Free Cone Day!

It's FREE Cone Day at Ben and Jerry's! I know where I'm going when I get home from work.

SawStop

I wish this was on the saw I'm using.

Mortal Peril?

The Cummings were kind enough to lend me their table saw. I'm planning on cutting a ton of masonite with it. I was going to start tonight but everyone and their dog seems to know a table saw horror story. Now my head is full of terrifying tales of severed digits and kicked back boards causing internal bleeding and death. Now I'm feeling a little nervous. So nervous that I even watched a couple table saw safety videos on Youtube. Unfortunately searching "table saw" on Youtube also brought up some pretty grisly results so I don't feel too much better.

More Bike Fun

DC is about to unveil its new bike sharing program called SmartBike. I believe it will start up next month and is similar to the Parisian program Velib. When I read about Velib it made me want to buy a ticket to Paris. I mean, Paris is dreamy enough and now you have the chance to pedal through the city? How can you beat that?

The nice thing about DC is it's not too far away. I like the idea of pedaling through the mall. You can get around much faster than walking, don't have to worry about parking and don't look nearly as dorky as those segway tourists. About 4 years ago I got to try it out, the biking Not the segwaying. Aaron met me at the airport and brought two bikes. We rode along the Potomac as the sun set, cut across the grassy lawn and admired the monuments among flickering fireflies. It was basically the most romantic night of my life. I think it might be fun to try to recreate the experience, maybe with a little help from SmartBike.

Today I rode my bike.

Today I rode my bike. Very fast. As soon as I got home from church. It is Sunday, and I don't usually ride my bike on Sunday, but I really needed to blow off some steam. If you don't know I work in the nursery at church. Currently the class has about 12-14 kids. I have had two "assistant's', read co-sufferers, who made the two hour stretch bearable and do-able.
When I came to sacrament meeting this morning I found out both of them had been released and NO ONE was called to fill their place. I felt like leaving and going back to bed, but instead I did my duty and walked into my packed nursery class to face a dozen crazy 2 year olds ALONE. Thankfully a friend was angelic enough to help me out and a sub was pulled in too, but it was not a happy Sunday. I had heard that they might release the help I had, but I told them they needed to be sure they called someone new first. Well, that didn't happen and I dread going back until I get some additional help.

War and Peace

I've started reading War and Peace and I'm really enjoying it so far. Tolstoy is becoming one of my favorite writers. One of the perks of liking Tolstoy is that when I really enjoy a book I find myself wishing it would never end. Tolstoy seems to have appreciated that sentiment as his books have a habit of going on and on. I can read 500 pages and know I have that much more ahead of me to enjoy.
Isn't this a great picture? I hope I can someday convince Aaron to grow a beard like that.

Broad Winged Hawk

It looks like spring has truly come to Charlottesville. It's gorgeous today. I was out walking this morning and I saw a fair sized bird fly over the law school. I noticed it was carrying something and as it came closer I realized it had a very long snake in it's talons. The bird flew directly over me with the snake still wriggling, trying to get away. The bird has these beautifully sharp black and white bands on its tail feathers and was lightly colored underneath so I'm pretty sure it was a broad winged hawk just like in this picture. It was amazing to see and I think I'll take it as a good omen as Aaron's last final season begins.

Impaired Judgement

Yesterday I left work with a budding migraine. By the time it got home I was in so much pain I could barely stand. I took the maximum recommended amount of pain killers for a six hour period and waited for the throbbing ache to ease. No luck. So then I thought, I need caffeine, what has caffeine around here?
Unfortunately in my compromised state all I could think of was our chocolate milk. So I downed about a half gallon of chocolate milk. The pain eased just enough for me to realize that there were much more efficient caffeine sources than chocolate milk. It entered into my foggy brain a slight recollection of the laundry room vending machine (which I see at least once a week). So I dragged myself to the laundry room and quickly downed three Mountain Dews. On my fourth my headache started to ease and I realized I had made a terrible mistake. Four Mountain Dews and a half gallon of chocolate milk mixed with a bunch of pain killers is BAD news. I had exchanged my crippling headache for a gastric disaster.
My mom told me that people that get migraines are more likely to commit suicide, mainly because they are willing to take large amounts of drugs in an attempt to control the pain. So I guess I'm lucky that the most dangerous substances at my disposal are chocolate milk and Mountain Dew. Thankfully they didn't kill me but I'm pretty sure they came close.

Farmer's Market

The Farmer's Market has started up again in Charlottesville. Aaron and I went bright and early Saturday morning and were lucky enough to snatch up the most beautiful potted strawberry plant. The plant is giant and gorgeous and if we manage not to kill it, it should provide strawberries all summer long. Mmmm.

Those Polygamist Mormons

With the crackdown on the FLDS sect in Texas there's been a lot of news articles about the polygamist "Mormons." I have appreciated the news programs that have made it clear that the Mormons most people know - the REAL Mormons, the LDS- are not the crazed, perverted fringe group that is currently making headlines.

The Washington Post recently ran an editorial defending the categorization of the FLDS group as Mormons. They argued that people should be called what they call themselves. There are flaws to this argument. The FLDS began as a small group of dissenters from the LDS church over a hundred years ago. They continue to claim to have authority for the restored church. Classifying the FLDS as Mormons allows this small group of dissenters the chance to speak authoritatively for the 12 million + LDS, who want nothing to do with them. If news organizations really want to follow this track, the Washington Post may want to stop referring to the terrorist fighters in Iraq as insurgents and began calling them the defenders of the country and the future government of Iraq.

The situation also makes me think of the Klu Klux Klan who enjoy identifying themselves primarily as Christians and "Christian Soldiers." As sick and ironic as it is, they see themselves as worshippers as Christ and grew up out of the Christian tradition (as seen with the their avid employment of the cross). How accurate would it be if news reporting took to identifying the Klan primarily as Christians? Don't you think other Christians might get a little annoyed? I, as a Christian, would be deeply angered, just as I, as a Mormon, am irritated by those who continue to try to define my religion by its radical exiles.

Wood Ducklings

I've heard from a few people that they don't think that wood ducks are exciting. This video might change your mind. Brave little animals.

Bird Time

Interested in contributing to science and learning more about birds? Check out Cornell's ornithology website here. You can watch and track bird nesting boxes, learn about bird species and see high-def videos of owls, chickadees, wood ducks and more, all from the comfort of your own home. The wood ducklings hopping out of the nest box are really fun to watch. They look like Mexican jumping beans. Hilarious.

Staples

Aaron and I are still working towards our $35 a week grocery budget. It was Aaron's week to do the grocery shopping so I helped him out, carefully made a cost appropriate list, wrote out the meals and he went to the store. When he got back he explained to me that he had kept to the budget AND bought ten lbs of hamburger meat and a box of cocoa. Meaning he spent 35 dollars and then spent some more on what he designated as "Staples." Apparently Aaron considers massive amounts of red meat to be a household staple. I explained to Aaron that spending 35 dollars and then MORE money means you did not keep the budget. I also attempted to explain what a staple really is, something like pasta or flour or rice. He said "But cocoa is a Staple! What would we eat if we didn't have any cocoa??" So next week I got seven bucks to spend on groceries.

Martin Luther King

I almost never contribute to Katy's blog, but I thought there were some things worth noting today. ~ Aaron

On this day in 1968, Martin Luther King was shot and killed by James Earl Ray while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel (pictured above) in Memphis. He was there to support a strike by the black sanitation workers. I was not alive then, but I think it's appropriate to honor the life of a remarkable man. Interestingly, King seemed prescient that he would not live to see his dream of racial equality fully realized. The day before he died, he delivered his famous "Mountaintop" speech. In its conclusion, he acknowledged some of the death threats he had received. But he said that he was not concerned. He was not worried.

"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!"

That would be his last speech.

link for full text and a recording of the speech


Interestingly, on the night of King's death, Robert F. Kennedy was running for President. He would be killed two months later by an assassin, but on the night of King's death, he was to speaking to a largely black audience in the racially divided city of Cleveland. The chief of police told him not to go out. That was not really bad advice as evidenced by nationwide riots after King's death. But RFK did go out and informed the crowd of King's death. And then he did something strange. He quoted Aeschylus. Now most Americans don't know who Aeschylus is (though I'm sure you recognize him as the Greek poet who wrote the Orestia trilogy). If his remarks were screened by consultants, I'm sure they would have begged him not to say what he did. A reference to Aeschylus is like rhetorical windsurfing--not gonna relate to your average American, let alone a crowd of poverty stricken people in Cleveland. But RFK shot from the hip. In that moment of grief, he said, let me share with you some lines from my favorite poet, Aeschylus.

Even in our own sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.

Bold. Profound. Beautiful. And a pure expression of feeling and grief. Politicians now could use such a dose of sincerity and eloquence as that expressed by King and RFK. And for the rest of us, we can remember that to be at our best, we need merely to be ourselves.

Article from Time by Joe Klein on RFK's speech and political sincerity

NPR story on RFK's speech

Watch Me Beating You

Aaron and I like to play knock out together. We played last night and got into a fight because Aaron kept claiming he won with shots that had very little evidence of existing. Aaron said I was too busy shooting and rebounding to see or hear them. Sound suspicious to anyone else??
After my protests, Aaron smugly declared that he would announce to me when he was delivering a winning shot. He began to declare before every shot "Watch me beating you." Then he would miss and as he ran after the ball he would yell "Watch.....me..(gasp)...beating .... you." (Miss) "This is it. Watch! This is me beating you." Remarkably, after he decided to declare his winning moments his lead got caught in half. Irritatingly, he still beat me by two points on our last game. So there'll be a rematch. Then Aaron can watch me beating him.

Mayonnaise Wars

I was rummaging through the fridge yesterday and I noticed that our mayonnaise jar has a use by date of 4/25/08. I know I bought that mayonnaise a year or more ago and it is still about a quarter full. But I’m not worried because it isn’t any old mayonnaise, it’s the best mayonnaise in the world: Dukes! And though I am the sole mayonnaise consumer in our household I know it won’t be any trouble to eat it all in less than 23 days because I LOVE mayonnaise. I love and eat it despite Aaron’s squeamish squeals of disgust every time I take it out of the fridge. Mayonnaise is food magic. It makes anything you put it in taste just that much better. It’s like bubba gump shrimp, you can use it to make MILLIONs of delicious dishes as the Duke’s Recipe Website can attest to (here). Salads, Cakes, casseroles, dressings, and more and more.

Aaron hates it and has even taken to quoting Ambrose Bierce’s definition: “mayonnaise: One of the sauces the French serve in place of a state religion."
Aaron has even taken to sending out inflammatory emails warning others against mayonnaise. I think he may be trying to make it an election issues. Here is an excerpt from one of his emails:
I think the common use of mayonnaise in America coincided with all of our social woes. It came to the U.S. in 1905. Undoubtedly it has sapped the strength of our religious convictions.

He’s attempting to recruit people to his cause. Thankfully, our good friend Brian Roberts, who is finishing up his PHD in English at UVA, recently announced that he may be willing to engage the subject academically and give mayonnaise the serious time and research it deserves. Here, without his permission, is his response:

Thanks, Aaron, for sending along this quote, which
really is a sort of missing link between the emergent
fields of literature & religion and literature &
foodways.

Once I finish my dissertation I may write an article,
"Sanctified Mayonnaise: A Glance at Transatlantic
Religious Literature via the Opaque Prism of
Emulsified Vegetable Oil and Egg Yolks."

For research purposes, hopefully I can get some
funding for Norma (another mayonnaise hater) to spend some time in France eating
Mayonnaise in a Cathedral, a sacrifice she just may
have to make for the good of my career.

The Year

With the trees beginning to flower, I like to think of Carl Sandburg's description of spring: A STORM of white petals, Buds throwing open baby fists Into hands of broad flowers. That line alternates with the song Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree.

Here's the rest of the poem:

The Year

I

A STORM of white petals,
Buds throwing open baby fists
Into hands of broad flowers.

II

Red roses running upward,
Clambering to the clutches of life
Soaked in crimson.

III

Rabbles of tattered leaves
Holding golden flimsy hopes
Against the tramplings
Into the pits and gullies.

IV

Hoarfrost and silence:
Only the muffling
Of winds dark and lonesome—
Great lullabies to the long sleepers.