Full nest for a few days

We've had visitors this week, a couple the age of our parents, who have loved and supported us for many years. Every time they come they fix something in my house (which is nice since my husband, capable in so many ways, isn't much for fixing things). This time they did some caulking in one of the bathrooms and fixed a wobbling towel rack. It is always nice to have them come, and it would be nice to have them come even if they didn't fix things for us.

And last night our daughter came home from college for her short fall break. We had to drive 20 miles to pick her up from a town south of Dallas, but at least we didn't have to drive 200 miles to pick her up from a town north of Dallas. Unfortunately, it won't be much of a break for her since she has school projects to work on. Sigh. The girl works so hard, but gets discouraged at times because school is not particularly easy for her. We keep reminding each other that she has only one and a half semesters left (out of ten) to graduate. (And my husband and I keep reminding ourselves that we only have one and a half more semesters to pay for!) Anyway, I may take the day off work so I can be with her, take her to get a haircut, maybe we'll go to the HS football game tonight, etc.

"I have a word from the Lord for you"

Someone told that to me a week ago. I get nervous when people say they've received a direct revelation from the Lord, but I listened anyway. His word to me turned out to be simple enough, and biblical enough too: "You need to calm down and trust the Lord."

Indeed. The situation that prompted my latest round of worry has come and gone, and surely the Lord is taking care of all those involved. We thank God for his gracious love to us, his work in our lives and the lives of our children, and his patience with me when I would rather worry about things than trust him.

Lord, thank you for hearing our prayers. Continue to work in all our lives.

Fortune cookies

We have visitors staying with us this week, always nice to see them. And a special treat is they always take us out to eat. Tonight we went to my favorite restaurant, Ton's Mongonlian BBQ. This kind of food is not at all related to the meat and potatoes that I grew up on in rural Michign, but I love it. First, there is the bowl of Hot and Sour soup that always gives me a temporary case of the hiccups because it is so spicy. Then, you can't go wrong when you can choose your own ingredients in any amount from a spread of raw meats and vegetables. Ladle on a scoop of hot oil, sesame oil, sugar water, cooking cherry [sic], garlic, salt water, lemon juice and oyster sauce. Then watch your meal be cooked right in front of your very eyes in about two minutes, along with six others on this giant grill heated to a thousand degrees (or however many). Top it off with sesame seeds and enjoy with rice on the side.

On the way out there are forture cookies after you pay your bill. Here are the two best from tonight:

"The dictionary is the only place where success comes from work." Whoops, did we loose something in the translation here?

And speaking of translation, the other fortune was bilingual: "Antes de que puedes anotar, tu tienes que tener un gol." (Before you can score yo must first have a goal.) This is Texas, after all.

Computer conversations

I got home after dark last night from a two-day visit to R.'s dorm room. We had a good visit, but I won't post about our conversations. Instead, I'll mention the talks I've had recently with my computers.

Computer: Your computer is running dangerously low on resources.
Me: Ok, then live dangerously. I do it all the time.

Computer: Low on memory.
Me: I can't remember when that last happened.

Computer: SP2 did not install properly. Your system is unstable.
Me: Unstable? Who's unstable?

Computer: Runtime error. Would you like to debug?
Me: Of course. I debug all the time.

Computer: There is a problem. Would you like to send a report to Microsoft?
Me: Sure, why not? I bet I'm the only person they've heard from this week.