Reunion

For almost two days we are having our whole family here together.

Besides the fun things, I like to put them to work: David replaced a broken light switch.

And Andrew is our defacto financial advisor.

It also means two trips to Ton's in three days!! Yay!

Cool

I haven't had anything interesting to write about lately. My recent accomplishments include washing the carpet in three rooms and the hallway. Not exactly exciting blog material.

We are looking forward to Andrew and Laura coming tomorrow to stay for a few days. Tomorrow also happens to be Rachel's birthday and we've got a day of partying planned: trip to the airport, Shrek III, lunch at Ton's, visit by the Time Warner cable guy, and a Rangers' baseball game.

The only other thing of importance to note is that I think tonight is the night we will turn the A/C on. We've gotten all the way to June 6 without turning it on this season. It has been unseasonably cool and rainy this spring. Yay!

"Our Prayers Weren't Answered"

Or maybe they were. We didn't make it to our destination, but we were protected and got home safely.

Thanks to Hess Towing in Gainesville, we are no longer stranded on the side of the I-35.

More Babies and More Weddings

Today Rachel and I went around visiting people. First, welcome to a new baby in a family she often babysits for. Now there will be 7 kids for her to take care of!


Next, off to the used book store to buy her friend Steven a couple books she thought he could use. Because his bride works overseas, he is "getting" to plan a lot of the wedding himself. Rachel thought he could use some tips.

Bad Kitty!

In spite of this cat being recently emasculated, he apparently is still is a killer. At this sight, Panther's owner rather unceremoniously exclaimed, "See, [testicles] don't make a difference!"

Perhaps not.

Wedding Crasher or Proxy?

Banek wedding

Today I attended a wedding of people I had never met before. Strange, huh? I'm not really that desperate to attend weddings, but this was a nice one. I attended this wedding as the proxy of Ma Hoyt who asked me to stand in for her and Loren at their nephew's wedding since I live in Dallas, where the wedding was held, and they live in Iowa. Many of the folks at this lovely wedding were relatives from her husband's side. The family resemblance was striking between Loren and his younger brother Mark. I marched right up to Mark and said, "You must be a Hoyt."

I couldn't really put captions on these photos since I forgot all their names as soon as I met them. But I will say that I very much enjoyed meeting these folks and they were very welcoming. Aunt Elizabeth was a sweetie, I could tell. And Ardith, your cousin Bethany said, "Oh, yeah, do I know Ardith." I was especially struck by the words of the maid of honor, "Don't feel like you're crashing a wedding. It is always good to have someone from the body of Christ witness a holy marriage."

Scarlet Flax

At Ma's encouragement, here is yet another wildflower photo. These were planted all around the propane tank, where we had sunflowers last year. Actually, I think there are two sunflowers coming up on their own in the midst of the scarlet flax.

In other news, the neighbors have gotten two new dogs, named Boomer and Sooner (guess which state they're from?). I've heard the dogs bark a few times at night and also when I visit the compost pile, but they haven't kept me from sleeping.

Mutant Mexican Hats

We have the usual Mexican Hat flowers (left)in our wildflower garden this year, and an all yellow variety (right) that is not that rare, too. But what's up with the multi-layered one? There is one plant in the garden that has many blooms of this strange variety.

Tightwad Gazette

Apparently someone actually reads this blog because I got what I just be wanting in the mail today. :-)

Alzheimer's

Do you know how hard it is to make conversation with someone who has no memory?

These are things you cannot say:

• How was your day?
• I heard your granddaughter is graduating on Saturday.
• Will Joel be coming home for the summer?
  
• Did you have a nice lunch?
• Do they treat you well here?
• Did Emily come see you yesterday?

Things you can say:

• The weather is nice today.
• Look how beautiful that tree is.
• Those children are getting picked up from school.
• You'd better sit in the other chair so you don't get sunburned.
• It is so good to see you again.

My visit to a friend's mother yesterday has put me in a pensive mood. It would seem that our memories more or less make us who we are.

Buying Gifts

This is the time of year when lots of people are graduating, getting married, and having babies--many of them friends and age-mates of my underemployed daughter. It is my opinion that she cannot afford to buy nice gifts for all of them; but, I shouldn't criticize her for being generous, should I?

(She is trying really hard to get a full-time teaching job for next fall; pray with us about that, if you will.)

Tag

I was so lovingly tagged by Colleen.

Here's the "rules" of this meme: Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. You need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

Seven random facts about me:

1. My nickname as a child was "carrot-top." But maybe it should have been "carrot-bottom."
   
2. I was 15 when I decided what I wanted to be when I grew up.
3. I once ran for student body president, and lost.
4. I gave birth in a third-world hospital, payment for which was 3 sweet potatoes.
5. I once built a picnic table.
6. My kids still like me. (I think they do, anyway.)
   
7. My husband and I wiped up on a round of the Not-so-Newlywed game by both answering the question "What is your favorite flower?" with "whole wheat."

Well, I got this far. I don't know if I have 7 friends who would be willing to do this... Have to think about that!

Thank You for Paying Your Taxes

Gary found out yesterday that he and a couple of his friends are being given a quarter million from the US government.

Of course, only teeny, tiny bit of that will actually go to him personally, but still, it sounds impressive, doesn't it?

In Sunshine and Rain

Don't you love it when it rains while the sun is shining?

Advice from a Billionaire: How to Spend your Millions

Richard DeVos was the speaker at the graduation I recently attended. I found it amusing to hear him tell how he sat Shaq down and told him how to spend his money. I guess Mr. DeVos thought he could do that since he was the one giving him that money.

Ancestors

These four graves are direct ancestors of mine. A fifth generation (MMMMF)* was also buried in the same cemetery, but we couldn't locate the stone at the time I had the camera in my hand. After leaving the cemetery, Gary said, "Do you think there's room for us here?"


*=my Mother's Mother's Mother's Mother's Father

I Need to Decompress

We have safely arrived home from a few days in Michigan to see my nephew graduate from college. I get "home" very seldom, so when I do go to the place of my birth my mind struggles to take it all in and sort it all out. Sometimes the memories are almost overwhelming and I feel like I'm the only person who ever left that small town.

Memories

Today I saw:

the hospital I was born in
the creek I used to play in
the house I used to live in
the lake I used to swim in
the neighbors I used to play with
the grave of the woman who drove my school bus
the high school I graduated from

my aunt, my uncle, my cousins
my brother, my sister, my mother

the grave of my father
the graves of my grandparents
the graves of my great grandparents
the graves of my great-great grandparents
and the grave stone waiting for my mother

the church I was married in

I feel like I'm in a time warp.

Human Behavior

I'm forever analyzing how people act.

In a predetermined group activity, presumably, everyone would be active, right? Yet, I see the following behaviors:

• some jump in without a word and participate
• some wait for others to participate, then copy them
• some wait and do nothing until they are asked or told to do something
• some wait and then ask what to do
  
• some just wait

What causes some people to not participate? Fear? Laziness? Insecurity? Incompetence? A desire to see others fail and then make fun of them?

The Weekend is Over

We had a nice change of pace with a camping trip this past weekend. But now, it is time to think about getting back into gear for the upcoming week.

ARADD

That is, Age-Related Attention Deficit Disorder

This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden.

As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide
my car needs washing.

As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the porch
table that I brought up from the mailbox earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage
can under the table, and notice the can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage
first.

But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out
the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my checkbook off the table, and see that there is only one check
left.

My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to
my desk where I find the can of Coke that I had been drinking.

I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coke aside
so that I don't accidentally knock it over.

I realize the Coke is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the
refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the
counter catches my eye--they need to be watered.

I set the Coke down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses
that I've been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to
water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water
and suddenly I spot the TV remote.

Someone left it on the kitchen table and I realize that tonight when we
go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that
it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where
it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.

I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the
floor.

So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up
the spill.

Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

The driveway is flooded

The car isn't washed,

The bills aren't paid,

There is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter,

There is still only one check in my check book,

I can't find the remote,

I can't find my glasses,

And I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really
baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired.

I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for
it, but first I'll check my e-mail.

(Stolen from the internet, of all places.)

No New Posts

In looking at my index, I've noticed three draft, unfinished or censored posts in the last week. Hmmm...

A Frog and Toad Story

"Come help me! One of my ex-boyfriends is on my doorstep trying to get in," she exclaimed.

"No, no," I replied, "that's a harmless toad, not a frog."

"Oh, good," she replied, "I was worried there for a minute."

As you can see, the toad went away very disappointed, nearly in tears, that she wouldn't let him in.


"I'm holding out for the frog, aka Prince Charming, you know," she told him, and with a swish of the broom, sent him off to hide under the car.

The End.

The Cat's In the Bag and Other Accomplishments

Today was the day that the nice vet, Dr. MacDonald, comes to the Center and offers free shots to all our pets. Free, but we all give a donation. Rachel and I don't have cat carriers, but we do have some extra pillowcases which work pretty well. Odd thing, the vet bent the needle while giving the shot with both cats! They didn't seem to notice, however.

In other news, Rachel completed 7 interviews in the last three days, for 7 out of the 9 elementary schools in our district. The one on Thursday was at the school itself; the other six were at the job fair this morning. She seemed to feel OK about how they went, but we just don't know how likely it will be that a job offer will be forthcoming. We continue to pray that just the right full-time position will open up for her.

Rose

I don't have anything much to say today, but I did want to show off this beautiful rose.

A Walk

Yesterday the weather was gorgeous, so I went for a walk on the nearby trails. These trails are more or less maintained, but I did find a lot of poison ivy close to the trails anyway.

These trails have cute names like The Trail Down Under and MK Trace, but the one I went on was called Coon Crossing. I saw no coons, but I nearly step on this cool beetle:

This is the best time of year to look for wildflowers, and I found a few new ones to add to my collection. Here is a collage of the four new ones I found, but I was only able to identify 3 of the 4. If you want to see the names, check out my web album of flowers, wild.

Overall Apron

My project of a few weeks ago to make an apron out of one leg of a pair of old jeans was a moderate success. But really, only if the wearer was extra skinny. Then when Rachel handed me a couple old pairs of overalls to take to the boutique, I realized overalls would make an excellent apron, complete with built-in bib. So here ya go, shown on my headless model:

Maybe I'll start a new fad?

Update

I guess it has been a few days since I've posted. My week stunk, as you will already know if you read my other blog. The weather hasn't been all that warm and spring-like either, but I did manage to buy a couple new cheap lawn chairs so we have something to sit on out on the deck. Nor is the wildflower garden much to brag about this year-maybe it will improve when the weather gets a bit warmer. But Rachel's three miniature rose bushes are all blooming quite nicely.

Other accomplishments for the week: balancing my checkbook, helping Rachel get her taxes in the mail, and taking my vacuum cleaner in for a checkup which meant vacuuming the whole house before I took it in. My boss has been out of town this week, so things have been slow at the office too. Oh, and I published my very first book review on Amazon.com, using a nom de plume.

In Sweet Memory Of

Yesterday the front of our church was full of Easter lilies. (In fact, the fragrance was a bit overwhelming for me, so I sat in the very back row.) Each of these lilies was given either in honor of, or in memory of, a family member or friend.

I thought it was sweet to read in the bulletin these two particular listings (not real names, but you'll see what I'm getting at):

In memory of:
Sally Smith, my beloved first wife, by Joe Smith

and

In memory of:
John Doe, my beloved first husband, by Sue Smith

15,000 and Counting

I just happened to notice this nice round number on my counter. I know that really isn't very many hits for a blog, but on the other hand, based on the comments I get, I assume I only have a total of 5-6 different readers anyway!

I have just recently had to completely re-do my Empty Nest Website (not my blog) since our ISP Comcast changed to Roadrunner and ate up my website in the process. I've reworked it, made it simpler, and changed all my photo albums to be Google Web Albums, organzed via Picasa. Much, much simpler than the way I did it before. The new site uses Google Pages, also much simpler, but I've augmented the standard templates with a few hacks of my own HTML programming--very few because I know very little. Anyway, here is the new Empty Nest Website
http://linda.simons.googlepages.com/home if you need something to look at. My intention is to augment it from time to time with new photo albums.

In other news, we had a nice Easter day, if a chilly one. It was nice to see David and his gf, if only for a couple hours. And I will say, I've eaten WAY too much chocolate today. Got to love those Cadbury mini eggs.

Living and Dying

It seems like today's topic should be about life and death. Primarily, Christ's death, which is on our minds this Holy Saturday. My emails this week brought the news of several deaths--a woman from my high school class, a father and a brother of friends. I sympathize with the sorrow and sadness that my friends feel at their personal loss, even as I'm also reminded of my own grandmother who passed away on Good Friday three years ago, while I was at the theater seeing The Passion of the Christ.

I suppose most blogs don't talk about death because most blogs are written by people too young to be very acquainted with death. Their time will come, if they live that long.

Death makes a good backdrop to talk about life. Today's email also brought news of a birth and the joy this new life was bringing. I have purposely cut off the head of this smiling man as he proudly holds his new child in one arm and his new grandchild in the other. His child is the older one, obviously. ;-)

Lastly today, if you need some good music to start tomorrow, try my favorite Easter Song It sounds best when your speakers are maxed out. :-) (Actually, I have the recording--I don't really know how that Rhapsody download thing works, but you could try it if you don't have the song yourself.)

Geek Meets Tightwad (Only Two Wads Allowed)

Only at my place of employment would you get an announcement like the following:

Last year the maintenance department was called 522 times to respond to plugged toilets. That's an average of over two per day. Each response took an average of 30 minutes of time, which comes to 261 hours for the year. We have found that because our toilets are water savers, using only 1.8 gal/flush, they plug much easier than the older toilets. Most of the time water saver toilets will flush OK with two wads of paper, but a third wad can cause problems. Please feel free to flush more to help reduce the number of plugs. The labor to unplug the toilets last year cost more than $5,000 while 522 more flushes would have only cost $5.63. Thanks for helping!

I just want you to know that around here, we analyze everything. Look for this information to be added to the Enterprise Data Model (EDM) after which the head Enterprise Architect (EA) will be assigning work orders to deal with the issue, pending buy-in from each of the major centers, approval of his budget for next fiscal year, and the solution to all security and sensitivity concerns.

Hero Gone to Pot

I was not happy when I flushed and got wet feet. No, not happy.

But it turned out to be a cheap (less than $3) and easy repair--what would I do without those Reader's Digest Fix It Yourself books?

Just the rubber gasket between tank and bowl needed to be replaced. (At least the spewing water was from the tank and not the bowl.)

Side benefit: clean bathroom floor.

Somehow, This Just Says It All

Tea Party

One is never too old to play dress up and have tea with the ladies. I found a fine frock and the shoes in the boutique, and crafted a hat and earrings to elevate the outfit from humdrum to hmmm,... well, I can't quite think what is the word for this outfit.

And I wasn't the only one! Look at all these beauties in their hats!

The point of this party was to farewell Kaye, who leaves tomorrow for Guyana. She is going to join another single woman, Bev, who is in the final stages of the the Wapishana New Testament translation. Kaye is needed because the married couple who were working with Bev were murdered exactly two years ago.

Trudy hosted this lovely event at her home, and Eileen helped make the cucumber sandwiches and scones served with Devonshire cream.

Several other ladies brought their mother's china for us to use.

Lovely, lovely, lovely.

Oh, and yes, we drank LOTS of tea.

Progress?

I think not. The nondescript empty lot covered with nondescript trees is now being turned into a lot of nondescript storage units. :-(

In Progress

The Final Four is an event that we use to mark the anniversary of our arrival in Dallas. We drove here from California, where baby David had just been born, arriving the day after the Final game, which Gary watched in a hotel in Oklahoma. That was 23 years ago but it seems even longer than that in many ways. The four years just before that were spent living in the Solomon Islands and not speaking English. Now, I can hardly remember any To'abaita, and my Pijin isn't much better. Sigh. That was a world ago.

Cheap

You can call me cheap if you want to, but I prefer to think of my R-skills (that is: reuse, recycle, repurpose) as my little bit to stave off global warming. Wait, I don't want to talk about global warming--everybody gets up in arms! No, I just think it is sometimes fun to make do.

Anyway, my latest cheapskate trick: when you run out of black ink to refill the printer's black cartridges, use a mix of the extra red-yellow-blue ink. It isn't exactly black, but black enough for most purposes.

Another project I'm in the middle of is making an apron out of a leg of an old pair of jeans that had a hole in the rear. (This project wouldn't work if the jeans had a hole in the knee.)

That reminds me, I want a subscription to the Tightwad Gazette for Christmas.

Celebrate Spring

Yesterday I planned to celebrate the coming of spring by taking the flannel sheets off the bed and putting on the regular ones (which, sadly, are getting a bit threadbare, but I like the colors so much I really don't want to give them up). That didn't work out yesterday because we were too busy waiting for hot water. But today I was able to wash the winter sheets with LOTS of HOT water! Yay!

Another thing to celebrate today was an email from colleagues saying they had signed off on the copy of the New Testament they've been working on for many years--which means it is off to the typesetters. Nice to be able to celebrate milestones like that with them.

I haven't really gotten into spring cleaning yet, but I did do a complete empty of my email inbox today--finally ordering a book written by a friend I've been going to do for months, finally responding to a greeting I've been going to do for weeks, and finally sending in a donation I've been been going to do for days. That might be worth celebrating too!

Open Rehearsal

Our small group decided to go the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Chorus free open rehearsal of the Messiah last evening.
I know I've blogged about it before, but the Meyerson Center is really a pretty cool building!
Rachel joined us. Her college choir had done the Messiah a few years back, so it was all I could to to keep her from singing along!
One of our group members is an alto in the chorus, so we had a chance to support her and hear some great music at the same time.
This might not exactly be opera (Ma, that comment was for you), but it is the closest I'm likely to get. You know the music was great. The only thing that was maybe just a tad weird for me was the alto solos being sung by a countertenor. One had to wonder if he was singing falsetto, or, um, had other issues.
The downtown Dallas skyline is pretty cool too!

I John 4:10

He was not
forced
tricked
coerced
or
convinced
to love me.

Nor did I
earn
garner
deserve
or
beg for
his love.

He loves me without
doubt
question
hesitation
or
a second thought,
because he said he would.

Love me.

Omniscience?

I've had three or four people in the last week come to my office, or call me on the phone, or bump into me in the ladies' room and ask me some minor question about something or other. They say in a sweet tone of voice, "You know everything" then proceed to ask their question about what time does Bible study start, where to find help for some software program, how do you post things to the new intranet, how to get money transferred from the Philippines, etc. I've decided people come to me because 1) I'm an administrative assistant, and 2)I've lived here a long time.

The other thing that I sometimes get told is, "You think you know everything." This is usually said with a considerably less-sweet tone of voice.

A Bit of Technology

This week I got a letter (on paper!) from Roadrunner, our latest broadband company (before that it was AT&T then Comcast). They told me I needed to do blah, blah to convert my website from Comcast over to Roadrunner by March 31. So I followed their instructions, and converted away, acquiring yet another email address in the process.

Several days later, only one of my three websites had converted (mine, my daughter's, and my son's, all of which are under our account). So then I started getting worried that all that work was going to end up lost in cyberspace, never to be seen again. At that point I started trying to figure out a decent way to back up my website (probably something I should have already been doing, but hadn't). I'm still waiting for the conversion to be complete, and if and when it is, I'll mention it here. In the mean time, my my old address still seems to work. I don't know for how long.

So off I go to the web, searching for free software to help me. The web spider didn't quite do the trick, nor did the web clone program. (Or maybe I just didn't know how to use these programs.) But then I remembered my trusty FTP program. So after upgrading it to the newest version, I was able to do the opposite of what I normally do with the program,and completely download my website to back it up on my own computer. It only took 20 minutes and I was quite proud of myself for figuring out how to do that. (If any geeks are reading this, forgive me for thinking this was clever of me.)

And while I'm at it, do all of you readers (all two of you) know about RSS? I really don't know much about it, but an RSS program (there are several to choose from) tells you everytime a blog is updated without you having to go look for it. That is, you tell it all the blogs you want to be appraised of, and it will tell you each time any blog on your list has been updated. Saves time going to check them all when half of your watched blogs only update once a month.

Jesus Camp

Last night we watched this movie from our Netflix DVD subscription. It was released in September 2006 and was in the theaters here in the Dallas area for a short while, but I didn't want to spend the $ to go then.

I pretty much decided ahead of time that I wasn't going to like this movie, that the filmmakers would be either making fun of or criticizing Christians who are far right politically and socially. Now that I watched it twice--once with my family and again today with the "commentary" setting (you know, from the "extras" that come with a DVD)--I don't feel so negative toward them.

The movie is about how some conservative American Christians train their children. The subsection of Christians portrayed are pentecostal or charismatic--the movie makes no distinction between those terms. The movie shows the children in their homes and schools, which are the same. The main event is seeing the kids at summer camp, a children's prayer camp lead by Becky Fisher. There are also scenes of the kids visiting Ted Haggard's megachurch in Colorado Springs and praying in front of the Supreme Court.

So here's my take: my somewhat negative reactions were more at the things that are normal for Pentecostalism. But seeing them manifest in young children (speaking in tongues, strange body movements, etc.) seemed more excessive than when seen in adults. But, that has to do with the expression and theology of one subset of evangelicals, and I can't really say that they are hurting their children by teaching them what they believe.

The positive things: the filmmakers did seem to respect the fact that children are capable of believing in God, capable of prayer, and capable of changing the world. I was also reminded that Christians teach their kids from a very young age that they have meaning because they are loved by the almighty creator of the world--what a great message! All children should be so fortunate.

The filmmakers provide "contrast" with footage from a radio talk show by Mike Papantonio, a good Methodist middle-of-the-road Christian who pretty much dislikes the Christian right because they are "too political."

The worst part of the film--and by "worst" I mean saddest and most embarrassing--was not the children acting like adults, it was Ted Haggard doing two things: talking to these kids in a somewhat hostile way that seemed out of place, and most of all, being a hypocrite to them. Less than two months after Jesus Camp was released, Ted Haggard resigned from his ministry as pastor of an evangelical megachurch and president of the National Association of Evangelicals due to scandal. Knowing that as we watched--the irony was a bit much.

The filmmakers are east-coast city people who didn't know much about evangelicals or the heartland but didn't poke fun like I thought they might. There is plenty in this movie for both Christians and non-Christians to get upset about, but I decided it really didn't upset me. Yes, some folks might say these kids were being brainwashed by rabid Christians, but really, don't TV and video games and friends and books brainwash too?

Update

I haven't felt like I've had much to blog about lately. There have been some times when I was in a bad mood that I felt like blogging, but then thought better of it.

I really do love spring in Texas. The winters here aren't bad, of course, but I just love the abundance of wildflowers that spring brings, and how good it feels to be outside without a big coat on. I enjoy doing my daily walks with my neighbor, but I also enjoy the times I go after dark all by myself--when the weather is warm enough (we have a pretty safe neighborhood, so I don't worry about being alone).

I have a new boss at work, and he's giving me a few more projects to do. But mostly I'm still just working mornings, and then doing a few things by email from home in the afternoons and evenings.

We still don't have our water heater fixed, but the last guy I phoned has promised to get back to me soon.