Moving back for school

So Amanda and I will be house hunting...again. We thought we had a place lined up in Mattoon but that fell though. Tomorrow we'll go down and look for a couple of days and see if we can't find a place that will rent to us through the end of the year. Hopefully I will have finished my degree by then and we can move on to Asia.

Speaking of...

Our ten-day trip there was great. We got a chance to see where we'd likely go to language school and even a couple of possible places where I might work. It was hot but not Turkana hot. The food is good and there are enough of the conviences we've come to depend on to make the move a realistic possibility. I will have to dress nicer but on the up side, Amanda is in favor of us getting a motorcycle if we move. The problem might be finding a helmet big enough for this noggin.

Off to Mattoon/Charleston tomorrow and Texas on Friday.

My father, my son

One of the things I frequently say about my son is that he has never met a stranger. He, like most kids, just shines when he's around new people. Peakapoo, waving, smiling, raspberries blown to stewardesses or Singapore security.

Like his curly hair, tendancies to pick up colds and inability to stand still in airports, I wonder how much of this is from me. And yet I see it even more so in my father.

Dad will talk to anybody. I learned about how to catch crawdads in the Current river because of overhearing him talk to...anyone. It's a very Donald Miller sort of thing. Why thinkwe can only learn from books or in classrooms? It used to bother me but I've learned that the worst people will do is pretend to read or ignore you. I wonder what Dad learned in his years of simply talking to people he didn't yet know.

So much can be picked up by zooming in on someone who might just know something you don't. We found a hotel room here simply because Amanda noticed a westerner reading Blue Like Jazz. The city was booked but we followed this expat to where she was staying and it was amazing! We could see Malaysia from the rooftop pool. We walked the beach and at Jacob's Cafe. We slept. It was great.

Now I'm off to see if I can find a particular stranger on this plane who is going to the same place we are and might know the friends we're staying with. Lisa? Are you out there???

Back to school

After some paperwork, persuasion and a lot of prayer, I managed to get the OK to finish one of my degrees. This means Amanda, @ and I will be moving to Mattoon for a short while at least.

We leave for Asia tomorrow morning to scout for jobs (for after the schooling).

Keeps us in your thoughts.

All until July...probably

Leaving tomorrow for Colorado, then on to Asia until mid July.

Some things:

I love eating with chopsticks. I own four sets of them from Pier One and keep a disposable pair in my backpack. Anything involving rice is fair game.

My wife has me eating and enjoying food I would, as a kid, have tried to hide under a napkin or tried swallowing whole with a gulp of milk.

I am seriously considering moving to a place where I won't need to own socks.

I sometimes don't want to sleep for fear of dreaming of Africa too loudly.

I have officially started wearing my American (read: fat) wedding band.

I drink hot tea (not coffee) every morning from one of two cups, both have roosters on them.

I am a charter member of an organization I have never participated in or can even pronounce the name of correctly when I say it quickly. Illinois Philological Association.

I used to tell lies. Now I tell stories.

I have never lived in the same house longer than seven years.

My wife looks great in button down dress shirts.

I watch the same movie more than once only when I have to.

What's on my bookshelf is more important to me than what is in the fridge.

I don't have any of my t-shirts from college. I still have a tie or two from highschool.

I am over a hundred pounds lighter than Shaq. My junior high free throw percentage is slightly better than his is currently.

I do not remember my highschool locker combination but I do remember my phone number from when I was six.

When I think of childhood, I think of the farm and the hours I spent in the pasture and barn thinking of brilliant things I would one day do but haven't (mostly because only superheroes can do them) .

My son is charismatic and caring. Only sometimes is he trouble.

I spend a lot of my day thinking.

A slight twist???

Amanda, @ and I were planning on moving from Indy sometime near the end of August but may not need to if the friends who were going to use the house choose to take a Residency during the fall semester. As much as I would love to be closer to our Illinois friends, it would be nice to stay put until we permanently move overseas.

We leave Saturday for what will be something like a 20,000 mile trip. In the course of 3 weeks we will go to Colorado and Asia.

Mmmm...frequent flier miles.

Toddler CSI

Odd event this morning. Walked into @'s room after hearing the normal sounds of him talking to his stuffed animals, shaking the rails of his crib and greeting the day. When the lights came up, Amanda and I noticed blood on his face. Not graphic, "jump into the car, we're going to the emergency room" amounts of blood but any amount on a 20 month old is too much.

As Amanda begins cleaning the otherwise contented baby we begin looking for clues. Blood on his face, head and hands. We look to see the cause (his nose) and check him for other wounds (none). I begin to examine the splatter pattern on the bed, taking note of the small amount located in one corner, the dried fingerprints nearby. No signs of foul play, no signs of undue trauma. Time of accident - recent. Cause of accident...hey it's a bloody nose. No big deal.

Given his cold and prior iron problems, we decided on a quick trip to the doctor. No problem. He's fine.

Ah, the joys of fatherhood.

The buzz...

For the last few weeks things have been relatively slow around the ol' hoosier homestead with only the scattered obligation. Amanda, @ and I have fallen into basic routines of trips the gym, the odd trip into the city, a treat before bedtime. It really felt nice just to be static.

But now the chaos begins.

In mid June we have a week long speaking gig here followed the next day by a trip to Colorado Springs for basically the same thing. The real fun starts a few days after that near the first of July when we fly to Asia to look at a possible new home. After ten days there we'll fly home only to begin relocating somewhere new (our house will be passed off to some friends in September). We're thinking Springfield or Charleston areas. And somewhere in here we'll be making trips to Texas and southern Illinois.

Oh yeah, and I'll be trying to finish up some grad school things before we make any permanent moves overseas too. (I figure I hold the family tennis title, I can't be left behind Gretch in the "smarter than thou" event.)

All this means we'll likely be Stateside through the end of the year, depending...

Travel Question

Amanda, @ and I are doing a lot of traveling this summer and wondered if anyone has a preferred way to book flights online. Suggestions for the BEST site for the CHEAPEST prices???

Thanks in advance.

Cincinnati Question

My older brother and his family will be relocating to Cincinnati this summer and I told him I'd see if anyone could help with this:

Suggestions for a good church in the Cinci area? They have three kids and would probably be looking one with a MOPs or MOP-like program as well as the usual prerequesites of community, activism and, oh yeah, Christian stuff.

I'll pass on suggestions.

Our Oil Solution

I've held back on this hoping that I could somehow profit from the idea but now I feel I owe it to America to offer my solution to America's dependence on foreign oil.

We need to buy more, not less, oil from the Middle East. I mean really buy...a lot...right now. As the great global consumer of things we really don't need American's need to start all but bathing in the stuff.

Run up your credit cards. Fill every bucket, pot and pan in your house with petrol. I mean Mickey Mouse when it rains kind of containers. Think of new and ingenious ways to use crude. Strip the paint off your walls with it. Barbecue with it - not as charcoal starter but as a replacement FOR charcoal. Kill off unwanted dandelions. Make your own fireworks. Be creative. Embrace America's natural giftedness in finding ways to waste fuel and light things on fire.

So drive to your mailbox. Take trips just to watch your odometer spin. Hit the road whenever you want to listen to the radio. Drive back and forth over the central and eastern time lines just to see if you can somehow disrupt the space-time contineum. Try and outrun the sunset - or if you're from Indiana, the approaching stormfront. Drive to California and try to catch a glimpse of TomKitty. Consume, consume, consume!!!

The quicker we use the world's oil, the better. Since this is all non renewable, the world will run out of it eventually. Let's just hurry up the process. When the Shieks and oil barons run out of the stuff, so does their power. What's Dubai without oil? A desert with a bunch of shopping malls and a palm shaped subdivision. Sand and camels. Oh and the foundation of human civilization - but let's face it, that's not really important.

And when there's no oil left? The world will have to start looking at ethanol. It goes without saying that the Middle East will never be able to produce enough corn to contend with our farmers. Europe? To borrow a term from an animated hero of mine, those "cheese eating surrender monkeys" would never dig up their wineries (or "whineries" in the case of their international involvement) to have them replaced with corn. And America knows all about producing too much of the stuff.

After all, this is is the home of 4H. We have towns with names like Farmer City and Heyworth and Ethanolia...good, American, farm towns. We have corn festivals and put things like "Soybean Capital of the World" on signs welcoming people to our cities.

So it would come full circle back to the American farmer. He feeds the world now. One day he will fuel the world. But only if we help waste oil.

Goodbye do-overs

Every few days I catch myself reflecting over our last few weeks in Africa. Recently I've been drawn to something a bit less geographically defined.

Are there people in your life you would like to say goodbye to again...differently? Maybe you simply didn't get a chance to say goodbye because you missed crossing paths one last time. Maybe you saw the person but you were too busy to give them the attention they rightly deserved. Perhaps you were in a bad mood because you hadn't slept in days and their country had invited you to leave. Maybe someone else was there so you couldn't be as open with that person as you would have liked. Maybe you didn't understand how valuable that person was until later.

And now I wouldn't know what to say if I could do it over.

Ahead of the curve?

Since moving to Indy, my wife and I have been internet nomads. We go next door to use the wireless at PCCC - often resorting to borrowing one of the neighbors' waves when our first choice thwarts our attempts; we go to the public library; I've even wandered throughout the backyard hoping that some signal would come floating by so we could connect without leaving the general vicinity. Because we have our own cell phones and don't plan on staying in one place very long, we've been reluctant to get DSL or dial-up access in our home.

The problem with this nomadic lifestyle is that we are rarely able to look at the internet at the same time. If we're at the library together, Amanda or I need to be watching "@". Sure, we could take him next door but do you know how many places there are to hide in a building that seats 1200 on a Sunday?

So after much stalling, we broke down and decided to get an aircard that would allow us to use the internet from our laptops anywhere. Verizon had a nicely priced plan and since we were already customers, we decided to byte the bullet. After a day of frustration spent calling tech support with both Dell and Verizon, it became clear that it wasn't going to work.

In our attempt to get newest, most cutting-edge computer we could - knowing that in three years even that would be obsolete - we actually bought a computer that uses a newbe "express card" drive. They don't even make aircards for it yet.

Thankfully, Dell reassured us that someone, somewhere, would be coming out with one...sometime.

Note: This seems eerily similar to the time Dad purchased a Texas Instruments 99 4a computer for the family just before the computer division of that company went bankrupt. Gosh I miss Munchman.

Infant Game Ideas?

Just wondering if anyone has a suggestion for "My First Video Game" for my son. He's shown a real interest in using the laptop and I figure that it wouldn't hurt to get him started with something educational now - maybe that way he wouldn't start messing with Civ.

True, I may have timed this poorly since he has discovered that outside is an absolute blast. We had ducks in our yard yesterday after he went outside at the gym and we had a picnic at the local park. Today he ran to the gate and indicated, through sign language, that he wanted "more outside." Translation: He wanted to go to the church's jungle gym next door.

So any non-online game suggestions would be appreciated. Especially if they could encourage his vocal language use.

What if Indonesia...

What if Indonesia is just one giant Chinese restaurant? That's what I dreamed last night. I was in Asmara's world famous China Star restaurant and went out through those back doors I'd never had to resort to using (they lead to the bathroom and since there are only about a half-dozen public toilets I'd willingly use in all of Africa...). On the other side was a huge generic version of every American Chinese buffet but instead of food, society was available for the grazing. It was a smorgasborg of life. There were markets in one nook, what appeared to be a United Nations Meeting in another, people having their Easter Church services, an old man and his grandson fishing in the koi pond/bowl, a wedding (red-dressed bride no less) near the mall entrance...It was amazing. All you can experience for only $4.95.

Sorry, beverage not included. Ribeye and lobster only available on the Sunday buffett.

So maybe I was wrong

Despite what I said in my last entry, apparently I CAN'T indulge in an extra thousand or so callories a week. Amanda and I went in for our "six week checkup" at the fitness center and while I did gain an extra pound in muscle mass, I also gained a couple of more. I blame all the extra weight on the fact that I haven't had a haircut during those six weeks. And I haven't shaved in a couple of days. And I needed to pee. And I my fingernails are getting a bit long. Oh, and I've been reading alot recently so my brain is full...

The good news is that I now need an additional 100 calories a day just to keep up my muscle mass.

I think it's time for a Cadbury Egg.

Jellybeans

Not a profound entry. Just wanted to know if anyone has a favorite jellybean - brand I mean. I don't care about flavors. (Face it, nobody born since 1960 actually likes the black licorice ones.) Since Amanda and I have been working out, I feel like I can indulge in an extra 496 calories three times a week and I figure Easter candy is as good of an empty calorie, nutritionless snack as any. I just don't want to waste it. Are the Starburst ones any better than Smuckers or Jolly Ranchers? Or do I just stick with Brachs?

Or maybe I'm just better off sticking with my Peeps.

Africa Movies to see

Hopefully you've seen these already but I thought I'd suggest a couple of "recent" Africa movies you might want to see.

Hotel Rwanda: Less gore than you might think but still a pretty intense movie. I think the genocide that took place there will eventually come to mean more to world history than what we traditionally think of as THE Holocaust. After the European event, the world made sure that such a slaughter would never, could never happen again. Rwanda showed that the world was wrong.

Lord of War: Nicholas Cage as a weapons dealer. Not just about Africa but it certainly gives a lot of insight as to why/how those African conflicts are able to continue in countries where the average person can barely buy enough to feed and cover themselves. How can they afford guns? This explains it.

The Constant Gardener: The best of the three movies listed here. Rachel Wiesz and Ralph Fines (sp?). Beautifully shot. Great insight. Amazing character development. And, of course, that beautiful woman from the Mummy movies acting alongside Lord Voldemort. See this movie before you go to Kenya. It will either break your heart or make you desparate to go.

How NPR set my car on fire

Ok, maybe "almost set my car on fire" or even "could have set my car on fire" would be a bit more accurate.

Recently I've been listening to NPR since 1. We don't have a good listener supported Christian radio station in the area, and 2. I want to be just like Just Pete. This should not be a problem in and of itself except for the fact that I really find their stories to be interesting. Liberal, sure. Overly intellectual? Definitely. But where else will I get to listen to a story about Darfor in the Sudan followed by a piece about the 40th anniversary of the release of the three clawhammer banjo LPs?

Because of this, I ofen find myself listening so intently to the radio and then ruminating over what I've just heard that I forget to turn off the car engine when I get home, when I'm pulling into a parking space or getting gas. Recently I had almost gotten the gas tank cap off before realizing that the car was still running. Thus the title of this entry.

I just wish it'd happened while I was listening to "Car Talk."

The Menthol Room

What Amanda didn't say about our new health club is that in addition to the sauna and usual types of machines, they also have a menthol room next to the sauna and steam room. It's like walking into my room as a kid when all three boys had the croup and were lathered up with Vicks Vap-O-rub. Your eyes water, your skin burns, it's great. You're supposed to use it for around three minutes at a time but next time I may risk four. There are warnings, however, that "prolonged exposure can...gula, gula" (that's African for "yada, yada").

But now that it's practically illegal to smoke anywhere within a hundred miles of Indy, where else am I supposed to get that "just spent the night in one of O'hare's smoking rooms" smell in my clothes?

PS. - Anyone know if Tina Lowry had her baby?

Reach 1997 Photos

I know nothing about search engines or how they work but I'm throwing this out in the hopes that someone googling their own name or googling someone they know might find this.

I was going through some print photos the other day and realized that the time has come to either throw them out or give them to someone - so they can throw them out.

If this is you or you know these people, I'd love to pass off random photos from the CMF Reach trips that took place during the summer of 1997 - these people were in Turkana, Kenya:
Heather ???
Scott Bodem
Renee Price - now married with a new last name
Brenda Boardman
Melanie Lyrene

Also, if you were in Maasai that same summer, I may have photos for you as well.

Oh, and I also have a couple of photos for Jessica Burgard and Jo Kruse but I think I can track those two down myself.

Just leave a comment if you can help me track those people down.