upgrade changes

For some reason, when I did a browser upgrade a while back, my wordpress editor has been messed up ever since. I have to go into code and put in manual paragraphs, etc, that I didn’t have to before when writing on visual. Wonder whats up… 

Depth

Try to fill a small tupperware container with a high pressure dish sprayer. 

 Good luck.

 While the pressure works well at cleaning it, all of the water has too much force, and bounces right back out.

You have to slow the pressure down greatly to fill a shallow container.

But a pitcher will fill just fine with the sprayer. 

I think I need more depth… to be filled with greater force.

To hold more. 

I’m also  remembering the lake where my uncle would take us when we were kids. 

He worked at a concrete business, and was high enough rank to have keys to a set of private lakes, each about 300 ft across by about 3 times as wide. But we always had to wear these really old life jackets, even if we could swim well.

Because once you got out about 20 feet, the gentle slop dropped.  Completely dropped. We were told it was about 600 foot deep… the result of previous rock removal in the name of concrete production. It was cheaper to refill them in with water as a lake than to find something else to fill the hole.  

When you swam past the slope, you knew it, even if your feet where nowhere near the bottom. And it scared you. 

The water suddenly became cold, and had an entirely different flow… coming from the deep part, it wasn’t effected by the winds and sun the was the shallow area was. 

Depth. 

Mp3 observations

interesting thing to do: search itunes store for psalm(insert a number here) and then go down the list, listening to each 30 second preview. its amazing how many different ways the same concepts, and sometimes even the exact same words, can be done by different people.

 and a less interesting observation… i’ve come to find that hearing brass in the first 3 seconds of a song clip is a very good indication i will not like the song. not that i dont like brass, just seems to hold true..  

Cat surface area

you know you are running a fever when the battle between the cats as to which one gets to stretch out more against you is what wakes you up in the middle of the night.  lucky for them i was in a spell of being really cold… and they were warm…  

Less goop

Well, i;ve discovered entirely by accident that when you add just an ounce more milk than you are supposed to… 9 oz instead of 6-8… the goopy shakes are a whole ton less goopy and taste much much better.

though not having much more progress. i’ve nicknamed this the colorado diet… because thats what my weight chart looks like. up a few days, then back down a few days…. repeating… going between 4 pounds lost and 8.

starting to drive me nuts.

has about 10 more days to get its act together before i decide to keep it or dump it. so still up in the air right now.

Chili oddities

My mind is on chili.

I blame it on the cool weather, and having chili for dinner the other evening.

But I’m kind of weird when it comes it chili… in a couple different ways.

If I’m the one making it, I like to mkae my chili thick. Not much liquid at all.

It also tends to have a lot of beans, and a lot of different types of beans. Almost looks more like a mixed bean soup with tomato added.

Random tangent: I wonder what would happen if you took the masher to my chili like when you turn beans into refried beans… chili paste?

Anyway, my mom, and for that matter my daughter, are the opposite. Mom’s chili is usually made with one of the huge jars of v8 in it. Very runny.

And mine is usually not very spicy at all.

Though usually when I’m making it at home, I’m going to serve it with fritos. Actually, with almost as much of the bowl filled with fritos as with chili.

I deal with mom’s chili by means of her cornbread… which is usually really dry and not very good on its own. But crumbling it into tiny pieces, and mixing it into the chili, improves both quite a bit!

But by far the weirdest part of my chili experience is the habit I have with fast food chili. You see, I’ve discovered my favorite way to eat it… is to eat it with ice cream. Well, usually a wendy’s frosty… but same idea.

Not mixed together! But alternating… few bites of one, few bites of the other.

For some reason this is wonderful to me… as gross as it sounds to everyone else. Something about the contrast… the hot and the cold… the spice and the sweet… the soupy and lumpy vs the smooth and creamy…

I can’t explain it.

But that’s my weird chili eating quirk.

Doll replacement

For Christmas my daughter got the twin time dollhouse, which she absolutely loves.

One of my friends had reccommended it, as her two girls have had one for 3 years and not only still play with it, but haven’t broken anything but a chair leg.

My daughter had played with hers for less than 2 hours before she had broken a leg off of one of the babies.

Granted, this was done while throwing a fit about it not going into a chair right.. not during play itself. But she was told that she now knew how easily it could break… and with the exception of the other leg on the same baby (which I think was intentional to make them the same), nothing else has been treated roughly.

So I’ve been considering replacing the baby.

I started looking, and the only pack of dolls that comes with that particular baby is no longer made. Some are still availible, but the only ones I see are the african american mom and baby.

Which I have considered purchasing…. they only run about 5-7 bucks… but, given that the babies are supposed to be twins, I’m not sure its quite the same…

So I went to ebay.

Where I did find the baby, by herself. But for almost $20! Or, the entire family for $30 plus shipping.

To put this in perspective, I only paid 50 for the entire dollhouse, family of 4, and some assorted furniture.

This is the fisher price loving family line. It’s not some rare brand of toy. Why in the world would they not make replacement parts for things included with the house more common?

Do they think if they don’t have babies easily availible I might give up and buy another house to get a new one and have other spare parts around? If so, they are nuts.

15 minutes.

Kiddo: How long ’till dinner?

Me: 15 minutes.

Kiddo: That’s too long. How many seconds is that?

Me: A lot. If you count 60 seconds 15 different times, that would be how many.

Kiddo: 60 or 16?

Me: 60… 1 more than 59.

Kiddo: That’s too many… that’s going to take too long. That’ll take like 10 minutes!

Me: No…. actually… it will take 15.

Prosperity tumors

One of the things I sometimes have difficulty explaining is televangelists.

How is it that what seems like it should be one of the most awesome and powerful tools in the aresenal of the church… extended times on the same television that has become the central focus of so many american households… has turned into a mess with such frequency that the tool itself becomes known as something to make christians wince?

Well… probably simply that… because it could be such a powerful tool, it becomes a very high priority target for the opponent. And I think on that front, unfortunately, he’s definately winning. There are a few good shows bringing victories to a few battles… but on the whole?

But how do you explain them? How do you explain how good and true biblical statements can get so twisted and distorted?

Cancer.

It strikes me how much these can really resemble a tumor.

Normal cells… but not healthy ones. A part of the body, sort of, but not a functional one. And one most of the body would be better off removing many times. And the rate of growth?

Yes, these ministries grow rather rapidly. But so do cancer cells. Rate of growth and size are not indicators of health in churches any more than they are in cells.

The purpose of any body part is not to itself… whats the point of an eye seeing if it’s on its own and that’s the only thing it can do… but in its use to the body as a whole. While it may be made of the same essential cells, and feed off the same nutrients as healthy body parts, a tumor serves nothing but its own growth and size.

But… this body is fortunate. They know the most skilled surgeon. Why? Because he made the body in the first place. He knows the exact time and way to deal with things like this.

Until then? Send up some “cosmic chemotherapy” for them.

The battle for crackers

I had to fix my aunt’s computer after work, and then had a prayer meeting at 7, so we grabbed fast food for dinner.

Before I had gotten to my chili, the phone rang. So while I was talking to my younger brother, my 5 year old daughter tried to swipe one of my packets of crackers.

I stopped her once silently. Then once with a warning. Then once having to stop the conversation.

Round 4 I decided it just wasn’t a battle I felt like waging at the moment, and told her she could have the one packet if she left everything else alone.

About 3 minutes later, she figures out that the person on the phone is her favorite uncle, and asks to talk with him.

Her opening line?

“Hey unkie B… want some crackers?”