Opera Dog

Brittany was singing to Tugger a few days ago and he started singing along! It's so cool that we have a dog that does this! I thought it was something only dogs on TV could do.

Bruce Wayne Sympathy

I am beginning to understand why Bruce Wayne is so scared of bats. The more I deal with them, the more they freak me out.

I was asleep. I think I was even in R.E.M. when Brittany started flipping out and shouting my name in whispers. Coming out of a deep sleep I hardly remember the first few seconds, but according to her, she said "There's a bat in the room" and I said "What do you want me to do about it?" I mean, come on, its not like I didn't believe her, I was just tired. Brittany's bat sense has developed pretty well since the first time a bat flew in her hair when we were sleeping a few months ago; so I trusted that she knew what she's talking about. She got up, got out the tennis racket (our bat bane), and told me to go find it and kill it.

Somehow, in between the time that she heard it and when I went to look for it, it had gone from our bedroom all the way to our bathroom. We heard it chirping above the suspended ceiling where there are already several bat skeletons; I think they get in there and then can't find a way out, so they die of starvation. Being that it was almost 1 a.m., I decided to just leave the light on in the bathroom and go back to bed.

This morning I got out the ladder, put on some gloves, a bandana over my face and goggles. After knocking bat fur and skeletons all over the bathroom and breaking a picture frame, I managed to beat the thing to death with our bat bane. It was a naked bat, which made it look more like a demon than previous bats I've killed. I forgot to get a picture of it before I threw it away, but believe me, it was ugly.

Did you say 5k?

Since around the middle of March, I've been running around 3 times a week in the morning before work. I started because I wanted to be in shape for summer and I knew there would be at least one time this summer that I would be in swim trunks. I recently found out that Hannibal Regional Hospital hosts an annual 5 & 10k called the Hannibal Cannibal.

Saturday, I decided to run the Cannibal 5k path. I drove downtown around 8:30 and started on my trek. I knew that I was supposed to turn around shortly after I passed a cemetery on the left. However, I somehow didn't see the big arch that said "Riverview Cemetery" when I ran by it. Instead, I ended up running 10k one way! I kept thinking, "surely the cemetery is coming up" until I decided something went wrong and finally turned around after running over 6 miles.



I managed to run the whole time except a half a mile or so. Needless to say, I am still very sore today.

Tugger Update

I got some video footage of Tugger. It should give you a better feel for what he looks like, how big he is, etc.




Video editing props go to iMovie... great program if you want to throw together a quick video.

Grapefruit Saga

It has been my experience that grapefruit is either really good or really not good. I managed to have time to use mouthwash after I brushed my teeth this morning and, as I sometimes do, I ate a grapefruit after I got to work. Now let me give a history on this grapefruit...

Brittany usually goes to Wal-Mart on Mondays; at which time she usually gets several grapefruits for our breakfasts through the week. However, recently Wal-Mart has had a very poor selection; I'm guessing its not grapefruit season. So this week she went to County Market to get grapefruit. She was only partly successful in this because they also had a poor selection. So now we have 3 grapefruits, all of which are rather small, very brightly colored, and kind of mushy.

So I get to work, cut open the fruit and took a bite... I thought I was dying. If you dont already know; small, brightly colored, mushy grapefruit is usually very green (not ripe) and not recommended. Beside the fact that it was extremely sour, the fact that I had rinsed with mouthwash only 30 minutes before made the thing taste like sulfer. I seriously thought I had just bitten into the forbidden fruit and death was at my door.

After I managed to pull myself together after several seconds of terror and puckered lips, I was able to take a drink of water and try it again. This time it was only sour, no sulfuric taste. I'm guessing the reason for the quick change in taste is the acidity of the fruit. In fact, it's so acidic that it eats through plastic spoons. I have one to prove it.

So what have we learned today? Don't buy small, bright, mushy grapefruit; don't eat small, bright, mushy grapefruit; don't eat small, bright, mushy grapefruit after using moutwash, don't leave grapefruit juice on your plastic spoons.

I would like to apologize to anyone who has wasted their time reading this post.

Life of God in the Soul of Man

I've been reading this book by Henry Scougal. He was kind of a prodigy like Charles Spurgeon. He went to University when he was 15 and became the professor of Divinity at 20. He wrote this when he was 27 and died when he was 28.

The title is a pretty good summary of the book. He explains the advantages of religion and then explains how the Christian life is lived. He uses Christ as the example of this life with chapter titles like: Our Saviour's Constant Devotion, Our Saviour's Charity to Men, Our Saviour's Purity and Our Saviour's Humility. He then talks about the excellency of the Fruits of the Spirit and avoiding sin.

Right now I'm reading the section on Divine Love. It reminds me of Piperish teaching; talking about God being the only source of enduring and fulfilling happiness, "...as divine love doth advance and elevate the soul, so it is that alone which can make it happy." He goes on, "And, indeed, so large and unbounded is its (love) nature, that it must be extremely pinched and straitened, when confined to any creature; nothing below an infinite good can afford it room to stretch itself, and exert its vigor and activity." This is good for me to remember. Sometimes it's hard to hear that my love should be for Jesus supremely, not for my wife. Love placed solely or mostly on Brittany is a weakened, damaged love. "Love is accompanied with trouble, when it misseth a suitable return of affection." If I love Brittany before Christ, I expect too much of her. Only Christ can fulfill that inward longing. On the other hand, "when once the soul is fixed on that supreme and all-sufficient good, it finds so much perfection and goodness, as doth not only answer and satisfy its affection, but master and overpower it too." Then, being filled with Christ, I can love Brittany because I am satisfied in Christ and the love is not based on her performance.

In Scougal's words (my emphasis):
"Perfect love is a kind of self-dereliction,
a wandering out of ourselves ; it is a kind of
voluntary death, wherein the lover dies to himself,
and all his own interest, not thinking of
them, nor caring for them any more, and minding
nothing but how he may please and gratify
the party whom he loves. Thus he is quite
undone unless he meets with reciprocal affection ;
he neglects himself, and the other hath
no regard to him ; but if he be beloved, he is
revived, as it were, and liveth in the soul and
care of the person whom he loves ; and now
he begins to mind his own concernments, not
so much because they are his, as because the
beloved is pleased to own an interest in them.
He becomes dear unto himself, because he is
so unto the other. "

if you want to read the book, its online here

Aloha, Aloha

Aloha is not mine anymore. I now work for Quincy Public Schools as an "Information Technology Specialist."

We have a new puppy too! I guess I've never posted about our other one either. Tugger is the new one, Bindy is the old (2yr) one. My Ma & Pa got Bindy for us for Christmas 2 years ago. She is half Australian Shepherd, half Blue Heeler. We got Tugger last saturday (June 7th) at the Quincy Humane Society. He is an Australian Shepherd mix. I'm not sure what he's mixed with, but he looks almost exactly like a dog on an Australian Shepherd calendar we have. We also think he's a miniature because he is quite a bit smaller than Bindi was when she was his age (6 mo). He seems like he's pretty smart, too.

Tugger:


























Bindy: