2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #39

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Faithful Example - I think she's starting to feel her age and like she doesn't have much to share, but I love the example we can see of God keeping people for 60 or 70 years across multiple continents and countries.  Plus, I like the practical questions she addresses and the stories she tells about when she was young when you can see how she was probably very spunky back in her prime.  She's still kind of spunky.  :-)

2.  Beautiful Fall Day - We had more than one of those in the last couple weeks, didn't we?

Paddlin' Iowa

Last weekend I took another trip to the corny state.  Two times in two months.....maybe that's a record?  The occasion this time was to go kayaking in Iowa.  One of the guys at work was kind of laughing and asking if there were even any rivers in Iowa worth paddling.  As a matter of fact, there is.  I've only paddled one of them so far, but it was an exceptional paddle.  Partly because of the scenery and partly because of the good company.  Here are the highlights:

1. Nine hours total in the car alone in a weekend helps to work through any angst from the previous week of work.
2. Guffawing at the "and here's a tree" photo.
3. Paddling the Cedar River
• We saw tons of large birds including a bunch of blue herons and several bald eagles.
• The sky was super clear.
• We stopped to eat lunch on the sand bar shore.
• We got some sunburn.
• We learned about the Blue Zone pledge
4. Klaus and his sister asking Bex, Jax, and myself about our religion.
5. Father Dan and Mother Mary being very concerned that I get enough protein at every meal.
6. Delicious food
• Deluxe sandwiches
• Smoothies
• Homemade granola bars
• Homemade jalapeno poppers
• Homemade grilled tomato salsa
• Crock pot apple sauce.
7. Free garden stuff from Bex including basil and jalapenos.
8. Losing at Settlers of Catan to Father Dan, but winning at Qwirkle.
9. A good Sunday morning meeting.
10. Sunday dinner at Big Muddy's with a couple memorable things in particular:
• "Somebody just laid an egg" when the people at the next table laughed very loudly and longly.
• Mother Mary giggling as she recalled Father Dan being called Cassanova at one of their previous Sunday lunches.
11. Good "quality time" talks with Jax (aka J-Kwellan and Jack-E-LOK) and Bex.

Some pictures to illustrate:

A bald eagle soars over the Cedar River.

Klaus and his sister Sarah - some of Bex's local friends who joined us for the paddle.

Jax enjoys a good paddle.

One of the many blue herons we saw that Saturday.

Bex was feeling the Spirit and walking on water - or else she hit a shallow spot.

Father Dan studies his resources as he prepares to dominate Settlers of Catan.

Mex, Bex, and Jax

It was a great weekend!

Stereotypes

Do you ever eat at Qdoba?  If you do, what do you usually order?  I'm pretty traditional - I usually do some kind of traditional burrito.  You know: meat, rice, beans, salsa, sauce, cheese, and sour cream inside a tortilla.  I go to the one in town here often enough that several of the people who work there know me and can almost remember what I usually order.  Except for one thing.....they always seem to think I order a naked burrito instead of the usual burrito with a tortilla.  Why?  I have no idea.  I guess something about me screams "naked!"  And it's not just the guy who works there - last week one of the ladies who works there guessed naked burrito too.

Last weekend I was telling a new acquaintance that I'm an engineer and what I do in the evenings or for a hobby.  I said something like, "by the time I go to work, do some kind of exercise, and then make supper, it's pretty much time to go to bed."  I was told that sounded like your typical engineer, but I probably know how that us.  Ummmmm......no...I don't.  Please enlighten me because I thought that sounded kind of normal.  He didn't give me any better explanation though.  Can someone enlighten me?

He wasn't the only one being all stereotypical about engineers.  Yesterday at my annual physical my doctor made some crack about engineers and how they are.  He said engineers don't answer a question directly.  Hmmm.......interesting that he would say that because in some ways engineers tend to be fairly blunt.  But, I think he was probably referring to the way that engineers like to give a precise answer, so they may need to ask some clarifying questions before they can give that precise answer.

Later ladies and gents.....

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #38

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  A Good Laugh - I saw this in a magazine, and it cracked me up for a good long time.  Jax, Bex, and I guffawed at it for at least a good minute.

2.  Anger - but not amazing in a good way.  Mostly just how quickly it can form sometimes.  Possibly due to too much work stress (note the time stamp and state of the sun on the picture).  And how quickly it can dissipate.  Thank goodness for the help of God, good friends, and weekends.

Love Language Part 2

A couple weeks ago as I was cleaning out one of my e-mail inboxes, I ran across some additional "Love Language" test results.  Apparently something had sparked my interest and I went online and took the quiz before I read the book.  Then later that year (2012) I read the book and took the quiz again.  And, then I took it again this year when I was telling Bex about it.  So.....here is the updated graph as it relates to my previous post.  It looks like my results vary by 2 or 3 counts each time.  Except receiving gifts - that's pretty consistent with a maximum variation of 1 count.

This causes me to ask a question though:  If somebody cooks for you or gives you food from their garden, is that a gift, or is that an act of service?  I would kind of put that in the acts of service category because they're helping to feed you.  But maybe it could be a gift.

Tune in tomorrow - the amazing post will be then once I get around to downloading some pictures from my camera.

Language

I was reading an article the other day that was extolling the virtues of kids learning a second language when they're very young (before Kindergarten or in elementary school).  Apparently kids learn languages more easily then, and it helps make more connections in their brains that help their brains be more nimble for the rest of their lives.  This also helps with multi-tasking and making fewer mistakes.  The article talked about how the state of Utah has a big program to teach elementary school kids Mandarin by teaching half their subjects in Mandarin.  The most interesting quote from the article was by Gregg Roberts, a language-immersion specialist with the Utah state office of education:  "Monolingualism is the illiteracy of the 21st century."  It will be interesting to see if that statement comes true.

Now I'm wondering if my progressive friend Avis is planning to teach her boy a second language when he's a little tyke.  And, should my mom start speaking only German to my nieces?  I also need to get on that good intention to improve my Spanish or learn Portuguese.

That is all for this evening.  Have a great one.

Social Media Thoughts

A friend on facebook posted this link about Generation Y Yuppies.  It has some nice illustrations and has at least a grain of truth I think.  This also gets me thinking about facebook and several articles I've read recently about image crafting on facebook.  It also reminds me of a book that I'm in the middle of reading but haven't finished yet.  More on this topic once I finish that book.  The other article I read last week talked about how people post annoying things and what it says about a person - whether they're narcissistic, lonely, etc.  But really, with their wide list of stuff they listed as annoying, it would be hard to post much on facebook and avoid that list.  You would only be allowed to post a few original jokes.

This has me thinking about the content of this blog.  First of all, should I even blog at all?  In the past couple months I've occasionally considered quitting blogging or else making it private, but so far it just hasn't seemed right to do that.  I get discouraged about blogging when there is a dearth of comments, but then sometimes Eva or Ananias will comment and encourage me to keep blogging.  I also sometimes feel ambivalent about having a one-sided relationship with strangers that read this blog.  Is that healthy or even safe?

Is this just a place to brag about my travels and how good my life is?  The one difference this blog has from facebook is that people have to actively navigate here to read my drivel.  If you don't want to read it, it's not very difficult to avoid it.  Just unsubscribe this website from your bookmarks and your news feed site if you use one of those.

The other thing I was thinking about was whether I use this blog to "image craft" my life into perfection.  If I do, that isn't my intention.  I choose not to put some of the more depressing or important stuff in my life on here because that's not my life philosophy.  Yes, I shouldn't keep that depressing stuff bottled up, but I prefer to share that stuff with real live people or good friends via other digital methods.  To me, the point of this blog is to aid my family in having a better idea of what goes on in my everyday life, to be part of my creative therapy, to add humor to people's life, and to keep a log of my travels so that I can use these notes to narrate my scrapbooks at some point in the future.

In light hearted news, last night as I was driving home from the Y, I was behind a car that had one of those trunk bike racks installed.  They did not have a bike attached, but they did have some attached straps carelessly flapping around.  Some of the straps were long enough that the ends were dragging on the ground.  I'm not sure what the deal was there, but I hope they didn't lose their bike a couple miles back.

That's enough deep thoughts for now.  Later gators.

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #37

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Good Health - we often don't appreciate it until something takes it away.

2.  Special Days - now to put things into practice.

Summer Bucket List

Karm-X was telling us about her workplace where they have a summer bucket list competition.  They're given a bucket list of common summer activities, and then they have a competition to see who can do the most things between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Here's how I came out on the list Karm-X shared.  How did you fare?  The ones with a * are ones that weren't on the list that I added because I thought they were glaring omissions.

Things done:

Go camping

Go on a hike

Go stargazing
Go to a pick-your-own farm

Go on a bike ride

Play tag

Have a board game night

Read a book outside
Go on a picnic

Make s’mores

Cook over a camp fire

Eat watermelon

Make homemade jam

Make fresh salsa
Go for a walk on the beach

Write a letter

Make homemade cards & mail them to faraway friends or relatives

Watch the sunset

Try a new food
Go to an outdoor concert

Make something new on the grill

Go to a local festival

Play baseball or softball

Go for a walk at twilight

Go geocaching

Swim in a lake

Be a tourist in your own town

Go on a road trip

Sleep with the windows open 

Visit a new city

Eat outside at a restaurant

*Watch the sun rise

*Go kayaking or canoeing

*Make a smoothie

*Do yoga on the beach

Things left undone:

Make homemade lemonade

Make popsicles

Make homemade ice cream

Plant a garden

Go to a farmer’s market

Go to the zoo

Go to an amusement park

Have paper airplane races

Host a cook-out

Make ice cream sundaes

Try a new recipe

Have an outdoor movie night

Climb a tree

Catch fireflies

Go bird watching

Fly a kite

Run or walk in a race

Visit a pond

Visit a garden

Build a sand castle

Go to a museum

Learn to hula hoop

Make a fruit salad

Hunt for sea shells

Have a water balloon fight

Look for shapes in the clouds

Go to a water park

Watch a fireworks show

Make your own slip & slide

Go to a parade

Make bird feeders

Go to a baseball game

Play mini golf

Have a root beer float

Swing as high as you can

Learn about a different country

Slide down a water slide

Bake cookies & deliver them to a neighbor

Tell ghost stories

Play hide & seek

Have a party for no particular reason

Learn a new card game

Work a jigsaw puzzle

Jump/dive off a diving board

Swim in the ocean

Swim in a pool

Play flashlight tag

Wash the car by hand

Go to a movie

Go for an early morning walk

Go waterskiing, wakeboarding, or tubing

Play beach ball volleyball

Laboring in Iowa

For the long Labor Day weekend, I took a trip to the corny state.  Most of the trip involved going to 'vention, but I did spend the Labor Day hanging out with Uncle Bex around her stomping grounds.  The highlights:

1. Soul food.
2. Deep thought chat with Uncle Bex Sunday evening on the drive home.  It's kind of hard to believe, but I've known Uncle Bex less than three years.  It seems like much more than that.  And not because the experience has been so arduous.  Several longish road trips, 'ventions, and a couple international travel experiences help to rapidly increase the bonds of friendship.
3. Meeting one of my lurker blog fans in person, who will be known as Brenda Chicken-On-Shoulder for now.  Thanks for introducing yourself Brenda C-O-S.
4. Spending some time with some other friends that were at 'vention as well - Swanny/Swallace, Jax, and Jenx.  It was also nice to get a little bit more acquainted with a few other people from the corny state.
5. Seeing some of my cousins at 'vention - Windy, Darcy, and Mowla and her family.
6. Morning 'vention walks/runs/skips.  We may have also stopped to spit over the bridge once or twice.  Don't tell our moms.
7. Sweltering heat.  Yes, it was over 90 degrees two of the days that I was there.  I found out again that I don't do well trying to sleep in 80+ degree temperatures.
8. Hiking in Wildcat Den State Park.  It's not on the same scale as Starved Rock State Park in terms of size, but it does have some cool rock formations.  I also learned about the broad leaf plantain plant during this hike.  We may have wandered in the wilderness a bit, but not for 40 years.
9. Biking along the Mississippi River.  Thanks for the bike loan Father Dan.
10. I learned what a tomato bug is and how to properly pluck them and kill them (sorry Uncle John).
11. Iowa sweet corn - is there anything better?
12. Delicious burgers (6-8 minutes on the grill to achieve perfection is what Father Dan says), homemade grilled jalapeno poppers, and guacamole at the Smurf household.
13. I also learned how to make your own vanilla:  put six vanilla beans in a cheap bottle of rum for 6-12 months, then go ahead and use it.
14. Beautiful sunrises and sunsets.  The great plains have them, don't they?
15. Hearing about God hiding Moses in the cleft of the rock, and then actually seeing a rock cleft the next day.

Some pictures to illustrate the experiences:

Corn, corn corn, corn corn.....

Rock formations at Wildcat Den State Park

Peaceful scene at a bend in the river at Wildcat Den State Park.

More rock formations.

Flat MelBMarvis goes biking along the Mississippi River.

Uncle Ducky Weekend Visit

A couple weekends ago Uncle Bex made the drive over to my place.  The original plan was to go scuba diving, but that was nixed due to physical ailment.  We managed to keep busy just the same.  The highlights:

1. Yoga (at the Y and on the beach).
2. Picking peaches.  It was the first time I had ever done that, so I learned a few things.  Ripe peaches usually have the cleft almost completely filled, and you pick peaches with a slight twisting motion.  Usually if the peach is ripe the stem stays on the tree and doesn't come with the peach - unlike all the ones you see at the store.
3. Kayaking on the same old, same old river.
4. Delicious food - fresh corn on the cob, peaches, peach crisp, fresh peach jam, smoothies, pork and potatoes on the grill, deluxe salads, and deluxe grilled sandwiches.
5. Hiking in the sand dunes.
6. Future vacation planning and scheming.
7. Uncle Bex got to meet my boss because we borrowed a kayak from him.  Her impression:  he's kind of hyper.  Which he is.
8. A long Sunday afternoon drive to spend 15 minutes at a funeral visitation.
9. While picking peaches, next year's idea for my "weekly" post was born.
10. Getting a quality massage.  The good masseuse at the chiropractor quite, so I was in need of a quality massage.

 Yes, it was a most excellent weekend.  Here's a couple photos to confirm that.

Millions of peaches, peaches for me.....

Bex socks it to the geese.

Hiking the sand dunes.

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #36

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  The Universe - What I really wanted to show a picture of was the clear night sky with all the stars visible.  Unfortunately I don't have a camera capable of that.  A 2:30 AM walk from the tent to the bathrooms is good for something.

2.  Fungus - I know, kind of nerdy.  But this was some amazing smut seen on this corn!

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #35

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Stillness (both naturally and spiritually)

2.  Fields of Green