When All Else Fails, Try Chocolate

I have a post that I've been working on - the usual word-filled post to go with my picture post - that I really thought I would finally finish tonight. Everything I've considered posting since then has been saved in draft form and awaits finishing until that all-important "Look, I Traveled!" post is finished and done.

However, instead of blogging tonight, I took charged of the kids while the parents went out. It provided no end of entertainment, from chasing little people all over the house while trying to make (and not explode) a pizza, to a rather curious announcement by the three year old when told to go into the bathroom and wash his hands that he can't because "but I can't find the water!"

I was rewarded by being tired enough to fall asleep by 8:30pm (which means now, at 11pm, I should have no trouble) and this is very good when considering I have to be up between 7-7:30 tomorrow and NOT just to get kids dressed and ready for the day. I was also rewarded by the parents bringing me back a delicious slice of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. Now I know where to go taste-testing when I'm rich again.

And I'll leave it up to you to figure out when it was that I was rich before.

San Antonio, TX, USA

Hehehe

My snowman!

Yes, I Did

Because it's just that exciting. If I didn't have a house full of sick people, I'd be out in this all day instead of just taking pictures...

And yes, it's snowing again today - that's what all the daylight pictures are from. More, thicker, staying, real snow! TX clearly loves me more than MI does. I think I love it, too.

Breaking News

We interupt this broadcast (wait, was I broadcasting?) to announce that there is stuff coming down from the sky outside. It's tiny, and I can barely see it except at the edge of the street lights, but it appears white and floats easily on the wind instead of falling straight down.

Forgive my excitement at this snow look-alike. It's the first I've seen all year.

I Just Know God Is Laughing At Me

I spent a restless night last night worrying about the job interviews I will hopefully have scheduled next week. It's not that there are any that are particularly important - I just don't like them. Who does? In fact, before I fell asleep, I made numerous assertions that there are plenty of things that make me nervous that I do like doing, and why couldn't I have one of those things to do, if I had to be nervous about something.

I think I got my answer this morning. Situations worked out such that I got my first experience at cantoring. I won't say it was flawless, but I hear plain old experience helps a lot. And, as long as I haven't yet done badly enough to get myself forever banned from singing, I intend to get that experience. For the moment, I depart to celebrate my survival with cocoa and a warm fire.

I'm still certain that God is laughing at me today, though, very amused by His answer to my unthought-out prayer.

Better Late Than Never (But Better Never Late)

To join other bloggers in discussing/reviewing/otherwise mentioning the ever-present "get your new blogger!" ads that have been gracing the pages of everyone not converted... I chose to honor someone's birthday by finally making the switch. I then proceeded to spend the next large amount of time, instead of finishing the post I had begun to announce said birthday, adding tags to barely over half of my old posts so that I - and possibly others, should I eventually choose - can look through them easier. I also had to redo my entire design, much of which I was unable to change simply using blogger's new and easier to use templates, because of the way I fooled around with the html code before. I still have a couple changes to make, but I think it's decent now... leave a comment if anything appears out of whack.

But for the important part - how, you all might be wondering, did I manage to convince myself that upgrading my blog actually honored a birthday? Well, it's easy. It meant that blogger will finally be nice to me and let me post pictures again. A happy, happy occurance, though I could have avoided the frustration (and been on time with this post!) had I switched earlier.

But that's all in the past (the picture, too, of course, but all are) - and here's the picture.

Happy Birthday, Mary!

Me Too, Linus.. Me Too

Where's My Micronation?

They're selling a cute tiny country near England. I want it!

However, if I can't (and judging by the funds currently in my possession, that's most likely the case), then I have a proposition to make. I propose that we create our own country right here in TX. Not all of Texas, obviously; all we need is a house or two, and of course, the creation of our own flag, currency, and so on. Perhaps an official language. We can elect the kangaroo as our national animal, Gandalf our president, and celebrate our independance once a year with mint truffles and champagne.

So how does anyone feel about taking over Pflugerville?

Local News

Amazing what you miss without newspaper, radio, or other sort of contact with the outside world. (Wait, internet should count...) Such as a ton of bird deaths in downtown Austin. No worries; it doesn't appear to be dangerous. Some people speculate intentional poisoning. It's possibly even more telling, as far as my own activities, that I have no idea (beyond the article's description of crow-like and annoying) what a grackle is.

Random Supposition of the Day

Single life would not exist without the invention of cheese.

It's true. What else can be combined with so many different foods in order to create quick and easy meals? Need breakfast - bread topped with cheese, and a suitable drink. Lunch? Crackers and cheese, or string cheese, or a nice sandwich with peanut butter and cheese (fine, be traditional - meat and cheese), or a slice of ham and cheese all rolled up together. And a suitable drink. Of course, for dinner you have to have something including at least a somewhat higher level of nutrition. Back in MI this would have involved pasta and cheese; now that I'm in TX, mixing beans and salsa into the cheese and combining with chips works well, but I could also see potatoes, or - hamburger, but it takes so much more effort. For even more nutrition, add broccoli or cauliflower, or even apples, with melted cheese. All, of course, accompanied by a suitable drink. Midnight snack? Cheese balls!*

Just kidding on that last one. Cheese balls take time to make - though you could always buy one, and a few crackers while you're at it.

Next week we cover chocolate.

*All items created within a safe environment. Do not try at home if you have parents, dairy allergies, a dislike of cheese, other people expecting to actually eat the meals you cook, or a fear of the color yellow.

On my Activities During These Past Few Weeks

At this point, at least a minimal update as to what I've been doing over the last two weeks is probably in order. I arrived back in TX three days after Christmas with two fifty-pound bags, a violin, an overstuffed carry-on, and a computer bag that should have had a couple more books stuffed in it except for the fact that arriving at the airport on time seemed a tad more important. The flights were packed but uneventful, though I stick by my claim and still refuse to take a plane anywhere that isn't overseas, or at least less safely drivable than the USA and Canada. May I be forevermore spared the experience of camping out at the beginning of an airport boarding line to ensure halfway decent seating - the floors may be carpeted, but they aren't comfortable.

I met up with some of my family and my other family back in TX (translation: aside from my adopted family in Austin, my brother and his girlfriend flew down to visit me - and it was ever so much fun meeting up with people in MI on the 27th, telling them about my 5am drive to take said brother and girlfriend to the airport, and then explain that they were currently visiting me in TX.. my own flight was on the 28th.) and began a week of general busy-ness. Having my own guests I missed out on a portion of the parties, but still made it to a couple, and also made it to San Antonio, a state park, and an impossibly hard to find laser tag establishment (reviews to follow). Of special note, our dance on New Years Eve went very well in spite of my own (miniscule) involvement (and the rest of the band was brilliant as usual - a very few pictures are available over at Matthew's blog (haha, my turn to steal!), and a few more with me actually in them might be given up for public viewing once I have copies from the girlfriend's camera). My brother and his girlfriend claimed to have an entertaining and enjoyable time in Texas, and with luck will be back to visit again before too much time has passed.

My time in MI before coming back home (you know, when I was at home) also went fairly well, with multiple - but less energetic - parties, a number of old friends to schedule time to see in the little bit of free time I had (but I succeeded in seeing everyone for at least a little while, even if some of that time was last minute on the day before I left - some things are more important than sleep), two trees to decorate, and the strange endevour of fitting time for presents at my mom's house, my dad's house, and a Christmas dinner into less than a full day for the first time ever but definitely not the last.

Among the number of books and science fiction movies, assortments of candies, necessary clothes and the like, I think one of my favorite gifts was a blanket from ThinkGeek, proving that, despite all odds, my family does sometimes know when to take me seriously... It's black and green, with the word "blanket" repeating across it. In binary. I've also got a least favorite, thanks to my former favorite state of MI, who refused to give me snow for my return and has sumarily been dropped from my list. (I don't think I can be called officially Texan yet, after barely five months.. even if I did have a particularly incriminating conversation with my brother about a possible Texas revolution during the week after Christmas in which we decided everyone from other states would probably be shot down as the enemy and I, without any thought whatsoever, announced that I at least was from Texas and would be safe.)

One of the more interesting experiences would probably be my taking my grandmother to her first Christmas Eve Mass as the extremely charismatic Christ the King in Ann Arbor, where I am still officially registered and really ought to fix that soon. The Mass itself actually provided very little (not none, but little) for me to object to, included quite a bit in Latin, and was overall very beautiful. That wasn't the interesting part. The interesting part was spending a half hour afterwards explaining to my grandmother which parts were real charismatic worship and which parts were simply strange, including about ten minutes alone on whether applause was ever acceptable during Mass as, being a charismatic church, I can think of three or four seperate reasons for clapping during the evening and there were mutliple demonstrations of most of them. It's clear I've been out of the charismatic circles for a while - I had trouble putting an explanation for most of the worship into words, though I know I've heard it discussed many times before.

Hopefully this is sufficient to prove that I did not drop off the face of the earth for the last couple weeks (I'd like to do that sometime, preferably in the direction of Mars, but probably not over Christmas); pictures and so on to follow later, if and as available.