winter fun

out of the kitchen window

some nicely crossed branches

thick ice on the rhododendrons (sp)

Chattanooga finally got some winter weather today. Though, it is not the feet of snow I would have hoped for, but I will take what I can get. I guess the ice got pretty think in places and knocked a tree down on a power line because we lost power for about 3 hours today. We made good use of the time by all jumping in bed for a nice 3 hour nap. I ran out and snapped a few pictures this morning, very slippery but fun!

Oh yea, I screwed up and forgot to turn the date stamp off before taking the pictures. I hate pictures with date stamps! Oh well, someone remind me to turn it off.

As always you can click the pictures to get a better view.

playing catch-up

Over the last few weeks my blog roll has grown quite a bit. I use to feel like I knew everyone on my blog roll, but now that I have added the Torchbearing blog roll and the PCA blog roll I feel like I am scrambling to get a background on about 20 new people. The problem is I have so many irons in the fire that I can?t get caught up enough to settle into the new community.

I hate to say this but getting to know a fellow blogger is a lot like watching a Soap Opera. The first few times you watch it you have no clue what is going on. Then over a few weeks you start to get an idea of the characters involved. There can be a twist that jumps out and bites you when you least expect it. The funniest part is that Leslie and I start talking about fellow bloggers over dinner. Just this week we were talking about a fellow bloggers and what we knew about them. She had one version and I had another. I think at one point we stopped to reflect on how blogging has become apart of our lives.

I just want to make clear that for the most part blogging, unlike Soap Operas, is not a shallow pit. There are several blogs out there that have been instrumental in shaping my world view over the last year, and I am thankful they are out there.

monday night at morton's

My cube neighbor Jon has yet again hooked me up with a great article. Please take the time to read it. It is very good. It is a bit long but worth the read.

Click here to read it from its source.

home school

Since our visit to Germany several years ago I have had a slightly more than passive interest in all things German. I would love to be able to pack up the family and move there for a few years. In my wildest dream I would just head over there to study the language and culture, but being that that is totally an unrealistic dream I always thought I would settle with doing some IT related stuff with a German based company or ministry.

Back to the reason I?m posting. I stumbled upon this post and it really got me thinking. I can hardly imagine that it could be true, but it looks to be. The hubris! Maybe I just don?t understand world cultures the way I should, but it really surprises me that the German people would not stand up and cry foul. Maybe I just don?t realize the freedom we have here in the states. I don?t know.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

I can?t imagine any more fertile soil for learning than in the lap of a loving mother... and father. No one on this planet can be more interested in my child?s education than I we are. No one will know the individual learning styles of our child like we will. No one could give the hands on attention that we can. I know Leslie and I look forward to the freedom of being able to scream "Road Trip" when teaching about the great civil war battles. Or using the bird feeder in the back yard to teach about the wonderful world God has created.

I could continue this rant for quite a while but John David wants to play with his toys. Fun! If you have any thoughts on the article I link to, then feel free to leave a comment. Also, the article has some e-mail addresses if you want to complain.

cold walk

John David had an itch to go for a walk today, irrespective of the fact that it was 22 degrees outside. So we bundled him up as best we could and I headed outside with him. After about 20 minutes he was frozen to the bone and was ready to go back in. By the time we made it in his cheeks were pink and his fingers were ice cold. He really enjoyed the sippy cup full of warm milk he got once we got him unbundled. I guess the run through the yard did him some good because he took a 3 hour nap. Leslie and I were thankful. It is not often that both John David and Elliot take long enough naps so that we can enjoy some quiet time together.

I was able to snap a few shots of him while we were out. I have been playing around with shooting black and white lately, and I really love the feeling that the lack of color creates.

As always you can click the pictures to get a better view.

blogging 101

Well, I have been blogging since May 12th and have gotten to my 101st post. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous, when I first started blogging. I had secretly wanted to have a blog since Mark started his way back in 2001, but at the time I did not have a clue about web programming and really did not know where to start. Since then blogging has become something that can be done by anyone. You really don't have to have a technical bone in your body.

When I got to the point where I knew what I needed to know to start a blog there were several things about blogging that made me nervous, and subsequently kept me from starting for a good six or more months. I was in some way nervous about actually having a platform to speak my mind and having to defend my thoughts and notions. I was nervous that I would not keep it up, and I was nervous about people reading what I had written.

But, after my first few posts I grew increasingly more confident and comfortable sharing. I will only blog about so much though. There reaches a point in my family life and job life that I would never venture into. Still, for a good reason I might venture into areas that some people would be uncomfortable with. Though, I am not sure that has happened too much as of yet.

All that blabber aside here are a few things that I have found to be helpful regarding blogging. Yea, they are in no particular order.

1. Find blogs of people who think like yourself and add them to your blog roll. Blog Rolls are a must. I am a lot less prone to blog roll someone than most. Some people have a blog roll down to their knees, which is okay, but please just make sure you have your blog roll broken out so that there is some semblance of order.
2. Add two new folders to your FireFox bookmarks. Name the first on "possible blog roll candidate" and name the second "comments". I will talk about the "comment" folder in bullet 5. As for the "possible blog roll" bookmark, any time you visit a blog that interests you then add it to the "possible blog roll" folder. If you find yourself continually going back to that bookmark, then it is time to blog roll them.
3. I found two good links recently on blogging from this post done by TulipGirl. This first link is the one I have had the most fun with. It is The Truth Laid Bear. Click here to sign up. The second link is here. It is a must read. He has done a great job of highlighting the ins and outs of blogging. Again, a must read.
4. Read other peoples blogs and if they have said something that sparks much of any thought on your part, then leave them a comment.
5. After making a comment on someone else's blog make sure you save the link in your comment folder, then at some point in the next day or so go back to see if they have responded. If they have not responded and the blog is not a blog that is worthy of the "possible blog roll" bookmark then delete it.
6. Communities like blogexplosion are a great way to start out. The premise behind blogexplosion is, while logged in and surfing through blog explosion you earn credits for each blog you visit. Then those credits earned can be spent to have fellow bloggers visit your site. I only use blogexplosion when looking for new blogs to add to my "possible blog roll" bookmark; by the way, if you want to go and signup for blogexplosion then use me as a referral.
7. FireFox FireFox FireFox. If you are using Internet Explorer then stop! For the love of all things clean and efficient, stop. You don't want to go blind, do you? Click here to get it.

Well, if anything in this post sparked a thought on your part, then please feel free to leave a comment.

schappi, das kleine krokodil

I have gotten a lot of hits on this blogpost over the last week, so I guess I should make it a bit easier for people to find the Schnappi song. You can download it here. Please feel free to leave a comment to let me know that you did. Also, if you have the time, then feel free to snoop around. By the way, this is not the official schnappi site. Please don't mistake me for it. Also, this is a great song to play while carrying your little one in a Baby Slings or Baby Wrap .

Pierce did a blogpost on this song about a week ago, so he got the scoop on it. Leslie, John David and I have fallen in love with the song. Plus, we think it is a really good way of starting to teach a second language to John David. I really wish I had taken a picture of John David doing the get down while listening to this song. He just loves it. Here is the write up about the song, which contains a link to the song.

From the the denver channel

4-Year-Old's 'Snappy' Hit Is No. 1 In Germany

POSTED: 5:53 pm EST January 10, 2005

UPDATED: 6:21 pm EST January 10, 2005

The hottest thing in German music right now is a 4-year-old girl's made-up song about a crocodile.

Joy Gruttman's song, "Snappy the Little Crocodile" ("Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil"), is the No. 1 song on the German charts. Her family posted the song on a Web site as a joke, but a radio station in Cologne, Germany, got hold of it and made it a hit.

Gruttman is the youngest recording artist to make it to the German Top 10, let alone No. 1.

"Snappy" beat out songs by Kylie Minogue and Linkin Park. The song is even appearing as remixes in German dance clubs.

Listen: "Schappi, das kleine Krokodil"

the fire man

the hunt

I have found myself on a hunt the last several days, and am surprised to find that I have only bagged two blogs. I am hunting down fellow torchbearers. I am looking to start a new blog roll of torchbearers. I really don?t care which school you went to. I went to Ravencrest Chalet back in 94, 95 and a very small part of 96. So far I have found one that attended Ravencrest Chalet and one from Capernwray Hall. Part of my hope with this post is to get enough words and links to the torchbearer schools so that google will help people find me. The fact is that there might not be a whole lot of torchbearers that blog out there, but I hope I am wrong about that.

So if you attended one of the schools below and have a blog then give a comment and a link. Or if you have anything you would like to say one way or the other, then leave a comment.

cue feeding

Yes, cue feeding vs. PDF is an odd thing for a man to blog about. Well, on the surface it might be, but keep reading.

For all those mothers and fathers that read my blog, take a jump over to TulipGirl and follow the links. She has a link to a great discussion on Ezzo's PDF (parent-directed feeding) vs. cue feeding. Make sure once you get to TulipGirl you click on the taketime link. Again the discussion is a great one.

Side Note:
One of the biggest things that the Lord is teaching me as a parent is that I am lazy. And I think in general PDF roots are planted in a need for control, which ultimately stems from laziness. I could very well be wrong about this, but I know that is how it works in my life.

I find that 90% of the time when I'm getting onto John David it is not because he is doing something wrong or dangerous. It is more because whatever he is doing/playing with is going to require that I either clean something up or is bothering me while I am trying to do something I want to do. I think in the same way PDF is someone trying to make a child as little as a bother as possible. Again, maybe I'm wrong about this, and if so someone explain it to me.

is it a bad thing?

top commenters script

target boycott

This year Leslie and I decided to boycott Target because of their banning The Salvation Army from collecting donation outside of their stores. Normally when you boycott a place it is pretty easy to do, but for Leslie and I it was no easy task. A few years back when we were remodeling our living room on Signal View Street We bought Roman Shades from target. They were the only store that had quality Roman shades for a fair price.

Now that we have moved we have absolutely NO curtains in our house. We need them badly because from time to time our neighbor's floodlight on the corner of their house shines right into our bedroom. The thing is that the light shines into our room and hits the mirror on top of our dresser then shines right back into our bed. On the nights that our neighbors leave their light on, I can wake up and look directly at Leslie and Elliot and see them without any problems. (If my neighbors across the street ever read this, then please understand that I am not upset. It just makes me realize that we need curtains.)

Okay back to Target.

Leslie and I looked everywhere for those curtains. But, every place that did have them had the real cheap kind or the really expensive kind, which cost $300 or more a piece. So, we were stuck with no curtains for the foreseeable future all because we refused to give Target the $400 that we would have paid if we bought it from them.

Side Note: Leslie ended up finding a place online that had the curtains we wanted. She bought them and we plan to get them up this weekend.

All of that is to say: Target missed their 4th quarter Wall Street estimate. I think this article pretty closely describes my feeling about the whole thing. I know it might be shallow to even think that my not giving Target $400 made any difference, but who knows.

Also, here is a quote from the article :

potty etiquette : bathroom etiquette

plaque in Erlanger Women's East bathroom

Okay so this is my post.

I have a confession to make that some people will think is quite odd, but people need to know. I have this thing about germs in public bathrooms. Yes, I will say it. There is always a piece of paper between me and anything I touch in a public bathroom.

Well, almost. Let me explain. After doing my business in the bathroom, whatever it may be, I have a process I go through to get back out of the door. This is how it goes.

1. use hand to dispense paper towel
2. use hand to turn on water
3. get hands wet and soap up
4. wash hands
5. grab dispensed paper towel and dry hands
6. turn off water using the paper towel
7. dispense more paper towel using said paper towel
8. throw used paper towel away
9. grab already dispensed paper towel
10. open the door using paper towel
11. use foot to prop door open
12. reach back to throw paper towel away and exit door

Yes, this is what I do, and I do it every time. Unless of course like in an airport when the bathroom does not have a door I stop at step six, or if the door opens out then I use my foot to open the door. Though, outward opening bathrooms are very rare. I have only seen a few of them.

So you are asking me "Why is he posting this on his blog"? Let me tell you. When Leslie was in the hospital for Elliot's birth I went into the public restroom and found to my complete delight this plaque above every sink. At first I felt justified. I felt as if I could come out of the ?I am a public restroom germ freak? closet, and so I am. Though, I have to show one great flaw in the hospitals thinking. It is that not everyone follows their six steps to restroom germ freedom. It just takes one to ruin it for the whole bunch. You see, their problem is that they have neglected the door issue. How do you get out without touching the door handle? You can't! If you miss step 7 through 11, then you might as well not even wash your hands. There are lots of people that do not wash when they finish their business and then they go straight for the door. In my book the door handle is the dirtiest place in the whole building.

You might think there is a bit of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) evident in this post, but I can say with total clarity that if a hospital sees bathroom hygiene and bathroom etiquette as an issue then so will I. Plus, if OCD was present then I would constantly have to reopen my refrigerator door every time I closed it just to make sure my cat or my kid did not jump in while I was closing the door. Oh wait, I already do that! lol