Andrea packed her bags and headed to the beach with her book club buddies this weekend. The girls and I (and Grammy on occasion) had fun playing Age of Mythology, Tribes, soccer, wrestling, cooking cinnamon rolls, walking the dogs, getting takeout at the Gillespies (including Guitar Hero and Carcassonne games), going for pizza with the Prevosts… wow, we did a lot! :>
Category: Daily Life
Taking time out for the wolves
I’m super-busy trying to land a job in this impossible economy, but I had to take time out for my wolf friends today. They have unfortunately been on the receiving end of a backlash at their very moderate recovery. It’s not easy co-existing with predators, and currently, things are in real flux.
Donate to help the wolves here.
Read on for a discussion I had on another website, copied here to preserve it… Continue reading “Taking time out for the wolves”
Rei and Dad cook: Miso theme
Today Reiley and I shopped (and shopped and shopped – took us three times to remember everything :>) and cooked a full-course meal, with the common ingredient being miso, a delicious bean paste popular in Asia. The menu:
- appetizer: Michigan Navy Bean Soup
- entree: Seitan Stroganoff
- side: Steamed Kale with Lemon Miso Sauce
Wren and Dad cook: Pepper theme
About two weeks ago, Wrenny and I prepped a full-course meal. The theme: peppers! We used green and red and orange across three recipes. The menu:
- appetizer: Seitan Shish Kebobs
- entree: Cuban Black Bean Stew
- side: Divine Corn Chowder
- desert: (we cheated and bought vegan ice cream sandwiches) :>
Chattanooga, TN mission trip
Reiley’s middle school youth group is on a mission trip to Chattanooga and I’m along as an adult chaperone. It may be the best thing I’ve done in my life. We’ve spent hours pulling an invasive exotic (privett) from a beautiful Cherokee historical site run by a wise strong woman named Ms. Cleta, we’ve set up assembly lines to organize food at the massive Chattanooga food bank, and the kids are throwing themselves into it and working really hard. And having lots of crazy fun too, inevitable when you put 60 kids into one big church for a week of sleepovers. I should be unplugged so I’ll stop there for now – I just had to share a little bit.
Back now. Wow, what a great week of high-energy service from some wonderful kids. We finished up by working on the Girls, Inc. property and visiting the Life Center rehabilitation facility. Girls, Inc. is a home for young girls that gives them the skills and confidence they need to dream big and plan for college. We attacked the weeds that were choking out the back yard – more privett! – and helped them move supplies from one location to another. At the Life Center, we mingled with the folks, most of whom were older and severely challenged in one way or another. On the second day, we loaded a few folks on their bus and took a trip to a senior center to play ping-pong. The kids rose to every occasion and really shared God’s love with the whole of Chattanooga. Well done kids!
Resume’s, NIC’s, and Murphy’s Law
I found out last week that my NM-DMS department at ABB is moving to Texas. I am keeping my options open and seeing what is available locally. I sent out links to my resume Monday night and awoke on Tuesday to find that my main computer died. This is the computer that serves up my resume and handles all my email. In other words, Murphy’s Law strikes again.
I finally got everything working by the end of Tuesday – it was a long night – read about the details on my tech blog. Makes me wonder how much of an idiot I looked like as people got error messages when they went to view my resume. Looking for a job is so random, “sure things” never seem to work out, and you never know which minor bit of networking is going to change your life. I guess you just have to see it as an adventure!
By the way, here’s my resume… I hope that doesn’t empower Murphy’s Law again. :> UPDATE: And like clockwork, we had a power outage today. At least it only lasted for a couple hours. C’est la vie.
The Bedridden Critic
So during my recovery time I’ve managed to pile up a bit of good old entertainment consumption. Feeling like crap while I consumed, however, may have lead to harsher-than-usual reviews. Suck it up!
Books
- City of Thieves by David Benioff: Holy smokes this was good. This guy wrote the screenplay for the Wolverine movie and his Hollywood sensibility comes through like a razor blade. You’ll encounter the most horrific scenes imaginable, and you’ll laugh as you cheer on some amazingly charismatic characters, too. A full-spectrum adventure.
- Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides: I can’t imagine a more in-depth look at the intimate details of a person’s life. The rich tapestry covers three generations of colorful characters, but the main story revolves around the special situation of the protagonist. Definitely engaging and interesting.
- The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga: Didn’t make it through this one. On any other day I may have enjoyed the snarky smart-assed jabbing at India’s privileged class from the trenches, but there was just too much negativity to wade through. I may revisit this, it may be the ultimate study in sarcasm.
Movies
- The Whale Rider: I was in the perfect mindset for this elegant study of the challenges to a small girl as she finds her place of leadership in her New Zealand tribe, even as the tribe adapts to the modern world. If you can slow down and feel the flowing currents of spirituality and beauty, this will move you.
- The Wrestler: Looking at Mickey Rourke is painful, let’s not pull punches. In the same way, this movie is painful and sorrowful. He can’t break from his hard lifestyle even as it grinds him up. Well worth it. I felt like we were suffering together. :>
- A Quantum of Solace: Why the hell can’t James Bond talk any more? How can you be suave if you never speak? He’s even often a vengeful jerk. Fine if you want meatheaded action; I say meh.
- The Day The Earth Stood Still: Finally got around to watching this sci-fi classic that Mark Welch gave me. I love the polish and style of Cary Grant’s movies, and this reminded me of them. With a pretty resilient sci-fi theme, I found this very old movie to still have a lot of value.
- Doubt: A nice study of different approaches to finding true divinity. The three central characters all contribute very different views and yet you can relate to each one at different times.
- Star Trek: Good times all around, my favorite action movie of 2009 by a landslide. Thank you J. J. Abrams, Karl Urban, and the rest of you geniuses. Make sure you see it at an IMAX theater!
- Taken: Steaming pile of hateful vengeance thriller refuse. Watching Liam Neeson go from Shindler’s List to this was harder than watching Harrison Ford’s fall from grace. *sigh*
- Australia: I loved this movie because the beautiful cinematography was displayed for me in 1080p. I enjoyed the epic story as well. But there was definitely some souring when my wife pointed out how wrecked Nicole Kidman’s lips are. Sorry Nicole – it was a good effort.
- The Man Who Wasn’t There: Coen brothers, so it’s a win. One of Scarlett Johansson’s earlier movies. It’s a slow character study, and the man who wasn’t there is also a man of few words. Be in a Jim Jarmusch mood and you’ll love it.
- Yes Man: Good to know Jim Carey is still willing to do some slapstick gags. Zooey Deschanel is in this so a thumbs up is automatic. Gosh golly she’s great…
Games
- Force Unleashed: Played through it on the Wii, stick with the controls and soon you’ll be slashing and punching through the air like a Sith Lord. Sweet fun.
- Age of Mythology: The girls and I dig this one out on occasion because it’s jammed full of so many fun bells and whistles. With Bailey visiting, I scrapped together a fourth PC, but it couldn’t keep up with the other nicer rigs. So I watched as the girls destroyed moderate opponents, then played a suicide game against computer opponents on the hardest AI setting with a 100% handicap. They are crazy. And they actually lasted a while, running to every nook and cranny of the map. Ha!
- The World Ends With You: This little DS game packs a lot into the mix. The fighting is fun, as you have to scratch and slash and tap while punching out combo moves on the pad, crazy. Not sure if I’m a fan of RPG shopping, though… :> Interesting, anyway.
- Carcassonne with the Catapult Expansion: Wren, Reiley, Andrea, Bailey and I played a massive game with at least half a dozen expansions, including a new catapult expansion. We filled the kitchen table with tiles. It turned out that the catapult thingee was pure goofiness – you fire onto the board and make a mess of things – and the catapult was so slipshod that you couldn’t even hit the board. Still, we had lots of fun. Bailey swept the game!
Wow, that’s a lot of slacking… I feel really tired now… :P
Greatly exaggerated
I went to see Dr. Cline on Tuesday for a follow-up to my fourth abdominal surgery on June 30th, and like a scene straight out of Arrested Development, he looked me straight in the eye and told me in his minimalist deadpan, “I can’t do anything for you.” Then, ironically, he told me he’d see me in two weeks – I have been rapidly losing weight because I can’t keep food down, and I wasn’t sure if he meant in the office or at my funeral. It was almost like an embarrassed little afterthought coming out of his mouth, his best attempt at bedside manner. Surreal. But just like the go-to joke in Arrested Development, the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated (apologies to Mark Twain). I’m a lover AND a fighter.
Today mum and the girls left for VBS early enough to catch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (wow we’ve been waiting for that for a long time, and now it’s come and gone…), and I was too wiped out to get work done, so I ended up watching all the episodes of 30 Rock I’ve been missing (14-21 to be exact). As Liz says, laughter is the best medicine – and she’s a frakkin’ doctor! – and she proved herself right. Apparently I laughed a bit of my obstruction away, and tonight, in the wee hours, my stomach feels better than it has since things started going south, around June 4th. I also have finagled my way into an appointment with a top-notch gastroenterologist at Wake Forest, Dr. Mishra. He’s on Dr. Levine’s team and hopefully he will keep me on the straight and narrow. Upwards my friends! May you and yours be well as well.
Cleaning house (or more accurately, the temple)…
My cancer battle climaxed in April 2007 with the ‘mother of all surgeries’, CRS with IPHC. That surgery was a success and nearly wiped the slate clean, but it left a lot of scar tissue. Today, I finally addressed the frequent backups caused by the scarring with a fourth (and final, with any luck and some grace from God) surgery. All indicators point to a total success! I’ll update as I come out of the morphine fog…
Also, a shout out to my cousins Allison and Dawn, also fighting the good fight. Stay strong and keep at it!
See the comments for updates…
Best Coaster Day yet
Our trip to Busch Gardens Europe (aka Williamsburg) over the weekend was a total success. We had great weather on the long Memorial Day weekend – going in, we thought we made a bad call because we were afraid the park would be packed – but we had beautiful sunshine, a cool-enough breeze, and almost no lines at all. We drove up Friday, hitting some traffic – apparently an overturned 18-wheeler – but we had enough time in the schedule to absorb it. We hit our traditional eatery, a nice Mexican restaurant at just about the halfway mark, and the kids collected some great custom ballons from visiting clowns – weirdness! We got in to our nifty little Econolodge in time to hit the sack, after a quick trip to Food Lion and Wawa to pick up park entry coupons – $10 off the $60 admission, the best deal around. The next day everyone was pumped up and we hit the road at 8:30am. We were at the park by 9am, in the first row of parking, whoop! They opened up Scotland at 9am, which let gave us time to pack our stuff in a locker (no bags on rides any more), ride Loch Ness Monster and get in line to storm the rest of the park. Then we hit the Griffon, and were screaming down the 200+-foot-freefall by 10am. What a start! Everyone’s heart was pumping after that, and we basically didn’t stop until 10pm that night. We crawled home and fell asleep. After a nice jump in the cool pool the next morning (with Wrenny jumping in without testing the water haha!), we headed home for some well-deserved rest. Wahoo!! Good job to the whole crew, everybody did their best to have a blast. :>