Boring Thursday's Randomness

- I think we should start taking the security words some comments require and start making definitions for them. So what should "bloreb" mean?

- I'm envious of some people's fantastic ability to write. Most recently, it's L. 'Ailina Laranang.

- I was reading through Dale Carnegie's "Golden Book" and he lists only one thing as the "Perfect Way to Conquer Worry." Prayer.

- What!?! Someone just turned in a new order?!! Yippee! So what if it's going to take all of 4 hours to finish.

- Holy moly it's slow at work...

- I've signed up for the Dale Carnegie: Effective Communications and Human Relations course. 3.5 hours every Monday evening for 12 weeks and the classroom is an hour and a half away....reminds me of college...stupid commutes.

- Raw almonds aren't nearly as good as I remember them to be. I think they may have been roasted last time.

- I like Arizona Iced Tea. And it's 23 ounces are cheaper than Pepsi's 16 ounces.

- I really hope I will not have to lay anyone off this spring. That extended homebuyer tax credit better help!!

Misses - Friday 5

1. What’s something you frequently misplace?:

Whatever book I happen to be reading at the time. Although I'm fairly certain I'm responsible for only about half of the supposed 'misplacements'. I mean, why would I put it in the pantry...?

2. For whom are you often mistaken?:

Someone who cares.... Just kidding, but I can't recall ever being mistaken for someone else.

3. When were you last misinformed about something important?:

Dangit. The first thing that popped into my head would have been a real bummer to y'all. (I never say y'all in real life...) And since I don't really want to go there...I'll leave this one alone. Can't recall anything else at the moment.

4. Where in your home do you have a seemingly random collection of miscellanea?:

I myself am fairly organized and like things in their place...eventually. But since I'm not the only one living in my house, apparently any flat surface will do.

5. Upon meeting someone for the first time, what qualities in the other person are likely to cause you to misjudge him or her?:

Whether or not they're quiet. For the most part, I think talkative people don't hide much but when I meet someone who doesn't say much right away, sometimes I'm surprised at what they have to say when they get around to it.

Thanks to Tara for getting this going!

Trimming the blog fat

Some of you may have noticed the little reference off to the right about my other blog. (Probably gone now...) It was intended to be specifically focused on my spiritual life, so as not to lose some of you that may not be interested in that. The thing is...everything I'm discovering has already been written about. Many times. And written much better than I would ever be able to.

So this might be a kind of failure, but so what? I'm probably just discovering that God doesn't really need another author or preacher. Imagine that.

I am kind of curious about my 'calling' though. I believe followers of Christ are asked to do things for Him. Specific things. Right now my calling probably has everything to do with my wife and our poor marriage situation. Even if the calling is just to 'hang in there.' If I look to myself or my wife in this situation, I really can't see any hope. Yes, even to myself. As a human, having been hurt so personally for so long, I can't muster up any love. I can't even fake affection. But I think God is telling me to hang in there and be open for Him to work through me towards her. He is my hope and that's all I need. It's all I have.

And God is working through me. I still try to do things. I've been asking her how she is, even though I fully expect some crappy response back. I offer to do things for her fully expecting her to refuse or argue about it. I've learned that I just can't expect anything else.

Except for one instance....and this'll blow your mind. I gave her some cash for her to get a prescription filled. It was for pain medicine to take while she passes the last 2 of her 3 kidney stones. She bought soda and snacks with it. I fully expected her to get her pain medicine. And I told her so.

It absolutely blew me away.

So these things keep happening. And escalating. It continues to be a test of my patience. I can honestly say I didn't get angry, but that incredulity popped it's ugly head up and I got pretty sarcastic.

Just venting... please ignore.

Anyhoo. So long other blog. (Don't worry, it only had one post in it...)

Taking stock for 2010

It's the beginning of a new year, so let's take stock...

- All 3 girls are fairly healthy. A couple have a cough right now but no major health issues. Add that to the 'good' side of the scale.

- I'm healthy too. My metabolism sure isn't as robust as it used to be, but hey, I'm 30, not 20 anymore. One more for good.

- I have a good job. A job I enjoy. We're not terribly busy, but things are looking up. Another for 'good'.

- I live in Wyoming. Not necessarily 'good', but it's pretty 'gud'.

- After putting gas in my wife's behemoth, I have all of $12 in the bank until Monday. It's only up from here! Good.

- Probably the best good thing of all; God continues to work on me. He's blessed me immensely in handling situations that would have made me pretty angry before. Anymore I'm usually incredulous and at the best of times, just perplexed. Good. (but could be better)

- I've met a few very godly and uplifting men that I know God is using to break me down and remake me. I certainly wouldn't be the man I am today without their help. Good.

- I still struggle with things. Personal things I won't share here, but the frequency at which those things show up is greatly reduced. Another blessing from God. Good.

- The marriage is still crummy. She continues to do unhealthy things to get my attention, according to her. (I think we're not in gradeschool anymore...?) But she did quit her job and should be able to go to church with us now. Mostly bad, but maybe I'll just leave the bad parts off the table...

- I began the year in prayer. (It was a very short prayer as I'm surprised I even stayed up that late.) Good.

So what's the score?

I spent last night by myself. Even though my girls and wife were downstairs. My wife came up to me earlier in the night and asked if I was happy with our lack of affection. If there is such a thing as 'super incredulous', I was it. I didn't get angry but it blew me away that she expected me to be affectionate with her. It really has nothing to do with whether or not I'm happy with our current situation, I'm not, but what does she expect when she admittedly pushes my buttons? So my response was a blast of perplexity. If you don't know what that sounds like, it's pretty much a "HA!".

So needless to say, my thoughts about that particular encounter are kind of overwhelming right now. I see all the great and good things that God has blessed me with and thank Him for them. I also see the trial that God has given me in regards to my marriage. Without that trial, I'm sure I wouldn't have grown as I have this year.

So what's the score?

It's all good.

Found this gem of a blog post. It's a series of pictures taken for Glacier Park Magazine. Lots of gorgeous wildlife and scenic photos.

I really hope to get some of my debt taken care of so I can take my girls to places like this in the next couple of years. I have family in the Galatin Valley area in Montana which is about 8 hours south of Glacier National Park. My parents tell me I've been there before but apparently I was too young to remember it. Which means I could have been there anytime from birth to about 8 years old...

Another place I hope to go back to soon...one that I remember...is Monterey, CA. And make sure we're there on farmer's market night. There's a guy that sells a basket full of very fresh fried calamari for something like $3 with a good tartar sauce.






Image 'borrowed' from here.
























Then there's the Monterey Bay Aquarium which my girls have to go to sometime before they're 10. You can check out some grainy webcams. At one point they had a truly awesome exhibit of deep water jellyfish that all had some sort of bioluminescent pattern on them. And a lot of them had a moving 'light show'. It really was very cool to see but I don't think they have that exhibit any more. That's one of those things that I don't think I'll ever forget and am so glad I got to see.

Here is a picture of the Lone Cyprus tree on the Monetery Peninsula. You can see the stone wall they built around the roots to keep it from falling.





































A few times during my adolescence, my parents rented a house in Cayucos, which is about 3 hours south of Monterey. One time we had a house right on the beach, which was awesome, and the other times were in houses up on the hill overlooking the ocean.

Now that we're 1,300 miles inland it's a little pricier to make the trip than the 2 hour drive I was used to. But it certainly makes you appreciate it more.

Christmas Parade randomness

- Well, I had hopes that the cell phone pictures of my kids in the Christmas Parade would turn out better than they did. They weren't even worth posting. A good digital point-n-shoot is pretty high up on my Christmas list. As cheap as they've become, dSLR is still out of my price range. I used cnet's digital camera finder and now have 125 options to sort through...yippee! Although going through it a little, I think there's only 10-15 models, they just list every different model number, even if the only difference is the color. It looks like the only brands on their list is Nikon, Canon, Casio, and Panasonic. Any recommendations?

- It was cold at the parade. In the teens, I think. All my girls were on the church float and my littlest was the only one that didn't complain. Wish I was still so fascinated with life and new experiences that I wouldn't even notice incredibly painful toes.

- Praise the Lord, work is actually doing ok. Can't say so for our corporate office though. They've done 24% of what we have in November. That's just scary. We've actually done better in November than October and ours is a very seasonal industry.

- Home life isn't doing ok. My puny little mind is having a really hard time processing this stuff. I just can't imagine someone saying they want to save their marriage and then lie about where they ended up sleeping on Friday night. I just don't get it. Hopefully she'll be willing to meet with a professional counselor by herself soon. I've pretty much set that as an ultimatum. And the first few sessions are free so she has no argument against going...I guess we'll see. Patience is a virtuistic pain in the ass.

- She's not being spiteful or mean or anything like that. It just seems like she's unwilling to be honest with me. Me, being the external optimist (no, I didn't spell it wrong), still has hope that she'll come to some sort of realization that what she has now is worth fighting for...and then decide to fight for it in a productive manner.

- My bonus is going to show up on December 18th. That'll give me 5 whole days for Christmas shopping. 4 more than I need or even usually take! Woohoo!

G's 7th Birthday!

My eldest turned 7 yesterday. Had a pretty low-key party where she got a new sweatshirt and a new bike! Didn't get a picture of the bike, but she sure liked the butterfly cake her mom made for her.


And a couple pictures of the other two...for good measure.