Hope of the season

Originally written 22 Dec 2009

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With the Christmas season comes the idea of peace on earth and good will towards men. Such is the same thing in our household, expect when we have the dinner table battle to get food in! I suppose I'll never understand my daughter, but it's best to keep trying, that way when she tries to understand me, we might have some regions of understanding overlapping. I'm quite sure we won't understand everything, but if we connect in some way, that would help.

Stay on target

In an effort to keep myself in good health, I am going to attempt, once again, to write something every day.

I don't want to make twitter comments my only writing in a day, and therefore will restrict myself to a few minutes of blogging.

Went sledding with my daughter, and I finally got my Secret Santa gift. Plus a gift for my wife, using a gift bag from one of our suppliers.

I still say that Caitlin is going be blown away by her Christmas present, and she doesn't know what's in store for her. At least I hope so.

Time's up.

Lots of firsts

It was a weekend for a lot of firsts. We used our tent for the first time since we received it as a Christmas gift. It was Rini's first time sleeping in a tent. It was my first time sleeping in a double sleeping bag, and the first time I have ever slept on an air mattress. I'm not sure about the last one, but I do recall that my family used foam mattress for most of our camping excursions. I thought yoga mats would have the same feel, but after a very poor sleep at the Priesthood camp a couple months back, I realized I was very wrong.

A few wise purchases later, and we are already for our tenting expedition. It was quite the adventure putting Rini to bed in a sleeping bag since a) she had never slept in one, and b) our bed was right beside hers! The toughest challenge was getting her to stay in her sleeping bag, because she kept crawling into ours.

This did open my eyes to how we could deal on our own for a camping trip, and just how ill prepared we are in some areas. Hence I'm glad we had this test run before we went off to who knows where for our vacation at the end of August.

The plan is to go to Banff, but with the cost of the campsite being $27/night, the fire pit for the campsite an additional $8.80/night, and the park pass $19/night, we are considering camping somewhere else. Some where... cheaper. But with some camp grounds you get what you pay for.

We are also considering inviting some friends to come along with us, and we'll have to see how that will work out. First they have to finish moving, and then we'll see if we can get along for dinner, much less an entire weekend together! But, there has been a invitation to play Blokus, so I would think that things would run smoothly.

New hope and New life

I haven't figured out how to get http://twitter.com working through iPaq, but I can
post on my cell phone. I might be attaching a widget to this blog to
get the twitter feed, since I update that much more often than the
blog. Mind, I can also update Twitter via text.

It's pretty fun!

Old goals and new ones

I haven't been keeping much up in terms of this blog, nor the other
one, but this is largely due to the fact that... I'm lazy. I've also
done a lot more reading and watched a considerable amount of House
(the Medical Drama starring the caustic Hugh Laurie) since I was able
to procure season two from the Library. Freaky episode when he gets
shot. In retrospect, you almost wonder why no one had attempted to
shoot him before. Now that I ponder it, he got abused quite a bit in
the second season. I still think my favourite episode was the one the
had 'Matt' from Heroes guest star. Although the actor did appear as
the character from the Heroes series, he did a formidable job.
Caitlin and I kept saying that he should just read their minds and
quit asking them questions. In the end, turns out that if the doctors
were mind readers, it would have saved a lot of hassle. The six month
episode was very well done too, but I was sad the mom had to die.

In any case, I was going to mention the fact that I had a PPI with EQ
pres, and I made me realize that I need to take scripture study up
again. Really helps focus your thoughts, as does writing.

I'm not sure if writing actually helps focus thoughts, or if it's just
a matter that you can write something down, and clear up your head for
other things at hand. Goodness knows that's the only reason I'm doing
as well at my job as I am right now. I continually write reminders to
myself on Outlook to tell me to call people, fax things, and take out
the trash. I have a great memory, it's just a bit too much like a
sieve.

I also set a bunch of reminders on my cell phone. I used to do it with
iPaq, but I have realized of late that I usually always have my phone
with me. Plus, the alarm is louder. This has helped immensely in
recent days with reminding me to talk my meds. This was the thing
that tipped me off. If I can remember to take my meds each day, why
not dedicate time to study scriptures about that time? Take physical
meds, take spiritual meds. Works right? Not yet. Of the five days
I've had this goal, I've only done it once. Eighty percent failure
rate. Ouch. Well, I shouldn't be so hard on myself, because today is
the fifth day. I'm going to study up after I'm done here, and then
it's off to sleep. Waking up to fresh bread is great, but actually
sleeping is a great treat too.

I am so glad Caitlin convinced me to get that "Better Homes and
Gardens" Cookbook. I had no idea that there was bread maker receipes
in there!

Production ideas

I was thinking of examples on how to demonstare pace to the people in
the production of "The Emperor's New Clothes." We want to have the
lines flowing, kind of like a relay race. Passing the baton from
runner to runner. The pass is made when the receiver is close to top
speed, and does not look back when they grab to baton. Therefore the
average speed of the baton is quite fast.

I found another one, or maybe there's lots of them out there, and I
just found this one. In the Pixar movie, "The Incredibles" there are
a number of action sequences, but the dialogue is quite speedy too.
When Helen and Bob are bantering regarding directions, it's very snap,
snap quick, and moves with the chaos of the truck. Then there is also
the conversation with Lucious and Honey. It's line upon line upon
line. The next one starts just about before the other one finishes.
That kind of the pace you want these productions to move at, unless
you have a bit of a pause on purpose.

Any kind of pause will make things seem a little odd, or tense, again,
its all of what you want to set the mood with.

Having a beardie feels a little weirdie

Monday was the day the I decided for the second time in my life that I
would grow some facial hair. It was Caitlin's insistance actually.
She thought that I look much better with some sort of beard. My
calling does not require that I be clean shaven, and neither does my
work place. Plus, Caitlin has been growing out her hair at my
insistance, and she's been doing it for over a year now. I think she
looks very nice with longer hair, and she's starting to get used to
it.

As for the beard, it feels interesting, but a little odd at the same
time. For the first couple of days, I thought that I needed to shave,
but then I remembered that I was growing it out. Now, it's a bit
softer, and gives me something to rub when I think. Gives my head a
break from being scratched up.

The dryness in the air is doing enough work in that department, I
don't need to help it along. The weather has been as cold as it has
been dry. Bleh. All this week there was the promise that it was
going to warm up, get temperatures somewhere in the single digits.
Yeah. I'm thinking that's never going to happen! But wait! There's
the weekend. We are promised temperatures that are actually above
zero! I think I'll believe it when I see it.

I know. Faith is important. If it wasn't for faith, the sun wouldn't
rise in the morning, right? I have faith. Faith in my wife,
(girlfriend, at the time) was what kept us from going in the ditch
that one blustery night we went to Red Deer. That was crazy, and
scary.

Complete whiteout. No cars in front of us, just a wall of white.
Then the snow let up a bit, and we could see the road again. Almost
every time, Caitlin would tell me we were in the middle of the road.
I couldn't see the road to my right or my left, all I saw were the
wells left in place by the many cars that had travelled the road. If
I trusted her, and she was right, then we would be fine, and we
wouldn't run into the cars that were in the opposite lane. If she was
wrong, we would go into the ditch. Everytime, she was right. I would
steer over to the right, and sure enough, there was the rest of the
lane that I had hopped out of when the road was whited out.

I trusted her then, and I trust her now when she says that I look nice
with a beard. It's not that much of a sacrifice, but it's something
that is taking a bit of getting used to. Happy wife; Happy life.

The other thing is that we have determined what we are going to be
doing for the Calgary Comic Expo. We did have the idea to do Raz, but
we are going to push that for another year. I don't think we would
have been able to pull it off in the amount of time we have right now.
I shouldn't say what we are planning, but suffice it to say, we are
going to be experimenting with some wigs that we're going to pick up
from Shirley Potters.