Jungle Safari Cake for Isabella's 1st birthday party

We're back from our wonderful trip to Addis Ababa and I'm starting to deal with laundry, mail, and photos. Here is the first album. Click on it to see larger photos and captions.

I'm planning to post about our trip mostly on my family blog, so set that to your RSS feed if you want to keep updated.

My Brother

The nest is a bit emptier; my younger brother passed away last night. I'm glad I went to Michigan last week to see him before it was too late.

I've Hit a Stone Wall

This photo is for MaHoyt, the side wall of the barbershop. Click on it for a better view.

I haven't really hit a stone wall, maybe just a snag. It is less than a week before we leave for Ethiopia, and I feel like I"m getting sick! Sad.

If anyone reading this wants to see photos of my Michigan trip, I've posted two albums. You can find the links here.

I'm Home

I'm too tired to write a decent post, but I did think this photo was a good illustration of what I saw in my small hometown (from which I've just returned)--the new and the old. In so many ways it felt like nothing except me had changed in 40 years. But then, lots of folks have these little dishes sitting on their homes and businesses, so I guess something has changed.

Oaf Child

Yesterday, as I was driving past the high school, I dutifully slowed to 20mph as the flashing light instructed, in spite of the fact that we all know school is not in session. But it turns out there were a couple teenagers leaving the building because one of the started to cross the road in front of me, dropped to the ground in my lane, and did a pushup before completing his journey to the other side.

A New New Testament

I kind of pride myself in making something out of nothing, but in this case, we could hardly say I started with nothing.

Rachel wanted to buy an NIV NT, but it need to be one with larger than micro print and smaller than a fortune to buy. Turns out we had an old NIV on the shelf with the glue disintegrated. I removed the NT and added a cover made of card stock, and bound it with a heavy-duty stapler at the office.

She says she's going to use this NT to read along while listening to the digital NIV NT that she got for her birthday.

Mr. and Mrs. Red-bellied Wooodpecker

Today I repeatedly saw this male woodpecker break open a sunflower seed and then feed it to his mate. That was sweet, don't you think?

It's So Hot...

...even the cat is drinking ice water.

If It Weren't for TV Sports...

...Gary would never get a nap.

Or, TV news. Or TV movies.

Multiuse Tools

In the same way that a dry wall knife can be used to cut cheesecake, a Pampered Chef spatula can be used to spread grout.

No Good

This giant watermelon cost $6 on sale, but I just couldn't bring myself to drag the rotten and dripping specimen back to the store to get my money back. I guess that is a sign that I'm rich. Or lazy.


The solution to a spring poking through the top of the matteress might be to turn it over. Except when I did that, the other side was worse!

Michael's ordination

Michael's ordination

The photos aren't that great, but it was a good occasion. We've known Michael since he was about 3 or 4 years old.

Sleepin' in the 70s

Did anyone else married in the 70s receive bed sheets like these for wedding gifts?? We've got so many visitors staying with us tonight that I"m down to my last set of sheets. And they aren't really my visitors--my best friend's house is full so she sent her extra friends and relatives over to sleep at my place. Everyone is here to celebrate her elder son's ordination tomorrow morning as an episcopal deacon.

Fingerprints?

If you read my family blog, you'll have heard that our place of work was broken into on Monday night. The CSI unit (or whatever they really are) came by to look for finger prints, but I think all they found were mine. They left fingerprint powder all over my desk. One blessing: the multipage printout of my password list I keep in the drawer was actually not in the drawer, but rather at home, at the time. My petty cash envelope didn't fare as well.

12:01

Yay, it is midnight on June 1, and I've just turned the air conditioner on for the first time this season. I plan to sleep better tonight!

A Few More Cards

Next weekend we have two special events to attend--Michael's ordination as an Episcopal Deacon and Carolyn's graduation from HS. I've got my cards made a whole week early!

Now I need to finish getting the guest rooms in the apartment ready for Michael and Suzanna and their friends and relatives who are coming to Dallas for the festivities.

Mysteries of the Universe

One of them is soap scum--if soap makes you clean, why does it make the shower dirty?

Slide Scanning is Finished

I'm done with my slide scanning. Now I have to finish organizing them and then make a nice backup for safe keeping.

Along the way I scaned this photo from a negative strip--remember those? When Andrew attended Taylor, he was often told he looked like James Dean, whose museum was in a small town nearby. (Click on photo for a better view.)

Buffalo, Girls?

When I saw this ad on the bulletin board at work today, I had to go buy some:

For Sale: Buffalo
$3/lb, sold in 4 lb. packages
Call Bob.

This will be added to my notes for the book I'm going to write someday: Only At My Place of Work.

Hmm, I wonder if I have any buffalo recipes in any of those cookbooks I own ...

Update

Not too much to write about at the moment. Life goes on, and many days I think life is too good. Why is my life good, and the lives of so many others, not so good? I don't know.

I've been posting a few things on my family blog; check it if you are interested in my day to day life, or at least parts of it. I've been enjoying a few birds that I hadn't seen in Dallas before this year, and a pair of spiny lizards has laid its clutch of eggs just under the edge of the sidewalk. I've ordered myself a new bird feeder, so no doubt I'll have photos of that up when it arrives.

We're praying about options for Rachel for housing after her current apartment contact expires. Lots of options are possibilities, so pray for God to give her and us wisdom as we process this with her.

Also, still no decision about where to settle for church. Lots of good churches around, but I confess, after our last church we're finding it hard to be satisfied with with less than high quality music and musicians. Most small churches try hard, but often with amateur results. And I admit, it is hard to not have a "consumer" mentality. Sigh.

Gary recently got a new computer for his home office, but I fear it is going to take weeks to get it set up such that he will get rid of the old one. He's happy to be getting a new large flat monitor.