Monthly Archives: May 2005
Manual Labor
This weekend was full of exercise, manual labor and darn good times. Friday night we had a church party… in which folks were supposed to dress up as if they were in the 50’s. The 1950’s that is. I don’t participate in dressing as if I wish I were in the bygone era, but I did go and I did enjoy the fellowship and some ice cream with strawberries that were beat together in a fashion that resembled a Milk Shake.
Saturday we went for a long 4 mile walk. Long for me that is. I walk up and down my stairs most days so 4 miles just happened to excede my normal exercise quota. Then, in a twist that no one could predict, I was walking more in the evening with my dad when we happened upon our friends the Andersons and they happened to show us an Ice Cream maker that came with both a hand crank and a motor. In yet a more bizaare twist: I asked them to pick me up one at the warehouse club that they belong to (which I refuse to pay a yearly membership to) so that I now own one. Yummy. Our first ice cream experience with it will come shortly.
Sunday we went to church. Yeah, you knew that was coming. But after church the Kaes came over and we ate lunch and then painted the front room. In the eveninge Andersons came over with said Ice Cream Maker and so Sunday evening we made Chocolate Chip and Reese’s Peanut Butter Ice Cream. The price of the Ice Cream Maker will be made up very quickly with the quality of the hand cranked Ice Cream we created. I don’t know that we’ll use the motor because it’s just not needed. We then watched Finding Never Land. This is a darn great movie, but you’ll have to watch it to form your own review, it’s good – so I won’t review it to warn you not to watch it. Again, watch it, you will be pleased that you did, most likely. Unless you are not. No. I will not refund you the rental fee if you don’t like it. Yes. It does have Kate Winslet in it. No. She does not drown in this movie either.
Today I got up early and set out to Castle Rock, CO with my brethren in Christ, Laban Matthews’ brother’s house. Josiah Matthews has desided that it would be good to re-shingle his roof and re-side his house this week. By himself primarly. Seeing as how I am an able body man who’s a glutton for punishment I volunteered to help. It was actually quite fun and I enjoyed using the various roofing tools. Of course just before I left it started to rain. We had just finished ripping off the shingles on one quarter of the roof 🙂 God has a good sense of humor.
Also, I have finally gotten my ‘recording studio’ computer set up so look for a more refined “Pordcast” soon.
Satan
This last Sunday we talked about Satan in Sunday School. Not your typical lesson, I suppose, but I had one quick thought I wanted to share: Satan was responsible for bringing glory to God, however, at some point in time he got bored of God’s glory. He took his mind off of God’s glory and looked at himself. This is so bizaare for me because I’m used to starting out with not looking towards God’s glory and then, through salvation, being able to behold God’s glory (positionally, in the heavenlies). I’m grateful that God gave mankind a second chance through Grace.
Lacking More Than a Spine
Today Abby saw a picture of Yoda. And, as happens to every person who gazes at his short, green weirdness she noticed his ears. What did she say about said ears?
“He has no ear muscles.”
Great Products: 3M Command Strips
I don’t know if you’ve assimilated another 3M product into your life, but I have added the Command strips to my office arsenal. The ubiquitous 3M Post-it pads are great for… lots of stuff, their tape is just as ubiquitous, and the command strips are great. They have cable cord holders which keep the underside of my desk more organized, and what’s even better is that I can mout the wireless mouse and keyboard receiver I have underneath my desk with them: no screws, no clips, just two Command Strips. Smart products by a smart company.
The way the Command Strip works is brilliant. It is like foam with a sticky surface on both sides, and when you are done sticking whatever you’re sticking where it is stuck, you pull one end of the sticky tab and it comes off the wall, desk, window or surface you have applied it to [see the video at the site link at the beginning of this article].
Just a side note and piece of trivia: you may have 3M products in your mouth right now, they’ve got a dental division that makes crowns and adhesives. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a 3M Command Denture Strip? 🙂 Oh, and they have them at Amazon.com – what’s funny is this: the text says used & new. I’m going to stick with the new ones 🙂
EEFFOC SKCUBRATS
This morning while at Safeway buying food stuffs Abby started reading off the letters of the Starbucks sign… backwards. She still has a bit of a time identifying K’s and X’s and Y’s because they all have ‘crossing lines’ [or so I guess]. However, she’s just so smart it’s amazing.
Also, while at Safeway looking for cocoa powder we walked past the coffee section. Of course a large sign says, “Gourmet” over the section. And, of course, the sign is over the Folgers, Sana and ‘Cheap Cup ‘O Coffee’ brands. How can they put that sign over the cheap stuff? That’s like saying a Yugo car is a fast car just because you put it up next to a model-t Ford! You can find a worse cup of coffee, but ‘Gourmet’ by what standards? My taste buds are defended offended.
Labor and Delivery Preparation
Well, the baby is still a while off, but Jessica is in the other room watching videos about labor and delivery that I’m supposed to watch with her later (I’m working right now so I can’t watch them right now. You can tell I’m working because I’m writing this blog entry). I can’t here everything that’s being said on the DVD, which is a good thing but the parts I’m picking up on are a little… well… scary? I guess I’m just not used to hearing the name of female body parts bandied about quite like they are on the video.
This is the part where I have to buck up and get past my slight embarassment, extreme awkwardness and just get ready for an extremely unpleasant time. For my wife. I get to watch and feel weird but she gets to do the actual labor and delivery part while I look on like a stupid man who’s never going to get it. And it’s true, I’ll never understand. I’ve been told that there are painful things that men can go through that have about the same pain level as labor and delivery… but I think those kinds of pains you have to pay for like fixed broken, hang nails, ears pierced and eating ice cream.
It’s tough to be a guy.
Ture Love
I just got a spam that was in some oriental language. Sorry, I don’t know which one. I’d sure hate to misrepresent the spammer as being any particular nationality when in fact they’re not that nationality. Mostly because I’d sure hate to have said that ‘ture love’ doesn’t exist in America, but it does in Korea, China, Japan or Hawaii*. Especially when we have such historical movie precedense as the Princess Bride wherein we find a priest with such a fun speach impediment that True Love sounds more like ‘twoo wub.’ This can only help to confuse those who speak Engrish as a second language. If you have any doubt, Crick Here. Anyway, the only English in the whole email was ‘Ture Love.’ Which I’m pretty sure is a guaranteed way to get click throughs that earn them millions of yen, pesos or dollars.
I hate maps**.
* Woops, Hawaii is part of the United States, my bad.
** I mean spam, but (s)he typoed first.
Boldly Taking the I’Pod Where No Man Has Gone Before
Well, sort of. UK company launches in-car toilet called Indipod.
Via Dave Barry.
Leave it to Cliffhanger
Jessica just finished watching the season finale of Alias. What a cliff hanger. I don’t know this by personal experience, I was judging a CSS competition in my office. However, I heard the shock in her voice and ran out to make sure that there were not bugs on the floor in front of her. No, she was just stunned by the ending of the show. What’s worse? She’s going to complain about not knowing what happened (or what will happen) until next fall when ABC interrupts their mediocre line of reality shows with episodes of Lost and Alias.
This all got me to thinking: what would Leave it to Beaver be like with cliff hanger endings? Given the ‘endings’ of Bat-Man episodes would they go something like:
“Will June finish mopping the floor before Ward gets home?”
“Will the Beaver clean his room in time for the party?”
and
“Will Wally be able to get more hair gel before his big date?”
Stay tuned for next season’s exciting conclusion… Yuck!