Category: random thoughts

i finally found a style of cooking that fits me. for CHRISTmas pam received a creme brulee set. i’m not entirely sure what creme brulee is but i know that it has a caramelized crust on the top of it. this means that you take brown sugar and burn it until it melts and forms a rich brown crust on top of the dessert. in order to do this the set comes with a small “cooking torch” which is just a smaller version of a regular old propane blow torch. i don’t really know much about cooking indoors (cooking around a fire is my domain), but i know a fair amount about blow torches, so i told pam i would handle the caramelizing. it was my first attempt at doing this but it worked fine. it would appear that i am a natural at cooking with a blow torch. whoever thought of using a propane blow torch in cooking was a genius.

i don’t base my life around football or for that matter any sport but it was still cool to see the l.s.u. tigers when the national championship and experience how baton rouge has responded. i was driving home after watching the game with about 30 people at church and everyone is honking and shouting stupid stuff. just for a whim i droe over to academy sporting goods. they opened up after the game to sell national champsionship t-shirts and hats. they had a line coming out of the bulding reaching all the way to the road. it’s really impressive to see people who are so fanatical about something that they will stay up till one to pay too much for a really cheap t-shirt. you have to love people with that type of non-rationale enthusiasm. 🙂

i have a pretty boring life – i like it boring but i have to admit that it is boring. after raking my yard, sanding down an interior door, and wrestling with my kids the highlight of my day was reading 5 separate articles (about 40 pages or so) concerning the techniques and methods of creating psuedo-live rock for a marine aquarium out of cement. this is exciting stuff. because of this reading i now have the knowldge to create my own live rock that i can then “seed” with organisms from other live rock and thereby have brightly color algaes growing on my psuedo-live rock when my marine aquarium is set up. of course, i now have to make the molds for the live rock and actually mix everything together but i’ll do that next week. then i have to cure and “seed” the stuff so it will be about three months before i actually have my aquarium set up.

on the fun side, i discovered through my reading that one of the best ways to cure the cement psuedo-live rock and get rid of the nasty ph raising stuff that it releases for a short while, is to place the chunks of psuedo-live rock into the resevior of your toliet. this way the water “curing” the cement will change everytime the john is flushed. since, i have to make about 70 pounds of this stuff i will be spreading the psuedo-live rock out amonst a bunch of johns. so if you use the bathroom at my house, the church, or the student center there is a pretty good chance that you will be helping to “cure” my pseudo-live rock and get it ready for the marine aquarium. so if you are at one of those spots then go to the bathroom as often as you can. i appreciate your help in the matter.

i’m just hoping you have a great 2005.

thus far my new year has been full of a sick wife, an oldest boy who is sick enough that we are having to do breathing treatments every 4 hours and and youngest son who is coughing up a lung. it’s been a whole lot of fun thus far.

today is thanksgiving and therefore i thought i would list at least one thing that i am thankful for (there are many). i am thankful that thanksgiving only comes around once a year. it’s not that i don’t enjoy being thankful�i do. it’s not that i don’t enjoy being with family�i do. it’s the turkey that bothers me.

smoked turley sandwiches probably rank second or third in the top ten things i like to eat (chili dogs are definaely number 1). thanksgiving is the perfect time for smoked turkey sandwiches. you have all this left over turkey from the dinner that is just going to go to waste. the smoked turkey sandiwch is just the way to take care of this left over bird. in fact, as far as i am concerned you can just skip the dinner and just go straight to the smoked turkey sandwiches and everyone sitting around watching football games, telling stories, being lazy and growing greasier together. ahhh. that�s something to be thankful for.

the problem is that most people will only eat one or two smoked turkey sandwiches. that not really initially a problem. it simply means that there is more turkey for me and thus more sandwiches for yours truly. the problem is that i start to give into glutony at this point. gluttony is not a sin that we talk about much today. even though it’s not talk about it is still not a “nice” sin (not that any sins are “nice”), it hurts awhole lot of people. gluttony takes away from others who are needy because i am to busy consuming just for the sake of consuming. gluttony diverts resources from important things because i�m too busy consuming the november bird. just to make sure that i realize how harmful gluttony is GOD has arranged for it to hurt me too. i don�t mean by gaining weight or boosting my cholestoral. no i mean something more immediate. you see when i glutonize on the smoked turkey it hurts my stomach because it expands past all resonable limits.

this wouldn’t be that bad because my digestive track would go down after an hour or two of work but the smoked turkey continues to call out to me. everytime my stomach begins to go back to it’s natural form another delicious morsel of bread, mayonaise, and smoked turkey somehow falls into my hand and must be eatten. thus the pain continues throughout the entire weekend until the meat is finally picked clean from the carcass and sent off to the great smoked turkey kingdom above the cloouds. then my stomach has at least until CHRISTmas before it is tempted to expand beyond it’s natural size by the bird that benjamin franklin wanted to be our national fowl.

by now you’re probably screaming at your monitor “just say no, robert!” of course, that�s easy to say when you’re not faced with a family who refuses to eat the turkey after it’s initial carving. if not for me who will eat the smoked turkey? what about all those starving children in china? my mom always told me that i had to eat my food for them, because they didn’t have any (of course, that statement didn’t make sense to me when i was twelve and still doesn’t make sense to me now, but any port in a storm of justification). if no one else eats the smoked turkey what will happen to hong kong? so i have to eat this fourth turkey sandwich. i have to eat it for tinamen’s square and the freedom fighters who risked their lives there. cosmicly somehow their lives and food supply rests on me cleaning my plate. if i fail it all falls and i can’t have that on my conscience. i’m not eatting for myself, i’m eatting for freedom for the repressed chinese.

i’m so glad this only happens once a year.

my friend kate mayfield (who will be a part of the JESUS project this weekend) sent out the email below today. i thought it was sad and funny and therefore it has been added to the blog. btw, kate believes in broad use of capitalization, while i do not, so her email has capitalization within in it.

My dearest friends and loved ones…

It is with a very heavy heart that i send this to you…

As you may know, the official Oakleigh Apartment mascot is a humongous hideous, yet gentle spider named Murray. Although Murray is by far the biggest most frightening-looking spider that i have ever seen, i have come to know him during his stay at Oakleigh Apartments. I showed him the love of Christ, whenever Mae needed to take a dump, I’d visit Murray. I have always been impressed by Murray’s amazing housekeeping abilities, cutting things out of his web like leaves and huge branch.

During the rain on Sunday, Murray lost half of his web. But, being the resiliant fighter he is, he rebuilt his broken abode overnight. I admire that resiliance and diligence in Murray, and am challenged to be as focused as he is. Unfortunately, the rain didn’t stop Sunday, in fact with it came intense winds and more rain. On Monday, Murray slept, after having rebuilt his web overnight. On Tuesday, he was cutting the leaves out that had fallen from the trees in the wind. Tuesday night, he was fine, sleeping in the middle of his web with enough food to ride out the storm. Wednesday morning, Mae and i went outside and Murray was still there, quietly taking in the beauty that is Oakleigh Apartments in the “winter.”

Sadly friends, when Mae and i went outside at 11:45 on Wednesday, November 19, 2003, Murray was no longer with us. Only fragments of his fine dwelling were left on the tree. All i can hope is that he went peacefully, and didn’t get caught in the wind and fly at rapid speed into the office building, rendering him unconscious and vulnerable to the savage beasts that lurk in the landscaping.

I know that this news may come as a shock to some, as i know that Murray was beloved..but know that he’s in a better place, where his web is made of the finest golden silk, that will withstand all elements.

I think Murray would respond to our sadness with the words of another beloved spider…Wilbur’s friend Charlotte…

“You have been my friend,” replied Charlotte. “That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what’s a life anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die. A spider’s life can’t help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.”

Remember, it’s ok to cry, the loss of a beloved arachnid friend is hard…You can leave flowers or bees or any other small insect at the site of Murray’s web, as a memorial to our beloved friend. I just hope that you refrain from leaves or huge branches, out of respect for the hard work that Murray went through.

Please remember Murray’s friends, he was survived by Eighty legs, the Subway spider, and a cricket that i can never see because it stops making noise when i come close. Also remember Mae, although she may not show it, she’s dealing with the loss of Murray in her own way.

Just remember, in the words of E.B.White, “She was in a class by herself. It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.”

I love you guys, and i’m praying for you all, and i love you all very very much. let me know if i can do anything for you, you all have no idea how much you bless me. I love you!!!

in Him,
kate(n)

blanco won the governor’s election and this is deeply disturbing to me. i’m not really talking politics here even though i wanted jindel to win because i agreed the most, though not entirely with him. i’m talking names. our new governor’s name is “blanc-o”. this does not seem to point to a bright future for louisiana. will blanco accomplish much as governor? nope, her agenda will be “blank”. there will be a big “o” all over her political career.

what type of politican would keep a name like “blanco”?. it is just right for public abuse. why not just name yourself “i won’t accomplish anything”? or “zilch”? of course, we’re talking about louisiana politics so maybe her name should be “i’ll cheat the system, abuse my power and then go to jail” or just shorten it down to “crook.” to my knowledge neither blanco nor jindel have commited any crimes but we do have a state history of this type of stuff so there’s always hope.

of course, some of you may have voted for blanco. you have that right to do that and i am very thankful for that right. i’m just upset by her name. who’s the governor of louisiana? not sure i keep on drawing a “blank”.

i went to cane’s today for lunch. my name for the meal pick up today was “bogart” which they literally SHOUTED throughout the store. it cuased a bunch of people to smile and laugh and made my day.

to understand this goto september 28, 2003 entry.

not much else to talk about today.

i would like to report that i raked my front yard today and there were no yellow jacket attacks at all. it would appear that i have permenately chased away the stinging tormentors. bugs fear me!

while i raked today – actually it was more like tonight because it was very dark by the time i had finished – i realized that much of life is like raking leaves. you see tomorrow morning my front yard will look good. tomorrow afternoon my yard will still look better than my neighbors’ yards. eventually though my yard will be covered with leaves and acorns again erasing all the work i put in this afternoon. as a matter of fact, if as a result of my leaf removal my neighbors rake ther yards tomorrow then my yard will end up looking like i was the one who had not done any work. so much of what we do is pretty meaningless and last but a few days. we make lots of cosmetic changes to life. small things here an there that don’t really change anything and most of which are only done so we look better than most of the people around us. unless we are careful so much of our lives revolve around maintenance.

but we have the oportunities to do things that really impact the world and personally i don’t simply want to “maintain” existence. i want to work on things that last and make a real difference. the “real” changes and things we can do are harder to do, but their impact last forever. i believe JESUS has called us to live a life that is about making real differences. JESUS didn’t maintain life, HE created it.

okayi’ll stop preaching now. btw, i saw a raccoon at the student center last night. apparently the student center has become the “wild kingdom” of baton rouge.

it’s been one week since the “battle of gettysburg” between the terrell family and the yellow jacket/azela bush axis of power and an unusal development has occurred. this morning as i was walking out i looked into the flower bed, the land of my victory, and noticed that something new had appeared there. in the area that had been fertilized with the decomposing bodies of both young and old yellow jackets a foot wide flat mushroom has grown. it’s very close to the actual nest of the enemy which i had defeated. apparently the bush has tried once again to win the war by allowing it’s rotting root system to become the fodder for the fungus of memorial for the brave and fierce yellow jackets which fought for it. it reminds me of “where the red fern grows” and the red fern that grew to memorialize the two wonderful dogs that die in the story. the bush’s love for the yellow jackets is admirable.

of course, as soon as i get home i’m going to go rip the mushrooms up and probably spit on it too. down with azelas and down with yellow jackets.