Abby is three! And I love her very, very much 🙂 She has received lots of presents, cards, and various other things. Here is a sophisticated outfit she got from her Grandpa and Grandma Peer (and her aunts there as well!).
She’s getting bigger and keeps telling us so. What a cutie pie!
The mint chip ice cream was a smashing success at Abby’s birthday party as well as at the church ice cream social we had last night. I felt bad for the other couple that brought pink mint ice cream (mink ice cream?) to the event because I was the first on the table and they were the last. However, it was good clean fun either way and I highly recommend to myself to post the recipe we used here so you can try it at home.
Oh, and at the ice cream social two sister-in-laws (two wives of the Matthew’s brothers) sang a fantastic cover of a song by Caedman’s Call. It was really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really good. I would pay real money to listen to things like that regularly. I’m going to see if they’ll come over to ‘The Pordcast Studios’ and record it so that we can share it with the world.
Abby has now gotten her first pet. Given my personal track record with animals I have high hopes of spending many more trips with Abby to purchase $0.12 goldfish.
This ‘black’ goldfish is named Shody (pronounced like Show-Dee). Abby kept wanting to call the fish Goldy but Jessica and I kept telling her that Goldy was a poor choice for a black fish. So she blurted out with great excitement: Shody.
The upside in all of this is that Jessica is pleased with the quietness of the aquarium. We don’t know where the aquarium will reside, but we do know that Shody has outlived some of the goldfish I owned already 🙂
We just bought our house nearly 4 months ago. The week after we moved in I bought a DeWalt drill. That has been the best $130.00 I’ve spent so far (besides the refrigerator so we could store fresh foods and left-overs, and that cost nearly ten times as much). Last night while assembling Abby’s new playthings all of the instructions had large circles with slashes through them – over a power drill. I laughed. Why? Because my DeWalt has tension settings so that I could avoid the problem with less expensive power drills: stripping out the plastic with the threading on the screws. The instructions said no power tools but I can’t imagine hand cranking a 2.5 inch, finely threaded screw X 4 X 4 [16 times].
Then I put up the cabinet doors for the kitchen and while I was frustrated with a few of the doors themselves, the screws went right in, and the magnetic tip held the screw in place so I could hold the door in place with my other hand. Do yourself a favor and buy a good drill when you get into various repair and home improvement projects. In the world of power tools, money buys lasting, quality tools. Don’t eat out a couple times in a month and spend the extra money on the upgrade to your tool package, you’ll thank yourself many times over.
And I’m still working on getting things ready for Abby’s party that will start in less than 12 hours. I have some more cupboard doors to put on, then in the morning I’ve got to mow the lawn, grill some food and entertain as if I got the next 12 hours in sleep.
As I was making an emergency run to the store earlier tonight I was asked by a gal what cologne I wear. I replied that I don’t wear cologne (which is true!). She then told me that she had ‘The hook-up.’ Something about that didn’t feel quite right. Why would someone have the hook-up on cologne? I always associated any sort of hookups to drugs, phone lines or cable. I can see it now: Get Cologne Piped to Your Home Cheaper Than You Can Buy it at Macy’s!
Whew, I’m tired, that was almost funny.
Jessica is preparing the base for the Randy’s Andy’s Mint Chip Ice Cream. 24 eggs as she has multiplied the recipe to help facilitate feeding many mouths. I am going to have to hand crank so much ice cream I will probably have carpal tunnel syndrome. But I digress. Eggs are a fantastic source of protein, cholestrol and chickens. I highly recommend them if you eat that sort of thing.
Last night I put the first of many coats of polyurethane on our cabinet doors. This morning… more polyurethane, lunch time and dinner will also hold more polyurethane. Late tonight will be the last coat and then early tomorrow morning I will re-assemble our kitchen and then mow the lawn, milk the cows, collect the chicken eggs, slop the pigs, grill some chicken and then the people should be hear for the party to celebrate Abby turning 3 [which actually happens on Monday].
Whew. I’m not bored 🙂
When I was in seminary I met a guy named Ezra Boggs. He happened to know more about various musicians than me, and he was into the local indy scene. I was humbled by this since it seemed that lots of folks were ignorant of it and he new way more than me. I was also humbled by his attitude of being an instrument or the living of Christ out for all men to see. I bought his band Not Called Common‘s CD “Love Songs for My Enemies” on iTunes today. The lyrics are intense, though the vocals are a little hard to pickup in some of the mixes.
Either way, read this article: All Things To All Men that Ezra wrote. It caused me to sit with a slight tear in my eye as I humbly realized that God works outside of my world in a bigger way than I’ll ever imagine.
Amen.
Last night I went out with Abigail for a long set of errands. I had to go to two stores to collect all of the vanilla beans I needed [because one only had two beans, I needed 4]. I went to the Kaes’ house to collect 2 espresso shots from Craig, King Super’s to collect some gas for my grill and then to Safeway by my house to collect a disgusting amount of dairy. This weekend for Abby’s party I’ve got to have some ice cream. And, because I shot off my mouth about home made ice cream earlier in the year, home made ice cream will be the only acceptable dairy dessert. Plus, Sunday night (the night after Abby’s party) we’re having an ‘Ice Cream Social’ at church. I ended up spending a really, really disgusting amount of money on ice cream ingredients and some on non-dairy ice cream for or friends who are intollerant of various dairy ingredients.
In short this party is going to cost us a lot of money in ice cream – but if the flavors below turn out good, it’ll be worth it:
Soy Based: [Craig’s Espresso Mocha] Soylent Brown is Not People
Dairy Based: Randy’s Andy’s Mint Chip Ice Cream.
Dairy Based: Rilli Vanilli – Real Vanilla Ice Cream. So good it’ll make your lip want to synch for some more.
I read some time ago that the desire to be all original all the time is a sign of imaturity. I’m sure that if I had the quote it would be handy, but I haven’t got it. Therefore, you’ll have to know that that quote is not original to me, but it does pop into my mind with some regularity. I appreciate art that I see that represents a style for the first time (usually, with some exceptions), I appreciate music that I’ve heard for the first time that sounds new or different. Heck, sometimes I hear something new, don’t like it, but then it grows on me (read: Mukula). My buddy Tony Nuzzi kept saying he liked it and I kept saying, “No.” After a while I listened to it again and realized that it was much like some Beck music I was listening to. Doh!
There’s a lot to be said for originality in software as well. However, doing something a new and different way just to make it new and different and unlike its predecessors is either arogant or ignorant. People are used to certain things and not delivering on what they’re used to is more than likely going to reduce usability and confuse them. Originality in what your software does, however, is fantastically cool. Everytime a new web app gets talked about but no one says what its going to do, I get a little excited, hoping that it will be something new and revolutionary. However, I have not thought of anything original in the world of software design and programming with a few exceptions, and those may or may not be original, but they were not seen by me before my design and use of them.
In short, I want to re-affirm the idea that always being original, all the time is going to slow you down, keep you distracted and may actually prevent you from making the breakthrough that would be original had you been in the right place and right time to achieve that originality. Or, like Microsoft, you could just copy the Apple Interface and call it good. Because it is.