Booyor's BLOGgh!

My grandma’s memorial service will be at 2pm this Saturday at Lakeview Methodist:

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Thank you to everyone who sent support through texts, e-mails, and phone calls. I’m also thankful that I could send out a Twitter/Facebook update and not have to re-tell everyone over and over again. So, thank you for stalking me, I think.

I’ve learned some lessons, some that I can share here, others that you’ll need to talk to me in person about. What was really interesting/comforting is that Saturday morning I was helping J write a script for a video about Easter – along the lines of “Jesus Lives – So What?” (J is better about wording things so they don’t sound sacrilegious).

Saturday morning I was looking at 1 Corinthians 15, specifically:

For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

I finished typing up my thoughts, e-mailed them to J, and then got my dad’s call to put on my shoes and race to the west side of town.

My grandma lived a life of serving others but it was not for this life that she was investing. All of the teaching, listening, baking, flower arranging, and generally being a good friend was because she cared for people, cared for the people in God’s church. Not that those acts earned her way into Heaven but that those signs of love are evidence of a faith lived out.

The end of 1 Corinthians 15 is the best, mixing in ideas from Hosea, Isaiah, and Revelation:

Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?

One thing that broke me down, though, was an unopened card I had delivered on my first visit to the hospital. My grandma never recovered enough to be able to read it. I’m keeping the envelope in my car to remind me to seize the opportunities I’m presented with.

On that train of thought, this past Friday I started the first of many Dad-Daughter Days:

Yep. Pink Bear. Darth Vader Armor. It came with a plush lightsaber, too. I am proud.

And to the wonderful ballet teachers, thank you for your time and know-how. Also, thanks for something fun my family could go to:

Usually when my dog barks, it’s for a very good reason. Like, oh, kids starting fires in the alley…hypothetically speaking. So when Indiana was standing next to the screen door looking up and barking, I came to the most logical conclusion.
The aliens from Signs had jumped on my roof.
Then I heard the hot air balloon ignite some fire to rise up. I appreciated this, since I wasn’t ready to host an airship crew, no matter how close they flew to my home.

Other odd highlights from today:
Two unrelated people spoke the same line from my life’s script. “You’re a librarian? That works. You can reach the highest shelf.” The first person had initially said that I was too tall to be a librarian until the shelf epiphany hit. The latter person (I’m the ladder person, I guess) was at the Apple store.

“You need a new power cord for your MacBook? Let me get the…nevermind.” I pulled the box down. I had to stand a little on my tiptoes – a truly tall display.

Did you see talkinturkey’s exciting MacBook news? Very exciting, to say the least. I should have had the Apple Geniuses/Geniusi etch a giant lumberjack on my MacBook.

And Mike, you will be proud. A conversation teaching my youngest to use the word “rear end” instead of what she was saying devolved into the four of us singing Mr. Roboto in the kitchen.

The Internet on the desktop had been out for the past couple of days. I stayed home from the church business meeting with two sick daughters this afternoon. I decided, “Hey! I’ll get the desktop up and running again.”

The fact that Space Buddies was playing in the background was not a help. You should know that we have sneezed so much that my youngest is currently fake sneezing, saying, “Achoo! Oh, bless you!” over and over again in a sing-song voice.

I went on Microsoft’s Social Problem website to find a fix to my Internet connection (I browsed using the MacBook – Internet to the home was just fine). The solutions ranged from “re-install Windows 7″ to “don’t let your computer go to sleep”.

Don’t let your computer go to sleep? Wasn’t that Nightmare on Elm Street?

I tried one option that involved ipconfig and the typing of subnet masks. When that didn’t work, I tried the whole “unplug the router, modem, and computer then watch Budderball pass gas in his space suit then reconnect everything” option.

That one always works.

And Windows 7 Help Desk people – when my Internet is down, please don’t offer “have someone remotely connect to your computer” as the only Troubleshooting Wizard solution.

But kudos on Office 2010. I’m digging Word and Excel. PowerPoint, why can’t you be more like Keynote? [PowerPoint hangs its head and shuffles away.]

Internet’s up, I’m typing away, and now I will collapse on the couch.

This post would have been a sweeping epic involving matillos and clavos, but the border patrol ate up a good 45 minutes of my bloggh time.

Here’s a paradox, though: Why do I freak out? I broke no laws today. I am a U.S. citizen.

And yet when I saw the dog sniffing the car in front of us (the SUV that cut in front of 10+ cars just to squeeze into our van caravan) I got nervous. I had been reading the inspirational music on the different pages of my passport, words about liberty for the entire human race and forming a more perfect union, and it made me sad.

Why can’t people be cool to each other? The people that we worked with in Juarez today were.

The family is super nice. It’s a grandma, her daughter, and the kids. Alberto, roughly the same age as my oldest, thought I was crazy when I told him that we were almost done building my leg.

Piedra means leg. Pared means wall. Simple mistake, but you should have seen the looks on the kids’ faces.

Mike – With the Cardinals losing today, if your character goes to the Dark Side tonight, it would be understandable. Yes, I know he’s not Force-sensitive, but I’m sure you’ll find a way.

Devin, Jesse, Steve, and Gary – I’ll pass on a word of advice about Sith temples: Don’t drink the water. Sith temple being a euphemism for the U.S. Border Patrol station.

I will uphold my photo quota when I can steal…ahem…borrow some photos from friends. When I wasn’t wheelbarrowing concrete I was negotiating prices for botellas de Fresca, so I didn’t have much chance to snap any shots.

I can, however, steal this photo from the Concrete Pathways:

Thanks for helping me appease the grandparents.

(By the way, Photobucket, I love your new interface.)

Click on the picture to zoom in so you can see the smoke. Today was a lesson in gunpowder.

My youngest was excited to go to Zoolights last Sunday.



My oldest took this photo of my wife and I.

Cabby hat? Toby Mac

Today also marks a momentous circumstance that had a bit of pomp.

We picked THE orange from the tree.

Not AN orange, THE orange.
A bird squawking out front alerted the armed guards.

Having forced the avian menace into retreat, an apprentice and I honed our shinai skills.


I swear that’s watercolors and not Celtic war paint.




The kids asked for more. I told them to wait another six years.

My daughter, the Renaissance princess

LCD projector and a giant screen? Most impressive.

Thank you to Mike for allaying any fears. Today I did try to invoke some ninja prowess, which lasted longer than normal thanks to my post-microbial civil war reconstruction status.

Guaranteed: after this journal book I’m working on, I’m totally writing a plague book.

I apologize to the Star Wars guys, especially Sean. I don’t normally fall asleep during GM descriptions. “Repeat that again: which items have Sith writing on them? Treasure chests?”

To the Fantasy Football league: No excuses; I just stink at Fantasy Football.

Cute stuff for the grandparents:
Messing around with my two year-old this weekend, I asked her to point to her femur (instead of, let’s say, a ‘nose’ or ‘ear’). She did. You should have seen the look on my face, as well as her smirk that she knew she was funny.

While working on this week’s Bible study with my oldest, we were reading in her Bible Luke 17. I explained to her what a skin disease is. She said, “Oh, like leprosy?” Who’s in charge of that Sunday School?

My oldest watched a Mr. Rogers episode where they learned how guitars are made. The picture above is my daughter’s first guitar composition.

I think this was the same episode I watched years ago. My daughter made a guitar out of rubber bands and Tupperware, much like I did decades ago with rubber bands and a block of wood (applause to Grandpa H for always having craft-type stuff on hand).

What adds to the coolness? My daughter found the video online. Even when not in traditional syndication, Mr. Rogers is the man. (It’s Mr. Rogers and Post Office Guy narrating in that link. Gotta love that elevator music piano.)

1. 1,500 words written towards a project I started today (~40,000 being the target)
2. I got to play River City Ransom with my nephew. Fight for gravy! His best quote? “Here’s a trash can to the face, buddy!” Jeremy, I swear I’m a good influence. The state says so.
3. My oldest and my nephew played some chess under my instruction…and they asked to play more. Sicilian Gambit from black off of e4? Child’s play!
4. My extremely cute wife went into Discount Tire and Brakes Plus, got our van’s tire fixed and had parts replaced on the wheels…all for only $35. I go in there and they lecture me. She goes in there and they say, “Put away your purse. This repair’s on the house.” (Not exaggerating – that was today’s scenario.) A cute, prayerful wife is not to be underestimated.