district 7: who to vote for?

any good ideas who we should vote for? our top 2 choices are rico and peterson. both happen to live within a few blocks of us, so that's a plus. we've had a bit of interaction with rico, and he's a pleasant family man, but a conversation we had with him a few years ago revealed a closed mind towards recently immigrated hispanics (he's 2nd or 3rd generation himself). so we're not so sure about him, but on the plus side, he's a local small business owner, and I work for a local small business myself.

and then there's peterson. according to what I've read, he'd probably make a good councilman, but I'm dissappointed that he apparently hasnt returned any surveys put out by places like the chattanooga chamber. he's at least got a website, but he didnt bother to finish it. is this what I can expect from him as my representative? at least he's got a somewhat funny slogan.

seems like either would be less of a schmoozer than taylor (our outgoing councilman). any ideas who might be better?

better baby, sick wife

after a week of being stuffy and sniffy, Caleb seems to be getting better. but the bad news is that his mama's got the flu or something. please pray for her, and for me as I attempt to juggle working from home, baby care, wife care and general upkeep. I love being with the baby during the day, but I'm ready to hand him over at about 5. unfortunately I only have myself to hand him to right now.

he's learned to crank up his cries a few notches, so he's to a full-out scream these days, which is really grating (especially when Michelle is attempting to sleep in the next room). in other milestone news, he's pretty good at getting around by rolling over to get to his toys.

and now caleb will add something:

C6666666666F BB MJ ,Vv b77777uu -.[;/.

another blogger is born.

sunbeam

when I was a tyke, my mom would sing to me "Jesus wants you for a sunbeam" and I apparently loved it. so it seems that in this respect, Caleb is taking after me. here's a video clip from last weekend of my mom carrying on the tradition with her grandson: sunbeam video (1.3 MB)

and here's another clip from today of Caleb playing with and squeaking at his alphabet abacus toy: abacus video (1.8 MB)

he's still got a stuffy head, but thankfully he's handling it pretty well.

happy b-day huns

happy birthday to Michelle, my beautiful wife, best friend and lover. her first b-day as a mama too!

we were both glad that her b-day landed on a Saturday this year, as we had a great day together. her first gift came from Caleb, who slept in til 9:30, thus allowing us to sleep a while and get in a nice breakfast together too. during the day we started this year's gardening. Michelle is starting some seeds inside, and I planted some sugar peas and snow peas outside. in the evening we dropped the baby off at a friends house, and went to the Acropolis for a good dinner (but bad service) and the new Rave theatre to catch "In Good Company," which we both enjoyed.

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it was bound to happen sometime: Caleb has his first cold. it's actually quite minor, but he's got enough congestion in his head to keep him from sleeping and eating well. apparently eating and breathing from the same hole is an aquired skill. he's not doing too badly with it, but it definitely slows him down. the funny thing is he's actually quite happy today...like he doesnt even know that he's sick. now we're armed with saline drops and vapo-rub and a friend's humidifier, so hopefully he'll sleep better tonight. we both forgot the joys of late-night baby-tending, so last night made us that much more thankful for all the nights he has been sleeping.

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this morning we also exchanged our simple valentines and gifts (candy for me, fashion accessory for her). having a sick baby and exhausted wife makes me thankful for the gift of love that brings us together, even if it's a hard day. as we like to remind eachother: "we love because He first loved us"

caleb pics

Caleb is 6 months old already! I'll let his mama give the latest update.

I got what I wanted...now what?

I have long desired to have a family of my own. even in high school I just wanted to be able to settle down with someone, but all the "nice girls" were taken at the time. so I went off to college with marriage as my unspoken goal, and also hoping to discover my vocational "calling" or whatever you might call it. having thought a lot about the idea of calling, I havent come to many conclusions. so I think by default I decided my calling would be to have a family.

after tangling myself in a love-trapezoid for a while, I fell in love with Michelle and we married soon after college. marriage was and is entirely great. not that I consciously thought like it this way, but I checked "get a wife" off my list and turned my thoughts to "have kids." I wasnt antsy to have kids right away, but I knew that in good time that's what I wanted. and six months ago, God gave us a beautiful little boy, whom we love more and more. so now, after many years of quiet longing, I have a little family.

but not long ago, as we sat in church, I came to realize that my desires may not be quite right. I forget what the sermon was about, but I do remember that the baby was in the nursury, which makes it far easier to pay attention to things like God's word. but a thought came to me: LOTS of people have families and kids! shocking revelation, I know, but an inescapable reality in our church especially.

anyway, the thoughts went something like this: it's completely common to have a family, so if God has a particular calling for my life, why would it be to do what almost everyone does anyway? could there be something more for us? I'm sure that whatever it may be would include the family, and I remember Pastor Joe say something about God wanting us to make more God-lovers, but I thinking that I'm not here to just raise kids so they can raise kids, etc etc. or am I?

rodent's revenge

I've previously chronicled our battles with rodents under and (at times) in our house. we havent had any sightings recently, but we've heard their gnawing now and then, so I set out some more poison not long ago. in case you dont know, typical rat poison causes the beasts to be really really thirsty as it basically melts their insides, sending them to the end they deserve. usually they head for the sewer to die, or occassionally they'll end up in a bucket or something.

apparently one of our our local vermin was too lazy to head for the sewer, and not finding any other refreshment handy, it decided to chew through our 3/4" PVC water line. I made this discovery not long after hearing an unsettling rush under the house. it had chewed at the corner first 90 degree joint coming from the supply line and opened up just a small yet powerful spray. crap.

almost every time I decend into our "crawl space" I'm amazed that our house is still standing and relatively functional. the maze of PVC would be amusing if it wasnt so frighteningly jury-rigged. I dont claim that I would do it much better, but I think I would at least enlist the right help. ah the joys of an old house whose previous owners were slackers.

anyway, off to the hardware store for fresh PVC glue, and an hour or so later, everything is patched up. many thanks to Jeff Hall for teaching me how to do PVC work a few years ago.

my butt got entirely too cold from sitting in the muddy puddle, my back still twinges a bit from hunching over and hacksawing the old joint off, but it's back together and drying now. we'll see if it holds together when I turn the water back on.

properly celebrating a sunday

I had the honor of editing the student newspaper of covenant college, and with that weighty responsibility came the task of writing the bi-weekly editor's column. I hardly remember what any of these columns were about, but I do remember the old feeling of "I hate writing, but love having written." in any case, I'm sure I'd be embarrassed by most of them now. thankfully they werent online at the time.

anyway, here's a seasonal one I've kept around just for kicks. I dont think I'm very good at satire, but it was fun, and there's at least one or two lines I still enjoy. anyway, here's "Properly Celebrating a Sunday."

In these troubled times of fear and uncertainty, it is good to have leisurely outlets to remind us of what is important. In fact, I believe that we must stand up and finally recognize the value of such outlets, and I propose that we lobby our congressmen and women to include among our national holidays a day that would be celebrated for its own sake, a day not prostituted by extraneous influences, a day that is already celebrated by millions (if not billions), a day that we would officially recognize as the ultimate festival of our times: Super Bowl Sunday.

The national holidays that we currently celebrate just aren't doing the job any more. Perhaps when they were originally implemented they had some semblance of their true purpose, but now they all serve a subsidiary function at best. Christmas is no longer the mass of Christ: it's everything from claymation Rudolph to brawls at the toy store. Thanksgiving has devolved into sanctioned gluttony, appropriately leading into the excessive consumption of the holiday season, and culminating in New Year's revelry. Independence Day is now a pretext to bring together the winning combination of alcohol and gunpowder, and Labor, Memorial, and MLK days are gratefully acknowledged as days off work for who-knows-what.

Super Bowl Sunday deserves recognition for what it is, and the Super Bowl deserves to be celebrated not only in our living rooms and barrooms, but all across the land, if not the entire world. If we implemented Super Bowl Sunday as a national holiday, we would finally have a holiday that we could celebrate in good conscience, and the true beauty of the celebration would soon be obvious. Of course we would have Monday off work, as is the case when one of our current national holidays falls on a weekend, but this would only be icing on the football-shaped cake.

Unlike many of our current outdated holidays, we wouldn't have to worry about any religious hang-ups. No color or creed would be left out, although those who are so inclined could summon their chosen deity to ensure victory for their team. The Super Bowl is already a global event, and if we (being the recognized leaders of the free world) declare Super Bowl Sunday as a national holiday, we might awaken the rest of the global village, and we just might have the first holiday celebrated by every tribe and nation on earth. We already have the common experience of the Super Bowl; now we must unleash and harness its power by proper observance, and thereby unify the all peoples of the world.

We wouldn't have to lie to our schoolchildren when they ask why we celebrate Super Bowl Sunday, for the true meaning of Super Bowl Sunday is the Super Bowl itself; nothing more, nothing less. Of course not even Super Bowl Sunday would be immune to the desecration that corrupts our current holidays, but it would stand a better chance of being celebrated on its own terms. Indeed, it would be the only honest holiday we would have.

If we celebrated Super Bowl Sunday as we should, we would finally recognize our true national pastime: watching sports. As people lucky and smart enough to have the money and technology to take care of most of our daily labors, we have every right to spend our time as we wish, and the celebration of Super Bowl Sunday would also be a celebration of our free choice to exercise neither body nor brain. Nothing would be more appropriate than the celebration of entertainment by actually entertaining ourselves in glorious unison.

Perhaps the best reason for the officialization of Super Bowl Sunday is its universal appeal: even those who have no interest in football watch the Super Bowl. If Super Bowl Sunday was a celebration of only football it would be absurd to consider it for national holiday status (if we were going to celebrate a sport for its own sake it would clearly have to be fly-fishing). Super Bowl Sunday is an event like no other, for many of the celebrants take part in the festivities for one special reason: the commercials. The ad companies must get a sinister chuckle out of this, but these viewers may be closer to the true meaning of Super Bowl Sunday than your local Eagles fanatic.