Advent Aegis

In the old days the church ordered it's life around the events of the gospels, the events of Christ's life. Some still do. One key time is the time of advent: the time we anticipate the coming of Christ, the incarnation of God in a little baby.

To remember Advent Melody and I will be contributing brief devotions to a another blog called Advent Aegis. In the old days (of our time at First Southern Magnet Cove) we contributed to a print version that Shane and Diane put together. This was still his doing, only we're going a bit digital this time as they're in Slovakia. Amy Sickle, another former FSBC Magnet Cover, will round out our team. So check it out and read along with us through the lectionary texts as we remember and anticipate what comes next.

Also you can navigate there by clicking the link to the right.

Hay Ride

The much anticipated (at least by me) hay ride took place on Saturday. Some folks in our church have this amazing farm on the river. Every year they host a hay ride. Here is our gracious hostess, who made very good chicken and dumplings. Belle is the dog. Eleanor was so happy to play with Belle, but Belle wasn't so sure.

We went on a hay ride last year too, but Eleanor enjoyed this one much more (she slept through most of it last year). When we first got on the trailer, Eleanor carefully examined the boards and saw a crack wide enough to see the ground. She was still examining it when we started moving. She was much suprised and excited to go and was happy for most of the ride.

These are pictures of people riding on hay.



In other news, Eleanor slept over 13 hours last night and did not act as my alarm clock (as is her habit) this morning causing me to almost miss a breakfast appointment. She has learned to bark like a seal, hiss like a snake, and moo like a cow. Today she tried to cut her own toenails.

And last, but not least, we have a shameless plug for Eleanor's cuteness brought to you by EPR Team (Eleanor's Public Relations Team, that is).

iBook Rehabilitation Unit: iFixit

A few weeks back, Melody's aunt, B, suffered a great loss: her hard drive on her G3 iBook failed. B is a writer by proffession and she has been using her iBook nigh daily since 2001. It was only a matter of time. Fortunately for a nominal fee she was able to salvage most of the data. However it was time to upgrade and she soon had a shiny new 13in. Intel Core Duo Powered MacBook with which to ply her trade.

Since we suffered a similar loss earlier in the year and had our hard drive replaced, I asked what was to become of the old G3 iBook. B replied that she supposed she would bring it to me to see what I could do with it. I had entertained notions of doing the hard drive replacement myself but when I waded into the internet walk-through tutorials for it I discovered that the hard drives in this generation of Mac laptops are not very easy to get to. So I payed CompUSA to do it for me. But now I had the chance to test my nerdish mettle. I was resolved. I would replace this hard drive myself.

I'll not bore you with all the tedious details but a few photos taken over the four hours it took to get it taken apart enough to get to the drive, replace the drive and put it all back together again. I couldn't have done it without the exceptional guide from iFixit.



I find it somewhat strange how much this sort of thing appeals to me. I suppose it's a sort of puzzle. I think it has more to do with the clearly defined goals and outcomes. The problems I deal with at work are anything but clearly defined. I think it's therapeutic to really fix something and know what you've done.






Voila! Two working iBooks. B's computer begins new life as a dedicated, portable music machine. Believe it or not this is the abbreviated pictorial version. For the full 4 hour process check out my Yahoo! Photos ablum in a few days.



And Eleanor is still cute. This morning she went over and pulled the Yoda hat from the shelf and had me put it on her. A cute and darling baby she is. Maybe she can use the laptop for college.

Everybody Poops

Eleanor has begun her gentle journey into using the potty. So far she has used her new little potty for a holder of books, a diaper, various toys, and finally pee and poop. Our first day of toilet learning went something like this (only in English):



If the video doesn't work for you on our site, you can click here to see it.

A Challenge from Tig

Here's a pic to grab your attention. I was Lincoln at the Hospital Halloween Web-Design Nerd Party. It was very "The Office".

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So I have this nurse friend. She's got a blog and she's thrown the guantlett down with this challenge:

"Here are the rules:1. Grab the nearest book.2. Open the book to page 123.3. Find the fifth sentence.4. Post the text of the next four sentences on your blog, along with these instructions.5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest!"

So here goes. I had to pass up the bible and a collection of kids poetry (the bible because that would just be too chaplainy and the poetry book because it hadn't 123 pages). So I admit this happens to be the last book I finished and one of my favorites from this year, and granted a little (pseudo-)intellectual sounding, but it literally was closest to match the description.

David Dark, The Gospel According to America: A Meditation on a God-Blessed, Christ-Haunted Idea.

"I hasten to add that there is probably a place for both and I'll try to describe the difference with a story of a viewing experience. There is a moving scene in "Patch Adams" (1998) in which Robin Williams's Hunter "Patch" Adams, a medical practitioner, has painstakingly arranged a dream come true for an elderly woman whose confinement to hospitals has, in recen years, obstructed her pursuit of happiness. She has long dreamt of swimming in a pool of noodles, "Patch" discovers, and as I sat in the dark theatre watching teh slow-motion sequence in which she finally has her fantasy fulfilled, I turned to my wife with tears in my eyes and said, "I hate this movie.

"Please understand, I didn't begrudge the woman her moment or wish that the tale (based on a true story) had never been told, but there was something in teh sequencing that felt a little like an insult, a way of cuing sentiment, and a pressing of certain heart buttons that had me feeling a little tricked."

Boy does Mr. Dark use his sentences. So there, consider the guantlett thrown down upon your blogs' toes.

Visits

We've had quote a few visits this month that you, our loyal readership, have missed out on. We'd like to share them with you.


First, we visited our alma mater for homecoming which, with the exception of a delightful conversation with Dr. Mr. Wink, was pretty dull I have to say. Still we had a bit of Chick-fillet on the grass for old times sake. It's considerably less relaxing with babies.


Next came a visit from our newest favorite cat who we don't own named "monkey." However we named him "Mittens," since he seems to have four white mittens. He's very amiable, kitteny and Eleanor delights in him. Sometimes he comes to visit, sitting in our 2nd story windows quite unexpectedly, much to Eleanor's surprise, and ours.


Not long after that we were visited by a strange trio from a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away.


Cousin Jack came to play for a few brief but intense sessions. Eleanor really wanted into Jack's pillow fortress and once she finally made it in, Jack didn't want her to leave. I don't know if Jack ever grasped what we meant when we said, "Don't run Jack, the Chiropracter is downstairs." I can image any number of things such words might inspire in the mind of a five year old, none of them scarier than an actual chiropracter.



Then a man with very long hair and a beard came to visit. No, it wasn't Jesus. It was Josh. He and Molly and Cedar came to stay overnight and the babies had a blast reading "brownbear brownbear." You never know how someone is going to voice the various animals. I think that the way one reads the voice of the teacher is particularly telling about their personality, background and social stability.


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Soon, the fanx arrived and it was maximum baby action for a little over an hour.


We've all been enjoying Eleanor's new orange hoody. I thought she should eat an orange while wearing it for extra points. It just so happens that after a couple of visits with Mamaw Jones, we have several winter oranges which Eleanor loves. Despite all appearances below, the kid ate over half of the orange in the space of about five minutes.