IrishOboe

We’d been thinking about it for quite some time, but we finally acted and we couldn’t be happier.  Take a look at our new baby! (More)

Since I have so many more interesting things to post about that will take too long to write and still get to bed half an hour ago, I'll post this month's stats from my new favorite website for runners.

 

September

Walk: 19 km

Bike:  80 km

Run: 52.5 km

 

I don't enter all the walking I do, just when I walk to school or do some other serious walking.  All the biking is commute and transportation.  I never bike for its own sake, now I see better why I'm naturally more fit in Basel than in the US!  The running is an effort, but it pays triple digit dividends.

Feeling the relief of the immediate pressure of travel/Christmas/wedding, I decided to make some long-overdue blog modifications.  Some were easy, and some...well, let's just say that—as with much system maintenance—it started by breaking more than it fixed.  Specifically, links.  And because this particular change was system-wide, it messed up Janet's links as well as mine.  Not all of them, but some, and finding out which ones is part of the fun.  :)  So please be patient as I continue to work on this, all the while trying not to let it consume too much of the time that should be spent on laundry, etc.

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I am now fully functional and feeling wonderful.  There’s nothing like being sick to encourage the appreciation of health.  The first few car trips out of the house were a bit tough, but Sunday was fine and I enjoyed the pool party the church hosted - food and all.

Happily I was better just in time for us to loose water again.  Due to iron bacteria they had to shock the well again, so it was back to camping inside.  Plus we lost internet just as I was about to Skype Stephan.  Man, life is tough.  I’m discovering I’m much more demanding than I thought . . .

Mostly we have had all the amenities and I have had many good conversations with Stephan and I’ve managed to squeeze in some work here and there between playing with the Nephews. 

No baby yet, we’re still waiting and praying.

I’m at my sister’s new house for the purpose of helping with before and after baby needs and one of the first things I did was get sick.  The one claim to helpfulness I have is that I haven’t gotten anyone else sick yet.  Other than that I’ve been lying in bed with just enough energy to move about now and then before collapsing back in bed.  Today I have enough energy to sit up for longer than a meager meal and thought I’d use the time to catch up a bit with blogging.  Up until this sickness I’ve been living this glorious live God has given me rather than blogging, so apologies to those who miss hearing from me, but my web-life has nearly disappeared as I’ve lived real-life.

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Thanks to Bloglines I'm keeping up better with blogs than with emails.  Apologies to the folks who have emails sitting in my inbox.  I've been having productive, relaxed, and interesting lessons because of consistent practice so I'm enjoying that victory without too much guilt about emails as I plan to tackle that one in the next step.

Anyway, the point of this post is one blog lead me to this.

And another blog lead me to this.

Maybe they have nothing to do with each other.  Then again, maybe not.

One of the first things I did when visiting Stephan’s apartment for the first time was check out his bookshelves.  They made an impression then and now I’m making more of an effort to find time to read those books on his shelves that I haven’t read before.  Stephan recommended Graham Greene and I started with Travels With My Aunt.  It is certainly an entertaining and thought provoking book.  I would not want my children reading it and I don’t think HJJN would find it worth it, but it is well written, insightful, and full of character development, which is one of those important elements in a book or movie for me that is often poorly dealt with or left out altogether.  In this case the main character leads a simple life that is blown to pieces as his Aunt enters his world late in life and opens his imagination to an exciting way of living.  In this case, that way of living is less than godly, though comparatively the descriptions are mild.  It is an insightful journey through the mind of one slowly wooed by the excitement of sin.  I think it illustrates well how important it is for our imaginations to be shaped by what is good.  Life is not meant to be boring and dreary and empty of excitement because we can’t have the fun of sin.  Yet how many examples of exciting, beautiful lives lived for the Lord?  One thing I appreciate about George MacDanald is how he expands the imagination beyond that which we know and creates desire for the purity, bliss and excitement of abiding in God and growing in his will and discovering the wonderfully exciting world he created.  So watch out for your imaginative influences!  If you know of inspirational ones and really get you thinking on a different (and good) track, let me know!

 

“Surely that’s a legend.”

“There speaks a Protestant,” Mr Visconti said, “Any Catholic knows that a legend which is believed has the same value and effect as the truth.”

 

I'm not going home for the holidays and I still have the "I don't want to do my work" blues.  While researching why men's and women's shirts button differently in order to determine whether the story I knew was Tapioca or Truth, which was important to discover since I told it to impressionable young ladies at church, I came across Dr. Douglas H. Plume's Fountain of Genius website.  He seems to be the only one that did not confirm the story I knew because, you know, checking three websites on Google is enough to extrapolate the claim that everyone agrees and that makes it truth.  Well, I'm still convinced that when buttons came about men dressed themselves and most people were right handed so the easiest way to button is to take the button in the right hand and push it through the holes on the left.  Women, on the other hand, had help dressing (one version says this is because women's clothes buttoned in the back) so the buttons were reversed for the one doing the dressing.  Dr. Plume tells a different story but I'm writing to share with you his expert opinion on personal pronouns because I found it funny.  I know, I laugh easily, as illustrated by Richard's shock and hurt by the fact that I didn't react at all to a pun he made at Bible study last night.  It's just that usually his puns are more creative than that.  Okay, I've got to practice.  Have a lovely day!

As you probably noticed by the lack of updates, I’m either doing better with the homesickness, very busy, or both.  It’s been a particularly busy week with most classes canceled so we could do all day workshops on 12^th century chant, which has been a complete blast, but I still had to prepare for class and practice and I refused to give up my evening activities and the weekend was packed, too, so I haven’t had a minute.  Oh wait, that’s not true.  I started reading one of Brenda’s books and I have a hard time putting it down.  I carry my computer down to breakfast and read until the last minute and have to run to class.

I have some clips from the chant sessions, and I’d love to write about it, but that will have to wait.  Though I am too busy to moan about being homesick, I have not forgotten the people I love.  Here’s a special hug to my special nephew who turned four years old today!  Grandma and Grandpa got to be with him and silly Aunt Janet (who?) is stuck ‘way far away in some place called Switzerland!

I love you, Jonathan!

It’s so easy for me to be completely out of touch with American news and customs while keeping busy here in Europe but I was reminded that today is Veterans Day and wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has serve in good faith to protect life and promote peace.  I am aware of what a privilege it is to grow up and live in peace.  War is a terrible thing and I cannot pretend to understand when it might be justified and when it does more harm than good.  One can never know what the world would look like if some action or other had not been taken.  Yet I believe there is evil in the world and if all people who tried to do good never lifted a finger in defense of the defenseless the forces of evil within and without humans, individually and communally, would surely overcome the helpless.  Here’s a special thanks to my favorite veteran who faithfully reads my blog.  I love you Grandpa!

For some strange reason I do not abhor filing taxes.  It’s a bit like working on a difficult puzzle and I don’t earn enough to make paying a percentage that painful and I’m not thinking about the money when I’m trying to decipher the crazy maze of instructions.  I think I’m moderately smart and well able to read English and yet I always seem to mess something up.

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Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person,
having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all
right out, just as they are -- chaff and grain together -- certain that a
faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with
the breath of kindness blow the rest away. -George Eliot (pen name of Mary
Ann Evans), novelist (1819-1880)

I just had another hilarious encounter with customer service, but unlike usual, I wasn’t talking to someone in India, she actually addressed my needs, and was even pleasant while doing so.  There are enough customer service horror stories so I thought I’d put out an experience that’s the polar opposite.

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