Last week, I decided to shave my goatee for the heck of it. Apparently, this added about ten pounds to the look of my face because I had several people at work ask me if I gained weight over the break. Last time they saw me, I had facial hair.

I know for a fact that I gained exactly one pound from the beginning of December to the first week of January. So, I’m growing it back.

One other thing about my visit to the BMV…
I’ve worn glasses or contacts since 9th grade. My vision has never been terrible, I can see without my glasses. I just needed them to see the chalkboard in class, watch TV from a distance, read street signs at night, etc.

Back in December, one of my contacts ripped and one of the nose pads on my glasses broke so I just stopped wearing either. My intent was to go to the eye doctor but I never got around to it. After a month or two, I noticed that I didn’t have to squint to read things on the TV and I could read street signs while driving at night.

When I went to take the vision test, I realized I didn’t have my glasses with me and thought for sure I was going to fail it. I told the lady I would try it anyway. I passed.
I had not passed the vision test since I first got my license. I couldn’t believe it. It was verifiable proof that my vision has improved over the past 9 months by not wearing my glasses or contacts.
Weird.

I went to the BMV at lunch today to finally get my Indiana drivers license. Apparently, when you have an out-of state license, you have to take a written test. Everything was fine until I got to question number 10.

Question 10 made me ashamed to be a Hoosier. The grammar was atrocious and the wording was terrible. I didn’t answer the question and made a note to bring it to the grader’s attention.

The question went like this:

“If a person is under 21 when their license expires and he or she applies for a new license, you must do the following:”

I don’t remember the options but the obvious answer was not listed. The correct answer to the question is “Nothing.” I am required to do nothing if someone under 21 has an expired license and applies for a new one. I may offer advice to someone in that situation but that is optional at best, certainly not required. Why is it any of my business or concern?

I took the test up to the lady to grade it and told her I did not answer question 10 because it did not have the correct answer. She said, “oh yes, the correct answer is there.” I said, “no its not.” I had to explain to her that I was not required to do anything if a person’s license expires and they are under 21. She didn’t quite get. The lady next to her did, I think. She said, “it means you are the person getting the license.” I said, “but that’s not what it says.” She informed me that I didn’t have to answer it and get it marked wrong and then handed me a phone number to call and complain.

I gave in and went ahead and answered it. I had to guess since I failed to brush up on Indiana laws and regulations regarding people under 21 getting licenses since I’m 35 years old.

I passed the test but missed question 10. Had that caused me to fail, I would probably still be there on the phone with some uneducated bureaucrat in downtown Indy.

Who knew?! I spent the majority of last week, in about 98 degree weather and equal humidity in the garage, stripping a dresser. It was given to us last spring and was a dingy white color. My front living room needed some extra storage and I did not want to just throw the white dresser in there. I stripped it and then stained it black. That was one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. Then, aha, I decided to prime( Mike’s suggestion) and paint. It is called “tea kettle black.” It is a flat paint so the dust has been collecting too easily. However, it looks nice in there.
It wasn’t without trial and error, though. I had never done this before. After the staining disaster Mike suggested I prime. Okay, no big deal. I go to Lowe’s and get my primer and paint….. Did you know you are supposed to have primer stirred? I didn’t. I opened the can, began painting, basically a layer of oil, onto the dresser. I was curious as to why a white primer was green looking and not white in the can or on the wood. I stuck a stir stick in and discovered why………………………… Mike took the can back to Lowe’s for them to thoroughly shake. Much better…..Once dry….apply black paint. Much easier said than done. Ever tried to paint black over white primer…Want a hint? Use black tinted primer!!! After about 2 1/2 coats of black paint the dresser was done.
This is so much fun we have 2 end tables and a coffee table to do this week! Oh, I also painted a quilt rack black.

I wanted to say more about what happened to me on Monday but that post was getting too long…

I like being in control. Whenever I drink alcohol, I do so slowly because I don’t like the buzz. Call me crazy but it makes me feel like I’m starting to loose control and I can’t stand that feeling. I don’t think I would like being drunk or getting high from any kind of drug. Even when I’ve taken pain medication, I can’t stand it.

What scared me so much on Monday was I had no control over what was happening to me. My heart was doing crazy things and I couldn’t do a thing about it. All I could do was pray.
I’m sure there is a lesson here for me to learn, I’m just not sure I want to learn it.

Its been a while since we’ve written on a regular basis. I think we’ll be getting back to that soon.

As some of you know from Karen’s mass email. Monday evening was crazy.
We dropped our kids off at VBS at my parent’s church. I started to feel “spacey,” as I walked to the kitchen area to get a drink of water, I began to feel light headed and a little dizzy. I asked for a drink of water and felt like I really needed to sit down or I was going to pass out. I sat down and drank some water and put a cold washcloth on my neck.

Over the course of the next 45 minutes or so, my heart rate would jump up to over 100 and my blood pressure would sky rocket then come back down after a few minutes. Then it would start all over again. One of the guys working at the VBS was a medic in the National Guard and had just gotten back from a 14 month stint in Iraq and Afghanistan. He kept an eye on me, then we decided I should go to the hospital. Karen was going to take me to the hospital in our van but as we were getting ready to leave, it started again. I got scared and the medic guy suggested we call an ambulance. (In hindsight, I really wish Karen had driven me herself. I am not looking forward to the bill.)

On the ride to the hospital, I had a couple more instances of high heart rate and blood pressure but by the time I got to the hospital, it was pretty much over. They took some blood and gave me an EKG. All looked normal. I was in and out of the hospital in less than an hour and we were back to the church in time to pick up the kids. I haven’t had any further problems since.
The ER doctor concluded that it might have been stress induced although I did not feel any stress at the time. But, our overall situation is stressful. Two mortgages, a foundation problem with the house we are trying to sell in Little Rock, etc.

I went to the doctor yesterday. He took some more blood for tests and ran another EKG. The EKG was normal, although he said there were a few things on it that may be indicators of something. Still haven’t heard anything back on the blood work.
The doctor said I should be on the lookout for any reoccurrences and if there are, he will get me in for some sort of hear test. It was a real long technical sounding name, can’t remember what it was but he said it maps out the “electrical circuitry” of the heart.
He said that I could have sinus tachycardia which isn’t serious or Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome which is a little more serious and could require surgery.

Anyway, all is good right now so I’m thankful for that. Now I’m just stressing over the bill for Monday’s events.

Ever thought about something and it kind of made you mad and then the more you dwell on it, it becomes humorous?
We had our first auto insurance claim (Hopefully last!!)on the Odyssey. Mike drove around the corner to pick up a couch that was for the taking. He gets back to our house and is backing into the driveway. OK, no big deal. He wants to back in so it will be easier to get the couch out and into the garage. I am inside talking to one of the kiddos and I hear a weird sound. I go outside and asked what that sound was. I looked down after he says, “guess what I did?” There is shattered glass everywhere. I didn’t say one word. IGood thing we don’t always say what we think GUESS WHAT??!! YOU CAN’T BACK THE VAN INTO THE GARAGE WHEN THE REAR DOOR IS UP!!!!! (lol)
In Mike’s defense, I can honestly say that the dings on Mike’s car are mostly from me. I backed into a tree. (Our 18th Street driveway was not normal) The Plymouth van had a dent in the top where I backed out of the garage and the garage door wasn’t all the way up yet. I could tell you some stories about the 1974 Olds Delta 88 (aka Boat) I used to drive……..maybe another time.
Anyway, I am surveying what’s left of the window. Mike looks at me and says, “I’m glad I did this because I would be yelling at you if you had done it.” I am not even going to discuss this further……
Window replacement guy comes yesterday and I am telling him what happened for insurance purposes. He smiles real big and says, “I wish I had a dollar for everytime I have replaced a window like this because it was the HUSBAND’S fault.”

AAAHHH!!!

Since I’ve been out of the blogging loop for a while I have a backlog of stories I wanted to share. This one comes from about 3 weeks ago. I was in Little Rock, we had just sent all of our stuff off to Indiana in a trailer and we were hanging around waiting for the kids to finish school. Since we didn’t have any furniture, I went to the SanFransico Bread Co. to get some work done (they have free Wi-Fi, allowing me to connect to my office via VPN.)

I was sitting at a table getting some work done when this 45+ year old lady walked by, stopped and looked at me for a few seconds uncomfortably close. She said something to the effect of:
“I’m an artist and I study faces. You have a nice face. I bet your wife really likes your face, do you have a wife?”
“Uh… … … yeah,” I said.
“Oh. Is she the right one?”
“I hope so. We have 4 kids together.” I think my sarcasm was lost on her for a moment.
“You hope so? Shouldn’t you know so? … Oh, you were being facetious.”
I can’t recall everything she said after that but it was something about making sure I take care of my kids.

Now, even though I was being hit on by a very odd middle aged woman, it was nice to get a compliment… I guess.

The G Sides had an interesting post on decision making this morning. I started to write a comment on it, once I got to paragraph 3 I decided it should be a post on my own blog.

Grant was talking about a couple of people that have come to him this week for advice on making tough decisions. I did the same thing when we were deciding on whether to stay on staff with FamilyLife or not. He didn’t give me any answers but what he did do is ask me a few key questions to help me formulate my thoughts and help equip myself to make a good decision

I also started reading a book by Gary Friesen called Decision Making and the Will of God: A Biblical Alternative to the Traditional View. I cannot recommend this book enough. Go get it.

Back to our hard decision…
We are not yet on the “other side” of it. I am living with my parents, Karen and the kids are 600 miles away. Karen is about ready to pull her hair out, its already going gray,  waiting for our house to sell. (anyone looking for a 5 bedroom 2300 square foot house in Pleasant Forest?)
But, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, something I couldn’t see on the other side of the decision. All I saw was a very large, very thick brick wall. After we commited to our decision, its like that wall just crumbled in front of us. I got a good paying, fun job in less than a week with no interview. That was like the weight of the world being lifted off my shoulders.

Another thing we wanted to do in this decision is continue to seek places where we can be used by God to further his kingdom. The place where I work is about 70% Chinese, 15% Indian and 15% white American. I am working in a mission field. There is a chinese woman who leads a Bible study with a handfull of other Chinese Christians here. I want to work with those guys to help reach out to our co-workers. And I am in the process of laying a foundation with one of the younger guys here, his name is Hao. I invite him to play basketball with me at lunch and had him over for dinner last night, then we played Starcraft for a couple of hours with my younger brother. I don’t know where he stands spiritually, but I am in the middle of earning the right to talk to him about it.
We have also visted another church here. We decided when we move back that we are going to visit several churches and plug in where we can best be used. That may be the church we left when we moved to Little Rock but it may not be. Anyway, this church we visited is big on the members serving the body of Christ. The first sermon I heard there was about just that, about serving in the church using your talents and abilities. It struck a chord with me.

So, like I said, we are still in the middle of this decision but we see God at work in the midst of it and we take comfort in that.

He did it! He pulled it off without telling me. Mike arrived around 3:00 on Friday afternoon.  After a big hug and kiss he handed me a “key” to a hotel room.  He had arranged childcare with 2 families to keep the kiddos. He told me to go to the hotel and he would meet me there later. He took care of packing up the kids and dropping them off. I had a couple of hours to myself in TOTAL SILENCE. It was AWESOME!! We had two nights at the Embassy Suites-Little Rock. 

When I first arrived I wasn’t sure what to do. I sat down and read the downtown Little Rock guide, did some journaling and then….took an hour nap! It was great…a fluffy bed, fluffy pillows. 

When Mike arrived we walked across the street to Kobe. It is a Japanese steak and sushi place.  As a birthday treat, we had our picture taken by the Kobe staff and I was sang to in Japanese.  It was fun! I kind of felt like a kid again.

We enjoyed swimming in the pool and soaking in the hot tub.  The silence in our room that evening was nice.  No one to tuck in, no one’s teeth to brush but my own….. We enjoyed the breakfast buffet on Saturday morning.

We picked up the kids, let the dog out, and then went back to the hotel to swim.  The kids were thrilled!!! Later we went to the Big Dam Bridge. Yes, that is the real name of it.  It is the world’s (largest and/or longest) pedestrian/bike bridge. We got some great pictures. We also got to watch a boat go through the lock at the dam. The kids really enjoyed that! We then ordered pizza and went back to the hotel. The kids had an absolute blast swimming and hot-tubbing. 

Mike, you outdid yourself. Thank you for an awesome birthday. I miss you and I can’t wait to see you later this week. I love you.  

ool news from Cummins. (press release here)
(For those of you that don’t know, in my former life I was an engineer at Cummins, Inc. I worked on the electronic controller (ECM) for the mid-range engines.)

They made a big announcement this week that they were partnering with an unnamed auto manufacturer to put a new, high performance diesel engine in SUVs and small pickup trucks. The press release claims that the diesel engine will get up to 30% better fuel economy than the same vehicle with a gas engine.

The problems with diesels in the past were noise and exhaust. They were loud and the exhaust was soot filled and smelly. The problems are all but gone with developments over the past ten years. I worked on the 2002 and 2003 midrange engines (same size that Dodge puts in their pickups) and on those Cummins introduced “pilot” fueling which makes them run almost as quiet as a gas engine. Plus, the EPA has ever-increasing emissions requirements that have helped the exhaust problems of the past. This approach, introducing diesel engines into the auto market, could end up being a more realistic approach to oil conservation than hybrids. Lower cost and less specialized equipment on the vehicle.

The last year or so I was at Cummins, we started hearing rumors of a new engine that had been kept top secret for several years (a big feat at Cummins, they don’t keep secrets very well.) The rumor was it was going to be a V6 engine designed to go in SUVs and the rumor at the time was they were trying to get Dodge to put it in the Durango. And, once they got a customer they would build the engine at the main Cummins plant in Columbus which has sat virtually empty for the past 6 years. The press release from Cummins said they can’t announce the auto manufacturer and they have not decided on a manufacturing location. But, I would not be surprised if they announce Chrysler as the customer and Columbus as the manufacturing location, they already own an empty, 2 billion square foot manufacturing facility there (well not that big but it does take up about 10 city blocks.)

The only reason I can think of for the customer not being Chrysler is that they have their own similar engine they developed a few years ago in Germany. I can’t wait to hear more about this. It can be huge news for my home town, all my friends that still work there and for my mutual fund

Mike and I have been together long enough (almost half of our lives) that we often find each other thinking or acting the same way.  Mike is the king of one liners. He and I may be rolling while the person he is speaking to just has a blank stare. There lies the problem………..he has such a warped since of humor that people often miss the humor. 

I have aquired some of these skills. I sometimes surprise myself with the cleverness of such words. This can also come across inappropriate to others. Example, the post about Frump. Sarcasm is laced throughout! (I am the farthest thing from Hot!)

OK, this post does not make sense unless you know us.

here) but I would like to talk about something that affects us all? asparagus urine. That?s right, asparagus urine. Until a couple of years ago, I had never tried asparagus. One night, Karen fixed it and I discovered that I really, really liked it. I ate a bunch of it. Later that night I noticed an interesting side effect: strange smelling pee. I asked Karen if she experienced the same thing but she said that she did not.

Last week, she fixed asparagus again which got me to thinking about it again. I thought surely there would have to be something about it on the internet so I did some research. On a side note, one has to be very careful about what links one clicks on while conducting such searches.

I found this: ?Why Asparagus Makes Your Pee Stink?

Apparently, the culprit is either methanethiol or methylmercaptan which your body produces to metabolize asparagus. According to a study sited in the article only 22% of people report being able to smell it. With this information I decided to conduct an experiment.

I collected a specimen from Karen (its true love) and low and behold, it smelled like asparagus pee to me. She still could not smell it. I concluded that she was one of the 78% that couldn?t smell it. Then, we had asparagus again over the weekend and later that night Karen came out of the bathroom saying ?I think I can smell it.? I went in and sure enough, I caught the distinct odor of methanethiol. So maybe she was part of the 22% after all. I guess maybe she had not produced methanethiol in sufficient amounts for her to detect.

So anyway, I can sleep well at night knowing that we are both freaks.