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

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

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

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

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

think about it

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

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

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

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

Treat the earth well.

It was not given to you from your parents,

it was loaned to you by your children.

multi-dimensional Jesus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

a good father

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.