our very obsolete blog
Consumer Reports crash test videos
Both of our cars were rated “Good”. I thought the side impact on the Honda Odyssey was very impressive. It is amazing to see how fast those curtain airbags deploy, protecting the passengers from structural elements as well as flying glass.
I use this expression all the time in jest with my children when they are getting a bit out of control, joking with them that if they don’t settle down, they are surely going to “give their momma the fits”! but tonight I think Josiah actually did just this. Mind you, I don’t even know what “the fits” are, but they sound ominous, don’t you think?
Tonight, within the space of maybe 15 minutes Josiah caused two major upsets in the house, just as we were trying to get everyone peacefully into bed for the night. Now they are all tucked in and quiet, but my nerves feel a bit jittery.
For starters, our toddler, feeling the need for a drink of juice, opened the refrigerator, and attempted to get to the very large, very heavy tupperware container in which we mix and store our orange juice (we’ve switched to the frozen variety since the fresh has skyrocketed in price). Of course, the pitcher was much too heavy for Josiah and as he lifted it from the shelf, down it came, splashing juice everywhere both inside and outside the fridge. What a mess. While Daddy toted the offender away to have a “chat” with him, I cleaned up the aftermath.
Just a few minutes later, we were in the boys’ room getting them settled in bed. We opted to keep Josiah with us, since having him out of sight is a dangerous proposition these days. I had barely turned my back for a minute when I all of a sudden heard a soft whirring sound. And there was Josiah in trouble again: he’d managed to turn on an oscillating fan (which shouldn’t even be in the boys’ bedroom, let alone on a surface Josiah could actually reach on his own – Jonathan reports their babysitter moved it to their desktop last night b/c they were feeling warmish, but I hadn’t realized this yet, bad Mommy) and then get his chubby little fingers inside the wire cage which surrounds the rotating blades. Now that was a very scary sight. Using absolutely no restraint whatsoever, I screamed loudly, mostly out of sheer horror, which surely startled Josiah enough, but then followed it up with a couple of hand swats and some very serious scolding. Hopefully he will feel no desire to explore a fan again anytime soon.
As I sat there and held him afterward, so thankful he’d not been hurt, but still feeling very shaken, he looked into my eyes with his big brown ones, cradled my head in his pudgy hands, and asked quite seriously, “Mum….ad???” (which translated means, “Mom, sad?”). So even if he’s highly mischievous and into everything, we can at least say he’s also a deeply sensitive wee lad. Needless to say, I love this little guy oh so much, but I pray for the ability to safely parent him into adulthood. He doesn’t always make it easy!
This is fun. My new system on Collective2 is off to a fast start.
As I said before, swing trade systems don’t come naturally to me, so this was very challenging. The system holds 7 positions at a time with an average hold time in the neighborhood of 7 trading days, so it roughly turns over one position a day… which, in my opinion, qualifies as a modestly paced swing trade pattern.
However, the current return rate will not be sustained. In fact, I am confident that it is way out in front of its sustainable return rate, so much so that I felt compelled to add a warning at the front of the system overview. Here’s how the description currently reads. Continue reading “Tarzan update 1”
…because we’ve finally, after much agonizing, made a decision and ordered a dishwasher to replace our vintage model, which sadly, doesn’t really wash dishes anymore, despite its name. I carefully studied the research on current models, and then shopped around town, checking with clearance outlets, looking through last season’s models, and called every store I could locate to sift through their scratch/dent sales, etc. Unearthing no amazing bargains this way, I settled for finding the lowest price in town on our first choice, and got Lowes* to price-match that (saving us $93 in the bargain), and then waited until they ran a free installation special. Their special is good through this Sunday, the 16th, for anyone else in the market for a dishwasher. The installation rebate will save us both $150 and a couple hours of my sweet husband’s time. Looks like our new dishwasher will take a few weeks to get here, but I can wait. I’m so excited!!
*Sears and Lowes will not usually offer the best price on major appliances, but they each have price-matching guarantees which you can use to your advantage. The best customer service I received was from our local Lowes store, so I dearly wanted to give them our business if I could get the lowest price through them, which I did.
Smoldering, day-old fish stick that was inadvertently left at the bottom of the oven last night while preparing a hasty meal for the kids before marching out the door to Wednesday night church classes. Which is now burning up (the fish stick, not the classes) b/c I turned the oven on this morning to bake some muffins. And let me tell you, it’s not a pleasant odor in the slightest! (again, the very despised, scorching fish stick, not the nice muffins).
While checking my blogs just now, and eating my morning peanut butter toast, I had a little mishap. I dropped my toast, and watched it flip around and around as if in slow motion, until it gracefully landed butter side down on my toes. While I hate to waste that precious peanut butter, you will probably be happy to hear that I refrained from licking my buttered toes.
This one is for the ladies… (HT Mark)
How many of you have been admonished at the beginning of a worship service to set aside your worldly concerns and focus on the worship of God (or some close variant)? I’d like to propose that although there may be some truth to such an admonition, there is also a very real danger that may cause us to turn our hearts from God.
Yesterday, right before worship, I got a bit of bad news and felt like I wanted to vomit as we were driving to church. And it made me realize that to set aside such a concern (or, more realistically, to pretend to set it aside) as I entered worship would actually be contrary to faith. There is no godliness in refusing to rely on God, and it is not faith to hide the concerns of your heart from God. Randomly open your Bible somewhere within the book of Psalms, close your eyes, and point, and you’ll have a proof-text for what I’m claiming.
Instead of setting aside our “worldly concerns”, I would suggest what matters is what we do with them. Do we continue to think we can solve our problems on our own, focusing on lifting ourselves up out of our problems while in the worship of God? Or do we come to worship offering God not only our songs, our tithes, but also our problems, our fears, our vanities? Faith gives God everything, not just the stuff we think we’ve prettied up.
Last night we had some friends over for dinner and at some point the conversation managed to wind its way around such that my reference to the Battle of Passchendaele made sense. And the question came up as to how I knew about this grim killing field from World War I, and of course the answer was Iron Maiden…
At which point I found myself explaining something that is probably utterly mystifying to anyone who did not grow up listening to heavy metal but is enjoyed greatly by those of us who did: much of Iron Maiden’s repertoire is based on references to literature, history, film, television, and mythology. And it is often done quite respectfully. Even, one might say, tastefully.
To make the point here, I’ll highlight a few of the songs that I’ve enjoyed and then ask my faithful readers who might have listened to a little Maiden growing up to chime in with further references. Of course, that assumes I have any faithful readers left. So here goes.
The Trooper – Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and the Battle of Balaclava (part of the Crimean War)
Where Eagles Dare – book and movie of the same name
Flight of Icarus – Greek myth
To Tame a Land – “Dune” by Frank Herbert. Here’s a great detail from Wikipedia.
However, when Steve Harris requested permission from the author to name the song “Dune” and to use a spoken quotation as the track’s intro, his request was met with a stern reply from Frank Herbert’s agent: “No. Because Frank Herbert doesn’t like rock bands, particularly heavy rock bands, and especially rock bands like Iron Maiden”. This statement was backed up with a legal threat, and eventually the song was renamed “To Tame a Land” and released in 1983.
Children of the Damned – film of the same name
The Prisoner & Back in the Village (2 songs, 1 topic) – British television show “The Prisoner”
Run to the Hills – Europeans coming to the Americas
Aces High – British RAF versus the German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain
Rime of the Ancient Mariner – though 13 minutes in length, it is still an abridged version of the poem