Let Spring Begin

It’s been a cold winter, we are expect a few inches of snow this weekend.  But there is a ray of hope my friends.  Spring has spring in my closet.

I’m going to plant a square foot garden this year.  I have a big plans but no experience.  My first step was a success and here are the seedlings of Broccoli to prove it.

This square foot garden idea looks good.  Build a 4 foot by 4 foot box, load it with good soil and plant.  It does not mix with your crappy soil in the lawn so weeds are at a minimum.

We' will see.

Related articles

• The modest harvest of a square-foot garden (cbc.ca)
• Planning a garden 1 square-foot at a time (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Square Foot Gardening, by N.C. Gardener (survivalblog.com)
• Getting Started in Container Gardening (yearn2blog.com)

A Regular Person in the White House

It’s fun to watch how the press and politician react to Sarah Palin.  For some reason they just cant stomach her.  I, on the other hand, seem to agree with just about everything she says.  I’m not sure if that makes her presidential material.  I like how Dennis Miller summed up Palin on O’Reilly last night…

She's the best damn Sarah Palin we have in the world. And I'd like to see a regular person in the office of the presidency. Is Steve Schmidt, her big detractor over there on the McCain campaign, is he a genius? Was that a great campaign? How has Barack Obama's first year been working out for everybody? He's a genius. Everybody happy with that? I think Sarah Palin is about as smart as she needs to be for that gig. And I, for one, want to see a John or Jane Doe lead this country for once. I'd love that.

A regular person in the White House.  Wouldn’t that be cool.  Someone with simple common sense.  Is that Palin?  Maybe?

Related articles…

• Sarah Palin In Fiesty Mood For Fox Debut (news.sky.com)
• Incoming: 60 Minutes Hit Piece on Palin (healthcarebs.com)
• The Uncertain Future of Sarah Palin (time.com)

Weather and Marathon Training

Just a quick update… It’s about 2 and a half months until the Go St. Louis Marathon.  I’m just 18 miles into my training…I blame the weather.

I’m sorry to admit it but the “weather killed the marathon star”.    Like most of the country, here in St. Louis, we just came off the coldest weather in 11 years.  I did one great week of training then nothing.

Time to refocus…

I was able to run a few times on the treadmill.  I would rather use the ped-egg on my big toe than run on the treadmill… 

Listening Through the Bible Instead

Last year I wrote about how I read through Genesis every year.  (The idea is the read through the whole Bible but it’s never come about.)  So this year I’m listining to Brian at the DailyAudio Bible.com read the Bible for me.

It’s actually a very efficient way to listen to the Good book.  I’m excited each morning to fire up the iPod and see what God has to say today.

My drive to the office is about 30 minutes and that about the average reading.  He covers a reading from the old testament, new testament, psalms and proverbs.  I’d recommend giving it a try.   You can hear today’s reading here and visit the site by clicking here.

“So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.”

 Romans 10:17 (NLT)

Without God, We are Just Chimps

A view from the other side shows us Alan Alda looking for the Human Spark.  His PBS special will be on tonight.  The question is why are Chimps (who are only 1% different genetically) not like us humans?  From the PBS website:

“For 11 years, I was the host of the public television series Scientific American Frontiers.” That’s the familiar voice of Alan Alda, star of stage, screen and science. Now Alda is hosting a three-part public TV series about you. And me, and all of us. “We’ll be trying to get to the bottom of what makes us human. Trying to find that thing we’re calling the ‘human spark’.”

One way to examine us is by looking at what’s almost us. “We’ll be checking in with our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees, to find out how the tiny difference in our genes, just 1 percent, makes such a huge difference to who we are and what we can do. Chimps are smart as a whip, but they’re not us. Why aren’t they?”

What about that Human Spark?  Have a look it Genesis 3:7 and we see…

the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

“Breath of Life”, that’s the difference.

Sleeping with the Fishes

On the way home from Wal-Mart last night I looked I'm my rear view mirror and in a deep diabolical voice said, "Boys, tonight you will be sleeping with the fishes, whah,ha,ha,ha".

Yesterday we adopted two needy fish from the fish aquarium at Wal-Mart – 23 cents a piece.

Unfortunately for these new adoptees, I have a checkered history with fish, our last one got the dreaded fin rot disease and was flushed.  Too bad we never changed the water...  Fortunately for my fish-loving children "all drain lead to the ocean" (Source: Nemo).  If all drains lead to the ocean, what about the toilet?

So my experience with fish is that they die.  With this in mind, my 9 year old asked me how long they fish would live.  I gave him a range of 3 weeks to 3 years.  After a little research I found that my projection of life expectancy was way off.  Apparently goldfish can live for up to 40 years!!!!  It must be true if it’s in Wikipedia...

"Goldfish may grow to a maximum length of 23 inches (59 cm) and a maximum weight of 9.9 pounds (4.5 kg), although this is rare; most individual goldfish grow to under half this size. In optimal conditions, goldfish may live more than 40 years; however, most household goldfish generally only live six to eight years.

I never knew that goldfish were such a commitment.  Anyway.  I'm shooting for 6-9 months and we are good.

Back to Wal-Mart.  So we are walking through the store and I'm carrying the fish in the bag.  The kids have decided that I need to carry the new acquisitions because they were afraid that if the bag were to shake too much, they would die.  (Source, Nemo: Shaking Bag Scene in Dentist Office).  My lovely wife begins to worry about the fish getting too cold while walking from the store to the car.  Come on family, they are just fish…they were born to die.  Born to be eaten.  And I guess born to be decorative.

We make it home without killing the fish.  The next morning I check for belly-up fish (Another Nemo citation) and to my surprise, they are alive!  Now the boys are sleeping with the Fishes.

Craig's Liveblogging of the Healthcare Debate in Congress

Hit F5 (Refresh) often to watch my liveblogging...

The Art of Stair Sledding

With the average temperatures below freezing, the kids are forced to do more inside.  This activity is stair sledding.  Have a blessed time with family next week.

Family Cat Lost for 103 Days – Found!

Our cat Daisy got out on September 3rd.  The kids were crushed and after a 20 day search, hundreds of flyers and even a blog (lostcat.info) we gave up.  Yesterday, 103 days later, a guy calls us and says he found our cat.

He was driving not far from our house and picked this frail white cat up while she was trying to get down a hole.  She was skin and bones and very weak.

A week later he saw a tattered piece of paper taped to a street sign, flipped it over and it was one of our flyers.  He called us up and we picked her up last night.  Wow…

Our Household Vocabulary

Today Firstborn sat down and wrote a list of everything he and the other kids have named or created.  This list of over 300 items contains names of stuffed animals, games created, sayings, slogans and made-up characters in stories. 

If you want to know the meaning of something in particular, leave a comment and I’ll ask the kids to define it for you….

Kids are cool…

Abearican Abearican English Agent Walree Air Simmie Allroad Suggestion Amitie Andersca Animal Research Apple-Picking Place Arctica, Grant Arctica, Private Arctica Areqlaemy Aw-duh-bor-ay Aw-tuh-poh Baaboo Baby Babezilla Baby McRay Babytropolis Bandaiditisphobia Basement Basement Wastelands Bathesda Bean-Eyed Monster Bearemy's B's Christmas Store B's Learning Website B's Library B’s Room Benny Usborne Betabet Theory Bighind Bird Billy Bob Joe Billy Bob Joe: Escape from Princess Island Billy Bob's Anger Management Bleachy Socks Blue Platypus Boboflamicphobia Bookworm Library Bootheads Brentenstein Brick City Broth Build-A, Charcoal Grill Build-A, Coconut Bikine Build-A-Bear Island Burger Freak Burrito Birthday Cake Buttox Plant Camper the Camp Cardboard House Celery Pun Cent Central Terrier Territories Cheesybiz Chip Christmas Tree Decoration Industry Cliffun Congravital Theory Cousin Bread Cremé Croaka Lisa Crouton Daddite Daisy Dim Ditty District of Martin Doesnthaveahipitis Dogzilla Domastash Dory Düplex Eddie Spitgar Eddie Spitgar's Diary E's Website E’s Room Emphasizo Script Escapefromcamperoo Attempt Evil Gross Gang of Singers Eyebrows Real Estate Agency Fatalbloodlossitis Fatman Federal Landing Area Fetch! With Puff Puffman Fire Simmie Flatfoot Flower Potion Foongi Frizzy Furry, Bella Bunny Furry, Berry Dog Furry, Biscuit Sngravey Furry, Brentina Beanbum Furry, Cheeky Pengy Furry, Flipper Hoppz Furry, Fluffy Wuffy Furry, Frisky Poogums Furry, Fudge Coco Furry, Ginger Bread Furry, Ginger Bread, Jr. Furry, Hipper Eyebrows Furry, Leo Pard Furry, Luna Moon Furry, Mama Petey Furry, Milo Fuzzums Furry, Mister Diggers	Munko Furry, Moony Lune Furry, Ribbitz Hoppz Furry, Rocky Dino Furry, Ryan Rhino Furry, Shadow Sparky Furry, Skippy Jonjones Furry, Smokey Bear Furry, Snowflake Pood Furry, Sparky Shadow Furry, Spotkinz Leopard Furry, Squeakers Mouse Furry, Sweety Petey Furry, Tabbers Tabb Furry, Tiny Rexy Chico Furry, Tiny Tweezy Chico Furry, Tisky Poogums Furry, Turdsley Frankly Furry, Tweety Dino Furry, Uni Buni Furry, Unknowny Harrison Furry Aliens Furry Aliens II Garagia Garthur Girland Gora the Explorer Gramp-puh-pa Grampa Joe Gran-puh-pa Great Babe Great Cat I Great Cat II Great Cat III Great Dog I Great Dog II Great Dog III Great Fish I Great Wall of Pudgles Great Worm I Green Platypus Greeting of the Friends Greg the Great Gub Gumby’s Pizza Hamanium Bomb Happy Snake Horseshoe Hill Horseshoe Homeschool Horseshoe of Life Huglantic Theory Ice Infinity Infinity, Googolplex, and Pi Intercontinental Steppes It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Sam Day Jimmy John Jonestownsvillesburg Kid's Kitchen Knoitoll Landing Larry Spinkelton Lascivania Lava Monster Lava Squid Lavatopia Legotown Lemon Potion Let’s Take a Gander at Mr. Diggers’ Shadow Festival Lila Little Ugly Gas Station Town Loafers Lucy Macaroni Martinian Cloaf Massiveguy Theory Mean-Faced Owl Midfloor Mini Meat Crunchers  Minicity Moldy Socks Moldy Socks and the Three Platypuses Mommite Moth Mr. Martin Mr. Voliver Mrs. Beanstalk Mrs. Beanstalk's Horseshoe of Life My Retarded Wedding Netta New Kinz New Kitty Territories Nonfittable Cardboard House Not-So-Pretty Pony Nut Old Fat Stupid Ugly Grumpy Wrinkly Kid Oodlepus Oodles Gang	Oodlesaurus Oodworm Orange Potion Owen PB&J Depot Paperzona Attempt Parentopia Pee Wee Preschool Penist Persian Poodle Pete Piccolo Birdbingbard Pigaroni Pilah Pink Platypus Pink Underwear Pun Poh Polka-Dotta Polka-Dotta Polka-Dotta Doo Pops Power Baby Power Boy Pretty Polly Promise Prime Pudgles Pudgles Raggersons, Ratty Rag Ratta Rice Ripaphobia Roach Country Roboflamicphobia Robots Rock Factory Rocket McRay Rombox S&B Show Samfé  Sammy McRay Samnett S''s Book Factory S’s Postcard-Perfect Christmas Village S’s Room Sanguage Sassy Socks Sea Simmie Shopville Silent Night Version 2.0 Sis Small Woman Sock Skating Sophie Southern Terrier Territories Southern Topfloor Spectrum Pen Spikieitis Squashington, D.C. Squeezersons, Larry Squash Squishy Stick Tree Stiffie Stinky Potion Stone City Stuff-a-thon Stuffie Stuffie Council Stuffie Olympics Stuffsonian Institution Stufftropolis Stufftropolis Hospital Stufftropolis Tri-Room Area Stufftropolis University Sugar Blobs Tam-poh Terrier Territories The Potatoe That Came to School The Roachstain Roaches Tiger, Ti Tige Tiger, Velvet Horse Tinosaurs Topfloor Topfloor Manifest Tornado Maker Trade-A-Toy Turd Girl Two Rotten Cookies Two Tubbies Uggo Uhpoh-Uhtay-Uhtoh Uncle Joe Under the Trees United Rooms of the Stuffie Union United Rooms of the Stuffie Union Headquarters Vegetaria Venessa Venessa City Vitamin Man Warsh Western Terrier Territories Where in the World Do You Think Wigglemeir Could Possibly Be? Wormy Wudgles Zee Za Zippermobile