passionless

for quite a while we weren't sure if we wanted to see it or not, but we finally decided to go see The Passion this afternoon. but it was sold out. apparently a church group or something bought it all up. duh.

so we ended up at the Hunter museum, just in time for the last hour of Jeff Morton's exhibit. the nice lady at the counter pointed out they have a 2-for-1 coupon, so we both got in for $5. we enjoyed our quick trip through american art.

I was expecting more stuff from Jeff, but we really liked what we saw. granted, we would have had little idea what he was trying to get at if it wasn't for the paragraph pinned to the wall. but still, it's very cool stuff. somehow it's made even cooler by the fact that we hung out a bit this morning when he came to get his (super smart and cute) kid from sunday school.

my favorite stuff in the museum was the photography, and my favorite photograph was "running white deer" by Paul Caponigro. maybe I prefer photographs b/c I like to do a bit of photography myself, or at least I did for a while. maybe it's b/c it tends to be more straitforward? I often feel like I don't "get" art, but that doesnt bother me much anymore.

spring is coming!

We are so excited that spring is on the way. Soon after I gave up hope seeing any real snowfall this winter, I was ready for flowers and warm afternoons. Here's our first arrival: a daffodil I planted along the front walk. I'm still captivated by daffodils and irises especially.

In other news, Michelle and the baby had another checkup, and all is quite well. We'll hear results for the bloodtests soon, but all the signs are good so far. It hardly seems real. Michelle has begun nesting, as she's making a quilt and other baby room stuff. She's quite a seamstress. We're still worried about her back being strong enough to have a good pregnancy and delivery, but the fibro meds are slowly working, and the chiro reports that it's getting better. We just need to trust God that He'll take care of us.

He's certainly taking care of our financial needs. I've had a few side jobs lately, and all of them have come and found me. I hate sales, so it's a blessing not to have to pursue work. These aren't lucrative jobs, but it helps pay the bills, and especially the credit cards. We're praying that we'll pay off the MasterCard soon (which would take a miracle) but meanwhile we're loving the 0% interest!

Andy, Lynn and Gideon stopped by last night. Gid is so freakin cute I can hardly stand it. I can only hope our kid is half as cute and cool as he is. They're going to NY for the summer for an internship with IBM (I think). Apparently Andy's going to start a blog over on atlblogs, so be on the lookout.

obsessions

this is a working list of stuff on which I have been fixated at one time or another:

mandolin
homestarrunner.com
literary theory
legos
bela fleck / victor wooten
midtown madness 2
nickel creek / chris thile
bass guitar
wolfenstein
michelle
fish / fishing
coffee
john 15
email
photography
baby

manna of the month

the BLT is Michelle's manna of the month. we've been through a couple so far on this pregnancy adventure. all she could eat at first was oatmeal, then that gave way to puffed rice, and fried eggs were in there for a while too (although they are definitely out of favor now). egg salad is good for lunches these days, and oatmeal made a big comeback recently, and that's still high on the menu. the latest greatest is the BLT. the fact that she's eating more protein as well as some veggies makes me happy.

her sickness is slowly getting better, and it's high time for the nausea to be done. hopefully soon. the standard battery of blood tests will be administered this week, and we'll (hopefully) find out the boy/girlness in 3 weeks.

blogland weirdness

there's some strange things going on around blogland. if I go to bob.chattablogs.com or chattablogs.com/bob then I can see my new entries. but if I go to www.chattablogs.com/bob it's only yesterday's stuff. and something happened to my comments thingy too?

JQ, rescue us!

no vomit

today was a milestone: Michelle didnt throw up this morning! do we dare hope that she'll make it all day without tossing her cookies? actually she doesnt toss cookies: she usually tosses only stomach acid, and she never eats cookies anyway due to her hypoglycemia.

anyway I'm praying that the nausea will abate so she'll eat something besides oatmeal and bagels (jeannette, if you're out there, she's sucessfully made excellent bagels; email her for the recipe).

dog in a sweater

This is our dog Katie and the sweater that Michelle knit for her. Hard to believe that we've had her almost 2 years. She has us so wrapped around her little paw that I actually think she looks adorable in it. A few more pictures are here and elsewhere on our family website.

You should see it when she gets stuck in it, and when she works the stuck leg out it's off her shoulder (and then she gets called "toga pup"). Not nearly as funny as the one time she got her front legs out of the little leg holes, and somehow worked it so her back legs went through the holes, so she was dragging it around behind her like a diaper. Hilarious. We need to get out more I guess.

Yet very few visitors can resist her charms. Trippy is about the only one, but then again he thinks just about all animals are a waste of resources. Katie, however, is a constant source of entertainment and fun. She has no idea that she's a fru-fru dog. We'll see how she reacts to being 2nd fiddle when the kiddo comes around.

passion

in case you haven't seen it, the newsweek article about "the passion" is worth a read. the author takes a mostly secular historical criticism kinda stance, but is generally balanced within his viewpoint. if that makes sense.

I'm wondering if there will be a sequel? according to the article, the resurrection is briefly depicted at the end of the movie, so that answers the biggest question I had. even still, the time after the crucifixion to the resurrection and ascention would make for a fine film too.

I've been praying that the film and the reaction to it will spark a real revival. I think that we'll "look upon the one we have pierced" and we'll never be the same. our culture is so visual, I believe it's gonna make an impact like little else can, especially considering how film is the art of the people, or something like that. I bet the antisemitism accusations will fall away like the foolishness they are.

I'm surpised how little our chattablogging community has discussed this. we'll see what happens.

for the record

according to the "disc" personality survey I just took, this is my personality, with the highest scoring traits first:

Supportive (empathetic, patient, even-paced / complacent, compromising, afraid to confront)
Reserved (modest, quiet, practical / distant, curt, pessimistic )
Adaptive (pliable, conforming, tactful / passive, avoiding, sensitive)
and I'm also somewhat Conscientious, but not very much.

and for the record, once again the disc assessment nailed me. clearly, I'm not a man's man. but that's ok. I think.

babies everywhere

I guess it's that time of life. a few years ago, it was weddings all the time. now everyone's having kids (including us, in case you havent been paying attention).

kirk and rhonda shore (who happen to live next door) just had a boy. so did josh and linda (of infradig fame). jeff and heather are about to have a girl (I think), and bethann green is great with her and jay's 3rd child. mike and emily (mccambell) sloan are about to have their first (a girl), and ben and laini are due about the same time we are, and so are amy and joseph. there's been about 10 kids born in our (small) church within the last 12 months or so, and it looks like this year will be about the same.

we're so thankful to be part of this not-so-elete group. anyone else?

calling xml/rss/mt/asp experts

thanks to JQ for the big brotheresque move of adding the comments thingy to my index page. people, it's frightening the power that he wields. be very afraid.

so here's my next request to the blog masters:

I want to display some of my category archives on my family website, which is hosted on a windoze server (iis 5.0). I've come to understand that I can do this with the RSS and XML stuff, but I havent been able to figure out how. do I need to parse the XML myself, or is there some (asp) code out there that I can use?

it's the little things

back when I signed on here at 3HD, there were lots of cool little perks. most all of them went away in the lean years, but as I was thankful for having a job at all then, I didn't complain. well now we got one cool perk again: free carmike movie tickets! in the past we simply had discount tickets, but now they're on the house (4 a month). sometimes it's the little things that keep me happy. well a paycheck helps too. and health benefits are nice.

in other 3HD news, some of our prayers have been answered and we've landed a rather large job with a carpet company in Dalton. basically we're doing something similar to what we did for mannington a few years ago. very cool.

scot and kim

we hung out with scot and kim last night. so very good to spend time catching up. they're 90something percent ready to hit the mission field, so they're very excited.

their boys are so cute and energetic. Bryan does everything his big brother does. Ian is still way into trains. he's got a deviant streak in him: he was caught putting soap on his little brother's toothbrush. I had to walk away b/c I thought this was too funny. poetic justice: he was made to use the soapy toothbrush. I think he didnt mind.

they are so close to leaving for the mission field. I highly recommend that you financially support their ministry (they're going through MTW). let me know if you want more details, as they are going to a somewhat "sensitive" area, as they say.

it is such a blessing to talk with them as they constantly point us to Jesus and His grace. it's been a long windy road for them, but they trust God and His timing. they are the most giving and caring people I know, and I've learned so much about living in grace just by getting to know them better. and I know they would say that all glory goes to God for this.

they asked us to pray that they would raise their kids in grace. other things to pray for include: for the remaining financial support they need and the possibility that MTW would adjust their salary requirements so they could go sooner; for their new team leader and the team that is being assembled; for the kids, that they would have friends where they're going and adjust well; for the hearts of the people that they will be living with and serving.

we're so excited that their lifelong dream is about to be realized, but we'll miss them terribly. they hope to be there by springtime. pray that the Lord will continue to work in and through them.

revival, anyone?

on the subject of "The Passion," this from a rabbi:

"...the faith of millions of Christians will become more fervent as Passion uplifts and inspires them. Passion will propel vast numbers of unreligious Americans to embrace Christianity. The movie will one day be seen as a harbinger of America's third great religious reawakening."

shall we pray that this comes true?

you know things are changing when...

you get excited about strollers. we're happy to have found one that seems to suit our needs -- lightweight, not too expensive, full recline, infant carrier adapter, stylish, and good for tall parents: the Combi Savona (in Techno Grey...so very cool). the world of strollers is a daunting one, so we're glad to have come out alive, thanks mostly to this book: Baby Bargains. If you're expecting a kid and don't have unlimited funds, you NEED this book. OK this is the part where I try to wrap it up with something half-heartedly witty. Or not.

cheesy love songs

Since I'm 90something percent sure she doesnt read my blog very often, I think it's safe to share what I'm putting on the love song CD I'm making for Michelle, in case anyone needs any inspiration for V day.

"Michelle" Beatles
"Come What May" Moulin Rouge Soundtrack
"You're The Inspiration" Chicago
"How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" James Taylor
"More Love" by Dixie Chicks
"Your Song" by Moulin Rouge Soundtrack
"Trust " by Sixpence None The Richer
"The Luckiest" by Ben Folds
"Just The Way You Are" by Billy Joel
"Dangerous" by David Wilcox
"All I Want Is You" by U2
"You Are My Sunshine" by O Brother, Where Art Thou?
"Forever My Beloved" by Julie Miller
"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" by The Police
"Brown Eyed Girl " by Van Morrison
"Let's Get Started on Doing all those Awesome Things I Suggested" by Strong Bad
"Having My Baby" Paul Anka

I'm rather fortunate to have a network MP3 drive here at work, as I wouldnt have access to most of these songs otherwise. I only had to download the last one off the web, and it (and the penultimate) is something of a joke.

Any ideas for next time?

happy birthday

to Michelle! my lover, my best friend, my beautiful wife. 27 years of blessings.

"Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all."

work

things are looking up here at work.

the coolest news for me is that I'm somewhat of an award-winner. we entered five different things in the Chattanooga Addys this year, and we won 4, two for which I did all the programming: cbslawfirm.com and mytennisstore.com. (the other two were rockcreek.com and a print piece for CB&S). we don't yet know if we've won "silver" or "gold" awards (or perhaps "judge's choice"), but I'm pretty excited either way. kudos especially to Ben Horner, who designed all that stuff (and the awards are almost exclusively for the design).

In other work news, since the aforementioned Ben has left for Europe, we hired another great designer. Many more good things to come from 3HD in the design department. Matt is the brother of Mark, who works here, and who also happens to go to church with most of us.

and we're finally getting the hang of the new programming stuff (which is microsoft asp.net for anyone who might care). Ed is a programming genius, and I do my best to keep up. I even went to a local .net meeting at provident last night. a whole roomful of geeks. I learned a little, but I was mostly there for the pizza and doorprizes. last month Ed won some nice software (that went straight to eBay for $150). this time I won a deck of microsoft playing cards. hooray. now I can play solitare w/o the computer.

heartbeat

We heard our kid's heartbeat for the first time on Friday. It took a little while for the good doctor to get the microphone thingy pointing in the right direction, but once he did, we could clearly hear the swish-swish-swish at about 160 beats per minute. So all is going well and everything is proceding normally as we approach 15 weeks.

But Michelle is still throwing up everyday. She was hoping to be done with the sickness by now, but you can pretty much count on it every morning and sometimes late at night or even the middle of the night. The good news is that she's allowed to be back on her fibromyalgia medicine, so that should stem the tide of her aches and pains and she should be able to get out and excercise soon.

We've recently realized that we're not taking our fears and concerns to Jesus as we ought. We've let ourselves get distracted from prayer and fellowship, but God once again has brought us back to Himself with forgiveness and healing. We pray that He'll make us faithful more and more.

organ for sale

if you know anyone who wants one, I'm selling one of my organs. really.

states details

see the previous entry for the map. in no particular order, here are the highlights for each state:

NJ: born there, raised til age 3, lots of family still there
FL: raised there age 3-18
VT: summer home away from home, honeymoon location
GA: went to college there 1995-1999. lots of friends and flights in and out of atlanta
TN: live there 1999-present
NC: parents live there 1995-present
PA: wife born and mostly raised there
KY: sister lives there 2002-present
TX: sister lived there. spent a christmas there
MO: in-laws live there 1995-present
AL: college roommate's home state. a few good visits.
SC: fall break with another college roommate
VA: many many I-81 travels. honeymoon stopovers
WV: highschool missions trip
OH: bought our car from a nice couple there
IN: visited college friend for a weekend
MI: cousin's wedding, niagra falls visit
NY: many visits, including NYC for spring break, Cooperstown long ago
DE: aunt-in-laws beach house
IL, MS, LA, MD, NH: various drive thrus

while we're on the subject:
just went to the Bahamas with the family for a brief vacation
went to Scotland for spring break senior year
went to chile and mexico for 2 different HS missions trips

and there you have the best of travels with Bob

good movie, good beer

good movie - Cold Comfort Farm - wry, smart, brit, funny. and strange.

good beer - Morimoto Hazelnut - thanks for bringing this fine brew to the partay, Jeannette (not Diber Jones).

states and such

here's mine:

create your own visited states map

but I have a question: am I allowed to include states I've simply driven through? louisianna, for example, I doubt I even stopped there for gas on the way to/from texas.

in other news, we had a good partay last night, and it only marginally involved a certain football game. the usual alias crowd and a few more, and we did tex-mex food, which was so utterly yummy. plus good beer, birthday cake and ice cream: what else does one need?