A Few Cards from the Game of Life

Best way to get rid of that horrid citrus zinc lozenge taste: a mint (one of their few uses).

Best way to kill your appetite the next day: eat a huge dinner in a hot room with nine other friends, stay up till 2 a.m. watching an exciting, sad, scary movie, then get up six hours later to drive a van in for realignment.

An overflowed toilet does constitute a family health and sanity crisis.

Till this crisis is properly dispensed with, you're probably better off wearing shoes around the house.

If you're drying off equivalent amounts of blood and water, you're washing your hands too often.

There is no limit to how much some little boys can complain.

Your classy new hair cut may well be the death of your gagging younger brother.

Upon discovering something that truly annoys an easy-going sister, write it down.

Reading for too long can make eye movement painful.

If you can feel the electric current through the wire, said wire may be getting old.

Rhythmically patting a little brother's back produces an interesting vibrating hum.

Write down those quotes. They'll be worth another laugh someday.

• "Do you flavor your coffee with lettuce?" (Derek)
• "Trust Ardith. She's watched enough TV to know." (obvious)

No, there isn't anyone else. If you don't do it, no one will. Now you know what a mom's life is like.

Keep reenforcing those traditional family values: "Life isn't fair. Get used to it."

HOPPP

Photos are on the sidebar. (For the unenlightened - HOPPP = Hoyts-Opening-Presents-Party Pictures)

One or two aren't perfectly clear. I am still refining the art of using a digital camera.

All presents sent from Texas-based associates are represented. Thank you for these unexpected and very welcome contributions!

I hope these pictures will let you share in our Christmas.

Even more importantly, keep Christmas in your hearts the year round, as the Ghost of Christmas Present counseled Scrooge.

Merry Christmas!

This has truly been the best Christmas ever. We were all together again!

A few calculations. . . Daddy hadn't been home for nine weeks, Mommy about the same time. Most of the kids hadn't seen either Daddy or Mommy since sometime in November (I think). Ardith and I visited over Thanksgiving. That was our last real face-to-face contact till today. Now just six more weeks to go! (Lord willing, with somewhat more frequent visits)

So much fun to open presents together! Our Christmas dinner turned out fairly well, only about half was burnt or undercooked or something else fairly easily remedied, and was eaten not too long after 2 p.m. We laughed so much! Enough to have lifted a hot-air balloon at least. Wouldn't have been a bad day for it, quite warm. . . but we had so much fun.


This is for Christmas and for my parents. It's Mommy's favorite Christmas carol.

Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly crown
When Thou camest to earth for me;
But in Bethlehem's home was there found no room
For Thy holy nativity.
O come to my heart Lord Jesus-
There is room in my heart for Thee!

Heaven's arches rang when the angels sang,
Proclaiming Thy royal degree;
But of lowly birth didst Thou come to earth
And in great humility.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus-
There is room in my heart for Thee!

The foxes found rest and the birds their nest
In the shade of the forest tree;
But thy couch was the sod, O Thou Son of God,
In the deserts of Galilee.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus-
There is room in my heart for Thee!

Thou camest, O Lord, with the living word
That should set Thy people free;
But with mocking scorn and with crown of thorn
They bore Thee to Calvary.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus-
There is room in my heart for Thee!

When the heavens shall ring and the angels sing
At Thy coming to victory,
Let Thy voice call me home, saying "Yet there is room-
There is room at My side for thee."
My heart shall rejoice, Lord Jesus,
When Thou comest and callest for me!

Emily E. S. Elliott

Christmas Eve

Isaiah 9:6-7

"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this."

Modifications

You may have noticed a few changes on this blog. If you didn't, that's all right - I will now inform you of the significant ones.

Ardith gave me a few HTML editing tips, so I have expanded the sidebar to include some links of interest to myself and hopefully to you also.

1. You can now access the (2) blogs of my family (and soon some of my friends, or perhaps blogs I deem worth visiting).

2. Well-educated includes educated on current events, therefore, I have provided several links to news sites, in different languages of course.

3. 'Sites of the Month' should be self-explanatory. In the interests of promoting knowledge, and especially knowledge in the context of languages and linguistics, I would like to post links on a general theme each month. This month's theme is French websites. I realize that very few French-speakers visit this blog, but you might want to visit the sites anyway. Some have interesting pictures or maps that you could track down (with a little guessing and perspiration).
For those who don't feel like following up on my hour+ of research. . . no guilt intended, unless of course you want to feel some. . . remember that December is fast closing the rather frigid doorways of 2004, and soon will come a new year, a new month, and a new topic.

I have carefully ordered these websites for optimal experience.

--Gymnastique Linguistique: tracing French to its root language, Latin, with a few activités;
--Le Figaro: similar to Le Monde, focus both French and international;
--Histoire en Ligne: French history, complete with geopolitical maps;
--A la lettre: All the info on French authors and their works that you could want;
--Glossaire linguistique: Explanations and diagrams for linguistic and typographic terminology
--Tolkiendil: dedicated to Tolkien, with essays, games, illustrations, etc.

I suppose some of these sites might be translatable, if you'd like.

Enjoy and become more cultured. And you can take that any way you want.

Singing Saturn

Johannes Kepler may have been right about the "music of the spheres".

"Kosmisches Konzert: Raumsonde hört Gesang des Saturns"

Yesterday Spiegel had an article on the space probe Cassini, a joint project of NASA and ESA, its European equivalent (I think). This probe has been visiting the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. Apparently it has detected sounds or tones that result from solar wind particles meeting Saturn's electromagnetic field. In fact, astrophysics researcher Don Gurnett from the University of Iowa (n.b.!) has published Saturn's first tones. And he and his RPWS (Radio and Plasma Wave Science) buddies think the same may be true for Jupiter.

"Das All ist zwar luftleer, aber nicht stumm", proposes the article; "The universe is indeed a vacuum, but it is not silent." If true, this gives new meaning to Psalm 19:1 - "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands." (NASB)

Yay! I'm so excited!

1) My computer's up and running! Jason set it up for me. Of course I could have done it myself, however, there were a few changes. Now I'm using one of Daddy's two monitors for his downstairs computer, a flatscreen! My monitor had taken to frequent fits of buzzing while at school. Personally, I think it was the little Word paper clip that looked like it would pass out every time I was typing out my French or German or Spanish homework.

Only disappointment is that AOL refuses to work, so far. Fortunately, I don't have a buddy list hundreds of people long like some people I could mention (but I kindly refrain from so doing).

And now I can finally access all the files saved to my harddrive, which means returning to the science fiction story contest with Jason and Derek which I don't mind humbly saying that I'm winning hands down, due to my four or five chapters already completed, despite a sabbatical of the entire fall semester. Oh yes, and my photos are also saved to my hard drive. I will get busy putting these at the public's disposal if Ardith will help me set up an online album which a specifically targeted general populace can access.


2) Ethan allowed me to keep the instructions from the watch he just received for his birthday. Did I mention that these instructions are in eight different language? I think I have identified all of them: English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, two Asian languages which must be Chinese and Japanese, and lastly German. What a gold mine! Now I get all the fun of comparing them, not to mention acquiring a first-rate vocabulary pertaining to watches in the above languages (at least the ones I can read). Here are some translations of watch:

montre
Voi
Uhr
relógio
reloj

I've only changed the order of one, so you should have no difficulty classing them.

And now that Ardith has adjusted the connection for our home network, my screen name is free to again whiz over the cyberspace currents and connect me to the online population, or, should I quote my revered Grandpa and say my 'three friends'.

Now I will go obey Nolan's command to read him a Peanuts book 'when you're done with that.'

Who needs ovens, anyway!

Not the ever-resourceful Hoyt kids. Ardith and I have just planned Christmas Dinner over lunch, complete with pie and no oven. Ethan has postponed his birthday meal indefinitely since he just can't resign himself to anything of quality inferior to homemade pizza. As for the Christmas cookies. . . we'll make fudge. Everybody knows chocolate's good for you, everybody who's read my mom's blog, anyway.

I thought it might be helpful to have a list of names and ages for future reference. . .

Ardith - 21
Sharon - 19
Jason - 17 (Dec. 30th)
Kendra - 15 1/2
Derek - 13 1/2
Melinda - 12
Carolyn - 10
Ethan - 8
Nolan - 5 1/2
Trevor - 3 in February

About halfway down the list I forget, so I keep going and see if the last couple end up at the right ages. We all know my parents are timeless and ageless. Besides, I'm not sure about Daddy's age anymore since he's had three or four different birthdays.

Yesterday I drove the kids in for play practice, which somehow finished early. Tonight will be the gala performance. I've been under the impression that it was a 'normal' story-of-Mary-and-Joseph-and-baby-Jesus presentation, but Pastor John says there's a twist in it this year. It can't be too extreme - we don't have any Herdmans in our church.

Jason and Derek had to stay extra long to finish cleaning the WRC church last night, because somebody had eaten Oreos over a newly swept floor. Meanwhile, we watched our usual Saturday night music shows - Guy Lombardo and Lawrence Welk. Guy Lombardo is my favorite. Not so much for Ethan - "Oh, great, it's over!" - not said sarcastically.

And now you can all agree with him, 'cause this post is done and I'm off to take a nap.

The Gang's All Here

Time for the first nightly report. Yes, all the Hoyt siblings are home. We only had to wait till about 6 p.m. for Ardith to show up.

Today we went shopping, because Ethan's birthday was today and to be celebrated tomorrow, and he requested pizza. So we got out to the van and had to move the four mousetraps baited with peanut butter. I'm not sure mice are still living in there. . . the one I saw was the little guy that ran underneath the accelerator and Ardith's foot, when we went up to visit Daddy and Mommy over Thanksgiving.

Ethan wanted pizza for his birthday, and I planned to make spaghetti pie for Ardith's first supper home. Unfortunately, the oven wasn't working. I found this out when the second batch of cookies started smoking after about 4 minutes. Fortunately, Jason enjoys getting his daily dose of carbon from burnt cookies. So much for a baked supper. . . we just had spaghetti with cheese instead, and applesauce and beans. To round out this lovely Italian theme meal, I gave them all a Ghirardelli's Dark Chocolate (my college friends have figured out what to get me for Christmas). We ate supper out in the living room while watching Ethan's birthday movie, Robin Hood - the Disney animal version. During the exciting first climax scene of the post-shooting match ruckus, most of the kids were yelling in loud hoots at the ridiculous escapades, underscored by Trevor's steady drone of "ooww.... ooouwwiieeeee....", probably in sympathy for the rhinos that Lady Cluck was tackling.

I tried mopping the kitchen floor today. My conclusion: Swiffer mops aren't magical. Except in the commercials where dirt doesn't get slowly ground into the tile because the ever-vigilant mother whips out her handy Swiffer every afternoon (and apparently doesn't have to put ten chairs on the table first). It does look better, but I think hands + soap + hot water will be necessary for a deep clean.

That's all, folks. Two little girls are reading up in their double bed, waiting for me to pray with them. Everyone sleep well and think warm thoughts, especially if you're in slightly underheated bedrooms.

Made it!

Needless to say, it's great to be home. It only took me half an hour to check out of my room and say goodbyes. Weather driving home was clear and beautiful, and just imagine this - the house is now 75 degrees instead of 73! Compliments of Jason. And it's so easy to unload a vanful with six or seven extra pairs of hands.

I sat down on the couch to talk to Grandpa and Grandma for a while, and after a few minutes Carolyn came to claim her "pillow" (at least that's what she calls me), Nolan wanted to snuggle, Ethan and Melinda wanted to talk. I asked when Ardith was coming home, and Ethan remarked, "Oh yeah, she's bringing a whip." Make that a blacksnake whip! I'd like to know who started that idea.

I knew I'd been gone too long when I sat down to play Dutch Blitz with Carolyn (10), Ethan (8 tomorrow), and Nolan (5), and Nolan dutch blitzed in the first round. (!!!) Nothing makes you feel old like a precocious little brother. What I can't understand is how he watches everyone else's cards as well as his own, so he can tell them when to slap down another card.
It's Grandpa's doing - he's been training him. I realized again today how much Grandpa and Grandma have done just by sacrificing nearly a month of their time to be with the kids and keep things running smoothly. Thank the Lord for them.

And for one final happy note, I found that two of my final grades are in. Intermediate German and Intro to Sociology, both As. Two down, three to go. I'd like to break my past trend and avoid any A-'s this time round. We'll see. It seems like I spent very little time studying this semester. But I'm just glad to be done.

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,
For His lovingkindness endures forever."

Psalm 136:1

Looking ahead

Three more days till home for Christmas, and then some. I'm staying home the spring semester to help run the homestead. Just so no one has any doubts - I want y'all to know that it was my choice to come home. I offered quite a while ago when I learned that Daddy would need to stay in Rochester for three months. But we didn't know when Daddy's transplant would be, so we couldn't plan.

I can't wait to come home! It took long enough to work up excitement for college, now after three semesters I feel very ready for a break. Not many people have that privilege. Fortunately, language credits through placement tests have moved me up a whole semester, so if I return to Grace in the fall I will still be graduating with my class in '07.

I just wish Ardith could take a break too, but she needs to graduate this spring. At least all of us kids will be together for Christmas. It will be a little different, but still very wonderful! It has been so comforting to know that Grandpa and Grandma Baker have been with the kids during these weeks.

Finals are humming along. . . French and Spanish down, only Sociology, Science, and German to go. And lots of packing, and cleaning, and goodbyes to say. I really don't see how all this can be crammed into two more days, but somehow it will.

By the way, I think everyone should read L'Etranger, or The Stranger, by Camus. It's good to confront the theory of absurdism at least once in your lifetime.

Picture Time!

Finally! It's only taken me about ten tries. Posting photos is a two-step process; first, loading them into an album from the hard drive on my computer; second, linking them on a lobby computer, because for some reason mine doesn't do links.

These are from the trip Ardith and I made to visit Daddy and Mommy.

My wonderful parents:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/SharonLHoyt/P1040357.jpg

My beautiful, popular sister Ardith:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/SharonLHoyt/P1040358.jpg

(you can tell I'm only justifiably biased)

And yes, they made me get a picture taken too:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/SharonLHoyt/P1040359.jpg

Now that I have a reliable site for hosting photos, there should be more in the future. And now I'm going to post this before I accidentally hit the odd combination of buttons that clears the window.

Weekend means entertainment

Yeah, I may get in trouble for this one, but it seems to me that new vocabulary requires practice.

So, to run back to Thanksgiving break, Tammie and I enjoyed a rather confabulatory ride home, especially since it took us three hours longer than usual. In fact, ten-hour trips in a small car with snow shutting you in produce conditions very favorable to confabulation. Once home, I enjoyed still more confabulation with my family, though a different degree of confabulation. The natural type that comes from years of knowing someone, till on a level so comfortable that it's hard to classify the conversation, because one doesn't even think about it. I think that's one thing that frustrates me about college. One has to always be thinking about what to say. It's all due to a social equation which says that one's number of friends (and perhaps even one's comfort level) is in direct proportion to one's ability to confabulate. But maybe it's better that way. Makes it easier to distinguish the real friends.

I'm afraid we're not a very deipnosophistic family, even over Thanksgiving Dinner. At least not in the usual sense of the word. Our conversation tended more towards the opposite extreme, somewhere in the wilderness beyond confabulation. That doesn't mean we aren't skilled in table talk, just not the fancy-restaurant variety. Actually, our variety of deipnosophism follows the unique theory that laughter aids digestion. If these two simultaneous actions hurt your stomach muscles, realize that they're in need of exercise. Especially if you're going to eat some of that ridiculously rich pecan pie.

Yesterday I gave a presentation on my 10-page French dissertation in class. I suppose, by an extreme stretch of the imagination, one could consider that a deipnosophistic exercise, minus the gastronomical aspect. In all seriousness, it went very well. I was nervous, felt like I was having trouble communicating all my logical developement, almost stopped a few times. But Prof. Schram said it was excellent. What a relief. I'm glad I went first. This next week, all I have to do for French class is read L'Etranger (Camus) one more time, and of course, prepare for the final. And listen to everyone else's presentations, which will be easy, since I won't be thinking about mine.

Hmm. . . I just discovered that this post was unconsciously inspired.

To whom it may concern: working on the pictures, i.e., the sites tried so far haven't been working, but I hope to have them linked by tonight.

Everyone stay warm and start thinking about Christmas. Never too early.

Super November around the world

We don't hold anything over Romania when it comes to presidential elections and voting complications. Translated from Le Monde's site.

"I voted four times," a young I.T. technician from Bucharest (the capital) informed the reporter. "I made a bet with my friends on who would have the courage to vote more than once. It was a question of adrenaline because you can go to prison for that. But hey, the stickers stamped onto our cards are easy to take off. In fact, I lost the bet. One of my friends voted seven times."

Another good reason to move to Romania, where the young and the daring can swing elections!

Donuts and things

It's strange to be blogging from Mommy's chair, in front of Mommy's computer at Mommy's desk. But I had to take advantage of Ardith's nap. By the way, Mommy, the plant hanging above your chair is growing long beautiful tendrils around the Burpee picture and down to the chair arm. . . I'm sure by the time you're back, it will have curled its way all over your desk.

Yes, good to be home. I don't have any thrillingly frustrating stories to equal Ardith's, although we were in the car about 10 hours instead of the usal 7 1/2. Traffic was stop-and-start most of the way to Chicago, and through Chicago, and past Chicago. Tammy drove the first half (the slow, long half); by the time we switched, the roads had cleared out and I could drive the speed limit. After quite a long stretch, the cars in front of me started braking. Ice! I must have hit the brakes too, because the car started skidding and spinning around. . . over 180 degree turn. . . I hung on, waiting for us to hit something. But we didn't even go in the ditch, although 3 or 4 other cars had already succeeded. That was scary. That's why we prayed for safety at the beginning of the trip.

After that it was smooth sailing to Waterloo. Since it was Tammy's car and Tammy likes to keep her speed up, I did too. . . but I promise I wasn't reckless. We got into Waterloo about 10 Iowa time, 11 Indiana time (left 1:30). Then I learned I would be staying the night because Ardith had missed her flight. Great job, Ardith. Cars may be slow, but they beat flights you never catch. Yeah, she knows I'm kidding. Pastor John and I almost walked past her at the airport the next morning. It was a very fast airport stop, since her luggage had somehow disappeared.

So, we got home. Ardith planned the dinner prep times and we managed to carry it out, with help from everyone else. After everyone had eaten their fill, or more, we sat around the table and laughed at Derek's attempt to re-word the title "The Taming of the Shrew" so he could avoid copyright laws. Why? I guess he wanted to write about a real taming of a real shrew. Most people know that Shakespeare's play describes how a man brings his headstrong wife to submission, but we did learn from Jason that the title also refers to how the woman had a nose shaped like a shrew's. It does hurt to laugh on a full stomach!

Today has been very relaxing. Sleeping in till 11, playing Dutch Blitz, doing a little homework. . . Ardith was working on her collation of Greek manuscripts, me on my French dissertation, on which I have to give a presentation a week from today.

As long as I was home and free from Grace's restrictive firewall, I took that molecule test. Looks like I'm glucose. All I remember is that I'm sweet, caring, and people feed off of me. Kinda makes me not want to be sweet and caring. I think there's some plot behind this.

Tomorrow, provided no cold suddenly descends to smite Ardith and me, we'll drive up to visit Daddy and Mommy in their ritzy little establishment. Might be a temperature shock, from a 73 degree house (if that) to 77 plus. But I'm definitely willing to take the risk!

From the library desk

As long as the library's paying me to sit here in front of a computer, why not write another post? Isn't this a wonderful country? Maybe that's what the 'liberal' arts college experience means. Ardith knows what I mean. Even if she is at a tech school that is only slowly beginning to live up to the idea of a liberal arts school.

I had to try the Narnia quiz that Martinez linked on his blog, short and dumb as it was (yes, that could have been worded more carefully - of course I meant the quiz, not the blog - but why not allow a few moments' worth of interesting reactions?). They assigned me to The Horse and His Boy, with the labels of wistful, alienated, goal-driven. Not bad. The Horse and His Boy has always been my favorite Narnia chronicle. Wistful, alienated. . . that's fairly accurate for the last few weeks. Goal-driven? Conversely, this hasn't been true, until the new motivation of Thanksgiving break.

But enough of trite personality quizzes. Why are they so fascinating? In my case, I think it comes down to selfishness. In fact, the more time passes, the more convinced I am that selfishness is deeply entrenched in me, and radical surgery is often required just to make me aware of it.

The library's Christmas decorations and the Christmas music playing is making me nostalgic. But I enjoy it now, because tomorrow is home!

Spiegel had some interesting news today, from Chancellor Gerhard Schröder:

"Wenn eine junge Frau in der Gesellschaft ein Kopftuch tragen möchte, halte ich das für tolerabel. Wenn sie es als Angehörige im öffentlichen Dienst tun möchte, würde ich sagen: Nein, da erwarten wir eine andere Weise, sich anzuziehen."

Why?

"Wer hier lebt und sich integrieren will, der muss sich an die gesetzgeberischen Regeln halten und er muss unsere Sprache lernen."

For those who don't read German, the Chancellor announced on television that women in teaching positions should not wear headscarves, because they are holding public office. Behind this is the idea that if someone wants to live and integrate himself (or herself) into German society, that person must follow the legislated regulations and learn German.
The French have been dealing with the same issue, only in their case, Muslim girls who attend a university and don't want to be expelled cannot wear the traditional head scarf. I find these similar themes interesting, considering the large variance between the church/state relations that French and German history has seen. Of course, their economic and political ties bind them much more closely now.

Those who want to read the article can visit http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,329017,00.html

No, I don't feel like learning how to set up links tonight, because it's almost 10 and I want to catch some of the sleep I missed earlier this weekend.

And yes, this was last night, but my computer must have been as tired as me, because it didn't have the energy to succesfully publish.

Survived till Friday

Tonight seems like a good time to write. The writing urge is tugging, which it hasn't done for a long time. . . probably because I haven't had time to give it a chance. Now, my real challenge is keeping on track while I type this in the lobby where "Friends" is on TV. Believe me, I'd be in my room, but I'm afraid my computer may decide to shut down and take its weekend rest when I'm about 89% done with the blog. And believe me, "Friends" doesn't intrigue me at all, but it does interrupt my thought trains.

Tonight Festival Chorus performed the second half of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, with guests for the solo parts. Sitting on stage is much different than sitting in the audience, in fact, standing on stage is rather different. I hovered between the happy extremes of feeling the glory of the music lift me toward the roof, to momentary panic that I had missed a cue from Prof. Faber, to the uncomfortable certainty that I was feeling dizzy and wobbly and would faint, just because I've never fainted before and performance night would be the perfect time to do it. But the night turned out to be a success, mostly because I was only one of forty and couldn't do too much to ruin it. It has been very pleasant to participate in some music this semester, which is now over, leaving the sad predicament of free Thursday evenings.

Let's see, I promised more details on our budding poetry club. So far we have met two or three times, depending on which of us is the subject, since Kat and I missed last night's meeting due to a three-hour dress rehearsal in which no one dressed at all like performance night, but we did rehearse - excuse that rabbit trail, I'm just trying to figure out how 'dress rehearsal' got its name. Our still-developing goals seem to be 1) to read and discuss poetry, 2) to write poetry to read and discuss, and 3) to find inspiration to write poetry to read and discuss. In other words, it's actually an inspiration club. Our main problem is to meet these three goals, because a few more easily distracted individuals distract the remaining compliant ones. Since several good ideas have sprung from these distractions, we continue to make progress and press toward the ultimate goal of being "the coolest club at Grace" (not my words) and promoting the general literary culture on campus.

Returning to tonight. . . it has been a relaxing evening of tidying, laundry, reading blog posts, talking to a friend, lifting weights. That last makes three times this week, which means I'm almost back to re-establishing a habit from last semester. More importantly, it means I'll be ready to come home for Thanksgiving Break and give piggy-back rides and play Dutch Blitz and beat thick banana bread batter and whatever else may be necessary. Thanks to some very wonderful friends - you know who you are, even if I don't! - Ardith will be home as well. This will undoubtedly be our most memorable Thanksgiving ever. Even if we have to celebrate it from two locations.

And now it's nearly 12:30 a.m., late for this little girl.

When my words fail. . .

For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life;

indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves
so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;

who delivered us from so great a peril of death,
and will deliver us,
He on whom we have set our hope.

And He will yet deliver us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers,
so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf
for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.

II Corinthians 1:8-11

News

And that's good news!

Daddy is out of surgery, into intensive care. Transplant was "satisfactory". He'll be closely monitored during the 24 hours post-surgery, the first crucial period.

Thank you for all the prayers, and many thanks to God for answering them!

Life

C'est pour cela aussi que nous nous efforçons de lui être agréables, soit que nous demeurions dans ce corps, soit que nous le quittions. Car il nous faut tous comparaitre devant le tribunal de Christ, afin que chacun reçoive selon le bien ou le mal qu'il aura fait, étant dans son corps.
2 Corinthiens 5.9-10

Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.


What made me think of these verses was the Thursday chapel message by Roger Peugh. He showed us how deeply words, careless or not, can hurt others. Now I was sure that there exists a verse saying that we will give an account for every careless word we speak. Not finding that one, I thought of these. I'm still thinking of them.

My apologies for not posting earlier. This week I had several tests plus Homecoming, which entails a few responsibilities for senators. Let's see, if I wanted to give you a snapshot through one day, Thursday would be a good example.

6:00 - wake up and shower
6:30 - back to sleep (don't laugh)
8:00 - get ready, eat breakfast
9:00 - work at Language department
10:00 - chapel
11:00 - work again
12:00 - fast lunch
12:30-2:00 - Sociology
2:30-4:00 - work at library
4:00-5:10 - meeting with Senate's Alpha Dining committee and Sodexho personnel
5:30 - supper
7:00-9:00 - Festival Chorus practice
9:15-9:50 - Poetry Club
10:30-12 a.m. - help decorate dining hall for Homecoming Banquet

Probably the busiest day this week.

Sometimes it feels like everything solid is slipping away. Habakkuk must have felt like that, when God told him that the Chaldeans would invade Judah.

I heard and my inward parts trembled,
At the sound my lips quivered.
Decay enters my bones,
And in my place I tremble.
Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress,
For the people to arise who will invade us.
Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold,
And there be no cattle in the stalls,

Yet I will exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds' feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.

???

I really don't understand computers. That is, I don't understand the personality factor.

Forget It

I wrote a nice long blog post. Now it's gone. Serves me right. Never trust a computer.

Maybe tomorrow, when I feel optimistic enough to waste time again.

Long Live the Hobbits

Tolkien's world has come to ours. Or at least, someone's discovered a wormhole.

Today's local Times Union proclaims the discovery of a human dwarf species, supposedly 18,000 years old. Their home is the Indonesian Flores Island, home to giant lizards and miniature elephants.

My personal theory? Someone's accidentally stumbled across one of the few colonies of Hobbits established during the escape from the ruin of Beleriand. No one was aware of them at the time, of course, because Hobbits are small and quiet, especially in woods full of large trees. What I don't understand yet is how they came here. If anyone has an idea, please let me know.

In other news. . .

Wednesday night was "Taste of the World", an annual Grace event sponsored by Mu Kappa and featuring tables of cultural samples from twenty-eight different countries. This is only the third or fourth year, and already it attracts hundreds of students and people from the community. Kathleen and I, both in Intermediate German, helped our Austrian professor with her table, serving Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread) on bread and apple juice mixed with mineral water. We took over for our professor and her husband while they went to visit the other tables, and found ourselves scrambling to spread Nutella and fill more little cups, as well as stamp everyone's "passport" with the Austrian seal. When it was our turn, I tried nearly everything -German potato salad, sticky rice, crackers with quince jelly and cheese, authentic Russian torte. Most of the music was coming from the Argentine and Mexican tables, facing each other, where whoever was controlling the speakers seemed intent on outdoing the opposite table in volume.

When my roommate and I got back, we had to race each other up and down the entire hall to calm down.

Thank you for the package, Thainamu! I had just come out of Sociology, where we had not been discussing a pleasant topic. Finding your gift was just the right mix of kind intent and chocolate that I needed then. Yes, I definitely inherited my dad's taste for chocolate and my mom's love for it.

Photos

So I only seem to be posting once a week. What can I say? Life is busy.

I thought y'all might like to see some photos I took over fall break. These are from the day we went up to see Daddy at Mayo (Monday, 17 October).

Daddy, with his IV to the far left, and his heart monitor on upper left -
http://www.imagevenue.com/host/web2/e57b8_P1040306.JPG

Nolan and Trevor busy on Daddy's exercise bike -
http://www.imagevenue.com/host/web2/ad546_P1040309.JPG

By popular demand, Mommy -
http://www.imagevenue.com/host/web2/0c2f4_P1040320.JPG

Trevor thinking (on trip up) -
http://www.imagevenue.com/host/web2/c82fd_P1040302.JPG

And finally (okay, it's not quite straight, and I'm not quite a professional photographer. . . yet),
all the kids, more or less, in our 15-passenger van (on trip up) -
http://www.imagevenue.com/host/web2/52fe2_P1040298.JPG

I'm thinking this is the first time many people have seen Daddy for a while, since he and Mommy haven't been in our last few Christmas pictures. Anyway, this will give you an idea of our family right now. Thank you for all the prayers!

Today is one of those rainy Saturdays perfect for falling asleep over homework reading in a dorm room. Today I was glad to discover that all my midterm grades are in, all As.

Next week is Grace's Missions Conference week. For us, this means extra-long chapels on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and instead of classes Wednesday, two sessions with missionaries as speakers (8 a.m. and 11 a.m.). Wycliffe has one each hour, so that makes my choice easy.

Ardith, please have a very pleasant and relaxing Fall Break this weekend!

Having decided to avoid the sensitive topics of religion, politics, and sports, let me wish you all un bon week-end, una buena fin de semana, ein schönes Wochenende.

Here at last

Yesterday morning I woke up and typed out my German paper/speech. Then, because it was a grayish cold fall day, and I didn't have anything else to do, I went back to sleep till breakfast time. My 9 o'clock class had been cancelled, so I worked at the library till 11, when I went down to Prof. Schram's house for an authentic French meal. She served us de la salade, des baguettes, du boeuf bourgignon avec des pâtes, du fromage, and Holly made us delicious cream puffs so full of cream that it burst out at every bite.

When I got back to my dorm room, I carefully proofread and corrected my German paper. As soon as I had finished, my computer rebooted. Then I discovered that the only colors left for hall t-shirts were orange and yellow. Despite these difficulties, my paper was finished and my weekend stuff packed by 2 p.m. and German class.

We left soon after 3 and reached Tammie's house about 10:45, with a rather long, gray, and uneventful drive in between. Mommy picked me up on her way back from Mayo, and we reached home around 1 a.m. Of course, all the kids were asleep. How fun to come down this morning and see everybody!

Update

I don't know how many people actually read this blog, but I would like to ask for prayer for Daddy and Mommy. Neither of them has been online today, so I began to wonder. Kendra told me on AIM that Mommy took Daddy to the hospital on Friday because his heartbeat was irregular. While staying there overnight, his defibrillator shocked him, so they sent him up to Mayo, where he was shocked again.

I'm sure Mommy will be back within a few days to give more details. Till then, please do pray for them.


The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

James 5:16

Saturday Already

I think time perception should be reduced to an equation where the speed of time passing (y)increases exponentially as a person's age increases (x).

Last night Cheaper By The Dozen was playing in our lobby. Besides making me homesick, it reminded me to try posting links to pictures. The following link should take you to a photo I took of Trevor this summer. If it works, you will highly enjoy it because a) everyone has to love Trevor, and b) I took the picture with the superb Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1PP which Daddy found for me on Ebay.

http://www.imagevenue.com/host/web2/954df_P1030192.JPG

If it doesn't work, you won't know because I will have removed the link.

In other news - Midterms are next week. This doesn't mean much to me, because I only have 2 official midterms next week. I had three tests last week, two the week before, and two more next week. Our exam for Advanced French this Wednesday was the most difficult. I sat and furiously wrote long paragraphs to answer nine essay questions. After the fourth or fifth one, I could feel my brain slowing down perceptibly. After I was done, I felt mentally stretched out for the next four or five hours, and I'm sure the others had a similar experience. So on Friday, our dear kind Professor Schram took us over to the Grille to drink coffee and talk French around the table. We all agreed that we loved our French class!

Now I want to see if my photo links.

Trip to Stratford

Here's what happened this weekend. . .

Thursday night was supposed to be early-to-bed, since I had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to leave on the Stratford trip at 4:30. I got back from choir practice at 9 p.m., just in time to see Kerry and Bush give their wrap-up speeches at the debate. After that, despite doing no homework, somehow I didn't get to bed till 11. Then I got up at 11:30, remembering I hadn't filled out an overnight slip. Back to bed. Here followed a pleasant 2 hours or so of sleep, till I was shocked awake by a very noisy alarm - the fire alarm. What do you know, they decided to have the drill that night. We all raced out and shivered in the cold for about 15 minutes. One more hour of sleep, then up, shower, hastily stuff my overnight gear into a backpack, run downstairs and call my friend to make sure she was up. We left from the McClain parking lot a little after 4:30, two 12-passenger vans and a 7-passenger that a student was driving.

Here and there on the trip up I almost dozed off. About 11 o'clock, we finally reached the U.S.-Canadian border. One of the girls is here in the U.S. on a student visa, and she didn't get the email about bringing her passport. Our van, the last one in the caravan, was sent to Canadian customs while the others traveled on. Customs officials (all ladies) tell us we can't enter the country. So, we try to head back across the border, only to be stopped again and sent into U.S. customs. Canadian customs was very modern, glass walls, alarms, etc. Coming into U.S. customs was like coming to Ellis Island as an immigrant about 100 years ago. They did have computers. Also big guys in blue uniforms behind the desk who barked out, "Next! Who's got an orange card?" to a crowd of non-middle-class non-white people. One lady was speaking another language. Dan (who speaks Spanish) and I (who attempt to speak French) figured out that it was Italian. We all felt very out of place.

After that, finally making cellphone contact with Professor Sauders' van, we dropped our poor passport-less friend Charity off at the house of one of the students' parents. She felt terrible that we'd already missed the first play, and wanted to make sure we made the second that evening. We felt terrible to leave her behind. Nevertheless, we persevered, reaching Stratford in time to check into the hotel and eat supper at a restaurant which was unfortunately behind, causing us to just miss the beginning of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Thus we had to watch the first two scenes on the lobby TV before we were conducted up dark stairs and hallways to our balcony seats.

The play was superb. The music and lighting together were just overpowering enough to tip me into the story. Not to mention superb acting, with just a touch of modernism that made us crack up laughing. I personally find Shakespeare anything but dry on the page, yet it's amazing how it comes to life through acting. You'd almost think Shakespeare wrote plays. Towards the end, Nick Bottom was performing before Theseus and Hippolyta, and pretending to die, with repeated shouts or groans of "Die!" and appropriate jerks and collapses, while I nearly died laughing in the top row of seats. I could see Jason, Derek, even Ethan doing it. Oh, and the Wall. The Wall was very good too.

To make a very long story short, we went out for dessert, went to bed, got up and toured the Shakespeare costume warehouse, went sightseeing and shopping (including an all-important visit to the chocolate shop), and set out on the return journey, nearly drugging ourselves with sugar when we used up our Canadian change at a gas station to buy candy bars and donuts. Crossing back into the U.S., we all held our breaths and could hardly believe no one stopped us. Except we did have to declare the bamboo - "No, it's not in dirt" - why did that guy buy bamboo anyway. We picked up Charity, who treated us to personality analyses on the way back, before it got dark and someone played the Veggie Tales DVD he had bought on a laptop (I think it was the same one who bought the bamboo). Arrived back a little after 9, good time considering all the delays.

Needless to say, we all became friends after spending hours and hours together. It was an unexpectedly wonderful weekend.

Answers

Apologies for not posting these sooner. I was extremely busy yesterday and today.

--Coercive potential -- Capacity of bombs/shells to kill/injure enemy

--Area denial weapons -- Cluster bombs that kill/destroy everything within area

--Incontinent ordnance -- Bombs/shells that miss targets and kill civilians

--Suppressing assets -- Reducing enemy's fighting ability by killing people and destroying equipment

--Ballistically induced aperture -- Bullet hole

--Scenario-dependent postcrisis environment - Whether we win or lose

Ardith did fairly well, especially on the last two. Which I think are the funny ones. Mommy wasn't as accurate, but then she was trying to apply military tactics to the homefront battle zone.

As to your prize, Ardith, it's too bad I didn't see your answers before I went to Stratford and visited all the intriguing little shops. But, since you're my sister and I love you, I'll give you something. Sometime.

Pop Quiz

Here's some military lingo from the 1991 Persian Gulf War that you can decipher over the weekend.

--Coercive potential

--Area denial weapons

--Incontinent ordnance

--Suppressing assets

--Ballistically induced aperture

--Scenario-dependent postcrisis environment


As presumptuous as these phrases sound, their translations will probably be three or four times as long. Unless you've done many writing condensation exercises.

I'll give you the answers some time after I get back.

From the French

So the French Civilization book is good for something. . .

je suis fait pour ça = I'm done for (French)
je suis formaté = I'm formatted ("current" French)

je ne comprends pas = I don't understand (French)
j'imprime pas = I don't print ("current" French)

Hilarious!

We had a guest in our Advanced French class today, Dr. Plaster, the academic dean, who was 'observing' our professor and her class - as happens to all Grace professors every three years. He can speak French, and with some difficulty restrained his theological opinions while we discussed French 20th century philosophy - existentialism and absurdism. Fascinating. We didn't get into Sartre and existentialism quite as much, though Prof. Schram did give us some quotes to discuss, such as -L'existence précède l'essence-, "Existence precedes essence." Sartre believed that in order to find meaning or reality in life, we have to produce it ourselves by our own actions. For Camus and absurdism, we read a few short extracts from Le Mythe de Sisyphe and L'Etranger (you can figure those out). According to Camus, our lives and our work are meaningless, much like Sisyphe who would roll the rock up to the mountain's summit only to have it fall back down again and again. As long as we are not conscious of the futility of our work, life is not tragic; but once we realize it, yet continue to work, we become victorious over this futility, and Camus calls us "heros of the absurd". Then life has meaning, perhaps even happiness.

There's the typical French optimism for you. I don't agree with Camus' premises, but his conclusions seem to follow. Thankfully we know the one who brings sense to life, because He is life Himself - Jesus Christ.

Friday night!

I'm so glad it's the weekend. This has been a long day, trying to stay alive and alert on five hours of sleep. True, I shouldn't have stayed up talking last night. . . but then they were sitting on my bed.

For anyone who's attempted to learn German, this essay by Mark Twain appreciatively pokes fun at the language:

http://www.kombu.de/twain-2.htm#x1

I think nearly anyone would enjoy his humor. Besides, I have to promote linguistic interests occasionally.

The Sounding Board (Grace campus newspaper) arrived in our mailboxes today. Let's see what's on the agenda this time. Hmmm - Editorial - "Proposed 'graduated curfew' to foster class unity" (graduated curfew = the higher the class, the later the curfew). Now it's true that sharing gripes tends to bring people together. Whether that's real unity is another question. The editorial goes on to explain that curfew was established to "foster academic success", then suggests that "a later curfew would allow for more academic interaction across the campus after midnight." In other words, college students, if left to themselves, will naturally gravitate toward good study habits and discipline. This is an exciting possibility, especially after what I've seen of late-night habits on campus. Too bad it will limit study groups, since the sophomores and juniors who are taking the same class can't study together. Anyway, it's high time someone conducted research on the brain activity of college students between 1 and 3 in the morning, comparing the results with other two-hour time blocks throughout the day.

Graduated curfews should "build class unity". Especially vital in today's peer-oriented society. It will also discourage cross-class dating (if I may use that term), since the guy could be out till 2 a.m. but would have to bring the girl back by 1 a.m. Or vice versa. Undoubtedly, Student Development wants to protect students from the emotional complexities involved.

Thus, the two benefits of graduated curfew - 1) fostering academic success, and
2) fostering class unity through "deeper relationships". I wonder if these are supposed to occur simultaneously.

That said, graduated curfew may be a good thing, though considering the number of students who class themselves as "somewhere between a sophomore and a junior", it may be difficult to enforce. Anyway, I'm sure this issue will be coming before Senate sometime during the year.

Best Medicine

A few I've picked up from my sociology book -

Real Headlines

"Police Begins Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers"

"Drunk Gets Nine Months in Violin Case"

"Iraqi Head Seeks Arms"

"Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim"

"Killer Sentenced to Die for Second Time in Ten Years"

"War Dims Hope for Peace"

"Stolen Painting Found by Tree"

and my personal favorite,

"Miners Refuse to Work after Death"

Brought to you by the Society for the Advancement of Criminal Humor (SACH, pronounced in a weak imitation of German with a guttural gag on the end).

Tuesday afternoon

Finally! It only took a month to get my computer up and running. Computer Services finally installed the virus scanner (after I dropped it off last Friday... of course, that was after hours), which I hope was the last problem. Seems that Ardith and I have both had our share of difficulties.

Today has been one of those days. Started out below 50 degrees, and now it's above 80. I hope this does not portend a hard winter. The Grace campus was obviously not designed with winter in mind - long walks between buildings, and our chapel auditorium lies at the bottom of a steep hill. These I can live with. Walking into a wind so freezing cold that it gives me a headache, that's a different story.

On a more literary note, yesterday I wrote the check that ensures my trip up to Stratford, Ontario, to see two Shakespeare plays, along with Professor Sauders (head of the English Department) and about 30 other students. We'll be leaving early Friday the 1st of October and coming back late the next night. Sandwiched in between those eight-or-so-hour trips will be sightseeing, a hotel stay, and of course "Macbeth" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream". (my apologies - blogspot in Windows 2X doesn't seem to have as many options for creating posts, i.e. italics!) I heard about this last year, and the more I considered it, the better the opportunity seemed, especially since this particular theater is acclaimed as the finest in the Western Hemisphere. Just a warning in case I disappear weekend after next.

Too much to comprehend

I recently finished reading through Ezekiel and noticed a few things.

The book begins not with Israel or Jerusalem, but with God. God reveals Himself as the holy God, the Lord GOD, and sends Ezekiel to prophesy to the "rebellious house" of Israel. More specifically, Ezekiel warns of judgment coming on Jerusalem, which begins with the removal of God's Spirit from the temple (10:18). Throughout the book, God declares that by what He is doing "they will know that I am the LORD." The relationship between God and His people is illustrated not only as that of the holy God and His unholy people, but also the faithful God and His adulterous people. How thrilling, then, to come to the end of Ezekiel and read his visions of the new temple, and of God's Spirit returning to reside there (43:2-4). Coming to the very last verse, "and the name of the city from that day shall be, 'The Lord is there.' " (48:35)
God is glorious, and God is faithful.

Colors

Thought that maybe I should explain why I picked a very green template. Green is my favorite color. But, since that's not enough reason for some people, I went searching on Google for facts.

Green is supposedly the color of healing, rest, refreshment. It is also associated with nature (obviously), with wealth; with good luck, jealousy, and harmony - interesting combination - and peacefulness, tranquility. I also discovered it's good for your heart. If you don't believe me, try this:
http://library.thinkquest.org/27066/psychology/nlcolorpsych.html

In other words, this blog should be a pleasant place to visit.

In the process of trying to rediscover the above website, I came across another site that gives career tests based on color preferences. It's fun to try -
http://www.colorwize.com/Bestresults.htm

However, don't expect it to be accurate. The top forty careers they gave me centered on science, math, and technology, with speech/debate as number 2. Maybe you'll have better luck. You just may, if you follow the link from my green site.

Welcome

Salvete! Xaipete! Bonjour! Guten Tag! Buenos días! Hello!

Welcome to my blog! This is a test post, so it will be very short. Actually, I never intended to have a blog. . . first I had to get a template in order to post on Mommy's, then I was curious to see if I could set up my own. Besides, Daddy and Mommy have a blog. Ardith has a blog. Second-oldest children are very competitive, and I certainly am - so, I must have a blog too.

For those who are interested, the above greetings come from the following languages: Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish, and English, in that order.

And now let's see if this works!