The posts that are never published....

If you have read this blog for any amount of time, you probably have noticed the ratio of humorous to serious posts is a tad skewed to the humorous. Some of that comes from me finding humor in almost every aspect of life....Take Sleepy Rufus for example, that post came from me oversleeping. There is absolutely nothing interesting or worth posting about me oversleeping, unless of course I tell about my alter ego which was the cause of my oversleeping in the first place. :D

I do of course, have serious posts, Erroneously for example, but these posts don't get published most of the time. What has happened to my blog is I have started using it as an online journal where I just type whatever happens to be on my mind. If I feel like publishing it I will, 90% of the time. That other 10% usually involves thoughts I have on things like courtship, secular music and just our society as a whole. Because of their nature most of these posts are way too long to publish, besides the fact that all of them are rather rough drafts of their topics. I was looking over the posts from this month as I was backing them up and I just felt like posting that I am not as bad a nut case as some of these posts might lead you to believe. :)

Woman drivers are out to kill me!

If anyone has actually read my profile, which I doubt, they will see that I said woman drivers are out to kill me. This is not an exaggeration, this is a honest, kid you not, fact! One that is a bit baffling to me since I think I am a nice enough guy. I can't think of a reason why women in cars want to see me in a body bag so badly....I am sure women will read this and think to themselves, under what authority does this William character say women drivers are out to kill him?? In answer to that dear readers, I will present the evidence in this and future posts:

Episode 1, The fail to check her side mirror woman.

It is a bright cheery day, the weather is a nice balmy 75 or so. I am driving my F-150, windows down as usual, singing along with my music that is filling my ears with a wonderful melody. I slowly cruise down the road about to turn and merge on the interstate. To steal a few lines from the Newsboys, "Wherever I go, the bluebirds sing, the grass gets green, the bees behave and in the treetops, squirrels smile and wave" everything is right with the world.

I get on the interstate, merge to the far left hand lane and start zipping along around 80mph...Five minute later I get off the interstate. At the bottom of the exit ramp is a red light and as I head towards said light I get in the second turning lane because there is no one in it. Let me stop here and say the exit ramp is two lanes, both of which turn right onto four southbound lanes of a eight lane boulevard. Since the offramp is 2 lanes and you are turning onto 4, it is logical to assume the first exit turning lane takes the first 2 lanes and the second exit turning lane takes the last 2 lanes. Makes sense? Here is a picture:


Anyway as I near the light in the second turning lane, the light turns green and I accelerate down the rest of the ramp and into my turn right. I successfully arrive in my lane (lane # 3 in the picture) and out of the corner of my eye I notice a minivan in my right hand side mirror turning onto the boulevard as well. The mini-van is turning from the first turning lane, meaning it needs to turn into lanes # 1 and 2 in the picture. Guess what the lady in the mini-van wants to do? She wants to get to lane #4 the farthest away from where she is turning. The only way to get there is of course go across lanes 1,2,3 and right in her path is me and my truck.

So mini-van lady starts drifting across the lanes heading right for my passenger side door. I watch her come thinking she will slow down, but she just keeps on coming. When she is about 5 feet away I realize that she has no intention of slowing down and intends to just magically drift through my car. It was at this moment that the horn god decided to erupt with the noise of a thousand trumpets. Mini-van lady was awakened from her intent to kill me and decided she might be getting too close. So what does she do? She jerks the mini-van back and almost crashes into someone else!!! Fortunately no one was hurt! Such is my life avoiding women drivers out to kill me.

People being stupid news item of the week

Escaped convict found at police party

An escaped convict has been recaptured in Taiwan - at a barbecue party organized at the local police station. Police in Xinzhu city invited residents to celebrate the Moon Festival with them.

But officers could not believe their eyes when they saw an escaped drug dealer called Chen, who had just been listed as one of the city's most wanted criminals, at the party.

Police officer Cai Zhengtong, who was in charge of the barbecue, said: "I saw a man dressed in an eye-catching yellow windbreaker enter the place and sit in the corner.

"He was enjoying the barbecue with the others. I really couldn't believe my eyes, since the man was just the criminal we were seeking."

Police at the party quickly arrested Chen. He told officers he thought it would have been the last place police would have thought of looking for him.

It seems Chen, might have been been smoking some of those drugs he was dealing.

Life Tip #196

When cutting one's own hair, it is wise to do so facing a mirror. Using the reflective surface of an oven is not a recommended replacement for an actual mirror.

A completely random post

I don't really have much to post about today, I have been slightly busy and nothing much interesting has happened to me lately, so I just am going to post some random things that I have thought about or have happened so far this week.

I think I might be posting too much on here! :p September still has a few days left and for the month we already have 40 some posts!

A few days ago as I was driving around town, I rolled down my windows, cranked up the volume and played the last two movements of Beethoven's 9th while I ate turkey sandwiches. During this experience I had an epiphany, music blaring + wind in your face + turkey = :D

I really like carrots, on Monday I ate an entire bag of them.

This morning I was sitting in my car waiting for the lab to open so I could drop some film off for my dad. There was this guy blowing leaves around the parking lot and he was coming my direction. He blew all the leaves past my car and then for some strange reason started blowing my car...I have no idea why, he just started blowing my hood and left side.... I almost opened my door to ask what on earth he was doing but he was Hispanic and all I can seem to say in spanish is ask for the bathroom and to say I don't understand.

I have not been home very much this week, since Monday through today (Thursday) I have only been home for an average of 6 and a half hours a day and most of that time I have been sleeping.

Real men eat onions raw, like apples.

I drove over a local lake the other day and saw some lucky people tubing, it made me think of some friends we have that I wished we lived closer to.

Wit is nothing more than an incisive observation, humorously phrased and delivered with impeccable timing

MEMO to Older men with ponytails: Cut that thing off! You do not look "cool", "hip" or "younger" with a ponytail, you look ridiculous! If you happen to also have a crazy Hawaiian shirt on....just add more points to the ridiculous scale.

Common sense is an uncommon virtue

I just realized the pair of dockers I am currently wearing have a hole in them!!!

Credit card offers! :x

It seems every credit card company in America wants to give me a credit card! This is not unusual, for the past 2-3 years I have gotten between 1-6 offers a month. I don't even look at them, I just tear them up and forget about them.. For some reason, over the last several months the number of offers I have been receiving has ballooned to 3-7 a week! Yesterday I got home and was looking through the mail and I actually had three!! It is crazy, these companies are just spamming me with a never ending stream of offers. I guess they figure I am worth the endless paper and stamps they are wasting, but I have decided to put a stop to it.

There is this consumer advice guy named Clark Howard who has a radio show that I listen to. (Sarah hates him for some reason, but I love listening since he tells people about scams and such.) Anyway he was talking about credit cards and how you can actually get off their mailing list! So no longer shall the credit card companies destroy forests so they can send me their spam, I have removed myself from their list! If anyone else would like to do this as well the number to call is 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688)

In case a certain someone was wondering.....

I know... two post the same day... wait the same hour..

Why I like my name:Sarah
Reason 1. It is popular
but not so popular that tons of people have the same name.
Reason 2. It is easy to spell, well... most of the time.
Reason 3. It has a great meaning.
Reason 4. ummm I don't have anymore reasons. (I just can't think of any more right now)

But this post was supposed to be about William's name.
So here are some (boring) facts about his name.

1.)There are 3,722,557 people in the U.S. with the first name William.
(ok ok that's a lot)

2.)Statistically the 6th most popular first name.
(Yes, that is more popular than my name)

3.)99.72 percent of people with the first name William are male.
(Again...duh!)

4.)Names similar to William:
Bill
Billie
Billy
Wiley
Will
Willie
Willis
Willy
(They kinda all look the same)

Here you go... This how many people in the USA have the same name as William...



But although there are a lot of Williams in the world,
none can be as considerate and thoughtful as MY brother.
Case in point... today when I called him to ask him to pick up my library books, he said"I am just on my way to pick them up."
He didn't even know that my requested books had come in! :)
See what a great brother I have! And then he takes me to orchestra every Wednesday night, so I won't have to walk by myself on a college campus in the dark. As you can see, right now I think my brother is the greatest...its a good thing this is written down.. that way the next time I can't stand him because of his crazy opinions or something, I can go back and read this. :)

I like my name... Apparently other people do too!

I know you are all waiting to hear why other people
(people that I don't even know) think my name is great. Well, you are just going to have to wait a little bit while I tell you some exciting facts about my name. First if you will... my name is spelled S.A.R.A.H..please notice the H. at the end. If you spell my name S.A.R.A it is kinda like spelling Anne with out the E. If you forget and leave out the H, I will forgive you....the first time. :)

1.) There are 769,349 people in the U.S. with the first name Sarah.
(That's a lot!!)

2.) Statistically the 58th most popular first name.
(That's in the top fifty!! er... wait...never mind)

3.)More than 99.9 percent of people with the first name Sarah are female.
(Well..not to be mean but ..duh)

4.)Names similar to Sarah:
Sadie
Salley
Sallie
Sally
Sara

Three smells.....

There are three things that smell so bad you want to gag,
yea, four things which make your nostrils flail in pain.

A rotting cantaloupe that has sat in the sun,
when fresh it has a wonderful aroma,
but one sniff after it has gone bad and you'll be in a coma!

A dead skunk that lies in the road,
bloated in the sun. the smell can erode,
it's defensive odor is meant to protect,
but once dead my nose it infects!

Mildew, such a small sounding thing
but when it is on clothing, what a smell it doth it bring,
musty and funky the smell makes you wheeze,
as it invades the nasal cavities!

Humans perspire when we get hot,
a sweet smelling scent it is not,
without deodorant, I fear gas masks would be our attire,
to help keep the smell absent or else we'd expire.

New Profile pictures

So I was playing around with some pictures Sarah and I had done and decided to make me look like I was from a comic book. Sarah liked mine so much she decided I should do one of her and we should use them as our profile pictures so here they are:

Oh yeah what they look like together:

Layout under construction

This post has been updated*

So it seems my dear sister did not like my cool and amazing new blog layout :(...So we are back to something a little calmer but still different...If you did not catch the wickedly awesome new layout, here is a screenshot:

At least I have been able to keep my smiles for the posts :D B) I am still working on getting them to work in comments though

The winds of change cometh!

I have been working on a new layout and colors for the blog as well as some new features, hopefully I will be able to get everything up today. :D

Cake !!!!!!!

Last Friday was my granddad's 85th Birthday. I decided to make him a four layer cake. I have been wanting to make this particular cake for months! I turned out pretty good. Unfortunately, I only got a sliver of a piece, due to me having a cough for three, going on four weeks. Luckily, for me, we do have some left-overs in the freezer.
(In case anyone wanted to know, my cough is almost gone now, but more on that later)

The cake before I added the mini chocolate chips.
Yes, the cake is in my refrigerator. Now you know what the second shelf looks like. :)

The cake right before we cut it. By the way mini chocolate chips are really hard to put on a cake
when it has a whipped cream frosting that gets softer the longer it sits out on the counter.

Top of the cake, and I did not take this picture... if I had the picture would have been centered.

Really scary cat..... it doesn't really have anything to do with my cake. No, the cat did not get a piece of the cake.

People being stupid news item of the week

Man Tows Vessel With Inflatable Boat

NEW YORK (AP) — A man who tried to tow his 35-foot fishing vessel to a marina by paddling in a 9-foot inflatable boat was fished out of a Long Island canal by Coast Guard officials Wednesday.

"This is one of the most unsafe things I may have ever seen a boater do," said U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Steven Koch.

Louis Pasquale, 35, of Seaford, N.Y., was attempting to tow his fishing vessel Barbara Ann from the North Channel near Bay Shore about 20 miles to Freeport. He was not injured, but not wearing a life jacket, the Coast Guard said.

Pasquale reportedly started towing the Barbara Ann at 5:30 a.m from the East Islip Marina, and had managed to move it about 100 yards in three hours when both the Coast Guard and Islip Harbor Police stopped him.

A rescue boat crew towed the vessel back to the East Islip Marina, and ordered Pasquale to anchor, the Coast Guard said. He was issued a state summons and a Town of Islip summons for unsafe operation and hazard to navigation.

So either he did not have a radio or cell phone in his boat, or he just did not think to use them. Maybe he figured he did not need them since he was moving at a pretty fast clip, 100ft an hour! This is one news story I really wish had pictures. :D

First Leaf of Fall

I walked out to my car in the morning and low a behold a solitary leaf was sitting on my windshield. Struck by inspiration, I decided to take a picture and write something awesome about the first leaf of fall, the changing seasons and the impending colder weather........ So I uploaded the picture, and sat down to type! Unfortunately, I guess the inspiration strike was a weak one, because I could not really think of anything to say about the changing seasons that was awe-inspiring :( but I did still have the picture and since a picture is worth a thousand words I might as well share it:

Changing colors,
Falling leaves,
Autumn begins!

Love, Laugh, .......

What is the first word that comes to mind after reading those two?

I was walking through K-Mart yesterday (I hate K-Mart, but that story is for another time) and as I went by the picture frame section I noticed they had these black wooden words you could buy. I glanced at them out of the corner of my eye and saw one was Love and the other one was Laugh...Right after I noticed them, out of the blue a word popped into my head. For some reason it made me stop, I turned around and went back to the wooden words and sure enough right there on the top shelf was the word that had popped into my head....it was almost like something from the Twilight Zone, but then I figured I must have heard it somewhere and I decided to see what other people's first though is....So what is the first word that comes to your mind after reading Love, Laugh, .....?

A rather large remote

Our family has this thing about losing remotes....We are constantly losing the TV remote or the DVD player remote or both....Usually we have been able to find them under furniture, or in a drawer, or upstairs under someone's clothes, that was until we lost our dvd player remote this last time... No one is really sure how long it has been lost, I personally have not seen it since sometime in July, though I have been told it has been missing since before then....You would think manufacturers of dvd players would have the same controls that are on the remote as buttons on the actual player...Nope!

Our dvd player only has play, pause, next, and eject....There is no way to get to the menu or even change selections if you happen start off on the menu...Usually this is not an issue since most dvds today are made to auto play and bypass the menu system, but every few dvds we will run into one that goes straight to the menu and there is no way for us to actually watch the film, at least not using that dvd player....So for the past few months we have been living with a dvd player that we can not always watch dvds on! Yesterday when my parents were out they decided to get a universal remote that handles both the dvd player and the TV.

But this not just any universal remote, this is a universal remote made for a giant. I guess the idea behind it was, it is so large, there is no way it can be misplaced! I am not sure about that, but it sure is big:

Avast ye! Today be "Talk Like A Pirate Day"!

I be postin this 'ere post to inform all ye dirty scallywags that today be:

So go out there and greet everyone ya see with not hello, but with "Ahoy, me hearty!" Shout "shiver me timbers" at least 10 times today and integrate the following words into your vocabulary: Matey, booty, Arghhh, buried treasure, plank, scoundrel, plunder or any other piraty words that come to the coconut ya call your head! And remember to talk in a gravelly voice, because you've been breathing in saltwater and are bound to be a little raspy.... Now I leave ya to go round me up some fresh grub for me chow!

Cell Phone Tip #73

When talking to another person by cell phone, if the call is dropped in a bad service area the person who initiated the call is responsible for calling back. Both parties should not try to call each other right after the dropped call, as this usually will result in a busy signal as they both try to reach each other. When a call is dropped the original "caller" should be the one to once again try to reach the "callee" if followed, this tip can save much frustration for the members of a dropped call and put an end to voice mail that starts out like "I just lost you, and now your line is busy...."

Legos and my brothers

When I was younger, my one love was Legos. For probably 10 years they were the only thing I ever wanted when people gave me gifts. Because of that fact and also because I keep pretty much everything, I still have an enormous collection which my youngest brothers, Matthew and Sam love to play with. At first when they started playing with them a few years ago I limited what they could play with since they were not as old and still stuck the Lego pieces in their mouths.

Now that they are older they have free range to play with pretty much anything that is in my room. Though they are a tad destructive, I used to have several ships and castles completely built up for them to play with but those structures are long gone replaced by constantly changing setups re-enacting whatever story my brothers are acting out. Usually when they are in my room playing with them I am in there as well mainly reading or working. Listening to them talk is like window back to when I was their age and would spend hours playing in my own world.

The only downside to having Legos once again scattered about my room is I seem to step on every pointed angle with my bare feet. I now understand why my mother and dad always wanted me to pick my Legos up or at least make a path when I went to bed.

That's Amore!!

(In Napoli where love is King)
(When boy meets girl)
(Here's what they say)

When the moon hits your eye
Like a big-a pizza pie
That's amore
When the world seems to shine
Like you've had too much wine
That's amore

Bells'll ring
Ting-a-ling-a-ling
Ting-a-ling-a-ling
And you'll sing "Vita bella"
Hearts'll play
Tippi-tippi-tay
Tippi-tippi-tay
Like a gay tarantella

When the stars make you drool
Joost-a like pasta fazool
That's amore
When you dance down the street
With a cloud at your feet, you're in love
When you walk in a dream
But you know you're not dreamin', signore
'Scusami, but you see
Back in old Napoli, that's amore
That's amore!

Haha, I was listening to David Crowder and I had a crazy urge to play some Dean Martin and of course if you are going to listen to Martin, you have to listen to 'That's Amore"

Dancing

On Saturday, some friends and myself got together to practice historical dances. Sarah was unable to make it because she has orchestra on Saturday and while she was missed, it worked out fine since there always are more girls than guys anyway. I would have posted pictures earlier, except I did not have any. Since I danced pretty much every dance, I never got a chance to take pictures. All pictures in this post are courtesy of either Matt or Sandi, I also want to thank Sandi for getting it all organized. :)

Matt and me, trying to look cool or something before the dancing starts....

All the ladies gathered around a dry erase board to diagram, football style, how the next dance should go

David adjusting a hat that is way too big on my head

Playing around with some hats

Rain!

Where we live we have been in a bit of a serious drought, the US Department of Agriculture has actually declared 85 of our 100 counties drought-related disaster areas. It is so bad we would need two feet of rain just to get us back to where we need to be for this time of year!


This is a local lake, the picture does not really do it justice but that little body of water in the middle is actually the middle of the lake. All that dry ground you see is usually deep under water!
Remember THIS post? That was the last time it rained, over three weeks ago. Fortunately yesterday, we got some heavy rain.....

Sheet of rain falling in front of the door

On the driveway the rain quickly started creating puddles, we got about two inches in all.

People being stupid news item of the week

Man Steals Car to Turn Himself In

GENEVA, N.Y. (AP) — A western New York man faces grand larceny charges after being pulled over in a car that he said he stole so he could turn himself in on another charge.

Ontario County sheriff's deputies say they pulled over Vincent Estrada Junior, 29, and found that the car he was driving had recently been stolen from a parking lot.

Police said Estrada was wanted on a family court warrant, and he told deputies he stole the car so he could drive to the Geneva City Police Department to turn himself in.

But he never made it there. Deputies say they arrested him and drove him back to Canandaigua to face the car-theft charges.

Estrada was being held in Ontario County Jail on Thursday, in lieu of $5,000 cash bail or $10,000 bond.

ROFL! Just as a point of reference to anyone reading this who might need to turn themselves in because of a warrant out on them....I believe it is a much better idea to take the bus or maybe get a buddy to drive you, rather than STEAL A CAR!

Some Common fears

Tall Buildings.............

The Ocean.............................

Volcanoes.................................

Milk...

These are all common fears.

People are afraid of tall buildings because they feel like they are going to fall off and go splat on the pavement.

The ocean consists of rip tides, deep salty water, sharks and lets not forget LOBSTERS!! Need I say more??

Volcanoes.... One word.. volcanic ash, Ok ok two words.... LAVA

Milk.... Have you seen where this comes from? 'nuf said

This is what happens when you have deep philosophical conversations with William late at night when he wants to go to sleep. :)

~Sarah~

Erroneously???

I had planned this morning to blog about the David Crowder Band but before I started, I noticed this article on USA Today's website and I realized this is something a little more substantial than a band with good music

From USA Today LINK
55% of Americans think founders wanted Christian USA

"Most Americans believe the nation's founders wrote Christianity into the Constitution, and people are less likely to say freedom to worship covers religious groups they consider extreme, a poll out today finds.

The survey measuring attitudes toward freedom of religion, speech and the press found that 55% believe erroneously that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. In the survey, which is conducted annually by the First Amendment Center, a non-partisan educational group, three out of four people who identify themselves as evangelical or Republican believe that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. About half of Democrats and independents do."

I love how USA Today gives it's opinion that more than half the United States is wrong in their belief. While not specifically spelled out in the Constitution, the idea of having a government not based on God would have been unthinkable to the framers of our Constitution. When the Constitution was written, the only possible explanation for the existence of the Universe was creation by God. The Constitution did not specifically mention God because to the founders it was a given that God created the heavens and the earth. By not adding God the founders were in no way creating a "secular" nation in the modern sense of the term. The concept of "secularism" as it is used today didn't even exist in 1787 when the Constitution was written. It is largely a twentieth-century concept, one that has arisen with the myth of Darwinism and a false belief that science should be our guild in the world rather than the Bible.

"Half of Americans say teachers should be allowed to use the Bible as a factual text in history class. Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center, says the Constitution "clearly established a secular nation where people of all faiths or no faith are protected to practice their religion or no religion without governmental interference.""

I agree with Mr. Haynes that the Constitution gives freedom to people to practice whatever religion or none at all as they so desire. But as mentioned above, at the time of our Constitution the United States was a God fearing Christian Nation. The first reading textbook of that time was The New England Primer which starts off with, "In Adam's Fall, we sinned all" can it get any more clear than that? God was in almost every aspect of their culture! Most of the the first colonist were fleeing religious persecution in Europe. The Founders knew this and did not want that happening in America, so we have the First Amendment, giving us freedom to practice our religion as well as freedom of speech to talk in public about our religion. Even with this freedom to be "secular" if someone so chose, the framers most certainly did believe that religion and religious values should influence the government and its policies.

On the day that the first Congress finished its work on the First Amendment, George Washington was called on to issue a Proclamation to the people of the United States to thank God for the freedoms we enjoy. Eight days later the First President's opening paragraph in this Proclamation said: "Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor . . ." By stating "acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will" George Washington and the framers of our Constitution were clearly showing that they believed in the one true God and His will should guide us. Any suggestion that the Constitution "clearly established a secular nation" is false.

Still Secularists insist that the absence of the word "God" means that the Constitution created a godless government in America, never mind the fact that there have been multiple suggestions to amend the Constitution and add it. There were efforts to add "Almighty God" and "Jesus Christ" to the Preamble for example, and several members of Congress suggested that "In the Name of God" should be inserted before the Preamble. Even though Congress was never able to come to an agreement on how God should be phrased the individual states did. With the exception of Oregon where the words "Almighty God" appear in the state religion clauses rather than the preamble, all 50 states have God mentioned in one form or another in their constitutions with "Almighty God" being the most popular.

Unfortunately our spiritual culture has now shifted so far from where it was during our founding, that even if the word "God" was in the Constitution, it probably would not make any difference. Secularist would just dismiss it as a mere formality. There are 50 reasons to believe that this is true. Secularists dismiss all references to God in the state constitutions, so there is really no reason to believe that they would view things differently with our nation's Constitution.

LINK to the whole USA Today article

Yard maintenance crew

Unknown to most of our friends is the fact we have a yard maintenance crew. This is not just any yard maintenance crew, this is a crew comprised entirely of deer! Sorry the pictures are a tad small, just click one to view it full screen.


Everybody smiling at the camera :)

Back to work!

Unfortunately, since the deer yard maintenance union has no restrictions on age, fawns doing the work of full grown deer has become an issue.

"The head chewer"

Food part 2

I felt the need for a correction to Sarah's food post was in order, while it looks quite nice in that picture all arranged, that was actually not what Sarah's plate she ate from looked like. Sarah hates peas so those were not on her plate and she also did not have any bread! This was Sarah's actual plate: :p

That white stuff is a non-toxic kind of mold Sarah is rather addicted to....

Food!

Apparently, one of the current trends of blogging (at least for girls) is to make dinner and then post a picture of said dinner on a plate arranged all pretty like. So, tonight I was inspired to post my dinner. But first some background.....It all began around 5:00. My mom was in the kitchen just starting to cut up some chicken into small chunks. Now, if you have cooked a lot, you know that chicken cuts better when it is frozen. Not completely frozen because then you can break your knife,(not a good thing to do) but still frozen enough that the chicken is still kinda hard. So, anyway my mom said, "what should we have for dinner? I have this chicken and some mushrooms in the fridge." My first thought was Domino's jk, no I thought chicken marsala. Off I go to the computer to look up the recipe. Finding one, my mom and I work together to fix the recipe. (This involves me talking and chopping mushrooms while my mom does everything else. Notice I put talking first, it is something I am VERY good at. :)The dish turned out great. Everyone really like it, even Nicholas. We didn't have the right kind of wine (marsala) so we just mixed two kinds that we had.

Colors have been adjusted

So I adjusted the colors somewhat since I actually thought they were looking slightly hospital-ish myself. Let me know what you think.

I also want to add that due to Sarah reading a certain blog, she decided this morning it would somehow be funny to hide one of my shoes I needed to wear to work....Fortunately Sarah does not lie very well and I knew by her silly little grin when asked that she had hidden my other shoe. She also had hidden it in the first logical place that came to mind, under her bed, so her "joke" was little more than an irritating sidebar to the start of my day. But I do want to send big online POKE to the person who gave my sister the idea, you know who you are ;)

The Mountains

So if you don't already know this, the reason for my absence the past few days is because I was helping my dad take pictures in the Smoky Mountains:

The scenery was great, but not much interesting happened the whole job, we waited for the sun to come out from behind clouds and took great pictures when it did. Oh yeah my dad did get to fly around in a helicopter over a lake taking some pictures, but I was not able to go :( One single door from the helicopter costs around $10,000 to replace!

He also had to take some pictures from the largest A-frame ladder I have ever seen, the people all at the bottom are there just to hold it steady. For some reason I always seem to come home with pictures of bugs, the latest:

Overall. it was a good short trip to the mountains even though we did have to work.

What happened??

But...but... these colors are boring!!! I do agree that the yellow didn't really go with the red. What can I say, it must have been too late at night when I changed the colors. Maybe in the next few days, William and I can reach a compromise on the colors. :)

Eyes have been saved

I AM BACK! Not a moment too soon it seems! While I am glad Sarah came out of hiding to post in my absence, I clicked on the blog to post and I was greeted by a garish yellow on red color layout! Thankfully I have muted the colors to a less blinding hue, I am sorry for any blindness that might have occurred because of Sarah's colors. I fear her cough may have rattled the color organizing part of her brain loose :(

Oh I also moved Sarah's "blogs I read" into the renamed link section...I think I might need to add some more links myself....I am uploading photos from the mountains to my computer and I will be posting later with them. I just wanted to post informing readers it was safe to return to the blog without worry of eye damage.
-Will

HA HA :)

I have taken over the blog colors!!! Do you like them? Comment and tell me what you think. I know Anja, there might be too much red, but I like the color red.
William probably will change it back to the VERY boring colors soon. :(

Our God is Amazing !!!!

A 20 year old woman lives in Ethiopia. Her husband left her pregnant with twin girls, and a 2 year old son to care for. She has no family, no formal education, no work experience and no means to providing for her family. She has no choice but to leave her daughters at an orphanage the day they are born. Her son stays with her, he is the only thing she has left in the world. At the age where most Americans are halfway done with with their college education, and just starting to be independent, she has faced one of the greatest tragedies in life. Now this story could end there, with her young son starving to death and her dieing from disease because as it turns out, she is HIV positive. It could end with her baby daughters growing up without ever knowing anything about their mother, without knowing why she left them at that orphanage. Instead the rest of this story takes place a world away, in a small town in the United States of America where since February a family has been praying for the children that God told them to adopt. Those twin girls will be picked up from Ethiopia in a month or so. They will be given new names: Keren Fikir and Keziah Selam. They will also get to see their big brother Josiah Abel, who probably doesn't even know they exist. He is getting adopted too!
You can read more about this amazing story on this blog: http://jobsdaughters.blogspot.com/
The Mestas family can tell it so much better than I can. I've only heard the story, they have lived it. :)
To me it is just a testament of how much God loves us, and how He has used these children to show us His power. But while thanking God for this miracle, I also think about the woman who had to give these children up. In Ethiopia, AIDS and HIV is rampant, and the government doesn't have the money to provide lifesaving drugs. In America, you can have AIDS or HIV,and the drugs can slow the progression, in Ethiopia, AIDS is a death sentence.

For a Couple of Days, This is MY Blog

Well, since William is going to be gone for the next couple of days, I must pretend to be him and post about every little thing that happens to me. Btw... William will be home on Saturday, but that night he has a coming home party for one of our friends who just got home from Iraq.
So, today I went to my violin lesson. I did not go to my voice lesson, however, because for the past 10 days I have had this Dry Hacking cough. I have become quite addicted to cough drops. I have decided that they are the best invention ever! Today is the first day I have only had to take one. Yay!
After violin, I arrived home to eat lunch and pick up Molly. We headed to a local music college where Molly has a cello lesson and I have a piano lesson. After both lessons are done, we have a 3 hour break before Molly's cello group starts. So off we go to the library. I love the library! Two hours and 84 books later, Molly and I look at each other and say "What are we going to do for the next hour?" Getting into my truck, (yes, I drive a truck, a green F150 Ford truck to be exact.), I happen to see the consignment shop in front of us. Problem solved!
We spent the next 45 minute looking at all the funny clothes that people actually bought to wear... in public...
Maybe next week I will bring a camera and capture all the weird and unique stuff that we saw.
After cello group, our destination was home, where my family eagerly awaited. Or maybe they just wanted to see the new library books. :(

Oh, and just on a side note: I have NO idea where my brother got that crazy video. I personally think it is great and I am quite envious that he found it first. Even though, since I am a girl, I don't have to worry about the way I hug.

Now that I have given you more details about my day, I must go and do something. :)

~Sarah~

Gone for a few days

I am heading up to the mountains for a few days to work with my dad. My sister Sarah has promised to uphold the high standards readers have come to expect from the blog posts, hopefully she will not forget :p

I leave you with a great instructional video of how to properly give a "man hug"

If for some reason the video fails to work here are the instructions in written form:

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Step 1:

When to hug

This is entirely down to what you feel comfortable with. When greeting family members, or a good friend you haven't seen for a while, a hug almost certainly required.

Congratulating a mate on getting engaged, becoming a father or even securing a promotion, a hug will be in order.

If celebrating a sports win, you will find that suddenly worrying about hugging is no longer an issue. Anything goes.

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Step 2:

The approach

When going for a hug, make it clear what you are doing. You won't want to catch the huggee of guard.

Start by spreading your hands wide with you right hand about 20 centimetres higher than the left. Lean back ever so slightly, this is a non threatening stance, making it clear you are not about to attack. Tilt your head to the left - this lets your huggee know where you are going so they can do the opposite, others wise there may be an embarrassing collision.

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Step 3:

Embrace

Step in towards your compadre. Your right hand will go over their shoulder, with your head going to the left of theirs. Show you sincerity by gripping them firmly in your arms - there is nothing worse than a floppy, half heart attempt. Keep you head level and facing forwards. Looking down, or turning towards you mate may end up as inappropriate nuzzling. Hold the embrace for as long as you feel comfortable, a second or two will do

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Step 4:

The pat

This is the crucial part of a man hug, separating it from a traditional cuddle. With your left hand pat your buddy 3 or 4 times on the back. This demonstrates you are still men - you maybe be affectionate but you can still dish out some pain.

If you still feel this is too effeminate for you then give a light, double punch instead of a pat.

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Step 5:

The break

While you are giving the final pat, break. Lift your hands smartly away, don't slide them over your buddy in a lingering manner. This may confuse them, and you.

Alternatively you could finish by gripping your friends firmly on the upper arms and saying something celebratory. 'Well Done Colin", "Congratulations", or "Great to see you again" are all good. This makes to reason for the hug clear and finishes it succinctly.

Another great option is to throw a few playful sparring punches at each other. Add a growly cheer to this and you are home and dry, like a big cuddly bear.

Now return to whatever you were doing before the hug. Don't feel the need to cough, avoid eye contract, or scratch yourself. You are still firmly a man - but one who is not afraid of showing their emotions. Mission accomplished.

A new window

So I finally got around to hanging my new "window"

Does not look quite as "windowish" as I had planned, but that might have something to do with me painting the frame black. :p Still it is something better to look at than just a wall.

Laborless day

Yesterday was Labor Day, the last three-day weekend of the year. I usually like three-day weekends; most of the time either my family or myself has something going on for that extra day off. But yesterday, my dad had to work and everyone else in my house had school stuff they were working on so we just stayed home. Since we had nothing planned, I decided I would just have a day of doing absolutely nothing, sounds great huh? It was not, it was actually rather weird. Usually on days I am not working, I still have stuff I need to get done, just not work at the office. For example, Saturday I wake up a little later, do various jobs inside and outside the house and by the time I am finished I only have a few hours of nothing going on.

Yesterday I literally had nothing to do the whole day and the day just seemed to drag on! By lunchtime I was feeling a little bonkers, I thought to myself, this must be how it feels when you are so rich you don't have to work. No wonder celebrities get in the messes they do, they have all this money and free time and it just gets them in trouble. I don't mind having free time I love having free time, but I also like having something to do, or maybe a better explanation is, I like having the option of doing something. :D Yesterday I could not even work if I wanted to because the market was closed! In the afternoon, I wanted to get out and do something so bad that I ended up going grocery shopping with my mom! Grocery shopping! I can't remember the last time I went grocery shopping with my mom; it was fun in a "lets see how much money we can spend on food" way. :p I did have a bit of an ulterior motive though since I wanted to swing by Home Depot and get some little picture hangers for my new window.

Anyway, because we went shopping rather late, we did not have dinner until 8 or so and by the time Sarah and I had finished the kitchen, it was almost 9pm. For some strange reason I then did not have enough time and ended up going to bed an hour later than I wanted to! The moral of all this is, while it may sound lovely to not have any work to do, I don't think I could live without working.

Volleyball!!

Yesterday the weather was wonderful, I went outside @ 7am or so and it was about 60 outside, I don't think it ever got above 85 and there was a nice breeze the whole day, still a little warmer than I like but it was bearable. After church we headed over to the A's house for a volleyball/cookout event. Not everyone from church was able to make it but we still had a pretty good number of people show up, enough for four volleyball teams of 6. Pictures galore:

Daniel about to hit the ball as John Paul looks on.

Daniel playing the ball off the net, I am not sure how John Paul ended up sitting on the grass :p

BJ and Mr. Baker going at it

My dad trash talking with Mr. Albright

Me and John Paul doing the chicken dance as we wait for the ball

Mr. Baker showing his wild side

Sam and I getting in each other's way :p

Gina serving