More Cookies

I get infected with this bug every Christmas--I just have to spend way too much time making way too many goodies for people who weigh way too much already! Alas!

I finished the sugar cookies this afternoon, and as soon as they are dry, I will pack up a bunch to go into the Christmas packages that are headed for Michigan, Oregon, and Arizona.

I also have made three other kinds of goodies, and I've started the dark chocolate truffles. I promise, after I finish the truffles, NO MORE! Some years I've done caramel corn but I'll skip that this year.

Oh, and I had to try a a batch of peppermint bark that was selling for $24/lb at Sonoma-Williams just so I could say that I made it every bit as good and it only cost about $2/lb!

Starlight

I don't really know why I keep making Christmas cookies, but each year I make a few standbys and then try a couple new ones too. This year we have butterscotch candies turning into stained glass cookies.

Christmas Eating

After two Christmas parties in less than 24 hours, I'm starting to feel like Mrs. Claus--fat and happy!

These two ornaments were a gift from a young couple who were working with the Peace Corps in the Solomon Islands when we lived there about 100 years ago. Most of the ornaments on our tree are of the homemade variety which makes for bringing back lots of good memories, if not producing a tree that would work for Better Homes and Gardens. The majority of my ornaments are ones crocheted by my grandma. She died a few years ago, and I still miss her.

Thanks

A couple days ago we received this thank you card from friends who had stayed with us. They seem to have picked a card that is right up our alley.

Open it up, and here's the inside:



Inside the card was a nice little check that paid 3/4ths of the bill to get Rachel's car fixed today. I guess we should be thanking them, and we will.

I've Hit a New Low

I went to Taco Bueno twice today.

The lady there asked why we hadn't been there for so long, to which I replied that we were still working on the turkey leftovers.

Almost Advent

Tomorrow begins the season of advent, a time of waiting and anticipation of celebrating the birth of our Saviour. I didn't grow up in a liturgical church, but the traditions I've learned surrounding Advent have become important to me, a way to keep one's perspective during a time of year that can be hectic for many people. The first candle will be lit tomorrow, the candle of hope or prophesy.



The previous two years I was able to send someone else out to buy the Christmas tree, but this year I had to do it myself. We've got it in the stand, but the decoration will have to wait another day or two. Our church Bible study group is having a Christmas dinner at our house on Thursday, so I need to have it decorated by then.

An Old Day

I'm feeling old today.

Maybe it is the hip joint pain. Or maybe it is the lack of energy.


In some ways, I should be feeling young. Today at work we celebrated the work of someone who is retiring at age 75 and who has worked here for 51 years. She plans to spend more time with her kids. And her grandkids. And her greatgrandkids.

If I live to be 75, it is not likely I will have greatgrandkids.

If I live to be 55, it is not likely I will have grandkids.

But I do have kids, even at my age.

Good Kids

We had a mostly pleasant, busy Thanksgiving week that was topped off with a 14 hour visit by Andrew, half of which he (and we) spent sleeping. Andrew was passing through Dallas on his way to Ethiopia for a few days. David was already here visiting for Thanksgiving, so we had a rare occasion for a photo with all three kids.

The time was spent teasing me about my suburb fashion sense, taking care of some financial details, preparing another suitcase of books for the Impact Library (e are now down to just two boxes left in my storeroom) and eating. Oh, and there was also some time for calling people oafs.

. Every Christmas my standard answer to "What do you want for Christmas?" is "Good Kids." I'm fortunate to get what I want.

Thankful for Computers

Now that we've got Gary's new laptop organized and the wireless router working, he's having fun computing all over the house. I also introduced him to wireless radio, so he can have baroque music anytime he wants.

David seems to have found a novel way to use his computer too.

Testing, Testing (web photo album)

I keep thinking I need to redo my website. I kind of gave up on it a while back because I ran out of disk space on my Comcast site. And the way I did the photos was a bunch of work. So I'm now experimenting with a new way of doing photos using the Web Photo album feature of Picasa. If it works in a blog, maybe it would work in a website too.

I suppose if you are reading this and only have dialup, it could be not worth it.

Bugs and creatures

flowers, wild

David

Tick

Within thirty minutes of coming to our house, Sarah was dissecting a tick. What is her mother going to think??
(Be sure to click on the photo to get a closer look.)

Conversation Piece

There has been a lawnmower sitting in our living room for over two weeks. Most visitors are too kind to ask the obvious, so it just sits there in its corner until we feel obliged to explain how this is our third lawnmower and there really is only room for two in the shed.

But today the nice man from church came took one of the two half-broken ones away. We hope he can fix it and then give it to someone who might need it. Now there's room for the newcomer in the shed. But if we move it, what will we have to talk about?

I'm So Young and Beautiful

...that I got carded at Home Depot today for trying to buy this. The computer would not let me buy it until I told it my DOB. *eye roll*

Fruitcake

You know the holidays are just around the corner when the fruitcake arrives from Collin Street Bakery. This is an annual gift from my mom to Gary--I don't touch the stuff myself (except to steal a pecan off the top).

Find The Way

Where is Grace and Purity?

Just down the way from Hope and Purity.

Self Portrait

Two Possible Interpretations

1. These people know a good thing when they see it.
2. These people are stuck in a rut.

A Short Trip to Austin

Gary and I went to Austin on Thursday and stayed in a lovely motel. I-35 splits at that point, not to the east and west, but up and down, into two layers. This feature means you get twice the highway noise per mile than your ordinary freeway. Besides that, the toilet didn't flush, the temperature was either too hot or too cold, and one of the wall circuits didn't work. But it did have high-speed internet access, and after all, isn't that what's important these days for the saavy traveler?

(If you want to see the surprise I got while there, check my other blog.)

Do We Ever Really Know Our Kids?

First I have to read his blog to find out he's having his broken heart checked out.

Then I have to read his myspace to see all the girls flirting with him.

Now I discover on the internet, of all places, that's he's been hiding secrets about neutrinos!

I wonder what else I'm missing??

Unique Names, Please

I have nothing at all against Andrew or Rachel as people, but I am somewhat glad that my two as-yet-unmarried children are no longer dating people with those names. Just too confusing.

At one point, shortly after Laura joined the family, David was dating someone named Lori. I told Rachel she absolutely could NOT date anyone named Larry. Just too confusing.

I do know a man who married someone with the same first name as his mother. That led to two closely related women with the same first and last name. Just too confusing.

That reminds me of a favorite linguistics story in our family. (If you don't understand linguistics, you might not think this is funny.) We were living in Papua New Guinea and we went to market one Saturday morning. There were dozens of different kinds of bananas for sale (have you noticed we only get one or maybe two varieties here in the States?). So we asked someone, "Well, how do you tell all the different kinds of bananas apart?" To which they responded, "It's easy--they all have different names."

Comments

When I first started blogging I thought it was so cool to get comments on my posts. It felt like someone actually was acknowledging me as a person, and a person they cared enough about to converse with. Or, if not that, at least acknowledging I'd said some something worthwhile, or funny, or .... I kind of gave up on that idea by rereading the tag line on my blog and reminding myself that I'm just talking to myself, so if I want comments, I should just leave comments for myself.

I was talking to someone else about comments on blogs. She felt sad that no one commented on her blog. I then asked her, "Well, how often do you comment on the blogs of others?"

Then there are the people, usually my age or older, who think if they leave a comment someone will steal their identity and they'll end up in the poor house due to credit card fraud.

Over the two plus years I've been blogging, I've had a number of comments deleted that I've put on other people's blogs. I can think of about five or six times this has happened. Only once did the person explain to me in an email why they deleted my comments. I suppose if I were to express a touch of cynicism inside of me, I'd say people mostly want flattering or sympathetic comments, your basic feel-good stuff. I guess if I'm going to play the commenting game, I'd better brush up on my interpersonal skills.

Large Print Labor of Love

Gary really likes this CD of Christmas music. He's been trying to copy the lovely version of Silent Night from the CD for a couple years now. And he could probably do so if it were just in the key of C. No, this song is written with 6 flats! So in order to learn it he had to get the music. But then he couldn't read it because it was too small. So I enlarged it on the photocopier, taped it all back together, mounted it on giant pieces of cardboard, and stuck it on the piano. As soon as he finds it he will probably start trying to learn it. If he hurries, he'll have it memorized in time for the holiday season.

A Promotion?

Today Gary got a letter congratulating him on his appointment as Adjunct Professor of Applied Linguistics. We think that is a promotion from his previous appointment of Adjunct Associate Professor. However, just so there is no confusion, the next paragraph read: This appointment is unsalaried and non-tenure-earning.

Fortunately, we did not join up because it was going to make us rich!

Dryer Lint

Just when you thought I could come up with no more useless things to post about, today I'm talking about dryer lint.

And apparently I'm not the only one. If you google "dryer lint" you will find such things as an official dryer lint webpage, ideas for using lint in craft projects, a website that looks like a science fair project on dryer lint, and even dryer lint pets.

But today the point is to thank the Lord for protecting us from a dryer fire. We did have a small dryer fire a few years ago, so since then I have tried to be more careful about cleaning out the dryer vent hose. Today I decided to try venting the warm, humid air into the house while I dried the clothes (don't try this if you have a gas dryer). When I disattached the hose I jiggled loose a large amount of dryer lint that was apparently being held inside the dryer with a bunch of toothpicks (these must come from Gary's clothes, since he carries them around). I was amazed at home much lint blew out of the dryer and I realized that it could have easily caught on fire.

Stuff

My job was pack up a china closet. It contained everything from delicate china that grandma had used for tea parties with her granddaughters to a brittle bird's nest. Also, broken music boxes, faded photographs, and a cross made out of burnt matches--a VBS project, I suspect.

My nose is full of dust and my heart is full of sympathy for Mrs. B who has to make decisions about the stuff she's collected over 30+ years. It might be tempting to be critical of her for never throwing anything away, but on the other hand, I surely feel sorry for her now, having to make a mountain of tiny decisions all at once. That is emotionally exhausting. One thing that makes it hard is that many of these items are gifts from her six kids, all of whom are now grown, and all of whom still love her.

Gecko

It has been a while since I've posted a photo from my Bugs and Creatures collection. This one was taken a couple days ago from inside my bedroom looking out. In other words, we're looking at the underneath of it through the window glass.

That saves me from having to post about my recent baking disaster where I forgot to put in the flour. Aaarg!

Exploding Baby Carrot Myths

After finding this exploded baby carrot today, I was forced to search the internet high and low (well, actually it took 0.21 seconds) to figure out where baby carrots came from anyway. It's a conspiracy--we've all been misled.

The Blind Leading the Blind - Part 2

I'm getting old, and I bet one day I'm going to die of Alzheimer's. By then I won't remember what a horrible disease it is. Nor will I remember how clever Google is (or is it Firefox doing this??) to keep a history of all the things I type in. For instance, today I thought I'd be cute and post a photo of Gary helping our blind friend--only to discover via the search history that I'd already had that cute idea before!

This isn't the first time this has happened. Recently I was watching an episode of LOST and was trying to figure out if the actor who plays Desmond on LOST was the same actor who played Jesus in The Gospel of John, The Movie. When I typed in all those hints into Google, the history popped up informing me that I had already asked myself this question earlier and answered myself as well. (Yes, they are the same actor, Ian Cusick.)

I must be losing my mind, and a mind is a terrible thing to lose. Maybe this blog will be all that's left of me before long.

"Last Voices From Heaven"

Ma isn't the only one who's gotten a CD in the mail this week. I actually paid money for this CD, which I had to order from Amazon UK since it isn't carried on Amazon USA.

I thought I was going to be getting some interesting, reasonably authentic native music from Melanesia. But what it turned out to be is a little bit of authentic music with a lot of western beat and electric guitar polish slapped all over it. It still is interesting music, but for all the missionary-bashing and glorifying of the pagan way of life in the album booklet, I was expecting something less commercialized.

Here's a link where you can listen to a few snatches of the songs on this album. Apparently there was a film documentary made about the process of collecting this music, shown at least in Australia.

A Memorial Service

This morning I left work early to attend a memorial service at church. I didn't know the deceased, but I do know her daughter and her daughter's family, so I attended to lend support to them. Her death was from Alzheimer's. I don't know that much about the disease, but I do know that it is a hard way to die, if not for the person, then at least for the family.

It was pretty heart-wrenching to hear stories of her slow demise from a vibrant school librarian to a thin and frail shell who finally stopped breathing. It was sad to hear the regret that some family members expressed at not "being there" for her enough in her last years.

May God give them all grace as they grieve and move on.

Liastris sp.

We've had a long, hot, and very dry summer, but at the state park I still found a couple wild flowers ignoring the hostile environment and blooming beautifully anyway. (Maybe this species likes it hot and dry, but even the cacti seemed to be shriveling up from lack of water.) According to my wildflower books and the internet, this is a species of Liastris, with a common name of Gay Feather.

One of these days I'm going to make an album of my best wildflower photos.

Moon Shadows

 
Last night we slept in our tent at the nearby state park. When we got situated in our sleeping bag I looked up and noticed the full moon trying to shine on me. So I got up and removed the tent's rain roof, and then I was bathed in moonbeams all night long.

Maybe I'm a lunatic.

(For some daylight photos, you can check my other blog.)

My Son Now Has a Blog

He has finally joined the 21st century.

But is this how I should find out that he's wearing a heart monitor and thinks his middle name is a girl's??

(Ma Hoyt might have something to say about both of these items: she knows all about bad hearts and men named "Loren.")

Happy News!

Rachel got a call from a family friend today with news of her engagment and upcoming marriage in January. Congratulations to Jessica and John!

We also got sad news, the death of a friend's mother this morning.

And more news of pregnancies and births.

Life goes on.

A Cotton Slip

Every old lady missionary needs a sturdy cotton slip to take to the field. In the steaming jungles of South America it is way too hot and humid for a nylon slip under those long frumpy skirts. But do you think an old lady missionary could possibly find a cotton slip in the entire Dallas-Ft.Worth metroplex? No. So I made her one. No, I made her two--one with free cotton fabric from the missionary barrel and the other with eyelet that I bought at Walmart for a few dollars.

My friend is off to Guyana to see about taking the place of these folks.

The White Dove

I know it is just a bird, and I don't believe in omens, but almost every day when I walk to work I look up into a small tree on campus and there is a white dove. Sometimes I see her on top of one of the buildings, but usually she is in this tree For some reason it seems like she is watching over my place of work, which of course, can't be true, but she gives me the feeling of being watched over.

We can all use the Lord watching over us and protecting us. Tonight we got news of two singles from church in a 5-car accident on I-20. Three of the five cars were totaled, yet everyone walked away from the accident.

Intentional Dating

We had lunch recently with some friends who told us their son was dating someone. Since I know this fine young man personally, I pumped them for details. :-) I mean, isn't that what parents do when they get together--talk about their kids??

It was nice--indeed, inspiring--to hear the story of how their son was approaching this relationship. He had taken the time (and money and effort) to visit the girl's parents to ask them if it was OK with them if he pursued their daughter. How nice to learn that this sort of thing doesn't just happen in books and fairy tales--a real life case where the young man is intentionally seeking marriage, and in such a respectful way.

I hope the next guy who is interested in our daughter is like that.

(And I'd be proud of our son if did this when he finds a girl he is interested in.)

The World is Flat

Gary talks about this book all the time, and now I have evidence that it is true: you just never know who is going to find your blog and make a comment. I now know there are people on the internet who actually know what my screen name means. Amazing how the world has changed!

Thanking God for Growth

For those of you who know me IRL and care about me as a real person, you know that all too often over my life I have worried about Rachel. Always worried about this or that or the other thing. Or maybe I should say, "this and that and the other thing all at once." And sometimes I've let that angst show in this blog.

So I feel like I should now say that I am really pleased with the changes and progress I've seen in her life since March: She's re-learned how to drive and is doing better at that than I would have imagined possible. (Which isn't to say I expect her to ever become one of the world's top 10 drivers. :-) She's purchased her own car and her own car insurance. She has looked for and found numerous families to babysit for. She has completed substitute teacher orientation for two public and two Christian schools, and is regularly finding sub jobs. She teaches children's church once a month and works in the church nursery once a month. She has started a system for keeping track of both her income and her expenses. She does her own meal preparation, cleaning and shopping (though sometimes she tricks me into helping :-). She has learned how to cook a couple real meals. She has taken on full financial responsibility for herself (and her cat :-), although the amount we charge her for our garage apartment is not quite up to market value. In other words, she has done a lot of social and emotional growing in the past six months and I want to acknowledge that.

I suppose these things might not sound like such a big deal to any random person reading this blog, but if you knew the history, you'd know why I'm making a point to mention how self-sufficient she has become. I've spent a lot of my life worrying about things Rachel could not do, or could not do as easily, quickly, or gracefully as her peer group. So now I just want to give her credit for getting on with her life.

And I also want to give thanks to God, who has worked in my heart to let go of Rachel in a slow but steady way, and who has helped Rachel to grow in a slow but steady way. (Without doubt we both have many remaining "issues" that can always use prayer; but in this post, I'm not talking about them.)

Empathy

How does it make you feel when you turn your sandals over and discover a thumbtack stuck in the sole?

A Note of Thanks

Sometimes I drag myself down in a pool of self-pity when I feel unappreciated or ignored or looked down upon. I know, I'm stupid and shouldn't do that. So I try to just put my hurt aside and go on with life.

But today, it was the opposite. I got a thank you note from a young man thanking me for sticking my neck out for him two years ago.

Matthew 13:45-46

You are the pearl:
precious,
priceless,
worth more than all other things

Put together:
your irritating dirt,
My soothing nacre,
surely it will happen

With time:
the beauty,
the value,
is of great price.

I gave up everything to get you.

Time for Another Flower Post

It has been a while since I've posted any flower photos. You've got to admire these Longneck Ruel wildflowers. They have not only simply survived the hot summer drought, they are actually flourishing in our neighborhood at the moment.

My best friend brought over some roses for our party last Sunday. They opened up nicely during the middle of the week, but by yesterday they were starting to droop. I found a way to lengthen their lives and give us the opportunity to enjoy them a few more days. The glass bowl was a wedding gift from Dr. and Mrs. Ken Pike which I hardly ever use, but it works well for this.


Speaking of roses, Rachel's Valentine Cupido miniature rose bush seems to have appreciated the rain we got a couple weeks ago because now it is blooming again.

Deal Breaker

Last night it was quite amusing to listen to Rachel and Laura discuss what would be a "deal-breaker" for any guys who were interested in Rachel. Rachel seemed to have specific ideas about age and height and weight, and Laura agreed with her "except if he annually makes more than 40 times his monthly mortgage payment," then maybe she wouldn't need to be quite so picky! We all got a laugh out of that.

They both agreed he should be a Christian and have a job and want to have kids (preferably biological, but adopted would be OK too).

Laura pointed out that there were a couple things that could have been deal-breakers for Andrew, except that these were things that were easily changeable. And we all noticed that Andrew no longer wears white socks. :-)

Pick Me! Pick Me!

Remember those days in elementary school when they were chosing up teams during PE class? The strong were chosen to be captains, and their job was to choose teams. Those kids with no pride would yell, "pick me, pick me!" in hopes of not being left with the rest of the losers who couldn't play, taken in the last round. Such a cruel procedure.


Sometimes fruit hanging from a tree seems to call out, "pick me, pick me!" too. There is a right time for picking. If one picks the fruit too soon, it is hard, sour, and underdeveloped. If one picks the fruit too late, it is mushy, rotten, and overripe.

If you haven't yet been picked, maybe it is more because you aren't quite ripe yet, rather than you're a loser who can't play.

More On This Topic

The topic of living with adult children came up again tonight. Should an adult child be allowed to ignore the parents' rules--nay, even the parents' wishes--while enjoying mommy's home cookin' and daddy's roof over his head?

I don't think so.

If an adult child can't live by the house rules, then it is time for him or her to find his or her own house.

Failure To Launch

Gary is out of town this week, so Rachel and I decided to watch a chick flick tonight. We saw Failure To Launch. It was kind of stupid, but kind of funny too, and even thought provoking in some ways--especially in view of some of my recent posts.

The movie is about adult men who still live with their parents, and like I said, some of it was pretty funny. The DVD also included some extra stuff, including a not-funny blurb about how the average age of becoming an adult (as defined by becoming independent and moving out of the nest) has gotten older in recent years. It showed real-life men who still live with their parents and real-life parents who make it too easy for their boys to stay. Interesting.

Growing Old

Yeah, I know there will be some readers who will say that I'm too young to be writing about growing old. But I've been thinking a lot recently about growing old, quite possibly brought on by my recent trip with my mom to her place at a retirement mobile home park in south Texas. (Maybe recently re-reading Ecclesiasties has put me in that frame of mind also.)

I still have a mom, so I can't be that old--I'm still the kid, right? But I'm beginning to notice that my mom is getting old. She seems to have gotten a lot older than just a year ago when we all went to Andrew's wedding. In fact, the reason I went on this trip was to help her because she, in her old age, had fallen and hurt herself too much to drive. Mom is slowing down, forgetting things, and her arms are covered with bruises due to taking coumadin.

Then when I walked around her mobile home park I met more people who were dying of cancer, recently widowed, or could only walk by taking the golf cart.

But I think the thing that is making me feel old the most, is my own children. Here we go back to the point of this blog: my nest is empty and I'm still struggling with how to deal with that.

Sometimes I think of friends I went to high school with who were grandparents by age 40. But then Gary reminds me that people who go to college usually marry later and have kids later and have fewer of them. I left the culture of those who marry young and joined a culture of people who go to college. So, if I'm logical about it, it is to be expected that my nest is empty of both kids and grandkids.

Sometimes I wish that my kids were married and had kids too--after all, don't they know that's what life is all about? No, maybe they don't. I guess they don't have to feel that way just because I do. Indeed, many people in their generation are not getting married and are not having kids. Some of them want to, many of them don't. Some are just waiting until "later." By the time they are my age, they won't be looking for grandkids, they will still be helping with homework and driving kids to little league practice. Or maybe not. They may just forego the having kids part altogether and just get rich instead.

Then there are the undeniable physical issues that prove that I'm getting old, menopause being the biggest. No woman would complain about not having periods, but the cessation of menses also brings with it lots of other changes that aren't so easy to deal with, like a foggy brain and other things I can't mention because this is a G-rated blog. Yes, things like that are making me feel old.

The last thing that makes me realize I'm getting old is that I keep forgetting to turn the stove off.

I'm Home

No, not my home--my mom's home. We normally come here just once a year (yes, we both live in Texas, but 500 miles apart) and always at Christmas. So when I walked in today, my mind was flooded with memories: Where is the Christmas tree? (It is August.) Where is grandma? (She died a couple years ago.) And even, where is dad? (He died several years ago.)

There were some fresher memories too: The last time we were here Rachel's (then) bf was here too, and that had been a happy time for her. And tonight I'm sleeping in the bed where Gary and I have spent almost all our 30 anniversary nights (we were married on Christmas).

And some older memories too--many things in this place are things from my childhood. I wonder how much longer mom will live here?

Some Progress

An official name badge seems like progress, doesn't it? Rachel also made herself some homemade photo business cards to give to the school principals and secretaries. Her first attempt at handing one out (at an elementary that was on her way to a babysitting job) proved their usefullness. The principal asked her if she'd like to sub for Kindergarten on Friday.

In an unrelated note, I'm about 24 hours into a migraine, and it turns out that I need to drive to McAllen tomorrow. If you read this in time, you might pray with me that I will get a good sleep tonight and wake up early without a headache.

Separating

The title of this blog has to be reviewed every so often. My nest, at this stage of my life, is supposed to be empty. Since my boys are off, that just leaves Rachel, and she and we continue to try to figure out how to separate. Until now she hasn't had the financial resources to pay her own way, and that means she is still connected to us financially. That means she can't make all her own decisions about everything--that doesn't happen until there is financial independence. That is what we are aiming for, and what she is aiming for.

It is looking likely that she will get on the sub list for two big local school districts soon. It remains to be seen how often she will get called to come in. The pay isn't that great, but Rachel has reminded us that subbing is good experience for a teacher, and that subbing will make her more prepared and more confident to have her own classroom one day. She still has a number of babysitting jobs too, and that helps a little.

I am the impatient type, so it has been hard for me to have her so underemployed since last January. You can pray that God will help me to be more patient.

I think we may have come to a decent compromise that will help me to back off: we are going to ask Rachel to pay for all her own expenses (you know--car insurance, health insurance, phone, gas, food, rent, etc.) starting October 1. Up to this point she has been paying everything except health insurance and rent; unfortunately, adding those two will be a big chunk. But I just feel that she must take that responsibility upon herself. When she does that, it will be easier for me to quit "running her life" and for us to separate.

It will no longer be my concern that she get a job, or get a better job. It is her responsibility to pay her own way, including paying rent to us for our garage apartment. How she comes up with the money to do that is hers to figure out. (That won't stop me from praying that God will provide her with a good full time job that suits her and isn't too far away.)

I have hope that this new arrangement will improve our relationship. It will certainly give her the opportunity to take responsibility for herself, and not always have me telling her what to do. She will be independent because she is financially independent.

21 Seasoning Salute

If anyone out there lives near a Trader Joe's, how about picking me up a jar or two of their 21 Seasoning Salute? Mine's all gone.

The Hive is Growing Quiet

This afternoon Doro left to return to Germany after six and a half weeks at our house. Our house was a hive of activity with her here. I've never met another person as extroverted or active as she is--always having friends here or always going with friends there, or painting a picture, or remodeling the house, or sewing a dress, or talking on the phone, or swimming, or taking photos, or begging to go to Walmart, or, or, or. As a busy bee, and a beautiful one, she had various young men buzzing around too, though she is not ready or interested in having a bf at this stage of her life--she starts university soon (but has to pass the TOEFL test first).

Speaking of bees, they were very annoying at our picnic last night at Cedar Hill State Park. They seem to LOVE Dr. Pepper. Doro avoided that problem by drinking water. But alas, before the night was over, she was the one who got stung.

Then on the way home we all had a big discussion about the name of the stinging insect. Was it a honey bee, a wasp, a hornet? Rachel insisted it was a yellow jacket, and upon further Google research, I think she was right. Not only was it a yellow jacket, it was a German Yellow Jacket.

New Things I've Learned Recently

I had never heard of antlions until our someone informed us that is why our parched yard looks like the lunar surface.



Another thing I've recently learned is a new meaning of the word rifle--"To cut spiral grooves within (a gun barrel, for example)."

Lastly, due to all the red tape I do for Andrew, is the word apostille. To get one in Texas only costs $15 and takes 3 days, kind of like an international version of a notary public authorization.

Passable and Agreeable

"If a girl says, 'I don't care what I look like. If people don't take me for what I am, too bad for them,' is she being wise or is she being unwise?"

"No, women don't have to really be beautiful--all they have to be is passable (that is, not so ugly that you're embarassed to be seen with them) and agreeable (that is, someone you could actually live with)."

"I read a book about a young blind man who thought he could judge women better than his seeing peers. This was because he wasn't blinded by a woman's physical appearance--he could see past the physical and judge a woman for who she really was."

"You should not use outward aids to make yourselves beautiful, such as the way you do your hair, or the jewelery you put on, or the dresses you wear. Instead, your beauty should consist of your true inner self, the ageless beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is the of the greatest value in God's sight."

She Can See Clearly Now

Amazing! That piece of glass I ordered from somewhere in Kansas arrived at my doorstep in less than 24 hours! Unbroken! I was tempted by Ma Hoyt's comment yesterday to try to install it myself, and indeed I started the process. But Rachel objected, wisely so, when the insides of the door looked just a bit too complicated. I had gotten as far as taking the door panel apart and vacuuming up the rest of the glass inside the cavity. Rachel called a couple places and found someone only two miles away to install it for $50 cash, so she took it in. An hour later, she has a new door glass.

It was nice of the LORDSKNIGHT to volunteer to "return the favor," but hopefully his sense of chivalry will be subdued now that her car is again operational.

I should also say thanks to Marlon for giving us a lesson on how to use the tire guage and air compressor. Now her tires have more than 12 psi! The brakes are pretty squeaky, but maybe that problem can be solved next week.

Fixing Glass(es) X 3

I spent an hour at the optician office yesterday trying to get Gary's desperately needed reading glasses repaired, but with no luck. So I cannibalized another pair of reading glasses to fix them, at least temporarily.

Then there was the broken pane of glass in R's apartment, which, ironically was broken by a lovely stained glass cat as its chain broke and it fell.


Then there is the broken window in Rachel's car. We tried to get one at a junkyard, but no luck there. But one of the junkyard dealers told us to try the internet. I typed in the search criteria to a generic used car parts site, and within 5 minutes or so I had 10 emails from around the country saying they had it. So I called one place in Kansas and they said they would get it here in 1-2 days! If that really works, I'll have to find someone to install it.