Recently in Miscellany Category

The upgrade seems to be completed, but I still have some cleanup work to do. My stylesheet is toast and I lost the blogroll. Fixing it is a low priority right now so your patience is appreciated.

Here's a brief update on what's been happening in our lives the past couple of months.
Back in early April we went up to Goshen for my dad's 60th birthday. My brother came up from New Orleans for the weekend as well. On the way home we stopped in Indianapolis to visit Adam and Marcie Morrison and their boys, Alby and Asa. Amy Kempf came by with her children as well, but Severin couldn't make it (it was a Monday -- I had taken a vacation day myself). It was nice to reconnect with all of them.

Back in early May we had a visit from Donald and Jessie along with their new baby Joshua! He is wonderful and they are great parents.

Lots of other stuff happened in the mean time that I've forgotten about. We went to the MOMYS retreat the second weekend in May. I had a birthday back in there somewhere, too. 31 years old now.

Memorial Day weekend I took an extra day off, tore up the carpet in our dining room, and laid laminate flooring from the kitchen through the dining room and in the hallway off the dining room. It turned out rather nicely, I thought. Maybe I'll post some before and after pictures when I get time.

Somewhere in there I attended a couple of baseball games -- always fun. When my folks come in to town next weekend we'll be going to see the Phillies play the Cardinals. And then, Gamefest VIII. w00t!

I'm sure this is not an original idea, but if a local gas station were to sell gasoline futures I'd sign up. It probably wouldn't actually work for a local station to do it -- it would have to be a major distributor or refiner, like ExxonMobil. The idea would be that I, the consumer, would purchase x gallons of gasoline at the current price (probably on a loyalty card or something), which could then be used to obtain x gallons of gasoline sometime in the future from that company's stations -- no matter what the cost of gasoline would be at the time it was pumped.

I really think it could work. It would be especially useful for smaller freight companies and for small-business owners whose business depends on mobility. But it could benefit the refiners as well, allowing them to better plan for demand. The possibilities are pretty much endless as to how it could be used -- I'm thinking of everything from neighborhood co-ops (Nagi, point your commie detector at that idea and make sure it passes muster, eh?) to carpools. But something tells me it isn't going to happen with gasoline.

It cost me $40 to fill up my Honda Civic today. $40. For a Honda Civic. I remember when it only cost $15 for a full tank, and it wasn't that long ago. *sigh*

So a few years back, in an effort to rid ourselves of gas-powered property maintenance equipment, we bought a Black & Decker CMM1000 battery-powered mower. I really like it, but in the end the molded plastic control module has proven to be too troublesome for me to continue using this piece of equipment. Note to B&D: molded plastic is great for, say, a vacuum cleaner, but not so great for a lawn mower -- especially when it is part of the safety system and it fails to function because the molded plastic breaks. Since it is molded plastic, the first time it broke I had to replace the entire control module; this time, it isn't broken but the safety switch popped out of its housing and won't stay in, so when you release the handle the mower keeps running (not good).

Sooo, rather than go back to a gas-powered model, or another electric, we decided to go way retro (sort of): we bought a reel mower. Specifically, we bought a Gilmour RM30, which incidentally was less expensive than the replacement control module I bought for the CMM1000 last summer. But the best part comes next. . .

Jamie and I have had a long-standing argument about grass-cutting. I don't enjoy mowing. It is my least favorite outdoor activity (I prefer gardening). But up until now, due to safety concerns (and not a little pride, I'll admit), I have turned down Jamie's offers to mow for me. Power mowers are really dangerous, in my opinion, and I didn't want to expose her to the hazards of using them. But now. . .well, let's just say our back yard got mowed tonight while I was giving the kids baths. Sweet!

Even better -- with a powered mower, it would have been another 6 years or so before I would have allowed my oldest son to mow our yard. With a reel mower, he'll probably be doing some of it this year (and all of it next year).

It's been so long since I've used a gas-powered mower, I don't really remember how much gas one uses over the course of a summer. I seem to remember using a gallon or so a week at one point. As gas approaches $4/gal, the payback on a reel mower starts looking really good.

Anyway, that's all the news from Lake Jacobbegone, where all the men are strong, all the women are good looking, and all the children are above average. Thanks and goodnight!

Last night I had a dream in which I found out on Sunday morning I was having a book signing on Thursday evening at 5 PM. In my dream I knew I had written a book but I didn't know it was published yet and I was worried because I hadn't finished editing it. Then I woke up, and I spent several minutes lying abed trying to remember what my book was about. In my grogginess I had myself half-convinced I really am writing a book. But I still didn't know for certain what it was about.

So, what do you think? If I am authoring a book, what is the title and what is its theme? If you come up with one that intrigues me enough, maybe I will write it in my spare time.

My 6yo son, who will be 7 this July, read The Horse and His Boy today. He picked it up after breakfast, left it behind when we went to church, then picked it up again after lunch and finished it around 3 PM.

We had a high of 75 degrees Fahrenheit today. Yesterday was nice as well and we played outside both days. Tomorrow, we are supposed to have freezing rain. It is strange sitting here with the house open and the sun setting in a beautiful clear sky with the Weather Channel winter storm advisory blinking in the SysTray at the bottom right of the computer screen.

Back to my 6yo. He is a voracious reader. I was a pretty serious reader when I was a kid (and still am when I have the time) but he outclasses me by a long shot. He claims he's read every children's and young adult book in the house at least 4 times -- and I believe him. He's read all of the Narnia books at least twice. Jamie is using the online library service to make library trips more manageable. Personally, I prefer buying books; however, we have to buy food and clothing as well so with a reader like our 6yo the library is the only economical option.

Last night Jamie and I watched the movie "Gone, Baby, Gone." Afterwards we remarked upon the language used in the movie; our general sentiment is not to fault the scriptwriters, who probably faithfully recorded the kind of language used by the type of people portrayed in the film (it was an excellent story, by the way -- if you can deal with the foul language, I recommend it to you). Rather, the accurate portrayal of their vile speech is an unwitting commentary on the sorry state of the vocabulary of many Americans. All of which led me to remark that our 6yo probably uses (correctly!) more words in a day than many of the products of our public education system use in a week. He certainly reads a greater variety of words in a day than many Americans use in a month. Such fact is less a credit to our son than a detriment to those whose vocabularies are so impoverished they have no better way to communicate than to utter five or six vulgarities/profanities over and over, day in and day out.

Our 2000 Honda Civic hit the 100,000 mile mark while I was driving home from work on Friday evening. I took a picture with my Palm Pilot -- not the most intelligent action I've taken while hurtling down the highway at 55 mph, but I didn't know if I'd be able to pull over and stop in time to catch the odometer at that significant milestone. At any rate, I fully intend to put another 100k miles on it before turning it over to one child or another.

I finally got around to starting a savings account for the 1yo yesterday. All the kids get $50 a month in their savings accounts; not much in the general scheme of things, but if I can keep it up until they leave home they'll each have a nice sum to use as a down payment on a house or to help pay for education or a car, or something. Hopefully my salary continues to increase at a higher rate than the size of my family!

I'm hoping to move to the next stage of life at the age of 55. I don't think I'll ever "retire" in the way that most people do, but I do hope to achieve financial independence by that time. We'll see. We're in pretty good shape so far, but a lot can happen in 25 years. And certainly, the way things are going right now, I expect still to have children living at home when I'm 55. We'll see how it goes. At any rate, sites like Dinkytown.com are a lot of fun to play around with.

That's all the news I've got for today. Have a blessed week!

It has been five (5!) years now since my first post on Ye Olde Solefude Blogge. This is post number 1048 and there have been 2491 comments so far. Thanks as usual to the usual people for their usual level of participation -- and all of the rest of you, as well. I most definitely enjoy the type of interaction blogging generates.

I'm home early today, by the by, because Jamie has a monthly checkup with our midwife. She was going to go last week but had to cancel due to inclement weather, and we weren't able to find anyone on such short notice who could stay with the kids while they nap. Not that I mind being forced to leave work early. . .every once in a while. ;)

*Sigh*. Since Monday morning I have logged over 70 hours at work (not counting commute time). Everything that could go wrong this week did, and we had a full week of production planned. Grrr. I was a horrible husband and father this week. At least I was able to come home early today. It was mild here in St. Louis and I got to play outside with the 4 oldest kids for over an hour. I'm beat.

To end the week on a high note, I filed my tax returns this evening. Once again the government is subsidizing my lifestyle choices. If that changes, I won't sweat it. In the mean time, I really appreciate our tax system and the way it benefits me. I'm getting more back on the normal tax filing than I will if this week's proposed tax rebate comes through. It's not for lack of trying, though. I have done everything I know how to do to reduce my payroll deduction, but with the child tax credit (read: subsidy) the government would have to pay me each month to keep me from getting a refund. Meh.

I was finally able to connect with a very good friend this week. We were born 4 months apart and have been buddies our whole lives. He and his wonderful wife are headed to an undisclosed African nation to minister to the Muslim community in said country. It is an exciting opportunity and we are blessed to be able to support them.

I have had lots to blog about over the past couple of weeks, but not much time due to work. I'll get these posts out eventually. Yeah, right. :)