Springtime in Portland

Several weeks ago around the official beginning of spring, the weather got noticeably warmer and, in fact, began to feel like spring! Later of course, as never seems to fail, it got cold and rainy again, albeit warmer than the wint'ry weather from before and markedly NOT winter.

Anyway, now it is pretty warm and sunny often, and i've even felt hot a couple of times. When it rains, it's a gentle spring rain, soft on the nose and cool to the soul. This rain smells like spring. Here's to the seasons!

"Oh, goody! Spring!"


"Excuse me, please don't look while i adjust my baby straps..."


Unlike the Spanish heroes of Tom's childhood Down South, Up North we don't carve their names in dogwood, but rather our own; in the future, which is wide open.


Try as i might to stop my shadow from taking photographs of the explosively gorgeous flora, here he is snapping a shot of what appear to be purple tulips and those yellow thingies. While i neglected Wendy's lesson which says you can't stick shadows on with soap, Kirsten obviously took the hint and sewed her and Sierra's shadows on.


THIS dude has some seriously wild hair!


I love this shot because of the colors, especially the bright pink & lighter blossoms, and the new green of the leaves contrasted with the bluegray skysun.


The little people have tethered their horses to the city's steel rings, originally designed for equestrian use, including the occasional whiz-bang rich folks who could afford the advanced technology of a buggy.


Finally, fluffy clouds in sunshiny Portland (Does anyone know why all the elementary schools around here have huge chimneys? Old school ceramics kilns? Furnaces for incinerating homework? Heat? Kitchen?)

"Due to events beyond our control, your call could not be completed at this time." (!)

one of these days

You Are Here

(click photo to enlarge)

When Baby und Papa play dressup

p.s. nordhagen: notice the bobo glove! we read the cloth bobo book a few times today. :)

memories & hopes

i was down in the basement and ended up going thru a bag o' stuff which contains all my snow attire. i was specifically looking for goggles because i have been getting little flecks in my eyes on bike rides as well as ending up with dried out ocular cavities, which is annoying.

as i opened the bag, i was washed over: the smell of the gear and the look and the feel of the jacket were good. i looked carefully at the jacket, still in prime condition after all this time and great use in the snow. boots in ok condition. pants. goggles. socks. snowboard binding. other extra snow stuff.

i thought to myself, "mmm! that would be nice."

of course you know what i mean.

i was also somewhat flooded by all the good memories of the times i've had in the snow over the course of this lifetime--not just with this gear, but all of them, and those with the gear too. lots of great times. the snow is special. sparkly, white, frozen, angelic, pure. manna?

i have visions of coasting down a hill in light, fluffy powder, easily carving hin und her on the way down the mountain, the snow thick beneath the board, the wind kissing my cheeks and nibbling my ears. i think about snowmen, jumping off railings into snow drifts, eating icicles, sleigh rides with speckled horses and schnapps and Austrian sleighmasters with Alpine hats. i think about friends and family and families of friends and friends of family. i think about cooking indoors and frosty windows. i think about weekend plans and spontaneous drives and rich mountain air, the thinnest sort to be breathed. i think about kisses and hugs and warm fires and heaters drying everyone's gear. i think of hill bombs and frozen rivers and icy needles sticking into my skin, the pain so instant and sharp, the shivers shaking me without my consent, the warmth of the van heater afterward warming my soul along with the inside of my dad's work overalls. i think of snow-capped peaks, of attempts at ascent. i think of snowballs. i think of the future. i think of you. and you. and you. i think of You.

tomorrow i'll try out the googles en bici.

family trip to the internet part cinque

Happy First Day of Spring!

Well folks, my wife has done it again! She's both beat me to and trumped me with a superior blog post, thereby heisting me of Cyberspectacular Honour. *mock pout* Thanks hon, you're the best!

In truth, her post really is super--including concise summaries of our life & what we've been up to of late. There are also photos & a video of our prodigious progeny! Photos of particular note include Sierra & me with an elephant in the background (not easily seen on first glance, i think) and a photo of Kirsten and Sierra being intrigued by themselves in our bathroom mirror. In my opinion, Kirsten looks dazzlingly beautiful in yonder photograph: perhaps like an interstellar porcelain doll. Sierra looks...well, sad and wet from her bath!

So Kirsten's is kind of a "what is up" post. I will attempt to share some of the like here, but as i have little time (and probably less patience) with Ye Olde internets, it will have to be a short mashup.

First, a video outlining the necessary etiquette to follow when dining upon Choate toes:


Next, here we have Sierra about to ingest my eyebrow:


A flashback (gentlemen! see if you can recall the event, time period, etc!):


Another flashback (San Mateo, right before the SM County Fair & seeing B.R. Cyrus in concert...):


A quote:
"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever! Amen!"
One thing worth mentioning here is that we are incredibly blessed to have our spacious place and be in the position we're in, and for that we praise God greatly. We have time to spend with each other and a steady income. We've been able to see some good friends and do some fun activities in the area and have more of the same planned. We've gotten connected to a church and a community group in which we're starting to make some friends. My job is largely stress-free. We've great access to local, fresh, organic produce and foods, and i think we'll have even more once spring is in full swing & then summer & fall roll around.

And on that note, now, for your moment of zen:

Laughter Over Choateville

As Linda and me mum recently learned during their recent blessed, welcomed visit, laughter runs rampant at the Choate abode. This evening, Sierra joined in the fun! Won't you?

"Put on a happy (laughing!) face!"

PHEVs

Yo! Howdy, folks! Apologies for the recent stagnation in frequent posting. Or apologies for the infrequency of juicy, delicious, non-stagnant posting. ...recently. Whichever you prefer.



So not a ton to report here (or really, there is a ton to report, but i'm just not prepared to at this exact moment), but what i would like to briefly touch on is a book that i'm currently reading/almost done with, Plug-In Hybrids by one Sherry B. (<--no, i don't know her personally, have never met her.)

That link above is a decent overview of the book, which you can also find here, in addition to some critical statements about the book (those start about halfway down that page). I'm not sure which criticisms of my own i have at this point, but i did spend some time sparring and chatting with my good friend Gregg Simms about, among other things, exactly how the Choate Prius functions, the feasibility of plug-in hybrids in America, and the cost challenges, issues, and benefits of implementing sustainable energy policy and business in the world. Shai Agassi (a fellow introduced to me by Simms the Younger) also made an appearance in an offhand way via my dad and the SJ Mercury News.

Anyway, there is still much to learn and read about for my part, but even hearing and seriously evaluating some of the nay-sayers arguments still leaves me wanting a PHEV and/or EV and convinced of their benefits. Especially when paired with solar power or other sustainable energy sources. If you care to read more, here are the Brits on the matter doing what they do well, as usual.

family field trip to the internet part vier

wondering this morning...

"Where, Lord (will this take place)?"

"Wherever there's a corpse, there the vultures will gather."

family field trip to the internet part trois

MOL gator on life ring toting storage container - complete w/anchor tattoo

Driving from the Bay Area to OC, we saw this:


If you are intrigued, read further. If not, simply bask in the aura of "wow".

Precious Moments with Baby & BabyDaddy

Bein' a dad is excellent.


Guest appearance: Uncle Travis! ---V


Guest appearance: Mommy! ---V

My silly pantshead.

Joel Brown, eat your heart out. For some reason, this photograph really reminds me of Joel. :)

See also post to follow.

A$$ Yummy BBQ

Every time Kirsten and i would pass this Menlo Park establishment (which we never ate at, for some strange reason) we would always get a nice, hearty guffaw out of their sign, which from afar was quite easily interpreted as "ASS YUMMY BBQ". Finally, on the day we were going back to our apartment to do a walkthrough, i was able to photodocument it and now present it to you, dear blog frequenter, for your enjoyment. On our photodoumentation adventure i also found this last humorous marquee thing, which i think is even more funny given the present state of the economy. "Stocks down: PIE NOW!" Also of note: my reflection + Prius, "CI-IICKEN", "Brisket"

Nature, Vicious Nature!

**WARNING: Graphic Content!** ...




















So i meant to post this in a more timely fashion, but better late than never. This was one of the days we were packing up our things and moving out of our place in Menlo Park. I was busy going to our storage area in the carport moving boxes and trying to get rid of stuff, and one of our neighbors had spotted something and was looking intently at it. He was clearly moving slowly because of some sort of wildlife, and I was thinking, "Wildlife? Residential Menlo Park?" (I was thinking maybe it was a doe or a saber toothed tiger or whatever). Turns out, yes! Apparently this eagle/hawk/bird of prey had snagged hisself one of the tasty (and might i add quite prolific) squirrels from the area. One of Kirsten and my (or at least my) favorite pastimes in our first apartment (*tear*) was to gaze outside at the chestnut trees and other foliage as the crazed squirrels chased each other about, sometimes ravenously. I had postulated that there was an overpopulation due to human impact on the local ecosystem, and now that i see these photos again i can't help but think this sort of fare would have been rarer for Mr. or Mrs. Bird of Prey 50 or 100 years ago. At any rate, he tried to take off a few times, but was only able to go a short distance because of the sheer weight of his kill. ...relative, of course, to his body mass index and the amount of lift generated by his wings and not enough pitch or yaw or something (<--notice the science). Perhaps he was just full from already having dined on Mr. Squirrel. In the words of Ed, "nature, man."

!

Let this be a preview of what's to come! Photo taken in Morro Bay on our honeymoon, or luna de miel, as it were.

Some questions

Recently I've been going through Dr. Luke's account of the life and times of Jesus, and I've come across a few things I've had cause to wonder about, so i thought i'd share them here. Though i typically like to let Scripture passages speak for themselves, i thought i'd test the waters and see what i get in terms of responses on this one. Maybe this can be a forum for me to find some deeper answers about things of this nature and potentially for us all to connect, too. If not and I'm just sort of journaling in the public eye, that's cool, too. We'll see if i have the drive to post again if more questions pop up as i continue my reading.

I suppose i may as well pose my thoughts/questions in chronological order instead of the ones that're freshest in my mind. :) As always let me know if you catch any typos or things that don't make sense or whatever.

First off, regarding the temptation of Christ:
I've always found it intriguing that immediately following the Father's approval speech of Jesus after he gets dunked by San Juan Bautista, Jesus is lead into the desert by the Holy Spirit and is tempted (to be tempted?) by Satan.

(Luke says here, "full of the Holy Spirit, [Jesus] returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil." Matthew, "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." and John Mark, "At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.)

Anyway, this is not my point, just some interesting things that i observed. What came out of it this time that was new for me is what follows. There are three temptations that the Accuser puts Jesus through (i'll just go with the Luke passages):

-The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'

-The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

-The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. For it is written:

" 'He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"

Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

First, Satan uses prospective relief from hunger to tempt Jesus, to convince Him to use His power to fix a temporary need and forgo discipline. This is best understood from the context of the passage Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy*, which ends "...but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD" and mirrors Jesus' temptation very well: Jesus ate nothing in the desert for 40 days, the Israelites were in the desert for 40 years for God to humble and test them and know what was in their hearts.

Next, Satan uses the allure of power to tempt Jesus, to exchange a false god for the True, Living God; The Amen. I AM. (This false god could take the form of Power, Adultery, Envy, Money, etc.) This one is a little more self-explanatory than Jesus' previous response, though the Deuteronomy context comes with a promise this time** (and it ain't pretty). More proof that the God of the Torah/Hebrew Scriptures IS the God of the Christian New Testament.

Finally, Satan uses...suicide? Scripture? (Satan quotes the Psalms twice) testing?...to tempt Jesus. Perhaps the answer lies in a deeper context than the Deuteronomy passage Jesus quotes this time***. In the Deuteronomy passage Massah--meaning "testing"--is referenced. It refers to a story in the Book of Exodus just after the exodus from Egypt when the Israelites are thirsty and demand water. At first glance it seems that this story has more in common with temptation number one, but upon closer examination we find that what the Israelites are really doing is testing whether not God is with them, not simply looking for relief from thirst (though that, too). "And he called the place Massah [testing] and Meribah [quarreling] because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, 'Is the LORD among us or not?'"

I guess my real question here is not so much what the temptation is (which, it seems, is somewhat clear upon examining the back story), but rather how does that work itself out for us when we are tempted today?

If the temptation is to question whether or not God exists, whether or not He is present in our lives and still does miracles, whether or not he ever existed, whether or not he is He, whether or not He exists as the Triune God, and other possible "whether or not"s; if all or any of these is the temptation, how is that temptation--or if it gives way to sin--manifest? When we ask God to suddenly fix our broken relationships? For him to cure our desire to own a home by immediately giving us a house? When we wish things would have been better with that one girl? If we ask God for a plush job and expect that if He doesn't give us one immediately that He can't be real? If we pray for someone who is injured to be miraculously cured? If we wish that our love interests didn't come from different physical and emotional backgrounds than us and we only had a common desire to live in the same physical place on this earth? If we know God is calling us but are too scared to respond because of what other people might think? If we continue in our bad habits we know are wrong but fail to change because, hey, the afterlife probably isn't real anyway? Or if we throw ourselves off a building and say "God will save me!"?

What do ye think?



I have another less serious (and probably much less wordy) question about booze, Jesus' teaching on the Sabbath, Old vs. New Testament etc. which will have to wait until tomorrow or so because it is after 2am!












*"Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that people do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you."

**"Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.

***"Do not put the LORD your God to the test as you did at Massah."

****"The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, 'Give us water to drink.' Moses replied, 'Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?' But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, 'Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" Then Moses cried out to the LORD, 'What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.' The LORD answered Moses, 'Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.' So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah [testing] and Meribah [quarreling] because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, 'Is the LORD among us or not?'"

family field trip to the internet part deux

new max bike speed! 36.9mph! (no breaking speed limits this time tho :( )

the santa anas are here -- "don't blow away!!"

So long, Insomnia...

...i've found a map to buried treasure.

Funny Bathroom Story

So we are at Aqui* Mexican restaurant in Campbell (* i know, no accent on the "i", unfortunately) and i need to use the restroom. I go in and i'm waiting in line and there's a dude in the stall trying to get his daughter to use the toilet so they can leave. She's bouncing off the walls on the opposite end of the stall (i know this because i can HEAR her) and he's saying "Come on sweetie, there are people waiting!"

Well, he gets her to finally sit down and once she's finally atop her throne she states (very exclamatorily), "YOU ARE A BRUSSEL SPROUT!"
dad (totally deadpan): "Yes I am. Always have been!"
daughter: "YES. YOU. ARE."





...it was awesome! Just imagine!
the end.

Chaos

chaos

words fail me, but i need a prayer, and while this* doesn't describe me 100% right now, there are certainly some powerful words i need! (Plus a shoutout to good ol' Mike Howerton, author of Miles to Cross, one of my favorites.)

*(see link above)

Some slightly random Isaiah quotes (from Ch. 5)

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.

Pétanque

I don't know how i came across this idea, but i must have been reading something which referenced pétanque. Anyway, i wasn't sure what it was, but once i did a little research on the internets i realized that i actually DID know, but just didn't know it was called that. My first encounter with the game was in Barcelona, my very first time there before I knew Ivan, Pijus, Al, Carlos, and wasn't really familiar with the city and its architecture, cool places to go, etc. etc.

Another name the game goes by is Boules/Bowls (though this may be a slightly different game, or the name for the family of games played with steel balls and a jack), and I also realize that it's similar to Bocce Ball, which i have played, but i'm not exactly clear on the differences between the sports. I think it's cool that both are related to ancient games played during the Roman Empire.

Senario I:

Julius Caesar: "A fine toss, Brutus!"
Brutus: "Et tu, Caesar!"
Other Competing Senators: "We are lost!" *whisperwhisperwhisperwhisper whisperwhisperwhisperwhisper whisperwhisperwhisperwhisper "We really should get rid of that guy!" whisperwhisper whisperwhisper whisperwhisperwhisperwhisper.*

Senario II:

The Accuser vs. Theophilus, last game of the match

Jesus: "Theophilus! If you just have faith the size of a jack, you can say to your opponent's ball, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea!' and it will be done for you. Believe in God, and nothing will be impossible for you!"*


Lastly, i found this video on the web, and it is an interesting mix of pétanque Frenchiness (note: rock/pop musique en français) and the Portland scene. It also paints a portrait of boules being a compatriot of lawn bowling, another example of an interesting, low-physical activity, probably largely underrated sport. Maybe this is just further evidence that i am an old soul.




*On a related note, my buddy Dillon gave me a shirt for Christmas which says "Jesus Saves" on it with a picture of Jesus as a hockey goalie saving a puck from going into the net! Look for its debut in a county near you.

"When I was your age, television was called BOOKS!"

One book I am currently reading--though it's slow going because of other stuff going on and other things i'm reading etc. etc.--is called Der Kleine Grenzverkehr. (AC's translation = The Border-hopping Shenanigans). This speedy Buchlein has had an interesting run, seeing as how i acquired it, didn't read it but it somehow managed to make it to Wisconsin and back. Anyway, i received it in the mail several months ago and i've been wanting to read it, but as with most books i want to read, it just sat there for a while. It's true: if you never actually pick up the book you want to read and start reading it, it will never get read. I know, amazing!

Anyway, i am still not finished, but i like it and it transports me to another time and place in a very strange way. Also i showed "The Motorcycle Diaries" & "Goodbye Lenin" to close out a few of my classes for the semester and some ideas and quotes from those have been sticking with me. One in particular from "TMD" was something to the effect of Che feeling nostalgia for a culture/society he never knew (i.e. the Inca as he & Ernesto arrive at Machu Picchu). This book makes me feel like that, partially because of the drawings in it, which i just want to dive into and walk around it. But really, it's only half true, because most/part of the story takes place in Salzburg, a place and culture i have known, only not in that time nor capacity.

P.S. Whoever can tell me from whence the title quote comes from (no using the internets!) wins a gold star and large hug. Whoever is too curious to wait and uses the internets only wins .123 of a gold star and an icy side hug.

P.P.S. Kirsten has been looking over my shoulder for most of this post which makes for some very *weird* writing... i am not sure if it affects me & my thought process, but i am a bit nervous about making grammatical errors... teh heh?

X marks the kiss

My grandma sent me a magazine clipping a while ago which contained various bits of random information. "Just So You Know..." it was titled, and one in particular caught my attention. Many a friend & relative signs their correspondence with and X or O; e.g. xxoo, or XOXOX, etc.

According to the article, "In the Middle Ages, when many people were unable to read or write, documents were often signed using an X. ["Make your mark!"] Kissing the X represented an oath to fulfill obligations specified in the document. The X and the kiss eventually became synonymous."

Kixxes!

dad & i

dad & i at zee '9ers game! Also: '9ers & NY Jets today, apparently. I only know this because i will be at a football party.

End of Country Road

The Last Strip of Bacon

i took it out of the fridge
fried it
saved it in the fridge for today
and...

...mmmmmmmmmmmm!

a penny found is a penny earned

Today i found a penny in the alleyway behind the school. This is the 3rd or fourth one and i'm gettin' lightheaded from the wealth!

Ho ho ho.

OC, China

Orange County, China

Time Warp!