again, I used the "sudo" command to edit the file "grub" (sudo vi grub). I knew from the articles that the menu items index in GRUB starts at zero. Since I already had four entries on the existing GRUB menu list, I knew my new entry would be the fifth one, or number 4 with a zero-base count. I wanted to set Windows 7 as the default, so I set the default entry to 4.

After making that change, I ran the "update-grub" command as specified in the "grub" file, again using sudo: sudo update-grub. After that, I rebooted and was very happy to see Windows 7 as the last item on the list and highlighted as the default option.

I do have to say that I'm not positive adding the Windows 7 entry to the "40_custom" file actually did anything. In my entry, I set the title to "Windows 7". On the GRUB menu list it displays as "Windows 7 (Loader)". I don't know if GRUB added that last part to my entry or whether I could have saved myself the trouble of adding the entry and just run "update-grub" and it would have picked up Windows 7 itself. It's working great, so I'm not going to tinker with it. But let me know if you try that option and it works for you.

P.S. I wrote this entire blog post in Firefox on Ubuntu, using a screen capture tool called Shutter. How's that for open source?

A Dream Realized

2011-05-04T21:15:00.034-04:00

For many, many years now, I've had a dream. That dream was to build my own desktop computer. The time was never right from a budget standpoint - there was always something that was a higher priority. Well, this year, the time was right. We are out of debt, with the exception of the mortgage. We have our six months of expenses saved up (Dave Ramsey would be proud). It was finally time.

So with the go ahead from Stephanie, I began my research in late February. For those who don't know me, I'm big on research. I want to make sure that I get exactly what I want, for the price I want. There was research on the how-to for things like installing a processor and applying thermal grease. There was research to answer questions such as AMD vs. Intel and two mid-range graphics cards in SLI or Crossfire vs. one higher end graphics card. And then of course there was the price comparison research. By early April I had determined what I wanted and what I was willing to pay for each component. Within a couple of days I had purchased all of the components and was waiting eagerly for them to arrive. In the spirit of full disclosure, there were a few items I had already purchased previously to be used with "my computer" when it actually came to be. I've disclosed those below. On Saturday, April 16th the last component I had purchased arrived. That evening, after my kids were in bed, I began to realize my dream; I began to build.

The Components

Motherboard: MSI P67A-G45 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67
Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 1333, Timing: 7-7-7-21
Power Supply Unit: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W
Graphics Card: MSI R6950-2PM2D2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB
Processor Heat Sink: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
Case: COLLER MASTER HAF 922 ATX Mid Tower
Hard Drive: 2 x Seagate Barracude ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6 GB
Optical Drive: LG SATA DVD Burner GH24LS50
Monitor: ASUS VK266H LCD (purchased previously)
Keyboard: Logitech K350 Wireless Keyboard (purchased previously)
Mouse: Logitech Wireless Marathon Mouse M705 (purchased previously)
Operating System 1: Windows 7 Ultimate Edition, 64-bit
Operating System 2: Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop Edition, 32-bit (free!)
Miscellaneous: Rosewill USB 2.0 Internal All In 1 Card Reader, 3 x Nippon Labs SATA 6 GB cables, Rosewill RTK-001 Premium Anti-Static Wrist Strap (not pictured), Link Depot 6 ft. HDMI Cable (not pictured), ArctiClean 2 bottle Kit with Arctic Silver

In Progress
The beginning

Processor installed

PSU installed

Motherboard with processor, heat sink and RAM installed

Almost done! All components installed and Windows 7 install in progress. The thing with the three red stripes is the graphics card.

The other side of the case; you can see some of the cable management I tried to do and the two SATA drives

Windows 7 has been installed and is preparing for first time use

Completed!
Here it is, set up completely. The speakers are from a previous desktop computer.
Isn't it beautiful?

Rambling Thoughts About the Build and the Components

I went with a new Sandy Bridge Intel processor because it had great reviews and was supposed to be good with gaming. I chose the Core i5-2500K because it is unlocked for overclocking. Though I have not tried to overclock yet, I will.
I decided to go with one more expensive graphics card over two less expensive cards due to the fact that not all games are optimized for or even utilize a dual graphics card set up. If I want to next year, I can always add a second one. There's room on the board, in the case and on the PSU.
I went with the Radeon 6950 because it is supposed to be easily upgraded to almost the level of the next higher card, the 6970, with a GPU BIOS hack to unlock two unused shaders. I have not done that yet either but I plan to. It can also be overclocked. By the way, the graphics card was huge.
The processor heat sink was huge, a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Thankfully my case is big enough that it was not an issue.
Locking the processor into place took more force than I had anticipated. I was a little nervous at first and pulled it out to inspect for damage. I had done it right, so there was none.
The motherboard has two 6 GB SATA connections and four 3 GB SATA connections. I used the two 6 GB connections for the two hard drives. Three of the four remaining are taken up by the optical drive, the front panel e-SATA connection and the e-SATA connection on the Rosewill All In One card reader. That leaves one for the future, possibly a Blu Ray drive.
Once I got Windows 7 Ultimate installed and the PC hooked up to my router, I was surprised to find that it did not have generic Ethernet drivers. I could not connect to the Internet to download drivers and software. And the CD of drivers that came with the motherboard was unreadable. So I had to download the Ethernet drivers onto a USB drive using my wife's computer and install them that way. Once installed, it connected right away. Interestingly, when I installed Ubuntu, it was able to immediately use the Ethernet connection. Point to Ubuntu.
Right now I am dual booting using BIOS to determine which hard disk to boot to. At some point in time I will research and figure out how to configure GRUB to point to Windows 7 as an option and just boot to the Linux drive all the time.
Dealing with the extra power cables on the PSU was an issue. I eventually just coiled them at the bottom of the case. I can see how a modular PSU would be an advantage there.
I chose Windows 7 Utlimate Edition because I wanted to be able to use the Windows XP mode, to provide as much backwards compatibility with programs I already have as possible. I've tried it with a favorite game of the kids, Crazy Machines 2, with no luck. I'll have to try again now that I've updated both the Windows 7 and the virtual Windows XP.
For the mouse and keyboard I went with Logitech because I've had great experiences with their products in the past. I choose the two I did for three reasons: 1) They were both wireless, 2) They both support Logitech's "Unifying" technology, which means they can both use the same USB receiver, and 3) They both had mail-in rebates :).
Getting all the little connections for power button, hard drive LED, etc. hooked up was pretty intimidating/confusing. I got it right though.
I'm not a hard core gamer but I do like to play games occasionally, so I wanted a computer that would be able to play any games that come out in the next few years. That's one reason for choosing the level of graphics card that I did.

Conclusion

I thoroughly enjoyed building this computer. It probably took me quite a bit longer than someone with experience because I was learning and because I triple checked everything. I cannot tell you how excited and relieved I was when I pressed the power button for the first time and it actually booted up to BIOS. And now that I've had the computer a couple of weeks, I can say that I am very pleased with it and am happy to have my own computer, instead of having to steal occasional time on my wife's laptop.

My dream has been realized!

P.S. Anyone need help building their PC? I'd love to assist :).

You know there's been too much snow when...

2011-01-27T20:06:00.003-05:00

It's no longer "shovel, throw, shovel, throw" but "shovel, walk, throw, walk back".
You wish you'd bought a snow blower when you moved in 8 years ago.
Your property begins to remind you of Superman's Fortress of Solitude.
You begin to question the sanity of people who live even further north who get even more snow every year (they must have bought a snow blower when they moved in).
Your dad starts to call every time there's a snow storm to remind you that he does not even own a snow shovel or an ice scraper where he lives. Thanks Dad.
You hope they'll start the Olympic sport of Snow Flinging because your sure you'd make the US Team.
You wish were living in a dwelling where you were not the landlord responsible for keeping the drive way and walks clear.
The only thing keeping you from hiring someone else to do it is pride - all the neighbors around you shovel their own driveways.
You try thinking of shoveling as water resistance training - part of your New Year's resolution to get into better shape.
You wished your house had a two car garage used for parking the vehicles in, and you owned a snow blower.
You've been shoveling long enough to think up all of these reasons it's been snowing too much.

Accountability to God for what He has revealed

2010-09-16T20:42:00.004-04:00

Deuteronomy 29:29 (New Living Translation)

29 “The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.

I read this during one of my quiet times this week and it really caught my attention. We will be held accountable for what God has revealed to us in His Scriptures. That can be a very uncomfortable, and unwanted, responsibility. Don't we all like to do our own thing? Yet, as Peter said in John 6:68, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

Funny video: Dad Life

2010-09-13T07:01:00.004-04:00

I first saw this on God Tube and thought it was funny. I could not figure out how to embed it from there. So I'm embedding the YouTube version. Here's the link to the God Tube one: http://www.godtube.com/featured/video/dad-life

It's been that long?!

2010-07-18T13:30:00.003-04:00

I had not realized that it's been about 9 months since I last posted. I knew it had been a while but did not realize it was that long.

I'm still breathing and kick'n. Time flies by fast when there's a lot to occupy it with. I don't really have much to say, other than I still exist, contrary to what my blog indicates :).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM!

2009-10-21T21:26:00.004-04:00

HAPPY 1^st BIRTHDAY
SAM!

The Continuing Job Saga

2009-06-11T21:05:00.005-04:00

Here's a brief update on where things stand with my job.

I held out for and got my years of service carried over to "The Company". Yeah!
I started with "The Company" on June 1st and received my first pay check (dated tomorrow) today. Yeah!!
I attended two meetings today where I found out that there were coming layoffs within the division of "The Company" that I am now a part of and that those will be happening in July. Boo!
I also find out that my team was one of a handful of teams selected to be in the first round of teams reviewed to have up to 35% of their positions replaced by off-shore resources. Boo!!

So, the outlook is very muddy. The next few months should be very interesting.

An Interesting, Hectic Day

2009-05-21T22:45:00.004-04:00

I learned today that as of June 1st, I will no longer be an employee of my current employer. Instead, I will become, should I choose to accept the offer, the employee of the company, referred to from now on as "The Company", which contracts my current employer and thus myself.

My team was told this morning that our entire team is being taken over by "The Company" we provide services to, as part of the new contract that had just been negotiated between the two parties. Make sense? Since there is not much time to get us processed and on the payroll for "The Company", a good portion of today was spent in meetings, applying for the positions posted for my team, giving approval to have background checks, and setting up appointments for our fingerprinting - hope they don't discover the fact that we're a gang of criminals disguised as geeks :).

So it was an interesting and hectic day.

It's In The Genes

2009-05-08T21:08:00.001-04:00

A Cloud of Little Witnesses

2009-04-16T21:48:00.004-04:00

On Wednesday morning as I was having my quiet time in the living room, Ben and Ellie were seated on the couch next to me. I've become accustomed to having one or more children in the room with me during my quiet time. Early on, I had debated about refusing to allow them in the room so as not to be distracted but then I decide that what better way for them to learn than to observe first hand what having a quiet time was like, and it helps keep me accountable because they expect me to have one.

All of the above is just setting the stage and was not on my mind Wednesday morning. I was going over once of the Scripture passages I am trying to memorize, Hebrews 12:1-8. The first verse reads,

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

This verse follows after chapter 11, which is the faith chapter, including the Faith Hall of Fame. So in the context, the great cloud of witnesses is referring to those of the faith who have proceeded us. However, as I sat there repeating the verses, it occurred to me that I also had a different "cloud of witnesses" sitting right there beside me. And how much stronger of a motivation that is to me to "run with perseverance the race marked out for" me, even than those pillars of faith who have gone before me but are no longer in this world.

Who is your "cloud of witnesses" and how are you running your race?

Free Star Maps

2009-03-25T22:19:00.004-04:00

If you like looking at stars, you may be interesting in this link I just found. On the page, you can download two free star maps, one for the northern hemisphere and one for the southern hemisphere. They only have the major stars and constellations, but hey, they're free! They also include a map of the major features of the moon. Pretty cool.

Now, if I could only find where I put my binoculars...

Happy Birthday Mike!

2009-03-15T01:00:00.000-04:00

HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY
MIIIIIIIIIIIKE!!!

My friend Mike turns 40 today. Being the thoughtful, sensitive type, I sent him a present. Below is a picture of what I sent him.

Here's the document so you can actually read it.

Walker Accessory Kit

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Humor Creative Writing

He's already plotting his thoughtful return gift for when I hit that age milestone. May I remind him that he will be turning 50 at some point, so, choose wisely (this could become a vicious downward spiral).

I've Got This Song Under My Skin

2009-03-07T20:58:00.009-05:00

This afternoon, during the kids' nap time, I watched the Do-Re-Me YouTube video I had posted about way back when (though that video has been taken down now, but here's the link to another one of it). After doing that, I started watching other songs from that era. As I did, I noticed that I was seeing several singers who had sung "I've Got You Under My Skin". I decided to do a post with collection of some of them and ask for opinions on who you think does the best job. Some of these are big names and some are unknowns. The two loose criterion I had were that the videos be of the performers singing the song and that they did not totally butcher the song.

1. First up is the singer whom many consider to have set the gold standard for this song, Frank Sinatra.

2. Bobby Darin

3. Michael Buble

4. Katharine McPhee

5. Steve Lawrence

6. Boris Titulaer

7. Sammy Davis Jr.: The video does not allow embedding, so follow this link. Also, this video has two songs, with "I've got you under my skin" being the second one.

8. Josh Dubovie

9. Briana Phares

10. Udo (unfortunately the video cuts off before the end of the song)

So, who's your top pick?

Guess Which One

2009-03-01T23:09:00.005-05:00

I may regret doing this, but I'm posting a picture of some friends and I from seventh grade. A friend posted this on facebook. "So young", is the thought that keeps going through my mind.

Besides family, can anyone guess which one is me?

As a bonus question, why are we wearing white gloves?

**** UPDATE ****

Congratulations to all who guessed that I was the short one in the right front of the picture. And congratulations to those who guessed that the white gloves were for handbells. That is correct. Marc is the grand winner, as he was the first to comment and he got them both right. I may be misremembering, but I think he played handbells during our college years, at church. As for the prize Marc, it's the thrill of victory - ain't it sweet?! Ya, I'm ~~cheap~~ ~~frugal~~ wise with my resources like that.

Happy Birthday Ben!

2009-02-22T00:01:00.001-05:00

Happy
Fourth
Birthday
Benjamin!!!!

It's hard to believe that four years have passed already.

Parents' Visit

2009-01-11T22:10:00.010-05:00

The week after Christmas, my parents came for a visit. They had spent Christmas with my sister and her family in Texas, then came to spend New Year's with us. They flew in just hours before it was supposed to start snowing good.

We had a great time. The kids really enjoyed getting to spend time with their grandparents. We had a second Christmas, which the kids of course loved. There was of course, the obligatory eating out :-). There were the snacks and junk food. There was a father-son (meaning my dad and I) electronics shopping trip to Circuit City and Best Buy. We didn't end up buying anything but it was fun to look.

The first Sunday of 2009, we took the opportunity to have a family picture taken, since we were all in our Sunday best.

The picture above has been cropped to remove extra background. Also cropped out was an honorary member of the our clan - Micah. He and our boys are great friends. Can you see the mischievousness on his face?

More December 2008 Snow Pictures

2009-01-11T21:59:00.003-05:00

Ben (left) and Will (right) helping me clear the walk.

Will and me.

Ben

Will

Ellie

So much snow (for us).

Ellie inspecting my work.

Sugar Cookies

2009-01-11T21:00:00.006-05:00

As the just passed Christmas approached, I decided it would be fun thing to make sugar cookies with the kids. I planned to do it before Christmas but just never got myself together in time. It ended up being started on the day after Christmas. I say started because I did not plan ahead and had not read the recipe prior to beginning after supper. As a result I did not realize that the dough needed to chill for 2-3 hours, putting ready right about bed time for the kids. So we made the dough on Friday and actually made the cookies Saturday afternoon.

The kids' Uncle Stephen and Aunt Jenn had sent them some baking sets and a set of cookie cutters for Christmas, so it worked out well that we did the cookies after Christmas. The kids were very excited to wear their aprons, use their little rolling pins and put cookies on their little baking sheets. Thanks Uncle Stephen and Aunt Jenn!

We used food coloring to dye sugar for the toppings. We had three colors, one for each child. The cookies came out fairly good, given who was in charge. Stephanie had told me that it was all me. But she was kind enough to provide some advice and assistance whenever my desperate cries for help emanated from the kitchen. Thanks honey!

Ben's "gingerbread" man took up the whole sheet

Unfortunately, the pictures of the completed cookies are on the film camera and have not been developed yet. I'll post those when they become available.

World's Cutest Superheros

2009-01-11T20:27:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas, 2008

2008-12-25T00:01:00.005-05:00

Merry Christmas!!

May your celebrations be joyful, full of blessings, and honoring to Christ the King, for He is the reason we celebrate.

Isaiah 9:6-7 (NIV)
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

One of the Universe's Little Mysteries Solved

2008-12-23T21:08:00.006-05:00

Have you ever stopped to wonder how having a foot of snow impacts the smaller creatures of this world? Have you spent countless hours puzzling over the mystery of how squirrels traverse snow ladened trees, their branches covered in three to four inches of white, icy snow?

No? Well, the later question (nor the former for that matter) had not troubled my mind until this morning. As I was partaking in some sustenance with which to break my fast, out through the kitchen window I observed a squirrel moving along a large branch covered in three to four inches of snow. As I did so, I realized that this question, how a squirrel traverses snow ladened trees, was such an obvious question, it's a wonder that it had not been bothering me for years now. Would they plow through it, like a water buffalo in a rice paddi? Would they climb backward, swinging their tails to brush off the snow? Would they race along the top of the snow, like an elf?

While I did not have the question before hand, I now had the answer to this little mystery of the Universe. Now I can rest easy, burden lifted. That I may help ease the burdens from your minds regarding this mystery, I will share the answer with you.

(Drum roll please)

Instead of trying to deal with the snow, the squirrel simply traveled along the underside of the branch, speeding upside down, unhindered by the snow, to wherever it was going. Little mystery of the Universe solved.

Is your burden eased?

Blog Glob, 12/22/08

2008-12-22T21:52:00.010-05:00

It looks like we will have a white Christmas this year. Over the weekend, we probably got around a foot of snow. On Christmas Eve we are supposed to get some rain/snow mix, but I doubt there will be enough rain to melt all of that snow by Christmas Day. Christmas is supposed to be fairly warm, around 50, with no snow fall predicted. However, I think having the ground covered with it counts as having a white Christmas.
I'm now sore and tired as a result of the first bullet point. There was a lot of shoveling to be done. I also started construction on our own sledding slope in the backyard, backed up to the climber, but that is still a work in progress as it is taking a lot more snow than I thought it would.
I'm going for my annual eye exam tomorrow. Yippee (said in a monotone, with no enthusiasm).
I'm on vacation all this week and am only work the first three days of next week. Yeah (said with a lot of enthusiasm and pitch fluctuation)!!
I bought myself a new computer game to play with the boys, specifically Will. It's called Crazy Machines 2 and does not involve any violence to living creatures, just to some inanimate objects. I decided to do this because Will really likes computer games, but seems to get obsessed with the ones that have fighting in them, like Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle Earth II and Age of Empires III. He seems to like this one (so do I) and has not been talking about shooting guns or arrows as a result. Ben likes it too, which I knew he would, since it's about solving a problem (or puzzle) with various parts to make something do a specific task(s).
My parents are coming next week for a visit. It will be nice to see them.
I am in the process of reading "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens to the family (which means Will and Stephanie, with Ben and Ellie occasionally listening in). After that, we are planning on watching a cinematic version of it, the one by the Muppets :-).
I watched Superman, The Movie, a couple of nights ago. It's still a great movie in my opinion. The next night, I let the kids watch a "making of Superman" with me. That resulted in Ben "flying" off the couches and beds.
Can you believe that Christmas is only 3 days away? I've still got presents to wrap!

The First Snow, 2008

2008-12-07T15:32:00.005-05:00

About 6:30 this morning Ben came into our room to inform us that it was snowing. I mumbled a less than sincere thanks. To be fair, we had looked at the forecast yesterday which had forecast snow, so Ben was on the look out for it. Both boys were hoping that there was a parking ban in Providence, which would mean that there was no church, which would mean that they could go out and play. In fact, they wanted to get suited up and go out prior to breakfast, that's how excited they were.

I checked a couple of web sites and even called and left a message for our pastor to check to see if there was a parking ban. So the snow would have to wait until we got home from church. As soon as we got home, the kids headed out to the backyard to play. About the time I decided to go out with the camera, Ellie had decided to come in because her clothes were wet from having jumped in a puddle that had formed in front of the bulk head. Enjoy the pictures below. Some are a little fuzzy or off center because they were taken while I was the target of snowballs from both boys. At one point I was forced to put away the camera and defend myself :-).

Will was not happy to have snow down his coat.

Ben was not happy to have fallen face first in the snow.

I mentioned that Ellie had come in as I went out, right? Well, Stephanie was in our bedroom feeding Sam, so Ellie was unsupervised. Below is the result.

She's sucking on the lid of the toothpaste tube.

Blog Glob, 11/30/2008

2008-11-30T20:34:00.014-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, it was raining when I left work, walking out to get in my truck. Naturally, I had the umbrella up to keep me as dry as possible. Well, I as I climbed into the driver's seat, holding the umbrella in my left hand, I must have been distracted because I reached over with my right hand a closed the door. As it was closing, the thought crossed my mind that this was not a smart thing to do, as I was still holding the umbrella. Before I could react to the thought, the door closed on the shaft of the umbrella. Imagine my surprise and slight shock, when, instead of the door just stopping, I saw the top of the umbrella fall to the parking lot outside the door. The door had sheared the shaft clean in two, it was not even mashed.

On the 21st was my wife's birthday. Happy Birthday honey! We had two families over to help celebrate with us. Mike and Dawn we've known for almost 11 years. They are native Rhode Islanders who went to the church we decided to attend. They initiated the relationship, for which we are very grateful, as we did not know a soul up here. About a year after we arrived in Rhode Island, Andy and Amy arrived and came to our church. We decided to pass on the same favor that Mike and Dawn had done for us, and immediately invited them for lunch. So we've been friends with them for over 10 years. Now each of those couples has one or more children. It was good to get together with friends.
I went with my friend Andy on the 22nd to see Quantum of Solace. It was a good movie but not great. A lot of action, as to be expected.
There has been quite a bit of leaf raking around here. Except for the carting off of the leaves, I finally finished the backyard yesterday. Most of it had been done a few weeks ago, with a big pile made in the middle of the yard by the climber so that the kids could jump in it. Finishing up meant moving the big pile over to the corner of the yard where it will be loaded into the back of the pick up and raking up the leaves that had fallen since the first round of raking.
Ellie was sick for a few days. Thankfully it was short lived and the only major symptoms were being warm (low grade fever) and being cranky. As she even told me today, several days after fully recovering, "I feel beher".
On Saturday we set up the Christmas tree. The kids, but Ben especially, were excited about this. He's so fun when he's excited - it makes me want to give him whatever he wants.
Recently, since I was nearly out of wood glue, I purchased some Gorilla Glue (the all purpose, not the wood glue), as I've heard a number of good things about it. So far, so good. I've repaired a children's chair which had suffered from over enthusiastic users - the back had fallen off and a leg dangling. It's held up for a few days now.
I'm back at work full time now. I had gotten use to the half days from home. I'm missing the additional time with my family.
I'm reading through two books right now. I'll post reviews when I'm done.

Thanksgiving, 2008

2008-11-30T20:06:00.007-05:00

Psalm 118 (NIV)

1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

2 Let Israel say:
"His love endures forever."

3 Let the house of Aaron say:
"His love endures forever."

4 Let those who fear the LORD say:
"His love endures forever."

5 In my anguish I cried to the LORD,
and he answered by setting me free.

6 The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?

7 The LORD is with me; he is my helper.
I will look in triumph on my enemies.

8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in man.

9 It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in princes.

10 All the nations surrounded me,
but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.

11 They surrounded me on every side,
but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.

12 They swarmed around me like bees,
but they died out as quickly as burning thorns;
in the name of the LORD I cut them off.

13 I was pushed back and about to fall,
but the LORD helped me.

14 The LORD is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.

15 Shouts of joy and victory
resound in the tents of the righteous:
"The LORD's right hand has done mighty things!

16 The LORD's right hand is lifted high;
the LORD's right hand has done mighty things!"

17 I will not die but live,
and will proclaim what the LORD has done.

18 The LORD has chastened me severely,
but he has not given me over to death.

19 Open for me the gates of righteousness;
I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.

20 This is the gate of the LORD
through which the righteous may enter.

21 I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.

22 The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;

23 the LORD has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.

24 This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.

25 O LORD, save us;
O LORD, grant us success.

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.
From the house of the LORD we bless you.

27 The LORD is God,
and he has made his light shine upon us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
up to the horns of the altar.

28 You are my God, and I will give you thanks;
you are my God, and I will exalt you.

29 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

I would like to belatedly wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a nice, easy day at our house. A little yard work got done, I made an apple pie with three helpers (plus Stephanie) and Stephanie cooked a good meal. It was a very good Thanksgiving for us.

Thanks be to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever.

"Soul Provider"

2008-11-15T21:13:00.012-05:00

This is a book review on Soul Provider by Tim Elmore.

Synopsis: This book is for men and is intended to provide them with a practical framework for being a spiritual leader. Tim Elmore first defines what spiritual leadership is and what it is not. He discusses barriers to being a good spiritual leader. Then he discusses the four roles of a spiritual leader - as a model, a minister, a mentor and a manager.

Review: My friend Andy loaned me this book a good while back. (Sorry Andy for having kept it so long, I'll try and get it back to you tomorrow at church.) During the time I've had it, I have read it twice. The book is fairly short, only 140 pages long, so it can be a quick read. However, in order to get the most out of it, you need to go through it slowly, thoughtfully and prayerfully, and possibly more than once. Each chapter has some application questions to make you analyze and apply what you are reading.

This is a very good book and I recommend it to all men, because we are all spiritual leaders, regardless of whether you're in an official ministry position or not, married or not, a father or not. I like how it provides the scriptural basis for the points and is more practical than philosophical in how these points should be accomplished.

Box Race Car

2008-11-09T20:45:00.008-05:00

This past week a box came into our home which Will thought would make a great race car. Because he asked so earnestly, and so persistently, I set out to make a race car for the kids. Will wanted one with actual axles and wheels that worked. I told him that unfortunately, the cardboard box did not have the strength to handle axles and wheels, without a lot of bracing in the form of wood. So fake wheels would have to do.

As any good MacGuyver fan would do, I pulled out my (new) roll of duct tape. Then I rummaged around in the recycle bins for parts. Those parts acquired, along with a couple pairs of scissors and Elmer's glue, I proceeded to create the race car pictured below.

From the front. The hood (all that white up front) is made from a cake box.

From the side. The white piece of cardboard across the middle is the seat belt.

They colored the wheels. Ben's is the rear one, it was the most colorful.

The steering wheel assembly. Made from a toilet paper roll, the lid of an instant oatmeal container, a brass paper fastener, a piece of thicker cardboard and lots of duct tape. The toilet paper roll is the column, with one end cut at an angle.

Our proud, if unknowing, sponsor.

Will, race car drive extraordinaire.

Ben, with his racing helmet.

Ellie, the cutest of all race car drivers, with her "helmet" on too.

Alas, within a day, the steering wheel suffered a catastrophic failure in the form of Ellie attempting to wrest it away from Ben. I was wise to take pictures prior to allowing the kids to embark on imaginary races. It only took about an hour to do and has been well worth it as a cheap form of entertainment.

More Samuel Pics

2008-10-24T20:40:00.016-04:00

Before I show you more pictures of one of the most adorable babies on the planet, I'm happy to report that Stephanie and Sam were able to come home this morning due to both of them being in such good health. Praise God!

Getting checked out

This is not where I'm supposed to be!

He has long toes

Cutest baby

Adorableness

Found those fingers

Look at that hair!

Stephanie and Sam

Sam with Grandma

Sam and Will

Sam and Ben

Sam and Ellie

All my kids

Stephanie dressing Sam for the journey home

Sam and I

Blog Glob, 10/21/2008

2008-10-21T22:20:00.000-04:00

First off, let me apologize for neglecting my blog. It has not been intentional but more a lack of being intentional. Work has been high-pressured and stressful the past couple of months and the last thing I have felt like doing in the evenings, after the kids are in bed, is to exert brain power to compose a blog post. I kept saying, "Not tonight". That has turned into a month of no posts.

Instead, I spent a lot of time on Hulu.com vegging out, too much time. That's why we got rid of the TV. So I'm going to have cut back on that.

My wife, as opposed to me, has been a posting maniac. So in this blog glob (it's a new bloggity phrase I'm trying to coin - meaning to throw together a post composed of many different topics or points), I'm going to link to many of her posts so I don't have to do as much work, the lazy man that I am.

Currently (about 3:00 p.m.), I'm sitting in my wife's hospital room, with her laptop. She and Sam are geting in some snuggle time. The last time we were here over two years ago for Ellie, Internet access was not available. Now they have free WiFi - yeah!

Last Monday, Columbus Day, we went with our church to go apple picking. This is an annual tradition and is a lot of fun - the whole family looks forward to it. We went to a new orchard this year and were able to go on a free hayride - a first for all our kids. We picked 20 pounds of apples and have already enjoyed one apple pie, with at least one more to come - yum. Click here to read the post Stephanie did on this, with pictures. Even though this post is not about apple picking, it does include a great picture from then with Will making a goofy face.
On Tuesday, October 7th, I arrived home to find everyone in the half bathroom. Stephanie was giving Will a lecture while she had Ben across her knees and was pressing a wet washcloth to the back of his head. Long story made short, Ben was standing on top of a ride in truck we have in the back yard, Will shook it, Ben fell off and the back of his head met the propped open screen door, resulting in about a half inch gash in the back of his head. Stephanie has posted about it here, but since I'm the one who actually took Ben to be taken care of, I'll try to give my own, brief, summary.
- I called the pediatrician who sent us to an urgent care center.
- Ben and I went and Stephanie stayed home with the rest of the kids.
- We checked in at 6:45 p.m. and did not go back into an exam room until around 8:15. Good thing the wound had pretty much stopped bleeding (thanks to Stephanie and the washcloth).
- To entertain ourselves during that time, Ben and I read one of the two children's books in the waiting room and drawing on the chalk board along one wall.
- Once we got in, it took another twenty minutes before the doctor came to see us.
- He put six staples in to close the gash.
- He had me hold Ben on my lap, facing me with his legs around me and his face in my chest. Ben did great; he was a trooper.
- Because of how Ben was sitting, the wound was about five inches below my face. As a result, the doctor kept asking, as he cleaned and stapled the wound, "Are you doing all right dad?"
- Yes, I was fine.
- We were done right around 9:00 p.m.
- As a reward for doing so great, I took Ben out to eat and get ice cream. Neither of us had had supper prior to coming.
- Since I like Burger King better than McDonald's we went there first. After looking over the menu and not seeing anything to do with ice cream other than a shake, I walked up to the counter and asked the worker if they had ice cream. He looked at me and said, in a condescending tone, "No, we don't carry ice cream, that would be McDonalds." I told him thank you and we left.
- At McDonalds, Ben decided he only wanted the ice cream and not a hamburger, so that's what he got.
- Over the next few days we had to constantly remind Ben, and his siblings, to be careful with his head.
- On Sunday afternoon, I took Ben back to the urgent care center and had the staples removed. Despite my wife's reservations (see her post), I could have done that myself and gotten an hour and a half of my life back.
A few weeks ago I went by a gas station to fill up my truck as it was on empty. The gas cap was one of those kinds that has a key so that you can lock it to prevent theft of gas. If the locking mechanism (or rather the unlocking mechanism) breaks, it can prevent the owner from filling the tank with gas. That's what happened to me. Not only would it not unlock (which means that the cap just spins instead of coming undone), but, in my attempt to fix this issue, the whole gas cap came apart, leaving the piece in the fill pipe in place. And I could not budge it with my hands. So I had to drive home - it's a good thing it's less than a mile away. I had to use a pair of large channel pliers to remove the remaining piece. See the picture below of the pieces.
Last month we decided to take one last family vacation before Sam was born. So we stayed in a Crown Plaza hotel in Connecticut and went to the Big E on our last day. We had a great time watching TV, ordering room service, swimming in the heated indoor pool and of course, attending the Big E. See Stephanie's posts here, here and here. I loved the swimming and watching the Discovery Channel (How's it made, Myth Busters, etc.) at the hotel. At the Big E I enjoyed the sheep shearing demonstration, the circus and hanging out with Indy (see picture below).
It's taken me about seven hours to do this post, having worked around changing a diaper, getting peed on, go home to eat supper and pick up the family for a visit to the newest member and holding Sam.

Christened

2008-10-21T15:40:00.001-04:00

Just thought I would let y'all know that Sam just christened me while I was changing his diaper. Luckily my hand was in the right vicinity and I was able to use it as a shield, so only my hand was christened and not my shirt.

Samuel

2008-10-21T13:42:00.002-04:00

Our fourth child and third son, Samuel, was born this morning at 8:05 a.m. EST. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 12 ozs.

A New Tool In My Plumbing Toolbag

2008-09-21T21:32:00.004-04:00

This past Tuesday morning I had just finished shaving. I pushed down on the nob-and-rod (my super technical term) to raise the plug to release the water in the sink. I did not hear the normal water-gurgling and slurping sound of a sink-full of water going down the drain pipe. Instead I heard the sound of water splashing onto the bottom of the bathroom cabinet.

NOT a good thing! I immediately pulled on the nob-and-rod to stop the draining of the sink and opened the door to reveal the inside of the cabinet. Sure enough, everything was soaked. About six rolls of toilet paper had to be thrown away. I used the trash can to catch the rest of the water so that I could drain the sink and then turned off the water to the faucets - I did not have time to investigate as I had to shower and dress for work.

That evening I came home and gave things a closer look to see if something had become loose. It turns out that the plastic drain pipe had sheared off where it met the sink - no amount of twisting was going to fix that. So, after the kids were in bed, off I went to Lowes, where I procured the replacement parts, this time in metal (don't want this to happen again).

Due to the way the pipes are under the sink, I had to cut off a couple of inches from the end of the new tail piece. I don't know if was due to the stress of being cut or was a manufacturer's defect, but once I got the new parts installed and tested, I discovered a leak. The leak was not any any of the connections I made, but where the tail piece entered the pipe body through which the plug lever enters (anyone have a more technical name for this?) - i.e. that's the way it came of of the box.

I couldn't believe it. Well, that was it for that evening. Since I had sawed off a portion of the tail piece, I couldn't return it. As I saw it, I had three options:

Call a plumber: That would be expensive.
Buy a new part and try again: That would be less expensive than a plumber but I hated the idea of having to buy another brand new part, with no guarantee that it would not leak too. I would also have to take everything apart and install it.
Fix the leak: In my mind, on this night, that was taking off the part, cleaning off all of the pipe dope and plumber's putty on it and trying to solder the joint so that it wouldn't leak. The problem with that option is, again, I would have to take everything apart, solder it, install it again, just so I can test it.

I slept on these three options, and came up with option 3B. What if I could fix the leak without the fire and heat of soldering, which would mean that I could fix it in place. I started running through my mind all the things I new of that could be used fix it, such as super glue, plumber's putty, and epoxy.

I settled on epoxy. Something like JB Weld aught to do it. While at work, I did some on line research at Lowes and Home Depot, to find something I could pick up on my way to work. That's when I made the discovering that there was such a thing as plumbing epoxy.

On my way home, I dropped by the Lowes' plumbing section and picked up a tube of Oatey's FIX-it STICK, all purpose bonding putty (epoxy). Here's the three bullet points on the outside packaging:

Plugs & Seals Leaks
Mixes In Your Hand
Hardens Like Steel In Minutes

Sounded like just what I needed. And it was. In the tube is a stick of epoxy resin and hardener, one wrapped around the other. You break of the amount you need and mash it together until it is a consistent color (reminded me of the stick of gum in Mission Impossible, just not with explosive properties) and then have about three minutes to put it in place. I pressed the putty around the joint, making sure all sides were thuroughly covered. The instructions say that it will be fully set in 15-20 minutes. I went ahead and waited half an hour. Then I gave it a test - success! No leaks. Problem solved. And the putty was indeed very hard, though I cannot say if it was as hard as steel or not.

I wish I had know about this product several years ago. I can think of at least two plumbing projects that would have been a lot easier if I could have used the FIX-it STICK rather than the Replace-the PIPES option. This definitely goes into my plumbing toolbag.

Besides what I used this bonding putty for, the instructions inside the tube has a list of other uses:

Sealing leaks in sink traps, pipe joints (I know that), hot water tanks, damaged water pipes, bathroom fixtures.
Seals leaking downspouts.
Stops leaks in gas tanks and oil pans.
Fills rust holes and dents in autos.
Repairs fiberglass or wood hulls.
Attaches auto and boat trim for good (means you have to break the trim to get it off).
Mending toys, furniture, broken handles and resetting bathroom tiles.
Stopping leaks in oil and water tanks, air conditioning coils, air ducts.
Patch floors, walls and castings.
Restoring stripped threads.
Thread locks.
Attaching machine tags.
Anchoring rods, bolts, screws, machines.
Filleting compound.
Part fabrication.

Quite amazing stuff. I like the last one. Anyone want to build an engine? I've included some pictures below. I apologize for the fuzziness. The camera had a hard time focusing.

My new tool in my fight against pipe deterioration.
Small print reads: All purpose bonding putty

The epoxy putty is that grey ring in the middle of the silver pipe.

A closer view of the sealed joint.
It ain't never gonna leak there again.

Kingdom Koolness

2008-09-21T21:15:00.003-04:00

This is just a small but neat thing to share, about how God works in little ways.

As part of our bedtime routine, we read the Bible together as a family (except for Ellie because she's not quite old enough to sit still through the reading). We have chosen to read straight from the actual Bible rather than a children's Bible. We are currently working our way through the gospel of Mark and should be done fairly soon.

Stephanie and I decided that we wanted our kids to be involved in worship services with the adults at an early age, rather than having them in children's church. So, when one of the children turns three, that means they start to stay in with us during the worship portion of the service and then go to children's church. When they turn five, then they start to stay in through the whole service with us. This means that Will now stays in the service with us and listens to the sermon.

Well, today our pastor mentioned that he would be finishing our current series in 1 John next week and that next series, to be given by another man in the church, would be about the life of Jesus, in the gospel of Mark! How cool is that?!

God has worked it out so that we as a family will have read over the material that will be covered on Sunday mornings, giving Will a foundation upon which the sermons can build upon. Isn't God awesome?

Second Annual Backyard Camping

2008-09-21T20:32:00.012-04:00

On Friday, the boys and I had our second annual backyard camp. Here's the link for the first annual backyard camp. After I arrived home and changed clothes, we proceeded to set up the tent. Since the tent we have is a small two-person tent and was cramped last year, I borrowed a larger tent from some friends.

After supper, we lit a small fire in an old charcoal grill we have. We brought out the marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate bars, and fixed ourselves some good s'mores. The boys played with flash lights for a bit and gathered sticks to throw onto the fire. Then it was into the house to brush teeth, put on pajamas, go potty and read the Bible.

Since we were only camping in the backyard, as a special treat for the boys, I ran an extension cord out to the tent and we watched one of the boys' videos on the laptop. Once the video was done, so were we. We all snuggled into our sleeping bags. For the boys I had brought out a large seat cushion each to sleep on. I slept on two thin camping pads. That was more than I had last year, but still was not that comfortable. If we start doing this a lot, I may have to look into either an air mattress or a camping cot. Anyway, we slept away the night, undisturbed by any night critters, unlike last year.

Around seven a.m., Ben wakes up, sits up and declares, "It's morning." I told him yes, it was, but that it was not time to get up yet - it had gotten quite cool (around 40) during the night and I was all snugged in my sleeping bag. That lasted about thirty minutes until Will declared that he had to pee, at which time we donned our sweatshirts and shoes, and headed indoors.

The boys really had a good time and so did I, despite the few aches I came away with :-).

Setting up the tent.

Will, Ben and Ellie in front of the tent.

Around the camp fire.

Will in his sleeping bag.

Ben in his sleeping bag.

Here's a link to the post my wife did on the camp out.

Quote of the Day, 09/23/2008

2008-09-13T15:01:00.004-04:00

I'm laying in my bed this afternoon, taking a nap, half in and out of consciousness. I hear Ben open the door of his room and go into the bathroom. The sound of tinkling reaches my ears, followed by a declaration from Ben,

"That's a lot of bubbles."

"The Knowledge of the Holy"

2008-09-06T20:57:00.001-04:00

This is a book review on The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer.

Synopsis: A.W. Tozer presents the attributes of God in a concise and easy to understand way. He starts off by laying the foundation as to why we, as Christians, should seek to truly know who God is. He then proceeds to discuss each attribute.

Review: This is an excellent book! I highly recommend it and strongly think every Christian should have a copy. It's not a long book, only 117 pages, so Tozer moves quickly through each attribute. That does not mean it is necessarily a quick read though. I had to digest each chapter and sometime re-read a section to try and really understand the truths being taught.

If you don't have a copy of this book, go out and borrow or buy it today. This is a keeper for my library and one I will re-read many times I'm sure.

"Out of Islam"

2008-09-05T22:30:00.008-04:00

This is a review on the book, Out of Islam by Christopher Alam, which I stated I would do last November. I've tried to do this two or three times, but have gotten into too much detail each time. I have to keep in mind that I'm doing a book review and not a book report. Hopefully, using a section title of "Synopsis" will help keep me focused.

Synopsis: This is an autobiographical book about Christopher's upbringing in a strict Islamic family in Pakistan. How belief in Allah, who never answered any of his prayers and abuse by his father and step-mother led him to the point that his greatest desire was to die. It was at this point he heard the gospel and became a Christian. Through persecutions and trials, fleeing Pakistan and being granted asylum in Sweden, he learned to trust in God, the God who answers. He went to Bible school and got married. He began to get involved in ministry. Christopher also began to question why he did not see the power (i.e. the miracles) in the present day that was depicted in the New Testament. He got involved with Kenneth Hagin, went to the USA to study at Hagin's school and now holds gospel crusades around the world, in which baptism of the Spirit occurs, healing and other such miracles.

Review: First of all, let me start off saying that when I picked this book up in our one local Christian book store, I thought it was the story of another Muslim turned Christian, Daniel Shayesteh, that I had seen advertised in my Answers in Genesis magazine. I was disappointed to figure out that it was not.

I was very involved in the story, reading how God changed this man's life so completely and met all of his needs, only to read that he got involved with Kenneth Hagin and the Word of Faith movement. That sent up red flags and produced disappointment. I don't want to get into a whole theological debate here, but from everything I've heard and read on Kenneth Hagin and the Word of Faith movement, they don't line up with the whole counsel of Scripture. I've provided links at the bottom if you want to do some more reading on your own.

Christopher Alam has made some excellent observations about Christianity and life that I agree with. It's hard to deny someone's stated experience, but things like the quote below (from page 160 and 161) certainly give me reason to ask, "Is this really from God, and am I just uncomfortable with this because it is out of the realm of my personal experience as a Christian?"

I stripped off my jacket and tossed it into the crowd. "The power of God is upon my jacket," I shouted.
The healing virtue of the Lord Jesus was so powerful upon my jacket as it was being passed around through the crowd that people were being healed the instant they touched the jacket.

There are Biblical, New Testament examples where clothing was involved in healings, but this has a sensationalism ring to it, that makes it suspect in my mind. Anyway, that's just my opinion.

The book is a pretty good read, if you know what to expect. It will never be a favorite and definitely not one I will read over and over again.

Links:

Wikipedia entry on Kenneth Hagin.
Forgotten Word Ministries on Kenneth Hagin.
Christian Research Institute on Word of Faith, Part 1 and Part 2.
Some call the Word of Faith movement the prosperity gospel. Joel Osteen is one of the most visible leaders of this movement today.
Listen to John Piper's rebuff to the prosperity gospel.

She's Two!

2008-08-29T07:38:00.002-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ELISABETH!!!

Update 08/15/08

2008-08-15T20:51:00.007-04:00

I'm just going to go for it, bullet style.

Have you seen the latest on the Bigfoot front?
Two weekends ago, we went to the Mystic Aquarium. Here's a link to the post my wife did about it. We had a very enjoyable time.
This week has been a crazy, fast paced week. Lots of things going on and added to that, my manager is on vacation this week, so I'm covering for her. I'm glad it's Friday.
During the summer, our local library has family nights on Tuesday. That's when they have some sort of activity or presentation for the kids, and their parents, to come to. We recently participated in two of them. The first was a presentation by a bee keeper. He had part of hive with one of the frames that had some of the bees wax on it showing the honeycomb structure. He also had a small jar of honey he had collected that day for us to sample. The boys thought it was better than the store bought honey. The second activity was a reptile show. A guy who raises and entertains with reptiles for a living came and talked to the kids about several different kinds of reptiles. He was very good. He taught them facts and allowed the kids to touch and interact with the reptiles.
Sunday I gave Stephanie a break and took the kids on a bike ride. The boys each rode their little bikes (with training wheels) and wore their helmets and I hitched up the bike trailer to cart Ellie around. I also wore my helmet (teach by example). The boys did great at obeying me, which kept the stress level low. In our ride we hit two parks, with play time at each, and stopped to look at a large dump truck and front loader. We all had a good time, including Stephanie.
I purchased new tires for my truck. It'll be nice to have some better traction this winter.
My manager, since she was going away on vacation, decided that my work pager was an inadequate way for my senior manager to get a hold of me. So now I'm a not-so-thrilled possessor of a cell phone for my work. I doubt I'm the first one to use this phrase, but I call it my "electronic leash". Though, the plan it's on includes unlimited nights and weekends and unlimited calls to other Verizon users, so some of my friends to whom I have not talked to in a long while may be getting calls from me. Then again, maybe not. I'm not a big conversationalist, despite the fact that my sometimes lengthy posts may indicate the opposite.
Last night I helped the kids put together a train track for our Thomas the Tank Engine wooden railway. Stephanie says they spent a good while this morning playing with it.
I'm reading Mary Poppins to Will. Neither of the other kids seem interested. Will has really gotten into chapter books lately, which is great.
On Wednesday, we went as a family to our local zoo for a members' night. Though it was only a couple of hours, we had a good time and had free freezer pops. These were not the best freezer pops but the kids loved them and had stained skin and clothes to prove it.
Tonight, the boys wanted to wrestle, which means they climb all over me, then I wrap them up and tickle them. I offered to read to them but no, it had to be wrestling. It ended up being dress up wrestling. Will put on a hard hat and one of those fake big-nose-mustache-bushy-eyebrow-glasses disguises. Ben put on a fireman's hat, gloves, eye patch and a fireman's backpack (looks like the oxygen tanks but you really fill it with water and squirt it out though the attached hose and handle). Ellie wore an eye patch. Will gave me a hard hat to wear. So attired, we wrestled.

That's it. I'm coming up dry.

This One's For The Birds!

2008-08-03T20:44:00.008-04:00

Turkeys
Yesterday, Saturday, during nap time, I happened to look out the front window of the living room and what did I see? A flock of turkeys walking past! We've seen wild turkeys in other areas of the state but never in our neighborhood. We've had quite an assortment of wild life in the five plus years we've lived here: an opossum (found dead in the back yard), skunks (including the one that ambled by our camp), rabbits, squirrels and now turkeys. Too bad it wasn't closer to Thanksgiving...

Birdhouse
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to build a birdhouse with the kids. Of course, having kids as young as mine, the "with" part is used very loosely. I did the building and they watched. I used some left over wood and pulled the plans out of my head - I definitely have some lessons learned for the next time :-).

Even though they did not really help with the actual construction, they did assist with the painting. Again, we used what was available. The only things that were purchased for the project were some small eye hooks used in the hanging of the birdhouse and some extra staples for my heavy duty stapler. We painted the birdhouse white with some left over primer. Then we used some acrylic paint we had to add color. Ellie helped a little with the painting before getting bored but the boys really enjoyed it.

While letting the last of the paint dry, I took out a couple of ladders and surveyed our lone tree in the back yard for a good place to hang the birdhouse. It turned out there was only really one branch that was suitable, once some dead branches were removed. Once I was finished with the ladders, the kids, of course, proceeded to play on them :-).

I did the front.

Ben did this side.

Will did this side.

I did the back too. Had trouble "writing" with a paint brush.

From the top.

The new birdhouse is ready for a family.

Up close.

Far away.

Ben showing no fear on the ladder (You cannot see it for Ben, but I've tied the ladder to the tree so it will not fall).

Will would appreciate it if I stopped taking his picture.

Ellie getting in on the climbing action. My three monkeys.

Da Plane! Da Plane! Da Hole In Da Plane!

2008-07-25T21:17:00.007-04:00

**** WARNING! ****
If you live in fear of flying on airplanes, then DO NOT read any more of this post!
STOP RIGHT NOW!

Ok, now that I've given fair warning and feel that I've absolved myself of any psychological trauma this post may cause to my readers, we can proceed.

Today I read a news article about a Quantas jet flying from London to Melbourne which developed a gaping hole mid flight. The end result is that the plane was able to land safely in Manila and no one was hurt. It does not even appear that any luggage was lost.

This is quite a scary story to read about, if you have any empathy for the passengers on board the plane. While I love to fly and it does not scare me in the least, there's a statement in the article that even I find scary and a little bit disturbing. Below I have pasted the portion of the article that includes the statement I find disturbing, which I have highlighted. I'm including some of the story before and after the statement to give it context.

Investigators appeared to be focusing on a structural problem.
"From the pictures that we've seen out of Manila during the course of the day, it would seem that one of the panels to the outer skin of the aircraft has literally come away from the rest of the fuselage," Chris Yates, an aviation expert at Jane's Aviation, told The Associated Press.

"As a consequence of this, the aircraft experienced rapid decompression," he said.

While it is not uncommon for metal panels to be lost from aircraft in flight, he said: "It's relatively rare that when a bit falls off the airplane it causes the sort of instance that we saw in relation to Qantas. In other words that it causes the aircraft cabin to depressurize."

Yates said investigators will examine closely the fracture points that showed up on the skin of the aircraft to determine whether metal fatigue or manufacturing defect caused the panel to peel away.

Say WHAT?! What do you mean that "it is not uncommon for metal panels to be lost from aircraft in flight"? That's a disturbing and scary statement. Notice how casually he says "when a bit falls off the airplane". Like it's not a big deal! I live near an airport. Does that mean I should be concerned that some big sheet of metal may come crashing down on my house or my family? Maybe all those who are afraid to fly have the right idea, this makes it sound like airplanes are a flying death trap.

Is there some conspiracy to cover this up and Yates accidentally let it slip? After all, I don't often hear of stories where the metal panels from airplanes fall off. You would think that passengers waiting to get on the planes would notice when the plane pulled up to the terminal. I don't know about you, but if the plane I'm supposed to get on pulls up with a metal sheet missing, I'm not getting on it, even if it is not uncommon and usually does not cause a problem. 'Nuf said.

What are your thoughts on this? Am I reading too much into this statement? Did I misread it?

Heated Atmosphere And Containment Units

2008-07-24T20:57:00.003-04:00

One of the advantages/disadvantages of having a wife who also blogs is that she may post about the same event in addition to my posts or before my posts on said event. The disadvantages are that she may have scooped the story on me or she may have already used the best pictures from the event. The advantages are that we can both tell the same story from different perspectives and it could save me time by not having to write the post but just point my readers to her post, which is the advantage I'm taking advantage of tonight.

Now you're probably wondering what the title of the post has to do with with my ramblings above. The answer is, very little, except to link you over to her post on our family's visit to a hot air balloon festival.

Comment Responses

2008-07-18T20:51:00.005-04:00

I doubt I need to state the obvious, but it's been a while since I posted. In an attempt to get a post out so that people know I'm still alive, I'm taking the lazy way out. I'm going to respond to comments made in the past few months. Some of them I may already have responded to with another comment, but not as an official post. So here goes.

Big Doofus, a couple of weeks ago I created my Linkedin account, per your suggestion. Thanks.
Dawn, you are correct, we are crazy for having a fourth, but it's a good kind of crazy, I think.
Scott, I had Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie for the free cone day.
Marc, maybe in a couple of years we can come and visit y'all in Wales, and you and I can take a day to strap the jet powered wings onto our backs.
Mr. E, unfortunately I was never able to make it to see the new Indiana Jones movie. Bummer.
Re: Mary Poppins. It was a mixed bag as far as the kids response to it. Will took to it most but had the most questions, of course. Ben was quickly bored with it. Ellie in the middle. Though they do occasionally sing a bit of "A spoonful of sugar" or "Supercali.....", you know that big long word you can say but not spell (at least I cannot).
Mr. E, if you guys are ever coming up this way, let us know.
Mom, you are correct, back in high school I would never have thought I would do a lot of the things I've done as a parent, including wiping a bottom with my bare hand.
Mr. E, thanks for the book recommendations. I'll have to add those to my list. Now I just need to get through the dozens of books I've purchased but never read yet.
Stephanie, you're welcome for the day off. But don't count your chicks before they hatch. Next year's not a done deal yet. Four kids, with one under one, may be a show stopper.
Big Doofus, the zoo we went to is the Roger Williams Park Zoo.
Mom, I think we have the "What's so amazing about Grace?" book. I think it's one of my unread ones.

Tech Daddy Predicts

2008-07-03T21:21:00.002-04:00

I'm sure many of you have already read the incredible story of the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and several other hostages from the FARC guerrillas. If not, I've included a couple of links to news sites at the bottom of this post and I encourage you to read them.

This is such a great true story and I'm predicting that one or more books will be written about it and a movie will be made about it.

What say you?

Article 1
Article 2

It's A Zoo Out There

2008-06-27T20:57:00.015-04:00

Literally. But more about that in a moment.

Last Friday (yes, I know I'm behind a few days, Ok, a week), my lovely wife took a vacation day (actually a little longer) with two of her friends. They met at 11:00 a.m. on Friday morning and left their families at home until around 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, staying in a hotel for the night. There they did very important things like listen to seminars, eat junk food and talk all night long (at least two of them did).

While they were off enjoying the good life, us husbands were left to fend for ourselves and our kids. (Am I building any sympathy here? Probably not.) Two of the husbands belonging to the Brotherhood of the Abandoned (laying it on a little thick perhaps) decided to go to the local zoo on Friday. That would be Andy and I. For the third, Steve, the zoo is not so local. Sorry Steve.

So we met at the zoo at 11:00 a.m.. Two dads, five kids. Could've been a recipe for disaster. It wasn't, but it could have been. And apparently quite a number of other people thought that this Friday would be a good time to visit the zoo too.

We wandered around, looking at animals, constantly spurred on by one of the two oldest kids saying, "Come on, let's go see the next animal." We had packed our lunches and partook at the appropriate time. There was laughing at gibbons, watching the bears and the snapping turtle, getting soaked playing in the fountain, waiting for the next pass of the harbor seal, gazing at elephants and giraffes, tree climbing, and protests that, "No, I don't need to go potty."

It was a good day. God's creation is wonderful and the company of friends just makes it more enjoyable. Below are a few select pictures from the day.

Honey, we shrunk the kids

What's that over there?

Ellie: "See, I can do it too!"

I can climb this backwards

I think that's something I could out run

So this is what it's like to be a resident of the zoo

Tarzan, eat our dust!

What's that you say, it's an ape, not a monkey??

"No, my badge does not give me all access to the gibbons' enclosure." Good try though.

If the cute older kid can't get me access to the gibbons, I'm prepared to send in the really cute little kid.

He who is the wettest wins

Be the crowned crain

My Utmost for His Highest

2008-06-16T20:59:00.005-04:00

Over the years, I've tried out several different devotional books to go along with my Bible reading during my quiet time. The one I keep coming back to, which consistently challenges and convicts me is "My Utmost for His Highest: The Golden Book of Oswald Chambers¹". I highly recommend it if you are looking for a devotional book.

Do any of you have a favorite devotional book that you would recommend?

The copy I'm currently reading from is one that belonged to my parents. I'd like to share with you the June 1st devotion.

THE STAGGERING QUESTION
"Son of man, can these bones live?" Ezekiel xxxvii. 3.

Can that sinner be turned into a saint? Can that twisted life be put right? There is only one answer: "O Lord, Thou knowest, I don't." Never trample in with religious common sense and say - "Oh, yes, with a little more Bible reading and devotion and prayer, I can see how it can be done."
It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we mistake panic for inspiration. That is why there are so few fellow workers with God and so many workers for Him. Am I quite sure that God will do what I cannot do? I despair of men in the degree in which I have never realized that God has done anything for me. Is my experience such a wonderful realization of God's power and might that I can never despair of anyone I see? Have I had any spiritual work done in me at all? The degree of panic is the degree of the lack of personal spiritual experience.
"Behold, O my people, I will open your graves." When God wants to show you what human nature is like apart from Himself, He has to show it you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He only does it when His Spirit is at work), you know there is no criminal who is half so bad in actuality as you know yourself to be in possibility. My "grave" has been opened by God and "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing." God's Spirit continually reveals what human nature is like apart from His grace.

¹ Copyright, 1935, by DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, Inc.; Fifty-sixth printing

My Summer Vacation

2008-06-13T23:02:00.004-04:00

This summer my family and I went to New Hampshire for vacation...

Sorry, I lapsed back into my elementary years, writing the ubiquitous "What I did this summer" essay. Now that I'm an adult, and since this is my blog, I don't have to worry about following all the rules of grammar and I can use bullet points (yeah!).

I'm going to do a single post on our vacation. My wife on the other hand, is dedicating a whole post for each day. So go over to her blog for fuller details. I'll list the links to each post as they become available (enter the above mentioned bullet points).

One problem with my wife getting a jump start on the vacation post is that she's been free to pick any of the pictures that she wants. Now I have to sort through the left overs so as not to duplicate the pictures for those of you who read both blogs (but they are good left overs). Well, on to the essay...

Monday was spent preparing and packing. Anticipating all the luggage that our family of five would need to cart to New Hampshire, I installed our roof-top luggage carrier on the van. By bed time, everything was ready to be packed into the van. I also printed off directions, prices and times for the various activities we were interested in, and I used a three-hole punch and put them all in a nice neat binder. For those who know me well, I'm sure this is quite a surprise. Stephanie was pleased to have an organized binder rather than to be handed a bunch of loose sheets of paper. Who said old dawgs can't occasionally do new things?

We awoke Tuesday morning to the fact that it had been raining during the night but was now trickling off. After a quick breakfast, I proceeded to pack that van. Due to my superb van packing skills and my wife's superb suitcase packing skills, I was able to fit all of our stuff in the van, without having to use the roof-top carrier. So while the family sat in the van waiting to leave, I took it off. I could have seen out of the back a little easier, and we would have been a little less crowded in the van, if I had put some items in the carrier. However, since physics was my favorite subject in high school, I knew the following equation to be true:

((roof-top carrier + van) x wind resistance x ($3.93/gallon)) > (van x wind resistance x ($3.93/gallon))

In other words, it was going to cost me more mullah to use the roof-top carrier if I didn't need to.

After a stop at the post office, the bank and Wal-Mart, we were off. The trip up to New Hampshire was fairly uneventful, except for the multiple bathroom breaks including the panic stop at the side of the road for a boy who declared that he needed to go potty, which, in his parlance, means "I've reached critical mass and it's going to come out soon, no matter where I am, so you better get me to where you would want it to come out ASAP." After arriving in Twin Mountain, checking in and unloading, we proceeded to settle in and have a light supper. We enjoyed smores thanks to the fireplace in the living room.

On Wednesday, we went to the Lost River Gorge. We ate lunch before enjoying a beautiful hike up and down, in and out of rocks and over the river. There were waterfalls to look at and caves to be explored. I had brought along a flashlight, which was not needed in most of the caves. However, in the Cave Of Shadows, I pulled it out and shone it around. I was glad I did. Water ran through the cave and made a lot of noise, however, due to the darkness, you could not see, without the aid of the flashlight, that waterfall at the back of the cave that was the source of the water.

At the bottom of the Lost River Gorge

This is actually looking down from the top of a approx. 40-foot waterfall

Will and Ben on the boardwalk

After we finished with the Lost River, we went on another hike through the woods on a trail that left the parking lot where we were. We then proceeded back to the cottage for a brief rest before venturing out to hunt down dinner. Dinner was obtained at Fabyan's Station Restaurant and Lounge, which is located in an old railroad station that sits by some still existent tracks.

On Thursday, we ate an early lunch and then drove to North Conway and rode on the Conway Scenic Railroad for an hour. That was fun and the scenery was beautiful, however, according to Will, the train did not go fast enough. After that was done, we headed back to Twin Mountain via the Kangamangus highway, enjoying beautiful scenery and stop beside the river to throw rocks, sticks, leaves and anything else loose that was not too heavy for the kids to pick up. We stopped at a pizza place in Lincoln at the end of the Kanc.

A couple of the engines

Will and Ben on the platform

On Friday, we packed lunch and headed out to find some waterfalls and do some hiking. The first falls were only about a quarter mile walk from the parking area. Because of that, we decided to leave the diaper bag in the van, a decision that I would later come to regret. The falls were more of a steep series of rapids but they were still fun to throw things in.

The falls

Ben, at the end of a throw

Stephanie, keeping Ellie safe

Will, looking for ammunition to launch into the river

The fun was interrupted by the announcement by Will that he needed to go poopy. I briefly panicked - we're out in the woods away from civilized facilities and we had climbed down the bank of the river to get closer to the water, so the actual trees were probably too far to make it (see comments on the emergency pee pee stop above). Then the answer came to mind - we were standing beside running water, take him a few steps down stream and let him give back to nature. So that's what I did. I grab him up, stepped across the top of some rocks that were down stream of where we were playing, stood him up, pulled down his pants, and had him squat. He did really well for not having a seat to support him. The only problem was that the poopy was very runny, not the nice firm kind I was hoping for that would allow us to dress him and take him back to the van to be cleaned up. Nope. Not to be. You cannot pull his underwear up over that without necessitating a change of clothes.

Oh for the diaper bag. Stephanie offered to go back and get it, but that would be at least a five to ten minute ordeal. So I took the hit, as only a dad of three kids could. Yes, I used the water and my hand to wipe my son's bottom. Ewww. But you gotta do what you gotta do. For some reason, even though I thoroughly rinsed my hand in the river, Stephanie did not want to hold my hand after that until I had cleaned with wipes and Germ-X once we were back at the van.

On the road leading away from those falls, Stephanie, with her sharp eyes, spied a beaver lodge in a little pond beside the road. That was cool.

Beaver lodge

Gnawed through tree

The next falls were located beside the road. It was a short walk up to the pool at the bottom of them. The pictures don't do them justice. The water volume was not much but they started off way up the ridge. Once again, the boys enjoyed pitching things into the water. We had lunch in the parking lot opposite the falls.

The Silver Cascades

The kids and I in front of the pool

Stephanie in front of the pool

Splash!

The last falls were a little over a half a mile hike away but the hike was definitely that. We had borrowed an backpack child carrier from a co-worker of mine, so we put Ellie in that for this one. She enjoys riding in it - I do the work and she enjoys the view. It was a great help, we could not have done this hike without it. There was a lot of up on the way in, several muddy stretches of path to negotiate and one small stream to cross. The falls were quite pretty and worth the exertion. On the way out, Ellie fell asleep in the carrier - what a sweetie.

Ellie and I at the beginning of the hike

The Ripley Falls

The family resting at the falls

We're on our way out

Fording the stream

Ellie and I near the end of the hike. She's exhausted from the hike...

That night we ate at a local establishment in Twin Mountain. More smores were had back at the cottage. And of course there was packing to do.

Saturday morning it was once again rainy but that's OK since we were just traveling home. The weather had been beautiful the three full days we were there, which was a blessing from God and an answer to prayer. The trip home was even less uneventful than the trip up. We all had a great time. The scenery was beautiful and the company was the best. The only thing that we had hoped for but did not happen was to have a good moose sighting. (Stephanie and I had a brief glimpse on Tuesday but the kids were not tall enough).

Update 06/09/08

2008-06-09T20:36:00.002-04:00

The post about our vacation will be coming, I promise, sometime fairly soon. Meanwhile, I thought I'd give a brief update on this past weekend.

On Saturday we attended the wedding of some friends. It was a small gathering, which made it nice in that we knew a good percentage of the people. The ceremony was held outside in a pretty little garden spot that was, thankfully, in the shade (Saturday and Sunday were in the 90's). The wedding was at 10:30 a.m, followed by pictures and then the reception - sit down lunch and dancing afterwards. The boys were a lot of fun to watch on the dance floor, they "danced" even when no one else was out there. The whole family had a great time. Congratulations Brandon and Kat! Thanks for inviting us.

After the boys finished tearing up the dance floor, we drove home, arriving just before 3:00 p.m., changed clothes and went across the street to the birthday party of Samantha, who is Will's age (5). They had a great big inflatable bouncy castle which all the kids loved and got hot and sweaty on. There was stuff to dress up in, Snow White was doing make up on the girls and tattoos on the boys and things to dress up in. The kids had a great time.

Then it was home for a bath before bed - no need for supper with all the food eaten and the boys having enjoyed cake on two occasions during the day. The bath cleaned off all the sweat and grime, leaving the bath water with a good brown tinge.

On Sunday we went to church as normal, went to On the Border for lunch and home for naps. I broke out the fans to try and cool us off - we were resisting turning on the A/C as we like our rather low electric bill. Then we sat around a laptop and watched Mary Poppins, the first time for all the kids. Supper followed, then some play and then bed time.

Thus ends our tale. It was a good weekend for all, except for the heat. The A/C did get turned on today in the afternoon as the thermometer outside reached close to 97 degrees. Some things are just worth paying for.

Home Again

2008-05-31T17:33:00.002-04:00

We are home again from our vacation to New Hampshire. We had a great time. The weather was beautiful, as was the scenery - thank you God. I'll post more details later; I'm a bit tired now.

Icarus Would Be Jealous

2008-05-20T20:40:00.001-04:00

This looks like a lot of fun to me. Anyone else like to try it besides me?

Brain Dump - 05/18/08

2008-05-18T20:08:00.010-04:00

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted, so this is just going to be a brain dump of things, in no logical order.

To answer Scott's question in a comment on my last post, I had the Chocolate Fudge Brownie at Ben & Jerry's. I normally get the Phish Food, but they were out. What's up with that? Free Cone Day did not start until noon and we went through the practically non-existent line at 12:20, and they were out?! I think my wife was right in her opinion - they didn't have any at the start of the day.
Last Saturday, I got the pile of leaves carted off to the compost facility. Yeah! Now what to do with that big patch of dirt where the grass died of sun light deprivation while waiting for me to remove the leaves?
This morning, the boys were up before we were. Usually they are pretty good. Not this morning. Stephanie was doing the Sunday School at church this morning. For snack time she had a bag (opened) of miniature Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. When I got up, I discovered Ben putting the bag of Peanut Butter Cups back in the Sunday School bag. He had a ring of chocolate around his mouth. At the same time Will was in the bathroom washing off his face. Caught red handed or chocolate mouthed in Ben's case. The trash can in the kitchen had a large number of wrappers in it. Stephanie looked at the bag and estimates that they ate about half of it. Will was very pleased with how sneaky he and Ben had been. They both got a lecture and as a consequence of their indulgence, they did not get to have any Peanut Butter Cups during snack time at church. Added to the chocolate decadence, I found sugar on the counter around the sugar bowl and on the floor below it. There was sugar stuck to the sugar spoon. Will confirmed my suspicion, they had been eating sugar with the spoon. What puts these ideas in these boys heads?
We went to a party of one of the boys' friends. It was at a bowling alley. We had not taken the kids bowling before. Only the kids played, except for those of us adults who were assisting our kids - we got to bowl, sort of. Will did ok. We've got to work on get a little more force behind the roll. Ben got upset after his first time up and so did not play for about half the game. Ellie bowled in his place. She had a great time. I did most of the work for her. She was able to lift the six pound balls off of the rack, though her toes had a few close calls. Ben finally decided he wanted to bowl some more and did almost as good as Will. In fact, he knocked all ten pins down once, for a spare.
I've gotten the front yard and half the back yard mowed between rain showers. Even weeds look better mowed.
The pollen is driving my sinuses crazy. Over the counter allergy medicine makes life tolerable but not great. When I walk out of work in the evenings, I can feel my nasal passages filling with mucus, my throat starting to swell and my eyes start watering and itching. My nose feels like a stuck a dandelion under it and inhaled the spoors deeply. Not fun. Isn't it amazing the mucus producing capabilities which God built into our bodies? You can blow your nose clear and less than a minute later, they are stopped up again. Ok, enough of that, running on to the next item.
One day I was taking my lunch time walk at work. My normal route takes me on a road behind the library that is adjacent to my office building. On this day, there were two middle aged lady librarians taking their lunch break playing catch. I thought that was great - it did not fit with the stereotype image I had of lady librarians, a la movies like "The Music Man".
We decided to introduce the kids to musicals. So the past two weekends, the family has gathered around the laptop to watch "Singin' in the Rain" the first weekend and "The Sound of Music" this weekend. These were mainly for Will since he's the artsy one but Ellie enjoyed them too. Ben, not as much. Neither could hold his attention for the whole time, though he did not get up and leave, just got fidgety. "Singin' in the Rain" was preferred over "The Sound of Music" by Will, mainly because the story moved along a faster clip, it was shorter and the signing and dancing were more energetic. He and been have sporadically been singing the title song and the "Good Morn'n" song.
For my birthday, I choose to get money and purchased myself an MP3 player along with accessories (case, car FM transmitter and charger, etc.). Yes, I finally decided to take that step into this century. After research, I choose the SanDisk Sansa e280. It's an 8 GB flash based MP3 player. I ordered it on line, so it had to be shipped. While it was on it's way, I began to rip my CD collect to our laptop. For ripping CDs, I decided to use a free ware application called MediaMonkey instead of Windows Media Player. The main reason for this is MediaMonkey allows me to rips CDs to MP3 files using a variable bit rate. Basically this makes the best use of space while still allowing the music to sound decent. I also found a music site, SpiralFrog, which allows you to down load WMA music files for free. It's advertisement supported. You have to renew your subscription, and licenses, every 30 days, but that seems to be a reasonable price to pay for free music. There's practically no Christian music, which is a bummer. However, I have found plenty to download, such as Chuck Berry, George Stait, and Glenn Miller. Does anyone have other good music download sites that are 1) legal and 2) cheap or free (preferably the latter). At present, I have over 1200 songs on the Sansa, with about half the space used.
The last bullet point was getting long, so I decided to go to a new bullet for this next point even though it is related to the Sansa. Once I received the Sansa, the first thing I did was to update the firmware. What a pain, initially! I downloaded the officially firmware updater utility and ran it, multiple times. Every time it would download the firmware (the progress bar attesting that it was doing such) only to display an error at the end stating the files could not be downloaded. I ended up reading some of the user forums and found out you could do the firmware update manually. I downloaded the zip file from the link provided, extracted the firmware files, moved them over to the the root directory of the Sansa, disconnected the Sansa and viola, the player updated the firmware. Easy as pie, once you got there. I still think it's terrible that the company's updater does not work enough times that the support forums have the update procedure as a sticky post.
This past Saturday morning, I took Ben with me to have the oil changed and the tires rotated on the mini-van, at a 7:30 a.m. appointment. I had planned to take Ben, assuming he was up by then. He was. He's usually an early bird. Surprisingly, Will got up too before we left. An even a bigger surprise is that Will did not mind in the least that I was only taking Ben with me. In the past this would have cause temper tantrum. I was very pleasantly surprise and told Will that I appreciated that and was proud of him. Ben enjoying watching the mechanics put the mini-van on the lift and the rotating of the tires.
I only have one more week of work before vacation. The last week of May we are going up to New Hampshire for four days, where we rented a cabin. I'm very excited. We have not been on a vacation that did not involve visiting with family (as much as I love them) since before our eldest was born. This will be just us. We are planning on doing mostly nature things such as hiking and exploring caves, though we are also planning on riding on a train pulled by a steam locomotive. Giving work my full attention this next week will be hard.
On this coming Tuesday, we are going as a family for "THE" ultrasound. You know, the one where you find out if the baby's wardrobe should be blue or pink.
Now that the weather is warmer, we've been able to start grilling. Yum. Not much beats a fresh hamburger off of the grill.
We've also been able to go for some walks after supper. Well, Stephanie, Ellie and I have walked. The boys ride their bikes. We had saved some of Ben's birthday money so that we could upgrade his tricycle to a bicycle (with helmet). Both boys are doing good and look soo big riding on their bikes (albeit with training wheels) with their helmets.
Last Sunday I was able to participate in the ordination ceremony of our pastor and friend Andy. It was a privilege. The ceremony was low key - it was a ratification of what we all knew and operated according to - that Andy is gifted and called by God to be in ministry. He and his wife have been in collegiate ministry for about 10 years in Rhode Island, with the addition of pastoring in the past couple of years or so.
The boys and I got hair cuts yesterday.
One day in the past couple of weeks, Stephanie called me up at work, sounding as if she were about to cry. Ben had cut Ellie's hair. It was a good thing for him that she could not find the exact spot but could only see the loose hair evidence. Then his luck turned bad when she discovered, while on the phone with me, that he had also cut Ellie's new shirt. He is still alive, in case your wondering.

Ok, that's it for me, for now. My brain is now empty.

Update - 05/03/08

2008-05-03T22:13:00.005-04:00

Yes, I'm still alive. Just been busy.

Last Friday one of my best friends, Mike, flew into town for his grandmother's 90th birthday. He stayed Friday and Saturday night with us. It was good to visit with him. For Friday lunch, we met our friend Andy at Pizza Hut for the lunch buffet and that evening the three of us went to a second run theater and watched National Treasure: Book of Secrets. It was an entertaining movie and prompted me to do some research into some of the "facts" stated in the movie to find out how much of it was truly fact and how much was fiction.

It has rained several days this week, including most of this morning. I was hoping to get the pile of leaves in the back yard taken to the recycle center today, but because of the rain, that did not happen. It was also rainy on Tuesday, which was free cone day at Ben & Jerry's. I met my family and some friends at the local Ben & Jerry's store at lunch to take advantage of this event. Due to the rain, there was practically no line and it did not extend out of the door, which was great.

That's pretty much all that stands out in my mind for the past two weeks.

Purgatory Chasm

2008-04-20T20:44:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we went to a state park in Massachusetts call Purgatory Chasm (here's a site with some more pictures of the chasm). We went with our friends Andy and Amy and their two kids. This is a fun place to go if you have kids like ours who love to climb. There are rocks every where, in all shapes and sizes, with some of them forming "caves" which the kids could explore or at least look into and wonder what kind of ferocious animal might live there (the most popular being bears). And the weather was absolutely perfect - sunny and mid sixties - an answer to prayer.

The chasm after which the park is named is not very long or deep but it is a lot of fun to climb down through it and then go around one of the rims to get back to the start. The kids did great listening to and obeying commands, which kept them safe and keep the parents from being worried. A lot of climbing, a picnic lunch, playing Frisbee, taking a walk, beautiful weather and sharing it with friends made it an extremely enjoyable day for us. We are still tired out from it :-). Even my almost 19 month-old Ellie had a blast - she did her best to keep up with the older kids and did an admirable job at climbing some of the smaller rocks. Below are some pictures from the day.

Update - 04/18/08

2008-04-18T20:49:00.002-04:00

Just a quick update for tonight.

The weather this week has been beautiful. Thank you God.
Work has been slow. I have a project starting up on the 28th but for now I spend a lot of time staring at the monitor, trying to figure out what to do. Today I finally brought in a couple of "teach yourself" books from home that I have not picked up in a while. This will count toward the required 40 hours of training per year.
With the weather being so nice, I've been able to get some yard work done a couple of evenings this week - raking leaves. I've also filled in some holes in the back yard that the boys have dug. It looks like we have a dog! No matter how many times I've told them to only dig in the old flower bed behind the garage, they just keep digging other places. The biggest hole that they have dug is under the gate to the back yard. I'm not sure if they were planning their great escape or not. Since they did not just pile the dirt nicely beside the hole (that would be too easy) but spread it across the yard, I had to take dirt from the old flower bed in order to fill the cavity under the gate. Now the old flower bed really won't be growing much this year.

The Weather Yo-Yo

2008-04-11T20:44:00.005-04:00

One of the worst aspects of the spring weather where we live is that it will not make up it's mind. "I want to be warm and sunny. No wait, I want to be cold and dreary. No wait..."

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. The kind of day that makes you want to skip up the nearest elevated piece of ground and sing out loud, "The elevations are alive with the sound of music." Seriously, it was gorgeous. Hardly a cloud in the sky and in the low seventies. I took a walk at lunch and did not want to come back in. I had to take off my jacket because I was starting to break a sweat. I shouldn't have worn the jacket in the first place but old habits die hard.

Now today. It's been overcast and threatening to rain most of the day. It's been around fifty degrees, which would not seem bad in and of itself, but compared to yesterday, it seems quite chilly.

When will the weather yo-yo stop? When will warm weather be here to stay? Oh, to have several months of yesterday's weather, that would be grand! (I can dream can't I? )

Rain Delay

2008-04-11T20:27:00.003-04:00

This is a delayed anecdote about rain. Last Friday it was raining. It rained steadily for a good part of the day. It was raining during the morning while I was at work, when the fire alarm went off.

Oh yes, it did. The wise ones of us had our umbrellas. Some were not so wise. One of my team mates had even teased a couple of the other guys that morning on the way in because they had umbrellas and he was not using one. He told them to "man up". Now he was getting to stand in the rain. [Satisfyingly ironic, isn't it?] Another team mate let him share his umbrella but that only protected his head and one side. His jacket was light and not water proof, not even really water resistant, so his work cloths got wet. It was quite amusing for the rest of us.

I ended up sharing my umbrella with another colleague, which meant that I had to hold the umbrella between us, which, since it is one of those single person umbrellas, not a giant golf umbrella capable of sheltering up to 20 people or three cows, meant that one side of me was exposed. My jacket was water proof, so no problem there, but my pants leg and shoe were not, a problem there.

After about twenty minutes of standing out in the rain, we allowed to go in. At least is was only cool and not cold. We still don't know if it was a drill or a real alarm. My team mate above, who had no umbrella and got wet, expressed the sentiment of many, "Something better be burning."

Bathroom Humor

2008-04-03T20:04:00.003-04:00

For the one or two people who read my blog and not my wife's blog, I suggest that you go on over to this post to read about a funny incident while my oldest son, Will, was in the bathroom yesterday.

Update - 04/01/08

2008-04-01T21:02:00.006-04:00

What have I been up to lately? Nothing really thrilling or extraordinary. This past Saturday we had our requisite pancake breakfast (the boys now refer to Saturday as pancake day rather than by its normal name). Then we worked in the yard. The boys started off helping me to rake leaves but that lasted all of five minutes.

After gathering a pickup load full of leaves, I hauled them off to the city recycle center. Lunch was then consumed, the children went down for naps and I proceeded to try and complete the audit of our church finances that I had been in the process of doing off and on for a few weeks now. That took me the rest of the afternoon and evening, with a break in there for supper, play time, kid's bath time and their bed time.

Sunday was church. We were doing the children's church. We were late in getting there because Will threw up a little bit and mommy's tummy was not feeling well. During nap time (after church and lunch, not during church), I put the new registration stickers on my truck for the next year.

After nap time, I played some Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II. Will loves to watch me play and gets so wrapped up in it. If an enemy appears on the "radar screen" or a battle is ensuing, he'll beg me to bring it into view if I'm somewhere else on the map. It's quite comical. He also tends to lean on me as he tries to get a more head-on view of the action.

After I trounced the enemy, a victory supper was observed, some play time had and then bed time. Then I had Stephanie give me a hair cut. The big buzzer broke, so she ended up using my beard trimmer.

Moving on from what's happened to what's coming up, specifically in May. So far I've know of three movies that look very good that will be coming out in May. As you can see from my side bar, one of them is the new Indiana Jones. That's the one I'm looking forward to the most.

Another one that I would like to see is the new Narnia one, Prince Caspian.

The third one I would like to see is Iron Man. I remember watching the cartoons as a kid - not the best animation. But the trailer looks really cool.

Happy Birthday Lara!

2008-04-01T20:57:00.002-04:00

I just want to send a great big

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

to my sister, Lara.

Hope you had a good day.

P.S. Your card's in the mail :-).

The Miracles of Life

2008-03-23T19:38:00.014-04:00

Seeing that it is Easter, it's appropriate to discuss the miracles of life. At Easter, we Christians celebrate the miracle of resurrection life. All four gospels have an account of Christ's resurrection - here is the account from Matthew 28:1-10 (NIV, emphasis is mine):

¹After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

²There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. ⁴The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

⁵The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. ⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."

⁸So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

First Corinthians 15:3-5 (NIV) gives a good summary of the gospel story:

³For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.

The bodily resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead is a crucial truth of the Christian doctrine. Without it, the world would be without hope. In 1 Corinthians 15:12-28 (NIV), Paul continues his discourse on the importance of the resurrection of Christ.

¹²But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

²⁰But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. ²²For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. ²³But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. ²⁴Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. ²⁵For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶The last enemy to be destroyed is death. ²⁷For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. ²⁸When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

Praise be to God, for Christ has risen indeed! Because Christ led the way (as the firstfruits), we who believe in Him have the hope of the miracle of resurrection life. One day we will be given resurrection life (with a new body) and will reign with the Author and Giver of Life, who is the Supreme Authority, to the praise of His glorious name!

Resurrection life is a wonderful miracle of God. Let's move on and consider another miracle of life - the miracle of physical life. This miracle begins it all for us humans. The conception, development and birth of a new, precious human being. This past week, I read this passage in Job 10:8-12 (NIV):

⁸ Your hands shaped me and made me.
Will you now turn and destroy me?

⁹ Remember that you molded me like clay.
Will you now turn me to dust again?

¹⁰ Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese,

¹¹ clothe me with skin and flesh
and knit me together with bones and sinews?

¹² You gave me life and showed me kindness,
and in your providence watched over my spirit.

This reminded me of the passage in Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV):

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Both of these passages talk about the miracle that we humans are, of how special we are in all of God's creation. We are each a beautiful and unique work of art, crafted by the Creator. God has a plan for each one of us, even before we were born. Wow!

As amazing, wonderful and beautiful as our human bodies are, with their vast number of parts, systems, etc., what is more amazing to me, and what separates us from the rest of God's magnificent creation, is the fact that with each human being conceived two things are created - a body and a spirit. One is mortal and the other is immortal. The body will some day die and decay but the spirit of a person will live forever, either in eternal death or in eternal life, depending on the relationship of that person with God.

Every time I think about this, it blows my mind. Science has studied, documented and filmed the physiological process by which male and female DNA combine to create a new human being. Yet they are only dealing with and observing half the miracle, that is the creation of a physical body. What they cannot study or observe is that somehow, somewhere in the conception process, God creates a brand new spirit out of nothing to go with that body, and that spirit, again created from nothing, will last for all of eternity! Wow! What a miracle! Praise be to a wondrous God!

Before I move on the the third and last miracle of life in this post, this seems to be a fitting place to officially announce that my wife and I are expecting our fourth little miracle to join us in the world toward the end of October. You can see the first bullet item of her post here.

The third miracle of life bridges the gap between the conception and birth of a human and the resurrection life that a Christian will receive upon death - it is the miracle of eternal life. Eternal life is closely related to resurrection life but must proceed it and is experienced by a person from the moment of belief in Christ, not being delayed until the death of the physical body. Romans 6:23 (NIV) says,

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

To have a better idea of what a miracle eternal life is, let's look at some Scripture passages.

Philippians 2:5-11 (NIV):

⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
⁶Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
⁷but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
⁸And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

1 John 4:10 (NIV):

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

John 1:12-13 (NIV):

¹²Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

The miracle of eternal life is that God so loved us that He sent Jesus to die for our sins and offers it to us free, without charge. Once the offer is taken by faith in Jesus, eternal life begins immediately! We become children of God and have a personal relationship with Him that will last for an eternity. Wow!

What an awesome God we have! He works the miracles of life:

The miracle of the creation of a wonderfully made physical body with an eternal spirit to go with it which accompanies each new person conceived.
The miracle of eternal life (as opposed to eternal death, which we deserve due to our sin) which grants us peace with God, purchased by the bloody and painful death of Christ on the cross.
The miracle of resurrection life, in which we will reign with our conquering Lord in heaven, made possible by His miraculous resurrection from the dead on a Sunday morning long ago.

GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST FOR CHRIST HAS RISEN FROM THE DEAD!

A blessed Easter to all my brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.

Lab Results

2008-03-16T21:08:00.002-04:00

On Friday we got word that Benjamin's lab results came back negative - praise God!

My post is not actually that much shorter than my wife's on the same subject, which is surprising.

Vacation Euphoria

2008-03-15T21:43:00.005-04:00

I don't know about you, but when I leave work on a Friday afternoon for a normal weekend, the feelings that generates are far different from the feelings I get when I leave work to start vacation. For a normal weekend I'm always glad that the weekend is here and look forward to spending time with my family. However, when I walk out of the door to start vacation, it is usually accompanied by feelings of euphoria. There's an extra spring in my step and the day seems all of a sudden better.

It's kind of surprising for me to think of how much of a psychological difference the distinction between "normal weekend" and "vacation" time makes on my emotions. I've also realized that it does not take much of a vacation to invoke these feelings of happiness.

Take this past Friday for instance. I took a half of a day of vacation on Friday afternoon. We were not going anywhere, I was just staying home with the kids while Stephanie went to a doctor's appointment. So I extended my weekend only by four hours or so. Yet when I walked out of the office at lunch time, the air smelled fresher, the sky seemed bluer and I could not help but smile big. It did not hurt that it was probably the nicest day of the week, being a fairly warm and sun shiny day.

If I could only train myself to think of weekends as two-day mini vacations, I could be singing the James Brown song, "I Feel Good" every Friday.

Facebook [Conf | M]usings

2008-03-10T21:04:00.009-04:00

This weekend I signed up for Facebook. You heard right. My friend Marc (the other half of the half that blogs at Cardiff Central) sent me an invitation a couple of weeks ago. I'd been mulling it over and finally decided to take the leap. And boy was it a leap into uncharted territory.

Seeing as I'm a computer programmer by trade, I'm no dummy when it comes to computers (but that does not mean that I know nearly everything about computers or the world wide web that there is to know, as I was soundly reminded on Saturday, so I may not know how to fix whatever problem you are having with whatever application or peripheral you are trying to use). However, I found using Facebook very confusing. Signing up is easy, but there's no "Welcome" or "Beginners" tutorials. Sure there's the help pages but they just give brief definitions as to what things are - they don't begin to explain how you should do things or what the Facebook culture expects of you.

Networks, groups, requesting friendships, pokes and the "What are you doing now" status are just some of the things that all work together to provide a confusing experience for this novice. What's "The Wall" and what's "wall-to-wall" (before you leave comments explaining, I think I've figured it out now)? Applications, mini-feeds, gifts and various little pictures and graphics just add to the chaos. Oh, and there's the whole discontinuity thing with the wall posts - you usually only see part of the conversation that's going on between two individuals in their wall-to-wall posts. It feels like you've come in on a conversation at just the wrong moment.

All that being said, I think I'm beginning to make sense of some of it, after reading the help and looking at how my friends are using their "profiles". And I have connected with some friends whom I have not talked with in a looong time, which has been good.

There is one other down side of Facebook that I forgot to mention - the strong competitive urge it raises in me to be the ONE with the most "friends", regardless of whether or not you really know them or just recognize the name. So far, I've resisted the urge and have only requested friendships from those people whom I actually know.

The social networking is an interesting aspect of Facebook. I signed up because Marc invited me. So he was my only friend for a few minutes. So I looked at his friends and found ones whom I knew, so I added them. Then I searched for other people whom I knew had Facebook profiles. These led to other people. And then there's the people whom I had not found yet but who found me and requested friendship of me. And so the list of friends grows.

What remains to be seen in the long term is will I have time to keep posting to this blog, read other blogs, check my Facebook account and interact with all the friends there and do all the things I need to do after the kids go to bed? I'll give a whirl and try not to burn myself out.

Prayers for Ben: Answered

2008-03-07T19:36:00.003-05:00

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for my son Ben - it made a difference. This morning he had a colonoscopy where they found and removed a polyp. They believe that was the source of the bleeding. That's an answer to all of our prayers. The polyp and some other biopsy samples they took of some bumps in his intestines are being sent to the lab. We'll know the results in a week or so. I'll send you over to my wife's blog for a few more details.

Ben is doing well and recovering fairly quickly. He's been a real trooper and showed a whole lot of bravery through out the past three and a half days. I'm very proud of him. His bottom's sore from the colonoscopy and the removal of the polyp, of course. Due to his age, they put him to sleep to do the procedure. The waking up process was not much fun for him, so it was a good thing mommy was there to hold him. He ended up taking about a forty minute nap snuggled up with her in the recovery room. He told me tonight that he was glad to be back with his whole family. We're glad to have him and mommy back.

P.S. A correction on my medical terminology on the last post - on Thursday Ben had a meckel's scan, not a merkel scan. That came back negative. This test was in some ways worse than the colonoscopy because they taped him down to the table so that he would not move during the scanning. He definitely did not like that at all. And the imaging device was positioned only a couple of inches above him, adding to it. He cried for a few minutes and then calmed down, eventually falling asleep. It took about half an hour to do the actual scan.

Update on Benjamin

2008-03-05T21:44:00.001-05:00

Thanks for your prayers and your patience in waiting for an update. I have spent all day at the hospital. The day was pretty much a waste. Ben feels fine and he and I got to spend a lot of time play together, which was nice. However, the hospital could not seem to make up it's mind what to do with Ben. He is not in pain and shows no outward signs of any issues. They would have preferred to send us home and make us set up some out-patient appointments. Our pediatric practice however, fought to keep us in so that they would have to do something with us, to try and find out what was causing the bleeding. Which we appreciate, though it stinks that we have to sit around in the hospital twiddling our thumbs.

As a brief bit of history that I did not include on the previous post, Ben has had one previous episode before, about 2-3 months ago. It was almost exactly the same as far as how long it lasted, the blood, the blood clot, etc. The first time it happened, it happened in the evening. We talked to the on-call doctor for our pediatric practice. He had advised waiting until the morning to see if the bleeding continued. It did not, so no follow up happened. When it happened again a few months later, it was definitely more concerning.

I'm tired, so I won't go into all the details. Ben will be in the hospital at least through Friday. Tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. he has a merkel scan. Friday at 1:00 he has a colonoscopy. I never thought I would be taking my three-year old to have a colonoscopy. Both of these are for the purpose of trying to figure out where the bleeding comes from.

Please continue to pray that the doctors will discover what caused the bleeding. Also pray for Stephanie and Ben who will be spending at least three nights in the hospital. Poor Ben. He really wanted to come home this evening. He was fine until I left to pick up Will and Ellie from our friends' home.

Thank you for all of us,

Joel

Pray for Benjamin

2008-03-04T18:36:00.001-05:00

I would like to ask you to pray for our son Benjamin. Earlier today he had a lot of blood with his bowel movement, including a blood clot. So Stephanie called the pediatrician and got an appointment at 5:00 p.m. to bring Ben in. The result of that appointment is that Stephanie is currently on her way with Ben to Hasbro Children's Hospital, to the emergency room. The pediatrician said it could be a number of things and that the hospital would run some tests. If it had been earlier in the day, she would have tried to get us into see a GI doctor. We don't know how long it will take or if they will have Ben and Stephanie stay the night.

We would appreciate your prayers for Benjamin, Stephanie and the doctors.

Thank you,

Joel

Welcome to the Hallowed Halls of Man-dom

2008-03-02T21:52:00.010-05:00

Scott, over at Honey, I Fed The Kids!, is hosting a "Tour of Scary Garages", including a Mister Linky (who is this character anyway?), in which he invites men to publicly share pictures of their kingdoms (man-doms as I always say, er... just started saying for this post), a.k.a garages, which they have long held dear and private, sequestered from public scrutiny for many long ages, now to be examined by unknown strangers in the world wide web, potentially to be ridiculed and made fun of, or to be pitied, or to be congratulated by like-minded macho men, requiring the sucker who posted the pictures to come out of his shell and risk being shown to be the messy that he is, thereby possibly requiring years of therapy, or ten gallons of vanilla fudge swirl ice cream, which ever is preferable, (yes, I am going for the record of the longest run-on sentence in a blog with the most random links in it), though it is possible that after displaying the chaotic state in which their domain exists, some of the other men may be shamed into cleaning up, which I'm sure is what the stuff of dreams are made of for their wives, but I'm not sure why they would want to do that unless it is to be able to find one of the many items that garages are useful for storing, such as hand tools, wood, fasteners, power tools, rodents, spare parts (i.e. broken things), paint, sand bags, lawn furniture, a swimming pool, insulation, umbrellas, tables, toys, flammable substances (see if you can identify which of these items are in the pictures below), tarps, implements of destruction, dirt, grass clippings, rarely used yard maintenance equipment, and various persuasions of used cloth (i.e. rags) - all residing in one of the few places a man can really rule over - the man-dom (come on, you know you like that catchy new word) that is his garage! (Whew! I'm tired - I kinda ran out of steam on the whole crazy link thingy)

Now, without further blathering, I humbly submit my pictorial presentation of my scary garage (warning, the images below should not be viewed by the faint of heart, such as those with extreme OCD personalities - unless you want to volunteer to come over and organize it, with the agreement that you will throw nothing away without my express approval).

This is looking in from the side door.

This is looking towards the front of the garage from the side door.

Notice the propane tank (sitting on top of dry wood) and the broken faucet which I thought I would try to fix, but yeah, that's not going to happen. Maybe I could do some kind of MacGuyver thing and use the faucet and the propane tank to make a flame thrower!?

This is looking in from the front of the garage. We've only parked the car in here one time in the five years we've been here - I think it was in the first week that we owned the house.

Our church meets in a hotel conference room, so we help store some of the tables and chairs for the church, used for church fellowships and other gatherings.

My table saw, scrap wood basket and sand bags to add weight to my rear wheel drive pick up during winter.

Not enough room in the garage for the wheel barrows to go in side by side.

Toys, tables, rooftop carrier and a compound miter saw (if I could get to it to use it).

Stuff. 'Nuff said.

Even the rafters are being used!

The most organized part of the garage.

The latest victim to succumb to the lure of peanut butter. I noticed it a week or so ago when I popped in to grab something. Who knows how long it was there before that. Since it's winter, I just left it - I figured it would keep =)? I did remove him yesterday after taking the picture.

One Truly Amazing Act

2008-02-27T23:14:00.000-05:00

I want to share with you what was for me a very profound thought, or series of thoughts, that I had today. A thought that I believe was given or directed, by the Holy Spirit (a big claim I know, but I don't think I could have come up with this on my own). I'm not sure how well I'll be able to put this into words; hopefully I will be able to accurately convey the thought(s) I had.

First, a little background to set the stage. Over the last month and a half, I've been slowly making my way through A.W. Tozer's "Knowledge of the Holy". One of the attributes or characteristics of God is His infinitude - He has no limits. This goes hand in hand with His power - His power knows no limits.

Alright, back to my story. On my commute home tonight I was listening to our local K-Love Christian radio station. They have these 60-second, "Parable Big Change Moments" on once a day (or at least I only hear it once a day). I don't remember what the point of today's was but it used Daniel in the lions' den as an illustration. The narrator mentioned how King Darius was a witness to the amazing act of God in closing the mouths of the lions.

I started thinking about what an amazing God we have who could shut the mouths of lions. Then the thought occurred to me that the act was only amazing from my human view point, because it is something that no human could do. But stepping out from the bonds of humanity's finiteness and looking at it from God's perspective (not that I can really know what God's perspective is), this act did not require any effort on God's part. He willed it and it was done. He did not have to strain, did not break a sweat and did not have to wonder if it would work. His power knows no limits and therefore doing this miracle took nothing more than an act of His will and cost Him nothing - no effort, no work and no energy.

Then I started to think about other amazing miracles and acts of God in the Bible, such as healings, the man who came back to life after touching Elisha's bones, the sun moving back on the stairs, the sun standing still, fire and brimstone falling on Sodom and Gomorrah, the parting of the Red Sea and finally, the act of creation. All of these are amazing and awesome to us and God should receive praise and glory and honor for them. Yet they all took no effort on His part and cost Him nothing.

It was after thinking over all of this that a very profound thought came into my mind - the one truly amazing act that our all-powerful God has done is the redemption of mankind. In this act God gave of Himself through His Son Jesus Christ. It cost Him His Son and it cost Jesus His life. It was a sacrifice. A sacrifice which He did not have to make but did so out of love.

1 John 4:9-10 (NIV)
^"9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

1 Corinthians 15:3-8 (NIV)
^"3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. ⁶After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born."

John 1:14 (NIV)
^"14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

I hope no one has been offended by this post and feels that I have been disrespectful to the wondrous works of God. I have tried my best to avoid the appearance of that, for that is the last thing I would want to do. For me, His works have not been diminished in the least, just put into perspective - what I can best imagine as God's perspective of His acts. We have such an awesome, powerful and big God and I am frequently guilty of, in my mind, making Him less than He really is. The workings of God and His miracles are amazing to us and we should praise Him for them. However, they pale in comparison to the one truly amazing act of self-sacrifice performed by God to redeem His sinful creation. I feel awed and humbled by this truth.

Thank you Father God and Lord Jesus for mankind's redemption. To You be the glory, honor and praise.

Who Was That Unknown Commenter?

2008-02-24T21:21:00.008-05:00

Have you ever had that experience where you know you've seen something a million times before but only just really took notice of it?

Yesterday, as I was catching up on my back log of blog reading and posting comments where appropriate, I really "noticed" on the Blogger comment forms the section titled "Choose an identity" with a list of about four options. I couldn't help but feel a little like Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible - "Hmmm. Who shall I be for this comment?"

How would you like Harrison Ford to post a comment on your blog? Or Catherine Zeta-Jones? Both can be arranged, given the right price.

Of course, being a lazy commenter, I just stuck with my Blogger ID since I was already logged in and it defaults to that. But, you never know what the future may bring. Keep a weather eye out for comments from VIPs. :-)

Scriptural Follow Up

2008-02-24T14:07:00.006-05:00

I realized that I did not mention an important part of the "No TV" journey I posted about yesterday. That part is the Scriptures God has used during the journey to keep me focused and to keep me from turning back.

The first one that He has often brought to mind is Romans 12:2 (NIV):

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

There are two commands in this verse: 1) stop being conformed to the pattern of this world (i.e. stop eating the garbage of the world) and 2) continually be transformed through the renewing of your mind for the purpose of testing and approving (confirming rather than giving approval to) what God's will is (i.e. feast yourself on the rich, healthy food God serves at His banqueting table). For my journey, getting rid of the TV falls under part 1. You cannot just eliminate part 1 and not implement part 2. That would leave a vacuum in your life that would eventually get filled and if you're not intentional about it, it will not be filled with Godly things. For me, part 2 has been reading good books, listening to good messages/sermons on CD and hosting a Bible Study in our home.

The second Scripture is Romans 6:11-14 (NIV):

"¹¹In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."

Verse 11 is the one that most often comes to mind as I have to continually die to myself. See Luke 9:23-24 to see what Jesus says about dying to yourself. For me, it has been easier to count myself dead to sin if I am not exposing myself to the temptations of sin. On the converse side, counting myself alive to God is easier if I am intentionally participating in activities that glorify and honor God.

Below are some additional Scriptures that God has also used in this journey. Any emphasis is mine. All these are from the NIV. I think it's fairly easy to see how these can apply to not watching TV.

James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

Matthew 6:33 "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

The "No TV" Journey

2008-02-23T23:31:00.001-05:00

This post is in response to a comment by Mr. E. This is an update on my family's journey into the strange and unknown land of "No TV". You can read the first two chapters here and here.

To answer the most obvious question first, yes, we still do not have a TV and have no plans to get one. We, however, are not completely lacking in media entertainment. Our laptop has a DVD drive in it and on an occasion, we will put on a DVD for the kids and on even rarer occasions, put one on for us.

Me eldest, Will, still has completed the TV withdrawal process in that he has accepted that we don't have a TV. However, he has not completed the canned entertainment withdrawal process. He asks weekly to watch something on the afore mentioned laptop.

As for me, I cannot imagine still having a TV. When would I find the time to watch it and get the other stuff I do now done (and still get any sleep)? I have enough stuff keeping me busy that I've pretty much relegated blogging to a weekend-only activity. The down-side of that is that I now have either lots to blog about, lots of reading on others' blogs to do, or both. Which is why I'm typing this blog at 11:30 p.m. on a Saturday night.

From the spiritual aspect, I know having no TV has definitely helped keep a lot of worldly influence out of my mind. Not that I don't have to deal with that in my day-to-day life, but it's not adding to load - less of my day is spent exposed to that. It has been a very good thing to do.

For those who wonder how they are going to keep up with current events, there's such things as reading the news! While I don't read a physical newspaper, I do go to new web sites a lot. While I may miss some things, the major ones I see. And who needs to keep up with the current events of the entertainment industry and its celebrities? You don't need Entertainment Tonight or other such shows. Also, if you are truly a die hard fan of a TV show and cannot live with the thought of giving it up, there are a couple of options: 1) most of the networks have their major shows on-line after they air, or 2) wait for the DVD of the season to come out.

For those who have game consoles, I say try board games, card games or reading. You can have a lot of fun without the electronics.

So, for those like Mr. E who are considering having no TV, I heartily say, "Do it. It's worth the sacrifice." In fact, after the crying and gnashing of teeth has stopped and the feeling of isolation has subsided, you will probably discover, as I have, it's not really a sacrifice but a blessing.

Of Snow and Snowmen

2008-02-23T21:08:00.004-05:00

We did it. We built a snowman. I use 'we' loosely because it was mostly me. Will did help with making the middle snowball. The snow was not nice and sticky. It took a lot of work and a long time to build up the snowballs to make up the pitiful looking snowman below. I probably spent an hour doing it. We had gotten some freezing rain during the night, so there was a nice crust of ice over the top of the snow. You either had to crush the ice into powder to use or just pull off the crust and use the snow below it. Despite the hard work, it was worth it because the kids are really happy with it. They don't care that it's small and misshapen. The hard work was broken up by some sporadic snowball throwing. For my part it was always a defensive action in reaction to an attack, of course :).

The boys are "helping" me form the second snowball for the snowman.

The kids and the snowman.
The hat came from a birthday part that the boys attended for a friend. The eyes, nose, pipe, buttons and scarf came from a snowman kit we got from Lands End years ago. It has served us well.

Stephanie, the kids and the snowman.
Because the snowballs were pack so tight to get them to stick, I had a hard time getting the eyes, nose, etc. stuck into them without causing the snowballs to break. That's why some of them may not appear in quite the right position - I had to try multiple locations for some of them.

Me, the kids and the snowman.

Here's Ellie sitting in the toy truck that lives in the back yard. Love that smile.

He's Three!

2008-02-22T20:44:00.005-05:00

HAPPY THIRD BIRTHDAY BEN!!

Today is Ben's third birthday. It's hard for me to believe that he's three already. Most of his presents today consisted of Thomas the Tank Engine wooden railway stuff, which he really loves. He was so excited and, of course, we went right downstairs after opening presents so that we could play with all the Thomas stuff, new and old.

*** Below are some pictures I added today (2/23/08) from yesterday. We will have an actual party for Ben in a couple of weeks when some of his good friends get back from traveling.

Ben blowing out the candles on his cake.

Ben enthusiastically opening his presents.

My two ladies helping to lay out Thomas track. I love this picture.

It's Snowing, It's Flaking, The Old Man is Shoveling

2008-02-22T20:37:00.003-05:00

In case you didn't get it, the title is a variation on the old kid's song, "It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring".

It is indeed snowing here. It's pretty much snowed all day. But it's been relatively light most of the time so there's not been much accumulation. I shoveled this morning before going to work. I'll have to shovel again tomorrow.

The good news is that, based on the forecast, the snow will not be melting away tomorrow and so the boys and I will get to make a snowman. I've made one so far this winter but have not had the chance to make one with the boys. It should be fun. Hopefully the snow will stick together well enough for the building. Will wants to make a snow house (I think he means igloo) but I told him there was not enough snow for that. I'll see if some pictures can be taken to be posted.

Goings On, 02/16/2008

2008-02-16T21:05:00.002-05:00

Not much going on today. We had pancakes. I played with the kids. We had lunch. I played my computer game while Stephanie went grocery shopping. We had supper. I cleaned the bath tub and gave the kids a bath. And now a brief bit of blogging.

This week I spent time in the free evenings reading and going to bed at a reasonable hour. It has helped me get up earlier in the mornings so that I can have a longer quiet time.

We only have one more week left for our Homebuilders Bible Study. It's hard to believe it's almost over. We will have a fellowship the first week of March as the last week of February has some of our members out on mission trips.

And that's about it.

Results: Favorite Cartoon Character Poll

2008-02-16T21:00:00.002-05:00

Here are the results of the Favorite Cartoon or Cartoon Character Poll.

Nine people voted.

Scooby Doo: 2 votes = 22%
Animaniacs: 1 vote = 11%
Bugs Bunny: 1 vote = 11%
Taz: 1 vote = 11%
The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote: 1 vote = 11%
Tweety: 1 vote = 11%
Goofy: 1 vote = 11%
Johnny Quest: 1 vote = 11%

Thanks to the eight others who shared their opinions.

What's Your Favorite Cartoon or Cartoon Character?

2008-02-15T23:59:00.002-05:00

I've placed a poll in the right-hand side bar on what's your favorite cartoon or cartoon character. Please vote. And leave a comment if you want to express your opinions more fully. If your cartoon or cartoon character is not mentioned, then vote Other and definitely leave a comment telling me who is your favorite.

*** Just as a note for future readers, I had the poll up for two weeks. This post was future dated so that it would stay at the top of the front page until the poll ended.

Oral Update, 02/08/2008

2008-02-10T20:31:00.000-05:00

I went to the oral surgeon on Friday for a quick check up. Everything looked good, just like he wanted. So I go back in August for another check up and x-rays. Thanks to everyone who has been praying.

I Can Hold It, I Hope

2008-02-06T20:39:00.000-05:00

*** Disclaimer ***
The story re-counted below is true. It may gross you out, so read on at your own peril.

At work today, one of the guys on my team came back from the men's restroom and recounted what he had just observed. When he went into the restroom, the janitor was in the process of cleaning. He, the janitor, had a wad of paper towels in his hand (with a latex glove on) and was wiping the urinals clean. He proceeded next to wipe down the outside wall of the first stall, located right next to the last urinal. Then, using this same wad of paper towels, he began to wipe down the sink counter!!

Eewww! Yuuuuck! Grooooss! I'm not terribly germaphobic but this makes me not want to use that bathroom ever again. In fact, it may rule out all the men's restrooms in the office since the same janitor is probably cleaning those too. I hope my bladder is strong.

Header: Still a WIP

2008-02-05T22:56:00.000-05:00

I'm getting closer to figuring out the header. After fiddling around with both the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets - it controls the look of the page by controlling how HTML elements behave) and the JavaScript (programming language run within your browser that can perform actions and make decisions based on conditions), I've now gotten the image centered above the blog. In doing this, I found the magic width - 765 pixels.

Now I will just have to make sure to create my header image with that width. The one there now (on the night of 2/5/08) is significantly wider and taller than the space it's been compressed into. So it does not look as sharp as the full image.

Can you guys tell what the image is of? It's the top of our monitor. Stephanie thinks I should show more of it so that it's easier to tell what it is. If I show more of the monitor, then that means the image must be smaller and so I have less room to write the title in. What do ya think?

I'm not set on this design, it just seemed to be a little more original than some of the other things I was thinking of, mostly grabbing some clip art and composing an image with that. I can't draw, so that's out. I guess I'll just have to mull it over some more.

Header: WIP

2008-02-04T22:39:00.000-05:00

As you have probably noticed, I'm playing with my header. This is not the planned final state. In fact, I have no real plans other than to see what I can do.

It's not as easy as all the articles I have read say it should be. There was no "width" for the header specified in my template. So I had to guess. I was a little off. When I used the built in function to put my image as a header instead of the title and description, it was off center, with the old header image still in view behind it. So I had to comment out some pieces of the CSS code, add a reference to my tile background and modify some of the padding values to get it as centered as it is, without the old header image showing up.

I used the GIMP program to create the header image. I saved it to a jpeg format but that does not look as nice (i.e. image quality not artistic quality) on the blog page as it does in GIMP. So I may try saving it as a different format. I don't think that the browser would be able to handle the default image type for the GIMP, but I may be wrong. I've got to figure out if it has a spell checker because I obviously need one.

Stay tuned, it may get worse before it gets better, or goes back to the default.

P.S. By the way, for those who don't know, WIP stands for Work In Progress.

A Walk in the Park

2008-02-04T22:15:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday morning it was a warmer day, around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, so I decided that we, as a family, should get out and go to the city park for a walk. It was not as warm at the park as at our house because the park is located on the edge of the bay and the wind blowing off of the water cooled things down. Despite that fact, we had a good time, at least until it came to the walk back to the van. At that point some members of the family were cold and tired and ready to be back in the van.

Here's Ellie and I walking down the path.

Ellie and I again.

Ellie on the playground equipment. I love that smile.

Will was selling me ice cream, for $50. Wouldn't you buy ice cream from him?

Will and I on the swings.

My beautiful family, including Will the clown.

All Packed

2008-02-04T12:48:00.001-05:00

Last night during supper, Stephanie happened to mention that we should begin to think about what we want to do for vacation this year.

Will and Ben picked up on this. After supper, the boys, lead by Will, began to pack for the "trip". They pulled clothes out of their dresser and packed them into an assortment of "suitcases". These included the briefcase-like container for some blocks, a toy drum (has a removable top to place other toy instruments in for storage) and some plastic bins used for storing toys, emptied out and retrieved from the basement.

When I questioned Will about where he thought we should go on vacation, one of the suggestions he gave, which caught his fancy, was California. I asked what would we do in California. "Make new friends", was the reply.

A little while later, he announced that they were "All packed", and that they had packed a lot of clothes because we would be in California for a looong time (imagine the hand sweeping from one side of the body to the other as he said this), in order to make lots of friends. Can you tell that he's a people person? :-)

*** This morning (2/4) Stephanie took a picture of some of the "suitcases".

On the Customization Band Wagon

2008-02-02T23:29:00.000-05:00

Inspired by my wife and the changes she's made to her blog, and by Scott at Honey, I Fed the Kids!, I too have jumped on the "customize your blog" band wagon.

Tonight, I started off small by changing the background of the page around the main content (tile pattern obtained from GRSites.com) and by changing how the blog formatted an ordered list. Tomorrow and beyond...who knows? As my blog sub-title states, "You never know what the output will be." I think the next thing I will tackle is my header/blog title graphic.

Memories

2008-02-01T21:26:00.000-05:00

Stephanie and I are leading a Homebuilder's Bible study on Thursday's right now. Between sessions there are assignments for each of the couples to do. This past week, part of the assignment involved looking at your wedding photo album together. I enjoyed the walk down memory lane as we looked at our album and one from the same time period. I thought I would share a couple of pictures from those two albums.

First up is a picture of me taken about three days before the wedding at the lake near our university.

The thought that comes to my mind is, "Who is that young kid?"

The second picture is of me (again) and my groomsmen. From left to right they are Sean, Marc, Mr. Kid, Tim (the best man) and Kieth.

Two thoughts come to mind, "Look how young we all were." and, "Wow, I'm short."

Ah, good memories. But I wouldn't want to go back and have to give up where I am now, with my wonderful wife and three wonderful kids.

P.S. Click on the pictures to see a larger and/or clear, view of them.

Robot Scribe

2008-01-30T22:38:00.000-05:00

I thought this was an interesting article - an industrial robotic arm was programmed to write out the entire Bible, in German.

It's All a Big Tease

2008-01-30T22:31:00.000-05:00

The past couple of days have been relatively warmer here (low to mid forties), even coaxing me out for a walk yesterday at lunch. Over the next week it's supposed to get up to near fifty! But I know that it's all just a big tease. Give me a little bit of hope that warmth is returning, and then WHAM! the arctic weather will be back again. Not sure when but I've been in New England long enough to know that the cold weather does not give in that easily. Sigh. But I'll enjoy it while I have it.

Hard to Catch

2008-01-28T21:49:00.000-05:00

Question: What does it take to catch one criminal in a car?
Answer: Two hours, 2,250 police officers, 460 patrol cars and one helicopter.

That's according to this news article from Japan. And the only reason it didn't take longer is because the guy crashed his vehicle.

What Happens When You Click "Publish"

2008-01-27T23:44:00.000-05:00

I just found this article on The Life Cycle of a Blog Post. Check it out, it has a cool flow chart you can interact with.

Eleven Year Engagement Anniversary

2008-01-27T22:50:00.000-05:00

Friday, January 25th, 2008 was our eleventh engagement anniversary. Head over to my wife's blog to see her post about it and her sweet message to me.

P.S. I love you too honey.

Pain Through En-Light-enment

2008-01-27T21:36:00.001-05:00

This past Wednesday (1/23/2008), I went with my friend Andy and six other guys from our church to play laser tag at Lazer Gate. Andy and I are probably 10+ years older than the other six guys who are all in college or just recently graduated.

We played two games, each twenty minutes long. It was so much fun! We played in teams. I was on the red team both times. For the first game, it was just the 8 of us, so we played four on four. For the second game we had another ten people join us, so there were three teams.

Each person wore a vest that contained the energy source (i.e. batteries), lights (with the color of your team - red, blue or yellow), sensors and the phaser attached to it. There was a sensor (the target for someone who's gunning for ya) on the front and back and on each shoulder of the vest, as well as two on the phaser. The phaser was designed so that you had to hold it with two hands in order to fire it. The goal of the game - to shoot the enemy without getting shot (of course). If you got shot, then your phaser was deactivated for 15 seconds.

The arena is dark, lit by black lights, with a few distracting flashing lights around. And of course there is loud music, which helps mask your movements but also the movements of others. The arena has two levels. On one end is a maze of walls, both levels. There are no steps, just ramps going up and down between the levels. At the other end of the arena, catwalks comprise the second level while the first level has various hiding spots.

It's a really intense experience. Maybe because we don't do this often, but we didn't stick together and work as a team very much. It was basically every man for himself, assisting your team mates if the opportunity presented itself but nothing coordinated like a well-trained SWAT team.

The computer system kept track of everything - how many times you fired, how many of those resulted in hits, who you hit, where you hit them, who hit you, where they hit you, etc. It's pretty cool. All of these factors add up to a score. After each game you receive your scorecard, based on the name tag on your vest. The vest I used for both games had the name Aurora. Below are my two score cards (you will note on the second scorecard that it is even possible for someone to receive a negative score).

First Game

Second Game

I think I did pretty well - number 3 both games. The number one and two slots were held by the same two guys both games as well, - Seth and Eddie, respectively. I won't mention where my friend Andy ranked :-).

It was a lot of hard work. I was dripping sweat. And the legs, Oh the legs! Specifically the quadriceps. We did a lot of squatting, crouching and running in a crouched position, trying to present as small a target as possible. The catwalks and many of the ramps only had half walls on them, so you tried to keep the shoulder sensors below the level of the wall. All that adds up to a lot of work for the quads, especially for this desk jockey. By the end of the first game my legs were burning and I could feel them starting to tremble. Half way through the second game I started wondering how much longer was the game going to last because I was not sure I could go down one more ramp without collapsing.

At the end of that second game I knew I was done. However, none of the younger guys seems anxious to go for a third, so that was the end. Driving home, I set the cruise control so as to take the strain off of my right leg.

As bad as the pain was that night, it was so much worse the next three days. My quads were so sore that it was painful to walk and almost excruciating when navigating stairs. The handrail became my best friend. Though I've never played football, I imagine that doing two-a-days must make you feel something like this. Today was the first day I could walk up and down stairs without having to hold onto the handrail, either to support myself or as a precaution lest my legs give out. The pain is down to the level where I would expect if I had had a really good weight-training work out - sore but tolerable.

I was glad to find out that it wasn't just me, the old man, who's legs were hurting. Seth, who blew everyone one away in points both games and is still in college, was just as bad as me. In fact, he still was holding onto the hand rail at church today. He told a story on himself - on Thursday or Friday he was going to cross the road, trying to beat a street sweeper, but when he started to run, his right leg just didn't work and he collapsed onto the road. Don't worry, he's fine, he didn't end up in the tangles of the sweeper's brushes.

Seth asked me today if I would be willing to go again. I replied to give me about a month to fully recover and then I would be willing to go again.

"Pancakes take too long"

2008-01-27T21:14:00.000-05:00

That's Ben's opinion anyway. Saturday morning I had slept in. Both boys were already up when I finally roused myself. As I was preparing to make our traditional Saturday morning pancake breakfast, Ben told me that he did not want pancakes because they take too long. I guess he was hungry. We had them anyway and his reservations seem to have disappeared as quick as his stack of pancakes did :-).

Oral Update from 01/25/2008

2008-01-27T21:11:00.000-05:00

I went to the oral surgeon on Friday at 11:30 a.m. He took a look and like what he saw. The fistula was nearly gone. So I'm going back in two weeks (Feb. 8th). If things still look good, then I will go back in three months.

Thanks to all who have been praying. Keep it up.

Oral Update, 01/23/2008

2008-01-23T22:41:00.000-05:00

Just to give a brief update for those who are curious - the stay of execution has been extended until this Friday. At last week's visit I had a small fistula that he wanted to see what it would do. Well, it went away for a few days but came back Sunday afternoon. As a friend commented at church on Sunday, Sundays seem to be the days that things happen around The Tooth (as I'm starting to think of it).

The fistula that came back was a little smaller than the one last week, so the oral surgeon wants to see, again, what it does. He's still hoping to save The Tooth. So I'm going back at 11:30 a.m. Friday. If the fistula is bigger, then the execution date will be set. If not, this wait and see thing may continue to stretch on. I'm praying that it's gone completely.

Not Much Going On Here, 01/21/2007

2008-01-21T23:12:00.000-05:00

I don't have much to say but I thought I would put a post out for those who wander by. Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It is a Federal holiday but it is an optional holiday for my company, which means that I can choose to take or I can bank it and take it another time. I decided to bank it. Half my team did the same while the other half chose to take it. And what did I do all day? Not much. Read news articles on line, read about Ruby on Rails, read about Apache HTTP, caught up on e-mail, etc.

Now that my wife has her new laptop, I have acquired her old one and am in the process of turning it into a developer's machine, albeit it not the fastest one. I am installing a bunch of open source/free applications, utilities and programming languages. I have installed Java, Perl, Tcl, Python, MySQL and Apache HTTP (thus the reading about Apache HTTP at work). Tonight I was able to configure the Apache HTTP server to execute Perl scripts for CGI stuff. Granted, the test script just output a hello message, but it worked! It's the small things that excite me the most sometimes.

Tomorrow I go back to the oral surgeon to see how things are going. They seem fairly good to me but I do have a tiny fistula. Hopefully it's small enough to be a good sign.

Here are some news articles that I found interesting (most of these are not from my reading today by the way).

Did you know that the U.S. has the world's largest reserve of helium gas? And did you know that scientists (or at least one of them) say that we Americans are using it up so fast that it could be all gone within 8 years? And that there's no economically viable way to produce it in the quantities in which we use it? So you better have all the parties with balloons that you want in the next 8 years because after that, your out of luck or it will cost you a small fortune to import it.
A unique disguise for a bank robber - drywall compound. I bet that felt nice when it dried. Talk about alligator skin. He is one of those "not so smart" criminals.
Many of you may have seen this one before but in case not, here it is - the FBI had an international wiretap disconnected because they did not pay their bill.
People in Texas are seeing UFOs. And did you know, according to the article, Texas, California and Colorado are the top three states for viewing UFOs? Keep that in mind when planning your next family vacation.
This next article is about a 14-year old boy who likes to play with trains. What's interesting about that you may ask? That seems pretty normal and healthy. Except that this 14-year old hacked into the city's transportation system and programmed a TV remote to control the city's trams, resulting in accidents and injuries but no fatalities. After he finishes his punishment, whatever that it, someone needs to enroll him in MIT (or send him to my house to program a remote to make stoplights green :-)).
Iowa road is littered with chicken litter, 3 inches deep for 1 1/2 miles. Pew-wee! And some people drove through the stuff - that's one way to take care of that unwanted new car smell.
Honduran prisons are not very secure, but you would not want to start a gang war in them unless you want a remake of Stallone or Schwarzenegger movie (lots of explosions and gun fire).
Another incompetent set of robbers - the getaway man drains the battery on the getaway vehicle listening to music while his partner is holding up the bank, which by the way is the same building as the police station (Royal Canadian Mounted Police).

The Great Unmasking

2008-01-17T22:50:00.000-05:00

I recently posted two entries (Guess Who? and Guess Who #2?) with pictures from my university's newspaper, only I masked the faces of certain people using the really high-tech method of covering them with solid yellow ovals using the Paint program. Today, their secret identities will be revealed (drum roll please).

Picture #1

If you guessed Tim and Leslie, you were correct. Give yourself a pat on the back. Thanks for being such great sports Tim and Leslie.

Picture #2

Our friend Charity guessed correctly - it's yours truly. Great job! Have Marc babysit the girls for an afternoon as a reward while you do whatever you want. She was also the only one who entered a guess, though my mom knew but declined to answer due to having insider information. Based on the clothing worn, it must be cool weather and I would betcha that I'm wearing long johns (see bullet number 2 in the post 5 Weird Things About Me). Also, for those who went to school with me, the guy in the background over the girl's shoulder reminds me of Nathan N. Does anyone else think so?

January 17, 2008 Update

2008-01-17T21:07:00.000-05:00

I guess it's about time that I gave an update on how things are going.

My tooth. I know that everyone is waiting anxiously on the edge of their seats as to how my tooth is doing. I had an appointment to see the oral surgeon Monday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. So I walk into the doctor's office and the receptionist looks at me and says, "Oh, the doctor's gone to the hospital [to see a patient]. He must not have seen your appointment on the calendar." Great, thanks for not using the two telephone numbers I supplied to you to call and tell me. Anyway, so I rescheduled for the next morning. I went in and he took a look. I was still having some fluid pooling in a fistula but since it was only a quarter of the size of the one from the previous week that he amputated, he said that was a good sign. He thought it might still be caused by the body filling in the gap left by the removal of the infectious material. So he wants to see me next Tuesday after I've been off of the antibiotics for a week. My tooth has been given a stay of execution for another week and the drama drags on. Stay rooted to this blog next week to see if my tooth gets to stay rooted.
Last week we had our first Homebuilder's Bible study. We had a good turn out - four other couples besides us. One couple has been married longer than we have, one couple is fairly newly married and two couples are engaged. I'm praying that God will use this study to strengthen all of our relationships, cause none of us is perfect yet. Unfortunately this week we had to cancel the study due to two couples being away and one couple calling in the day off to say he was puking. Yes, please stay home.
In case your interested, I think I'm in danger of becoming a computer widower. My wife now has someone else to share in her love of blogging, Sally, her new laptop. I guess I shot myself in the foot be getting her such a nice, new and fast one. I should have saved a lot of money by buying some used bargain laptop that moves slower than me shoveling the driveway. Actually, she did share Sally with me last night so that I could play a computer game - Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II. My dad got it for me over a year ago but I never could play it because we did not have a computer that met the minimum requirements. Now we have Sally. Only Sally and Stephanie are attached at the finger tips, so I have to beg, borrow or guilt her into allowing me to utilize some of Sally's CPU cycles. One day, I will have a Harry or a Lightning.

Turn That TV Off, Now

2008-01-13T21:18:00.000-05:00

The 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show was just held in Las Vegas. Can you imagine all of the really cool up-and-coming electronics on display? All the game systems, all the computers, and all of the TVs? Imagine all the fun you could have there, especially if you brought along a nifty little device call TV-B-Gone which can turn off most of those TVs, like these guys did (check out the video, it's great)? I'm now thinking to myself, "I've gotta get me one of those."

A Strange But True Story

2008-01-10T22:54:00.000-05:00

I just had to share this news article. Fact is stranger than fiction.

Did they really think it would work? How were they going to explain the fact that they had to wheel him in to the store in a chair? Did they not think their charade would be discovered once the store clerk asked the dead man a question (as he surely would have if they had gotten that far)?

I struggled over coming up with some title for this post that played of the story but could not think of any that didn't seem in some respect disrespectful to the dead man.