Die Stille im Lande

Nerd? Geek? or Dork?

2008-11-14T11:07:00.001-08:00

I took a "Nerd? Geek? or Dork?" quiz, and it turns out I'm a nerd. What are you?

Hincks alert

2008-09-27T14:36:00.003-07:00

My friend Adam the Astronomer is back in Chile again. Check out the link to his fifth online journal on the left side of this page. It contains tales of science and Chile. It's a good read.

His sister Emily has just taken a job at the University of Rennes in France. Her blog is also an amusing read, although it is a very different sort of blog! (Also see the link to the left.)

I recommend them both. See if you can note any differences or similarities between the two siblings.

It's newsletter time again!

2008-09-25T14:16:00.002-07:00

I know I don't keep this blog up-to-date anymore, but I do still send out newsletters about my work at UrbanPromise three times per year if you want to keep in touch with my ministry work there.

You can get a paper copy to put on your fridge, or an enviro-friendly PDF. Just e-mail me your current address!

Also, you can always check the UrbanPromise website (especially my StreetLeader page) if you're looking for frequent updates and photos.

For those of you who are amused by cats

2008-09-16T19:37:00.002-07:00

rain

2008-08-26T21:43:00.002-07:00

Today it rained, and I am sad that summer is almost over, and that we are returning to the endless dark and gloom and wet that is winter in Vancouver.

Squirt

2008-07-08T21:09:00.005-07:00

Behold my new best friend. I met her at the Aquarium on Saturday, and now I check up on her all the time. I call her Squirt.

....All together now!....

(please don't leave me hanging)

Happy Canada Day!

2008-07-02T09:22:00.003-07:00

I celebrated Canada Day by taking my bike to work. You know, "doing my part" for this wonderful land.

Going to work is much easier as it is mostly downhill. This is nice because I don't really get very sweaty. But on the way home, the direction that brings me nearer to my shower, I do get rather sweaty.

Vancouver has established a good system of cycling routes which are direct paths through residential neighbourhoods. One of the factors that went into planning these routes was to choose paths with minimal ups and downs to ease cycling. Cars cannot take advantage of these alternate direct routes because there are frequent barriers (such as lovely planted boulevards) that force cars to turn left or right while permitting the much narrower bicycles to continue straight. Whenever these routes cross major roads, there are traffic lights with buttons installed right next to the curb for cyclists to push without having to dismount.

The result is that I took a route to work along streets I had never been down before. The slower speed of cycling and the lower stress of driving along quiet residential streets permits one to notice and appreciate the neighbourhoods much better than one would by zooming past on a major car route.

I took advantage of this slower pace, and stopped to buy lemonade from an honest-to-goodness lemonade stand run by kids on the side of the road. I felt like I was in a Norman Rockwell painting. They had a home-made sign and smudges of summer grime on their faces and everything.

To complete the day, Aaron and I went downtown to see the fireworks. I made a game of "commanding" the rockets when to explode. I think I got about 50% of them dead-on. It took awhile to get the hang of which rockets would explode sooner or later than my gut instinct said. But it was fun!

Person In Charge

2008-05-23T12:10:00.004-07:00

I had to return something at Safeway yesterday, and the man behind the customer service desk had a nametag that said: "Trevor McSpadden - Person In Charge." I'm thinking the logic behind that kind of job title is that when some crazy lady decides she's going to throw a fit and demands to speak to someone in charge, they can bypass this kind of conversation:

Lady: "I demand to speak to someone in charge!"
Trevor: "That's me, ma'am. I'm the Assistant Shift Supervisor."
Lady: "Whatever! You're not really in charge! I want to speak to the manager!"
Trevor: "Well you see, I actually am the right person to talk to because at Safeway the manager on-duty is given the illustrious title of Assistant Shift Supervisor, so I am functioning as a manager while the real manager isn't on site. I assure you that I am fully capable of assisting you, even if I’m not the real manager.""
Lady: "Whatever! You're not really in charge! I want to speak to the manager!"

...and move right on to this conversation:

Lady: "I demand to speak to someone in charge!"
Trevor: "That's me, ma'am. As you can see on my name tag, I am the Person In Charge."
Lady: "Oh good, you'll be able to help me."

It's May...

2008-05-08T13:27:00.001-07:00

...and the cherry blossom petals swirl around like the ocean as the traffic rushes by.

I'm headed back on the water!

2008-03-23T20:52:00.002-07:00

In four weeks, I will be going on a weekend canoe trip! Or to be more precise, a Paddle-a-thon. On April 19-20 I will paddle down the Fraser river from Hope to Fort Langley. I will be raising money for the Camp Squeah bursary fund, which is given to post-secondary students who volunteer as staff at camp for the summer! So it's a very good cause.

I need to raise a minimum of $500, otherwise I can't go! So if anyone would like to support this marvellous cause, please let me know! I can give you tax receipts, too!

Please help! Thank you very much!

abandon ship

2008-03-13T20:51:00.004-07:00

I was riding the bus home in the dark today. I worked until 8:00PM. I was seated in that twilight zone between the front and back doors that's not quite in the bright lights of the back of the bus, and not quite in the front area that's dark so that the driver can see properly. At each stop, all the lights go on so that the passengers can see their way out.

I was quite absorbed in my book, so I hadn't looked up until my neighbour wanted to get off and I needed to swing my knees around to let him out. At that moment, the lights went on, and something caught my eye under the seat in front of me. It was a little, ugly, paper mache boat that looked a lot like a coffin. I knew it was a boat because there were two little, ugly paddles lying next to it. They were made of cardboard paddle blades attached to popsicle sticks with masking tape. The paddles and the coffin-boat were painted brown.

I imagine that it had been part of a school project, maybe something on Canada's First Nations people and their canoes. I wondered if it was the prized creation of a young student, the glowing centerpiece of a shoebox diorama. Or perhaps it had been the half-hearted creation of an older student and deliberately abandoned once the required marks had been collected. Or even worse, what if the young student had forgotten it on the bus on her way to school, and had cried over its loss and the tragedy of having nothing to hand in after having worked so hard.

My neighbour got off the bus, the lights went out, and the bus moved on.

I love the new time

2008-03-13T13:57:00.002-07:00

Daylight savings time sucks. Welcome to regular summer time! I love it because now it's still light when I get home. Daylight makes me feel energetic, like I still have time to do lots of things that I want to do before going to bed. Once dusk hits, all I want to do is huddle up on the couch with a book or something to watch, or maybe play computer games.

Hurray for evening daylight!

weekend away

2008-02-18T10:56:00.004-08:00

We spent the weekend in Victoria with Aaron's family (2 parents, sister + brother-in-law, and us = 6 total). It was their treat to us for our birthdays/Christmas/Valentine's day. It was an awesome B&B with a famous breakfast (they made a whole cookbook about it), and it was also very relaxing and fun. This was our suite. I loved it! I like the fireplace.

In Victoria we walked around and saw the Empress hotel an did some shopping. Which brings me to my next link. They were on sale! So I bought them. I haven't owned a pair of "dress-up/dress-down" black shoes since I threw my Starbucks-dress-code shoes in the garbage on my last shift there one and a half years ago. So I figured I owed myself.

This post has been brought to you by all those who commented on my "I'm dead" post.

My latest internet addiction

2008-02-14T00:27:00.000-08:00

I just...can't....stop.....

I'm not dead yet! ....wait...okay maybe...yeah.

2008-02-07T13:10:00.000-08:00

Hello readers! It seems that this blog has passed its golden age of multiple posts per week. But that's okay. I'm not an aspiring writer, and I'm not a professional blogger, so it's not really that disappointing to me. For a while I felt very fulfilled by writing here, and now it just doesn't seem that important to me. But perhaps that's just another passing phase. Who knows?

So, welcome to "Die Stille im Lande II"!

I will not fully abandon this blog, rather, I will simply write here whenever I feel like it--no more, no less. I will feel no burdensome obligation to update, but I will also not eliminate this venue of expression. There will be no further need to check for weekly updates, but I would still appreciate it if you would check on a monthly basis. If you want to read more here, please leave comments! There is nothing quite so encouraging/inspiring as comments!

return to chile

2008-01-18T18:35:00.000-08:00

I know some of you have enjoyed reading my friend Adam the Astronomer's web journal about his work in the Atacama desert of Chile. Well, I just popped over to his site for the first time in awhile and discovered that he spent 2 weeks there in December. Read about it.

my other brother is now also famous

2008-01-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

You may recall that my youngest brother Karl made a wicked-awesome dance video on YouTube. Not to be outdone, my other brother Tobin has now made the national news by contributing a stunningly insightful commentary on one of this nation's most important cultural events. Watch the video!

return to the jungle

2008-01-09T12:55:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! I'm back from Winnipeg (where I was for much of the Christmas break), and now I'm into a crazy week or two of work, so I'll be updating you all some other time when I have the brain space for it.

Happy New Year!

scandals, virgins, birds and bees...Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T01:21:00.000-08:00

I attended the Peace Mennonite Church Christmas pageant this evening, and it really got me thinking...all these kids are participating in this story and discussing Mary's scandalous pregnancy onstage...how many of them understand exactly what the nature of the scandal is? How many of them went home from rehearsal this month and said, "Mommy, what does it matter that she wasn't married? What does a husband have to do with having a baby anyway? What's a virgin?"

The virgin birth must be a great conversation starter for many a parent looking to educate their children in the manner of birds and bees!

this post has nothing to do with Christmas

2007-12-24T13:34:00.000-08:00

I was reading a news report on the death of Oscar Peterson, and there is a brief quote by Hazel McCallion, the mayor of Mississauga. Once again, I found myself exclaiming, "Oh my goodness, she's STILL the mayor of Mississauga?!?!"

Hazel McCallion is on of those people who really has no great significance in my life, but who shows up as this random blip on my radar from time to time. She piques my interest. To sum it up in a nutshell, she is 86 years old and has been the mayor of Mississauga since four years before I was born. Apparently she doesn't really need to campaign anymore, as in her most recent election (her 11th for mayor) she got 91% of the vote.

Upon reading her Wikipedia article today, I learned that she is also a devout Christian and that she has never been labeled a feminist. I think the next time someone asks me who I would have coffee with if I could pick anyone in the world, I will pick her.

houston, we have a problem

2007-12-21T10:35:00.000-08:00

I believe my tear ducts have undergone some sort of growth spurt. Or something. Over the past few years, I have noticed myself getting choked up at movies more and more frequently. My crying-at-movies reached an all-time low (high?) while watching Elf this week. That's right, I shed a few tears in a Will Ferrell movie because all the Christmas spirit got to me.

classic snow art

2007-12-21T10:23:00.000-08:00

If they're too small to read, just click on them.

think about it

2007-12-18T12:29:00.000-08:00

parties and family do's...yup, it's December!

2007-12-17T12:48:00.000-08:00

I had a really good weekend...not this most recent weekend but the one before. I've been meaning to post about it, but I've been waiting for my friend to send me pictures, but that hasn't happened yet so I'm going to post about it anyway.

First of all, I had a phone call from a really good friend, and we had some good girl talk about ex-boyfriends and moving on. I don't have a lot of girly friends out here, so it was especially fun for me to chat with her.

Then I made a simple lemon loaf to bring to Aaron's aunt and uncle's Christmas family thing. I got a couple of very flattering compliments about it, which made me feel super-good and very accepted by the in-laws! It was fun.

And finally, I spent about 6 hours on Sunday at a friend's house, experimenting with chocolate. We were trying to make our own liqueur-filled chocolates, and it took a lot of experimentation and sampling! Word to the wise: Caramel Bailey's + dark chocolate = TO DIE FOR. Finally, we made a big batch of hazelnut truffles, and I got my hands COVERED in chocolate and I got to lick them off and wash it down with another shot of Caramel Bailey's. There are pictures, hopefully I'll get to post them soon.

rats & rainbows

2007-12-06T08:27:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I have finally had a few days that are worth mentioning on this blog!

Sam and Annemarie visited us last weekend, and we did the usual pilgrimage to pay homage to the Swedish furniture gods. Since Aaron and I weren't interested in buying anything, we amused ourselves by hiding stuffed beavers, hedgehogs, and hippos throughout the various furniture displays. My favourite was the hippo that we squashed into a kitchen garbage bin that was labeled "look inside"...he practically jumped out of the bin when you opened it!

So, after a few good laughs, we figured we were finished, so we went downstairs into the huge kitchenwares section to find Sam and Annemarie. But lo and behold! Right at the bottom of the stairs was a huge bin of plush rats, just the perfect size for putting into jars and such! So we gathered up an armful and got busy. My favourites were the rat in the wineglass, the three rats in glass cannisters (they looked like mimes trying to get out of their glass boxes) and the rat that we shoved into a vase that had a very narrow neck but was quite large and round below the neck. I'm sure nobody will ever get it out! Oh, and perhaps my favourite of all was the rat that we flattened in the middle of a stack of clear glass mixing bowls. Pancake rat! My tummy hurt from laughing.

On a different note: There have been several fantastic rainbows in the past few days. It has something to do with clouds getting bunched up against the mountains, but when the sun gets low enough over the ocean to peek under the clouds, everything just lights up like crazy! It's very beautiful, and it makes people on the street smile and comment to one another and take pictures.

being outside

2007-11-20T10:46:00.000-08:00

This morning was sunny and chilly. Snow has now fallen on the entire height of the mountains, not just the tops. With the sky being that light, chilly blue and the mountains now being light, dusty grey, you need to do a double-take to determine exactly where the horizon lies. It's very pretty.

I took a walk over lunch, and I re-discovered two things. First of all, I remembered that I really like creative park sculpture. I'm talking about sculpture that takes up a large amount of park space and invites the public to sit, look, interact and ponder. I found a little triangle of land between three roads where someone had installed a number of large, rough, rectangular stones in various horizontal and upright patterns. Almost every one of these stones had some version of a circular hole or hollow in it. I sat, looked, interacted and pondered.

Also, I re-rediscovered this particular kind of white berry. When I was a child in Berlin, we had these berry bushes near our driveway. I hadn't seen them for about 12 years when I first rediscovered them here in Vancouver while taking a walk with Aaron. They instantly triggered this urge in me to pick them, throw them on the ground and step on them. I didn't know why, I just knew that that's what you do with that particular berry. And sure enough, once I stepped on them I rediscovered the delightful popping noise they make! So today, I once again saw these berries and remembered the strange way that memory can work. And I popped some, of course.

kenyan proverb

2007-11-13T00:06:00.000-08:00

Treat the earth well.

It was not given to you from your parents,

it was loaned to you by your children.

multi-dimensional Jesus

2007-11-12T23:20:00.000-08:00

In last week's adult study (aka Sunday School), we were talking about the resurrection. At one point somebody was emphasizing that Jesus did physically resurrect at Easter with a new physical body and that when we are resurrected we will also have new bodies. They'll be even better than our current ones because they won't get sick and die. Anyway, the question came up about how Jesus could have appeared and disappeared, especially entering rooms with all the doors locked, if he had such a physical body.

And then it struck me: Jesus' new body could move in more dimensions than the common three. You only need one extra dimension (and it doesn't have to be "time") for it all to make sense. Mathematicians and physicists generally accept the probability that our universe contains many extra dimensions, so this isn't even a wacky "out there" idea.

Imagine that the entire world is 2-dimensional like a flat piece of paper. And on this paper you draw a blueprint of a house, and you draw little stick people Christians into a room with all the doors locked. If that sheet of paper is all they know, and they can't comprehend how to look "up" at you because all they know is how to look forwards/backwards and left/right, then the appearance of your fingertip in their locked room (if you poke the paper) will seem like a miraculous appearance!

I'm really hoping this means that our resurrected bodies will have the ability to move through multiple dimensions...maybe we can evade illness bacteria and such by simply sidestepping them via another dimension. Why should we be locked up in a mere three-dimensional universe when there is infinitely more of it to discover?

smart vs. stupid customer service

2007-10-29T22:23:00.000-07:00

I have always maintained that the difference between smart customer service people and stupid ones is as obvious as night and day. And you won't get what you need until you find a smart one, the stupid ones just will never do.

Over the past week it has been a great trial to have a number of photos laminated for a certain project at work. Let me demonstrate my aforementioned thesis with the following case studies from this last week. (I'm sorry the gory details are so lengthy. I hope it is entertaining nonetheless. It's a gong show.)

STUPID: I call a UPS store asking if they can laminate such-and-such. The guy sounds ESL, and I have a nagging suspicion that he doesn't quite understand what I need, but he insists he can do it before closing at 6 if I can get there by 5. I arrive at 5:10. Three people (apparently related) turn their blank faces away from the TV and towards me. "Hello!" I venture. Blank stares. Nobody gets up off their seats. I try again: "Hello!" One of them looks at the stuff I'm carrying, figures out I'm the girl from the phone call, and greets me by saying, "You're too late." I explain that I don't mind leaving the job overnight, and THEN he gets up off his arse and walks behind the counter to help. Except then it turns out that he doesn't have the correct equipment to do what I wanted as per our telephone conversation. My nagging suspicion is proven correct.

STUPID: I go to Superstore to have a photo blown up to 11"x14". I inquire if they can do that. The lady says they can. I ask when it will be ready. She says in a few weeks. I say, "You mean a few days?" She says no, a few weeks. They have to send the job to Ontario to have it done there. I leave the store.

STUPID: I take my laminating to Staples. Some guy takes my stuff and says he can have it laminated by 3pm. I can't be there at 3pm, so my boss goes and gets it for me. She reported the following conversation:
My boss: "You've laminated some of these photos so that they're overlapping."
Staples boy: "Is that a problem?"
"Yes, I can't use them if they're stuck together."
"Oh....Do you want me to fix it?"
"Yes!"
"Okay....Right now?"
"Well I'm certainly not coming back here again, so if you'd like to do it later and have it couriered to my office by the end of the day, be my guest."
"Oh. I guess I'll do it now."

STUPID: I go to the mall to see if I can find someone who will blow up my photo to 11"x14". I find a store that is a cross between a 1-hour photo place and Blacks, so the entire store is about photos. I ask the lady if they can make a photo that size. She says yes. I pull out my flash drive. She says they can't do that. I ask her to clarify, there must be a mistake. But no, they do not have a USB port anywhere in the store, but if I can write down the exact file name and give her my entire flash drive to send away somewhere, they can have it in a few days. This is obviously not a 21st century photo shop, and I need to use my flash drive for other things on a daily basis, so I leave.

STUPID: Those laminated photos I mentioned earlier were given to me on Friday. I had glanced at them at the time, but it was not until I took the paper cutter to them today (Monday) that I realized that one third of them were missing. When I called Staples and described what I was missing, the phone girl went to look for them. Sure enough, she found my envelope of missing photos just sitting on top of the laminator. The idiot from Friday must have gotten distracted and just sold my boss half of the job without remembering that he hadn't finished the rest of it.

SMART: (Cue angel choir.) I enter London Drugs with my flash drive. I ask the girl behind the counter about my 11"x14" photo. She says, "Sure!" and guides me to a computer where my order is taken in about 45 seconds.
"When do you need this done by?"
"Oh, anytime in the next few days is good."
"Well, I could have it ready in an hour if you want."
(I get a little choked up.)
"I can't be back here in an hour, but I could be back in three hours."
"Okay, I'll write down that you need in in 2 hours, so you'll be sure to get it."

SMART: (Angel choir reprise.) I arrive at Staples to collect my missing photos. The girl from the phone not only has laminated them all, but has trimmed them perfectly and has them ready in a neat stack. (I had been expecting the big plastic sheet full of laminated photos like we got on Friday.) I ask her to also laminate my newly procured 11"x14" photo, and she does so -- and trims it! -- within a minute. We head to the cash register, where I explain that my boss had already paid enough for the photos we got on Friday (I was not intending to pay for photos that had been forgotten). The girl sincerely says, "Oh, of course!" as if she had never dreamed of asking me to pay for them. No fuss whatsoever. We ring up the single photo I just had laminated, I thank her profusely for her helpfulness, and I leave satisfied. This may sound ridiculous, but I quietly prayed a blessing on her for being such a saint.

an adventurous, interesting, and educational week

2007-10-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

Whirlwind Toronto Trip
My trip to Toronto was lovely, except maybe for the work part. And the jet lag. Nothing like having to start work at 6:00AM according to your biological clock! On Tuesday when I arrived we went straight out to Waterloo for a family dinner at my brother and sister-in-law's home to celebrate our parents' thirtieth anniversary. Everyone was there except Aaron, but we had a good time anyway.

After a full day of workshops on Wednesday, I spent the evening with my friend Fatima. We had lots of good, long conversation about relationships, family, and faith. And also a bit of medicine. Did you know that sometimes when two people spend a lot of time together and one of them is psychotic, the other can start to believe the psychoses as well? Fatima had encountered a case where a mother and a daughter both believed that every time the daughter opened her mouth to speak, worms came out of it. So you have to separate them to see which one you need to treat and which one is actually okay on their own. Fascinating!

Thursday was another full day of workshops, followed by a hurried dinner at the airport and a flight home. There was a kid somewhere on my plane who enthusiastically yelled "Blastoff!!!" when we took off.

Rainy Rollercoaster Adventure
On Friday it was right back to work, and I didn't even go home after work because I went to "Fright Night" at Playland (the local fairground/midway) with our church youth group. I have a thing for rollercoasters, and as a volunteer sponsor my ticket was paid for, so how could I refuse this chance for free rollercoasters? Here's the catch: it was POURING rain. And it wasn't a warm evening! I managed to stay dry under my umbrella while in line, but the first rollercoaster ride was the wettest experience of my life. At one point we went underneath something that was pouring extra drainage water from a roof or something, and it smacked me in the face and filled up the little basin formed by my two legs and the seat. I stoically survived the second rollercoaster (there were only two) and one haunted house before excusing myself and fleeing home. I can't remember the last time I was soaked through to the skin over such a large percentage of my body.

Geek Alert! Beware!
And finally, I must share with you my latest internet addiction. Galaxy Zoo is an online project to classify thousands of galaxies. The fact is that humans can classify galaxies as elliptical, spiral, mergers or "other" much better than any computer program, so after reading a brief tutorial and completing a 15-question test, they let you log in and classify your little heart away.

It's really exciting, because in many cases you are the first human being to see or take note of these galaxies! A computerized telescope took all the photos and prepped them for classification. It's completely addictive because of the "random reinforcement", just like gambling. By far the majority of the galaxies you see are plain old elliptical galaxies, or even just distant smudges, like this: But every once in awhile you get little rewards like this: Or once in every few hundred times you get a wicked-awesome reward like this: That's right, that is two spiral galaxies beginning to collide! Amazing!

this fish did not die

2007-10-15T22:54:00.000-07:00

I just finished working about 45 hours last week (and I took my stat on Monday, so that's saying something) and now I'm going to Toronto for an uber-packed work trip, and then I shall return on Friday just in time for one day of prep (and an evening youth event) before UrbanPromise's annual fundraiser on Saturday night. And then I have Monday and Tuesday to prep for a leadership training event I'm running on Wednesday.

Interpretation: I will not have a life for at least 10 more days. I apologize in advance for my lack of posts. See you on the other side...

Mafia rules Vancouver public transit

2007-10-09T10:57:00.001-07:00

This morning on the bus, the man standing in front of my seat absentmindedly mimed what I assumed to be his golf grip and swing. It looked very precise and strong. I chuckled at him inwardly until I looked up and got a complete picture of what this guy looked like. He was wearing a black suit with a black shirt underneath. His black hair (widows peak, receeding hairline) was slicked back. His pockmarked face had an Italian appearance about it.

In short, he looked like the Mafia. And his little pantomime seemed that much creepier.

shrines

2007-10-02T13:45:00.000-07:00

I have noticed before that as soon as I post something apologetic about my lack of posting, I suddenly am inspired to write more. As my mother always said, getting started is the hardest part.

Today I walked past the place where a man was murdered last week, near to one of the highschools I work with. An impromptu shrine of sorts had been set up, just like you might see at the site of a highway accident. I wanted to see what I could learn about the deceased. I figured by the two whoppers and the stolen burger joint menu that he really liked burgers. I also determined by more than a dozen (empty) bottles and one branded baseball cap that he REALLY liked Jack Daniels. There were also a good number of candles, flowers, and pub T-shirts.

In highschool, when my friend died in a kayaking mishap, I bought an apple fritter from Tim Hortons and left it on her doorstep.

It's an odd, unspoken and somewhat universal behaviour to create "shrines" and leave gifts for the dead, and I'm not sure I quite understand it.

blogging lull

2007-10-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

I admit that I am not updating this blog as much as I feel I ought to be. Somehow I don't feel there is much that is blogworthy to post. Or perhaps it is only that I don't feel like writing the blogworthy things down. Or maybe I just haven't been feeling creative enough to write it well. So I will write it in a mediocre fashion instead (my apologies) because I am stubborn and will not let this blog go to the dogs. Honestly, it is the comments - both in-person and on this blog - from my loved ones afar that keep me going. This is for you! I love you guys and I will not leave you hanging!

So here's my mediocre blog post:

I did take note last week of a blogworthy child who was playing with a rubber lizard. He was charming until he started climbing all over the ATM that I was using, and his mother did nothing to stop him. I became unimpressed, and his former charm was eclipsed by brattiness and poor parenting.

Baby Caleb fell asleep on my shoulder on Sunday. Now my arms are sore.

Last week I went to a funeral for a relative my mother's age. Cancer got her too young, but she was a delightful person, and the stories that were told at the reception brought many laughs.

Work stuff is starting to get busy, but more in the paperwork sense and not so much in the programming sense. I guess a change is better than a break!

I am looking forward to thanksgiving with family and friends.

The end.

nerd alert

2007-10-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

I will admit that many of my Sci-Fi/Comic points are due to the fact that my husband purchases and owns comics and also sci-fi TV, and that therefore these objects are to be found in my household...but I do not deny that I have read/watched pretty much all of it.

Much of my historical geekiness comes from the number of Biblical studies books that I own.

I lost out a bit on the dork factor because I am married and don't rely on the internet for my sex life.

But I would like to point out that I could answer without hesitation that iron is the heaviest element that a star can produce through fusion without going supernova. That science & math score is all mine! ALL MINE!

(Obviously they didn't ask enough questions about MMORPGs.)

fall

2007-09-18T16:12:00.001-07:00

The changing of seasons is a curious thing. I find that most people observe the change almost like a checklist or a scavenger hunt. Collect all the signs of fall/spring/summer/winter! Each marker of change that you observe seems significant at the time, but the following day you will observe a new one that seems even more final.

And there is no going back. Once you've checked off a marker of change, you can't uncheck it again. It's like a ratchet, always clicking forwards, and with each click you think, "Ah! NOW fall is beginning!"

Items on the autumn checklist may include:
- various shifts in temperature, such as the shift from "it is essentially warm with a bit of a chill" to "it is essentially chilly, no matter how warmly the sun is shining"
- seasonal smells detected for the first time, such as rotting leaves or snow on its way
- leaves changing colour & falling, each species of tree at its own time
- blackberries ripening and then shrivelling (this is a very noticeable marker of the end of summer in BC)
- chestnuts falling
- the first snow on the mountains (the first snow in the valley isn't an indicator of any season in particular, it's always just an indicator of freaky weather)
- etc.

Today's ratchet click towards fall was that it was the first day that I really ought to have worn a jacket. I went out in my simple zip-up hoodie and it was not enough. It was grey and chilly and rainy and it even thundered for about 20 minutes (which is a rare and noteworthy occasion in this coastal climate). The dog at work went crazy when it thundered, but not as crazy as last time.

On a different note, I would like to point out that my friend Adam The Astronomer has returned to Chile and has thus resumed writing his online journal. You may find the link to your left, or here if you're lazy. It's a good read for anyone who wants to read about professional geeks in action, or about Chilean pubs.

this is how much work I got done today

2007-09-13T15:27:00.000-07:00

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

a good father

2007-09-11T20:40:00.001-07:00

Today I had the opportunity to witness a good and loving father in action. Part of the beauty of watching this scenario is that I never understood a word he was saying (he didn't speak any English), but his love for his daughter and his wisdom as a parent was still so evident.

It was his daughter's first day at after school program, and he walked with her from the school to the program. When it came time to leave her there, she started to cry. He gave her a few reassuring words and then "left". She just stood there and cried more and more, and wouldn't accept any of our peace offerings of snack and a chair to sit down on.

At one point I looked up through the window in the classroom door to see her father standing at a distance down the hall, out of sight, but still carefully watching his daughter. After some time, when her crying only became more instead of less, he came back into the room and sat down next to her. Mostly he was quiet, but he also spoke some calm but firm words, as if to give her both reassurance and a pep talk.

Over the next two hours he would leave and sit out of sight in the stairwell for 20-30 minutes at a time, but would always return to his daughter to offer more gentle but firm words. He finally managed to get her to pay attention to a picture book I had offered, and it was beautiful to hear him describe the pictures in his quiet, calm voice.

It was a beautiful balance of firmness, authority, gentleness, and unfailing love and devotion.

it's that time again...

2007-09-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

No, not "back-to-school" time. (Fooled ya!) It's time to post about what kinds of things people have typed into search engines that have led them to my blog.

- intricate scary floor pattern
- corset superhero
- bono vox is gay or not
- really ugly teenagers
- mennonite bastards
- justice anne mctavish
- part time non-german speaking student jobs in frankfurt
- how to behave when a colleague's mother passes away
- hate patullo bridge
- faithful husband

And the perennial favourites are still (out of the past 100 searches):
- superhero activities (6 hits)
- prayer for a dead hamster (5 hits)
- chopstick hairdo (5 hits)
I'm beginning to feel myself to be an expert on these topics, as they continue to generate a good number of hits even more than a year after I posted about them.

why I like canoes better than kayaks (avec prelude)

2007-08-31T20:29:00.000-07:00

Prelude
Many things have transpired since my last post. In a nutshell, I had a week of vacation and Aaron and I went camping, then my best friend Liz showed up in town and we hung out, and then I went away on a work retreat. And now I'm home again.

Aaron and I went camping on Galiano Island, and we enjoyed nature. We spent time in the sun, on the beach and kayaking. We played in tidal pools. We saw deer, even baby deer, and they looked so wonderful when they bounded away! We saw phosphorescent micro-organisms in the ocean at night. We also heard some seals who suffered from night terrors and sleep apnea. Or at least that's what it sounded like.

Our camping trip was also pest-free except for the occasional wasp. Galiano Island does not have any bears at all, and apparently their raccoons and skunks are not interested in garbage or dirty dishes left out overnight. I got one mosquito bite in three evenings of sitting by the campfire in a tank top. Honestly, it was kinda creepy to be that unmolested by nature.

Visiting with Liz and her mom was also fun. Aaron got to spend more time with them than I did, because they were still in Vancouver the whole time I was away on the work retreat.

Finally, I spent three days and two nights in a cottage with my colleagues. It was pretty chill. My favourite part was canoeing. I have been both canoeing and kayaking in the past two weeks.

Here is why I like canoeing better than kayaking:

- The whole means of steering is far more tangible in a canoe. Foot pedals that turn a rudder simply do not have the same effect as a well-wielded paddle. I imagine the difference to be much like driving a standard as opposed to an automatic. You gain a more tangible control over things when you cut out the "middle man" machinery. You can't turn a kayak on a dime without resorting to canoe tricks (which are more difficult with a super-long buttless kayak paddle).

- I like the point of view better in a canoe. You are higher up, which means you have a better angle for looking down into the water, and the scenery in general looks better in my opinion.

- The seating arrangement is more comfortable. In a kayak your legs are stuck straight out in front of you and resting on foot rests. I like the properly seated or kneeling positions better, and you have more options to find a comfortable position without knocking your knees on the bloody kayak.

- I prefer taking powerful individual paddle strokes rather than trying to be a smoothly fluttering kayak whirly-bird. Again, it just feels more tangible somehow.

- When canoeing, you can switch the side you're paddling on and give some of your muscles a rest while still moving forward. When kayaking, the only rest your muscles get is when you stop.

- Finally, I simply feel more at home in a canoe. I have developed a full complement of canoe habits over the course of my lifetime, and I feel like a canoe is somewhat like a natural extension of my body. Not so much with kayaks.

I win!

2007-08-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

This post is an Annemarie-style post in that it talks about housecleaning that I have accomplished today. When Aaron came home from grocery shopping, I challenged him to think of a visible surface (i.e., not inside cupboards) in the bathroom that I had not cleaned. So here's the scorecard:

Diedre's points (stuff I cleaned):
mirrors
faucets
bathtub
the soap dish in the wall of the bathtub
light fixture
the fan in the ceiling
the outside of the drawers
the ceiling
on top of the wall cupboards
the floor

Aaron's points (stuff I didn't clean):
the shower curtain rod

Other points I would have had if he had asked:
the back side of the toilet tank (and the wall behind it)
the toilet paper holder
the walls
other obvious stuff like the sink and the toilet bowl/seat

blarney

2007-08-17T12:19:00.000-07:00

Tee hee! There are five honest-to-goodness Irish in the office today! They're chattering away with THICK accents and it's both fun and funny! I have to ask them to repeat themselves half the time, I can't understand most of what they say the first time around.

crazy bus drivers

2007-08-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I walked past one of those bus waiting areas where bus drivers take their breaks between runs. I heard a strange noise coming out of one of the busses. When I looked closer, I realized that there were two bus drivers hanging out in the bus, and one of them was playing the BAGPIPES. How's that for a lunch break activity?

thou shalt watch Stardust

2007-08-12T13:51:00.000-07:00

Aaron and I watched Stardust yesterday, and it was awesome! It was a good fairy tale/quest/adventure movie, filling the same sort of niche in my heart as The Princess Bride. It made me laugh lots too! I fully intend to buy it when it comes out on DvD (and that's saying something, because I usually just rent movies), and I fully intend to watch it many more times over the course of my life. And show it to my kids. And my parents. And everyone else. I believe this movie is completely appropriate for anyone who is old enough to cope with the largely goreless killing of disposable characters, the off-screen killing of animals, and scary witches.

I'm not very talented at writing reviews, so let me cut myself short and simply say: Watch it, it is highly entertaining. Now turn off your computer and go watch it.

fabulous frolics

2007-08-09T23:54:00.000-07:00

Everybody should go and look at Annemarie's picture-filled post about our camping trip.

What are you waiting for? GO LOOK AT IT!!!

camping at Wells Grey

2007-08-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

We spent the long weekend camping with Sam and Annemarie. We live in opposite corners of British Columbia, so we decided to drive to the middle and camp at Wells Grey Provincial Park.

It was fun and relaxing and we got to use our tent outdoors for the first time! (You may recall that we had already set it up in our living room and slept in it for two nights.) This is the summer of buying camping gear, so we also broke in a new tarp, camp chairs, camp pots/pans, and a new air mattress for Aaron. It was tres exciting. Maybe next time we'll buy our own cooler. And remember to bring dish soap.

We spent Sunday driving around the park and looking at various natural and historical sights. There was a carbonated mineral spring that was bubbly and covered in bright orange goo. When you threw rocks in, the goo closed up immediately over top and you couldn't tell that anything had changed. There weren't even surface ripples. It was as if the rock had ceased to exist the moment it touched the goo!

The other pleasant surprise was Helmcken Falls. I figured we were just going to go see a bunch of mediocre-but-cool waterfalls in the park, but Helcken Falls are the real deal! They are three times as tall as Niagara, although they are of course much much narrower. But there is a still quite a significant amount of water pouring over (they are not wispy), and there is a cool hollowed-out part in the cliff that has mainly been eroded by winter ice from the mist. Here is a picture that I found online, although I don't think it really does the falls justice, they're WAY bigger than that!

my personal highlight reel (from today's ultimate game)

2007-07-30T22:12:00.000-07:00

1) I jumped up and knocked a disc out of the air before anyone else could jump up and grab it (there were 2 of them on me).

2) I was jogging along somewhat close to an opponent, basically just trying to get out of the way, when I noticed from her face and posture that she was about to catch the disc in about 0.6 seconds. I didn't have time to find the disc in the air, so I just ran right in front of her and managed to have the disc bounce off my side without me ever seeing it. It was a successful, if unusual, defensive move.

3) I caught a point. Apparently the opponents decided that a tired female was not worth covering, and I ran unhindered into the open end zone. And then I caught it.

it is finished

2007-07-25T00:23:00.000-07:00

I finished the new Harry Potter book. I can once again prowl the internet at my leisure, unafraid of spoilers. I can once again return to work without fear of my babbling teenagers. Victory is mine! And I will not spoil it for the rest of you, so read on without fear.

I am beginning to realize that I am a master of "willing suspension of disbelief". So many of the little plot twists and turns were things that had occurred to me at some point before they happened, but I never stood back and fully fleshed them out in my mind. I guess I'm not big on predictions because I'm afraid that I'll be right (or wrong), and in the end I just want to experience the story in the sequence that it happens.

random spazzy angry people

2007-07-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

Today we had a staff meeting over dinner in a restaurant. As we were chit-chatting and settling down, my boss Jo (female) made a light-hearted comment to a fellow staff member, "Ask and you shall receive...if you behave."

Enter random spazzy angry woman, seated at the table behind us. Let us call her PShAW (It's quite a funny acronym if you don't mind a P in place of an R). She says, "Excuse me, did you just say, 'Ask and you shall receive if you behave'??? I don't know if I can stay in the same restaurant as you!"

Several of us make small comments about how we were just joking. One of my more hot-headed colleagues may have come across slightly antagonistically.

PShAW says, "Excuse me, but do you know the twenty-third psalm? My mother just passed away!"

Hot-headed colleague answers without sarcasm, "I'm sorry for your loss." We settle back into our meeting. PShAW mutters under her breath, "'Ask and you shall receive if you behave'!" *more muttering*

We try to settle back into our meeting. PShAW calls over the waiter. "Excuse me, I would like to change tables please!" As she passes us, she says quite audibly to all, "I don't want to sit near chauvinists."

Throughout the course of our dinner meeting (which is quite long), PShAW leaves the restaurant for some time. She returns and is disgusted to see us still sitting there, and makes more antagonistic mutterings.

Finally, as we leave the restaurant, she is standing outside the door having a smoke. As Jo walks past, she says (audibly again), "There goes the witch. I hope all the grease goes straight to her ass."

And all this because of one rather innocent joking comment. We talked about her later, and we couldn't figure out if she was a Christian who was offended by a perceived mockery of a line of scripture, or if she was antagonistic towards Christianity and didn't want to be anywhere near someone quoting scripture in a public place. Nevermind the fact that her comments were all extremely disjointed and didn't make any sense. Chauvinists?! It was a woman who made the initial comment! And what does the twenty-third psalm have to do with anything? Thankfully we all had the wits to just keep our mouths shut and not quote it back at her.

I figure that either the loss of her mother was so recently painful that she was lashing out, or that she has some sort of personality disorder, or that she was just a normal person with major issues. My vote is with the personality disorder, I don't see how a normal angry person could come up with that crap.

morning brain

2007-07-23T12:25:00.000-07:00

Today I will tell you a little tale about how poorly my mind functions within the first few hours of waking up.

I took a shower this morning, and as I was rinsing off my light grey washcloth in the showerhead, I noticed a dozen or more tiny dark dots on it that were not washing off. For some reason, I assumed that they were lice. And then I freaked out because that's really gross. I figured they weren't washing out because they were holding on to the comfy warm washcloth fibres for dear life.

And then I started wondering where on earth they could have come from, and how long Aaron and/or I have had lice, and how there could be so many all of a sudden without us noticing, and if I would have to cut off all my hair to get rid of them. I tried to pick one out of the washcloth, and thought it was odd that it came apart in a fibre-like manner, but then again I had never really been up close and personal with a louse before.

So, I got out of the shower and continued getting ready for the morning, because I didn't see what else I could do about it right then, and I needed to get to work. So I took my dark purple towel and started to dry off. I noticed, for about the 28th time, that this towel had acquired several tiny light-grey pills of fuzz from being washed with our light-grey towels. I wondered why our grey towels never got dark purple pills.

I kept pondering the louse problem. No light dawned.

Finally, when I was almost ready to go, I decided to take another look at the lice. I noticed that in the better light, the lice looked purple. I poked one. I thought it seemed to curled up tighter on the fabric. I picked it out of the washcloth. It trailed a few fibres behind it as if it had been holding on really tightly.

And then I finally figured it out.

Aaron can be very thankful that I had resusted the urge to run out of the shower and wake him up and make him kill the lice. He's even worse than I am in the morning!

reflections of a church bulletin doodler

2007-07-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

Today in church I succumbed to the age-old temptation of all church doodlers: I coloured in all the O's on the bulletin (and also the zeroes). Instinctively, I tried to be very precise by colouring 100% of the area inside the O's, and 0% of the area outside of the O's.

Then I caught myself and thought some hippie thoughts along the lines of, "God is a creative and vibrant God! Why should we be limited by the institution of type? We should all be colouring outside the lines and across the lines; we should be thinking outside the box!"

Then I caught myself again and thought, "Nonsense! God created the universe to be quantized at the most minute levels! Empty O, full O, there need not be anything in between, for God's building blocks of the universe are beautiful!"

I continued to colour in the O's, a little less precisely than before, but still generally aiming for inside-the-lines perfection. I'll bet God loves both the organic mess and the quantum precision in the world.

it's geek time again!

2007-07-14T15:03:00.000-07:00

In the World of Warcraft, Aaron and I now both have sets of armour that don't look ridiculously mis-matched and actually look decent as a whole for a change. (I once had a butt-ugly assortment of armour that I called my hobo suit.) To celebrate, we had a spontaneous photo shoot. Here are the results! I recommend clicking on the photos so you can see the bigger & better version.

In case you couldn't figure it out, I'm the girl elf with the green braid, and Aaron is the man-elf. The large cat is his pet, named William. I'm being cool and pointing at the camera! (It's a little hard to see at this angle.) And yes, we are standing on a giant mushroom.

Even in computer game photos, some loser will blink. This time it was Aaron.

Aaron flexes to show off how uber he is. William is unimpressed.

I give a girly cheer to show off how uber I am. Aaron is unimpressed.

And finally: our glory shot! Yes, I am being like Storm and making lightning. This time it's my poor little white kitten who is unimpressed. Meow!

bugs and snails and puppydog tails

2007-07-13T20:33:00.000-07:00

Today at work we held a big sports day for the kids at our summer day camps. I ran the 100m sprint event, which was nice and straightforward.

The highlight of my day has to be this one kid who was completely fascinated with a bug on his hand, to the point of being oblivious to anything else. He stared at the bug while I was explaining how the heats would go. I had to call him up to the start line three times when it was his heat. The only time he broke eye contact with the bug was during my "on your marks, get set, go!" when he glanced up to see where he was going. He kept his head up for the first few steps, and then got worried that he'd drop the bug. He lightly jogged the rest of the race, eyes glued to that bug in his hands. Even when his group walked back to the start line to grab their stuff after the race, this kid still trailed behind with his bug. How cute!

romance alive and well among minivan owners

2007-07-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

This weekend Karl and Terry came to hang out with Aaron and me after attending the bit Mennonite conference in Abbotsford all week. We had fun!

When we were all done with our picnic and frisbee-throwing at the park in Steveston, we returned to our car. Right next to our car was a minivan, complete with a pair of white, upper-middle-class, thirty-something, heterosexual owners. They were leaning against it and sharing a very romantic and intimate kiss.

We slowed down as we approached our car in order to give them some time to finish up. They took all that time and then some. Eventually we just walked right up next to them and got into our car. As we were buckling up, the woman started giggling a bit, presumably embarrassed due to how silly they were being with other people so close by. As we drove away, we caught the husband's eye, and we gave him a big thumbs up! He grinned, and they both laughed, and it was all very cute.

le beater extreme

2007-07-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I took the ferry to a work retreat, and somebody was bringing this car on the ferry:

It looked like it had spent a year or two in the bush. Intrigued, I attempted conversation with the car's owner. I would have to deem the conversation a failure.

Me: "Neat car!"
Him: "That's what happens when you let a woman drive it for a few hours."
Me: *looking at my two female companions, trying to figure out who exactly he thought would receive his comment well* "That's not a very nice thing to say."
Him: "Huh? Why not?"
Me: *already walking away* "Because I can drive much better than that, thank you very much."

I wish I could have come up with a much cleverer response, but alas, I don't think that well on my toes. Any suggestions for a response to set my mental replays aright?

so I'm a big fat biter

2007-06-29T23:18:00.001-07:00

This just in! Something I copied off Elliot's blog that he copied from someone else!

CHRISTIANITY: Islam! So help me, you're going to accept secular democracy like a responsible and mature theological tradition!

ISLAM: No way, man! I don't wanna grow up to be like you. I'm gonna be true to myself and keep executing infidels and sinners as much as I want.

CHRISTIANITY: Oh, please. I was launching crusades and running inquisitions while you were still in diapers. Believe me, it's gets old fast. You need to do the smart thing and accept a humanist approach to...

ISLAM: Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I'm going to my room. A jihad on all of you! [runs upstairs to bedroom]

CHRISTIANITY: (sighing) Sweet Jesus. Was I really that obnoxious when I was that age?

JUDAISM: Believe me. You were.

[Meanwhile, at the retirement home...]

ZOROASTRIANISM: (talking to no one) Hello? Is anyone there? Does anyone care what I think?

ode to a faithful husband

2007-06-28T10:24:00.000-07:00

For a few days now I've been trying to think of what to post to break my long work-induced absence from the blogosphere. I've done a bunch of stuff over the past few weeks, mostly work-related, but also fun-related. It's all gone by in a blur of frantic business. However, the one thing that remains deliciously clear in my memory is how wonderful Aaron has been throughout it all. So this post is dedicated to my beloved husband. (Sorry if you've got a gag reflex for things like this. Too bad.) Here's my list of what Aaron has done in the past two weeks:

- Aaron cooked me several interesting dinners, hot and ready when I got home.
- He spent time listening to me vent all my stress, and it was the really good kind of listening that made me feel better, not just the "I will sit quietly while the soundwaves are coming from your mouth" kind of listening.
- He did some of my dishes.
- He helped me make freezer jam!
- He spent lots of time with me, just hanging out and watching TV, or cuddling, or reading or whatever.
- He's been cheerful and friendly and supportive, never complaining, even when there might have been reason for it.
- And so much more.

I love my husband!

Fear Not

2007-06-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

"Fear not, then; you are of more value than many sparrows."

- Matthew 10:31

I wanted to post something with the title "Fear Not," and this is what I came up with. So fear not, I have not forgotten my blog. I will post again soon when my brain clears.

new things

2007-06-10T00:07:00.000-07:00

Today I acquired two new and exciting things.

First of all, Aaron and I bought a tent! This means we get to go camping lots this summer (I hope)! It is very exciting. It is the same tent that Sam and Annemarie have. It is a 3-person tent with a nice vestibule (what a word!) for our stuff.

Secondly, I must geek out in a major way. I rarely post about my gaming habits (World of Warcraft), but here goes anyway: I GOT EPIC FLIGHT FORM TODAY!!! I AM PURPLE AND SHINY AND ZOOOOMING!!!

Translation: My character can now shapeshift into a super-duper-uber-amazingly-fast armoured purple bird. I can now move through the World of Warcraft about 300% faster than riding on my super-fast giant cat. This is hands-down the most expensive thing I have ever done; it cost 5000 gold. To compare: the second most expensive thing I have ever done in World of Warcraft is buy the super-fast giant cat for 800 gold. Other than that, I'm sure I've never spent more than 150 gold on anything, ever (I can't even think of an example). AND IT WAS SO WORTH THE 5000 GOLD, IT IS SO COOL. And it's not all about spending gold either, I had to do a bunch of quests and kill this rare boss in a heroically difficult dungeon. I must also thank Aaron, my in-game sugar-daddy, for donating half the gold, I could never have come up with that amount on my own.

/end geekfest

a ramble about long distance friendships (or something)

2007-06-09T13:11:00.000-07:00

I'm an "in-person" kind of person. I'm not so good at keeping in touch and calling people (although I am better than some). I tend to pay attention to who and what's in front of me at the moment. I don't get too hung up on goodbyes, because I know that life goes on, and that I'll probably see everyone again at some point. I trust that when I return someplace, my old friends will still be there and still be happy to see me, and I'll be happy to see them, and we'll have a grand old time together.

This is the way things are in my head. It's a very confident and trusting "it'll all work out just fine" kind of headspace. I figure that people will still be there when I come back to wherever it is that they are, and all will be well.

Part of this mindset is purely practical. Last time I checked, I have 191 friends on Facebook, and I would honestly LOVE to keep up a constant and close friendship with about half of them. But I can't. I'm sorry. It's really hard for me to think about calling people when I can't spend time with them in person anyway.

I just do way better in person than I do long distance. I guess I'm posting this so that those of you who wish I would call more will understand a little better. Please don't think of it as me forgetting you or ignoring you. Think of it as me being confident that our friendship will last throughout long absences.

The only thing that sucks about this is when you live somewhere where you don't have an abundance of friends. Like me in Vancouver. Then I'm stuck being frustrated that I have to just phone people when I'd rather be hanging out with someone, and I don't always want to use the telephone either, so then I'm stuck. Ah well, that's what internet friends are for.

Edit: I forgot to mention that if my lack of phoning/writing is a very sad thing for some of my friends and family, then please tell me because I don't want you to feel hurt or forgotten. I can't promise I'll be different, but I can promise to make an effort if it is really important to you.

distasteful and unethical

2007-05-31T00:30:00.000-07:00

Distasteful: A 6"x8" full-colour and almost photo-like upper arm tattoo of 2 pieces of sushi, a mound of wasabi, a pile of ginger, and 2 crossed chopsticks. (Seen on a woman on the bus.)

Unethical: This sentence in a mail promotion for the RBC Platinum Visa Card: "Even though you may already carry one of more other credit cards, you should not hesitate to accept this card." The rest of the advertisement was geared towards people who are already in credit card debt. I hope the people who plot these schemes of ruination live to regret it.

comments of congratulations and awe are in order

2007-05-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

First of all: Come on, people! I counted 11.6 MILLION daisies and I get no comments of congratulations or awe?!?! Seriously, you blog readers need to get your comment priorities straight. =)

This post will contain three lesser feats worthy of congratulations and awe. Yesterday I played my first Ultimate game of the season. We were two really well-matched teams, and although we were in the lead for much of the game, in the end we did not win. But it was fun. In this game, I did no less than three cool things. I like keeping track of these things because usually I only do about one cool thing per game, and doing cool things makes me feel really cool.

Cool feat the first: The other team was about to score the first point of the game when I came out of nowhere and knocked the disc down mere inches away from its intended catcher.

Cool feat the second: I had been very convincing in my role of "tired and slow girl" (convincing because it was utterly true), so the person who was supposed to be covering me got lazy and started trailing behind. I saw my opportunity, raised a hand to ask for a pass, and when Aaron threw it into the endzone I sprinted and caught the point! Their defense had no chance.

Cool feat the third: I successfully made one of those nifty foot-dragging catches where you can catch an out-of-bounds disc so long as one of your feet is still on the ground in-bounds. I'm not sure I've ever done that before!

fun in the sun

2007-05-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

Last week I saw a dog that was so tiny and skinny that when it was walking towards me (with some sunshine glare behind it) it was practically invisible. As I passed the dog, I was surprised by how large it actually was, at least in terms of height and length. It was like that CBC kids' show Slim Pig.

Today Aaron and I went to the beach, and there was a very large grassy area near the beach, and it was COVERED in little daisies. I thought maybe there were 1 or 2 million daisies there. After some rough estimation (which included counting the daisies in a representative square metre, and pacing out the size of the field), we concluded that there were in fact more like 11.6 million of them. Isn't that amazing?

the curious incident of the woman in the subway

2007-05-24T09:39:00.000-07:00

I'm back, the wedding was lovely, and a good time was had by all!

Here's a story from last week: Aaron and I were walking into a subway station when a woman started her song-and-dance.

"Do you have a loonie? I just need another loonie to get on the subway, the guy won't let me in if I don't have exact change."

I said no and kept walking, but Aaron decided to give her a subway token. There was a brief pause as we waited to see if she'd give him the change she already had in her hand, but she didn't, and Aaron shrugged and moved on. A few minutes later, we got on a train, and the woman got on the same car as us.

"Good," I said to Aaron, "at least she actually used the token to get on the train like she said."

After one stop, the woman got out of her seat and started walking along the subway car in our general direction. She asked the passengers on either side, "Do you want to buy a token?"

She actually made it all the way to the guy sitting next to us. When it seemed that he was going to buy it, I spoke up and said, "Excuse me. We gave you that token. I hope you put it to good use!"

She went back to her seat with her boyfriend and got off at the next stop without making eye contact. Aaron and I joked around a bit with the guy who almost bought our token.

So here's the thing: The woman was obviously ashamed of being caught in her tricks. I really do hope that she was ashamed of lying to well-intentioned people and taking advantage of them. That's why I said what I did. I think I was still feeling angry about an incident earlier in the month where I had been pressured into giving someone a bus ticket, and I felt I had no polite way out of the forced conversation but to give it to him.

But I hope this woman didn't think I meant her to feel shame for being poor and needing to beg. That was not my point. I just wish she would have asked for money if that's what she really wanted, instead of swindling people.

I have not vanished

2007-05-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

I'm in Toronto, being consumed by pre-wedding madness. I'm a bridesmaid and the MC for my brother's wedding! I'll return to posting soon.

things I don't understand

2007-05-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

After reading the most recent issue of The Mennonite, the church periodical I receive twice per month, I have discovered that I really don't understand two issues.

Firstly, I don't understand why young adults are leaving the church. Everyone seems to agree that we're losing people after they graduate from high school, but nobody seems to know why. Sometimes people ask me what I think about this issue. I don't really know what to say, because I didn't leave. I don't know why young adults leave the church. The only thing I can think of is that maybe they don't understand very much about church and/or the Christian faith, and expect it to be something that it isn't, and somehow find it irrelevant. But I haven't got the slightest idea why, or what could be done differently, because it all worked out just fine for me.

Secondly, I don't understand what the barriers are to women in ministry. I don't understand this because I have never experienced any such barriers. Ever since I was a young teenager, I have been encouraged by many, many people to take leadership roles in the church. Most recently I have been pestered by many, many members of my current church to apply for the newly-open youth pastor position. I have little doubt that I would be the number one candidate if I had decided to apply (I didn't). I am constantly being encouraged and invited to lead worship, preach sermons, serve on committees, and other such things. I have no doubt that I would be encouraged and welcomed in pretty much any ministry venture I could think to participate in.

So when I read articles about these two issues, I really don't know what to think, say or do, because I do not have the personal experience necessary to truly understand what's going on. I feel myself to be lacking in insight and understanding in these matters. I would very much welcome comments on this.

Finally, and almost unrelatedly, I do not understand this garage sale sign I read today: "Moving Sale! Everything for sale and more!" How does one sell more than everything?

update

2007-05-06T22:12:00.000-07:00

So, I'm still working like a maniac, but let's not dwell upon that. It's fun, but very tiring.

I miss all my other blogging friends who are not posting so much anymore. I'd put a guilt trip on you all, but I've only posted once a week myself of late, so perhaps I shouldn't.

In a week, I get vacation! I will be going to Toronto to celebrate my brother's wedding. I get to be a bridesmaid AND an MC at the reception! This week I need to put the finishing touches on my dress. I am very, very much looking forward to the visit with family and friends, and of course the big day itself. As far as I know, everyone is quite pleased with the Tobin+Meghan matchup, and I am certainly happy to gain another lovely sister!

One of the girls from our church youth group has asked me to be her "conversation partner" as part of her baptism preparation class. I took her out for lunch today, and it was very fun. I feel so honoured that somebody has chosen me as a role model! Her mom came and talked to me in church today as well, and said that she was very happy with her daughter's choice as well. Affirmation feels good!

my favourite outfit ever

2007-04-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

I wore this yesterday:

green tank top (it's long enough to stick out the bottom of other shirts)
pink zip-up shirt (the zipper is off-centre, and the neck is wide and folded-over)
my funky black-and-white skirt (I sewed it myself especially for R+R's wedding, and someone said that I was the best-dressed person there)
pink knee-high socks
my boots of butt-kicking

Plus, I was having a good hair day.

I felt fantabulous.

I'm alive and working hard

2007-04-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

Hello faithful readers. I have reached an incredibly busy season at work, I'm just starting my second 6-day week in a row. I guess I won't be posting much!

I've also noticed that whenever I post something about not being able to post very much, I tend to find something post-worthy within 24 hours. So we'll see if that happens this time or not. Maybe saying it out loud (or typing it publicly) will break the trend...ahhh superstition.

Wish me luck and sanity!

on spring, and a smile

2007-04-17T19:35:00.000-07:00

On spring:

Yesterday, while crossing the bridge above a rail corridor, I noticed that the trees along the tracks all had that lovely hue of green that is composed of many baby leaves who have yet to grow up and darken.

There are some flowering bushes near my workplace that smell lovely. At the base of these bushes the grass is the most unbelievable shade of fresh, zesty green.

There has been a pleasant mix of blue sky, clouds, rain and sunshine of late. It's perfect rainbow season. As I left work today it was pouring rain, and yet I wished I had sunglasses to see where I was going. (I was headed west, obviously.)

Also, the sun and the clouds/mist were doing the most interesting thing at the tops of the mountains today. Most of the sky was dark with rich grey rainclouds, but right above the mountains the clouds appeared mistier and lighter, and the sun was making this mist glow very prettily.

Yesterday I left work much later than usual, and I saw large, tall popcorn-like clouds being illuminated with that blue post-sunset light against a darkening blue sky. It was most striking. When I got off the bus at home, the stars and Venus were blazing brightly and brilliantly.

A smile:

On my bus today, there were two men, about age 30, who were having a conversation in Spanish. I wasn't really paying attention at all, until I heard the word "Mennonitas." I guess I respond to that word like one might respond to hearing one's name, and I glanced up quickly and happened to make eye contact with one of them. He obviously understood that something he had just said caught my attention, and I got the feeling he even figured it was the "Mennonite" word. However, I wasn't sure what to say, so I said nothing. As I got off the bus a few minutes later, I walked past his window. This time, we made eye contact again, and I decided to smile warmly. The smile was heartily returned.

sweet, sweet, overtime

2007-04-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

Last night once our youth group gathering was officially over, we all stayed to watch the end of the third period of the Canucks game. They were tied 4-4 at the end of it, and I was chatting with this girl who said, "So now they play a 5-minute overtime period, and then it's a shootout!" I informed her that this was the playoffs, and that they were going to keep playing 20-minute OT periods until somebody scored, no matter how long that takes. This was news to her, but I reassured her that often enough somebody scores soon and it doesn't take too long.

This morning I read the headline, "Canucks top Stars in fourth OT." Ahahaha.

the search continues...

2007-04-11T15:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, I can't help myself, I need to post about some more interesting searches that have led people to my blog:

"why doesn't apostles' creed mention scripture?"
"can you die from burning plastic"
"cuban galoshes"
"computer hair stille"
"leaders chocolate store winnipeg"
"I woke up early sunny day lyric"

and finally...

"david dammann"

Oh noes! I'm found out! (see the 5th line or so in that post) I even checked the IP address, and the search really did originate in Germany, which is where we both lived when said crush occurred in grade 4.

home sweet home

2007-04-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

I had a good weekend. At first I wasn't sure if I was ready for a break, because I have so much stuff to do at work that I wouldn't know what to do with a long weekend of not working on it. Anyway, that's precisely why I needed a good, long weekend.

I spent a lot of time at home. I spent a fair bit of time sewing my bridesmaid dress for my brother's wedding. I did the dishes. I cooked dinner for my aunt. We went out to Aaron's Oma and Opa's on Sunday afternoon. We went to church twice. We watched TV and cuddled. We slept in a lot. We went for a walk. We ate lots of paska. Aaron did homework.

It felt so GOOD! I feel like I have re-established this apartment as my home. When work is busy, I can get absorbed in it to the point that I can't get my mind off it when I'm at home. Then, I spend much of my evening trying to distract my mind from work, and it ends up feeling like I am always hiding from one part or another of my brain, and that being at home is just some sort of bunker to protect me from the outside world. This nice, long weekend was a time for me to remember that this apartment is my home, and I love it, and I love spending time here, and I like doing all sorts of creative and home-making things here besides just hiding from my over-active brain.

I have no idea if that makes sense, but the point is, I had a good and refreshing and rejuvenating weekend at home. Hopefully some of that can carry over into my next two weeks of work (which will be very busy once again) so that coming home can be exciting because I like it here, not just because I'm hiding.

new life

2007-04-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

I like communion. The symbolism works on so many different levels and/or facets. Today I am excited by the idea that in communion (and the events of Holy Week in general), God becomes one with us in our suffering, and we become one with him in his life and victory. His body is broken for us, his blood is shed for us, and we partake of it and gain nourishment and life in the new covenant. It's amazing, really.

exact change

2007-04-03T22:38:00.000-07:00

Today, I took a quick trip to the supermarket, and the bill was $23.01. I dumped my change into my hand and found exactly 1 penny, 1 toonie, 3 quarters, 3 nickels and a dime. Nothing more, nothing less. Sweetness! Then, I dug through the rest of my wallet and found two fives and a ten. Nothing more, nothing less. I HAD EXACT CHANGE! And now I have exactly zero cash left in my wallet. Nothing more, nothing less.

Call me a simpleton, but that made my day!

right behind you

2007-04-03T15:14:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else ever worked in a shared office space? I'm not sure I like it so much. I share my office with three other people, and I always feel like somebody is looking over my shoulder and judging me and my work behaviours. Very rational, I know. But I absolutely work better when nobody else is in the office, or maybe when there's only one other person in the room and they're obviously absorbed in what they're doing and unlikely to strike up a conversation with me.

I'm probably not alone in feeling like this, but I still feel a little bit paranoid/crazy. Any hints/tips/commiserating available out there?

oh, the places you've gone

2007-04-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

create your own visited countries map

So, I really need to travel more. I'd like to point out that In Europe there are many small countries all squished together, so that red splotch represents 9 countries.

While I obviously need to do more international traveling, I must admit that I also have a great passion for travelling within Canada. I love roadtrips, and I'm fiercely proud of this vast and marvellous country that I live in. I am starting to think about planning a canoe trip in the Yukon or the NWT for summer 2008. Anyone want to come?

P.S. My computer is still fried. A new computer is in place, but it has been pieced together in a creative way by Robithegeek, and it has not yet been properly finetuned. Therefore, I am still computerless.

because quiz thingers are cool

2007-03-28T23:14:00.000-07:00

---10 Firsts---
First Best Friend:: Larissa Friesen
First Screenname:: D4ATLC (no joke)
First Pet Name:: I forget. They were goldfish and I was very young. I know one of them was named after a young adult at my church.
First Piercing:: Nose
First Crush:: David Dammann (wouldn't it be funny if he googled this one day and found out!)
First CD:: do you mean tape? Clumsy by OLP.
First School:: River Elm Elementary School, Winnipeg
First House Location:: a few miles outside of Rosenort, MB
First Kiss:: Aaron
First Car:: Daisy! (2004 Mazda 6, silver)

---9 Lasts---
Last Time You Smoked:: 2004, to celebrate grad. and before that? Thanksgiving 1997 or something. And that's it. I guess I'm not much of a smoker.
Last Food You Ate:: dried figs
Last Car Ride:: home from a youth party at church
Last Movie You Watched:: School of Rock (at said youth party)
Last Phone Call:: something at work
Last CD You Listened To:: Weezer, the blue CD
Last Bubble Bath You Took:: probably when I was a kid. pre-1993, I think
Last Song You Listened To:: The Sweater Song (Weezer, remember?)
Last Words You Said:: something to Aaron about not reading over my shoulder

---8 Have-You-Evers---
Dated A Best Friend:: no, he became my best friend sometime after we started dating
Been Arrested:: no
Been On TV:: yes
Eaten Sushi:: yes!
Cheated On Your B/F:: no
Been On A Blind Date:: no
Been Out Of The Country:: does living in Germany for 4.5 years count? I mean yes.
Been In Love:: yes

---7 Things You Are Wearing---
1:: blue cords
2:: the famous "my bird is faster than your car" t-shirt
3:: purple zip-up hoodie
4:: polka-dot underoos
5:: boring socks
6:: bra
7:: umm...a hair elastic?

---6 Things You've Done Today---
1:: ate yogurt & granola for breakfast
2:: went to work
3:: drove in rush hour (I'll do penance later for my disgusting contribution to air pollution)
4:: went to church for youth group
5:: watched an episode of Lost
6:: wrote this thingy!

---5 Favorite Things (not in any order)---
1:: Aaron
2:: sunshine
3:: trees
4:: people (family, friends, hobos, etc)
5:: green

---4 People You Most Trust--- [not in any specific order!]
1:: God
2:: Aaron
3:: my parents
4:: lots of other people

---3 Things You Want To Do Before You Die---
1:: visit all the Canadian Territories, and Newfoundland and Labrador. (I've already visited all the other provinces)
2:: go back to Germany
3:: have a family

---2 Choices---
Vanilla or Chocolate:: Chocolate
Hugs or Kisses:: kisses!

---1 Person You Want To See Right Now---
1:: Karl or Tobin. Or Mom or Dad or Meghan. And lots of other people. I've been homesick these days.

flaming canine newfies on swings. trick-or-treat!

2007-03-27T16:08:00.000-07:00

Monday morning I woke up early to the unpleasant aroma of burning plastic. After much sniffing and searching, it was determined that the source was my computer. So, it's now on the fritz. It's hard to tell exactly what's wrong with it, because all of it has worked at some point since the burning plastic incident, but never all at once (or at least not for very long). At this point we're thinking that it may or may not be the monitor, which doesn't really make much sense, but if it's not the monitor then we have no idea what the heck is wrong. Anyway, my lack of computer might affect my posting, and it might not. We'll see.

Here's some stuff I've seen/heard lately:

I saw a cop and her dog standing on the street and chatting to another cop who was sitting in his car with the passenger window all the way open. The dog was apparently happy and excited to see the cop in the car, so after turning a few circles, it jumped right through the window and into the passenger seat. Both cops laughed a lot.

I heard a killer Newfie accent. This person never, EVER pronounced the 'g' at the end of an '-ing' word, it was always '-in'. Actually, this was my first aid instructor from the weekend, so I had to listen to her talk a LOT. We did the unit on chokin, and then on severe bleedin, and don't forget the unit on bandagin and splintin.

On Monday, I had to do my time at one of the kids' programs from work. I got the easiest job ever! When we went to the playground, only two girls wanted to stay in the upper part and all the other kids wanted to go to the lower part. So, I got to stay with the two girls, who are some of the sweetest and best-behaved kids there are. Not only that, but they said I wasn't allowed to listen to their conversation, so I had to go over and swing on that swing by myself. So, I got to swing for about half an hour by myself with no kids bugging me at all! These two girls stayed within my line of sight the entire time, so I never had to get off the swing.

Those girls were funny, too! They were making incredibly detailed plans for Halloween (yes, 7 months early, and at age 8 that is not a short time). One was going to dress up as Pippi Longstocking, and the other was going to be Dead Pippi Longstocking. Hey, it's Halloween, so at least one of them had to be creepy in some way. They decided at whose house they were going to meet (after dressing up, but before putting on their makeup). They even spent about 10 minutes deciding precisely how they were going to say "trick-or-treat" and what face they were going to make and how Dead Pippi Longstocking was going to grab the candy in a ghoulish kind of way, and then they rehearsed the whole thing to make sure they had it down perfectly.

in need of peeps

2007-03-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

Another level of spring has been reached. Many of the trees now match my cute pink umbrella! However, it rained all week long and was miserably cold. But today is finally sunny!

I have still been working like a maniac, but a blog is not the place to write long whiny paragraphs about that.

I spent this weekend taking a first aid course. It wasn't too bad, and I got to feel really smart because I knew a lot of the answers and I had a few really good questions. Plus, I made a friend named Izabella who was my practise buddy. We had lunch together today. She has a baby girl.

Now I am home again but with nobody to hang out with. I need peeps right now! Peeps, Where are you? It's the first sunny day in a long time and I want to go out and play with the peeps! But there aren't any. Oh well.

newsletter time

2007-03-20T14:55:00.000-07:00

I'm writing a newsletter at work this week, and I'll be sending it to people who support me financially or who pray for me or encourage me or just plain want to know what I'm doing in my ministry at UrbanPromise.

If you want to receive this letter via snail mail, please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail, and include your current mailing address if you have reason to believe I might not have it. Thanks!

midnight epiphany

2007-03-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, prepare yourselves, this is going to be a really random story.

Two years ago, I lived in Toronto for the 4 summer months, and I took bellydancing lessons. In my bellydancing class, there were two women, Angela and Maureen, who were identical twin sisters. The whole summer, it always felt like they reminded me of someone, or they were familiar to me in some way.

Fast forward a bit: I woke up around 5 last night and couldn't sleep. I spent the next hour or more in that really frustrating one-quarter-asleep and three-quarters-awake state where you're desperately trying to hold on to that sleep and not wake up all the way. Anyway, during this strange state of mind, it suddenly occurred to me who Angela and Maureen reminded me of: the twins Heather and Erica Farrell from Degrassi High (that blessed TV series that kept me entertained after school for so many years).

So, with that mystery solved, you'd think I could go back to sleep. But no, I had to think about it even further. Degrassi was filmed in Toronto. Many of the actors were just local kids who stayed in Toronto and led normal lives and never filmed anything again. Maybe Maureen and Angela didn't just remind me of the Degrassi twins, maybe they actually were the twins! They would be about the right age...

So this morning at work, I googled it all, and voila! They were in fact the very same actors! I TOOK BELLYDANCING LESSONS WITH THE DEGRASSI TWINS FOR 4 MONTHS AND NEVER REALIZED IT UNTIL TWO YEARS LATER. SO COOL!

can God sin?

2007-03-18T00:09:00.000-07:00

Can God sin? I don't think so. Can God make mistakes? Maybe. I do think he can change his mind.

Whatever your take on those questions is, I certainly think this video is at least thought-provoking if nothing else. If you can't catch all the lyrics, there's a link to them on that page as well.

I'm not convinced that the title "Credo" fits the content very well, but maybe that's just me being picky about semantics.

new link

2007-03-17T17:52:00.000-07:00

I've just put a new link in the sidebar to my friend Adam's journal of his time in Chile. You may remember my post about him building a microwave telescope in Port Coquitlam. Well, the telescope is now alive and well in Chile, and they're getting the whole thing set up. It should prove interesting.

even more oldtimers

2007-03-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

Work this week has once again been somewhat overwhelming in terms of time and scheduling, which has made this blog suffer. To take revenge, I am writing this blog post while I'm at work. Thankfully, work has not actually been stressful or intimidating this week. I think it has something to do with me praying more/better/or soemthing. However that all works, I am grateful.

Two things about old people:

On Monday, there were two little old Chinese ladies and two little old Chinese men waiting at my bus stop. They were chattering and guesturing and joking and laughing like a gaggle of teenagers. It made me happy.

Today, I was once again reminded of the fact that I hate the sense of entitlement some old people have when it comes to getting on the bus. I am sick and tired of being elbowed out of the way as some little old lady or man decides to screw the whole bunch of people who are lined up and just get on the bus first no matter what the cost in manners or dignity.

Now a story about what I did yesterday:

I went to the NHL oldtimers game! This is where they put together a team of retired NHLers and pit them against a current community team. In this case, it was the Vancouver Police Department hockey team. Despite the fact that all of the NHLers were either entirely grey or even potbellied, they absolutely cleaned up. I think they scored 15 goals, and I think the VPD scored 5.

The thing that was so refreshing about this hockey game was how absolutely unpretentious it was! For you CMU-types, this game kind of resembled the Z-team game with its antics and tomfoolery. There was a clown referee, there was a trick puck that changed direction of its own volition in the middle of a penalty shot, at one point one of the players had "rocket skates" that had little spark-throwing fireworks attached, and the scorekeeper was constantly fudging the VPD score so it wasn't too embarrassing (I think the scoreboard read 15-13 at the end). The best part was when they opened up the zamboni gates and let in a herd of 5-year-old hockey players whose jerseys came down to their skates. So, they played 5 minutes of NHL vs. the Timbit team, which was ridiculously cute. It was a great night of down-to-earth, utterly foolish, and completely good-natured community fun.

untitled

2007-03-09T22:19:00.000-08:00

Thousands of worm towers have appeared in the lawn, preparing to lay siege to us surface-dwellers.

Cherry trees are betraying distinct signs of pink.

I slept with my window open.

Spring?

another funny church lady

2007-03-04T13:07:00.000-08:00

After church today an old Oma was holding little Caleb and telling everyone who came by, "He's my grandchild!" or, "I have a great-grandchild!" in her German accent. She was kidding, of course. None of her grandkids have children, although two of them are married. Funny how when a grandchild gets married, it's like the universal cue for the grandparents to expect a great-grandchild in a matter of months (nine, to be exact).

Anyway, it was hilarious to see her standing there with the baby and announcing "I have a grandchild!" to anyone who would listen. Robi and Aaron and I were watching her as her own husband came up. "He's my grandchild!" she told him. "Oh really? Whose is it?" I actually forget exactly how the conversation went from there, but I know that hilarity ensued, because my tummy hurt from laughing. I'm glad that old people can be just as silly and funny as young people.

feel the burn

2007-02-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

I set my oven mitts on fire yesterday. I must have brushed one of them against the top coil in the oven as I was taking the chicken out. As I held them both in one hand and fussed with the chicken with the other hand, I thought, "I know the rosemary was getting a little toasted, but it just doesn't smell like I thougth burning rosemary would...OH!" Anyway, I suppose it happens to the best of oven mitts.

I'm kind of scared of work this week, I'm in charge of a 3-hour event for 90 teenagers on Saturday. I don't feel prepared!!!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for youtube...or something like that....

2007-02-25T21:23:00.000-08:00

Okay, this is funny. I like people who mess with theology, it keeps us all on our toes. And that Jesus is hot!

happy weekend for me

2007-02-25T20:51:00.000-08:00

I had a calm and relaxing weekend.

First of all, I played a fair bit of World of Warcraft, and I got my druid to level 68. This is significant because at level 68, druids can turn into a giant crow and FLY!!! Everyone else only gets to fly at level 70 when they can buy a rideable gryphon. So, this is UBER-COOL. Druids are the best because they're the only ones who can shapeshift. I can be a bear, a sea-lion, a cat (a nondescript, large, and fiercely carnivorous sort of cat), a cheetah, and now a crow. Some druids can also be trees (think Ent) or moonkins (large half-owl, half-...I dunno...half-bear?...creatures), but I didn't choose that path.

Also, I slept lots and had lots of comfy at-home time. I love spending lots of time at home and being comfy. I'm a real home-body on the weekend. I think I learned that from my mother.

Today at our church young adults group, I got lots of Caleb time. He's three weeks old, and he looks more like a human being and less like a red-faced peanut all the time! I held him while he slept during lunch, and his floppy little hand flopped onto my thumb and his fingers curled around it oh-so-slightly. Afterwards my hands and arms smelled like baby. I still like his baby eyelashes a lot, and I like all the faces he makes when he's sleeping and gassy. I think we're going to be friends.

Finally, I'm sad that none of you other churchy/theology types commented on my previous geeky post...Marva Dawn is cool! Can I get an "Amen"?

I win

2007-02-22T12:20:00.000-08:00

You are 80% Scripture literate!

You are a Pseudo-Bible scholar. Good job, apparently you actually read the good book every once in a while.

The Adult Bible Quiz

It was those OT questions that saved me. I'm also pretty sure that some of my answers were lucky guesses. I had a few of them down to two choices, at which point I just went with gut instinct.

SPEAKING OF THEOLOGICAL NERDINESS:
I went with Annemarie and Sam to Regent College yesterday, and as we were sitting in the cafe with the admissions guy who was answering Annemarie's questions, I saw Marva Dawn! I looked at her, and then at Annemarie, but the admissions dude was in the middle of talking and I couldn't figure out a suave way to say "Look, everybody! It's Marva Dawn!" without sounding like a pathetic little groupie. So, only I saw her and I just had to tell Sam and Amp about it later when the admissions dude was gone.

I'm a good wife!

2007-02-18T23:31:00.000-08:00

Today I took Sam and Annemarie shopping at Ikea and Home Outfitters, and I ended up spending $200 on various household stuff. You know what's the best part? I did it all without Aaron's input or foreknowledge, and when I brought all the stuff home, he approved of every single purchase I had made! I'm like the wife in Proverbs 31 who is wise in providing for the household. I'm so proud of me for being able to spend a surprise $200 on good things and have Aaron be happy with it all.

The real steal-of-a-deal was a full set of 500-thread-count queen-sized sheets (fitted sheet, flat sheet and 4 pillowcases) for $100. In case that means nothing to you: a pair of the exact same pillowcases costs $70, which is unfortunately a very normal price. Bedding is flippin' expensive in general, and we needed a new set anyway, so it was my lucky day. They are dark chocolate brown. I like colours with substance. They will look very good with our beige-and-green comforter and our purple bedroom wall.

Ok, now I'm off to sleep in my super-comfy 500-thread-count bed! Goodnight!

pointer

2007-02-16T12:59:00.000-08:00

The dog at work must have some pointer blood in her somewhere. (She's mostly german shepherd and black lab.) If you have food on your desk, be it in a sealed plastic container or hot and steaming on a plate, she will stand behind you and wait. If it takes you awhile to finish, she'll sit or lie down, but always facing the food. Even once you finish your food, she will not leave until the plate/container is put away in the dishwasher, just in case you'll let her lick it. Thank goodness she's a properly silent pointer and not a whiny beggar. Silly food pointer dog.

more miscellany

2007-02-14T11:31:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I saw a girl with the perfect anime ponytail. Her hair was straight and shiny, and so thick that her ponytail made that perfect fat upside-down teardrop shape that you see in anime.

Here's a tidbit I've been meaning to mention for awhile: Remember Melody from the Archie comics? You know how she had little music notes in all her speech bubbles to indicate that she has a melodic voice? I always thought that was ridiculous, but I've met this woman who really does have such a melodic voice. I have no idea how she does it, but the first time I heard her speak, I totally saw little music notes float around her head. Her voice is soft but strong, and really sweet, and it kind of lilts in a musical way. She's not even a musician, so I don't know how she does it.

This morning I was shopping at my favourite Indo-Canadian green grocer's, and the checkout man didn't seem to remember the price of my green onions. So he raised his voice towards his old father-in-law at the back of the store and said something along the lines of,

"*Hindi* *Hindi* green onions *Hindi* *Hindi* *Hindi* sixty-nine?"

I nodded and said, "Yes."

The checkout man gave me a surprised and confused look.

I said, "Well there was certainly enough English in the question, right?"

I guess he realized what he'd actually said, and gave me this big smile that said, "Oh, right!"

fun little old lady

2007-02-11T21:54:00.000-08:00

There's this one saintly lady at my church. It took me awhile to realize how neat she is, because she has one of those deadpan-old-person faces. (At least it's not an angry-old-person face.) Her name is uber-Mennonite, so let's call her Mrs. Janzen.

Back in the summer when Robi and Rikki got engaged, Mrs. Janzen came up to me on a Sunday morning and congratulated me on my engagement. I explained that she had the wrong gal, and we both had a good laugh. She said that in her old age she had trouble keeping all the young people apart, and I said that in my young age I still had trouble keeping all the old people apart.

So today was baby Caleb's first day in church at 8 days old. (I guess I only alluded to his arrival in my recent quiz post...anyway, R&R's baby is here and he's healthy and his name is Caleb!) Mrs. Janzen nabbed me in the lobby after church today and said "Did you notice? I didn't congratulate you today!" I had forgotten about the engagement incident entirely, so we had ourselves another good laugh! I'm so glad when people can laugh at their own mistakes.

joker, reveal thyself!

2007-02-08T14:08:00.000-08:00

So, I got a second hit for "how did gershwin die and was he afraid of death."

At first I thought "Whoa! What are the chances?!" but then I read more of the details in my stat counter, and it turns out that this mysterious second person had already visited my blog 14 times prior to her/his unusual search.

So, if you're trying to mess with my mind: congratulations, it almost worked! But not quite. I'm on to you! Of course, it's always possible that you just couldn't remember my blog address and then tried to find my last post via a search engine...

here's a new one

2007-02-06T22:10:00.000-08:00

It's not quite as good a search as "stupid mennonites", but it'll do:

"how did gershwin die? and was he scared of death?"

edit: also "jogging in a jug formula"

quiz again

2007-02-04T20:31:00.000-08:00

So, I came across this quiz thinger on the intarweb in a few different places, and I'm a sucker for quizzes, so here goes:

You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend? married.
3. Your hair? long
4. Your mother? hi!
5. Your father? *wave*
6. Your favorite thing? grapes
7. Your dream last night? blank
8. Your favorite drink? water
9. Your dream car? porsche
10. The room you're in? safe
11. Your ex? nonexistent
12. Your fear? hatred
13. What do you want to be in 10 years? mom
14. Who did you hang out with last night? Caleb!
15. What you're not? serious
16. Muffins? bran!
17. One of your current wish list items? tent
18. Where is? waldo
19. The last thing you did? grapes!
20. What are you wearing? pink
21. Your TV? nope
22. Your pet? plants?
23. Your computer? clunky
24. Your life? fantastic
25. Your mood? meh
27. What/who are you thinking about right now? quiz
28. Your car? Daisy
29. Your work? good
30. Your summer? warm
31. Your relationship status? married
32.Your favorite color? orange
33. When is the last time you laughed? today
34. Last time you cried? Tuesday
35. School? finished!

people search for the weirdest things...

2007-02-04T20:15:00.000-08:00

I have one of those statistic-counting thingies on my blog that gives me all kinds of information about who reads the stuff I write. I am continually amused by the keyword searches that bring people here. So, the following is a list of things people actually type into search engines, which bring them to my blog:

"stealing flowers girlfriend"
"strawberry starbursts"
"milky white hamster eye"*
"how do I make a hairdo with chopsticks"
"hutterite women feel ugly"
"croc shoes teenagers"
and my all-time favourite..."stupid mennonites"

*This one is a perennial favourite, I get about 4 hits every month with a similarly worded search.

driving-o-rama

2007-01-31T22:24:00.000-08:00

So, I was planning on continuing my public-transit-oriented lifestyle and possibly branching out into cycling, despite the fact that I can now drive myself (and a limited number of passengers) wherever and whenever I want. Let me tell you about my first full day of having my N-license.

It was my turn to make community lunch for my co-workers, so I had two big casserole dishes of moussaka and a bag full of salad ingredients to take to work. Needless to say, this was not going to work on the bus, and Aaron didn't feel like driving me, so I had to take the car to work all by myself.

Next, stuff happened and plans changed and I ended up driving all by myself to Surrey where I had to do work stuff. This involved driving over the oh-so-scary Pattullo bridge, just days after reading how it is the deadliest bridge in British Columbia. (Read this article from today's paper titled "It's a death bridge" for more info...basically, it's too narrow for four lanes, and there's no median, and there's a curve where people tend to drive into oncoming traffic instead of staying in their itsy-bitsy lane.) This was a 45-minute drive in rush hour traffic.

Then, while in Surrey, I was asked spur-of-the-moment to drive a teenager to the store to pick up some forgotten dinner ingredients. So now I had a 15-year-old kid whose life to risk alongside mine. Did I mention that by this time it was foggy as all heck out there?

After the Surrey stuff was done, I had to drive a co-worker back to Vancouver, over the death bridge, in the dark, in the fog. I think she was nervous, but she's usually nervous about all sorts of stuff, so it's not like it was me, but it still made me nervous to have her being nervous about my driving.

Finally, at the end of my 12-hour workday all I had to do was drive home. I drove about 60km today, all by myself, in scary conditions. And I thought that having a license wouldn't change anything...