Threatening

I’ve been told that if I don’t put more pictures up on the website that I’ll be sent lemongrass for my birthday.
Of course my grandma may send me some anyway, but that’s just because she has some and she like to send us plants and tree branches.
In fact this last Christmas (or maybe the year before) we received Christmas tree branches in the mail from her.

So, with that being said, I’ve added more pictures to the site.
They’re under the media section.
You may have seen them before but that’s just because I sent them out in a rough scan of the rolls earlier this month or late last month (depending on which wave you got hit with).

More Importantly

Hurricane Isabel is doing its thing on the east coast – pray for the people there.
Pray that they would trust God for protection.
Pray that the lost would turn to Him.
Pray that Christians would take the opportunity to shine in their service.
Pray about what you can contribute.
Contribute at least prayer.

Thirst

Like first and third mixed together

If you’ve not been to www.disciplers.org I strongly recommend it.
I received great benefit from the discipleship material there, and you could probably use the spiritual food.
Yes, even you might benefit from the stuff there.
If you’d like info on being discipled contact Art there via email, or if you’re local to the DFW area, contact me, and I’ll see about setting up times for us to go over the material together.
It’s well worth your time, and the benefits are eternal.

Fine Ally

Lastly, we’ll be out of town for part of the weekend visiting Jess’ cousin and her family in Sherman.
If you try to call and we’re not home, call back every 5 minutes.
OK, not really, just leave a message in our ‘voice-box’.
If any one of you tries to be funny and leaves a lot of messages, we’ll be forced to blackmail you.
And you know we’ve got dirt on you.
Actually, I hope that any dirt you may have had on you was washed clean by the blood of Christ.

Resting in Him,

Randypants

If you really are Obsessive-Compulsive, or Compulsive-Obsessive or you just come here a lot, you may want to spend money buying weird stuff that I came up with.
The cool part is that I will make no money from it.
That’s right, I just wanted this stuff myself, so I made it (actually, Cafe Press makes it).
However, if you find this stuff odd, amusing or just plain old fun you can buy it.

That being said – you’ll have to count the cost and see if its worth owning these pieces of www.RandyPeterman.com history.
You’ll note that I’ve got horrible taste in clothing, so be aware of that before you buy 😉
Also, note that the mouse pad has Java code on it with a Perl twist of humor.
Perl is a programming language…so is Java.
I have programmed in both, but don’t tell anyone lest they call me a hacker or something.

Almost forgot to give the link:
www.CafePress.com/randypeterman

Resting in Him,

Randy

We took yet another long trip this last week and a half and so here, in prosaic form, I present to you the summary of said trip.

Pre-trip Trip

Jessica and Abigail headed out to Washington before me to get some extra time in with the Forland/Peer clan whilst I ‘slaved away’ at work.
What happened during that time is really a bit mysterious to me, but I know that great sums of money were exchanged with barely a trace on my end.
Items were bought, stuffed animals were obtained, and somewhere along the way Abby got a silverish plastic crown.
As if that weren’t enough she grabbed a handful of noodles away from her Grandpa Clair and was not beaten and left to hang in the dungeons.
The lack of discipline is not a surprise since Grandparents are well known perpetrators of baby spoiling.

I missed Jessica a lot and we talked on the phone some, but mostly we just missed one another since I had meals with other families who graciously hosted me.
That being said, Friday was a total relief – going to see my family.
Except that my laptop’s display was hard to see with the people in front of me on the airplane reclining – a real pain in the eyes.

WAshington

Friday night, at what felt like 1:20 Central Standard Time (AKA Texas Time) I arrived at Portland International Airport.
John hitched a ride with Clair and they picked me up, even waiting for my luggage.
We lugged the luggage and headed home (home being in Vancouver, WA).
Upon arrival I was glad to see Jessica and Abby.
Abby was glad to be up near midnight and greeted me by running to the dogs.
I felt tired and second rate given that my daughter was more excited about the dogs.
The rest of the time in WA pretty much went the same as far as Abby was concerned – cats and dogs are cooler than me.

Seattle

John and Becca moved to Seattle Sunday and we helped.
I rode up with John, Linda rode with Becca, and Jessica and Abigail rode with Clair.
Upon moving the contents of the truck into the 6th floor of the apartment via elevator (through a garage none the less) we returned the U-haul truck and headed to the Sound.
There we checked out the Aquarium.

The aquarium was cool.
It was the second aquarium I’ve been to that has had a sea dragon.
You should go to an aquarium with sea dragons, they’re about as cool as anything else called ‘animals.’
They look like plants if you don’t know what you’re looking for – but instead they’re like plants and sea horses mixed together.

Dinner that evening in Seattle was somewhat disrupted by the understaffed restaurant, and Jessica’s under cooked fish.
The waitress was cheerful and immediately informed us that the cooks (chefs?) often under cooked the fish.
She then offered to have the fish cooked some more.
Then, when Clair wanted to pay the bill the bill was not brought for a long time, the manager was awkward, and in the end we wondered how the place had stayed open.
The food was good for everyone else, but the staffing seemed to be a critical issue.

The rest of the time in Washington was really neat.
Tuesday we went to Mt. St. Helen – which ranks 4th in my all-time coolest places I’ve been to list.
If you haven’t seen Mt. St. Helen you should do so now.

Great!
Now that you’re back, what did you think?
What was your favorite part?
Oh, I liked that, too.

OR to CA

Wednesday we said good-bye to Linda and Clair (sadly, mind you, we did have a great time and we miss our families) and began what was a pretty long drive down to my Grandparents’ place in California.
The drive was a mere 600 miles, but due to the roads we had to drive it took us 15 hours.
We drove into Oregon and stopped for lunch in a town called [some town in OR here].
We ate lunch at ‘The Sizzler’ which is a restaurant that we had fond memories of in Nevada.
Those memories were either delusional, or we ate at one of the lesser franchises.
Jo, the waitress we had was about as friendly as a bowl of rice crispies – without the milk.
She was an older gal, and I think she lost her social skills one day in her purse, and they’ve never been seen again.

After ‘the Sizzler’ we headed to get gas.
I pulled up to the gas pump and a gal hurried up to the car and quickly shouted out to me, “Your tanks on the other side!”
I replied to her, “Oh, is this a full service pump?”
Which is a normal question, because I haven’t seen one of those in years.
“NO, You’re in Oregon,” she replied.
So I pulled up to another pump and another gal ran up to the car and asked what type of gas I’d like.
I quickly responded by saying, “Is this a full service pump as well?”
“No, you’re in Oregon,” was once again the reply.

I knew I was in Oregon – this was obvious. I knew it once I crossed the Columbian and the sign said ‘Entering Oregon.’
That was enough of a clue for me.
After that I never thought to myself, “Hey, what if I’m in Nebraska?”
So, when I was told for the second time I was in Oregon I was really sure I was in Oregon.
I asked her, “I know I’m in Oregon, but why can’t I pump my own gas?”
This was a silly question, because obviously, “Oregon and New Jersey don’t let you pump your own gas.”
So I told her to put the regular gas in the car and was done with it.

So here’s the dilemma: What kind of degree in school, special training, or certification does it take to spend your day breathing in noxious gas fumes whilst the drivers are carefully protected from them?
Why should women (or at some gas stations I suppose men) be forced to run around in the summer heat telling people that they’re in Oregon?
I will most likely never move to Oregon because this travesty is too great.

We finally left Oregon through ‘Grant’s Pass,’ which came with great recommendation from my Grandmother.
I was told it would be much more scenic.
It was.

We saw Elk, the ocean, boats, surfers, four-wheel drive trucks on the beach and Elvis.
OK, so we didn’t see Elvis.
We also saw really windy roads that were covered in fog and hellish to drive on.
Mostly the bad roads were due to a fine detail that my grandma failed to point out: Take the road to Ukiah (where I was born) because highway 1 is extremely curvy and slow going.
Jessica was going to kill me for taking that road because she was tired of being in the car, sick from the road, and tired from being awake so long.
We finally made it to Philo, CA at 12:22 and we went to bed shortly after that.

California Dreaming

Since I had caused Jessica such great distress on the night before I promised her I’d get up with Abigail in the morning.
Well, as luck would have it morning came.
And like some mornings in life it came way earlier than I expected and Abigail ushered it in with great gusto.
So, I got up with her and we started the day in the home that I call home in California.
I grew up a good portion of my life in Mendocino, as a young child and as a teenager I would spend parts of my summers there.
So we started the day there off to a good start, Abby got to meet my grand-parents, they got to meet her, and grand-parents were dubbed great grandparents.
And they are great grand-parents, I’m grateful to have them.

Thursday afternoon we went up to my Uncle Eric and Aunt Willette’s.
These two are just a neat godly couple.
If you’ve met me, then you generally know how my uncle is, or as is often put, “Randy, you’re a lot like your Uncle Eric.”
Which is a good complement, I’ll take it.
Someday, I might even frame it and put it up in my office somewhere.
We talked about family stuff, funny stuff, and theology.
I think that Jessica and I learned more in one hour of talking with him than we have in the whole year from sermons at various churches.
He’s a gifted teacher and theologian.

My little cousins Hannah and Heidi were cute too, Abigail got along with them great and they were off having fun in no time.

Thursday evening my parents arrived, and later that night Ed and Shari arrived with Becky – but that’s skipping ahead.
However, it was so late at night we were in bed, so while we waited for Ed and Shari and Becky and Brennan, the rest of the family already there ate dinner.
After dinner my mom went into the living room with the little girls whilst the rest of the adults took a break.
The girls were screaming with glee and running all through the house, even Abigail.

Friday

Friday we got up and started off the festivities by exchanging gifts with the family – some for Abigail and one for me even (a hair early, I know).
Abby got lots of stuff for her birthday, including cats, lots of them.
She likes them all.
I got a Dave Brubeck CD (if you don’t know who that is, you should find out, you’d be pleasantly surprised) and the Complete Mr. Bean series on DVD.
Jessica was saddened by the DVD’s since she is not fond of Mr. Bean, however, he cracks me up.

Then we went to the beach.
OK, sort of.
We went to Mendocino, which is like going to the beach only different.
Instead its like going to the rocky cliffs along the ocean with periodic sand bars.
The sand bars aren’t too bad, but instead of having salty peanuts to make you drink more beer, they just have salty ocean water to make you crave fresh water.
It was cold and the water was colder, so the adults didn’t go in, however, the kiddo’s (Abby and Brennan) did go in – they got wet and sandy and about 2 minutes into it we all thought about how nice towels would have been.
Then, after the beach we went hunting.

You will not be surprised to find out we hunted for Ice Cream.
So we went and found “Cowlick’s,” a local ice cream shop.
Then, after desert we went to Denny’s and had dinner.
There, at a table next to us (and, as Dave Barry would say, I’m not making this up) there was a woman with a beard.
The sad thing is that she was pretty old and so I think that she simply gave up on her trimming of it, either that or she was one of the first hippies in Mendocino.

So we went home and all went to bed at some point after that.

Saturday

Seeing how Friday is followed by Saturday in most weeks, we were glad that Saturday had followed Friday, but we were sad that our trip was nearing ‘the end.’
Saturday we had family coming from other parts of California to meet Abby and see us, so we hung out on the farm.
Becky and I had a good talk and a nice 4 mile walk (half downhill, and half uphill).
I was glad to spend time with my sister.

Then, we got back from the walk and spent time with the family, but later in the afternoon Ed and I went for a longer walk, maybe closer to 5 miles or so.
We too had a good talk and I enjoyed the periodic joking that Ed and I are wont to do.
I won’t tell you what we talked about because its none of your business.
But on our way back to the farm we ran into Sha’i, Jess and Brennan – who had also gone to take a walk.
They did so because they’re copy-cats.

That night we went to dinner to celebrate my brother’s 24st birthday, even though he hadn’t technically had it yet (we were a day early).
We went to a nice Mexican restaurant in Philo called “Libby’s.”
I had two glasses of wine, which was one too many, and so pretty much everything everyone said was funny.
What was even funnier was when we were leaving the place and Ed ‘let wind’ (barking spiders, fluff, toot, pass gas, fart, emit gas etc.) – I thought I would die laughing.
It was like laughing gas.

I sobered up in about 30 minutes and when we got home we played cribbage (Ed, Jess, Aunt Willette and I).
Willette and I won – we rocked.
Ed and Jess came close though – they were unfortunately not skunked.

Sunday

Sunday was leaving time.
This was sad and I sobbed all the way down the hill but had pretty much dried it up by Philo.
Boonville hadn’t changed much either.
We looked forward to Sauceleto (sorry if I spelled that wrong) because there we’d pick up Sean Franzen and he’d accompany us to the SFO ariport where we’d fly home.
Seeing Sean was great, I recommend it for everyone.
You should contact Sean and ask him to take pictures of you because he’s good.
If you don’t we’ll have to hunt you down and force you to eat mushrooms until they really don’t taste like anything.

So, to sum things up, we took a trip, we flew, we drove, we walked, we talked, and on our flight home Abby stayed up the whole time except for the last fifteen minutes of each flight.
We got home late Sunday night and we’re finally beating jet lag.

Resting in Him,

Randy

Abigirl Perterman

Abigail Ruth Peterman turns 366 days old today, and those of you who aren’t too
quick on the uptake, she’s one.
God has blessed us with this amazing little girl who is already walking, jabbering
(with a few actual words coming out).
Abigail (Abby) is just amazing in the things she’s learning.
The clencher for me was when she started running to the door when I get home from
work (and when I say run I mean a staggering, quick walk for baby legs).
I am a hero – I am Superman in this little girl’s eyes… I have an amazing role in
her life and I pray to God I may fulfill it through Him.

Jessica took to being a mom like a televangelist takes your money.
It seems that mothering is almost all she has time to do 😉
Though, I must confess Jessica has maintained the house, prepared for MOPS
hospitality (first meeting today) and fed me my allergy-free food – all
without a bunch of whining.
She’s a great woman of God (but if you read this site regularly you already
know I think that).

Great Grandparents

For those of you who are not intimately aware of all of our plans we’re running
away for a week, and Jessica and Abby are running away for even longer.
We’re going to take a three state tour with concert stops in WA, OR, and our
last gig will be in CA.
In all of that Abigail will see her grandpa and grandma Forland, grandpa and
grandma Peterman, Uncle and Aunt Peer, Uncle and Aunt Peterman (Ed and
Sha’i) and Aunt Becky.
She’ll be hanging with her cousin Brennan too!

But the thing I’m most excited about (excuse me for my personal opinion, but
if you don’t like it – buy your won domain) is we’ll be having all of my
family in one place (all being a very relative term) and Abby will get
to meet her great grandparents Earl ‘Pete’ Peterman and Marolyn Peterman.
We’ll also get to see Ed on his birthday – which is pretty darn cool!

Work

Work has been good.
I’ve been working on a top-secret project.
I have now just taunted you…
I can say no more.

Randy

OK. So I’ve talked to some family, friends, and site nuts (ha, like there’s actually people who are site nuts) and gotten some feedback.
I was told that when I changed the site or added content, or did something worth noting that I should note it here.
So when you now come to www.randypeterman.com and find yourself thinking, “Hmmm. I wonder what the crazy admin guy here at this site has changed.”
You’ll simply be able to read the ‘news’ section’s articles and get an update.

The site’s backend has been re-done so that its database driven.
This means that you as the end user will have absolutely no difference in experience (as of now), but later on I hope to use this to make a more powerful set of tools.

If you discover anything broken, please let me know at randy@randypeterman.com.

Also – you may have noticed at the bottom of the pages there’s some new icons – let me explain:

• XHTML compliance is good – this means that my site complies with standards and may help your browser render it faster, and more accurately.
• CSS compliance is good – this means that some devices like cell phones, Palm Pilots, Pocket PC’s and really old browsers will still be able to show these pages – but not so beautifully.

The above title means nothing its a punny twist on a spoonerism.
For those of you who find the previous sentence confusing, may
I recommend dictionary.com.
Once you’ve looked up puns and spoonerisms you can move onto the important stuff.
You know, things like Abby’s walking, I’m finally done with my
reading/listening of the Old Testament, Jessica’s a great
wife and more.
Also, I washed the cars this morning.
Gross – dirt is dirty (Kinda like sin is sinful? Romans 7:13).

The Jabberwocky

When I was a lad my dad introduced me to the
Jabberwocky.
This of course is foreign to most people (like my humor?) however Abigail has once again brought to my attention the idea of Jabber-Walking.
She is just going on and on now about utter nonsense.
Words that she says are mamamama and dadadadada and pish (fish) and cat and this.
I find that most anything can be a “this”.
She points randomly to things and says, “This?”
As Ray Romano says, “There’s no segway with kids. You go from, ‘Are you going to come home tomorrow dad?,’ to, ‘I have a thousand pennies.'”
Abigail was really fascinated with keys for a time.
Now, its the little rubber ends on door stops (she pulls them off and sucks on them, which is followed by a spanking when we discover it).
However, with all of that, she’s cute and she’s taking steps – lots of them.

Old Testament Journey

During a long walk with my friend Paul Henebury he encouraged me to read through the Bible – regularly.
This was something I knew I should do, but frankly have not done but once, and even then it was a while ago.
I finished reading (and listening, my in-laws gave me the Bible on CD-audio [THANKS!!!!]) the Old Testament
and am now digging heartily into Matthew.
I was struck by the sense of passion in the Ezekial, awed by Jonah’s blatant hatred of the Ninevites, and
wondered by the end times descriptions of a merciful God sparing His people, and yet demanding justice.

I hope to be able to read through the Bible at least 2 times a year from now on.
I’m not going to keep a strict schedule, but I know that if you read about 10 chapters a day
(I’d keep Psalm 119 to itself) you can read the Bible in ~6 months.
Sure, you’ll run into questions if you’ve never done it before, but think about how much of
the Old Testament so many of us have not read and think about how much of the New Testament
depends on an Old Testament context or understanding (context?).

If you’d like more info on reading through the Bible and schedules for it:

• Crosswalk.com – read online in multiple translations, or listen in Real Audio (Yuck, I don’t like RA, hyowever, I recommend reading in the NASB, usually)
• Back to the Bible – a site with various reading plans, pretty darn cool.

Jessica is the Bomb!

I married a great wife.

I can’t say that enough.

If your wife is half as good as Jessica you’re a lucky man.
She takes such good care of our little girl, she makes our home a nest, and she doesn’t complain about not having a house yet.
She is diligent to stay on the budget and even looks for ways to get ahead.
She’s smart (even if she did marry me).
The loves the Lord most of all, and that makes me a proud (yet biblically humble ;)) man.

Other Stuff

We’re doing well in every other sense I think.
We’re planning on going to OR, WA, and CA all in 9 days or so in August/September.

Resting in Him,

Randy

July 10th

Well, my nephew Brennan (Peterman!), has managed to become older again.
While he does this every minute of everyday those elements compounded into a whole year lapsing.
Brennan is becoming quite the little boy and from the news reports I get from his mother and
grandmother and aunt (oh, and dad, too) he’s learning all kinds of fun stuff.
Fortunately he’s not (Orthodox) Jewish, because he’s also quite a ham.
Brennan, you’re a cute kid, don’t let your dad ‘free’ any more ducks ;).

July 12th

Erin M. Nuzzi (Mrs. Frank A. Nuzzi), a long time friend, ex-co-worker (can you have that many dashes in a
‘word’ Erin?), wife of one of my best friends, mother to two little boys, daughter of parents, reader
of many books, MOPS member, Matron of honor at our wedding, and all around awesome sister-in-Christ
is also older (did I mention daughter of ‘bean’?).
However, the years have been kind to her and she’s been kind to us and will be joining us next weekend
most likely (Yippee!).
Erin has been a close friend to us ever since we got to know her and her fabulous husband whilst I worked
at the “Manager” (Manger, but for some reason people had a hard time with that).
We were next-door neighbors for a while and she and Jessica endured Tony, Clint (her brother) and I
cutting up like a trio of kids at an ADD convention.

July 11th

So the dates for this ‘blog entry are out of order, that’s because I had to get my priorities straight.
Also, one other thing I needed to get straight (but couldn’t quite manage it) were water skis.
On the 11th, Alt-N, the company I work for, had a party
at lake Grapevine.
Over all it was awesome – I got to go tubing and try water skiing.
I was horrible at water skiing and completely failed at it, however, I learned something key – Forearms.
I have no forearms today, and frankly typing hurts, my legs are a bit sunburned, my legs hurt, my
back hurts, and I got completely sick and wiped out from dehydration (my own fault) so that I was unable
to do anything but lie in bed for the rest of the evening until after 7:30.
With my understanding of the need for food and hydration I’d do it all over again with the slight change
of having food and more water.
I want to exercise now so that if there’s a next time I’ll get to actually get up on the skis.

With that in mind, I’ve taken to a strict regimine of doing everything else I’ve normally done for
the next couple of days while I recouperate, but then, but then… then I’m going to start
working out heavily so that I can be in T4 (Terminator Forearm: Water Ski’s Revenge).
The water was so fun I have to say its the best fun I’ve had at a lake in a long time, probably since
Lake Tahoe, 4th of July, many moons ago.
If you’ve not been water skiing (or tried at least) you should attempt to do so, preferably behind a
boat with a high powered engine, I saw some guy out on the lake with a paddle boat and I couldn’t
think of a worse way to try to water ski.
I recommend getting your legs and arms ready and having a generally good muscle tone probably wouldn’t
be too bad either.

That’s all for now, this typing is killing my arms and I still need them for taking care of ‘Abigator’ 🙂

Resting in Him,

Randy

So much has happened since I have written an article for this site that I apologize.
I’ll try to be brief, but cover a lot of territory.
We have been busy, in fact I haven’t been calling everyone like I’d like.
I’m writing this at 11:00PM just to get something into my full day.

Abigail (the reason people check this site) is doing well.
She’s got the tip of one tooth protruding from her bottom gums, and another one on its way up next to it.
She’s not walking yet, but she’s getting close.
She’s standing up on her own every once in a while, but still is not taking any steps.
Most people warn us that when she starts taking steps she’ll be running shortly after that.
I don’t care, she’s such an amazing little girl that her ability to run to me when I get home will only make work seem longer.

She did crawl towards me with an outstretched arm one or two mornings, which made it hard to go to work.
However, work has been going well, and Jessica has been doing well around the apartment when she’s here.
Jessica is often on the phone with her mom… every day.
We got SBC’s new all in one package that gives us faster internet connection (ADSL), unlimited long distance, and a slightly better rate on our cell phones.
Linda gets to talk to Abby most of those times as well.

We went to Austin (I’ll post some video footage soon) and had a blast with Tony & Erin and Josh & Davis.
I took a class on Dispensationalism from Arnold Fruchtenbaum @ Tyndale.
We went to Sherman this last weekend to visit Jess’ cousin & family.
And my parents are coming into town tomorrow.

Last week we started discipleship (I’m leading) with a family we’ve enjoyed getting to know (the Gomez’s Rob, Amy & Kaly).
And, most importantly, I’m going to go to bed now.

Resting in Him,

Randy

Frenz

Jessica and I have known Tony and Erin Nuzzi for more years than I can
remember (or at least I am being too lazy to calculate).
We’ve known them for a long time and they were both in our wedding.
However, they’ve since then had two boys.
Those two boys, Josh and Davis, are fabulous kids, the kind of kids you’d
sell your old used car to help sell enough boy scouts popcorn so that
they could go to Nasa space camp and learn a bunch of lies about how
old the universe is and then, when they got home tell them everything
about macro-evolution is goofy – I think you know what kind of kids I’m
talking about.

Friday

So we had them up, being Resurrection Weekend (Christianese for Easter
Weekend – “Easter” is a Pagan holiday.) so that our families could spend
time together.
Last year we had Resurrection Weekend together in Austin, so it was nice to
have it here.
Friday night Jessica and Erin went out after the kiddos went to bed and saw a
movie.
I don’t recall what movie it was, but obviously their review of it didn’t
impress me enough to remember…surprise.
Tony and I stayed home and watched some Fawlty Towers and then started to
watch a 1970’s (MAYBE 1980’s) Christian movie – the content of which
was not worth finishing – it was too hokey.
Then when the gals got home we all stayed up until about 1:00 chatting and
then went to bed.
I can’t tell you what we talked about because this is the web and all the
people who read it may not understand our inside jokes.

Saturday

Saturday morning came about 3 hours earlier than it usually does because
we’d stayed up so late.
The kids think that since they didn’t stay up they should get up at their
regular time – what an inconvenience ;).
So Saturday we got up expecting a huge storm, the weather forecasters had
been prognosticating its arrival all week long.
As is typical the weather was not accurately following the instructions
that the weather men and women had prescribed.
So since it was a sunny day we went to ride a train, the tarantula train.
It wasn’t running on Saturdays like we had thought so we used this as an
opportunity to teach Josh (the only young kiddo with the cognitive
understanding to know he’d been lied to) about how politicians twist
the truth.
OK, so maybe we didn’t use it as an opportunity to twist the truth, really
we used it as an opportunity to go to the Britsh Emporium store and
bay exorbitant amounts of money for imported candy.

We then (after grabbing a bite to eat at Quizno’s Subs) went home and hung
out while Josh watched Larry Boy and the Rumor Weed for the 183rd time
of his life.
After dinner we went to Putt-Putt and played miniature golf.
Tony has an unfair advantage because IBM owns a mini-golf course in Austin
and he practices multiple times a week.
So after sweeping the game he and I went on some bumper boats and hosed
one another off.
This of course presented a real problem – my boat stopped squirting water
in the middle of the session.
So, just as you suspected, I got soaking wet without causing anyone else
to look like they had just taken a bath.

Later on, after golf and the kids were in bed Tony and I went to
Alt-N and jammed and talked about guy stuff.
If you’re not sure what guys talk about, just ask one…nothing.
This is, as Jerry Seinfeld points out, the exact thing we’re thinking when
you ask us.
Men talk, think and do nothing most of the time.
Even when we’re doing something it equates to not much or nothing in the
grand scheme of things.

Sunday

Sunday we went to church and listened to an Easter, I mean Resurrection
Sunday, musical.
Over all it wasn’t bad, but it had room for improvement because I’m a
whiney pickey musician.
Then we came home and ate large quantities of food and still left enough
left-overs to feed a small family (such as ours) for a couple days.
This is good because the expense of Ham is such that it seems no Orthodox
Jewish family can afford it.

And now it is now.
Sunday is not over, but this news update is.
I mean, I can’t really tell you about what happened the rest of today if
it hasn’t happened yet.
So, you’ll have to check back and see what’s happening.
Also, I hope to get some more pictures of Abigail online shortly, we got
them developed, but I haven’t scanned them yet.
Maybe some day soon I’ll get a digital Camry.
Although probably not because I’m not a big Camry fan, I fancy myself a
Honda guy in general 🙂

Resting in Him,

Randy Peterman

Caffiend

Friday the 28th of March we got up at 3AM, this is something like seeing bigfoot.
I don’t get up before 6:00 unless its an emergency or the stupid fax service decides to send us a fax to our home line at some odd hour of the night.
We were on the road by 4:30 and started our journey to Central America – err, I mean the Mid-West.

Missouri Loves Company

Our first destination was 12 hours later in Jackson MO.
The only thing sweeter than the Iced-Tea in Jackson is Joan (Jo-Anne in modern spelling) – she’s a sweet, sweet gal.
Jessica’s Grandpa Hiram and his wife Joan hosted us for a day and a half.
We ate more food than was necessary, but that is typical for anyone who drives within 20 feet of their home.
Joan is a cook who likes to think of small portions somewhere between 2-3 pounds of whatever it is 🙂

Some ‘Ware’ in IL

Saturday we drove to the Bald Knob Cross.
This is something close to a religious monument, except that its in the middle of a mountain range and its really housing a radio transmitter and looking pretty hideous.
It could be cool to go there when the leaves are not on the forrest floor and instead are attached to the trees.
On the way to the cross is Ware IL.
Ware IL has about 30 people in it and most of them work at a hunting club.
There are at least 6 hunting clubs, when you see the first one it doesn’t strike you, but when you see the sixth one you’re ready to make stop buy the county court house and make sure that there aren’t more any marriages between a brother and sister.
I don’t think that it’s red-neck, because that would be an understatement!
Upon arriving at ‘bald knob’ we walked for 5 minutes and then drove back – 2 hours for 5 minutes of mountain top experience with a monument to man 🙁

Getting Into IN

Sunday Morning we got up and got ready, Joan had fixed us a ‘little’ breakfast that consisted of 5 pounds of breakfast goods, all of which were ‘low in cholestrol and fat’ (where the word low is interpreted as ‘super high’).
Then we drove for about 6 hours and arrived in Plainfield Indiana where we promptly lost contact with our daughter as a swarm of wild relatives erupted from the house and snatched her away.
As we stood bewildered and lost, wondering what had happened to Abby one of Kelsey’s (Kelsey = sister-in-law) dogs licked our hands and brought us out of our confusion.
We went inside and had a good afternoon of relaxing and catching up on important things.

Another Year Closer to Heaven

Jessica, following the traditions handed down by Adam and Eve, had a birthday on the 31st, she’s 25.
To celebrate we went to the Cheesecake Factory in Indianapolis on the 1st.
Which was good, because Karen kept faking us out like we weren’t going to go (we couldn’t figure out a schedule) I think she was going for an April fools joke, but nobody got it.
Jessica enjoys the Cheesecake Factory immensely, and all of us complained on the way home after eating there.
Of course our complaints were of full tummy’s and 5 o’clock traffic 🙂 (Thanks for a fabulous meal John!)

In the Inn in IN

Tuesday we drove to Brown County Indiana and checked into an inn in Nashville.
Not Nashville TN mind you, but Nashville IN.
After a few false turns (Thanks so much Yahoo!!) we made it to the ‘Inn in Brown County.’
This was a cool travel destination because it had (gasp) things for families to do on the premesis.
They had swimming, basketball, tennis, shuffleboard, miniature golf (free as well) and a playground with the most haunted sounding merry-go-round I have ever heard.
I wanted to sample the merry-go-round so I could use it in a song, but since I don’t have a sampler, I just remember what it sounds like.

Trail Dust

Wednesday we went shopping for stuff (you don’t actually hunt for things on vacations).
Jessica bought some stuff, and I desperately wanted to spend about $1,200.00 at a music store on things like an autoharp, a mandolin, and some percussion instruments.
Needless to say, I did not buy those things, but I did come home to Texas and buy a hand drum called a “Doumbek.”
It’s made by Remo and is probably not the fanciest hand drum, but I play it while Abby plays the bongos, which is a kick in the pants.
Speaking of a kick in the pants, we went horse back riding.

We went horse back riding at a stables in Brown County (or a county near there, I don’t recall).
While we were at the stables the ‘stable master’ (I don’t know what else to call the guy in charge of the stables) asked who had ridden before, and who wanted to go beyond a walking pace with the horses.
My group was the ‘experienced’ group (I am not making that up).
So I was excited to go faster than a walk, we cantered (which isn’t a full gallop, gut it’s more stimulating than a walk).
I was the only boy on the trail, and I think I know why: cantering tends to cause damaged body parts on guys as their pelvic region is smashed into the saddle over and over again at a fairly quick rate.

As we were nearing the end of the ride (I suspect 5-10 minutes from the end) we were really going and a woman was thrown from her horse.
We all stopped and the trail leader quickly jumped off.
She of course was ahead of the fallen rider (she was the leader after all) and I came up behind the fallen woman.
I also quickly jumped off and the trail leader looked up at us and (I swear I’m not making this up either) time slowed down as she said the words that every paying horse rider wants to hear:

“W-h-h-a-a-a-a-t-t-t d-o-o-o- I-i-i d-o-o-o-?-?-?”

After a democratic vote (since that’s what should be done in emergencies) we voted the trail leader should take off in a gallop and let the stables know they had a downed rider, and to call 911.
Without much philibustering we decided this was a good idea for the following reasons:

1. She was the only one who had actually ridden at a gallop intentionally
2. She knew how to get to the stables from where we were at
3. The rest of the horses were so keen on staring at the other horses back sides that without the visual aid of a horse tail they may have gotten any of us very lost on the trails.

While we waited for the emergency crews the gal who fell recovered pretty well, her glasses were found, and she was able to get in a standing position.
She was very embarrassed and apologized for ruining everyone’s ride multiple times.
To make matters worse, when the emergency crews got there (an amazing 15 minutes or less later) we all backed up leaving the woman standing alone like a beer in the headlights.
Well, OK, maybe more like a deer in the headlights.
The emergency crew consisted of a Police officer, a fire and rescue bigfoot truck (in case they needed to run over trees, Bambi, ford rivers or use a winch to climb small mountains), and an ambulance.
I think an attorney was following them, there was another vehicle – a minivan.
The emergency crew sprung into action by walking cautiously up to the woman and asking her some questions:

• Do you remember your name?
• Does everything feel OK? Are you hurt?
• Where did you get those pants? I’d like something like that for myself.
• Who’s the president?
• Yeah? Which one?

OK, so they didn’t ask all those questions, but some of them were asked.
We got to ride back to the stables a different route so that we didn’t spook the horses riding between an Explorer and Bigfoot.

A Peterman Homecoming

We had a great time – we drove through 4 states, we played multiple games in IN, we had good talks, Abigail was spoiled rotten with attention.
She fell in love with dogs.
I didn’t sleep half as much as I normally do (which is one of the reasons I accidentally walked into the wrong bathroom at the PLainfield Gold’s Gym – oops).
Jessica had a birthday, we all celebrated that by eating too much all week.
We drove home and were relieved to get off of the road.
2,264 miles were added to the Honda and we’re glad that we made it back.
Drive carefully, because if you don’t, I will.

Maranatha (Come Lord, return for your bride, the church)!

Randy Peterman