follow-up

Man, that's a hard post to follow! I'm sure that tonight's post should be equally meaningful and insightful. Instead, all I can think of is "pomplemoose". It's so fun to say! Technically pomplamoose or pamplemousse depending on if you mean the indie rock duo or the french word for grapefruit. Or my way if all you want is a delightful word. Today I was trying and trying to remember it, fruitlessly (hee hee). Possibly the best thing about it is that I have been saying it for a long time with no ideas what (if anything) it meant. Like "mokachogi!" Great to say, no idea if it means anything. (Zero results in google, closest match is mochi, another awesome word, but one I know the meaning of since I ate some in Hawaii around the same time I ate some musubi - incidentally also fun to say). So there you go. My follow up to my wife's beautiful post is a series of mostly-words that I love to blurt out randomly or use as pet names for my daughters. The dichotomy in these posts actually illustrates a fair amount about our marriage (am I going to get in trouble for that? Or the overuse of parens in this post? Tune in next time to find out!)

The Gift of Eve

It has been nearly two years, but I still remember distinctly a series of nights when I lay awake deep in the night thinking about the new life growing inside me, wondering how I was going to manage two children when I sometimes felt I could barely manage one. I was miserable, uncomfortable, and the nausea had begun. I was on a beautiful Hawaiian vacation, and all I could think about was how the smell of sand made me want to vomit.* There was also a part of me that was afraid something was wrong, and even though I have pretty much come to accept that just about any weird symptom qualifies as “normal” for pregnancy, I couldn’t escape my worry.

I lay awake feeling worried and afraid and alone and a little pathetic.

I don’t remember how the thought came to me, but I began to think of Eve. I imagined her beginning her life in the Garden of Eden, without a worry or a pain. I imagined her cast from the Garden of Eden, learning to take care of the animals and the fields. I imagined her experiencing her first period, getting pregnant, going into labor, giving birth. Who could she have relied on to tell her what was normal, what to expect? What little she knew I imagine she must have learned from taking care of the sheep or the rabbits or the goats.

And which of those animals could have given her any idea of how long her own pregnancy would last? Which could have explained to her that the nasty, metallic taste she got in her mouth was, indeed, completely normal? Or her sudden aversion to lilacs? Who would comfort her that millions of women had done this before her (no one had) and that—despite how it feels—everyone does go into labor eventually? No one is pregnant forever.

She must have been courageous. Any fear or doubt she may have felt—for that matter, simply all the questions she couldn’t possibly have answers to yet—she overcame them all. With her husband to attend her,** she went through it all. Periods, pregnancy, labor, healing, nursing, raising children, and doing it all over again.

Lying in bed, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for all I had. Starting, quite frankly, with knowing what was going on, why I was feeling so horrible. Sudden, terrible disease? (I imagine Eve briefly wondering this.) Nope; little test I took says I’m pregnant. How long? Longer than sheep (who are pregnant four to five months—imagine how overdue you would feel at nine!). Along with such basic knowledge, I had healthcare providers like (later) my wonderful midwife Susan and birth attendant Lori, who had much knowledge and skill. I had their shiny, technologically advanced instruments in case of unlikely complications. I had the comfort of a warm home, a furnace, a good hot water heater for that really long shower during labor. I had the internet so that every time I felt a new weird symptom, I could join the rest of the world in wondering if a sore throat was an early sign of pregnancy (yes), and I could research it ad nauseam.

I was surrounded by information and support and help, but I felt scared and alone. Eve, on the other hand, despite having only one man there to help her, knew she wasn’t alone. She knew she would have God’s help.

Eve began her life in the Garden of Eden. She knew what it was to have no pain, no hunger, no struggle. And then she left that Garden to bear children and to bless the earth with her seed. At first glance, I would think, “Wow, I bet she missed Eden (especially during hour #16 of labor).” I think we often believe the state in the Garden was better, nicer, happier. And yet, do you know what she testified?

And Eve, [Adam’s] wife … was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.

And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters. (Moses 5:11–12)

She knew them both. She knew the Garden and she knew mortality. And she preferred mortality. She blessed God for giving it to her. And in doing so, she blessed all of us.

Eve’s gift is more than just the life she gave her posterity. Eve’s gift is the joy she found in doing so. It is her example of courage in the face of the unknown. It is a testimony that, even when life is hard (and it so often is), mortality is a gift so great that she rejoiced in it and praised God.

This knowledge—well, it doesn’t solve everything. It doesn’t suddenly make it easier to find the patience to tell the same story for the seventeenth time that day or clean up another spill. It isn’t always easy to remember that these things are blessings, not curses. But in quiet moments, I think the gift of Eve can give us the strength to journey forward.

*And really, in Hawaii you can’t escape the smell of sand. Even after we returned, it took me what felt like weeks to finally do all the laundry from our trip because every time I looked at the suitcase or opened it, I felt sick to my stomach again.

Yes, I realize this picture is now over a year old. But just
humor my need to once again show off her adorable newborn-ness
(and also my need to finally start posting pictures again occasionally).

**I imagine that he did an excellent job, but I’m sure he must have also had his worries; it is one thing to help birth a sheep and quite another to help birth your own child.

paradise

With her newly short again hair, J said she would put some product in it tonight so she could see what it looks like tomorrow. I'm hoping for a pompadour or maybe some -awesome- magnificent bird of paradise plumage. She mentions that I probably won't get to see it since I've been heading to work at an "everything's still very dark and you'd better not interruptt the best part of your wife's sleep with anything pesky like light" sort of hour.

Geek alert: when do you know you're a geek? When typing plumage makes you think - "neat, a plutonium mage! High DPS with long-lasting poison effects." Man, you really are a geek - what kind of crazy person thinks something like that?

attack!

Bloggie bloggie! Maybe it's a new friend! didn't buy anything online for cyber-Monday (mostly b/c I had already gotten J her presents. What are they? Present-type presents! Helped Bro Gregory move his stuff into a storage unit tonight. B4 that, made dinner while J got her hair cut - it's cute! And drew some cute pictures with C after she was done pretending to be Mulan and training hitting pillows with her bamboo stick (handle for a butterfly catcher). It was cute when she asked me if I wanted her to train me - yes, I want you to train me. She says: Rule 1, no hitting people. Rule 2: no hitting furniture. Now Bend your legs. She demonstrates by facing forward with her legs apart and bent deeply. Then she says "Hiiiiii" "Yah" as she jumps and spins and hits a pillow with her staff/spear. Or pokes it out. Or spins it around. Whoa! She actually did some pretty good moves! I was honored to learn from my little grasshopper.

road

A day for driving. West Virginia to Maryland, then to DC (temple trip), then back home. Then to the store. At least the kids got a nap on the first leg of the journey. Then getting ready for Sunday.
Speaking of driving, there are a lot of freeways and numbered highways. Today we drove on the: 522, 9, 70, 695, 648, 97, 100, 10, 95, and 495. Whew!

plum

Playing with foo is fun, but I'm plum tuckered out and I didn't even do anything today. Back home tomorrow.

nom nom nom

Tgiving was delicious! We're at Aunt Dawn's house and Aunt Marneen and her kids are here too, so C and A had someone to play with, which has been. delight for them. I helped with prep work all morning (well, after I slept in that is). Then some of Dawn's friends came over, we ate and did thankfuls, then played some.

fun

Fun is playing underwater friendly shark, bubblesn and practice kicking with the daughters at the pool. Fun is staying at home a few minutes extra before leaving for work to play a round of Candyland. Fun is snuggling up to read dinosaur versus bedtime or other silly books. Fun is having A hold two paper plates (or many other objects). She gives me one, I take it. She switches the other one to her empty hand and I pass back my plate. Repeat many many times to see the delighted smile on her face.

Fun is also eating ice cream to celebrate big round numbers! Despite challenges, life is pretty fun (not all the time, but enough of the time).

endurance

Endurance is being able to cry with your whole tiny body for great lengths of time fighting going to sleep, all the while twisting, arching, and pushing against everything in sight. Tonight I found myself praying to be nice to her and love her even though she was so loudly and agitadedly sad. I think it worked : )
I guess endurance is also being able to outlast that bundle of unhappiness (thanks Heavenly Father!)

tgiving

Happy early thanksgiving! I'm thankful for giggles. C and A got shots yday, so they were a bit grumpy today (mild fevers, tired). So tonight A fought going to bed more than normal. This would often make me grumpy, but tonight part of our delay was great. We have a very nice tulip lamp (nice = cute, not expensive). Well, we spent probably 5 minutes just waving to the lamp and making happy noises. I would say hi and she would giggle or do her happy snake-baby hiss or some other noise. Her giggles were the best, because they make me laugh - completely involuntary I tell you. Very sweet, and a nice end to a very long day. Later she got sad after glimpsing her mom, but not getting to go to her. Waily waily sad. Tried everything, no luck. Prayed, tried some more. So then - hmm, she's awake - I'll check the email I got on my phone. She got distracted. Then she stopped crying. Then I gave her an old nonfunctioning phone to hold (the kids are never satisfied with toy phones). She flipped it open and close, open and close. She settled down. Her eyes we're closed and she was resting on my arm and still - open and close. Oh, and trying to rub her tired eyes or now-snuffly nose with it. Doesn't work so well. Finally she went to rub her hair with it - another fave, and she lost her grip and kind of flung it away. Semi-flung? And she didn't get upset because she was asleep. Hooray! Hooray for a smartphone being an answer to prayer. Another 5 or 10 minutes and I was able to lay her down* and though she cried out a bit, she stayed asleep. Happy days. Or rather nights.

* head and/or arms touching or constrained by a pillow or an arm (still attached to its patient parent ofc). Feet must be able to strech to full extension without hitting anything. Get it right and it mostly works. Mess it up and you have to pick her up agaiin and wait for her to cycle to deeper sleep again. But hey, it works better than the alternatives.

library

I used to go to the library and go straight to the scifi section. Now I go straight to the kids section. I love picture books! Ever so many of them are clever or fun or silly. Some are lame, but you can often weed those out by their lame covers. I often take many of the books from the display of new books and check them out. Fun! Oh, and it provides lots of happy quality time reading to youngins. So now, even when I'm by myself, I'm most likely to be found in the children's section. Course those that know me know I'm comfiest with kids stuff half the time anyway, so I guess it's no surprise.

acrobats

Yesterday we went to see the PRC national acrobatic troupe and they were amazing! Here are some highlights:
- 5 foot 3 dude jumps through a hoop 10.5 feet off the ground. The rest of the act is a whole team doing twiaty dive flips through slightly shorter hoops.
- umbrella juggling - with her feet only! You try holding 2 umbrellas with your toes, flipping them over, and then catching them both at the same time - stll with your toes!
- guy bounce-jugling balls up and down steps and in cool patterns. Up to 9 balls - whoa! Plus, he had a cool mohawk and really worked the crowd.
- girls doing handstands on guys hands, bending in extra bendy ways, and being flipped through the air, all while holding red bowls with their toes. Best part is when the girl gets tossed ono the three guys standing on each other's shoulders and lands on the top dude's hands on her hands and then - he straightens up to full upward extension!
- PS - sorry for all the !s, but every act was phenomenal / mind-blowing, etc.
- guys spinning long elastic-y? ropes with weights on the end, hen throwing them up in the air doing flips and catching them then swapping ropes eith others while tumbling and bouncing the ropes off their feet, tricky
- swan lake with some cool bendiness anfd the girl toe stepping on the dude's outstretched or folded arms!
- followed by a comedy version of the same with two dudes (the one dressed as a girl wearing huge fake-fat padding)
- another comedy act involving pretend inept knife juggling / throwing at a board. Then they get an audience member to come up, put a dark hood on him and run up and thonk the knife in next to him (instead of throwing it). He thinks they are throwing, audience knows better. Finishes witha fake long-range throw that pops a balloon between his legs.
- balancing while holding stacks of glass things and contorting and holding / being supported by another person.
- spinning plates while balancing, including one girl holding up three girls on a platform on her shoulders, all while all of them are spinning plates
- bicycle act, including 12 people on one bike and riding 6 bikes side by side in a circle with no hands (inside goes super slow, outside super fast)
- super-tall feathered hats girls juggling diablo balls on ropes
- two brothers doing cool balancing / strength demonstrations, including lifting the other guy so they are back to back, one guy upside down, shoulders on shoulders, no support from hands
- the guy way up in the air doing a series of ever higher pulling up to handstands, then even doing big swaying handstands on top of the 20 - 30 foot tower of skinny poles

All fun, bright colors, variety of music, etc. Definitely worth seeing. Plus, as a bonus, we got to eat delicious lunch at bombay bistro with an excellent indian buffet. Hit the spot for everyone (except C ofc)

Thanks to Dawn for watChing little A so we could go have so much fun!

recent

C's bday party (4 yrs) yday was at the bouncy place at the mall. She bounced, ran, played and generally had a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who came! Then pizza and playing at our house, then 3 of the 5 men present went to stake priesthood leadership meeting (excellent counsel about personal priesthood interviews). Today fun, phone calls from various people (thanks!), and playing w/ Aunt Dawn and a mini-party at Jim and Jean's. Now we're putting our very tired kidlets to bed. Then J has to write like crazy and we can collapse into bed.

Handbook 2 (TCoJCoLDS) church manual is excellent. We were recently assigned to review the last 2 world wide leadership trainings, which were all about it. I've been listening to them during commutes and finally finished today. So now I've been reading the first few chapters of the revised handbook and thinking that it is really good. If you have any ward council calling in the church, I highly recommend getting to know the whole thing.

Work continues to be extremely stressful with lots of varied responsibilities that only I can handle. But soon enough this round of contract stuff will have to be over and that will be a big weight off.

J is over 40K words now! Closing in on the finish - go wifey!

I've played a few rounds of league of legends recently and think it's pretty fun. Biggest bonus - it's completely free! Gotta love that! I also tried elder scrolls oblivion, but willl have to try it again with some decent mods and see if that improves it any. So far not as good as the other one.

Sushi buffet today was better than average. I go because the people I go with love it and are kind enough to invite me along.

Relatively chilly weather here recently, but it still surprises me the difference with UT, where winter definitely comes earlier. I used to thimk I was an all-seasons guy, but I think I'm probably better rated as just a 3-season item : ) maybe someday we'll live somewhere with even shoter, milder winters. Must come from my tropics heritage (place, not lineage, but still a shout out to my equatorial gentlefolk).

exhaustible

It turns out self control is an exhaustible resource. Ask people not to eat some cookies and they wonkt, but they will give up more easily on a later difficult task than someone who wasn't asked to resist. Today at work was fairly exhausting in self-control terms: systems failures, unexpected overtime work, urgent demands for immediate feedback, meetings, multiple phone calls that were interrupted by other phone calls, and major contract / financial drama. And unfortunately, I don't have anyone I can get help from on _any_ of these issues. So when I got home and C was throwing a temper tantrum about eating the delicious dinner that J had prepared (which C loves eating) I was very grateful that J responded calmly and with love. Although my reserves were nearly exhausted, her help and example gave me a boost so I could help our daughter get through her bedtime routine without any shouting or plopping her into her bed crying. So thank you my dear for being so wonderful!

millenial

Sunday I taught about the millenium at church, specifically how we can model our homes on characteristics of the millenium. There will be peace on earth, swords turned to plows. So in our homes we need to turn our areas of argument into shared strengths and fill our homes with peace. During the M, satan will be bound because of the righteousness of the people. We can erect protections in our houses by keeping negative influences out and having positive influences. Filters on computers, careful screening of music, movies and TV, pictures of religious subjects in each room, regular family scripture study and prayer and family nights. If we do that, the evil one will have minimal power to attack us at home - what a refuge! During the M, Christ will reign in righteousness over the government and the church. In our homes, we as parents can lead our children in love and righteousness. Not in anger or compulsionn but with gentle persuasion, firmness tempered by affection, and with a good example.

So yeah, I've got a lot to work on. Still, I do think that there are good things we can do to improve how our families function by taking a look at what goes on inside our four walls.

bleh

Stomach flu is no fun. Thanks J for taking such good care of me and our fam!

confusion

So I teach the 2nd and 3rd Sunday lessons for the Eldes quorum in church each month. Today I was just finishing up my lesson prep about the final judgement twe were going to act out the judgement) when I figured out that I was actually teaching about the millenium instead. I had looked at that lesson earlier in the week and thought I had already taught it. Turns out I had just read it a couple of times to get ready to teach. Oops. So I changed it up and figured out comparisons between aspects of millenial life and how we can bring rhat into our daily lives today. And next week I'll be extra ready for my lesson.

Shadow Government

We parents like to think that we’re in charge. We like to think that we run the show.

We are wrong.

Today we were pretending that I was the commander and Coriel was the assistant, first class. This actually turned into a very good way to get Coriel to help with the cleaning. I issued orders, Brice as second in command relayed them, and Coriel snapped to attention.

Addra was the only one without a title, and while we usually pretend that she’s our mascot, today I realized the truth.

We’re the figureheads. She’s the shadow government.

She lifts up her arms pathetically, we pick her up.

She squirms, we change her diaper.

She heads toward something dangerous, we distract her with shiny objects and toys.

She cries, we sing to her, dance with her, feed her, cater to her every whim (if only we can figure out what she wants!).*

Pretty much, she requires something, we snap to attention. I imagine it must be nice to be the power behind the throne.

*I suppose this makes her a shadow government with a very bad messenger service.

Coriel Goes Commando

There are apparently some great advantages to having a skinny nearly-four-year-old and a chubby one-year-old.

We were at the toy store the other day, just window shopping and having fun. Coriel was sitting on the floor pushing buttons on a toy laptop, and I was standing with Addra pushing more buttons. Suddenly I had a suspicion and looked over toward Coriel. She was still sitting, but now with a furtive expression on her face and her hand over her lap. And she looked up at me as innocently as she could.

Oh no, I thought.

“Did you have a pee out?” I asked, as calmly as I possibly could.

“Yes,” she said in her sweet little voice.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s clean it up.” And I helped her get up, trying not to sound grumpy (which I was) or panicked (which I also was).

See, I always carry diapers and wipes with me. And also a spare set of panties and pants for Coriel, even though we pretty much never need them anymore. But on this day, I had forgotten to restock my purse. All I had was a few diapers and wipes for Addra.

I looked at Coriel’s shirt. Too short to pass as a dress.

I looked through my purse again, hoping I’d magically find something. No luck.

The car was too far away to just run there and hope no one paid us any attention, and there was no children’s clothing in the store that I could quickly buy.

Well, one crisis at a time. We went in the bathroom, and I helped her peel off her wet panties and pants while holding Addra in my sling (best invention ever for these sorts of moments!). And crouching there in the bathroom, desperately wondering what to do, my eyes fell on Addra.

Addra was wearing pants. Coriel was not wearing pants. A solution appeared.

So I stripped off Addra’s pants, gave them to Coriel, and just let Addra hang out in only her onesie.

Of course, I had no extra panties for Coriel, soooo… well, you do the best you can.

Juggling Ninjas: An Excerpt

“Okay, I know this is going to sound completely crazy,” Sam said.

“Oh, I like it already.”

He grinned. “I thought you would. Sooo… there’s this weird performing group I just heard about. Apparently they’re like ninja jugglers sort of.”

I stared at him. “Are you serious? Ninja jugglers?”

“I know, right? The coolest thing ever?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“But wait, it gets better.”

“Are they juggling panda bears or something?”

“Nope. Fruit.”

“How exactly is that better?”

“Because they’re juggling fruit… and knives.”

“Yeah, but all jugglers juggle knives.”

“Yeah, but not all jugglers juggle knives and cut up the fruit that they’re juggling while they’re juggling it.”

“No way.”

“Yeah.”

“That is the best thing I have ever heard of. Where are they playing and how much do I have to pay to see them?”

“Wait wait, there’s more!”

“Are you going to throw in a set of ginsu knives for free?”

“No, but I am going to throw in free fruit smoothies as part of admission. Fruit smoothies made… by the juggling ninjas.”

“Oh please, oh please, oh please tell me that we’re going there. Tell me that you have tickets for me!”

“As a matter of fact, I think I do.”

“Sam, you are absolutely the best.”

Week #2 Finished

Well, the good news is that I’m at 34055 words. The bad news is that I’m exhausting the vast majority of the story’s plot and have already exhausted all of the stuff that’s easy to write. Now I’m trying to fill in gaps. Ugh.

The other news is that I’m now avoiding doing anymore novel writing today and have therefore decided to delight you with an excess of blogging and a brief excerpt of a random moment that may or may not make the final cut of the novel. Happy reading!  

jabberwok

Beware the jabberwok, the vorpal-balde, the frumious bandersnatch. They got Cs and Ds on Angie's list. They did shoddy work on parts of our roofing, so we'll be paying a different company a fair amount this week and next for repairs / replacement. Bleh. On the plus side, C had a great time typing the roofing sales guy's name on the compy, coming up with us to the attic (twice), and playing with his rolling measuring device (J liked trying it out too) and the LED flashlight. She rellay loves when people come over. Guess the apple rolled as far from its parental cave trolls as it could.

sad

Bah, I think we may all have mild seasonal affective disorder. It was a chilly, gray, drizzly day today and we were all pretty listless (compared to lots of cheeriness yesterday when we had nice weather). Or maybe all people just love the light. We ought to love folloWing and becoming full of light as well. If only it were as easy to notice our spiritual cloudy days as it is with the weather. Hmm, which makes me think about spiritual meteorology. Tell me how your prayer, scripture study, sabbath observance, family time, cleanliness, and tithing are going and I can probably predict your spiritual weather for quite some time.

day

Today I had 5 - 6 hours of meetings, mostly focused on a single fairly political topic (office politics, not the electoral kind. Still, it comes down to blaming people, gaining power, turf wars and money, so they're pretty similar. By the time all that was done and you add in the three phone conversations (work related, but still lengthy), I didn't feel like I got much real work done. Bleh.

J hit 25K words last night! Go wifey go! I'm so proud of you! That's halfway there!

hands

We have a super-sweet old couple living next door. I go over for a few minutes weeknights to help the cheerful but frail old lady lovingly hoist her husband frm his chair into his bed. Over the last year and a little bit he's gone from being able to walk with a walker with jus some help up from his wife and a bit of balance to needing more and more help (now with two people lifting) and being less and less able to move his feet to having to rearrange the furniture to get the bed really close to his chair to him no longer being able to use his walker at all. Now Jean and I just kind of pick him up, swivel him in place and sit him down on the bed. No steps required (or even possible). Getting out of the bed helps him avoid bed sores, so she dilligently gets him up into his chair each morning with the help of a different neighbor and back into bed each night with my help. On the weekends her daughter and son-in-law help. Coriel usually goes over with me to help and Jim loves to see her and Jean playing silly together (I love it too and am amazed at Jean's energy and cheer, since she's almost 90). She'll pick C up and give her a big old hug and smooch and doesn't mind when she gets barreled into at high speed for a collision-hug. She dances around to play ring around the rosy (regional variant - she says kitty-cat instead of ashes). She is constantly sending home treats for us (usually way more than we can eat or want our kid to consume, but she always insists and you don't dare say no because she is just so happy to be giving. And lots of the stuff is home-made (including ome really good rocky-road fudge and a variety of cakes). Did I mention she's frail? Mid last year she broke her arm trying to lift Jim up to his walker or perhaps try to jkeep him from falling, I don't recall. Anyway, it was after that that she started needing help since she couldn't lift much with that arm. Actually, she didn't know it was broken for a long time, she just used it less. Eventually a doctor x-rayed it and told her it had broken, but she was fortunate that it had healed pretty straight. But that arm still isn't very strong. But she never complains about it. In fact, her amazing cheerful soldiering on is one of he great blessings I get from going over there. And seeing Coriel helping jim get ready for us to help him and pretending that either her or me _is_ Jim and needs help walking - that's very heart-warming as well.

Tonight I helped clip his fingernails for probably the third or fourth time. His arthritis is getting worse, just like his diabetes symptoms are progressing. In this case it means that his left hand is permantly curled into a claw-like fist. He can use his thumb and index finger on that hand a little bit to grasp or hold small things or to push up his glasses. But his other three fingers are always pressed hard into the palm of his hand. It hurts and he cries out in anything tugs on those fingers. Which really makes it hard to get a fingernail clipper in place and to do a good job. Fortunately, the Lord has prepared me by giving me two small girls' fingernails to clip when they were squirming or clenching their fists or tring to claw me with their free hand. Jim doesn't do any of that except for clenching three fingers on one hand - so that's relatively easy : ) tonight we also worked on cleaning out the accumulated grime that accompanies the circumstances. It reminds me of Tiffany Aching, although more rewarding than she found it (partially due to differences in scale). Anyway, anytime I work on his nails, Jean insists on paying me well for having done it. She absolutely insists, even though I would happily do it for free (most of the time happily, sometimes a bit less, and I tend to have to wash my hands a few times after I'm done). I feel like what King Benjamin talked about - no sooner do you give service than the Lord immediately blesses you (and so does Jean : )). So although cleaning Jim's hands isn't pleasant (ok, it's actually yuck), I go over there and just want to be better. I hope that when I'm 90 my hands are as loving as Jean's hands are today.

unformatted

Last night I spent some time trying to write a haiku for the blog to capture my thoughts about _Life of Pi_ succinctly, but I kept having too much to put in there (which I guess is very American of me), but only a little too much which is why I kept trying. Plus, it's fun to try to put together a good haiku - a beautiful portrait of a small perfect moment, with the requisite 5-7-5, but also with a sense of balance and of completeness in each segment. My last one abt the girls sleeping got minus points on that front, although a decent effort overall. (Did I mention that very short form poems are really good when you write your posts with your thumbs?) Anyway, back to the book.

As J will tell you, I try hard not to read front or back matter on books (while she always reads it - go figure). This time I did read the author's note. I'm a writer, here's how I found this great story. So I read the story. Whoa! Double take on Richard Parker. 227 days! Boggle! Then as he degrades I figure it's just the hallucinations talking for a few of the chapters. But he's alive! Humans are full of power, resilience, determination. Brains > claws / fangs / bad luck / the elements and all that. And so I reach the end. And I have to ask, wait, is it real? *spoiler*

No. And I was sad. The story with animals in it is better. If I had known it was fiction I could have thoroughly enjoyed it. But thinking (foolishly perhaps) that it was another specific evidence of the spectacular awesomeness possible in us and finding out it wasn't made me feel a little less hope in the world. I want to believe. I love the happy ending or the triumphant rise up or the victory of the underdog. As I said to my fellow runners a few weeks back - "go humans!" I guess I just like to have things to balance out all the filth and gore and corruption and just plain meanness in the world. It's why I always like the "small and simple things" section of the Ensign. So to wrap up, it was good, I liked it, but I wish my expectations had been different going into it. And to think I was going to fit all of that into 17 syllables.

hai

Finally happy
Daughters are dreaming sweetly
In sleeping repose

Retrieving the Scriptures

I was finishing making dinner tonight in the kitchen when Coriel walked up to me. “Laban, may we please have the scriptures?” she asked.

Well, I didn’t know we were going to be playing this game, but I still knew my part. “Argh, no,” I said (generally speaking, my bad guy impressions sound like either pirates or dinosaurs). “And you better go away before I send my guards after you.”

She ran off and came back a minute or two later, holding some foam blocks in her hand.

“Laban, we will pay you for the scriptures.”

“Argh, no. I will take your money, and you better run away now!” I took her blocks and chased her away.

Well, I knew my next part, so I went into the living room to lie down and pretend to be drunk so Nephi-Coriel could slay me. (I used a small train track piece as my sword that I held as I slept in the streets.)

From down the hallway, I could hear Coriel and Brice talking together and something that sounded a little like praying. Then they came back into the living room to find me sprawled on the floor.

“Change of script,” Brice said. “We decided to pray, and Heavenly Father helped you be nice.”

“Oh, okay.”

I popped up off the floor, and Coriel asked me again for the scriptures.

“Well, can I have your Elmo toy?” I asked. She gave it to me, and I gave her a copy of this month’s Friend and Ensign magazines. “Here you go.”

She thanked me for them and went off to read with her daddy.

Sometimes Coriel’s sweetness is overwhelming. She often likes to change our stories so that the bad guys become good and helpful. So lovely.*

In other news, by the way, Addra is just starting to really walk a bit. Three or four steps in a row today. Fun!

*This post probably doesn’t make much sense if you haven’t read the Book of Mormon or my church’s magazines, the Friend and Ensign. Sorry!

Week #1 Finished

A quick update from me:

1. Brice is awesome. It’s been so fun for me to see his posts from his Blackberry as he snuggles our daughter to sleep. (And despite our lazy day, I still got my words in for today.)
2. Word count goal: 12500 words; actual count at present: 16923! So hooray, I’m ahead. But the worst is yet to come.
3. I have written up just about everything I originally outlined. Egad. That means I have much to fill in.
4. Something fun about typing as fast as you can without stopping: Occasionally I have word stutters, where my fingers get confused and type out waaay too many letters. But it’s just faster to keep typing through the stutter rather than try to go back and fix it. Two of my favorites so far: anytnhigagainst (“against”) and tentrusthsiastic (“enthusiastic”).
5. I love having a writing buddy. It makes a huge difference. Thanks, Meghan!
6. An adorable moment: Coriel chasing Addra around the room, both of them crawling and giggling. Love!
7. And now, back to work! (Or actually, in this case, back to bed. And hooray for an extra hour of sleep tonight.)

not a success

J's word count for today may end up being 0 : ( sorry darling!

Good things: brought her slippers when her feet were cold. Brought her a glazed donut from the people I helped move today. Ordered chinese food for us. Helped clean a bit.
Bad things: didn't give her time to write or work on her lesson. Let the dinner sitch get to the point of ordering in b/c I tried out a new video game (my first in quite a long time). Didn't do any of the other dozen things that needed doing today. Spent several hours doing online trainings for work, leaving her with the kids.

Summary: not a success

finished product

Ah, what a happy day. I pretty much took a break from a lot of my project management and administrivia duties today and actually worked on producing something. My management chain (one of at least 2 chains I answer to) has been talking about this report that they want for a while - just general, overview sorts of things that even a manager can understand. This division won't work on it. This other division has been working on something like it for a year now, but are way over-engineering it with no input from end users, so now managers have been saying - well, can we get some people from our team to work on it? So today I figured I'd work on it all by myself. So I worked and I worked. I used many of the things I've learned over the last 18 months in SQL and in playing with the data for the last (wow!) almost 7 years. And it worked. Even dealing with time format conversions worked. The queries are fast. The data makes sense, even for managers. I put all the output into an excel spreadsheet in a readable format. I ran 5 of the reports in quick succession. And there it was. A mostly finished product. Something where I added tangible value. Something that others had not been able to complete. Something that both I and others will use. It's been probably 9 months since I've been able to say that, so it feels pretty good. I usually work pretty hard at work each day, but it's all about trying to get other people to do things (with an endless list of people to nudge forward) or doing research on very hard problems where ther is no correct solution and finding even small answers requires luck or genius or both. So it was a small thing, but it was a pretty good way to end the week. And for once I actually look forward to going back to work so I can get feedback on my report and make it even beter. How weird is that?

bonus grr

I got curious about the next blog link up there at the top - where did it go, what does it do? Are the blogs next door friendly or scary or dusty or up-to-date. So I clicked "next blog" a few times. Fun! Diverting! But then - got to a blog with no "next blog" button. Grrr! I spit on your layout thecre8ive. Ptui!

Also, I have to side-track for a bit to talk about single vs. double quotes. When quoting a word or phrase, use double quotes - it's just that simple. Single quotes are for contractions and possesives. But woe is me. When I spend too much time writing SQL queries, I start using single quotes when I quote things. (straight quotes, not smart quotes since the smart quotes don't work. In Sqldeveloper you have to specify exact strings (aka quote things) using single quotes or things break). Oh how the somewhat proficient editor has fallen.

10 k

10000 words - go wifey go! Even though I haven't been giving her any time on her own to do the writing. Most impressive.

I work on a big software deployment. This week there were a lot of problems and I spent several long meetings explaining why the problems were not caused by my software, how the evidence did not point to or line up with the cause being my software, and how there was even evidence that it was not my software. But each day I had to explain again or to a different group of people all of the reasons why lots of things could be my fault but that I was pretty confident this wasn't one of them. Happily, it turns out it wasn't my fault after all. Hooray! Which still doesn't mean I won't get blamed the next time there's something going on : )

day 2

She's off to a strong start, ahead on wordcount. Go wifey!

A fell asleep on me football-carry style tonight. Maybe she's looking for more variety in her routine. Or maybe she's still sick (her cold is moving from head to chest.)

Last night I used her music / light projector as a lamp for reading. I had seen J do that (tilt the swivel head to point at the book). The problem is that it projects a slowly rotating scene of happy animals in vivid colors. Having that swirling, ever-changing, lurid spot of color overlaid on the words made it very headachy to read : ( fortunately, after a couple of minutes I figured out how to remove the scenery plate and then had some nice clean white light. I'm sure there's a gospel lesson in there about living by pure light instead of worldly, bright, unfulfilling light shows, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

J is at a primary presidency mtg tonight. She thinks it's ironic (read somewhat frustrating) that she has so much more than normal (almost nothing levels) going on this month when she's all worried about writing. I figure she's getting help w/ the writing specifically b/c she is doing her churchy stuff, rather than despite it.

friendly hostile takeover

Yep, so my wife is writing a novel this month. So I'm taking over kid duties _and_ blog posts. Which I'll be doing from my blackberry (work) while I hold A as she sleeps. Right now she's got a nose-bubbling, drippy, goopy-sneeze cold so she's breathing better upright. In fact, the last 2 nights she just couldn't seem to get comfy. Much screaming, back arching, rolling/inchworming around on her back ensued. Finally just after I'm done praying for help I get the idea to hold her face out. Which I never do when I'm putting her to sleep. Okie dokie though, so I try it and !miracle! She's out cold in 90 seconds. I love thart prayers get answered even when they're little.

PS "I'm sneaking up on your food!" (So cute when C did it that I just really have to say it once in a while.

PPS - PS normally means postscript or something that follows the normal text. But for me, postscript is one of the three big printer languages. Yes, because I'm a geek. Yes, because it's my job. Yes, because you automatically map acronyms to the usage you need most. FYI - the other main types are PCL5 and 6 and EMF. They each have their benefits, which I could go into, but we're already at way past the caring threshold for normal people.

PPPS I love my family!