How Many Topics Can One Post Cover?

Do you like my new profile picture? Do you know who it is? Why, it's Lunar Jim, of course. Can you tell we watch Kids CBC in the mornings around here? Lunar Jim is by far my favourite of these shows. Good Canadian programming. Which, surprisingly, isn't an oxymoron.

Actually, it's been really interesting to only get CBC and Global (and a very blurry CTV, but only on a good day). Steph was saying today that even though you get used to the programs you liked to watch when you had a bunch of channels, you quickly find replacements if pressed. And I think that CBC is given a pretty unfair rap, when it all comes down. Their kids programming is excellent, I really have to say. No commercials, interesting selection of programs (that are neither insulting nor violent), and good hosts that really keep kids interested. Or so it seems. I'll let you know for sure in a couple years when Theo's old enough to tell me what he thinks.

Rain tonight. Yes, that's right--rain. Not snow. Not hail. Rain. Thanks a lot, pineapple express. But hey, I'm glad to take away some of the rain from you Lower Mainlanders, so you're welcome. I'm just thinking that it'll probably freeze tonight, and that's a recipe for disaster tomorrow. Especially since we have a drive. But hey, they say that this is a "chinook", which in Albertaese means "weather that isn't cold enough to freeze your back end off." I guess we're close enough to Calgary to benefit somewhat. Although it was supposed to have been 18 degrees today in Calgary. Definitely wasn't that here. But hey, it's not snowing. That'll make the walk to school tomorrow a little bit more bearable.

Speaking of school, things are progressing rapidly, steadily, and in the order they're supposed to be going in, which is always comforting. I've been in this sort of la-la land over the course of this semester, knowing that I'm going to graduate in April, but not really wanting to believe it's going to actually happen. The fact is that my degree, like an unsightly mole, has been a part of who I am for several years now. I've learned to accept the fact that it's there, without ever really having come to terms with the fact that it wasn't finished. And every decision that we've made since we first got married has always had the "what about your degree?" element to it. It's strange to think that we won't have that dimension in a while.

It's actually really freeing, to be honest, but like a recently-released prisoner, I'm not sure what to do with that freedom. I feel the need to re-offend just to get back to the familiarity, even if it isn't healthy for me. What I really need, and I know Steph will agree wholeheartedly, is a break from having a school-related obligation. Yeah, I want my master's, but really, the pressure isn't on right now, or at least it shouldn't be.

I think that what I really need is a renewed sense of meaning. There's just something satisfying about being in the right place at the right time, and I haven't felt that in quite some time. In fact, I haven't felt it in so long that I'm beginning to accept the fact that I might never feel it again, and believe that this is the way it's always going to be. But that's not true. Like king Theoden in the Lord of the Rings, I've been trapped under some spell that's clouded who and what I really am, and it's time for it to stop. So here's to a quest for meaning.

Just as wrote that, I got a nosebleed. I wonder if that's a sign of some kind.

Changing the topic rapidly, and please, be careful not to get whiplash, we are so addicted to Grey's Anatomy that it's really sad. We live for our next fix. Every night, we ask "So, what do you have on tap for this evening?" hoping that the answer that comes from the other is, "I was thinking that we could watch some Grey's Anatomy." And every time we can't just watch one--we have to watch multiple episodes. It's crazy how good this show is.

But we're now at an impasse, a dilemma of sorts. We just watched episode 20 of 27 which, of course, means that we're running out of episodes a little too quickly. Part of me wants to draw it out as long as I can, because I know that once we've watched all of them, there's no more until season 3 comes out on DVD, which won't be until the summer. But they're just so good that what we really want to do is just sit down and watch them all in one sitting. A difficult decision, to be sure.

Maybe having houseguests will mean that our Grey's time is cut for a while, which, although it will make me go through withdrawl, will likely be good for us. No wait, it won't be. Gah! I don't know what to do. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted.

Okay, we're almost done changing topics. I'm serious. Anyway, what I was going to say is that my sermon went well today, thanks for asking. Is it possible to be proud of a sermon? If so, I am. If not, you didn't just read that. I felt really good about this one, and I think the class liked it too. Which is good, considering we peer evaluate. Which is, quite honestly, a bit of a joke, especially when you get the peer evaluations handed back to you with the marker's name on it. So who in their right mind would give their classmate a failing grade when they know that the classmate is going to evaluate them too? Unless they think that such thoughts of revenge are out of place at Bible College. Yeah, they're probably right. But still, it's the principle.

Anyway, I managed in one sermon to pull in references to both the Muppets and the X-Files, so I'm pretty pleased. And I think it was faithful to the text as well, which is also a good bonus. It's funny though, having to craft these sermons and deliver them to a class of people who are also in the sermon-crafting business. It sometimes feels like we're being evaluated on performance value, which we essentially are. Our evaluation sheets include things like "Intellectual Directness" and "Physical Presentation." What they're really short on is "Impact of Holy Spirit" and other sermonific things. Or are they homilific things? Anyway, it's just a little weird is all. One more to go, this one a 15-minute beast. I'm up in late November, so I've got a bit of time.

Okay, seriously, I'm done. Yes, I have more to say. But I need something to talk about later this week. The problem is that I've still got something on the back-burner here that I've wanted to talk about both yesterday and today, but have instead have let other things override it. Oh well, it'll keep.

Hope to see you all again tomorrow. Same time, same place, same bat-channel.

Blogger Strike Ends, Dozens Rejoice...

Okay, so maybe "dozens" is generous. Maybe only three people rejoice. But hey, there's rejoicing to be had, that's for certain.

Sorry for my lack of posts recently. Haven't exactly had the easiest few days, just with some personal stuff going on, so blogging has been far from my mind. I think that anything I would have written would likely have been cynical and dumb anyway, so really, you didn't miss much.

But I'm back now, and things are fine, thank you. Still not 100%, but hey, it's a process, right? I've just been hit by the stunning realization that I really have no plan in life for the immediate future, and I have a family to support. I mean, I realize that I'm here finishing off my degree for a reason, and that it's supposed to be helpful. But I can't help but feel like there's just something I'm missing, you know? And I don't want to go through life with that feeling. So we're just sort of working through that whole issue, and trying to figure out what reality is going to look like come April. Well, I guess it'll be May by the time we get back. Anyway, the bottom line is that I have no idea what I'm going to be when I grow up, and I think I grew up a while ago while I wasn't paying attention. Kind of missed the boat on that one.

Oh well, onwards and upwards, as they say. You can't stop the flow of time, as much as I've tried, so you just go with it. And you know that somewhere, God's got a plan for you, because you hear it all the time and you really do believe it. You just maybe wish that He'd get on with it. Not that I'm trying to be blasphemous or anything, I'm just impatient. Which is probably exactly the reason I'm in this situation. Oh well.

In other news, had a good weekend. Used Saturday as a mostly snoozing and recouperating day, along with finally being able to see my Canucks play on Hockey Night. Sunday was church in the morning, and then an afternoon of CFL, which was just what the doctor ordered. A nice time was had.

And Theo's okay, by the way. In my last post, he had just had a table land on his head, and we weren't sure what was going to come of it. But the next day there was no bruising, not even a mark. He's built Ford tough, that one. But that's how we grow 'em here in Alberta.

I've decided that, in my old age, I'm going to be a little bit more adventerous, at least in the foods that I choose to eat. Tough transition, I know; sorry. As per my thoughts in the first section, I've begun to realize that life doesn't slow down for you, and you've got to just take it by the horns and wrestle it to the ground (they've been advertising for the rodeo in Edmonton, if you couldn't tell by my choice of metaphor). Thus, I have decided to step out on a limb.

The first sign on this new phenomenon came last week in Red Deer, when I actually had a tomato on my hamburger. Holy cow! Stop the presses! I had a tomato! Okay, I realize this isn't earth-shattering news on the surface, but if you know me, you know how stalwart my opposition to the tomato has been. In my opinion, if you can't decide if you're a fruit or a veggie, you don't deserve my time. That might even apply for people, although we probably shouldn't press our luck down that metaphorical path.

And you know what? It was pretty good. That's right, I said it was pretty good. Not great--let's not go all hog-wild here. But it was good. Later in the week, I had tomato on my pizza. No wait, that was the week before. Anyway, the point is that I ate some tomatoes, regardless of timeline. Sheesh.

So then I decided to really go all out and eat olives. I had a paradoxical Greek lasagne the other day at the local Greek restaurant (which, as far as I can tell, is also an Italian restaurant, deli, and hamburger joint, but I digress). Apparently all you have to do to make something Greek is add Feta and olives. Ta da!

So this lasagne had olives in it. And I ate them. No, not all of them, but most of them. And they weren't terrible. They weren't great, but they weren't terrible. I might try them again. But cautiously.

The last culinary straw came a couple days ago when Steph decided to make a curry chicken dish for dinner. You see, my wife is actually an Asian person trapped in a white person's body. It's really sad. Anyway, she likes the Indian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, and I'm sure many other Asian countries cuisine. But I don't. No, I'm a meat-and-potatoes, salt of the earth type of guy. Give me a steak and a baker any day. And don't skimp on the butter and sour cream. The more artery-clogging goodness, the better. Am I right?

But I decided to try it. And I liked it. It even had pineapple in it. That really completed the trifecta of foods I don't like: tomato, olives, pineapple. What's come over me? It must be the dry Alberta air.

Actuall, I'll tell you exactly what it is: I've decided that I don't want to be defined by what I don't eat. I don't want to be the guy who at a party has to say, "Hey, can you make sure that half of that pizza has no tomatoes?" Nor do I want to end up as the guy who piles up all the stuff he doesn't like on the side of his plate and discretely throws it away. I don't want to be the "no tomato" guy.

The point of all this is that I think that in life, we can really easily be defined by what we don't do instead of what we do. We can be known more for what we stand against than what we stand for. This is the sad trend in evangelical Christianity--we stand against this and that and the other thing, and yet nobody's really sure what we stand for. But that's something worth fighting for, even if tomatoes aren't.

I, for one, am not going to be defined by what I'm not.

Wow, first day back, and I get a sermon in there. Speaking of sermons, it's preaching day for me again tomorrow, so I'd better pack it in. Heck, I should have hit the sack an hour ago, but hey, I had some catching up to do. Anyway, thanks for coming by. Theo's blog got a major update tonight, so check it out as well when you're able.

See you tomorrow. As long as I don't stage a wildcat strike. Hey, has anybody seen my burn barrel?

They May Be Empty Calories, but Still...

The mission, you'll be pleased to know, was a success. As of today, November 1, the Carroll household is stocked to the gills with Halloween candy. The good stuff, too. None of this no-name garbage that we always used to sort through to get to the good stuff when we went out trick-or-treating. In fact, houses that gave out the bad candy were blacklisted, and all the kids went to the houses with the good candy. Word travelled fast on my block, and everyone knew within a short amount of time where the best investments were. For me, it was always the newer developments to the north--little business meant lots of available candy. It was really a simple matter of supply and demand. It's amazing how crafty we could be.

Of course, now some kid's probably got a MySpace page that maps out all the good candy places in Ladner. The kids have synched their PDA's to the live real-time maps of candy supply. Carefully orchestrated raids are planned, with groups fanning out to make sure that all ground is covered. Or maybe that's just what I'd do if I went trick-or-treating.

In a similar vien, it seems as though retailers are catching on to people like me who lurk in the shadows ready to pounce on unsold Halloween candy on November 1. When I went into IGA today, for example, the candy was only discounted by 25%. This raised a large dilemma for me. Do I wait until the candy gets marked down more, or do I buy now and spare potential heartache when everyone else settles for 25% off and there is no more candy to be discounted? It's really a big game of chicken: am I willing to wager candy on when the retailer will further discount the candy? Are there other people who are doing that, and if so, will they beat me to it? It really tore me up inside. My solution: get some now, and if they still want to discount it further at some point in the future (say, Friday), then buy more. Simple.

I'm not really sure whether this is true for all sectors of the candy retail market, or if it's simply a function of living in a small community where IGA's dominance of the grocery market goes virtually unchallenged. For example, if I was to go to Wal-Mart today, I probably could have gotten some really big discounts. Actually, I've tried that, and by noon on November 1, all the candy is gone. You have to be quick and wily if you're to cash in. So the tradeoff is that when I went at 2:30 there was still candy, but the candy was less deeply discounted. It's a fair trade, I say.

And although I know that chocolate is just empty calories, the things are so small that they can't possibly be bad for you, right? Besides, I went to the gym today; that has to be worth something, right? In fact, wife just came in and lamented that she's hungry. I said that I was too, but I had just satiated my hunger with two "fun size" Mars bars. She muttered something about how they're just empty calories, but then the sugar buzz hit and I couldn't hear her anymore. She'll likely choose something more sensible, but let me ask this: does it come in "fun size"? I think not.

Speaking of the gym, I actually weighed myself this morning, a task that I take no pleasure in, let me tell you. You'll be happy to know that all this exercise is actually starting to pay off--10 pounds gone so far, with the prospect of more to come. If I can just get off the candy. But everyone's got a guilty pleasure, right? I figure I'm not allowed to drink while I'm out here, so I have to get my empty calories from something besides alcohol, right? Not that I'm a "big" drinker. I'm more like a "steady" drinker. I prefer to consume maybe one or two drinks a night over a more extended period of time than pack them all together into one night.

Anyway, what I wanted to say was that since I've actually lost weight since we came out here, I can now safely say that I've left a part of me in Three Hills. Maw.

Had quite a scare today as well, and it had nothing to do with Halloween (or, in this case, the day after Halloween). This story will likely be repeated on Theo's blog next week, but here's a sneak peak for those of you who frequent both. As you likely know, Theo is quite the little mobile man now that he can crawl and stand up on his own. Anything in arm's reach becomes something to climb on, regardless of the stability of said thing. In our front room, we have a small wooden TV tray set up, one of the ones that folds down and stores away, but is made of some pretty solid wood. The problem is that since it's on folding legs, it's not very sturdy, especially when a baby grabs on and tries to pull himself up.

I'm sure you can guess what happened next, right? Crash it went, down on his head. Of course, the reaction was instant (which is good because it means he's got pain receptors that work. We were a little bit scared after last week that he didn't have properly functioning pain receptors, considering he didn't even cry when he cut his finger and started smearing blood on the door) and quite loud. There's one way to tell when Theo's really upset--he gets this cry that is nearly inconsolable and consists of heaving sobs. We've only heard it a few times, and it breaks our heart every time. Especially this time, when a goose egg the size of, well, a goose egg is welling up atop his head.

I wasn't home at the time of the incident, so Steph bundled the boy up in the car and came to find me in the gym at school. After, that is, she had consoled him and tried to bring the swelling down with cold cloths. Anyway, he seemed just fine to me when he got there, even had a smile or two for me, the guy on the treadmill, and his reflection, so we decided to keep an eye on him and see what happened before we took him to the hospital. I, for one, hate taking a baby to the hosptial with something not very specific like, "He bumped his head," because I know that the first question the doctor/nurse asks is, "Is this your first child?" That may seem like an innocent question, but what they're trying to do is figure out how seriously to take you. If you say yes, then they immediately write you off as paranoid because it's a tried and true medical fact that new mothers come to the hospital when their baby has a hangnail. Anyway, I knew they wouldn't take us seriously if we didn't have anything concrete to give them, so I told Steph to wait it out and see what happened.

Well, you'll be happy to know that thanks to Theo's massive Carroll head, there seems to be nothing amiss. He doesn't even have a goose egg on his head, just a small cut where the table hit and a small bump that will likely bruise in the morning. Other than that, everything's good. He's back to being his normal smiley self, eating well, and being cranky when he doesn't get his way. We'll keep an eye on it for another day, but I hope we're in the clear.

Now watch, I'll get comments galore telling me that I should've taken him to the hospital.

By the way, that paragraph about hospitals, although it came across harsh, isn't intended to be a slam against any of the good doctors or nurses who work at hospitals. I'm sensitive to this because there's a proud nursing tradition in my family, and all of my family members are excellent, caring nurses. So mom, Laura, and even Grandma (although she doesn't practice anymore), I know you're good at what you do. In fact, I wish you could be on duty at every hospital I go to. I'm simply stating a generalization which, although it may not be completely accurate, is true more often than not.

Okay, do you think that my butt is adequately covered? Let's move on.

In other news, had a reformation service today at school. I've figured it out--instead of celebrating Halloween, our school does a celebration of the reformation every year. As you may know, the Protestant Reformation was sparked by Martin Luther, who posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenburg Cathedral in Germany on All Hallow's Eve 1517. All in Protestantism mark this as the sacred day. Actually, none of us care. Except, apparently, for my school. Had one of our profs who grew up in the Reformed tradition design and lead the service (and he's Dutch, too, just to add to the stereotype). It was actually really good. I quite enjoy checking out traditions that are different from my own (which consisted, as I mentioned on Monday, of a guy at the front of the church waving his arms to direct the singing, and the pastor standing behind a massive pulpit that swallowed up his whole body so only his head was visible). I think that everyone in Christendom, and I include the Catholic Church in this, has something to contribute to the spiritual conversation, to use a thoroughly cliched postmodern term.

Anyway, this service had some hymn singing, led by a sextet, which was really cool. We even had a choir sing. We read from the various catechisms as well, which are also neat. Even though the language can be archaic (especially with nervous readers), it's interesting to see how thought was directed. The "sermon" was in three parts, which was also interesting, but it made it a little bit hard to follow his train of thought. All things considered, though, I thought it was really good. I actually wish we'd do more of that at chapel.

That'll be all for tonight, methinks. I have a test tomorrow for which my excitement and preparation levels are both low, which means it should be interesting. Not sure how I'll do, especially since this prof seems to like really obscure questions that don't as much test knowledge as they do an ability to memorize random sentences from the textbook. I went toe-to-toe with him after the last test, but I didn't come out on top (what a surprise--a prof who thinks he's right), so I'll hold my peace this time. 5% of my overall grade isn't worth getting on the prof's bad side over. As long as I pass, I'll be happy. Okay, that's not true, but it's what I'm telling myself to guard against crushing disappointment. No, that doesn't work either, but it's worth a try.

Anway, I should likely get some sleep. Theo managed to make it until just after 7:00 this morning, so I'm hoping for a repeat performance tomorrow. Still, it does come too soon if you go to bed at a bad time. Plus, I have to leave some time for the daily sudoku fix. Which means I need to pack it in right about now.

Thanks again for coming by. I'll see you back in this space tomorrow.