Friday, March 30, 2007

I miss my dishwasher. When we moved into our townhouse, we rejoiced greatly because, finally, the time of doing dishes by hand was over. Alas, we moved to Three Hills, and now have no dishwasher, yet again. Add a child to the mix, and you have a recipe for a great many dirty dishes on a daily basis.

Woe is me. Okay, it's not all bad. It was a lovely day today. The morning cold perhaps overstayed its welcome, but by noon it was nice. The only issue was the wind, which managed to sustain itself at over 40 km/h for the most part of the day. At least it was a south wind, not an icy north wind. Still and all, it was quite gusty.

This morning was spent on school work, which is intensely boring to read about. Wife wasn't feeling well today (there's some sort of cold going around here which manifests itself mostly in an intensely sore throat), so I took care of the boy in the afternoon. Well, first he had his nap, which he has now decided should be in the afternoon, and then I took care of him. We went down to IGA for our thrice-weekly $20 expenditure, and took our time wandering around. I went to school to see my distance ed advisor--she's quite a lovely lady, and is enamoured with the boy--and then let him wander around campus for a while. He was having loads of fun.

When we finally got home, we promptly went back outside, because, well, there were things to do. He likes to use his decapitated broom to push rocks around in the driveway (and then eat them), and today we also had some fun running around the yard. Unfortunately, having been taken by surprise by winter's sudden arrival, I didn't get a chance to mow the lawn before the snow came, so my backyard resembles a jungle. The major problem with long grass is that is trips up little legs, and much frustration began to abound near the end of our time outside.

Back inside, I made dinner with the wife's steady supervision. She had the dinner planned out, but lacked sufficient energy to make her plan a reality. She coached me well, though, because dinner turned out to be delicious. Not that I can't make a good meal myself, but I just know better than to interfere with my wife when she has a plan. See, marriage has taught me something!

After dinner, it was the usual routine--clean up the toys, take a bath, go to bed. Spraying dad with water out of a squeeze toy is the new favourite bath routine, and I, of course, oblige. I even load the squeeze toy with water, just to be sprayed in the face by it. But I know that playing games with dad is a short-lived phenomenon, so I enjoy them, even when they make me wet. And when I say, "wet," I mean it.

Wife took care of the bedtime bottle, which allowed me to further put off doing school work. After the boy was down, it was more Battlestar Galactica. We're just getting to the end of season one now, and it continues to be brilliant. I hear that this season is even better, so I'm looking forward to that. After TV, wife packed it in early, hoping to get enough rest to sustain her through my long day at school tomorrow. Here's hoping.

In other news. Spent some time tonight researching a topic that has absolutely nothing to do with anything except a possible future--gardening. Having a garden at the townhouse has allowed me to discover my green thumb, and man, am I ever liking it. The problem is that I don't know very much about it, except that one must provide water to plants to keep them from death. Any more advanced than that, and I'm totally out of my league.

Anyway. There's much more to gardening than meets the eye, as I have found in my internet sojourn this evening. Wherever we end up next, I'm going to arm myself with some serious gardening knowledge and I'm going to make me a garden. I'll grow vegetables as a shout out to my German farmer roots (no pun intended), and I'll grow flowers as a shout out to my Dutch tulip-loving roots. It'll be awesome.

This just in: it is possible to be manly and talk about gardening.

Well, that topic exhausted itself more quickly than I thought it would. There's only so much one can say about growing plants before one comes to the end of one's rudimentary knowledge.

I suppose, then, that I'll be doing my usual sign-off at this point. Hey wait, this is the last posting of the week. Oh man, I can't end like this. I'll think of something.

How about this: I've managed to abandon my travel coffee mug at school. Oh yes, I know exactly where it is, but I can't get to it until tomorrow. Having already broken one travel mug this semseter, and having thus stolen my wife's mug (and tainted it forever with my coffee--all part of the master plan), I am out of muggage. I face the untidy prospect of having to go to class tomorrow without my ever-present companion. I suppose I'll just drink my coffee here before I leave, but seriously, I have an image to maintain. Of course, I could just give up drinking coffee, which would probably be better for me, but I'm far too addicted to consider a rash course of action like that.

Aha! I know what it was that I was going to put up here. Oh yeah, this is going to be good.

Much to nobody's surprise, my son and I are quite similar. Okay, he's a year old, but I mean in personality and such. There are starting to be some really uncanny resemblances between us. Take, for example, our obsession with snacking on breakfast cereal.

Let me tell you a little story. Roughly 27 years ago, a young boy gained a fond appreciation for the little O-shaped cereal known as Cheerios. He would snack on them tenaciously (you're right, not the best adverb for the situation), and often snuck into the kitchen to sneak handfuls straight from the box. One day, his parents caught him red-handed, and, as all parents do, snapped a photo of the occasion; a photo that has become famous in the Carroll household, and has been passed down through the generations like something that gets passed down through the generations.

Now, in the year 2007, history repeats itself. In a little town called Three Hills, another young boy develops an affinity for O-shaped cereal (although due to his wheat sensitivity, he cannot eat the actual "Cheerios" brand, but a generic substitute that does not contain wheat). He, too, likes to sneak them straight from the box, and his parents, too, caught him red-handed and snapped a picture. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the latest exhibit: "Like Father, Like Son"

The linoleum even matches, and it's 27 years later! It's the circle of life, really. And I know you appreciate the fact that I just caused that song to become irrevocably lodged in your head for the rest of the day. I'll bet you're on the second half of the chorus now. Good for you. We win that time-warp battle though, because we've got the harvest gold appliances.

And yes, I did try to put the photos side-by-side, but it didn't work, and I'm too tired to spend any time figuring out how to make them better. I know there's a way, but it is hidden with the blogger gnostics, and any attempt to glean it will result in sure scourging. Some other time, perhaps.

Now that's what I call a weekend send-off. Happy Friday, everyone! I hope your week has been fantastic, and I also hope that next week contains plans to stop by the little blog that you're presently reading. I hope to see you then.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

It's almost the end of March. If I can be granted permission to state the obvious. I'm not sure why this thought suddenly struck me, but it did, and I find myself scrambling to figure out where time is going.

That's about all the philosophical musings I have in me tonight [note: I just finished writing, and this statement turns out to be false]. Other than that, I've got a recap of the day, and some comments on 24. Read on.

The usual kind of Wednesday today. School early 'til late. In my 8:00 class, my prof is always late--no exceptions. He's at least five minutes late every class, but usually he's more like 10-15 minutes late. He's so chronically late, that he's past the point of even apologizing for it, or perhaps even pretending to care. His claim is that he's busy making class handouts, and if he hurried to get to class on time, the quality of our handouts would suffer. Yes, he actually said that. I'm glad he's well-prepared, but it's one of my pet peeves when people don't respect my time. He must be one of those people whose alarm clocks can't be set for any time before 7:00.

Anyway. Went to chapel--met wife and son there as usual for Wednesdays--but wasn't really feeling it, so we snuck out and headed next door for some coffee. The campus coffee shop (not the student one, but the one for the community and students) is quite large, and Theo has ample room to run and frolic--a benefit to all. After having a lovely time with my family, I went to the next class.

Lunch back at home, then back to school again. Not much to report for the afternoon. In my last class of the day (the one where we studied feminist theology earlier this semester), we're talking about the exclusivity of Christianity, which is a really interesting topic. We're trying to answer the famous question about the state of the salvation of that guy in some tribe in Africa who's never heard the message of the gospel. The debate is framed something like this: if an explicit declaration of faith in the work of Christ is necessary and essential for salvation, are those who cannot reasonably make this claim due to lack of proclamation held eternally responsible and condemned to hell? Okay, I'm making it more adversarial than it needs to be, but that's the gyst.

It's an interesting, and very expansive, topic. As usual, there are more than just two views on the answer--it's more like a spectrum, with guys like DA Carson on one end, and Clark Pinnock on the other. In between, there are probably hundreds of permutations and varations on the theme. I, personally, have no idea where I stand on the issue. I know what the typical evangelical response is to the question, but is that sufficient? I'm not sure. How can we balance God's grace, love, and desire for all to be saved, with His wrath, judgement, and fair punishment of sin that we have inherited from our first parents? It's a difficult question.

All this discussion has also led me to a different theological rabbit trail that I'm going to try to head down as the semester closes (and I have free access to an average library of theological works)--open theism. In brief (check the linked website for more, and do a Google search to get the arguments against), this is the belief that God has a limited knowledge of future events, in that He knows how things might turn out, but He does not know for certain until humans have made decisions and acted. In other words, God knows all the possibilities, but not which of the possibilities will actually happen, because He has chosen to create human beings as free moral agents--agents who have some influence (whether they know it or not) on events.

As much as I may want to dismiss a new theological paradigm like this one immediately because it counters what I've been taught, the authors who are behind the movement give me pause. These are well-respected, godly men, who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of a closer knowledge of God. They're not trying to start a cult or subvert Christianity, they're just offering ideas. As one who pursues knowledge for its own sake, and who is going into ministry (likely to be faced with questions like these ones from time to time), it's important for me to be conversant in these things--to know the angles so that I can accurately support my own viewpoint.

But this whole thing also has to be tempered, of course, by the realization that as much as I enjoy thinking about theological constructs, it's not theological construction that's going to get me into heaven (to be crude), nor will my staggering intellect win any souls to Christ. No, my role in ministry is to live my life in a way that gives glory to God, and that makes the concept of faith and the relationship with Jesus so attractive that people can't help but ask questions about why I am the way I am (and not in a psych-eval kind of sense, either).

It's easy many times to get lost in the lofty theologizing that goes on at a campus such as this. It's easy to isolate myself from the real world of hurt and pain because I'm in my little bubble here in Three Hills. It's easy to forget that life is made up of messy people in messy situations, and when I'm face-to-face with a teen who has just found out she's pregnant, or who just got beat up by his dad, my ideas of whether or not the Western Christian ideal of God has been unduly influenced by the thought of Greek philosophers such as Aristotle suddenly become unimportant. In the real world, Jesus walks and lives with sinners, calling them to a better, more abundant life, through a relationship with Him. That message of hope is transmitted unfettered by theological nuance, and is simply stated as an invitation: "Come." That, above these other things, is what I need to remember as I bring it on home.

Moving on, without any kind of appropriate segue.

Hey, did you catch this week's 24? Has to be one of the best so far. I mean, two miraculous healings in one episode (the president, who was crashing moments ago, suddenly regains consciousness and has a national security briefing just in time to stop an ill-advised nuclear strike on an unnamed country in the Middle East; and hey look, Milo doesn't need his sling anymore--I guess threatening to punch out ugly face really did him some good)? That's good.

And I'm glad to see Camilla Parker Bowles is back from the airport and counselling distraught family members to make rash medical decisions based on emotional manipulation. And who doesn't like a shout out to Rain Man, really? I can picture the scene in the writer's meeting: "Okay, what haven't we done yet?" "Oh, I know, a brilliant autistic guy who hacks into government computers and steals important information--it's solid gold!"

And I wonder if Bill and Jack aren't on good enough speaking terms yet for Jack to not have to say, "Bill, it's Jack" every time he calls. If nothing else, the panicked tone of voice and rapid respriation rate ought to give him away. And you know, if I was Bill, I'd be making notes for Jack's personnel file on how many times he's hung up without an appropriate good-bye.

Furthermore, what's with smarmy-face-from-division guy who owes Doyle from Dallas (is that a great name for a B-film, or what)? He's only had two minutes of face time, and I already hate him. Gosh.

But the very best part of the whole show is the fact that this was probably the first and only time in the history of television where the words, "Get me the attorney general" were used effectively as a cliff-hanger. Except maybe on C-SPAN. Even then, it's probably a stretch.

Okay, that about does it for this evening. Hey, did I mention I appreciate you stopping by and reading all this stuff? Well, I do. And I hope you'll come back again tomorrow. See you then.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Our son is a genius. I'm not kidding; he's really amazing. It's such a pleasure to watch him grow and develop, and to see his personality starting to come out. If these months are any indication, it's going to be a blast.

Oh right, the genius part. As you know, part of Theo's bedtime routine is the nightly bath. He's become so accustomed to it that he actually goes there during the day to throw toys in, which is his way of saying, "Okay, it's bath time." Since he's already shown that he's a pretty smart kid, wife thought it would be a cool idea to start to get him used to the toilet. If we can at least get him used to sitting on the toilet, maybe he'll just want to do it more often.

With that in mind, we bought him a toddler toilet thing that sits on top of your own seat. Every night before bath, we plunk him on it for a bit, just to get him used to sitting on it. We ask him if he has to go potty, encourage him, etc. The thing is, the other night, it worked. He actually went in the potty. It was amazing.

Just tonight, I was getting him ready for bath time, and I stuck him on the potty and asked if he had to go. He squeezed out a couple of drops, and you could tell he was trying really hard to go because he knew this was where he went potty. Such a smart kid. I'm telling you, he's going to be toilet trained in no time flat.

But that's not the end of the story. After bath, we went into his room to get his sleeper (it hangs on a nail on the wall, and we ask him to grab it for us, which he does). I realized that there weren't any diapers out, and that I'd have to get some from the box. To keep him occupied, I grabbed an old harmonica, and played a tune for him. As he hadn't seen the harmonica in weeks, it was pretty cool.

Of course, he then grabbed it out of my hands and put it straight in his mouth, which he has done before (part of his emulating everything we do routine). I was going about my business, holding him in my arms while getting these diapers (I wasn't about to let a naked baby wander around our rented house), and suddenly, I heard the sound of the harmonica. I looked at Theo, and he looked at me, and we both burst out laughing.

He actually played the harmonica. After I got a diaper on him, I showed him again how to play, gave it to him, and he did it again. And then again. It was so amazing. The best part was that he cracked a huge smile and a big laugh every time. It was great. I love being a dad.

Hey, did I mention that he also holds his hands out to pray before meals? All we have to say is, "Okay Theo, let's pray," and out come the hands. He holds on until we say "Amen," then he lets go. I've checked, though, and he isn't closing his eyes.

Enough about my amazing son, although I think I have the right to a bit of bragging. He's so incredible. Oh right, enough about him.

Moving on. How's the weather where you are? Guess what? It's snowing here A-FREAKING-GAIN!!!!!!! Yesterday I wore shorts. Today it snowed. If this province's intention is to slowly drive me crazy, it is succeeding. I can't even figure out how to spell succeeding, it's getting to me so much. Crap.

At least it didn't stick this time. It was more like Lower Mainland snow, so at least I felt at home. Of course, back home, this weather would have come and gone in December or January, but whatever. Three weeks from tonight, I'll be blogging about the end of the school year, so it's at least coming to an end quickly. All I want is for there to be no snow over grad weekend. Man.

Moving on. Again. Had a productive day again today, although I'm sure I could have done more. Wife and son went off to another mom's group this morning, this one specifically for the moms to do a book study and chat time. The kids are supposed to all play in the nursery next door and give the moms some time off. Theo, however, was having none of that.

You know, I can't say I blame him for his separation anxiety. To start off your life being abandoned in the nursery every night is bad enough, but it's even worse when we're so inconsistent with our church attendance that he can't get used to any particular set of surroundings or people. We've decided that we're just going to go to the church down the road for the rest of the semester because he needs some consistency (it took us seven months to figure this out, but whatever). If nothing else, maybe by the end of the time here, he'll be used to being left in the nursery during church services.

While they were off doing that, I was doing homework. Oh, back up a bit. Chapel this morning featured speeches from the candidates running for student union positions for next year. If there was something I could be less interested in, I'm not sure what it would be. Went out afterwards for coffee with the chapel intern here, which was a lot of fun. He's a great guy, and I really respect his opinions and his musicianship. Fun times.

Back at home, I did a bunch of editing and worked on a handout for a class presentation. I'm such a nerd that I downloaded a Hebrew font just to put some Hebrew words on the handout. With my rudimentary knowledge of Hebrew, I was able to get the words typed out. It's going to be the best handout ever.

After that, well, the day seemed to just evaporate again. Lunch, an afternoon of mixed Theo time and school work time, dinner, a trip to IGA for some ice cream that I'm going to eat as soon as I'm done here, and the night-time routine for Theo. Wife is out at the weekly art night that happens in these parts, being an artist with all her artist buddies. Actually, all these clubs on campus are just big flirting sessions (which, I hope, isn't why she's going), but there are really interesting speakers at this particular club. For example, tonight one of the music professors is coming to do a brief talk and then play his harp while the artists do their art. Lah-de-freakin'-dah. They'll also snack on the finest caviar and champagne.

So. I guess that's all for today. I'm going to grab last night's 24 and check it out in the next couple of days. I finaly got smart and bought some DVD-RW's so that I don't have to wait to fill a DVD to burn one (it's a waste of DVD to have one show on there). Nice. I'm looking forward to seeing what overused plotline the writers come up with this week. I'm sure I'll have comments on it later this week, too.

Hope you all are having an excellent week. See you tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Woke up to a thin blanket of snow this morning, along with great sheets of fog that hung somberly over the landscape. The fog was the closest thing to a Vancouver morning since we got here. I checked the weather, as I am compulsively wont to do, and there was a winter storm watch issued for this evening and into tomorrow. 5-15 cm of snow forecast.

They removed it later in the afternoon. Fortunately.

Turned out to be an astoundingly beautiful day. The sun came out in the early afternoon, and warmed things up considerably. In fact, by about 11:00, all the previous night's snow had melted. It may still be snowing, but at least it's not overstaying its welcome.

Of course, we took advantage of the nice weather to take a long walk. Went out in the direction of the three hills; got about halfway there and came back. It's too long a walk, and the road turns to stroller-unfriendly gravel, so it's a no-go. But it was a nice walk, nonetheless. Got some Slurpees--again--and then came home and let the boy run around outside for a while. The neighbour kids were busily playing in their yard, and they incorporated Theo into their games as much as they could, which he loved. Things went well, until I told him he couldn't follow a neighbourhood cat into someone else's yard. Then I heard it. Fortunately, it was dinner time, so we at least had a distraction.

What else? Not too much, actually. Had a very productive day, school-wise. I submitted my second-last distance education assignment that I'll ever have to submit, which was somewhat nostalgic. As much as I malign the distance education program, it did get me through the vast majority of my degree program, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. When I submit that last one, that'll really be weird.

This whole thing has been such a definitive part of my life for the past five years that I can't imagine not having to worry about it. Since September of 2002, I've always had something that needed to be handed in, something that needed an edit, something to take notes on. I realize it's a familiar theme in this space, but graduating will truly be the beginning of a new experience for me--one where I won't be constantly worried in my free time that I have something better I could be doing.

Anyway. In speaking with my distance education advisor today, I picked up a couple of interesting pieces of information. First, there are four other distance education graduates this coming April, and I will get a chance to meet them all at the Friday "President's Reception," an event which sounds a lot more fancy than it is, considering it takes place in our dining hall (or "dinning hall" as it is commonly misspelled in campus emails). Plus, on the Saturday of grad, there's a special "distance education only" reception being held by the distance ed school. They're inviting all the distance ed instructors, many of whom are off-campus (retired professors from the community, for example), and it's a chance for the students and professors to put faces to names. Should be interesting, if only to meet the other insane people who decided to make distance ed a part of their lives. I wonder what brain programming we're all missing that allows us to get through it.

Speaking of grad, I learned last week that it turns out I'm not going to be speaking at the ceremony as I was told I would be. I'm a little bit bummed about it, but it was one of those situations where they asked a bunch of people, figuring some would turn it down, but none did. Then the class exec had to get together and make some cuts, and I was one of them. I didn't expect that I'd clear the cuts, considering my dubious status as a distance ed student. I'm sure the people whom they chose will be excellent representatives of the Prairie experience. Even so, it's a little disappointing. Especially since I went from possibly speaking on two separate occasions to none. Oh well. People around here have probably heard enough of me talking.

I also got my grad details memo in the mail the other day. What a production. We have a rehearsal on Friday, a reception that evening, two separate ceremonies on Saturday, the opportunity to treat ourselves and our guests to a Prairie cafeteria lunch (no, thanks), and now a distance ed reception Saturday afternoon. I'm going to be so tired by the end of it all. But I'll have my degree, and that's really the important part. I even got some VIP passes to grad, which just means that people holding them can get in earlier than the rest of the public to get good seats. Whatever.

I recall that I was talking about the day somewhere up above, but lost my train of thought. Here it comes again. Besides accomplishing some school work and going for a walk, there was very little in the way of excitement around here today. Sometimes, when I sit and type these blog postings, thinking back on the day, I wonder how the heck I managed to spend the 16 intervening hours, but somehow I have. Not sure where they went, but I think they were really fun. How's that for vague?

Right. Time to go sleep on the floor. It's going well, thank you. We've set up and taken down the makeshift bed (which consists of two single mattresses, some sheets, and pillows) so many times that it's become an exact science. It's precision work; one false move and you might lose an appendage. But it is substantially more comfortable than the actual bed, so we're a step ahead. How much longer are we going to sleep there? Maybe until the end of the semester. We figure there's no point in going back to the bed, especially since we know we'll be compromising the quality of sleep we get at night. No sir, it's the living room floor for us. I think we'll warn whomever rents the place next about that bed.

With that, another day is done. Thanks for the business today--I do appreciate you coming by. Tomorrow's posting will include many more exciting things, so I hope you make it a part of your day. See you then.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Before I get going, congratulations are due to my cousin Jeff and his wife Tania on the birth of their son, born this evening. Riley Jeffrey Carroll enters the world at 6 lbs, 14 oz. Congrats to all three.

If there's one thing that bugs me about weekends, it's that they're over far too soon. And yet, alas, here it is, Sunday evening, and Monday looms ever closer, breathing its hot, sticky breath down my neck.

A good weekend, though, made all the more fun in retrospect. It's funny, but when the weekend's here, I tend to put my head down and power through; on Sunday night, poignant reflection sets in, and I look back on the preceding 48 hours like a summer vacation in elementary school.

Hmm, feeling philosophical today, are we? No, actually--that's the last you'll hear of whimsical sojourns into the world of "what if."

Moving on. It's snowing. Hard. On March 25. Why? Because that's what winter does here in Central Alberta. It leaves you alone for a few days, gets you vulnerable, and then strikes when the opportune time arises with vim and gusto. Remember me? I'm still here....

I knew I shouldn't have made a comment about it earlier in the day. It's been a bit of a crazy weekend weather-wise--everything from shorts weather to icy north wind--and I made the comment that we've really seen the gamut of weather-related activity, except, of course, for snow. Ha ha. In the words of Han Solo, laugh it up, fuzzball.

Still, we were able to perambulate (my wife told me I needed to define that word) frequently and enjoy the spring weather. Quite lovely at times, actually, and it was really nice to be able to get outside. Theo is really turning into an outdoor baby; he constantly wants to be outdoors, and is starting to become quite upset when the day wears past a certain point and he hasn't been outside yet. It's always interesting taking him out there, too, because he's never quite sure what to do about being out there. He really enjoys the gravel driveway, especially now that he's equipped with an old broom handle (sans head, thanks to some ice a while back--it's a bit of a long story). It only takes one simple object, and the imagination runs wild. I'd love to know what he's thinking.

Today it was especially fun, because I was using an ice pick to break up the thick ice left on the lawn (in anticipation of it NOT SNOWING again that evening), and he was emulating my motions with his little broom handle. It was really cool to watch. And frightening, too, because it only confirms that he's watching everything I do. Oh boy. I've had a lot of people look up to me as a role model (it's the nature of being in youth ministry), but it's somehow different when it's your own kid.

Anyway. Fun was had by all. Here's the weekend in a nutshell. Or perhaps in several nutshells.

Friday. By far, Friday morning was the nicest morning since we've been here. Not because it was particularly warm, but there was that crisp feeling in the air that so perfectly defines early spring. As I walked to school, the sun slowly made its appearance over the horizon, casting long shadows down the street. I could see my breath, but it was that kind of crispness that makes the cool temperatures okay. The iPod substitue was cranking out some good tunes, birds were singing, life was good.

School all day. Fast-forward.

It was the usual Friday night activities--Slurpee and TV. Caught up on this week's 24, and I'll make some comments a bit further down the page. Did some Grey's Anatomy, too, which is always just so good. This season is even better than the first two, and I didn't think that was possible. Although, the death knell is soon to be sounded: they've just announced a spinoff. I personally think CSI was never the same after CSI: Miami came along. Mind you, Law & Order is still okay (at least, it was last time I watched it, which was two seasons ago), so there goes my tidy theory. When shows are really good, though, I can't help but wonder when some serious shark jumpage is going to happen. I tend to think that the longer it's good, the more spectacular the flameout is going to be. Maybe that's just the cynic in me, but I've (unfortunately) watched enough TV to expect that as the normative pattern. Here's hoping this one defies the odds.

Saturday. I know you've been waiting all weekend to hear what our exciting Saturday adventure was. Ready? Red Deer. Ooh, sorry to whip out the boring answer on you. But that's what we did. Two members of our family (of which I am not one--you do the math) have sensitivities to wheat, which means a whole new group of foods take up residence in our pantry. One of those is rice pasta, which is quite the specialty item--which, of course, means that they can put it in small packages and charge an arm and a leg for it. Anyway. The only place one can get these things is at Safeway, apparently. Since we were running out, and since Red Deer has a Safeway, we figured we'd head up there.

While we were there, we also figured we could knock a few other items off the list. For example, it's been weeks since we've been to Starbucks. Also, since I'm going to be visiting a church of possible employment over the Easter weekend, and we left all of our "nice" clothes back in Langley (not anticipating an event like this), we figured it would be a good opportunity to buy a couple of nice things for me with the Moore's gift card I got for Christmas (from my mom, complete with the dedication: "Go buy yourself some nice clothes"--ouch. Next Christmas, I expect a quarter, with the dedication: "Call someone who cares").

I'm happy to report that two of the three were completed without incident. Moore's, well, that was a bit of a bust, actually. You see, I'm surprisingly hard to fit off the rack; I have a pretty wide neck, but my shoulders are narrower in proportion (do I sound like Kronk?). In order to buy a shirt that I can button around the neck to wear a tie with, I have to settle for one that is way too big everywhere else--the shoulder seams sit somewhere halfway down my upper arm, and it is roughly the size of a tent around the middle. I'm done with wearing ill-fitting clothes, so I can't justify spending money on them. Even if it is gift money. One day, I will find a dress shirt that fits me without having to go to a tailor to have it made. Is it too much to ask for a man to have a dress shirt that fits?

Sunday. Woke up and had the usual Sunday morning indecision about where to go to church. I'm actually enjoying the conundrum; as I pointed out this morning, this is probably the last time in our lives (until I retire, at least) where we'll be able to choose which church we attend on a whim, so let's make the best of it and use as many whims as possible. You might even say that we're being whimsical, but that may be going too far.

Anyway. We settled on the church that meets just down the road from us again--more for a conveniently-timed service than anything else--and remembered why we haven't gone there until this semester. Not our cup of tea, really. To sum up: the 80's called, and they want their music back. But it was at least interesting today because they're in the process of candidating a youth and families pastor (what a vague job description that is) who was preaching today. As someone who is soon to go through the ugly candidating process myself, I want to watch others do it to pick up any trade secrets I'm not in on yet. Fun times.

Got home after the service, and it was time for Theo's nap. I also took advantage of the time to catch up on some sleep myself. Theo's had a very restless couple of nights, and has required parental intervention in both. I'm not used to a disrupted sleep cycle anymore, and the waking up to tend to him really throws me off. It's the silly teething again, although there never really seem to be any results. Here's hoping this week will be different. I had a dream last night that he had a full mouthful of teeth, and it's the second time I've had it--maybe it coincides with when he actually cuts a new one, but I don't remember when my last one was, so there goes my scientifically provable hypothesis.

After lunch, we had some play time, including the aforementioned outdoor time, and then it was off for another walk. Did the Three Hills circuit--it took about an hour--and got some more Slurpees. And pepperoni sticks, just for a lark. We got to the cash register and uncharacteristically had to wait in a line. While we were waiting, the large rack of smoked beef products caught our eye, and we decided to splurge on a little high school reminiscence. I love those pepperoni sticks. Didn't really go well with the Slurpee, but hey, whatever. Good Slurpee flavours today, too, which is frequently not the case.

Home for the afternoon, more playing (Theo was in a stellar mood, until his teeth got the best of him), pizza for dinner (corn tortilla crust for the wheat-sensitive ones), then the usual pre-bedtime routine for the little guy. And hey, look at that: we're all caught up.

So what can you anticipate this week in this space? Well, perhaps some further reports on sleeping on the living room floor, which so far is going quite well. I haven't yet woken up with a crink in the neck, nor have I had to start the day with painkillers, so we're good so far. Other than that, lots of school work, which may mean the blog suffers somewhat, but probably not. Nothing exciting planned, especially if the weather sucks like it's supposed to this week. Last week of March means crunch time for me.

Speaking of the last week of March, and necessarily, the first week of April, April Fools' Day falls on a Sunday this year. I personally hate the pseudo-holiday myself, but it sure would be interesting to see a pastor preach an April Fools' sermon. Just saying.

To close, I'd like to make a few observations about last week's episode of 24. I wonder if maybe the screening process at CTU is a bit slack. For example, I think that probably one of the questions they should have on their application form is, "Are you a mole placed here to feed our information to an enemy source, you know, just in case a 24-hour period of national security crisis arises in the tenure of your employment?" Sure, it wouldn't really weed out the moles (they'd probably lie, after all) but it might be a start. Do the writers have nothing better to do than re-use the same stupid plot device they've used every year since this show's been airing?

Furthermore, what happened to Arthur Hoggett? Last we saw him, he ran out without shooting Jack, leaving only a Blackberry with President Logan's phone number on it. Did they forget about that particular plot line.

Also, I'm not sure why Jack is so upset that nobody's told him about Audrey. Just to recap: about 14 hours ago, he was released from two years in a Chinese prison and left to die. Since then, he escaped from custody by biting a guy's jugular vein, he had to shoot his best buddy, a nuclear bomb went off, another was diffused, there was an assassination attempt on the president, he went to visit Charles Logan (by the way, what happened to him? Did I just miss the part where they told us if he was dead or alive?), had to escape from the Russian embassy after a firefight led by Ricky Schroder, and had some time for near makey-outey with his dead brother's widow (which is a little redundant, when it comes right down to it). And now he's pissed because nobody's taken him aside and told him about Audrey? Two words: psych eval.

One more thing: do you think they could make this vice president more of a caricature if they tried? Seriously--he's considering a nuclear bomb attack on a foreign country, and the only people expressing their objections are the national security advisor and chief of staff? Hey, how about using those cell phones to call the media and let them know what's going on? Just a thought. It's not like it's hard to get access to the presidential bunker, especially if you've got exploding highlighters.

Right, that's enough. It's bedtime here, and I'm sure you're done with reading this enormous posting. Thanks, though, for stopping by and making it this far. I hope you'll be with me for the whole week. See you then.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Okay, it's done. Theo's blog posting, that is. Days of technical glitches and waiting for the glorious You Tube to load my videos, but it's done. Check it out if you haven't already. It's definitely worth it.

Nice day today. Got up to 15 degrees, and mostly sunny. The snow pack in the front yard is quickly melting into glorious oblivion. Kicking and screaming, mind you, but going. I'm so anal about the snow melting that on sunny days I go out several times and shovel a bunch off the top, throwing it onto the street in disgust. Take that, winter! Eventually it would melt on its own, but I'd like that to happen sometime before we leave at the end of April, so I figured I'd help it along. You could say that I'm euthenizing the snow, I suppose.

Anyway. It's nice to be able to see the grass again, even if it is brown. Then there's the mud, but we just won't go there tonight. Mud beats snow, in my mind.

Slept on the living room floor last night, which was actually very refreshing. Oh, right, there were foam matresses there, too. With the springs on the bed in our room, every time the other person moved even slightly, the whole bed shook. This way, nothing. It was really nice. Foam matresses aren't the most comfortable arrangements, but they'll do in a pinch, and this was definitely a pinch.

The problem, of course, is that one night of good sleep doesn't make up for many consecutive nights of poor sleep, and so we're equally as exhausted today as we were yesterday. But the light at the end of the tunnel is visible. We're going to sleep there as long as it takes to regain some semblance of rest. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

What else? Not a bad day today. Theo slept in until 7:40, which was nice. He only had a short nap in the morning, though, so we were doomed for the rest of the day to deal with overtired baby. He slept again in the afternoon, but it was in his stroller, and for some reason, those naps don't seem to count because he still wakes up cranky. But at least it was nice enough to go outside and take several walks today.

Still no new teeth to report, mind you. It really sucks for everyone that these chompers just aren't coming through. As much as we saw the top left canine coming through the other day, it's now decided to retreat like a scared little girl. Sorry, no other analogy came to mind there. We can still see the outlines of several teeth in his mouth, rising to the surface and falling again like some strange dental tide--still not a very good analogy, I know--but we're hoping at least one of them decides to push its way through, maybe even this week. That would be nice.

In other news. I need more headings. I'm certainly happy for yet another Friday, and after this there will only be six more class sessions left. Many, many assignments coming up in the last few weeks, but I'm still feeling rather optimistic about them. I'm sure that'll change closer to the date. I managed to get quite a lot accomplished this week, so things continue to move on at their normal pace. Before I know it, I'll be walking across the stage shaking hands with the president.

It being Friday, this is the last post of the week. Be sure to join me again on Monday as I recount our exciting weekend. What's this Saturday's expedition? I guess you'll have to come back and find out. I hope you do. See you then.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Almost there. I am, of course, referring to the Theo blog video that I lamented yesterday. I've got the audio and video synched, but I am now waiting for You Tube to get the processing part completed. If you're reading this on Wednesday night, the posting will be done tomorrow. If you're reading this on Thursday, go over there right now, and see if it's up (I'm planning on publishing the post first thing in the morning). Come right back when you're done.

Good times. I hope that was worth waiting for--it was for me, and I knew what was coming. Very satisfactory.

What a day. Pretty high-pace, with school from 8-12, a short break, in which I had a completely inadequate nap, and then back to school from 2-4:30. What made it worse was having to go back again for a relatively useless meeting from 5:30-6:30. Gosh, that was way too much. By the way, the nap wasn't inadequate because I didn't sleep well; on the contrary--I slept like a log. The problem was that it just wasn't long enough, only about 30 minutes.

Naps like that are really frustrating, because you just get settled into a nice deep sleep, and your alarm goes off. Stupid alarm. Stupid school. Stupid bed.

As you can tell, I'm in a bit of a growly mood. We're back to where we were at this time last semester, feeling the cumulative effect of too many nights in a bad bed. As much as I really enjoy being tired all the time, I could give it up any day. Seriously, it's 9:30, and we're getting ready for bed. So sad.

But, tonight we're trying a new tactic. There are two single beds here from the Sweden store, with foam matresses. We've pulled the matresses off and put them together in the middle of our living room and made a makeshift bed out of them. King size, too--nice. Ah, the lengths we'll go to just to shake things up in hopes of a good night's rest. I hope it works.

In other news. I was surfing around one of my favourite sites in the world (it's worth following the link) looking at the "Curious Lucre" section of the site, where currency from around the world is examined, and I followed a link to a site called kiva.org. Have you heard of them? It's just such a fantastic idea that I think you should know about it.

What they do is partner with various aid agencies in third-world countries who are helping entrepreneurs (a surprisingly difficult word to spell, if indeed it is correctly spelled there) start up or expand businesses. As an individual, you can contribute to the cause of these individuals by giving donations (as small as $25) that are eventually paid back. What a great way to spend some money. And you'd be surprised what these folks can do with very little.

Social justice has always been a concern of mine. I think it's important for us as Christians to get involved in helping the third world. The only problem is that it's notoriously difficult to actually get involved in practical ways. Sure, you could sponsor a child, but much of your cash goes to overhead for the organization. It's a similar story everywhere. What Kiva does is give you the opportunity to directly impact the life of someone in a very practical way. This is what makes the internet a good and beautiful place to be. Check it out, and think about giving a donation. As soon as we get a paycheque, that's where we're going to be spending some of it.

Finally, as I alluded to yesterday (was it yesterday? I'm so confused), I have some really exciting news that I want to share with you all (which isn't really news if you're a family member; this is for others). As you know, I'm coming to the end of my degree, and our thoughts are now turning to employment come summer.

A while back, I got a call out of the blue from the pastor of a church in Armstrong, BC. They were looking for an associate pastor, and my name had been passed on to him. To make a long story short, I submitted an application, had a few other steps, and now it's to the point where they want us to come out for a weekend to take a look at the church and have a face-to-face interview with the elders. Praise God!

Many of you also know that the whole area of employment and our future has been a big cloud hanging over my head since I left my last job. Because of the way things went there, I was really shaken in the area of self-confidence; I questioned my ability to do the job at all, and it led to a crisis of calling and of vocation. It was a difficult time. Throughout all of it, we still heard God's voice--sometimes quiet, sometimes loud, but always there--telling us that things were going to be okay. And it turns out that yes, He really does have a plan for us in the midst of all the garbage we went through. In fact, it's gotten to the point where I'm not even bitter about our experience anymore. Not that I look back on it and laugh, but I no longer look back and swear, either.

Being out here has been a good experience. It's been a time of healing, of re-centring, of re-focusing, and of re-ordering our priorities. After a long hiatus, we feel like we've finally come to the point where we're ready to get back on the horse, metaphorically, at least (I'm not really interested in getting on a real horse).

The point of this is two-fold. First, God is good. That much you likely already know, so maybe that's just an obvious point. Second, we'd really appreciate your prayers right now, as we seek the Lord's guidance (which is really Christianeze of me, but true) and as we travel over there on the Easter weekend. It's not a candidating trip, but it's the step right before it (don't get me started on why this process has to be so arduous).

With that, another day's posting comes to an end. I'm going to go camp out on my living room floor now. Wish me luck; I'll have a full report for you tomorrow. See you then.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Happy spring.

More on that later.

Man, am I frustrated. I've completed a massive update to Theo's blog, complete with multitudinous pictures and even a bunch of video, but there's one little niggling issue that keeps coming up, and I just can't post it until I figure it out. To that end, I just spent a whole bunch of time trying to find a solution, but I'm running up against dead ends.

The worst part is that I know what the problem is, I know how to fix it, I've downloaded some safe, reliable software to do it, and I have, in fact, done it, but there's a problem in that very last step that I can't figure out how to solve. What's worse is that the software I downloaded is freeware, so there's no such thing as an instruction manual, or even an FAQ. To stop now, though, would be throwing away all the work I've done so far, which I just can't do. Argh!

I give up, but only for now. I am going to make it happen. In the words of Wayne, "She will be mine; oh yes, she will be mine."

What's the problem? Well, it sounds really nerdy, and quite anal, but I'll confess to both of those things. The problem, you see, is that I have these great videos of Theo that I so desperately want to put on his blog. The problem is that our digital camera shoots in .MOV format, and You Tube doesn't like that format. Specifically, it decides to put the whole video out-of-sync. Usually, this is not much of an issue (even though I notice and it bugs me). With this particular video (and one other I shot), it is an issue, because the audio is dependent on the video; if they're out of sync, it just doesn't make sense. And they're not a little out of sync--they're way out.

I consulted the almighty You Tube help section, and found that what it wants are videos shot in .AVI or .WMV format, with MPEG-4 video encoding and MP3 audio encoding. Who knew? Who even knows what that is? Okay, I do--please reread the above about being nerdy.

Thinking and typing about my train of thought is actually making me realize what a total nerd I am. Anyway. Off I went to one of my favourite sites on the web (extraordinarily useful, and he also publishes a monthly newsletter that's so worth getting, even if you're not as much of a geek as I am), and found a free video encoder that would handle my needs. Downloaded it, installed it, and came up with the problem I'm currently dealing with. Grr.

Cool, two onomatopeias in one posting.

Moving on. Because I feel particularly defeated by technology, and because I'm too tired to think of anything really witty to write (or even sort-of witty--the well is dry, I'm afraid), it's going to be a picture posting today (which reminds me of Picture Pages--two separate links there--with Bill Cosby, but I digress).

Steph went for a walk today and was kind enough to snap some shots for me. First off, as you saw at the beginning of the blog, it wasn't exactly the greatest start to the day today. However, by the time the afternoon rolled around, it was quite nice, with no trace of the earlier snow. Of course, in the evening, it got all wind storm on us, and it's just snowed again, so whatever. They say the weather here is unpredictable, and now I know why.

Anyway. As you can see, the last vestiges of the snow are disappearing...

Someday soon...

A couple interesting shots: the edge of town...

Just out of town, looking back in...

And some interesting things we see across the fields...

Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for. We realized that alas, there was no picture of the majestic three hills the town is so aptly named after. Well, you've all waited a long time for this, so here they are...

What, can't you see them? Look closely, right in the back there. Yes, those three little pre-pubescent lumps on the horizon are the legendary three hills. Wow.

Alas, I have not yet been able to watch this week's 24, but I did something much better tonight in having a long conversation with my parents on the phone, so it was worth it. I hear I'm not in for much, so that's good (with the episode, not the phone call). I'll have some sardonic comments tomorrow, perhaps.

Thanks, as always, for stopping by. Hope you're enjoying your week, and see you tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Happy spring. Okay, it's not actually spring yet, but it arrives at 5:07 PM MDT Tuesday. I wish that meant that we were mandated to have spring-like weather from now until we leave, but alas, I'm sure that's not going to be the case.

If you couldn't tell by the tone of that opening paragraph, winter came back with a vengeance today, reminding us that she's not quite through with us yet. -3 this morning, and it just kept dropping. At one point, it was -14 with the windchill. Fantastic. It's quite nice now, though--too little, too late, I'm afraid. The sun came out at about 4:30, and warmed it up above zero. Tomorrow's supposed to be plus-10, so here's hoping.

It's always interesting to write with no script or preconceived ideas of what I'm going to say. For example, I just wrote a whole section, and realized that it belonged at the bottom, so now I have this sort of weird thing going on where I've written the top and bottom of the posting, but not the middle. As Mr. Lunt would say, "There's something missing in my middle, and it's hard to ignore." Of course, I could get around this by simply walking away from the computer and publishing, but that just wouldn't be much fun now, would it? No, it wouldn't. So I'm going to write some more, and then get to that last part. Not sure why I just wrote all that, actually. Just go with it, man.

What happened today? Woke up with the boy and took care of the bottle. No milk in the house (we always forget to check on Saturdays, since the grocery store isn't open on Sundays and that seems to be the day we always run out), so it was yogurt for breakfast, and some toast. Changed some diapers, then headed off to school for a meeting with a project group. Still not a fan of the group project, but I will put my head down and bear it, because hey, there are only 8 classes left. After that, ran some errands, including paying almost $500 worth of electricity and pad rental bills that were stacked up since November. Not my issue; our invoices come from the college, and they seem to be sending the monthly statements out on a quarterly basis, which is great month-to-month, but really sucks when they actually get around to mailing them to you. Efficiency, I'm afraid, is not their strong suit.

Anyway. Lunch at home with the fam; the boy was in a good mood (his top left canine is cutting through; we can see the very tip of the tooth now, so we hope this is the end of teething mood), and he actually wanted to play, which is always fun. Today's game: basketball, with hoop being held by mom. Slam dunks and over-the-top affirmation abounded.

After that, back to school to the student coffee shop. They often have random movies playing, but today was special. On the screen was the 1989 classic: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (link is to IMDB, for those of you who are unfortunate enough to not have seen it). I don't know about you, but I can hear the line, "Bill S. Preson, esquire" thousands of times before I'm sick of it. Oh man, such a good movie. In the midst of that, I managed to get some school work done, surprisingly.

Back home, a trip around town with the boy (to get the milk, among other things) while mom cleaned the floors--tough to do with a mobile toddler in the house. Home, dinner, bath time, evening bottle, Theo to bed, wife to the weekly Monday Night Worship event, Mark to computer to look up all the musical instruments he wants to buy with no money. I will soon, however, have income, and when I do, watch out, ebay. When Steph gets home, it's more Battlestar Galactica (we're almost through season 1) and some nachos. A perfect night.

And now, without any sort of appropriate segue, the stuff I wrote before, but wanted to put at the end. Why must I be a picky writer?

I'm not feeling particularly philosophical tonight, but I do have one new life philosophy to share with all of you, and who knows, maybe you'll be inspired. Or something. You're bound to have a reaction. Hopefully.

The other day, I was sitting around thinking about things that might or might not be (with regard to things such as future employment, living situation, and further education), and I realized that there are a lot of things in my life that I say, "One day, I'm going to...." Fill in the blanks at the end with anything, really; it's all the same.

But you know what? It's time to stop saying "one day" and start making that one day today. For example, I've always said, "One day, I'm going to learn to play the violin." When we were over at our friends' house a couple Sundays ago, I noticed that she had a violin. She told me that she had always wanted to learn to play, and so her husband went on ebay and bought her a violin.

I was stunned. I always thought that things like learning to play the violin would be expensive, but with the advent of the internet and especially sites like ebay, things aren't so out-of-reach anymore. In fact, there are some pretty good violins right now going for about $50. A small price to pay for the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, don't you think? And a complete annihilation of any excuse I might have had.

And so I've developed a new life philosophy: no more saying, "one day." No more sitting around and blaming others for the fact that I haven't done something I wanted to do. To learn to play the violin is in my hands, and nobody else's (although yes, financial decisions are a two-person matter, and I have a family that comes first; I'm not trying to imply otherwise), and if it's possible to learn, then I need to stop living in the land of what if and making it a reality. Gosh.

Here come some broad generalizations. These may or may not apply to you; don't think that just because I'm saying them means that they're somehow normative for all members of the species. I'm just making some observations. What I think is that many of us really do live our lives in a way that makes it seem like we're powerless to change our situations. But it's not really true. To a certain extent, we can always change our lot in life. Sometimes it takes a lot more effort, but I think it's always worth it. I think that too many of us are living lives full of "what if's" and unrequited dreams, and it's really a terrible place to be.

Maybe you're like me, and you've always wanted to do something, learn some new skill, take a certain vacation, run a marathon; the list is endless and the choices myriad, but the point is the same. Can I encourage you tonight to decide that you're going to take a step toward something you've always wanted? Trust God to provide your deepest, most hidden desires. After all, isn't He a God who wants good things for us? Didn't Jesus say that He came to give us life abundantly? I think so. And I think it's not too much to ask God to meet your dreams; He gave them to you, after all. Abundant life isn't for the sweet hereafter; it's for right now, too.

I have to admit some inspiration for this came from reading Jane's blog, and her amazing "101 things to do in the next 1001 days." Inspiring (Jane, how are you doing on those? I looked for an update, but alas, I haven't been keeping up with you regularly). And it makes me want to make a similar list. It's time to stop living like a victim and taking charge of things.

That's the philosophy component for this evening; I hope you liked it. Coming up later this week, a few comments on 24, a new Theo blog posting, and perhaps, just perhaps, an exciting announcement regarding the future. I'd tell you now, but I'm going to play it close to the vest until I clear a few more hurdles. It's exciting, though.

See you as the week goes on.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Here I sit, on a grey Sunday afternoon, contemplating the things men contemplate when they take a rare moment for introspective reverie. Everyone is asleep, and I should be, too, but alas, I value a certain amount of self-time. In fact, there's nothing more peaceful for me than reading a book or sitting at the computer when the rest of the house is under the spell of a deep and restful slumber. Times like these are rare now, and I treasure them.

So. It's just after 3:00 on Sunday afternoon, and I'm already starting Monday's blog posting. How about a recap of the fantastic weekend we had? Okay.

Friday. School, again. But hey, only 9 more classes left until the end of the semester (9 sessions of each class, that is, for a total of 36). No, wait, I just checked my class schedule and there are only 8 more classes left, because Good Friday is thrown in there. And no, I haven't stopped looking forward to it yet.

Nothing spectacularly exciting went on; my sister accompanied me to the afternoon sessions, which was fun. We were, as usual, trading witty banter throughout the first class, which made a boring class a lot more enjoyable. Good times.

On Friday night, it was Slurpees and Carcassonne again--the usual Friday night fare. I lost both times, but that is the way of things, I'm afraid. It is my lot in life to lose at board games, and that's okay. I win every once in a while, just enough to keep me coming back for more.

Saturday. Big day, with many exciting things happening. Our main task was to take Laura to the airport for 3:30, which meant leaving here right after lunch. We also wanted to make a stop at a mall beforehand. I needed new sunglasses, you see, and hey, I wasn't getting an argument from either of the ladies for going to a mall.

Off we went, then, to the Deerfoot Outlet Mall right near the airport. Good times. I found my sunglasses, and Steph found an item she's been looking for for quite some time now: a nice winter coat. Actually, saying that doesn't quite give enough emphasis to how arduous this search was for her. As you know, she's quite small, and finds it difficult to find off-the-rack items that fit her. Added to that difficulty is the fact that we don't have much money to spend on things like clothes, so the ones that might fit her are way out of our price range. For the entire winter, she had been searching, but with no luck. I told her that we should just suck it up and pay more for a coat that will last, but she, in her shopping wisdom, told me that it was possible to get a coat at a reasonable price that would fit her if she was diligent enough (a statement made by someone with clearly more experience than I in such matters). I'll never doubt her again.

Evidently March is the time to clear out the stock of winter items, so it was good timing for sales. She found an amazing wool coat that was originally $160, marked down to $39. Oh, and it was also 25% off the last sale price. It's an incredible coat--looks really great on her, and fits like a glove, right off the rack--and at that kind of price, you can't lose.

Here's the thing, though, that bugs me about that. I'm no communist; I believe that capitalism is not a bad system. Yes, it is often abused, but as they say, the solution to abuse is not disuse, but proper use. Or at least, that's what I say. Anyway. This coat started off at $160, and six months later, it's suddenly worth a quarter of that? Why? Did the wool decline in value? Will it never again be cold enough to wear a warm coat? Does the whole fashion of coats change so dramatically year over year that this coat will be hopelessly out of style next winter? No, to all of those questions. Why do people ever buy full-price items, anyway?

Again, I cite my lack of any reasonable shopping experience to find the logic of shopping itself. Perhaps I need to study things a little bit more closely to understand the motivations of full-price buyers. It's one of those things, I think, that us males will never be able to comprehend. My idea of shopping is derived from the ancestral hunter-gatherer motif--identify what it is you need, locate it, purchase it, and move out. Swift, sure attacks, that's what I'm about. Oh well.

And, I must mention, I hold no ill regard for those who choose to pay full price as a regular habit. If you have the cash to do that, then good for you. In fact, please continue, because it's your season-specific shopping that allows poor people like us to take advantage of the fantastic sales in off-season months. Keep it up, then.

After the mall, we did manage to drop Laura off on time, and I'm assuming she made her flight because we haven't had any harried phone calls that she had the wrong day or some such thing. All is well, then.

On the way back home, we hit the Superstore, again. Used the new self check-out, as we were only looking for a few items. I don't know why I enjoy making them do less work, but there's something gratifying about checking out your own groceries. Okay, maybe it's just me. But it was fun nonetheless.

In the evening, I was treated to a rare delight: my Canucks were on CBC. It hasn't happened much this semester, for some reason, but it was good to see them again. Beat the Wings 4-1, so it was even a good ending. Steph fell asleep near the end of the game, a fact that I only discovered when I made a comment about the game and was greeted with silence in return. Awkward, but not the first time I have had a conversation with myself, especially during a hockey game.

Sunday. That brings us to today. This morning, we went back to the church we went to two weeks ago (it meets in the elementary school just down the street from us) because Prairie's Ambassador choir and Jubilation wind ensemble (which sounds like a euphemism, but isn't) was doing a program in the service. Really talented bunch, those guys, and fun to see. The only thing that bugged me was that a couple of the winds (the alto sax and clarinet) were somewhat out of tune, but only on some notes. But when it happened, it was pretty blatant. I also remembered one thing I need to do before I die: direct a choir. There's something about choir directing that makes me happy. But that's just me.

After church, it was time for lunch, and then naps, which takes us up to this exact moment. This afternoon, I'm going to a barbeque (yes!) hosted by one of my teachers and his wife, which seems like it would be weird but isn't, considering he just came out of 22 years of youth ministry and having people over all the time. I admit, it does blur the line somewhat, but that's okay because he's such a cool guy. And you can tell he's from BC, because he'll barbeque any time of year. I'll give you the full update when we return in a few hours.

Later. Back from the BBQ. It's funny to go to a social event with people you don't really know at all, save in the context of your 3 hours-per-week interaction in the classroom. Things got off to a bit of a slow start, but warmed up near the end. There was a pool table, so that's where the guys got to, and the ladies, well, they're actually good at starting conversations. Good times by the end of it, like I said.

One thing that didn't disappoint: the burgers. It's really comforting to eat a barbequed hamburger when it's snowing outside. There's something, I don't know, irreverent about it. Personally, I could eat BBQ hamburgers every day, and I haven't had one since, well, last summer is probably when it was. Back in BC, I'd be BBQ-ing weekly; here, we don't even have a BBQ to use. It really just made me want to go home.

With that, welcome to another week--I'm glad you stopped by, and I hope you'll be a regular visitor over the course of it. See you tomorrow.

Friday, March 16, 2007

I have good news: the garbage that passes for customer service here in Alberta is alive and well. Tonight we took a trip out to Olds because, hey, it's not Three Hills, and we wanted to go out for dinner with my sister (on the way, she beheld the majestic beauty of the three hills north of town, and was underwhelmed). Went to Boston Pizza, where we're had nothing but good service since we got here, and, well, it was terrible.

Maybe I'm too hard on those who are involved in food service because of my background in it, but I don't think so. I'm not hard on you if you are just having a bad day. But if you're just not good at what you do, and you're not even trying, well, then I have an issue. Worst service, ever, period.

Here's an example. There was a lady sitting at the table next to us; the table was set for six, but she was alone, obviously the vanguard of some imminent pizza-devouring force that was soon to appear. Unfortunately, she either got the time wrong, or the rest of her party was very late, because man, did she sit there for a long time (from before we got our food until after we were finished, and that includes them having to re-make mine because they got it wrong).

Anyway, as she was sitting there, our server would often check with her to see if she needed anything (in his oafish kind of way). Just as we were finishing our meal, he approached the table, and said ever so tactfully, "I think you got ditched." Funny, that's probably what just happened to your tip.

In another funny example, my sister's credit card is having issues with being randomly declined at various establishments, but she figured she'd give it a try tonight. After she had given it to our lovely server, he left, and returned a few moments later. Nearly tossing the billfold down on the table, he politely announced, "Your card got declined." Nice. Ever heard of maybe using a little tact in a delicate situation such as that? It's not exactly something you want to publish, you know? Not that Laura was embarrassed, but still, it's the principle of the thing. Sheesh.

In other news. Like many restaurants nowadays, this one had an automatic paper towel dispenser--the kind you just wave your hand at and the paper towel comes out all by itself. What foul black magic is this, that one can conjure up a towel with just the wave of one's hand?

Anyway, I'm a total germaphobe, so I am in favour of the auto-dispenser. In fact, the more automation, the better. I love the washrooms with auto-flush toilets, faucets that come on when you put your hand underneath, soap that is dispensed into your hand on command, and paper towels that magically appear. The less disgusting handles I have to touch with my bare hands, the better. In fact, I'm one of those people who takes a paper towel to the door and uses it on the handle. If there's no waste basket around, I just take a random shot toward the nearest one, and in so doing, provide hours of work for janitorial staff (doing my part for the economy).

The major problem with these towel dispensers, as far as I can see, at least, is the distinct varation in the amount of towel that is dispensed. In fact, this BP was the first restaurant I've been to where there was actually an adequate piece of towel dispensed. Most of the time, the piece that comes out is so puny that you can't even get one hand wipe out of it, and then you're left turning off the water with a wet paper towel. What's worse is that you have to sit there waving at the towel dispenser several times, hoping that you're in the sight lines of the dispensing sensor (which would make a great band name, by the way) and generally looking like an idiot. Why can't you just give me enough the first time, cheapskate? Gosh.

Moving on. Woke up this morning to a nice fresh dusting of snow AGAIN. Fortunately, it was sunny enough during the day to melt. Unfortunately, we had left the stroller out on the porch.

March is like an abusive relationship. The cold shoulder and the warm embrace all in one day. Talk about passive-aggressive. What's worse is that you can't pack up and leave in the middle of the night--you just have to endure it. Terrible.

But hey, if nothing else, the week is over, already. That means that there are only 4-1/2 weeks of school left. Yikes. I think I'm going to be okay in the run-up to the end; things seem to be well in-hand, and I don't really worry about saying that and jinxing anything, because it's entirely within the realm of my control. I know what has to be done, and I have a plan to do it. Tidy.

Of course, with it being Friday in the morn, the alarm is again my worst enemy, so I will conclude tonight's episode on that note. Oh, speaking of episodes, yes I did watch 24 tonight, and I will make only a few comments in the next paragraph. Skip it if you haven't seen it. I'll conclude after that.

*Spoiler Alert*

I have to say, I like the amount of explosions and gunfire in this season. Yeah, a few of those episodes were slow, but it's been pretty good so far. Of course, the vice-president is probably the most unlikably stereotyped American in the history of television, but you're not supposed to like him. And it was great to see Aaron back again. Martha I'm not so sure about (especially after her psycho hose-beast meltdown), but Aaron, he's the guy. But just one note to all network executives and those in charge of casting: Ricky Schroder is not a bad-ass, no matter how many bullets he fires or people he threatens to strangle. And only Jack Bauer can lead a ground assault without a helmet or bullet-proof vest, pretty boy. Go back to Shallow Springs.

*Okay, all clear*

Right, now it's time to go. Thanks again for your patronage this week. Make sure to check Theo's blog this weekend, as I'll be updating it. See you back here on Monday.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Wow, am I tired today. Woke up last night at 4:30, and had that horrible feeling of tossing and turning and being completely unable to fall back into any kind of sleep, other than brief, ten-minute catnaps. That's almost worse than being awake. To add to it, we didn't get to bed until close to midnight last night after doing the visiting thing with my sister and all. Good times, but man, am I paying for it today.

On the plus side, I managed to stay awake long enough to do my long-awaited class presentation this afternoon. Classes are 75 minutes long, and there are two 30-minute presentations per class, plus discussion time. Well, my prof was a few minutes late, and the lady before me took an inordinately long time, so I didn't actually get to the interaction part of it (which was too bad, because I had it all prepared). Fortunately, my prof didn't dock me on it--still got an A on the presentation, which suits me fine. There's 20% of my grade all taken care of. Now it's the writing of the research paper that accompanies the presentation, and there's over half the grade. Then there's that darned make-up-your-own-questions final exam. Argh!

In other news. Watched an absolutely brilliant movie tonight: Little Miss Sunshine. What a fine piece of filmmaking. I have to admit, seeing the police chief from So I Married An Axe Murderer (a classic older Mike Myers flick, if you haven't seen it) as the foul-mouthed grandpa was jarring at first, but I got used to it. Actually, the movie is full of "that guy from that show," including Hodges from CSI and Chloe from 24 (which I didn't get watched tonight, darn it), and a host of others.

It's one of those slice-of-life flicks that has a "plot," but not in the modernist sense of the plot. Well-acted, though, and really well-written, too. Add to that the excellent direction, and you've got the trifecta right there. Super. I highly recommend it, but only if your f-bomb detector isn't very sensitive (read: just because it's called Little Miss Sunshine doesn't mean it's for the kiddies).

Moving on, again. I forgot to mention the crazy incident with Theo on Monday--I'm not sure how, but it just totally slipped my mind. Theo's at the point of really cruising around right now; he's experimenting with velocities higher than "slow walk," and it's usually quite entertaining. Sure, he occasionally takes a good tumble, but he's back up again in no time, ready to go.

Another important piece of info on the side is that he really likes it when we do laundry and hang the clothes to dry (inside, as it's not nice enough to do it outside yet). He thinks it's really funny to pull the clothes down and run around the house with them, depositing them in a location only he understands the significance of. Again, harmless fun.

On Monday, he was doing both of these things--running and pulling down laundry--when he passed through the kitchen. Unfortunately, earlier in the day he had pulled a bunch of Ziploc container lids onto the linoleum floor. As he ran by with laundry in his hand, he slipped on the lid. Of course, he wasn't willing to let go of his prize laundry and brace his fall with his hands, so he took it right in the face. Awesome.

Much panicked crying ensued, and we weren't sure if he was really hurt or if he had just startled himself really badly. Until we saw the blood.

It's amazing how cuts in the mouth bleed. A good word for it is, "profusely." This one was no exception. When he finally calmed down enough for us to look inside and see if it would need stitches, we realized that his tooth was still embedded inside his lip. Fortunately, it hadn't pierced all the way through, and we managed to extract the tooth from the lip. Much bleeding continued, but he managed to suck on a wet cloth to soothe it, and the bleeding soon stopped. That's another thing about mouth injuries: they may bleed like crazy, but they also clot quickly.

We swore he was going to have a big fat lip on Tuesday, but there was pretty much no sign of the previous day's misadventures. Oh, to have his healing power. Actually, I think he might be a mutant, like Wolverine. I'm just waiting for the adamantium exoskeleton. That'd be awesome.

This is what makes being a parent so much fun. As I said to Steph afterwards, he's a boy, and that's not going to be the last time he hurts himself (he might, for example, take after his dad and do a face-plant over the handlebars of his bike while riding at speed). It hurts to look at, but it's part of growing up. As long as our negligence isn't contributing to it, I'm okay with him sustaining some injuries. Call me callous.

Okay, that's all for tonight. There's a queue for the use of the computer, and like I said, I'm fargin' tired, so I'm going to hit the sack (it's just 10:00 now--I must be a parent). So, I'll see you all tomorrow with more exciting tales, including a trip to the lovely town of Olds for some Boston Pizza. Should be fun times. See you then.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Ah, the joys of living in a wonderful province such as Alberta. After yesterday's 17-degree highs, today was back down to the negatives again. In fact, it was so bad in Calgary this morning that the basketball team that was going to come here and beat the crap out of Prairie's team couldn't make it. What a place.

Speaking of Calgary, we took our second trip in four days down to the big city this afternoon/evening to pick up my sister for a few days of visiting, and to hang out with my cousins. Good times were had by most. It's always fun for me, and I might have mentioned this before, to see how relationships change as you get older. This particular set of cousins--one of whom is likely reading this right now--always lived close to us when we were growing up, and we were all very close as young kids, but then as we moved into teenage-dom, we grew apart due to different interests and social circles. Now, when we've all grown up a little bit, it's fun to see how those differences really just fade away and we all recognize the familial bond that we share. It's quite a lot of fun, really. And I'm not just saying this because Melissa made a delicious meal that I enjoyed tremendously.

It's also fun to have my sister here, and not just because she's another human being to interact with. We're getting her all pumped up about how much fun the next few days are going to be, but we can't seem to convince her that it's true. Oh well; if nothing else, by the end of the week we'll have earned her sympathy having to live in such a place as this. Either way, we win, I figure. Tomorrow we have a tour of the town planned (which should take all of 20 minutes), and then she's going to come to class with me in the afternoon. Good times.

You know, and I'm sorry that this transition is so jarring, but there's just no way to make it less so, whenever we switch the clocks backwards or forwards, for some reason it always takes me quite a bit of time to get used to it. It's not the time change that gets me, it's the light. For example, today when we were at Melissa and Dan's, it was still light out at 7:15. That's just bizarre to me. I can't keep track of all this.

It got me thinking, why do we even bother with Daylight Saving Time, anyway? By the way, please, please, please, notice that it's "Saving" not "Savings" (and it's "Interac" not "Interact"). Yes, I'm anal. Too bad for you.

Anyway, this year, we went to DST three weeks earlier than usual, and we're going to end it later. It's all in an effort to save energy, apparently, but it also means that it's actually "standard" time for less than half of the year. So I guess it's not so standard, is it? But here's my question: does it really matter if we set our clocks forward and backward? Will the world come to a grinding halt if we cease to spring forward and fall back? What is the big deal, truly?

But, you may ask, is there precedent for the bold move you're considering? We can't simply abandon standard time and daylight saving time, can we? Let me tell you something: Saskatchewan doesn't have daylight saving time, or at least they didn't the last time I checked. And you know what I say, "If Saskatchewan can do it, so can I." Seriously, it's my motto. I'm considering having T-shirts printed.

The long and the short of it is that I'm just puzzled as to why we bother with the time change stuff. It doesn't seem to make a huge difference in my life, and you know, I'd be happy not having to reset every single stupid clock in the fargin' house twice a year. Just saying.

Glad I got that off my chest. It's been bothering me, if you couldn't tell. And with that, I will conclude tonight's collection of mumbo-jumbo. Tomorrow (actually, today, since this is Wednesday's posting) I have my long-awaited class presentation, so I'll be sure to give you a run-down. Also, I haven't had the chance to watch 24 yet, so no commentary tonight. In fact, after reading through what I've done the past two weeks, I'm just not happy with it, so I'll probably just make a couple of observations and leave it at that.

Anyway, thanks again for coming by, and I'll see you tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Another gorgeous day today, if a bit schizophrenic at times. Got up to 17 degrees this afternoon, but now it's back down to freezing. To add insult, there's a fresh layer of snow on the ground right now. And I just spent today trying to get my big piles of snow to melt. D'oh! That's life here in central Alberta. Clearing tomorrow afternoon, allegedly, with a high of six degrees. We'll see.

Along with the freak snowfall comes this terrible wind that's been ripping through town today. Steph and Theo went for a walk into town, and it was all she could do to push the stroller against head-on wind. Crazy stuff. I stayed in--it's probably safer.

Anyway. Today's substance is going to be a recap of our day at the zoo on Saturday. The Calgary Zoo is quite a place, let me say that. I'd forgotten what a real zoo was like, being from tree-hugging, animal-loving BC where zoos are verboten. An amazing collection of animals, really, from all over the world, including some I didn't even know existed (and whose names I can't recall at this moment).

Theo, of course, loved it. I'm not sure if he loved it more because there were animals or because there were a whole lot of other kids around. Probably a little bit of both. We started off in the Africa section; they have a baby giraffe named Richard, born back in November. Amazing to see. Well, it's amazing to see giraffes at all, let alone a baby giraffe. Really amazing stuff. We also got a look at the lions (not sure the snow in their exhibit really caught the spirit of the savannah, but hey, who's counting?), zebras, hippos, and all sorts of other creatures. They have a great gorilla area, too, with a whole bunch of them hanging around.

Let's see, I can't give you the whole play-by-play because (a) it's pretty boring--you sort of had to be there--and (b) I can't really remember all the animals we saw. Suffice it to say there were many, and there were really neat.

Here's the thing with the zoo--the one thorn among the roses, if you will (and I know you will). Maybe it's all the Zoo Tycoon I've played, and maybe it's the fact that I live in tree-hugging, animal-loving BC, but I have to say, some of the exhibits made me cringe. Take the giraffes (please)--their enclosure was a concrete floor with concrete walls. Same with the hippos. Just concrete (and water to swim in). The giraffes had some tree branches affixed to some poles so they could eat. But that's about it.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to having animals in captivity. I grew up going to the Vancouver zoo when it was in Stanley Park, and we always had annual Aquarium passes, too. I personally think that part of being vice-regents of creation means that we can domesticate animals, provided that we treat them well and use them to learn from. Nothing better expresses the handiwork and amazing creativity of God the Creator like the variety of animals in the world.

However, what I object to is treating animals like we somehow own them, and have no responsibility to make sure they're at least satisfied with their conditions. Now, maybe there's something I don't know about giraffes (just maybe) and it turns out they really are satisfied in a shelter made of concrete or one made of savannah grasses, but I'm not convinced. Show the animals some respect, is all I'm saying. Give them an environment that at least makes an effort to mimic their own, and I'm happy. I just don't think there's much concrete on the plains of Africa, that's all.

Whatever. I doubt that any of that had any credibility whatsoever, so I'm going to move on. Actually, I'm going to stop moving on and go to bed (I obviously need it). Tomorrow marks the beginning of a visit from my sister, which should be really fun. I'm not sure what impact if any it'll have on blogging time, but I hope to continue on unabated. We're taking our second trip to Calgary in four days to pick her up, so that should be fun. It's actually a really nice drive when the weather's nice, and while we're there, we get to have dinner with my cousins and, well, my cousin's kid, who I guess is my second cousin, but that's always been a fuzzy relationship to me.

Anyway, fun will ensue. And I'll be sure to give you at least something of a report tomorrow. That's all for now, but I'll see you tomorrow.