The Very Last Birthday in the Year

Happy birthday to Jason! - who left the 'teens forever on 30 December.

(The following photos and message have not been approved by Jason.)


Photos -

[There has been a technical error. There are no official photos of Jason.]

[Override: The previous technical error is no longer valid.]

Jason's birthday, from Mommy's blog.


Words of polite commentary...

"What an unmitigated piece of junk!"

"I don't call that 'sprawling suburbs'. I call that an irresolute housing development."

...and words to eat later...

"Ardith prides herself on thinking she can cook."


Next to Daddy, Jason has probably put in the most work on the house. He's even now out in the garage, spending part of his Christmas break at helping Daddy to put up the wood sheeting that will finally permit complete and total garage insolation! What a milestone that will be.

Ethan's birthday!

Happy birthday to Ethan, who turned 11 on 17 December!

Photos -

Mommy has pictures of Ethan's birthday here.
Ethan has such a talent for fantastic faces! Just look at this and this.

Words of encouragement...

Melinda: "Nolan! This is a big day! You lost your first tooth! Now go look in the mirror."
Ethan: "You'll see a lot of blood."

Ethan (to Carolyn, the horse lover): "What can horses do? They could make you lose your lives, even!"

...enlightenment...

Ethan: "I know what I was born for! To be loud!"

...and wisdom...

Ethan (describing the laundry he carted down the stairs): "It was 2 feet by 2 feet, compacted-"
Kendra: "Really."
Ethan: "-like 500 clothes in 1 square foot!"

...and wheedling...

Ethan: "Carolyn, Melinda and I want to do something with you."
Carolyn: "What is it?"
Ethan: "It's a cree-tlimb -- a tree-climbing contest."
Carolyn: "How about we just climb trees for fun?"
Sharon (nailing in the garage roof above them): "You know, Ethan, that might result in..."
Ethan: "What, Sharon?"
Sharon: "Never mind. I changed my mind."
Ethan: "Come on, Sharon, what did you say?"
Sharon: "I didn't say it, so I don't have to finish it."
Ethan: "Come on, Sharon! Say it!"
Sharon (laughing helplessly): "Ethan!"
Ethan: "Come on, Sharon! Ple-e-e-ease?!?"
Sharon: "Ethan, do you know how tired it makes me to laugh on an empty stomach?"
Ethan: "Sharon, p-l-e-e-e-ea-s-e?! Please?"
Carolyn: "Ethan, stop acting like a baby."

But of course he wasn't, he was just being his cheerfully and loquaciously persistent self.

Why we have sisters

Today's entry is in honor of my older sister Ardith, who kindly put me up on the way home, not to mention put up with me - especially for getting there way too early.

This is Ardith shoveling her drive! - early on a Sunday morning with a windchill in the single digits.

Not to mention that she cleared all the snow away from my car.

And this was the view from Ardith's front window. Doesn't she have a lovely neighborhood? Especially when it's decked out with snow.

By the way, no matter what you may hear from skeptical acquaintances or cynical family, Ardith is a fabulous cook. She fixed up a delicious creamy chicken curry for Saturday's supper. Everyone who knows her should go pay her a visit sometime in 2008 and let her show off her cooking.

How to beat the sleet

It is so good to be safely home for Christmas!

My very very first idea was to leave for Iowa right after work on Friday. That idea lasted all of about ten seconds. Because it then occurred to me that driving home in daylight on a good night's sleep with a properly packed car would probably work better. What were a few hours with a whole week of vacation waiting?

Of course, it didn't really work out like that.

Pack properly? The week before Christmas is full of all the non-family Christmas festivities. I had to make cookies and fudge for friends and colleagues, and get ready for the party that someone decided Stacey and I should host. It was fun, just a little late for a Thursday night. Then on Friday night I had to squeeze packing in around washing up the mountain of dishes and visiting a good friend just back for Christmas.

A good night's sleep? Well, I'm sure that would have happened if it weren't for 1) the excitement of going home the next day, 2) the excitement of driving home all by myself, and 3) the excitement of adventurous weather. Apparently the sleet was to hit Ardith's part of Iowa by early afternoon. So I set the alarm for 4 a.m.

Driving in the daylight? Yes, if you don't leave the house at 5 a.m. in December and drive west into dense fog, you might have daylight. Come to think of it, I don't remember even having gray skies till getting well past Chicago.

The most exciting parts of the trip?

1 - Getting off 30 West onto 65 North
2 - Getting off 65 North onto 80 West
3 - Trying to get out of the I-Pass lane at the 80 toll
4 - Getting almost completlely convinced that the car was tilted left and would flip at any moment - till getting back into the right lane
5 - Getting the car to go (around) 70 mph without the constant whine
6 - Getting off onto 380 North
7 - Getting off on the right exit and finding that the directions miraculously worked out to lead to Ardith's
9 - Driving onto Ardith's sidewalk, which was a solid sheet of ice, and trying to walk up to the door

Yes, Ardith's driveway was definitely the most treacherous part of the entire trip. But that's my fault. I arrived too early (10:30 A.M), before she could get back with the salt.

That was Part I of the trip home, and it was so much fun!

On a December evening

After a long, busy, enjoyable day at the office,

Is there anything more relaxing than stretching out on the living room carpet, to read the consolidation loan promissory note by Christmas tree light, and to laugh over its enchanting little remarks, such as,

Item 6: Enter the date of your birth. Be careful not to enter the current year.

The joys of winter

I had forgotten how exciting winter can be!


First, when you hop out of a warm bed into a chilly bedroom, then later put on your coat and scarf and gloves in anticipation of the cold outside... it wakes you up and makes you excited for the day.

Second, it is so much fun to drive in the snow. Especially when road work keeps creating new detours and you have to invent new ways to get to work every morning.

Third, power outages turn the morning get-ready-for-work routine into a new adventure.

Fourth, it's just so much fun to stomp around in boots.


There are lots more reasons, but my time is up. So please add to the list for me!

Goodbye Thanksgiving, Hello Christmas!

Actually, most people started gearing up for Christmas right after Halloween, but some of us did enjoy our Thanksgiving... especially those of us who made it home!

I know it was awfully selfish of me to spend all my time with my family and not to post when I actually had Internet. Sorry.

In other good news, my illegal status has been resolved. You were right, Jason!

(Nothing to do with music downloads, Derek.)

Why?

Why don't people like country music?

Imagine it is 9 November 2007

I bet you thought I missed your birthday, didn't you, Melinda? Nope! I was just waiting this long to give an EXTRA BIG Happy 15th Birthday!!

I know you'd want me to share some of your words of wisdom with the world. Unfortunately, I just can't find more than one single quote in my notebook from 2004, but it has held true for these three years and I expect it will do so for another decade at least.

"Timers never lie. They just lay."

One week before Thanksgiving

It's SNOWING!!!

Hooray!

13 years old!

Happy birthday to Carolyn, the newest teenager in the family! Here are pictures from Mommy's blog.

I cannot believe you are 13 years old!

In honor of Carolyn's birthday.... She would voluntarily sleep on a mattress on the floor and risk getting stepped all over, just to give me a bed when I came home on break. She potty-trained Trevor. That alone deserves some kind of Big Sister's Nobel Prize. She is just about the sweetest girl in the world who can still fight fiercely in her brothers' war games. And she definitely inherited Ardith's speed-reader genes. She can polish off one of the LOTR volumes in one or two days.

9 days to go

I got stabbed! That should be good news for my family.

So now can I come home for Christmas?

Why?

Along with all the deep philosophical questions you can get out of that word, I have another one:

Why should I buy the CD when I can download all the songs free off the Internet?

The only problem I can think of would be how to listen to them in the car, which isn't a problem if your car doesn't have a CD player.

Please, no!

Let's not have winter yet!

The other day, after we had been getting up several mornings in a below-60-degree house, Stacey finally decided to turn on the heat. Unfortunately, that set off the smoke alarm. Which we thought was extremely funny, but of course it's extremely disastrous. Oh my, I can't even imagine how many clothes we'll have to wear in a few months if that happens again. At least the dust seems to be burned off now.

Then, after she'd turned on the heater in my room, I couldn't get it off all the next day. The closest thing on the knob to "Off" was "Lo". Finally I tried turning it all the way in the opposite direction of "Warmer", and that killed it. Heat is wonderful, but not heat you don't want.

I'm not sure why I agreed to stay around for a northern Indiana winter. Then again, would an Iowa winter be any better? At least this means my blog address is staying valid a few more months.

Better old than nothing

Last weekend I typed up a blog post, then never had a chance to post it. So I may as well do it a week late!

This was not the plan

Life never goes like it’s supposed to. Isn’t it great?

Here it is Friday night in a cozy little house where the TV is on. The plan was to watch a movie picked up at the library specially for tonight. That’s what a good, modern-day college graduate would do, right? She should have started it right after supper. Instead here she is, after getting sidetracked on things like calling a friend to chat, and washing the dishes, and turning on the TV just to see what fraction of those four channels come in with a little delicate antenna adjustment… and out of the fuzz appears the baseball game on FOX. Now, the Red Sox are playing, and they’re probably playing somebody, but it’s hard to say who they’re playing because the announcers never get around to mentioning them, and it’s probably not important who they’re playing since they are, after all, the Red Sox. For all we know, the other team could be the Yankees, since they’re so frequently referenced…. Oh, wait, no, that other team is Cleveland.

Okay, that’s it. I’m going to be a typical annoying Hoyt and settle on a team without any background information whatsoever. Anyway, these announcers are annoying me, so Cleveland it is. Go Indians! Oh my goodness, they’d better really go. I just saw the score, 1 to 8. It’s the top of the 6th.

Cleveland is in Ohio, isn’t it? That’s a lot closer than Boston. Yes, I picked the right team.

Best of all, I can almost guarantee you my family is sitting around watching the exact same game. Most of them will be for the Indians, maybe a few for the Red Sox, just to be contrary (you guys know I know who you are). That’s really why I’m watching the game, of course. To spend the evening with my family. They all feel close via the TV, and via my laptop, since I know whoever isn’t watching it is on their computer. And I’m spending the evening with you by thinking of you all – whoever, wherever you are – while typing this out in tranquility at home, instead of hastily dashing off a post tomorrow during those few precious hours online.

It’s now 2 to 9 and only the bottom of the 6th. I think this is really promising.

Oops

Really? There was a tornado warning last night?

Is that why it was so windy, stormy, and wild.

I guess I should turn on the TV once in a while.

So far, so good

The wolves haven't caught me yet, and tonight there is actually Internet to let you know. So much to be thankful for!

It is time for a little update from this corner of the world, despite all the more important events occuring elsewhere.

Last week, my colleagues and I were expecting Friday to be our last day of work, since that was the end date given. But our supervisor has extended it since the project will take several more weeks. Temporary jobs are excellent for developing a day-by-day perspective on life.

This week was the call-in for the 90,000 mile checkup on that well-cared-for car. But it's not respectful to laugh because it is apparently a Volvo.

I woke up this morning and thought that it felt quite late. Yes, it was, already after 6:00 a.m.

It is already October, but Winona Lake doesn't seem to have realized this. This weekend brings temperatures in the 80s. It makes one afraid that the heat will keep going and going until, one day in November, everything crashes and blizzards hit. Till then, the heat is lovely!

Missions conference is coming up at church. Somehow, my housemate, who just happens to be running it this year, has decided that I would be the perfect person to take care of the flag ceremony. This involves the 5th and 6th graders marching through the auditorium with all the flags of countries in which our church supports missionaries. But it should be fun, since half of the work is ironing all the flags.

Last night was Friday night, which means movie night! Fortunately I was prepared, because while at the library for Thursday's Chinese lesson, browsing through the movies, I almost skipped for joy on coming across O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Ardith showed this one to me some years back while she was in school, so I passed the torch by having Kendra over last night to watch it with Stacey and me.

Don't forget that it is just one week and one year till the presidential election.

[Edit: Make that one month and one year.]

Coyotes or Wolves?

Detective work takes time and patience. You can't always solve a small mystery overnight.

Suppose that, one particular week, you've been busy in the evenings and haven't gotten to bed till after 10:00 p.m. For some reason, you keep waking up around 2:00 or 2:30 a.m. How odd. And you even have the windows open and the fan on all night, to keep the room cold for sleeping. Maybe falling asleep after 10 p.m. automatically pulls some magic trigger for a 4-hour alarm, but that's kind of absurd. Maybe the full moon happens to reach the window over your pillow right at 2 p.m., but that is just so mundane. There must be a more interesting cause.

Friday night you don't go to bed till 11:30 p.m. But this time you didn't put the fan on because, frankly, the night air was already freezing by the time you went to bed, and there is no pressure of getting up to require the soothing background sound.

2:00 a.m. comes around and you wake up to hear coyotes howling... or maybe wolves. You lie huddled in your bed after getting up to check the lock on the door, several times.

The next morning it occurs to you that this could have been going on all week, every night, but you never quite heard the sound when you woke up because of the fan. But you're still not sure if those were coyotes or wolves because both howl at the moon.

Conclusion:

Clearly, the herds of deer roaming the neighborhood are disturbing the ecosystem balance and attracting predators, which could be coyotes or wolves due to the howling, but really must be wolves, because it's impossible to imagine coyotes going after deer.

Get to six digits at least

The other day I overheard someone calling in for an 88,000 mile checkup.

Some people just obsess about their cars, don't they?

I can't even remember driving a car with mileage under 200,000.

Beautiful Saturday

Hello from the Grace College library, where wireless does work for guest users!

Maybe you would like to see some pictures of our apartment? They are all in one of my Photobucket folders, the Summer07 one, beginning the third row down and continuing on to page 2. Commentary isn't up yet but will be, eventually.

Here are a couple to start you off: the main hall, the kitchen, and the living room. There are some of my room, complete with laptop and the beloved iron and ironing board. I even included one of the closet - it was rather well-packed that day, but I wanted to show off how big and roomy it is.

Of course, I completely forgot to take pictures of the exterior, but you can see some other shots of our surroundings, such as the herd of deer visiting us and the gorgeous morning glories right by our front porch.

It's the coziest, darlingest little apartment ever, and you all need to come out and visit. Oh, and we have a TV now too! So we can even watch movies with you!

The Blue Screen of Death

Finally, finally that computer experience I've always missed out on.

Yesterday morning, as usual, I turned on my computer as soon as I arrived at work. Moments after I had logged in, it jumped to a blue screen to inform me that it was beginning to dump the physical memory. I almost passed out!

It told me that if this was the first time I had seen this screen, I should try to restart the computer. But it refused to respond to anything, Ctrl-Alt-Delete or the power.

So I unplugged it, and that fixed everything.

15 September

Happy birthday to my wonderful mother! also known as Ma Hoyt, votre chère maman, querida mama, etc. etc. ... but most especially as Mommy.

What can I say in tribute? There is really too much to choose from. But one of the dearest memories is how she read to us (nearly) every night, and still does to the kids at home. So many good books... the Max the Rabbit books, the Avocado Baby, The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and of course all the great series: Little House on the Prairie, Narnia, Redwall (great, hmm), Lord of the Rings, etc. etc. etc.

Thank you, Mommy, for helping us all to love reading and books!

Back to Saturday

It's been another exciting week of work, a few hours of life after work, and sleeping. I just don't know where the time goes when a full-time job takes up residence. Who came up with this idea of trading away all our time for money? Maybe a stomachs' union came up with it, some years back?

Yes, life stays exciting (and I'm not being sarcastic). It's too much fun to work with different people, come across problems to solve, spend one's evenings quietly at home, or cooking, or with friends. Especially fun is sleeping!

The Warsaw library offers Chinese lessons every Thursday night, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. I went to the first one last Thursday to see what it was like. Nothing very hard to keep up with, but it may get more challenging, and it's good to hear a native speaker and have him correct our attempts at writing. What's especially fascinating is hearing the musical interval difference between words in a sentence!

The little blue Toyota is a happy car again, with the mud cleaned out of its wheels and "new" tires on the front. I don't see why people like new cars. I could never bring myself to get one.

Stacey and I have a nice little project given us by our very first guest. There is a Ziploc bag of Friendship Bread happily fermenting on top of the microwave. Each batch makes three small loaves of bread, which is just the perfect amount. Three loaves means finding three different ways to flavor, fill or fix it, and finding two other people to give a loaf to, since we can really only handle one between the two of us.

Everyone have a lovely weekend!

Sharon's Exciting Life as a "Single"

Except that, between me, myself, and I, there are really three of us getting into adventures!

Well, it was Tuesday night. My apartment-mate was off watching a movie at a friend's house. Having been inspired by my Indian colleagues who always brought delicious dishes for lunch, I decided to try cooking up something interesting. So I pulled out the oil and all the spices I had, and started chopping onions and vegetables.

Before I even know the oil was heating up in the pan, the smoke alarm went off! That was startling. I used one of those handy barstools to take it down and tried heating up the pan without the oil in it the next time. This went better.

I was having a lot of fun frying up my spices, when it occurred to me that this would be a perfect time to put a music CD into the laptop in my bedroom, turn on the speakers and get beautiful sound by which to cook. It took a while to get the laptop booted up and password-ed, since I kept getting distracted by adding the vegetables and chickpeas to fry. I had checked and everything was plugged in. The laptop power, the speaker cord. I put in the CD and flicked the speaker and -

nothing happens! What? How can that be? Yes, everything's plugged in, both the battery and speakers into the the extension cord - oh, is that the lamp cord and not the speaker cord? No, the lamp's plugged into the wall. So what's the deal? Did I somehow leave everything plugged in that night when the power must have blinked since the microwave clock was unset again in the morning and that somehow zapped the speaker system completely? What?! How can this happen to my lovely speakers? Can I live without ever hearing music of beautiful sound quality again? Oh, this is so sad....

Oh wait, the extension cord isn't plugged into the wall!

I turned off the heat under the (hopefully) deliciously spiced and fried chickpeas and suddenly remembered that it was high time to check the oil in the car. True, it was about 9 o'clock, but there was still a little light, and even if it did turn out to be too dark, I could always pull out the flashlight. Off I ran through the long damp grass - after turning off the stove, surprise, surprise! I got the hood up and the oil stick out, just enough light to see - wiped to put it back in and double-check... except I couldn't quite see to put it back in. Time for the flashlight! Ran back in and started hunting it up, only to realize that I really had no idea where it was, since everything was still all misplaced and un-put-away from the move. Frantically hunting through all the boxes, bags, and closet shelves, with the hood still propped up and the oil stick still out on the engine cooling off in the gathering dusk... I couldn't find the flashlight and I couldn't go ask the neighbors - that would just be too bad - and I would have to leave the hood up and the oil open all night...

There it was!

My goodness, that was close. I almost had to resort to turning on my headlights to see if they shed any faint rays backward into the hood, which of course they didn't and was completely pointless.

By the time Stacey got home, the car hood was back down and the kitchen cleaned up and I just had to put the smoke alarm back and test it, which made it beep, which made me almost fall off the stool and break my neck and certainly made Stacey laugh!

Tuesday night was a very, very enjoyable night.

Labor Day Weekend

Happy Labor Day Weekend, everyone! I hope you are all with family or friends and relaxing and having fun.

This weekend is turning out to be a great treat, even just by Saturday. Everyone has gone camping. I have the whole apartment to myself, a borrowed car while mine waits to be fixed, and free reign in the house where I was living during the last semester and summer - just for feeding the cats!

That means real Internet access for the first time in two weeks, since moving into the apartment.

That means cable TV too! Except that, somehow, all those exciting movies and shows aren't so appealing. Just the Lawrence Welk Show and the Sound of Music.

That's enough because I can't wait to tell you a story! Next post.

Visiting the Internet

Hello. If it weren't for my job and an hour-long lunch break, I wouldn't be here. So you should thank DePuy!

(Actually, you're probably thankful to have a break from this blog.)

My sister Kendra is all moved into Grace and even has an ethernet connection in her dorm room, which is more than I can say for myself.

This is just to let the few readers know that all is well. Stacey has moved into our new apartment too, and we are having fun evenings of cleaning and organizing. I did almost burn the house down yesterday by turning on the iron, leaving it to warm up and forgetting that it was lying down on the ironing board, not standing up... God has been very gracious to let me grow up, I think sometimes!

This weekend's excitement

Too bad! I give up on not writing another personal blog post. Too much exciting stuff is happening.

First off, tomorrow Mommy and Kendra drive out here from Ioway! We have big plans for registration and the Big Dorm Move-In on Saturday.

Tomorrow the gas is finally coming on in the apartment. It will be a very fun Friday night of cleaning and cooking my very first meal and messing around with technology set-up, like rigging up the sound system for the bedroom.

It should be a very enjoyable weekend -- family, virtually no phone, and hopefully very little Internet.

Out in the middle of Everywhere!

When I went to put the first groceries in our new apartment, I met the couple that is moving in to the studio right next door. Guess where they're from. Waterloo, Iowa.

My "adopted" brother and sister just got back from a missions trip to Brazil. Hannah told me that they were going through an antique shop and saw a license plate selling for at least $50 or $60 bucks. It was an Iowa license plate.

Oh my goodness, life is just too funny sometimes, isn't it?!

August 13

Happy birthday to Daddy! the most wonderful man in the whole wide world.

My mom has a great picture of him on her birthday post today.

The big day

Yaaayy! Tonight we start moving in!!

Wedding photos

Long overdue, but here are some photos of the 3 June 2007 wedding, when my dear friend Rachel married Luke.

If you click on this link, you should find the photos on the second row, captions included!

If you prefer, here's the album homepage; click on the album "Tysons" and click to the second page.

That decides it

The first paycheck! I'm very thankful.

But the amount of taxes withdrawn is enough to make me a libertarian.

No More Screen, Please

I mean to post more, but real life keeps distracting me.

The new job is going well. It's quite fun to be on the inside of a big company. Someday, if anybody could be interested in anything so ridiculous, you may get some Perspective on the Corporate World from an insider-of-all-of-two-weeks.

And now, if you don't mind, that's really enough looking at a screen for one day!

Real independent adults

Oh boy, this is exciting! My friend and I signed a lease on an apartment today. The most exciting part is that we signed it without getting the keys, and now we get to see if they turn up tomorrow.

No sooner do we begin mentioning the plans to church friends than they offer us all kinds of furniture, dishes, even tea. Best of all is having to pick between TWO mattresses to borrow. Guess all we need to buy is food and a shower liner.

9:30 and feels like bedtime.

Just because I can

It's 12:22 and I'm sitting in my cubicle during lunch break. And I'm online because they finally came around and installed my computer! How exciting is that!

WOW Russia!

You will have fun exploring this site!


Wow, Russia is the biggest country in the world. Aloha!

Yes, guys, it is. So everybody knows that there are two cities in Russia - Moscow and St. Petersburg. That is also true. The rest of the country is called Siberia. That's it. Pretty simple geography.

So what else do we have in Russia? We have bears, of course. Lots of different bears. Some of them wear lapti and play balalayka all day long, some of them drink vodka all the time, some of them can fly, some live on the Internet, some went into politics and some are just hanging out in the streets.

--Elena Marus


Go find out more and just try to keep from laughing and learning.

Tomorrow

The first day of the first job after college!

Inherited sarcasm

Yeah, I enjoyed meeting your brother. Now I understand where you got that terrible personality.

So you really owe your success to your sister's failure.

Girls: If you have older brothers, feel sorry for yourselves. You smile at guys too much.

Guys: If you don't have older sisters, feel sorry for yourselves. Girls don't like you as much.

Nope, you actually aren't a good listener. You were just forced into pretending you were because you weren't an only child.


What? That wasn't me, that was just my older sister coming out in me. You would have known that if you'd read the article: "The New Science of Siblings".

BG Answers

Thanks to this round's participants, Ma Hoyt and Derek!

Here are the answers, with the participants' intelligent guesses in parentheses:

progeggrammenoi -- marked out (I am a programmer, I am commanding)

zophos -- darkness (from the planet Zophos, wisdom)

despotayn -- master (I wish to be a despot, tyrant - Bingo! Both basically right!)

asteres planaytai -- wandering stars ("something about" stars, heavenly bodies/beings)

It's hard to say who was closer. Probably Derek, since Ma Hoyt took some elaborative liberties at the expense of single-word translation.

Derek, that zophos was confusing, wasn't it? Sophos would be "a wise man".

I was racking my brain trying to come up with a prize, till it occurred to me that of course I couldn't think of a prize to give someone who hadn't really won.


Now, in case you'd like to see those words in their Jude context --

For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand programmed for this condemnation, ungodly persons who... deny our only Despot and Lord, Jesus Christ (4)...
these are the men who are... planets, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever... (12, 13)

Balderdash Greek

Forget language classes. Learning another language is more like a game! I will prove it to you. Let's start with Greek!

Greek uses a different alphabet, which is very beautiful. But to make this simple, I will just use English letters.


Guess what these words mean:

progeggrammenoi

zophos

despotayn


And, just for kicks, a bonus easy one:

asteres planaytai


(Big Hint: These words are all taken directly from the book of Jude)

Forms never die

Today was another first: apartment hunting!

Guess what? Many landlords want you to fill out an application. You probably knew this already, but I didn't. So much for ever escaping applications. I suppose you have to fill one out to retire, too?

Speak up

Imagine you grew up in a place where everyone valued social harmony, not individual expression. Silence is much better than speaking. Asking a question of someone in authority is nearly unthinkable.

Then, one sunny day, along come reformers who tell you it's time to modernize and democratize. They put you in a courtroom to serve on a special kind of jury that questions the defendant and deliberates with the judge over the sentence to hand down. Suddenly you have to speak up, express your opinion (were you supposed to have one?) and perhaps argue with the judge.

How would you feel? Terrified, maybe?

According to the polls, 80% of Japanese are "dreading" (quote) this odd variation on the jury system, slated to take effect in 2009.

[Note: Unfortunately, the New York Times online is now only providing abstracts of archives, even for online subscribers. Hopefully this link will let you read the abstract.]

Maybe this will be a good thing, and everyone will quickly overcome their very natural fear. But it doesn't seem right to force a society to change cultural behaviors that have served them well for millennia, right into the age of technology and globalization. At the very least, it seems odd to jump into a jury system even more oriented toward public individual expression than, say, the American system.

Good news!

[This post has been specially adapted to make more sense and be less weird. Sorry for any lost comments.]

I have a job!

It is a temporary position, doing data entry. But it is a good start. This temporary agency works with DePuy Orthopaedics, a division of Johnson & Johnson. The project should run 6-8 weeks and perhaps a good bit longer.

Of course, definite employment does depend on passing the drug screening.

Overseen

Seen on the way down to Texas with Ardith (17 June):


Got Ego? Stroke It!

The Nice Law Firm

Marked Tree (name of a city - ask Ardith for the story)

Mid-South Community College

"Buckel Up. Drive Safely." (seen twice)

Tanya's Hair Affair

Back!, Part 2

[Read previous post first.]

And so the three of us went looking for a train that would take us in to the Chicago Loop. Just missing the Blue Line train gave us the chance to take the Pink Line, a new one even for the Chicago veteran with us. It seems to function fine, if you ever want to try it. We spent at least an hour walking through town, along the Chicago River, under the John Hancock building, up the nifty fountain in the Water Tower Place, past the Hershey's and Ghirardelli shops, and lingering over the exotic cars to get our fill of Lamberguinis, Ferraris and Bentleys. Now, I didn't learn to pick out anything besides a Lamberguini, but I did learn the names!

At this point in the story, it's important to understand that there were three parties: Zach and his family, the three of us, and the two others (the cement fetchers). Each party had at least one cellphone and all were aware of the plan to meet at Lou Malnotti's for pizza. Zach and his family arrived first and went ahead and ordered the pizza, since it could take up to an hour. Our threesome understood that we were to meet the twosome at Moody. They still were not showing up after several calls. Finally we discovered that they had parked some blocks away, much closer to the pizza place than to Moody, and it was up to us to meet them. Not that this hurt us any -- it just goes to prove that as far as cellphone technology has come, it has not yet removed the human factor.

(Sidenote: I plan on not acquiring a cellphone for as long as possible.)

After all that good visiting, accompanied by deep-dish pizza and a little dessert pizza to top it off, the five of us squished ourselves into a VW Bug that Loren had borrowed from someone and went back home. We considered renting a movie, but just couldn't work up the energy. We ended up sitting around Loren's apartment, occasionally talking about wedding pranks or other fun topics, before finally falling into bad.

Friday morning it was back up on our feet - not quite so early - to meet for breakfast, this time down in Zach's end of town, at the Valois. We didn't run into any of their previous notorieties, like Barack Obama or Jesse Jackson, but it was still good, quick, inexpensive food.

Having saved a church the day before, we headed back to the Apartment Rescue Mission to switch from OCD to OCC (from Operation Concrete Destruction to Operation Cement Creation).
An cement-experienced man from church drove out to join us that morning, and after plenty of planning and prep, everyone switched into full gear. Two operated the cement mixer, one directed the wheelbarrow up and down the narrow plank path, Clif shoveled and smoothed the cement, and I helped everywhere and took pictures (everyone seems to want pictures these days.) The cement mixing team soon called me up to train me in the water spraying department. Later I got sidetracked with helping pull the 2x4 floater and patch holes. I landed this particular job by proving I could execute it while balancing on the far edge of the form, a couple inches from the wall. Loren kept busy buying more cement. We polished off the first 40 60-lb bags before he got back, but fortunately he had been forced to buy stone instead of gravel. Stone went a lot farther.

And so the first quarter of the basement was successfully laid. We cleaned up, packed up, and took the scenic Lakeshore route out of town. One of our number kept us entertained with stories of how he had been kicked out of college for going to Wendy's and many other exciting stories of student life at his conservative Christian school.


Oh my goodness, look at the hour. It's 10:00 p.m. High time all little girls were in bed!

Back!

Come to think of it, three nights ago!

Perhaps once or five times a year, everyone should have a complete change of pace. Change of location, schedule, energy output, diet, company, access to technology, and overall lifestyle.

Wednesday through Friday, some of the church College & Career group (try not to feel intimidated) went up to Chicago as a "workteam". To work on what? Zach, a Grace grad who had attended our church, is starting an inner-city school and needs money. How do you get money? Fix up old apartments and rent them out.

We did work, mostly as planned. Accidentally arriving an hour early should have tipped us off. But you see, driving up to Chicago feels like driving up, not driving west, so that extra hour was left somewhere. For our Chicago friends, anyway!

That first morning we went to the apartment. It was a dump in relatively good condition, despite the termites. We tore out a lot of old stuff, such as the only toilet that worked, and plenty of cement, and well-aged fiberglass. If you think new fiberglass is fun to work with, try the old stuff. Fortunately, the guy in charge of the project (Loren - not my dad - from a different church but teaming up with Zach for this project) had stocked all the essentials: gloves, safety glasses, and face masks, which we used liberally. Someone even forgot the face mask which he had flipped up on his head and went looking for another, till we caught him and finally agreed not to lock him up for old age.

That night Loren showed us around his part of town. He lives right on the street separating two worlds: African-American to the north, Hispanic to the south. I got to use my first Spanish in weeks. His church is just across the street from his apartment, four-story, so we climbed up to the roof and took in the Chicago skyline at dusk and the far-off Navy Pier fireworks.

Thursday we all got up at 5:30 a.m. to have prayer with Loren's friends at 6:00 before heading off for breakfast with Zach. Some of the party had beans for breakfast for the first time ever. We didn't go back to the apartment, though, because an inspector had come by Loren's church the day before and informed them that those columns on either side of two doorways had to come down, since they were ready to fall at any moment and scared him just to look at them. Besides his feelings, there was the matter of the $4,000-per-day fine till they were down. Since Loren's pastor couldn't get workers in that fast, a few guys and ourselves took on the project Thursday. They went at the pillars with jackhammers and we went at them with sledgehammers. They had me take lots of photos of their superb prowess, which included spraying down hundreds of bees from that nest they accidentally found. Finally those eight solid columns that were on the verge of falling were pounded and smashed and torn down, mostly anyway, to reveal a delicate structure of brick cores with thick cement surrounding. The three of us who didn't have to go buy cement (for the apartment) spent an hour and a half tossing, pitching, finally heaving bricks and cement pieces into the dumpster. We filled it! Flushed with that success and having no more dumpsters at hand, we had no choice but to clean up and head off to Chicago early on the L (the train), to get in some sights before meeting up with the others for deep-dish pizza.

I really hadn't intended to drag on like this and here it is already 10:30, so you get to save some yawns for tomorrow night's exciting conclusion!

Analyzometrics

The porteños (descendants of the original European inhabitants of Buenos Aires) love to analyze and debate everything. Snow is no exception, though it is just a little harder to argue a topic once every century. I thought you might like to read part of this article, dated 10 July.


"When it floats, it's snow," said someone, as if, when happening upon the topic, to open a debate in which the majority of the porteños had never thought to participate... until yesterday. And once having set themselves to analyze whether this matter falling from the sky were actually snow, sleet (a more humid subtype), or ashes from some chimney, they pulled out all kinds of reasoning.

"It doesn't stay on the ground: it's sleet", fenced the doorman of a building in the street Santiago del Estero, in the heart of the Monserrat quarter. The man is from the province of Entre Ríos and had never, not even from a distance, seen this phenomenon which surprised the incredulous inhabitants of the city. Even so, he stated his opinion with an authority of expertise before the neighbors, who also tried to contribute something scientific. "The temperature didn't fall to zero [Celsius], so it isn't snow yet," offered a woman who had come down from the third floor to observe the still falling snow.

...[Brief scientific explanation]...

"The forecasts from Thursday and Friday were giving snowfalls in the Capital, but we hesitated to say this in advance, because a phenomenon that happens every hundred years is very difficult to announce...." said an inspector from the National Meteorological Service.

... For now, this experience of snow in the city... has turned into a challenge for the ever-ready "analyzometer" of the porteños, more accustomed to other kinds of debates.

Bastille Day

What happened 218 years ago? The Paris prison la Bastille fell, and thereafter the French have commemorated 14 July as the national day of independence.

Here is a short video of the day. If you'd rather not listen to the French, don't turn the sound up. President Sarkozy renovated the parade a little by inviting soldiers from European Union countries to march.

Gone

Vacation to do hard manual labor.

Breaking news from B.A.

Look! It snowed in Buenos Aires! For the first time in 89 years.

Some of the people I lived with had never seen snow, and others had only encountered it after traveling hours to the south and further inland. For the first time ever, the porteños have built snowmen and have had to clear off their cars in the morning.

Here's a brief rundown in English. If you visit this article of La Nación, and look at the links below, you'll see some entitled "Fotogalería" - visit these for pictures. A good one is the palm tree dusted with snow.

Of course, even one day's experience with snow is enough to start a heated porteño debate. I'll tell you about that if I find a little time later (or someone else can).

Your turn to do the math

Try this one: 8 articles of clothing with savings of $227.36. How much did she spend?

You'll never guess!!

Two

Two of the many simple joys in life, lately discovered:

Throwing wood blocks. That is, yanking or hauling little logs out of a trailer and throwing or heaving them into a stack. The best size is the size just too big to toss carelessly but not big enough to struggle over.

Ironing clothes. It is so much fun! This gives me a great idea for self-employment -- performing over-the-phone interpretations while ironing clothes for the highest bidder (and probably the customers willing to pay shipping).

$82 billion

Amazing, isn't it? Not the money, but the plans people come up with in order to use it, just because they want to and they can. People like Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, who's deciding to make Dubai the new hub of world aviation.

Of course, if I were one of the royal family of a very little country and had $82 billion sitting in my pocket, I'd probably do something to make my family and country extremely important and famous, too.

Showdown

Le Monde seems to be the only site having a current article on the latest news in Turkey: the Constitutional Court has ruled in favor of universal suffrage for presidential elections. However, this old BBC article (from when the reform passed the Turkish parliament) covers most of the same ground in English.

Basically, this is the story: the Islamic party AKP (Party of Justice and Development) and 'their' prime minister Erdogan failed to get their candidate elected as president, so they decided they wanted universal suffrage for future presidential elections, instead of seven people in Parliament making the call. But no, said the secular Turkish president, speaking for the supposedly secular Turkish nation, and vetoed it. When it passed Parliament again, President Sezer had a problem, since reforms can only be vetoed once. He had to request that the Constitutional Court get rid of it. Just today, six of the eleven judges on the Court denied this request (a surprise decision), which means the reform must go to a referendum. Now everyone waits to find out what happens in the referendum... well, that is, they wait to find out first of all when this referendum will take place, as the president has not yet set a date. We do at least know when it will not be. It will not be at the same time as the legislative elections scheduled for the 22 July, since he said this to the AKP back in the middle of June.

And now, on a much lighter and less politically tense note, it seems there is a particular trend in the style of sunglasses sported by the Turkish military (as seen in the above link to the Le Monde article) and the prime minister himself.

By the way, did anyone else notice that Le Monde catalogued that article under "Pacific Asia"? Is it just me, or is that halfway around the world?

4/7/07

From the Library of Congress online, here is the Declaration of Independence. You can get even higher resolution views by clicking on links above the document image.

And here is a History of the Fourth over the years. Did you know that 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time (14h00) is the hour that the Declaration of Independence was originally approved?

One of the last entries in this second source informs that in 2001, "From the International Space Station, astronauts proclaim 'We give thanks to our ancestors ... to all Americans, Happy Independence Day.' " I would like to close by saying, "I give thanks to God for this country, and to all my fellow Americans, Happy Independence Day!"

2 X Happy Birthday!!

Just ignore how completely remiss someone is regarding our two June birthdays.

Time for tributes to Nolan and to Kendra!

Nolan, now 8 (can that BE?) is a great kid. He pops out with the greatest comments. For example, when cousin Erica and Kendra and myself had begun a game of Dutch Blitz during the reunion, he came up to watch us and after a particularly rapid sequence, observed to Erica, "You're a fast woman." I really don't think he could have said it to any female cousin who would have appreciated it more!

Ten years farther along, Kendra is the Dutch Blitz champion and hair styling expert of our family; she organized and catalogued our entire VHS and DVD collection, meaning we're aware of our entire selection and can have even more stimulating family discussions over what to watch. Most especially, everyone should know that she and Jason were senior partners of the Keep-The-Family-Running home business that experienced extreme growth in the fall of 2004. And I have the honor to pass her the Grace torch this August!

What happened in Michigan

Last Friday evening I drove up to spend the weekend with my dad's cousin Ivan and his wife Kim and get in another first (besides Macs and Michigan) -- meeting my second cousins!

On Saturday, a friend of theirs from church had a high school graduation ceremony in the morning and an open house all afternoon and evening. The theme for the open house was "Tea from around the world", so they had some five or six tea stations, including Indian Chai, Southern Tea, and (of course!) Argentine maté. I helped Uncle Ivan with this last station... even though he did have some 20 more years of experience living in Argentina (he and Aunt Kim are heading there next February as church-planting missionaries, Lord willing). He explained the tradition of maté - slowing down and spending time together - and many people did indeed sit down to pass the maté around and talk. It was quite a good way to meet and chat with a lot of people, not to mention get your stimulants in for the day. Uncle Ivan and I must have had a least fifteen or sixteen rounds of maté each. We also had the opportunity to try some roasted maté, a new experience for us both. It is certainly milder. I also had a mango tea and a bubble tea (tapioca, ice cream and Earl Grey). However, I did try to stop drinking around 6 p.m., which must have worked, since falling asleep at 11 p.m. was no trouble.

Sunday it was time to get up and start making the cucumber sandwiches and other goodies for the bridal shower for Natalie, the girl marrying my second cousin John. At the same time, Natalie and John were busy finishing up mini muffins and fruit kabobs for Sunday School breakfast. It was enjoyable to share in the Sunday services at Countryside Bible Church, though Aunt Kim and I did have to wander around a while during offertory to find three seats left together. All the seats that looked open from afar were actually reserved with Bibles once we got up to them.

After church, it was back to the kitchen to melt the chocolate for fondue and attend to other (less important) preparations for the shower. It was a nice little shower. The fondue did start curdling, but some intelligent person put a spoon in near the end, so we could scoop plenty out on our plates. Then several people had the bright idea of having me write the gift list (since I knew everyone, of course).

We went home and crashed on the sofa for about an hour before heading off to the local park for a picnic and concert the church was holding there, through which they hoped to meet more of the community. They had homemade ice cream - yum yum.

Here's a link to a few photos. The last is a short video of one of the quartet's numbers.

Unfortunately it never occurred to me to take pictures till those last few hours, and then none especially of the Ivan Hoyts... but I'm sure I can obtain some soon.

After that it was off for home, with the last of the dark chocolate fondue to keep me company and alert, which it did tremendously well.

What's better to do on a weekend than take a road trip to visit family?

For my brother

In defense of his allergies to cats. Next they should study the idea that exposure to cats might create allergies.

The Macs got me!

Can you believe it? I'm posting from a MAC!

That's because I'm at Uncle Ivan's house and it seems the Michigan Hoyts all use Macs. (That's the other first -- being in Michigan.) Typically, it was new-generation influence from the son.

At first the mouse was driving me nuts because all the pushing in the world wouldn't move the cursor... until I figured out the feather-light touch approach. Wow, you can practically move it with your finger's brain!

You know, even the browsers have different names. Skimming over the icons brought up "Safari", and, well, I'm not that dumb. But I just realized there is no Backspace and that Delete took over Backspace. This means using the mouse to get to the end of whatever I want to delete and backspacing it with Delete.

Doubtless this was just infuriating for some and hilarious for others (and pointless for everyone not in the feud). I hope my esteemed Master cousin reads this and notes my cultural open-mindedness.

(Please don't kick me out of the will, darling mother.)

C'est pas juste

Oh dear, is this fair? It reminds me of that time I was helping Mommy bring in the groceries and slipped on the ice and broke my arm. Well, guess what I destroyed today while sweeping the house. (Don't worry, it was mine -- again.) Is the moral of the story "Stop trying to do nice things"?

Have more, smarter children

At least that's one implication you could draw from this interesting sibling IQ study. This two-page article is especially interesting, and Dr. Sulloway's comments are worth reading as well.

I would have to agree that the IQ point difference has held true in our family, at least from objective data and semi-objective observations. But don't be discouraged, all younger siblings: Ardith may always top us in the scores and the Nobel Prizes, but you could discover the next planet or determine whether empty space is truly empty. Anyway, who's easier to remember - Copernicus or the latest Nobel Prize winner?

But let's not start competing. Long live the sibship!

Ahh, the life of the unemployed

What a bum rap... I had to go to the library today to find books to read. Two books, just enough to entertain and stimulate the mind.

Finally, finally, I will get to finish reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. That's nobody's fault in particular, though we could indirectly blame Ardith, since her library has been offering me the piecemeal chance to work on it every couple months. I think it started when she picked me up from France - not that night of course, the next day, while we were recovering from our dead tiredness of coming in at 2 a.m. The next opportunity must have been when I visited her that summer. The last time must have been when she took us three next-oldest-ones to her place for a post-Christmas bash. So they have only been six-month lags.

The Teach Yourself books have a jazzy new makeover (or at least the Arabic one does) complete with pictures on the cover and semi-modern type inside. Looks like the book has 18 units. Looks like I have a week minimum left in Indiana. Aren't challenges exciting?

-- Oh, look, someone thoughtfully left a bookmark inside for me! Right at the exercise for correct verb suffixes. It has a pretty picture of Stoli Blueberi and recipes (on the back) for those very refreshing drinks displayed alongside the bottle. Why, what do you know, Stoli Blueberi is Blueberry Flavored Russian Vodka. What a good idea for summer!

In very small type at the bottom: "Please Drink Responsibly. Stolichnaya Blueberry Flavored Vodka, 35% Alc/Vol. Vodka distilled from grain." Goodness, that's a lot of alcohol for a blueberry drink. And that type is so small it makes my eyes hurt to read it. Time for bed.

Enough traveling!

At least enough traveling by car for a while. But it was very much worth all that sitting to be at the stupendous Hoyt reunion once again!

I guess I still owe photos and some reports for two weddings, maybe graduation, and the family reunion. Well, sorry... participating didn't leave a lot of time for photos, but let's see what I can dredge up. In the meantime, it's time for a


Better-Late-Than-Never-Father's-Day-Mention

This is in honor of wonderful Daddy.

Last Sunday was Father's Day. I celebrated by forgetting to pack the printer about which Daddy had reminded me twice. Then I didn't see him or talk to him all day, since Ardith and I spent the entire day driving down to Texas and almost getting lost in Tyler.

After the reunion and post-reunion travels, which deposited us back in Iowa, Daddy drove me out to Indiana on Monday. We arrived to find that [my] blue Toyota, left here for the week, wouldn't start. He spent some time that evening messing with it, and the next morning, while I disappeared for an interview, he dug out spark plugs, got new parts and had it all fixed up and ready to go by the time I got back. Then he spent another long afternoon and evening driving back home.

(By the way, Daddy, step #1 of the project has been successfully accomplished.)

Oh boy!

The family excitement has already started. Yesterday some of us Bakers congregated in Uncle Doug and Aunt Cindy's church's kitchen to start cooking for their son's Gabe's wedding, which is today. Uncle Solly and I nearly froze our fingers slicing 40-some pounds of frozen chicken for doro wat, a spicy Ethiopian chicken stew. (Then, of course, all we non-immediate-family-relations went off for dinner to the traditional Baker restaurant, Old Country Buffet)

Today I have been shopping, packing and cleaning, waiting for Ardith to arrive so we can attend Gabe's and Bethany's wedding together. It is almost 3:30 and we need to leave in an hour. I do hope Ardith shows up sometime! Especially since we were planning to drive down in Ardith's car. As no one is answering her cellphone number, I am living by faith and reckoning up how much she will owe me for whatever won't go according to plan.

Next week is the Hoyt Family Reunion! Better than Disneyland.

Colonialism is not dead

(Pardon the late mention.)

Here is the location of the Islands mentioned below.

It was interesting, back on the first of June, to see on the front page of LaNacion that the British nation - specifically, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - was introducing a coin collection commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War. In this brief war, British troops fought off the Argentine invaders and freed the islands.

2 April is a national Argentine holiday, officially named Día del Veterano de Guerra y los Caídos en las Islas Malvinas -- Day of the War Veterans and the Fallen in the Malvinas Islands.

On the Islands themselves, the day to celebrate is 14 June - "Liberation Day".

It is very kind of the British to commemorate this special event, especially for the sake of the Argentines. They'll want to remember that cruel military dictatorship of the '70's and '80's, during which going to war to defend the Malvinas Islands gave them something to live for, even if it was just the old political ploy distract the people from difficulties at home with wars elsewhere.

In my German class at Grace, a girl whose parents were missionaries to Argentina devoted one of her German speeches to explaining this part of South Atlantic history. She refused to call them the Falkland Islands. They had been and always would be the Malvinas.

Time and blood

Why does time seem to pass so much faster as we get older? That moment that happened last week is so vivid that it seems just like yesterday. Someone will have to give up and admit that memory improves with age.

Speaking of vividness, if you want a movie of people vividly and seriously wounding each other, my recommendation is The Patriot. Maybe that would fall under my brother Jason's category of "grisly stories with high morals".

By the way, is it just me, or does it seem sorrowfully stupid that lines of soldiers would advance and fire on each other?

Goodnight and pleasant dreams! Try to remember them. It's good exercise for your brain.

Look! It's back

Hah. I bet you thought I was slacking, didn't you? Wrong - it was the Internet connection slacking, or my computer recognizing that the connection was there, or something like that. Or maybe my computer just likes this particular room and this particular outlet for its power.

Anyway, that was a pleasant vacation from being online. Too bad it wasn't a vacation from sleep deficit. It took two nights after the wedding to get back to the 9 p.m to 5 a.m. schedule, and then suddenly school was done. Friday morning I went back to clean up and get graded on my job performance. Then we spent all afternoon getting ready for Hannah's open house, which was from 4 - 9 p.m. After two days of standing and walking to help with exams and a day of standing and walking to fix food and greet guests, the poor feet were ready to retire (although not so desperately as after that three-day weekend in Paris of 10+ hours per day footwork - museums, sight-seeing and walking everywhere between).

Saturday morning, we spiritual ones got up to help clear land for a church out west of town. After that was the open house next door, which of course it was only neighbourly to attend. At 3 p.m. it was time to go babysit. Once Elijah was in bed for the night, around 7:30 p.m., I curled up on the living room floor and went into a state of semi-dozing. I think that went on till at least 11 p.m. It was a lot of fun. It's not bad at all to not sleep if 1) you have time to lay around and nowhere to go the next day except church and 2) the only thing making you tired is falling in and out of sleep.

All that not to get sympathy, but rather to extol the joys of sociability and no school!

Now time to turn the job-hunting position from part-time to full-time.

Okay

Yeah, I know, haven't been responsibly keeping this up.

Tonight I guess I do have an excuse... the Internet and cable went down for a while, so I was stuck with boring work like making paper lists of email addresses to avoid another Intergate (somebody really picked an unlucky name, didn't they?) and practicing right-to-left script. Now it's 10:00 and high time for bed, since tomorrow are two big exams for 2nd and 3rd periods. In the first exam I have one student, in the second exam around twenty-five. That's a great number to help all at once on five different exams and to keep relatively not noisy in a library. I can't mind because I'm going to miss the kids so much in two days.

Please take note

Taking a break from wedding preparations to remind you that this next Sunday is the Argentina election.

Look down [edited]

Umm, sorry for the inconvenience, but if you want to read the post for this date, you'll have to skip down to Friday, 11 May 2007. Apparently Blogger uses the first save date for a draft as the official publishing date for a post.

[Edit: Never mind, just look down below this post.]

A little story of four unorthodox years

In honor of the long weekend, here are some college career memories of a recent graduate.

It was great, although it didn't go quite she like planned.

She went into the Fall 2003 semester knowing her roommate... she had met her at a VIP day event, another homeschooler with a similar background. So that was a pleasant start. Within the first two weeks she had a job of 20-some hours weekly in the cafeteria. It was a normal year, except for the spring '04 blip where her father went on the transplant list in February.

The second year started out normally with an upgrade in jobs - working in the library and the Language Department. By the time she went home for fall break, her Daddy was in the hospital with his heart failing. Before going back to school, she offered to come home, and so she withdrew from Grace for the spring '05 semester to relieve her Grandpa and Grandma from Iowa homestead duty.

The semester home and summer were absolutely wonderful. One month was just herself and eight of her siblings taking care of themselves. The rest was being all together, finishing up the year-long Spanish and German textbooks and working on the house. She was particularly proud of the hundreds of nails and screws that finally secured the garage roof beams. Her older sister graduated and landed a posh job, which made her even prouder.

Fall '05 was back to school and back to both jobs. Spring '05 was off to the great study abroad adventure which she'd never actually believed would happen. She had started the triple language major knowing that she wanted to study languages, not study abroad. Those semesters abroad proved one thing - if a home schooled country girl homebody could go study in France and Argentina, anyone could do almost anything. (After most of the year abroad, she contemplated finding a way to require every U.S. college student to spend a minimum of three months overseas in order to graduate.)

In 2007 she returned for one more semester at school, ending up with three nice positions - the sole assistant at the Language Department, an ESL instructional assistant at the high school, and a babysitter. She was especially proud of that last one. However, the number of lines filled in her day planner convinced her that humans were not meant to live on full schedules.

There were several exciting times in that memorable last semester, such as when they declared her four credits short of graduating, or informed her after graduation that her loan repayment grace period had been used up during the semester off. But a little help quickly cleared these details away.

So there it went. A B.A. in seven semesters, five of them on campus. Only 2 Bs in her entire college career.

Now there are a couple of ways to list college career accomplishments. Some people would write up all the honors, awards, and participations.

But, when asked, she provided the following two:

-The semester home - an opportunity to help her family and get her student mothering/household-running experience
-The two semesters abroad - opportunities to study in France and Argentina, meet new people, and add more dimensions to life

She did say that if she could do it over again in an ideal world, she would concentrate solely on studies, thinking, and discussions, with absolutely no work or participations of any kind.

[The author, somewhat tired of talking about herself, begs you to excuse her for writing this up in the third person.]

What does it mean?

Congratulations to Hannah, who just graduated from high school! (the younger sister of the family I live with)

She was very excited, which reminded me of my own excitement two weeks ago. Looking back and thinking about both ceremonies, I'm not really sure what's so exciting... about dressing up and walking around in solemn lines and hugging people. You could almost laugh at it all. But then, what fun or accomplishment would it be if they handed us our diplomas as we walked out the door on the last day of class?

One week later

This is just to say that although there are many important and interesting things to discuss, unfortunately, it's already bedtime. And I'll hereafter try to avoid resorting to either silence or this kind of post.

Speaking of today's rapid lifestyle -

One week after graduating, I received an email with the following subject line:

"Children in college? Apply for a Federal PLUS Loan now!"

Monday's bulletin

The author never rants. This is an informational blog post announcing the author's astonishment over how her primary email program rendered her account inaccessible for two days and then brought it back, all tidily cleaned out.

It was about enough to make her cry, till she realized three lovely things:

1) It was one more exciting event in the great adventure of life!

2) She wouldn't want to get too attached to anything temporal anyway.

3) Now she wouldn't have to go through and organize all that stuff.

Happy Birthday, extra late

Oh goodness, how did I miss May 3rd?

Happy 16th birthday to Derek!

Derek, that extraordinary brother whose interests and undertakings include everything from studying Mongols to designing mini rocketships to learning Greek to taking computer programming lessons to growing jalapeño peppers to composing music. One of these days you are going to be hearing his name from someone who doesn't know him. If you don't believe me, just go look at the meaning of his name.

But apart from all that, he's a great brother, even if he is a little uppity sometimes and says things like "Be polite and let me go first."

(This is a dangerous family. A mother who takes pictures, a sister who wins arguments and a sister who writes down quotes... to name a few.)

This is the good life

Ah, it's so nice to be done with school. This evening I could do whatever I wanted. So I started studying my next language.

Done!

That's it! Graduated and done with school.

It's funny how having graduated came make one feel like a whole new person, and much more an adult than any of those milestone birthdays (such as 18 or 20 or even 22). Did anyone else have that experience? From here, life seems like a calm clear river on out into the ocean of eternity (I can see the ocean but I can't see where the river joins it yet). Not to make too big a deal of it - it just seems that way!

(Hopefully nobody noticed those three succeeding prepositions.)

I thank God for His love and care during these four years. In the next day or two there may some reminiscing over specific examples of His presence in this college endeavor.

Closer [updated]

Today was my last final and last time in class ever.

2 days till graduation!

I hope that last professor remembers to submit senior grades by Saturday. Till then I am a 123-credit-hour senior. Maybe the Vice President of Academic Affairs won't notice.

The loveliest time of all will be Friday afternoon and evening, when a-l-l-l my wonderful family arrives!


[Update: that last credit has been safely awarded]

The Great April 28

Happy 24th birthday to my sister Ardith!

Let's see, what nice thing should I say about her?

Sometime back there... before we had even started thinking about college... despite the fact that she had already read through Lord of the Rings at least twice, she agreed to read it out loud to me, just because I preferred to experience it by having it read to me rather than reading it. I don't know that we finished, but I do remember hearing about the Company approaching the mountains. The point is her generosity.

And that is just one small example of how great she is.

What makes an adult

Yesterday I reached a real milestone. I finally locked my keys in the car!

The police officer had a great time trying to get into the car. First he tried the right front door with a rubber pad to allow his metal hooker in to try to grab the lock. Then he tried the long rubber-tipped rod. Then I suggested he try the right front door, which usually isn't quite as persnickety. When that didn't work, he tried the right rear door. Then he came back to the right front door, which suddenly popped open -- of course, at the exact moment I had turned away to talk to his colleague. Bummer.

Oh well, I guess we know the little blue Toyota will make it through another six weeks of this crime-ridden town, as long as the police are still more adept than thieves!

What's wrong with this picture?

Look -- how can it be that a younger sister, who works full-time and even overtime hours, and goes to school part-time, and organizes a friend's bridal shower, and researches post-graduation job possibilities, not to mention just lives -- how can this girl have more time to post than her older sister who merely works 8 hours a day? Someone must be busy reconfiguring her L. Kernel.

By the way, family influence can have serious consequences. Outsiders have almost mistaken this same younger sister for a computer geek just because she was the first to mention Linux by name in a conversation.

That was fast

Night class done in under 45 minutes! How can you beat that? Apart from the extra time and the beautiful evening, it's kind of sad. Education is getting so casual these days.

Graduation can't possibly be here in two weeks. Where did college life go? Apart from no more homework and real living, it's kind of sad. People are getting so spread out these days.

But that's not quite enough kind-of-sadness to get me enrolled in graduate school!!

If walking down the commencement aisle is anything like walking down the Buenos Aires street Villanueva away from the university for the last time, I'm afraid I may positively burst from sheer, sheer delight!

But it's still kind of sad.

And so the adventure continues!

Driving home

While we were cheerfully working in the Language Department this afternoon, Profesor N. let out a whistle and informed us that there were "veintidos matados". Prof. B. suddenly was surprised - the last she had heard was 2 dead. I hadn't heard anything, probably due to work and class. It was a shock. But not so much as driving home and having the music station interrupted by a Fox special news report informing that 33 were now dead on the southern college campus.

I just don't understand how anyone could do that.

A few minutes later, on the last road to home, a commercial came on.

Music: "Raindrops keep falling on my head..."
Announcer: "Do you need to replace your wiper belts?"

That was hilarious! Just imagine what a pathetic car would let you know you need your wiper belts replaced by the raindrops hitting you. What kind of reasoning process did that script writer have? Sorry for laughing at him, but it was really funny.

Frankly, I don't understand that either - how sadness and joy in life get so curiously juxtaposed. It must be the goodness of God to keep us sane.

A very Good Friday

Grandpa Hoyt died on April 6th. Today was the funeral. I found this obituary to share.

I thank God for my wonderful Grandpa - for his good and faithful life, for the heritage he leaves in his family, and most of all for his presence with our Lord right at this moment.

I miss you, Grandpa, but I know it won't be for long.

Even downhill can be funny

Grading quizzes is amusing, especially when one comes across spelling such as "technoligy" and "boardered" -- and I cite mild examples.

22

Okay, I have to admit that I did have a birthday, but this is more to celebrate wonderful people than the birthday.

Saturday before last, some friends surprised me - along with the other friend I thought we were surprising - and Sue Ann gave us roses (my first flowers ever!). Monday was the day, and I came home to find that Aunt Vici was making homemade pizza and Rachel had frosted that cake -- that cake that she was baking the night before and she said that no, it wasn't exactly for work; what was it for? it was for some devotional -- a dark chocolate cake with cut-up dark Dove's and even dark frosting. What a good liar she is! We all devotedly devoured it. They even had presents, many of them to stock up my chocolate stash. Two friends left cards in the mailbox, another friend mailed a package, and then I finally got to open what that Mommy sent out - an Irish Tenors CD and all of Milton's poetry! How lovely!

This afternoon at work in the Language Department, they told me they needed me to take notes for their departmental meeting. When I came in the meeting room, they had a cake and started singing. My four language and culture profs are just wonderful!

The best part of these 22 years has been sharing them with you all.

At the end of the week

Did you know that if you don't put away your pajamas in the morning, you don't have to pull them out of the drawer at night?
Here's the one I really like: coming home to find the bed unmade and all ready to crawl into.

See, the secret of efficiency is doing less by doing less. It's great to find out how working hard and being a lazy slob just melt together.

Next week is spring break at the highschool. YIPPEE!! What luxury to sleep in till 6:30!

This is Friday night. I got home and enjoyed several good and amusing articles from the school newspaper over supper, then found Independence Day playing. I was hoping to see it all through, but somehow, watching TV became too boring after an hour. So maybe it's time for an unorthodox Friday night of going to bed before midnight.

A matter of life and 4

Saturday morning I slept in. While sipping hot chocolate and checking emails, I ran across one from the Registrar's office. Oh boy, I wondered, is this an all-students email or just for a few?

Hi Sharon:

Oh boy! Just for me!

Per my voicemail message, it is imperative that you come to our office to meet

with Mrs. ----- and myself to discuss your graduation credit requirements.

Currently we are showing that the credits you have completed/currently enrolled in

will not meet the 124 total credit hours required to graduate.

Whaaaaaat....

This matter must be attended to immediately, in order to determine if you are to remain a May 2007 graduate.

What!?!

Oh my goodness! What did I miss?

But I have 120 credit hours as of this semester. Do I really need 124?

Goodness, it's Saturday, I can't get back to her till Monday. (What does she mean about my voicemail, anyway - I don't have Grace voicemail... did she call here at home?)

But why didn't we cover this in the Senior Audit?

When am I supposed to go in there and discuss this? Oh, maybe she said in the email...

Please call or email me what time below you can meet:

Monday, March 26^th at 9am, 9:30am, 3pm.

Thank you.

No, thank you! What a great birthday present! March 26th!

The first two minutes were slight shock. Then I thought, "Awww, come on, they have to let me graduate. I didn't know anything about this." The few people I told were instantly concerned. But what was there to worry about? I was graduating. There was either a mistake or something we could easily work out. I had given up worrying about things (well, mostly) somewhere back in Argentina.

This feeling prevailed throughout Saturday, Sunday, and into Monday morning, when, during a few moments' free time, I happened to run across that number 124 on the Grace site under Academic Policy and then in the Student Handbook - which all students are to read, memorize, and quote with loving accent. I began experiencing hallucinations of summer classes, extremely rapid independent studies, and even a 4-credit fall semester.

After 5 minutes in the Registrar's office, after laying the groundwork of my innocence and preparing to do intense battle for my graduation date, we - the Registrar and I - discovered that those last four tricky credits had been found. I just can't tell you where or I'd have to shoot you.

Now how did this happen? Well, my major is pretty small -- only 70 credit hours, plus liberal arts requirements. I skipped a semester back in Spring '05 to be home with my siblings. Then after study abroad, I petitioned and got 9 hours worth of overseas classes counted toward liberal arts. Between this, my ignorance, and several perfectly timed faculty and staff responsibility shifts, nothing showed up till just last weekend.

So a note of warning to all people in college or thinking about it: you may have all your required classes in, but make sure you know if your school has a minimum credit requirement for graduation. And try to beat my time of 6 weeks prior to graduation for finding out about it.

Finally

That was close. Almost two weeks without a post!

Last weekend Daddy and my sister Kendra drove out from Iowa. Daddy went on down to Tennessee to visit Grandpa Hoyt while Kendra stayed to visit Grace (and us too, a little!). She did a really good job of it too - spent two nights in the dorm and ate at least five times in the cafeteria, visited five classes, two chapel sessions, talked to professors, and even went to the weekly Chorus rehearsal. Not to mention put up with her sister's busy work schedule and took care of herself and explored various parts of campus. A lot better than I managed for my college visits! Wednesday evening was so beautiful that Hannah and Kendra and I went out to the lake and swung on the swings and walked around Grace Village and the Island for a while. The next morning Daddy and Kendra took off, but not before stopping by the school and changing my snow tires in the parking lot. Try telling me I don't have a wonderful Daddy! It was very nice to see my family for a little while.

Less than 6 weeks till I see them again and graduate! Yippee!

On Saturday I received a wonderful surprise birthday present, which I'll have to explain to you as soon as seems prudent.

In the meantime, you can all pray for the May 5th graduation. Thank you.

Why?

Anybody know the real reason "they" decided to move DST up four weeks?

Question

Is 6:15 p.m. too early to go to bed?

Spring Break!

Well, I said I'd post, even though I never wrote it into the schedule.

By the way, if Memomail has to keep contributing to my Yahoo inbox, I think it could come up with something more interesting than just "Come see Oprah live for free". Especially since that's all they've had for the last week.

Back to the post. Guess what? Life is busy! That's why Little Miss Language Lover hasn't been around for a while. Here's a typical day, to give you an idea:

5:30 - get up
7:30 - 12:30 - work as ESL assistant at highschool
12:30 - drive over to Grace while eating half a sandwich; Tuesdays and Thursdays only a quarter sandwich, hastily park and change clothes for Aerobics

1:00 - class
2:00 - 5:00 - usually work at the Language Department
6ish - either exercise for Aerobics at the gym or head home and do it; Thursday is class
9ish - fix breakfast and lunch for next day, pack, head toward bed; perhaps study if necessary

Weekend evenings: occasionally babysitting

Fortunately, studying hasn't been much necessary. I did have to write a paper two weeks ago and then had TWO midterms last week. Our Aerobics midterm was to be Thursday. On Tuesday, Coach Butler finished his lecture for the day and said he'd decided to give us 5 minutes to study and then give us the test. This was 10 true-or-false statements, the last of which he couldn't read, so he accepted a student suggestion. That worked out really well. We got out of class early and I didn't have to rush to get to my next class for a presentation.

This next class, by the way, was a great milestone. I had to prepare a PowerPoint presentation for the first time. It was kind of fun, but not so much that I'm regretting not being an Ed major.
Actually, it's too distracting. Not only does it keep the audience eyes off you, but it keeps your eyes and brain off your notes and the main points you want to make.

Today was lovely. After getting home from the early service, I drove up to Goshen to have Sunday dinner with Uncle Doug and Aunt Cindy, Gabe and his fiancée Bethany, Joshua, and Grandma. A nice long two-hour dinner with lots of chatting. The trip was therapeutic too - I got to drive 55 mph for the first time in months! And I found gas 10 cents cheaper than Warsaw but managed to miss getting it 9 cents cheaper yet. Oh well, in about two weeks I think it will be a good time to visit family again.

Yesterday I wrote a check for the first time since last July.

I think that's all the interesting news for now.

Oh, as the title mentioned, this week is Spring Break. Ahhh, how relaxing! Now I can finally work full days at the school - 7:30 - 3:30 - we'll be busy with language level testing. And I may even get in an afternoon or two at the Language Department. That leaves lots of time for recreational activities like taxes.

Isn't life just great?!

(Please take that as I said it, that is, without cynicism)

Wow!

Finally getting as good as Ardith and Jason at not posting!

Sunday afternoon

It's Sunday afternoon. This morning we went to church and worshiped God together with other believers, then afterwards had dinner with a couple who invited us over. After a nice relaxing meal, dessert and coffee, and plenty of chatting, it seems right to come back and write a post!

Mommy requested a job report. So far there is not much to report on. Snow days have not piled up the work for us in the ESL resource room. The three other girls and I work with students in various areas: one with the math students, one with the science, one with the language art courses, and I'm to help with social studies: history, government, geography. At least it has been fun getting to know my ESL colleagues and getting acquainted with some of the students... not to mention starting the assimilation process. Aunt Vici's right - the public school system is a different culture!

Tomorrow is President's Day. From what I hear, this retains its off-school status for Warsaw, since it was not set aside as a possible snow-day-make-up-day. I think I'll get up at 5:30 anyway - to stay in shape, and to work on my first real homework of the semester, a Psalm analysis paper.

Tonight, beginning around 9 p.m., we're having our first Kaffeeklatsch - an informal get-together to chat in German and (hopefully) drink coffee (except people whom caffeine affects and who are smart enough to know it). Since I was the one who volunteered to get the room use approval, guess I'd better show up with the approval slip. At least it won't be punishment to step outside tonight into these balmy 20- and 30-degree temperatures.

It snowed some more yesterday and today
+ rain predicted for this week
= we may be drowning soon!

Let's see, what else. I'm sure I'll think of something extremely interesting as soon as I publish this. Too bad!

School and Snow

Well, I guess I should finally get this post to the press...

First the news:

They hired me!

Warsaw Community Schools.

Well, here's the story. I took an application home to fill out and worked on that over the weekend. Then the next week came, the Super Bowl, and snow and cold. First the schools put up announcements of two-hour delays, then they canceled school for Monday. Same thing happened Tuesday. Wednesday was just a two-hour delay, so I finally got the application in.

The lady glanced over it and said, "Oh good, you speak Spanish! And French! Wendy was just down here asking if we had anybody..."

I got back home around 6 p.m. to find a note informing me there was a position. It was too late to call, so I called back at 8:11 the next morning (Thursday). Went in for an interview and the next thing I knew, I was signing lots of papers and being handed a tag with my picture and Miss Hoyt.

Miss Hoyt is going to be an ESL Instructional Assistant at the Warsaw Community Highschool!

However, we had to wait till Monday to meet a high school staff person who was out of town. So on Monday I went back to meet her and the ESL team with whom I'll be working. I got a parking sticker that says I'm WCHS staff, and lets me park on the other side of the building, so I shouldn't have to trek through the whole building to find the Resource Room next time. It's important to not get lost on your first day of work, especially in a high school of 2,000.

Today was to be my first day, provided school wasn't canceled. I got up at 5:30. Then school was canceled. The snow wasn't to come till afternoon, but the 40-mph gusts had started in the morning and were already making nice drifts with the snow we had. Of course all the schools canceled classes, and of course Grace didn't (except for night classes, which of course I don't have on Tuesdays).

It wasn't hard to get to school. It was more fun coming back, partially swimming through one intersection and plowing into the driveway. Fortunately, Uncle Rene and Aunt Vici snowblew the driveway once everyone arrived home. It'll probably be ready for more tomorrow.

By that time, school had been well canceled for the next day. Oh good, now at least two of us will be free to clear the driveway tomorrow morning!

Well, till I do get to start work, I can keep practicing the 5:30 wake-up.

In the meantime, we're all surviving the snow fine, getting high and happy on Valentine's Day chocolate.