First Photo of 2011

Yes, he made it! So did the rest of us. Not just staying awake (that was accomplished with some help from the Who Year's Marathon). Made it all the way to 2011--by the grace of almighty God (or by the almighty grace of God).

:-)

Family Members' New Year's Resolutions

1. Gain 10 pounds

2. Explore job opportunities utilizing newfound skill of imitating a lava lamp

3. Delegate (yard work)

4. Move to Great Britain (or England, or UK or whatever) and become the Doctor's next companion

5. Redecorate the dining room in steakhouse/grocery store kitsch

6. Shop for land in Barbados

7. Continue the search for the world's creepiest mannequin

8. Memorize a poem (not necessarily a long one) about an animal of some kind

9-11. [Intentionally left blank]

Happy New Year!

The Image of the Beast

We searched eagerly through the bowl of popcorn for the image of Jesus, but all we found was this bunny. If only we hadn't been so hungry...

Holy Ground, This?

So, there probably weren't pigs (especially these) in Bethlehem...

Cattle (lowing?)...
It was here, with the goats, that we really began to notice that this was a stable. For me, it was when I noticed the strings on the hem of my son's garmet dragging in the muck.
Don't step there, little one...

Just thinking a little bit about holy ground and stables.

A while back I was thinking about messy (forced into it, actually). I wasn't very happy about it then, and I was reminded of it the other day, this day that we went to the zoo, when things seemed messy for a while. I was reminded that messy has somehow become Holy ground. It was a song that reminded me. I'll copy the words at the end.

The song reminded me of Moses and a bush. Moses out herding his father-in-law's sheep (what's with God and shepherds? A lot I guess), sees a bush that's burning, but not burning up. It turns out God is there--"take off your shoes, Moses!" I wonder what the ground actually looked like that he was standing on--it was sheep territory, Moses' life was pretty messy, The Israelites' were in a mess--Slavery, crushed in spirit, all that.

The song and the season (last time this particular song turned up in my world, it was snowing) reminded me also of this baby, born in a stable, in an overcrowded town. I didn't want my son, wearing shoes, standing in that stuff (remember those photos at the beginning?) in a well-maintained and uncrowded zoo barnyard. Born there? No thank you. Was I watching where I stepped? Yes! But Jesus, He went there. He, not regarding equality with God a thing to be grasped, humbled himself. Took on messy. The messiest.

Holy Ground, this.

Be still, for the presence of the Lord,

the Holy One is here.

Come, bow before Him now,

with reverence and fear.

In Him no sin is found,

we stand on holy ground.

Be still, for the presence of the Lord,

the Holy One is here.

Be still, for the glory of the Lord,

is shining all around.

He burns with holy fire,

with splendor He is crowned.

How awesome is the sight,

our radiant King of Light!

Be still, for the glory of the Lord,

is shining all around.

Be still, for the power of the Lord,

is moving in this place.

He comes to cleanse and heal,

to minister His grace.

No work too hard for Him,

in faith receive from Him.

Be still, for the power of the Lord,

is moving in this place.

"Be Still For the Presence of the Lord"

words and music by David Evans (1957-)

Sibling Silhouettes

Getting ready for Christmas

Serving Dinner Danjo Style

Just to be clear, Danjo dragged the kitchen table outside, set it, and grilled t-bone steak for dinner so we could enjoy the fall colors.

As Mary Poppins would say...

...once you've heeded the wise and experienced advice of your elders, and knocked out the knockout...

"...with any job that must be done

(and sometimes, replacing the garbage disposal must be done),

there is an element of fun..."

"I AM that Waste King!"

(and that's some mighty fine plumber's putty if I do say so myself"

"Something is lurking under the sink"

Can you hand me the wrench?

and some hand sanitizer?

and a nail file?

The Affair of the Brussels Sprouts

Danjo really loves Brussels Sprouts. I don't, and since I do most of the cooking, he mostly does without. Every once in a while though, some happy coincidence occurs, wherein I find brussels sprouts sold like this at Trader Joe's:

And I also find an interesting recipe in Cooking Light's Christmas edition, and decide I want to try it. So when the cool stalk of brussels sprouts became available, I bought it. Aside from a bit of confusion about pancetta vs. prosciutto, the preparation of this dish was kind of fun. The brussels sprouts are kind of cute, as long as you aren't thinking of eating them. Boiling them made them turn bright green, and dunking them in ice water afterward made them stay that way. They are photogenic, don't you think, in spite of their inedibility?

The dunking in ice water was followed by slicing in half lengthwise and baking in the oven, and a few other steps. If you want the recipe, I'll loan you the magazine.

The dish was a moderate success. Danjo pronounced them cooked to perfect doneness, but was not entirely satisfied with the Cooking "Light" recipe, and added much butter. They looked good enough to try and I did try a bite, followed by fudge to get the taste out of my mouth. I'll stick to the cooking and photographing part, and leave the eating to those who can appreciate them.

Enjoying the changes of autumn (here, it is autumn, this year). These two images were taken a month apart, of the same plant (well, not the same same plant, but you know what I mean). It amazes me that this plant is beautiful both times and yet looks completely different.

Before:

After:

This handful of leaves all fell from the same tree. All there at the same time, and yet look completely different, and beautiful.

I posted some photos I took today

(of the tree these leaves fell from, and they didn't fall far from it).

The photos that I just mentioned, that I posted--

I posted them

HERE

Young Adventurer trying a new sport

While we were waiting for the other Adventurer's cross country meet to start, Young Adventurer tried out the long jump.

Adventurer Two had to run through the sand of the long jump area as part of the cross country course, and didn't like it so much.

Aliens

Here's the article

and here's the excerpt:

But there are San Diego proponents of extraterrestrial life who think that NASA may be way behind the curve on the subject of alien life forms.

“I have been contacted by advanced people from other planets, I’ve been taken out of my body, and I have been taken aboard starships myself," says Daniel Smith. "I’ve interacted with [aliens.] Basically, they’re just like you and me, the ones I met.”

Smith, 64, lives near Mesa College and works as a certified personal physical fitness trainer. He is also a published author. His book Roots of the Earth Man was published in 1981. “It’s a true story about a former lifetime I lived 156,000 years ago on this planet when everyone was aboriginal and a starship or space ship crash landed and I happened to be the one who witnessed it and went to investigate,” he says.

Smith was not surprised to learn of the research team’s findings and he says that their intentions are good. “However, there are certain people in NASA who do know the truth, just like in our government," he says. "There are people who know the truth about extra-terrestrials and have actually had contact with them and they don’t want the rest of us to know.” Smith respects that there may be some resistance to his ideas, but says it’s preferable to keep an open mind.

Best of all, he says not to worry: “At this time, from what I’ve researched, there are no hostile extra-terrestrials on our planet.”

no HOSTILE extra-terrestrials, eh? That's because The Doctor is doing his job. Look for the blue box, friends.

Important stuff about cars!

Having completed my photography final project, I can move on to something else. Something informative and useful.

(the alternator looks relatively new on this vehicle. It is on the "already" list.

The starter, however, falls under the "not yet" category, if I'm not mistaken,

which I very well could be.

I've been mistaken more often than usual of late.)

Note how the alternator and starter look relatively similar but are located in different places in the vehicle. Observe that it's better to have to replace the alternator, if the ground around you is not both clean and comfortable, as reaching the starter will involve lying on the ground. This I recall from the campground on the edge of Nebraska in 1992, and it is confirmed by this project.

Note to Honda Minivan owners: After some investigation, it has been determined that the Odyssey starts and continues running with a magic key and possibly pixie dust. A "careful" search under the hood (and yes, I can open the hood of my van all by myself) revealed neither alternator or starter anywhere to be found. If I could find them, they would be magic anyway.

Thanks to Danjo for pointing out where the alternator is on the vette (which is cool), and "affirming" that my Odyssey is not cool but magic.

News

News from the gas station trees:

We have autumn here after all!! For Christmas!

and

News from my hometown

It's probably best to stay away from there for a while,

and someone tell the Large Hadron Collider people that they may be too late with the black hole.

Adventures from a cell phone

In no particular order...

Burger King is burning down, burning down, burning down... (except there were no flames. Whatever.)

Never Say Never!Uh...Never.

Never.

Eat, or be eaten.

New mantra..."you'll do fine. You'll do fine. You'll do fine..."

Friend who can call geese, although they dared not linger.

Just Dance

Or draw.

I like these. A lot.

I'm glad my son found a spare umbrella in the car and wanted to play with it while we waited at violin lessons. I'm also glad I had my camera in the car.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

How Things Work

[There's pentagons in my bokeh! (because the aperture is formed by the diaphragm which is composed of [so I've learned] five overlapping leaves and for some crazy reason, when light passes through it, somehow [but how?? Something is missing here] pentagons are made in the highlights in the unfocused areas)]

Leaves. And Pentagons.

it's a little-known fact that I took two plant biology classes on my way to a degree in economics. I loved the first one, and took the second without the highly recommended prerequisites because I just couldn't get enough of plant biology. These little diagrams of the cross-sections of leaves make me smile almost as much as the leaves themselves. As the chlorophyll degrades, it becomes colorless, and then you can see all the yellows and oranges, which were there all along. The reds and purples are made separately and appear at certain times in the tree's development...