December 30, 2015

Late 2015 Readin'

Late in the year, I had a chance to catch up on several books.  I was expecting a pre-publish edition from LibraryThing, but it never arrived.  After a year and half, I decided to just read the books.  Several more Terry Brooks books had stacked up, and I was able to catch up on The High Druid's Blade, The Darkling Child, and The Measure of the Magic.  Set in the expansive universe that Brooks has created, they seem to have descended into a standard faire for fantasy novels.  These later novels has Brooks tending to develop more into the relationships in the books, than into the world itself.

December 26, 2015

Oregon Trail

We are off to Oregon and Washington.  I will be leaving Mission Aviation Fellowship at the beginning of January and headed to school at Western Seminary.  I will be pursuing a ThM degree.  Hopefully it will work out well, but we are excited to see where the Lord leads in whatever manner.

September 19, 2015

2015 Reading

It's been a while since I've written about books.  I've been reading away though.
Terry Pratchett's final outing, The Shepherd's Crown.  A fitting end for the discworld series.  It it obviously less polished than the other discworld books, seemingly pieced together of various parts.  But it is coherent and Pratchett through and through.
Another Pratchett book I had not yet read, Soul Music.  An interesting book that has Pratchett's hilarious perception/commentary paralleling many things in the non-fantastical universe.
After reading a friend's recommendation of the dystopian Oryx and Crake.  It reminded me alot of the dystopian Wool.   Another friend was recommending a more social/business oriented book, Never Eat Alone.  I had a few good takeaways from this book.  Growing up listening to the Heavy Metal Scorpions, I was interested in the book And Speaking of Scorpions by the drummer Herman Rarebell.  I also reviewed the book counterpart to this TED talk, The Upside of Stress.



Appropriate and Congruent Application of the Bible

Recently, I had the opportunity to preach at our church.  I've had the privilege of teaching some classes at our church in the past few years.  Having been focused on the classes, which I enjoy, it had been some time since I was behind the pulpit.  The last time was over four years ago.  However, I recently got the opportunity to continue a very infrequent series.

For those who've been waiting for Part 3, here it is:
And if you are interested in the classes, here are some stories which have more information:

June 1, 2015

Ethiopian Konga: Feng Shui of the Mouth




I thought that the Ethiopian Yergacheffe would be the longstanding champion, and that it would reign supreme for some time.  It seems that there has been a fair bit of speculation about planetary alignment, and perhaps there is something to the elements in nature aligning to create something special.  In this case, I think that the Starbucks Reserve sun dried Ethiopian Konga is a rare case of all concerned elements working in harmonious fashion.   A veritable Feng shui of the mouth; the flavors and textures working together in what might be a paneurythmy dance of your taste buds.  Definitely worth trying out at least once.


Characteristics:
The king is dead, long live the king!

Yorkshire Gold


Achtung: may contain pure awesome.
It's taken some time, but I think I've found one of the primal essences of the tea world, Yorkshire Gold.  I've been kicking around various teas for quite some time.  Such greats at Tazo Passion tea, Tazo Earl Grey, Trader Joe's Earl Grey, Rooibos, and your general purpose Orange Pekoe.

Anyway, after so many years, I found the Yorkshire Gold, which it a quintessential English tea blend.  Some contend that it vies with PG tips for that title.  Anyway, I think it is pretty spectacular.


April 15, 2015

Sprinkler Trench

When we purchased our house, the sprinklers were wired to a controller for the townhomes down the street.  I then wired the sprinklers to our garage using recycled wire.  Now, years later, the wires experienced enough voltage drop that it wouldn't fire the solenoids.  I trenched a new path through the yard, and laid down conduit with new wires.  The sprinklers are working again.  And a new storage shed to keep outdoor-ish things outdoors appeared.

March 17, 2015

Welcome Andre

This past January we welcomed a new addition to our family, our little boy named Andre!  He's been keeping us busy/tired.  As well, his big sister has been keeping us busy/tired!  We're getting tagged teamed!  At least we have even numbers.