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Thursday, June 30, 2005

I broke my daughter

When someone tells you that you shouldn't swing young children by their arms, believe them. I broke my daughter last night with nothing more than a playful tug on her arm while walking to initiate a swing between me and my wife who was holding her other arm. Without a sound she screamed as if I had pulled her arm off, which, it appears, I almost did. After 3 hours at urgent care, the doctor appeared to do nothing more than examine her elbow and then declared, "I felt it go back in". We still took x-rays just to be sure but there was nothing broken. By the time the x-rays were done, she was running down the halls of the urgent care facility but still wanted to wear her "belt", the sling, as she liked it. She seems fine this morning.  Posted by Hello

Monday, June 20, 2005

Deep River

This past weekend I attended the Agehr 2005 National Handbell Conference with the handbell choir from my church. We have been together playing only a year and a half and had the fortitude to be one of 3 groups (out of 420 ringers) to perform a solo piece in front of the entire conference. I think we learned quite a lot as a group and I hope next year we can take on the challenge of participating in the conference choir ourselves. The conference was in Springfield, MO on the campus of Southwest Missouri State University.

Of course, I have pictures online from the event and even some video.

We also got this great picture of the Gateway Arch on our way there. Posted by Hello

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Book Tag

My friend tRUMAN "book tagged" me the other day before I left for the ride. Per his instructions, here is my response:

# of books I own:
Hard to say without spending a great deal of time counting, but I would say probably in excess of 250.

Last book I bought:
The last book I bought was Brimstone by Preston and Child. I had never read their books before (although I did enjoy the movie, The Relic) and found it to be a really good book. Others have told me that it is one of the weakest of their offerings so I look forward to reading others.

Last book I read:
My mom brought me Dean R. Koontz's Velocity to read on the plane to and from the AIDSride. I enjoyed it much more than The Taking which I bought and read before Brimstone. Still not equal to his earlier offerings like Lightning.

Five Books that Mean A Lot to Me:
The first would have to be The Bible (no link, I think you know what it is). It is the foundation of my life and by far the most important book.

The second book is Growing Kids God's Way. While Ezzo might be a controversial figure, we have found his thoughts on parenting to be invaluable in raising our own kids to be respectful, kind, and generous people. I've never read the contested book, Babywise, that they have written, but their thoughts in this book have laid a foundation that has worked well for our family.

The third book is one that carved my faith. As a man of science and also a man of religion, I have often struggled to reconcile these two things. My wife gave me a great book, The Case for Christ. It takes a journalistic approach to the evidence of Christ. While I don't ascribe to take anything that tries to scientifically prove the existance of the divine, it is an interesting read that has stuck with me over the years.

Oddly, the fourth book that comes to mind is actually a trio of books by Paul Reiser, Couplehood, Parenthood, and Babyhood. Each, I recall, touched me with funny stories and insight that I still find relevant today. A lighthearted look at different phases of life.

And finally, I have to list The Lord of the Rings, by far my favorite fiction.

ML, tag, you're it!

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Experience the ride

The people at AIDS/LifeCycle have put online a great wealth of information about the ride. From maps to pictures to daily logs, there is much to see. I've also found that some of the riders are sharing their pictures online with Flickr. Most are being tagged with aidslifecycle. But some people are also posting under an AIDS/LifeCycle Pool from the ALC group.

America the beautiful

There is something special about spending a week, basically alone with yourself for large portions of the day. It is not something that normally people get to do. There is always the phone, errands, work, the nagging thought in your head that you've forgotten something important, something to draw you away. I expected to enjoy my time like this, without distraction. I expected to see some beautiful coastlines as we rode through California. But having not spent any time there other than in large cities like San Francisco and San Diego, I did not expect the beautiful countryside we encountered. It was so varied: Rolling hills, vineyards, hayfields, strawberry fields, mountains, flatlands, and everything in between.

God Bless America

Monday, June 13, 2005

Don't you know, silly?

On the ride, one evening's entertainment was a talent show from the participants. There were people who told jokes, others who played instruments, an 18 year old girl that missed her graduation for the ride and played the Star Spangled Banner for us on her flute, and there was one rider who told us a story.

He told us of how he was riding into town that afternoon and stopped at a light where a school teacher was walking a group of grade school students down the street. They stopped also, and one of the boys asked the rider, "Hey, where are you going?" and before he could answer, the boy behind him elbowed him and said "Don't you know, silly, he's going to change the world."

I remember now why I ride. More later... Posted by Hello

Wednesday, June 01, 2005