tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374918652024-03-07T13:11:06.223-05:00Thou and Thou OnlyRiches we heed not, nor man's empty praise.<br><br>
This blog belongs to the family of JunkMale, a Christian and Georgia Tech alumnus. Target demographics might include conservative Christian, healthy-eating, homeschooling, interracial families, and others who do not call this world "home." Where homemade is usually better than store-bought. For more info, click the "About" link below.Harmonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15105846442509828835noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-28208237670401442342011-06-09T11:32:00.003-04:002011-06-09T11:59:41.587-04:00Holier-Than-Thou Badges<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5616236198008102594" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 151px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BivWnwP0isc/TfDhEOT2nsI/AAAAAAAADyk/E1KnClYhiqs/s400/472253_champ.jpg" border="0" />Perhaps you have a few. Such badges are common where one's interest-at-hand is different from the general population. Here are some examples of Holier-Than-Thou badges, plus an entirely-too-sarcastic-and-exaggerated-and-thus-purely-hypothetical blurb from a hypothetical holder of such a badge. The <b>bolded</b> indicates the Holier-Than-Thou badge.<br /><br /><ul><li>Point-and-shoot cameras vs. <b>SLRs</b> (single lens reflex)<br />"<em>Ha, good luck taking any sort of professional grade pictures with that little thing. Do you even know how to change your aperture settings? I would choke if I had to use a point-and-shoot</em>" And further within the photography realm...</li><br /><br /><ul><li><b>Manual focusing</b> vs. auto focusing lenses<br />"<em>Have fun with your precious auto focus in low light conditions, while my $500,000 focusing screen and vintage f/0.4 lens gets it perfect every time. I could never go back to auto focus.</em>"</li></ul><br /><br /><li><b>Making your own computers</b> vs. buying pre-assembled computers from Dell, HP, etc.<br />"<em>My computer is so much more powerful per dollar because I didn't have to pay myself $90/hr for labor. I would choke if I had to buy an assembled computer</em>."</li><br /><br /><li>Linux vs. Windows<br />"<em>Bow before me, mortals, I am <b>so</b> cool because I use Linux, death to everything Windows. BTW I am non-conformist for the sake of non-conformity.</em></li>"<br /><br /><li>Traditional board games vs. <b>Euro/German style board games</b><br />"<em>I'd much rather push wooden cubes around in a non-confrontational manner than bleed you dry in Monopoly."</em></li><br /><br /><li>Store-bought vs. <b>home-grown</b> vegetables<br />"<em>The vegetables from <b>our</b> yard are so much higher in vitamin, mineral, and antioxidant content than <b>your</b> store-bought vegetables. Have fun dying of cancer</em>."</li></ul><br /><br />The next few get a bit more relateable to any readers we still have left, mostly because I have/had personal experience with computers, cameras, and gardening and can't think of any others. And BTW, there is a point to this post besides being a vent or a rant; I shall put it after the list which follows.<br /><ul><li><b>Homeschooling</b> vs. institutional schooling<br />"<em>My homeschooler read Cicero's Greatest Hits in its original Greek, translated Swaziland's constitution into Latin for fun during his free time, and built a particle accelerator in his closet and has collected 153g of antimatter so far. What does your public schooler do with his time?"</em></li><br /><br /><li><b>Cloth diapers</b> vs. disposable<br />"<em>Cloth diapers are better for you, better for baby, better for life, and a prerequisite to enter Heaven</em>."</li><br /><br /><li><b>Avoiding trans-fats</b> vs. Not<br />"<em>Avoiding trans-fats is better for you, better for the world, and a prerequisite to enter Heaven</em>."</li><br /><br /><li><b>Having many children</b> vs. Not<br />"<em>I guess those people just don't view children as God's blessings</em>."</li><br /><br /><li><b>Grinding your own grain</b> vs. white flour or store-bought whole wheat flour<br />"<em>You don't grind your own wheat? No wonder you're fat and diabetic.</em>"</li><br /><br /><li><b>Backyard eggs</b> vs. store bought<br />"<em>I guess those people just don't view fresh eggs as God's blessings</em>. <em>Oh, and backyard eggs are a prerequisite for entering Heaven</em>."</li><br /><br /><li><b>Natural childbirth</b> vs. Not<br />"<em>BLARGH epidural anesthesia now, methamphetamine I.V. later</em>."</li></ul><br /><br />In recent years, I have become much more sensitive to exhuding a Holier-Than-Thou attitude in my writing, speech, and actions. In discussing the topic with Harmony, both of us agree that our miscarriages and fertility woes were a big catalyst in changing the way we presented ourselves. For the duration of this blog post, I will refer to the period before miscarriages and fertility as BM&I, for "Before Miscarriages and Infertility."<br /><br />BM&I, it was always my (our?) intention to have more children at this point in our marriage. After all, having lots of children is an indicator of God's blessing on a married couple living in holy matrimony, and we were pretty good people, right? Well. Then June 19, 2007 happened and our lives were never the same again. October 15, 2007 happened and set in stone that our thinking would never go back to BM&I mentality.<br /><br />Miscarriages and infertility dampened our self-righteous tendencies quite a bit. Pregnancies and children were no longer Holier-Than-Thou badges to be smuggly flaunted, they were more like "oh-my-goodness-what-you-have-is-SUCH-a-blessing,if-you-had-any-idea-what-it's-like-to-not-be-able-to-have-that-you-would-spend-the-rest-of-your-life-cherishing-it/her/him." Viable pregnancies were something to be maddeningly but cautiously nervously grateful for, not casually addressed as "oh another blessing here and on the way, sweet, let's see how many tons of tomatoes we got today."<br /><br />We discovered that, hey, you know, it doesn't quite feel great to hear people on blogs or blog comments boasting of God's blessings and their family size and implying that smaller families were that way because they actively rejected the blessings, in light of what had just happened. And I'm sure these people (I honestly do not remember any specific instances anymore) did not intend to come off that way, but that's the way I read things during that time. Losing hope for our "Has Many Children" badge humbled us in that area, as well as all the others. If it was that unpleasant to hear self-righteousness in one area, then it must be unpleasant in others as well. After all, who wants to feel like they are being condescended and condemned because of their choice of gardening philosophy or where they get their eggs?<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5616236989776295250" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; HEIGHT: 243px" alt="This image meant to convey family size; my proofreader did not understand though, thus the explanation" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9a1yd5qB72s/TfDhyT4GdVI/AAAAAAAADys/GYczh8cRc6w/s400/1339722_bunny_figurine.jpg" border="0" />I wish we had not had to endure the post-BM&I period, but good came of it. This is how life is, though - God gives us trials to help refine our character. I cringe to think what my thoughts might be if we'd had a honeymoon baby and easy children born at 1 year intervals after that. "<em>Well anyone who rejects God's blessings shouldn't cry about it when they have difficult children. Well those people</em> [who might have untold fertility issues or whatever, none of your business] <em>obviously are rejecting God's blessings...I mean their first daughter is 2 and the mom isn't pregnant yet..??"</em> You get the idea. Post BM&I, there's a greatly reduced (but still non-zero, as we are sinners) probability that such presumptuous thoughts will cross our minds.<br /><br />In the end, all of these Holier-Than-Thou badges might come to us. I would, of course, welcome having many children, which is the Holier-Than-Thou badge which has proven most elusive to us. But perhaps God thought that it would be better for us to take the long route there, so that we could be fully grateful for what God has given us, with much less self-righteousness than if He'd given the blessings to us right away. But even if He chooses not to give us any more children, at least we'll be much less likely to be self-righteous, Holier-Than-Thou bags of hot air.JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-72580174846585708672011-02-27T17:52:00.015-05:002011-02-27T19:55:37.897-05:00An Important Moment in Pearl's LifeToday, we decided that we would introduce Pearl to the world of Star Wars. Since it's such a monumental occasion, we thought it would be fun to take notes during the watching, to record her reactions. So consider this a live blogging the first watching of Episode IV. Will be updated as we watch.<br /><br />DVD menu - she says she's afraid of the music.<br /><br />The opening scene where the Star Destroyer flies overhead - "Ohhh...it's a big!!"<br /><br />People running aboard the <i>Tantive IV</i> - "running"<br /><br />Stormtroopers board the ship shooting lots of people - "he fall down," whimpering a bit.<br /><br />At this time I noted that this is going to be difficult if I record everything she says. So maybe I will just note the notable stuff.<br /><br />6:01 PM<br />Darth Vader interrogating the Rebel soldier - "Darth Vader," clap clap clap. Uh yeah, I guess so. Clap for the Darth Vader, not necessarily the demise of the poor Rebel.<br /><br />6:05 PM<br />R2-D2 and C-3PO go their separate ways. Pearl says "This way, that way."<br /><br />6:07 PM<br />Jawas picking up a stunned R2-D2 - "Picking up, that. Hug you." Later when they are loading R2 onto the sandcrawler, "he's okay, that."<br /><br />6:18 PM<br />Luke's family eating dinner - "I need that...I need that." It IS dinner time, after all.<br /><br />6:32 PM<br />Starts losing interest during the meeting of the Imperial leaders. But Darth Vader brings her attention back.<br /><br />6:42 PM<br />Chewbacca attracts her attention. "Pearl, what sound does a wookie make?"<br /><br />6:44 PM<br />Upon seeing Greedo: "Oh, mouse! I like mouse!"<br /><br />7:00 PM<br />We are pleased to know that she recognizes Chewbacca and Darth Vader on sight.<br /><br />7:04 PM<br />Just inside the Death Star - "Chewie! Chewie right there. I like Chewie."<br /><br />7:09 PM<br />During the "weapons malfunction", in a distressed voice: "Chewie! Chewie!"<br /><br />7:13 PM<br />In the garbage chute: "Chewie, bye-bye."<br /><br />7:19 PM<br />At the end of the garbage chute scene, when 3PO thinks they're dying: "Don't like it. Don't like it."<br /><br />7:23 PM<br />When Obiwan meets up with Darth Vader: "Oh! Oh-BEE-wan. Oh-BEE-wan." (Repeated ad infinitim in a few minutes upon his death)<br /><br />7:31 PM<br />"Drink it," as she offers Han and Leia some of her tea. (And more refrains of "Oh-BEE-wan")<br /><br />7:34 PM<br />"Chewie here. Chewie here." (Her new refrain, after realizing that Obiwan is not going to reappear.)<br /><br />7:37 PM<br />"Obiwan!" OK, so maybe she hasn't given up on Obiwan....<br /><br />7:41 PM<br />"Obiwan, he... dies."<br /><br />7:45 PM<br />Inexplicably, she breaks into song: "Trust, obey, no other way; Happy, Jesus... trust, obey."<br /><br />7:55 PM<br />Harmony, at movie's end: "So what do you think? Do you like Star Wars?"<br />Pearl: *nods* Where's Chewie?JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-79251942470938252902011-01-12T10:46:00.000-05:002011-01-12T10:47:04.271-05:00Cultural Differences - Parents of Adult ChildrenThis subject is something I'd not been able to experience much until I had been in a relationship with Harmony for a while. It concerns the topic of how parents treat their adult children. My sample size is very small, one set of Korean parents and one set of American parents, so this might not apply generally.<br /><br />What I have noticed is that my parents, the Asian ones, tend to treat us/me like we/I are still children. This is not to say that they ground us when we don't do as they please, or make us eat our vegetables before leaving the table (well, the last one maybe still for me sometimes). Rather, when they don't agree with us on something, I get the feeling that they think it's because we are kids who don't know anything. Sort of the "you're young, you don't know what you're doing." True as that may be, we are still adults. I think I have noticed this attitude more from my mom rather than my dad. Not coincidentally, my dad was the first one to come around regarding <a href="http://thou-and-thou-only.blogspot.com/2006/12/our-turbulent-engagement-part-3.html">our decision to get married</a>, indicating to me that he is slightly more willing to view me as an adult.<br /><br />What I have noticed from my in-laws is that they treat us much more like adults than my parents do. I do not ever recall getting the "you don't know what you're doing vibe," although I'm sure it has been thought before ;) It also helps that our general parenting philosophies are fairly similar.<br /><br />I have no evidence or data to tell whether or not this is the general trend among Asian and American parents of adult children. But the general feeling I get with each set of parents is that mine still view me/us as children, and my in-laws view us relatively more as adults.<br /><br />Unfortunately, I cannot recall any concrete examples, so this post remains displeasingly nebulous :p I'll blame it on being out of practice due to the severe blog drought.JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-36032925456391580482010-07-02T18:35:00.004-04:002010-07-02T19:04:30.352-04:00New Words and Pictures (aka bragging about my daughter)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2mTg6-gX7rJGJf7WoHh7aW-rjiPjSShPZkfxggx6a4GgdNYwgJjeFjwg9EdImDnyQ4z3l1_yjH58yVBAPK9kgNNILqU_zheRp2JV1aMtOq9g-gc_FzzKfZWY3ZZogFKSyV5wagg/s1600/eating.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2mTg6-gX7rJGJf7WoHh7aW-rjiPjSShPZkfxggx6a4GgdNYwgJjeFjwg9EdImDnyQ4z3l1_yjH58yVBAPK9kgNNILqU_zheRp2JV1aMtOq9g-gc_FzzKfZWY3ZZogFKSyV5wagg/s400/eating.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5489447048567072258" border="0" /></a><br /><center><i>Eating spicy Mexican rice and beans before church one Wednesday</i></center><br /><br />Pearl's language skills have exploded recently. Only 3 months ago, she was still slightly behind the curve for language. She was using signs, but she wasn't even really babbling. Now, at nearly 13 months, she has branched out into 2- and 3-syllable words, the most notable one being Opposites - the name of one of her favorite books - and if you're not a facebook friend I'm so sorry you don't get to see the video proof, but alas, we mention real names. She even uses simple sentences like "I did it," "What is it," and her favorite, "do it."<br /><br />Perhaps this is the perfectly normal course of development for an average or below-average child. If so, I don't want to hear about it. The fact that I talked earlier than my sister and she turned out to be smarter than me is completely irrelevant to this discussion. Pearl is brilliant, a veritable child genius. I am such a lucky mom. :-)<br /><br />And, naturally, she is also the prettiest baby ever to walk the face of the Earth. And for <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> one we can provide ample proof:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglOE2ChkfQOoyTo365NPXPrN3RPLIFN1uMT18hbMsF-ucmvp82jQz7CyykkQBWgDU0s2He_EeGrPukGLyLw03lqs_tA8au-1NPwWtbSGfISOAEuUXRrgDV_HxC9rLrJnMGwUqwRA/s1600/pigtails.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 269px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglOE2ChkfQOoyTo365NPXPrN3RPLIFN1uMT18hbMsF-ucmvp82jQz7CyykkQBWgDU0s2He_EeGrPukGLyLw03lqs_tA8au-1NPwWtbSGfISOAEuUXRrgDV_HxC9rLrJnMGwUqwRA/s400/pigtails.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5489447040667764546" border="0" /></a><br /><center><i>Her hair is long enough now for pigtails!</i></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipAaZoOgF2NGIG490GBHYgB6SljAKOB0AqXGfPZgr7K-aKoc_mfbWZ-Z8wA5VxGyZjyGYF1v2NhEQqQ-X9wYkG7EzQNHFNAiJ0yrNw3kJEzTiLtaDO4bXRr3wGk1jFADJWyHLrmA/s1600/pink+dress.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 269px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipAaZoOgF2NGIG490GBHYgB6SljAKOB0AqXGfPZgr7K-aKoc_mfbWZ-Z8wA5VxGyZjyGYF1v2NhEQqQ-X9wYkG7EzQNHFNAiJ0yrNw3kJEzTiLtaDO4bXRr3wGk1jFADJWyHLrmA/s400/pink+dress.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5489447032904863810" border="0" /></a><br /><center><i>In her pretty pink dress</i></center>Harmonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15105846442509828835noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-72931945547265452892010-06-03T20:54:00.001-04:002010-06-03T21:27:31.286-04:00Pearl is One!One year ago today, our dear Pearl entered the world! It has been a sleep-deprived but quite a blessed year. Here are some pictures from today. I will type up a one year performance review sometime very soon.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTbQRQjT9A4qGP0tHC9MYh1XbRc4lCIPIeqyRocNEzgVmqx-eHzdeXy1JClfTmXyRi5_RV_rtNkQQ5Flrw8YkrLYHbIoV5NYEtgkX6cEcp1IZ_paSCDxXRSxA1RlrjCrc-osnVgQ/s1600/IMGP3908.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTbQRQjT9A4qGP0tHC9MYh1XbRc4lCIPIeqyRocNEzgVmqx-eHzdeXy1JClfTmXyRi5_RV_rtNkQQ5Flrw8YkrLYHbIoV5NYEtgkX6cEcp1IZ_paSCDxXRSxA1RlrjCrc-osnVgQ/s400/IMGP3908.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478723733068034002" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiIz4HxrcT0O7NegT4_hH6cKxn3RzXgDRL30hHRv0kntOF321Zv6kI1Il-3ekzIg8xw057jSWQbLfBqb8CDbyhGBQS4GzsgYD1TK7AtYsFoeBYOWquuXf1L0I0GHVB1haJ-F6KOw/s1600/IMGP3845.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiIz4HxrcT0O7NegT4_hH6cKxn3RzXgDRL30hHRv0kntOF321Zv6kI1Il-3ekzIg8xw057jSWQbLfBqb8CDbyhGBQS4GzsgYD1TK7AtYsFoeBYOWquuXf1L0I0GHVB1haJ-F6KOw/s400/IMGP3845.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478723730278006802" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyg7C_2trnoukL-AFkMViM2h4FFW2SEc_tcDjqknbN8qB-fa4l1t1STmy1Z0Wm11fMvwULbSMcu_agn1KonatdBk71uK-FZURhR5YpQjKrXcFcGvZYPO32CxvMGPVf4l2HmmARsQ/s1600/IMGP3840.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyg7C_2trnoukL-AFkMViM2h4FFW2SEc_tcDjqknbN8qB-fa4l1t1STmy1Z0Wm11fMvwULbSMcu_agn1KonatdBk71uK-FZURhR5YpQjKrXcFcGvZYPO32CxvMGPVf4l2HmmARsQ/s400/IMGP3840.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478723724780485074" border="0" /></a>JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-34375472633678008092010-01-06T08:23:00.003-05:002010-01-06T08:33:50.275-05:00New Year's PicturesMy parents and sister were in town for New Year's. We dressed up in traditional Korean clothes (hanbok) and took some pictures. Unfortunately any picture that has me in it was not taken on our SLR camera, since I didn't know if my parents would understand how to use it. But the one I included below is good enough. <br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/S0SPJCRKqvI/AAAAAAAACng/68ul9EyU4DI/s1600-h/IMGP3053.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 268px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/S0SPJCRKqvI/AAAAAAAACng/68ul9EyU4DI/s400/IMGP3053.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423617236651387634" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/S0SPI18G-xI/AAAAAAAACnY/SCgtv9fVyB8/s1600-h/IMGP3026.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 268px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/S0SPI18G-xI/AAAAAAAACnY/SCgtv9fVyB8/s400/IMGP3026.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423617233341840146" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/S0SPIqFMKhI/AAAAAAAACnQ/P3NWMCFoySA/s1600-h/IMG_1983.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/S0SPIqFMKhI/AAAAAAAACnQ/P3NWMCFoySA/s400/IMG_1983.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423617230158703122" /></a><br />The blinking timer on the camera was enough to hold Pearl's attention, but not Luna's. We tried to get Luna to look at the camera, but saying "Look!" to Luna usually indicates that someone is here and that she should run to either the front or back door and bark. In the last picture she is on alert looking toward the back door.JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-27675816114520757132009-12-23T16:58:00.003-05:002009-12-23T17:37:02.993-05:00Conversation at the dog park today<span style="font-style:italic;">JunkMale, Pearl, Luna, and I met a woman, her husband, and their dog (no baby) at the dog park today. The following is a rough transcription of the encounter.</span><br /><br />Woman: What a beautiful baby! How old is she?<br /><br />JunkMale: Almost 7 months.<br /><br />Woman: Oh, they're so sweet at that age! I used to be nervous bringing our baby here when she was that young, but my husband didn't seem to mind as much.<br /><br />Me: Yes, it's that way in our family, too. I'm always the nervous one.<br /><br />Woman's husband: It's safe when you're holding them. The dogs can't jump up and get them.<br /><br />Me: Yes, she's high enough now that she won't get scratched. [to the woman] How old is your baby?<br /><br />Woman: Eighteen months. We're taking advantage of our day off of work when the baby is still in day care!<br /><br />...<br /><br />I know I said something back to her, but don't remember what it was because I was too busy wondering what kind of people think a day off from work is for spending with your dog and not your baby.<br /><br />Is it just because my baby is six months old and still (nearly) exclusively breastfed and won't take a bottle that I was so horrified by this? Sure, let the baby stay with family - or even a close friend - for a day while you spend it with your spouse. Every now and then that's fine. And there's certainly nothing wrong with leaving your child with a babysitter for a couple of hours. But to leave your child in day care on a day you're not at work just to get away from them?? Because, you know, you're already getting <span style="font-style:italic;">so much</span> family time that you couldn't possibly take any more.<br /><br />I hope there's more to the story that we didn't hear, and there likely is. But, dear readers, I want to hear from you. Will JunkMale and I think differently when Pearl is older? Are days away from children good for the soul, or are they selfish? How does your family handle this?Harmonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15105846442509828835noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-69255755755196251802009-12-04T06:38:00.006-05:002009-12-04T07:44:06.589-05:00The Magical Non-Existent Formula For Perfect Children<img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;width: 200px; height: 133px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SxkB-CCdRNI/AAAAAAAACag/AOBDDBu5dBw/s200/1215912_paper_chain_in_the_dark.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411358592473056466" />There was much driving over the Thanksgiving break, and thus much discussion that ensued. A good portion of the conversation eventually shifted towards how to raise children in a way that maximizes their chances at turning out "right."<br /><br />We examined anyone and everyone that we knew who had children who either went crazy or turned out to be responsible people and faithful Christians. The majority of our analysis focused on the parents rather than the children. We were a bit limited because we knew mostly came from observation. Most of the time we had no direct contact with the parents on these sorts of matters.<br /><br />We spent a lot of time talking about how we were raised. Harmony's family was heavily involved in church activities, which is a plus, but as we discovered, was only a slight plus. Harmony's parents talked God and Bible very frequently, and Harmony's parents' children turned out to be fine young ladies. JunkMale's parents largely left spiritual teaching up to the church. In my opinion, bad idea. When I entered college, my Bible knowledge was woefully inept. It is much better now, but still not on par with Harmony, who lived and breathed it in her environment while growing up.<br /><br /><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;width: 200px; height: 133px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SxkCW4BhWjI/AAAAAAAACao/7T4le_MXAB4/s200/1216687_chain.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411359019281504818" />We also examined strictness to see if it was a factor. Harmony's parents were stricter than most of her friends. A good degree of strictness does seem to correlate with a higher probability of kids-not-going-crazy. Several families of Harmony's friends were much less strict than Harmony's, and a good number of children from those families went a bit wild (or in some cases, still are wild). <br /><br />Let us speak of a family we are more familiar with. This family has two daughters separated by 9 years (the second daughter was perhaps a surprise, but I am not sure), and some pets. The older daughter went through the church life but apparently the family did not really talk spiritual at all outside of church. I'm uncertain whether or not the father attended with them; he might not have attended, or might have attended elsewhere. (no doubt that is a factor in itself) The older daughter had somewhat of an existential crisis once when she realized "Why am I even here? Do I really believe in God?" "Luckily," she got involved with a good church group in college and improved her life henceforth. Her sister apparently had no such luck and is probably some sort of atheist. She almost never attends church and probably has no sense of Biblical morals or ethics. Harmony is the one who's more familiar with this family, so I asked her if she thought the two daughters were raised any differently, since one turned out fine and the other turned out less fine than her sister. The conclusion was that sometimes it's a matter of circumstance, or "luck."<br /><br />There is no magical formula though, as you all know. But if there were, it would probably consist of good family relationships, spiritual teaching by the parents, a not-too-strict-not-too-lenient-but-just-right level of strictness (which might even vary depending on the child, who knows), and circumstances. I put the "circumstances" in there because there are some people we know who seem to have done things right but their children have put them through lots of stress.<br /><br />What is the composition of your magical mythical formula? Did you ever go through a crazy period? What led you to enter and exit that crazy period (assuming you <i>have</i> exited it)? Do you think anything would have prevented you from going crazy? I would appreciate your inputs.JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-85340268496476402342009-12-01T07:22:00.000-05:002009-12-01T07:23:19.128-05:00Another Bad Idea Masquerading as a Good OneI wrote a <a href="http://thou-and-thou-only.blogspot.com/2007/12/decembers-randomnimity.html">post in December 2007</a> about how while it might seem like a great idea to have both your relatives and your in-law extended family in town for Christmas, in actuality it's a bit more trouble than it's worth, due to the fact that there's limited time and everyone wants a piece of you. I think I can safely say that we have discovered another one of these bad ideas masquerading as a good one.<br /><br />And BTW, we have been away for the past week, which is why this blog has been sadly neglected. If I were a good blogger, I would've queued up some scheduled posts so you would have no idea we were not here. Being away (I will not really call it "vacation.") for the past week leads right into this bad idea:<br /><br />I took the entire Thanksgiving week off and we visited both of Pearl's great-grandmothers. One of them is getting much more feeble than she used to be (who can blame a near 90 year old woman for that?) and the other had not yet met Pearl. The initial thought was that in taking the whole week off, the 1000 mile round trip would be a bit more relaxing than the driving-every-other-day-marathon-vacation-which-is-actually-not-much-of-a-vacation Thanksgiving trips that Harmony's parents usually take. <br /><br />One of the things we learned on this trip was that grandmothers will not listen when you say "you really don't need to do much work for us, we'll handle things while we're there." Maybe it's best not to ever visit them, so they won't tire themselves out preparing food for us ;)<br /><br />Right, so now I explain why it's a bad idea to take an extended Thanksgiving break. Grandmothers, stuck in the ways of being woefully good hostesses, will stock up on all sorts of bad snacks and dessert foods. They will insist that you get a good dessert after each lunch and dinner. The longer you are there, the more desserts you will consume. This is why I am 4 pounds heavier than I ought to be :p<br /><br />Another thing that made the trip a bit difficult for us was because one of the grandmothers almost constantly second guessing and/or worrying about our parenting style and decisions. (This particular grandmother's favorite hobby must be worrying.) Don't tell her that we co-sleep EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, and no, aside from the first day or two at the hospital, she has NEVER SLEPT IN A CRIB/BASSINET before. Statistics and facts do not matter to this grandmother when she makes up her mind about something. Other things that she expressed worry about: speaking Korean to Pearl, not enough solids, not sleeping in a crib, sleeping in a crib (we do have drop-side that my parents got from a neighbor, but we have never used it aside from a place-to-put-stuff), a midwife birth, home birth, holding the baby too much, etc. etc. etc ad infinitum/nauseum. Although there were a couple of instances where I could've stated that we are going to homeschool, I chose to bite my tongue for the moment. There is a 99.9% probability that she will be against that. There will not be much debate there, if it ever comes up. Out of all the "alternative" paths we are taking, homeschooling is one for which we feel most strongly.<br /><br />So you can imagine that constantly having to keep my guard up on what we say (in order to keep grandmother blissfully unaware) or constantly feeling like we need to defend our parenting leads to one VERY mentally tiring visit. For the most part, we enjoyed the time we spent there, but going from worrying-as-a-favorite-activity grandmother to the more it's-your-parental-decision grandmother was like a gigantic breath of fresh air after spending too much time in an enclosed small room full of sweaty people who have just had a big meal of spicy chili with lots of beans. <br /><br />So to grandparents and other family members who might read this: we know you probably would not parent exactly the way you do and even might not really like some of the things we are doing, but we are so so so so so so so so so so so so soooo grateful that you let us be the parents and do not constantly second guess us by expressing worry and whatnot.JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-84967963736116593412009-09-24T14:48:00.004-04:002009-09-24T15:04:02.588-04:00Tips for getting housework doneI need help. Pearl never was very good at sleeping by herself, but now she refuses to even sleep in the swing. Naps must be done while in someone's arms, and woe betide anyone who dares move her while she is sleeping. The nap will then end within 5 minutes, regardless of how long you wait before setting her as-gently-as-possible down. She has also decided that there are only two options for what to do when she is awake: nurse her or give her 100% of my attention by talking to her, playing games with her, or singing to her. Anything where I'm not looking her directly in the eyes is cause for crying. And my Moby wrap is hit or miss - although usually miss these days. The laundry and cooking are accomplished with a screaming baby in the background, only because I know these <span style="font-style: italic;">have</span> to be done.<br /><br />I didn't mind so much for the first 3 months bacause I figured the first 3 months are crazy anyway. And for a while it seemed that things were going to get better - she did take one nap in her bassinet. But she has regressed, and I'm not willing to let this state of affairs become the new normal. So does anyone have any strokes of brilliance for how I'm going to get the house back in order?<br /><br />(I have had two wonderful people offer to come hold Pearl while I clean house, and that's definitely an option... but it's not a long-term solution, is it?)Harmonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15105846442509828835noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-11476275307172066802009-09-12T12:09:00.001-04:002009-09-12T13:17:35.438-04:00Baek-il Pictures<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SqvXUa78HrI/AAAAAAAAB_E/12vOhyiJszY/s1600-h/IMGP1647.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SqvXUa78HrI/AAAAAAAAB_E/12vOhyiJszY/s400/IMGP1647.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380630925652270770" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SquUdHRn4II/AAAAAAAAB-Q/B4k8inn3gVs/s1600-h/IMGP1563.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 268px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SquUdHRn4II/AAAAAAAAB-Q/B4k8inn3gVs/s400/IMGP1563.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380557407714271362" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SquUcoNkX_I/AAAAAAAAB-I/DJwIezZZeHw/s1600-h/IMGP1553.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 268px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SquUcoNkX_I/AAAAAAAAB-I/DJwIezZZeHw/s400/IMGP1553.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380557399375765490" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SquUcZx3L8I/AAAAAAAAB-A/b0nzCSr8hOA/s1600-h/IMGP1530.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 269px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SquUcZx3L8I/AAAAAAAAB-A/b0nzCSr8hOA/s400/IMGP1530.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380557395501461442" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SquUdSe5UZI/AAAAAAAAB-Y/kYVmckdUSZY/s1600-h/IMGP1568.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SquUdSe5UZI/AAAAAAAAB-Y/kYVmckdUSZY/s400/IMGP1568.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380557410722730386" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_RwHnJLprmkrbPYxVvFoHU7c41E7WvNdgycBP_-FXefuQ2lg3YunPje1mUeCtc2rKH3qejAOWKnu0WSVyHOJigGWxUS3n4QN9SfpCAAKHhBsC00M8lz3PSsAkgDklTLxO14F7tA/s1600-h/IMGP1650.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_RwHnJLprmkrbPYxVvFoHU7c41E7WvNdgycBP_-FXefuQ2lg3YunPje1mUeCtc2rKH3qejAOWKnu0WSVyHOJigGWxUS3n4QN9SfpCAAKHhBsC00M8lz3PSsAkgDklTLxO14F7tA/s400/IMGP1650.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380561646982025698" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SquYUanxtaI/AAAAAAAAB-w/0VxIz_NGjj8/s1600-h/IMGP1671.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 269px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SquYUanxtaI/AAAAAAAAB-w/0VxIz_NGjj8/s400/IMGP1671.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380561656335152546" /></a>JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-21806001128679539522009-09-11T09:14:00.002-04:002009-09-11T09:56:43.493-04:00Baek-ilToday is the day. Pearl is 100 days old! Preparations have been going on since about 6 PM yesterday. My parents are on the other side of Atlanta at the big Asian grocery store, picking up rice cakes and other assorted food decorations. <br /><br />...and baek-il (pronounced more like BEG-il, use the tip of your tongue to pronounce the "L" if you have any idea how to do that) is the smaller of the two traditional baby celebrations. My parents spent quite a while yesterday setting up the tables and the backdrop for pictures. No doubt they will go even crazier for her first birthday (dol). There will be traditional clothes (hanbok) involved for that one too. <br /><br />Unfortunately, it is a dreary day outside. I had planned on taking pictures at a pretty gazebo in our neighborhood. Normally I like and welcome dreary days, but it seems like every time I want it to be sunny, the weather ends up being like this. I will have to do the best I can in our poorly lit house.<br /><br />I will be taking lots of pictures today, of which you will get to see some. Those of you lucky enough to have access to our Picasa album will probably see a few more ;)JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-77991901947098237512009-04-27T07:50:00.000-04:002009-04-27T07:50:01.284-04:00My Mom Has an AddictionMy mom is addicted to buying baby clothes. Occasionally she slightly deviates and buys baby hardware like a beautiful <a href="http://www.babytrend.com/products/9100_web_main_l.jpg">jogging stroller</a> at a yard sale for $35 and a wonderful brand new car seat. But in general, her weakness is baby clothes.<br /><br />I went through my stash of infant clothes today. At least 75% of them are from my mom. Here's the preliminary count:<br /><br />*12 preemie outfits, 3 of which are for babies "up to 5 pounds" (my mom just has this feeling that I'm going to have a small baby)<br />* 27 onesies, size 0-3 months<br />*35 sleepers, size 0-3 months<br /><br />If I do my math correctly, assuming babies wear an average of 3 outfits a day, no outfit need be worn more than 4 times in the entirety of baby's first 3 months. Of course, this doesn't count special outfits like the beautiful Sunday dresses, the cute sundresses, the heirloom baby shirts, plain white onesies, and Halo sleep sacks. And it also does not count the clothing that awaits me when this baby outgrows her 0-3 month outfits.<br /><br />Do you think there's a 12-step program for this? ;-)Harmonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15105846442509828835noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-33408268545816210702009-03-11T09:59:00.000-04:002009-03-11T09:59:00.599-04:00Jesus and the Children<a href="http://rouses.net/blog/">My dad</a> recently taught a Sunday Bible class on what Jesus had to say about children. I may be biased, but I think it's a really good lesson that people that don't go to his congregation should hear. Go <a href="http://www.centralgwinnett.org/sermons/20090308REDLETTERSERIESALANROUSEcjm.mp3">listen to it</a>.Harmonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15105846442509828835noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-32157307758452384702009-01-19T09:59:00.001-05:002009-02-02T08:41:24.085-05:00Taegyo: Prenatal EducationA topic that I have been wanting to cover on the blog ever since Christmas is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taegyo">Taegyo</a>. Taegyo (태교) is a Korean word that means prenatal education. "Tae" (태) comes from "tae-ah" (태아), which means fetus. "Gyo" (교) means education or teaching (as in "hak-gyo"/학교, which means school). So, literally, education of the fetus.<br /><br />Here in America we like to think that we practice prenatal education, too, right? We talk to our babies and play them Mozart while they are in the womb. But Taegyo goes quite a bit further than this. In fact, Taegyo is a tradition in Korea dating back to at least 1800, when a book called <i>Taegyosingi </i>was written by a man named Sajudang Lee. There are some very beautiful concepts in Taegyo which I wish all Americans would adopt. Most interesting to me is that the baby is considered a full human for the entire 10 months of gestation. In fact, in Korea babies are considered a year old when they are born - Koreans count the gestation period as the baby's first year of life. Cool, huh?<br /><br />One of the most important aspects of Taegyo is the mother's attitude. Over Thanksgiving and Christmas, my in-laws kept stressing to me the importance of always thinking happy and good thoughts. Bad things, ugly things, distressing or stressful things - these thoughts I should completely banish from my mind. I needed to focus on creating a peaceful and happy environment for my baby. I shouldn't get angry or upset, and I should definitely focus on beautiful things (so that my baby will be beautiful, of course!). Koreans carry this very far. For example, one night we were eating cookies after dinner. I picked up a half cookie, as I was not extremely hungry and didn't feel like eating a full one. But my mother-in-law snatched it from me. "Oh, no, you can't eat that one! It's not beautiful. You have to eat the beautiful ones." When we ate fruit, she and my father-in-law made sure to give me the most beautifully cut fruit. When we were watching movies, they encouraged me not to watch the action movies that JM and my father-in-law were watching - or at least not to watch the battle scenes.<br /><br />Taegyo also incorporates many ideas that Westerners would find familiar. You should talk to your baby. You should play your baby music, especially classical music and sounds of nature, like water flowing or birds chirping. Taegyo also stresses the mother and father playing instruments or singing to the baby. You should read aloud to your baby. Fairy tales are especially encouraged, and you should read them with a lot of emotion. Finally, yoga is encouraged beginning in the fifth month.<br /><br />My father-in-law told me that Korean Christians have altered Taegyo slightly to be more Christian in nature. In addition to reading fairy tales, parents are encouraged to read Bible stories to the baby. Particularly, the mother should read a Proverb a day and meditate on it. And in addition to all the other music the baby is listening to, the parents should sing hymns.<br /><br />So how are we doing with our Taegyo? (This is the question that my in-laws ask each time they call, by the way. ;-)<br /><br />Well, I do try to listen to classical music every day. This is nothing new for me, though. I love classical music and it really does help me relax. And we are reading her a bedtime story every night. So far we have read a few stories from Winnie-the-Pooh and several Bible stories about women. I must admit, I'm not very good about thinking of only good things. I am a worrier by nature, and so I have had my share of break downs these last few months. I am doing prenatal yoga (thanks to my sister for lending me the dvd), although not as often as I should. But I am laid up in bed with a cold right now, so it will probably be a while before I can get back into it.<br /><br />It's only been within the past week that we have really started talking to her instead of about her. I think it really helped to finally have a name picked out. Now she really seems real to us. Plus, she is already 20 weeks old, which is so close to viability outside the womb that JM and I are actually starting to believe we might seriously have a baby this time.<br /><br />Oh, and we are singing her hymns. Especially one hymn in particular, <a href="http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/i/singtome.htm">Sing to Me of Heaven</a>, which we picked because that is where her siblings are. I hope that doesn't sound morbid to anyone, because it wasn't meant to be. But it's just good song all around.Harmonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15105846442509828835noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-4589722266454083712009-01-17T08:46:00.000-05:002009-02-02T08:41:24.086-05:00Random Information about Our Little AlienFor any who didn't read the comments in our <a href="http://thou-and-thou-only.blogspot.com/2009/01/blog-post.html" target="n1">big revelation post</a>, we are fairly certain that the baby is a girl. Buy girl stuff but keep the receipts, the ultrasound technician said. She is due around June 8. We have named her quite an appropriate name (considering I have wanted a daughter since before we were married), but Harmony wishes to use pseudonyms for the kiddies. We will have to come up with one soon (any suggestions?).<br /><br />We hit 20 weeks tomorrow! (Sunday) Praise the Lord, the Lord is good. He has given us the desire of our hearts, and He has given what we never would deserve in a million years, for we are wretchedly bad people.<br /><br />Harmony doesn't look very pregnant if she's wearing a coat. In fact, she has gained less than 5 pounds. The midwife said that this is not much of a concern unless she starts dropping weight like toddlers like to drop Cheerios around Luna.<br /><br />Here are some more ultrasounds. I have adjusted the contrast so you can see better:<br /><br />Hand. Where went the rest of the body, I don't know.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SXHfDVBWNmI/AAAAAAAABDM/idIHuFAqzK8/s1600-h/baby4_hand_fixed.jpg" target="n2"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 206px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SXHfDVBWNmI/AAAAAAAABDM/idIHuFAqzK8/s400/baby4_hand_fixed.jpg" border="0" alt="Baby's hand"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292256285412439650" /></a><br /><br />Can you see what she's doing here? Her head is tilted to your left, and her left arm is under her chin. Sort of like the picture below her, except with the other hand.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SXHfVakI38I/AAAAAAAABDc/yLNqVxtL4QM/s1600-h/baby_pose_fixed.jpg" target="n3"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 353px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SXHfVakI38I/AAAAAAAABDc/yLNqVxtL4QM/s400/baby_pose_fixed.jpg" border="0" alt="Baby's chin pose"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292256596138188738" /></a><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;width: 66px; height: 100px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SXHeRY3KchI/AAAAAAAABDE/L0BS_N_Fqc4/s400/stock_image_chin.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292255427450008082" /><br /><br />(pictures of her face have a bit of a macabre quality, don't you think?)JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-13917770255834415552008-12-08T10:15:00.002-05:002008-12-08T10:27:47.806-05:00What My Parents Did RightIn my family, we had a rule that the only TV that was allowed was 'educational'. So we watched lots of nature documentaries, history shows, and (my personal favorite as a young child - which perhaps explains my affinity for geography) Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? PBS was the majority of our TV watching back in those days. I'm also pretty sure we had a limit to how much we could watch, especially in the summer, and we had to finish our homework before we were allowed to watch anything.<br /><br />Those rules sort of fell by the wayside by the time I was in high school, but by that time I preferred those sorts of shows, for the most part. I think I picked up one or two junk shows, and all the rest of my TV watching continued to be semi-educational.<br /><br />The same applied to computer games. I don't think my sister or I ever owned a computer game that didn't teach math or geography, or some other skill, until perhaps high school. I still remember my sister and I sitting at the computer playing Outnumbered together. I did all the quick mental math, because I was older, and she helped with the word problems. I also played Carmen San Diego and Mickey's Space Adventure (I can still tell you random facts about the planets thanks to this game).<br /><br />We spent a lot of time in imaginative play, because our mom wouldn't spend the money on all the toys my friends had. Mom would give us book reports to complete over the summer months, and she took us to science museums and historical sites. It wasn't uncommon to play Bible memory games when we were on long trips, or to be given challenging math problems to solve over dinner. We practically lived at the library.<br /><br />I used to resent all these things when I was little, because I never was up on the shows or games that all my friends watched, and we never got to anywhere or do anything 'fun'. Now, however, I think my parents probably did the right thing. My sister and I are thinkers - perhaps not deep thinkers, but more so than many kids our age. We have an appreciation for science and history that many of my friends never got.<br /><br />My parents weren't perfect, but they did a lot of things right. This is just one example, but it's a good one. Thanks Mom and Dad. :-)Harmonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15105846442509828835noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-49982050372669517362008-11-08T10:19:00.005-05:002008-11-08T10:39:13.251-05:00Small Town Life and Family HistoryFor a few days this week, Harmony and I took her maternal grandmother up to Virginia for the funeral of one of her grandmother's cousins. Much of Harmony's family originates from a tiny town called Ivor, and that's where we were. I met lots of third cousins, second cousins, removed cousins, etc. etc. etc.<br /><br />This was a new experience for me. On TV, I have heard of towns where one does not need to lock doors. Ivor is one of those towns. I personally experienced that when the deceased cousin's family left early for the visitation and left the house to us, with no key. We just left the lights on and departed when we needed to.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTjQsaZHk9zC45HpNgPdPU8W2O0kqaGMUNohPmSWPP2I0ILEYI-RTAw8aKV22jK2uAGy_f4CmwDVYIa07lnzNCeAdWCXh3zavrWjx5_w-PLwlt4aaNNJAIi5CBbN_HYmz0hDasag/s1600-h/ivor_map.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 272px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTjQsaZHk9zC45HpNgPdPU8W2O0kqaGMUNohPmSWPP2I0ILEYI-RTAw8aKV22jK2uAGy_f4CmwDVYIa07lnzNCeAdWCXh3zavrWjx5_w-PLwlt4aaNNJAIi5CBbN_HYmz0hDasag/s320/ivor_map.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266307119813790722" /></a><br /><br />The more interesting part of the trip was family history. Harmony's grandmother grew up in Ivor. These were times when most of your neighbors were related to you somehow. These were times when street names had actual meaning; many of them were named for people that her grandmother actually knew. We got commentary on most of the houses we passed on the road: some sort of cousin or uncle or aunt or friend had lived at this-or-that house. It was quite interesting.<br /><br />The best part was when we got a tour of the house that grandmother's mother grew up in. It's still there, and it's been slightly modernized, but the house is largely the same house. To give you an idea of how long that property's been there, there were actually <i>slave quarters</i>. They were separate buildings close to the house, with little insulation. Still standing, but not habitable anymore. Aside from school trips and recreations, I had never seen something like that before. There's just something fascinating about walking in and being somewhere where you have a real connection to history.<br /><br />History is much more interesting when you have a personal connection to it (even if you are merely married in to the connection). Sure, it would be interesting to inherit old Bibles. Even better would be to inherit old Bibles that were actually used by ancestors. Walking through old houses is fine and dandy. Even better is walking through old houses that your ancestors built, lived in, worked in, and came in to at the end of a hard day's work.<br /><br />I don't get that much with my Korean family. Most of my extended family resides many thousands of miles away, so I rarely hear talk of the old days. I don't think my parents have many heirlooms in the house, if any. If those still exist, they are in Korea. One of these days I will have to ask my parents about family history and the like. In the mean time, I am glad to have married into a family whose roots are but a day's drive away.JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-70047152055494471332008-07-17T14:12:00.001-04:002008-12-09T17:09:40.285-05:00Time With "The Guys," continuedI had written a comment to put on <a href="http://thou-and-thou-only.blogspot.com/2008/07/time-with-guys.html" title="Thou and Thou Only - Time With The Guys">Time With "The Guys"</a>, but it got really long, so I decided to make it into a continuation post. So here it is.<br /><br />First, thanks to everyone for your comments. I have enjoyed reading them.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SH-KcYkOvfI/AAAAAAAAArs/V1GN58XDoHU/s1600-h/dude_retreat.jpg" title="The Old Days - Men's Retreat" target="new2"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/SH-KcYkOvfI/AAAAAAAAArs/V1GN58XDoHU/s200/dude_retreat.jpg" border="0" alt="The Old Days - Men's Retreat"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224046313008446962" /></a>At this point in my life, I don't feel like I have the time, need, or inclination to have other guy friends (I know the time factor is not going to get any better). I define "guy friends" as ones whom I spend regular time with, and not with my wife. In other words, they are non-existent right now.<br /><br />The times that I've visited with Mr. Best Man have usually been him coming over to our house, or us going over there. Only once have I gone over to his apartment by myself, and that was only because he requested "just me" time (no he's not gay or anything), just needed/needs the old friend, I guess.<br /><br />There are some times where our interests might diverge enough that I wouldn't feel bad about leaving Harmony behind. Case in point: I am a big fan of the X-Files TV show, and there's a new movie coming out soon. However, Harmony doesn't really like XF at all, so I might be either 1) waiting for DVD, or 2) going with aforementioned Mr. Best Man. Another example is the pig-pickin' our church is going to be having on Labor Day, prompted by none other than your's truly (more on that in a future post). Anyways, there will be be lots of digging, grunting, sunlight, and dead pig in preparation of the barbecue. Harmony will probably either stay home or go inside and visit with the preacher's wife (it's a parsonage, sort of). <br /><br />Ever since I've been with Harmony, I notice that my introvert side has come out much more. I used to be much more wild and outgoing and didn't really like being by myself (not that I am "by myself" much these days). Now I am quite content to stay home with family. I would guess that part of it is because I am working full-time now and have nowhere near as much free time as I did when I was in school. Perhaps I'm more extroverted when I have tons of free time, and introverted when I have precious little.<br /><br />I enjoy not having plans in the evenings. I enjoy sitting around the house with Harmony, even if we are not directly interacting the whole entire time. This way, if an interesting thought, topic, or question pops into either of our minds, we are right there to discuss.<br /><br />Of course, none of this means that we don't enjoy spending time with other people. Those other people happen to be other families from church who have similar inclinations as us. I can think of about four families at church who either we or just Harmony has spent time with. These people are families with young children, with more traditional views on family (usually meaning stay-at-home mom), and coincidentally, all of them either do, have, or will homeschool. In fact, we'd like to spend more time with these friends, but life circumstances tend to get in the way sometimes.JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-20549082146223275802008-07-15T08:08:00.000-04:002008-07-15T08:08:21.593-04:00Time With "The Guys"...or time with "friends"...or lack thereof.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sherwanus.com/Images/melody/thedate30.jpg" title="Quality Time - Arm Wrestling" target="new"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://www.sherwanus.com/Images/melody/thedate30.jpg" border="0" alt="Quality Time - Arm Wrestling" /></a>For the married people in the audience tonight: how important to you is time with friends? For the wives, this would be time spent with "me and my girlfriends." For the husbands, this is commonly referred to as "time spent chilling with the guys." For the purpose of this post, such activities preclude one half of the marital corps.<br /><br />I suppose I should add some further restrictions on the circumstances. How important is time with friends if you could be spending that time with your spouse? (I have no problem with Harmony visiting and being visited by friends from church during the daytime while I'm not there anyways.)<br /><br />I ask this question because of some "hanging out" that Harmony, Luna, and I did recently with one of my good friends from college (who was also the Best Man (tm) in our wedding). Somewhere in the course of the hangout, he made mention that if/when he were married, he'd still "have to" exercise his option to have time with the fellas. Since I've been married, I've never felt the urge to exercise this option. Especially when I think of my time this way: On average, I spend the majority of my waking hours away from my family :P I wake up around 6 AM and get home around 5 PM. We start getting ready for bed at about 8 or so, and I usually fall asleep between 9:30 and 10. <br /><br />If I regularly spent time with "the guys," cut out a good portion of time that could've been spent with my wife. Unless it's a special occasion, every once in a while, or unless Harmony can come along, it's just not really that worth-it to me. I firmly believe that spending time with my wife is one of the most important interpersonal activities I do on this earth (aside from things like, say, performing CPR on a cardiac-arrested child. Luna says "and feeding me!"). When I get off work, I look forward to seeing my wife and dog. When we have children, I imagine the desire for home will only increase. I imagine that my desire to "hang out with the (nigh non-existent) guys" will decrease even further.<br /><br />We go to a church where there's only one other young married couple within 5 years mean age of us. All other people, married or not (especially married with children), are busy with their own lives. In my life, "the guys" do not exist. They are not there. They have not been there for at least 1.5 years. They even started getting phased out of my life back when my relationship with Harmony was blossoming. I don't know if it's a bad thing that I never initiate hanging-out-time with other men in my church, but those men are just as busy (if not busier) than I am, and just as likely to decline a regular hanging-out-time.<br /><br />So I don't really have "friends" or "buddies" anymore. Not like I did in college. But I'm okay with that. Is that so wrong? At-large culture would probably tell me that I need to "get out more and socialize." Not that I care about what at-large culture has to say about socialization, amen homeschoolers?. At-large culture seems to say that I'm weird if I spend most of my time at home, with my family.<br /><br />To sum things up in bullet points:<br /><ul><li>I grant that spending time with friends is important...</li><br /><li>...but nowhere near as important as spending time with your spouse.</li><br /><li>For me, spending time with friends is fine...</li><br /><li>...especially if we can do it as a family...</li><br /><li>...or if I can do it while Harmony is otherwise occupied or away from home.</li></ul><br />What do the older married people have to say about this? And by older, I mean anyone who's been married longer than we have.JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-27831072045281605122008-04-18T14:21:00.000-04:002008-04-18T14:22:03.259-04:00Housewives and OutsourcingWhenever people ask Harmony what she "does," I don't really like it when she says she "doesn't work." That is totally not true. I prefer for her to say that she's a housewife, i.e. most of her duties center around the home. <br /><br />I was thinking about it today, and almost all of the duties of <i>my</i> housewife are ones that would otherwise be outsourced in some way. <br /><ul><li>Cleaning - people hire maid services.</li><br /><li>Being with Luna - we would not leave her in a crate for 9 hours a day, so we'd be paying for doggy daycare.</li><br /><li>Cooking - outsourced by going to restaurants.</li><br /><li>Sewing/knitting/crocheting - time is money, money is time, and you give up one or the other. Harmony is crocheting a blanket as a present right now.</li><br /><li>Gardening - people usually think of this as a hobby, but for us, it is a way of bringing the produce stand right to our backyard. We hope to one day have our garden be able to completely sustain our vegetable needs. This is "outsourced" by buying produce from grocery stores.</li></ul><br /><br />I'm <u>not</u> saying that "outsourcing" these jobs is wrong (I'm not!). This was just to make a point that if my wife does have a real job. "Don't work" is a completely inaccurate job description for her. If my wife didn't do these jobs for us, we'd be paying someone else to do them.<br /><br />If she worked in a restaurant as a cook, that'd be considered a "real" job. If she worked at a daycare or a school, that'd be a "real" job. If she worked in her field of polymer engineering, she'd probably be working at a factory that manufactured textiles, carpets, or clothing. That'd be a "real" job. If she worked as a farmhand or in a grocery store, that'd be a "real" job. Poo on anyone who don't think housewives do "real" work. Perhaps there are some bad apples out there, but my wife is not one of them.JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-41456677572375595962008-04-17T08:06:00.001-04:002008-04-17T08:08:21.915-04:00Striving Not To Be BusyRod Dreher over at Crunchy Con writes about <a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2008/04/hitting-the-wall.html" title="Crunchy Con - Hitting the Wall" target="newwindow">how stress is taking its toll</a> on his family. He talks about how even though their economic situation is sound and their lives relatively uncomplicated, his 33 year old wife has developed shingles. Shingles usually strikes older people, although in younger people, a prime culprit can be stress.<br /><br />In particular, here's a portion that I found interesting. He speaks of a friend's friend's friend's friend (or something like that) who had won an incentive trip to the Caribbean, with other hard working people in her division:<br /><blockquote>The friend came back startled and even shaken by her encounter with workers in their 20s and 30s. All they could talk about was work. All they wanted to do was work. <u>Their whole lives were built around the office, and career achievement, and working more hours to achieve more success at the office.</u> And my friend's friend, who was in her late 40s, thought these young people were crazy.</blockquote> (The emphasis is mine)<br /><br />To me, that is a most unfortunate state of affairs. Perhaps if these people did not have families, this might be acceptable, somewhere in the universe. But if these people have families, their priorities are messed up. I am largely preaching to the choir here, I believe.<br /><br />I despise being busy. It stresses me out, and I don't like stress (who does?). I make a concerted effort <i>not</i> to be busy. Others might be in a different season of life than us, but I love that we are in a situation where Harmony can be a housewife. It's less stress for both of us. On a typical afternoon/evening after work, I get home, we eat dinner, then we usually go outside together and talk about the garden, talk about her day (not much interesting stuff in my days, usually), talk about the dog, talk about life, etc. We'll end up back inside, where we don't do much. Sometimes we'll take a walk, go to the park, or take Luna to the dog park, but for the most part, we stay home. And we like it that way.<br /><br /><aside><br />I have noticed the trend in commercials to appeal to busy people. More and more, I hear commercials on the radio saying "If you're as busy as I am, you don't have time to X and Y, that's why Z is <i>quick and easy!</i>"<br /></aside><br /><br />I always found it a bit backward that while the most important earthly relationship is between husband and wife, typically the husband, wife, or both see their co-workers for longer periods of time each day. Don't you think that's backward too? Something's a bit inside-out about that, and unfortunately, my job is not one where I can telecommute. So this un-busy life we try to lead is one that, in a way, tries to compensate for the inside-outness. I imagine this feeling will only be strengthened when we have children.<br /><br />I don't participate in any extracurricular activities at work. I'm not saying that it's wrong to be involved, but for myself and my family, it's not what we want right now. There are more important things and people in life than the leadership association or the quilting club. I don't really hang out with "the guys" or "the buddies" much, because 1) I have not really kept up with college friends, and 2) it's just more time away from my wife, unless she can come too. In the very early days of this blog, I wrote a post about <a href="http://thou-and-thou-only.blogspot.com/2007/01/for-lack-of-ambition.html" title="Thou and Thou Only - For Lack of Ambition" target="newwindow2">lacking worldly ambition</a>.<br /><br />Of course, we make exceptions for church. We try to be at most church events, and we have somewhat made it a rule that if someone invites us out to lunch, we'll go. But I have been in a church which seemed to imply that idle time was SATAN's time. We had activities almost every day of the week. Many of these were officially voluntary, but if your attendance was inconsistent, someone would eventually question your commitment to God. The high level of stuff-to-do was fine for a single college student, but times have changed. I would have none of that now.<br /><br />Does all this make us seem homebody-ish? Good, it should. I don't see what's wrong with being a homebody, if you define it as "a person who prefers pleasures and activities that center around the home." That's what we are striving for.JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-11884672370460595252008-03-14T07:59:00.000-04:002008-12-09T17:09:58.070-05:00Summary of our Florida TripThe trip down was uneventful. Going to my parents' part of Florida takes about 8 hours. This is the longest that Luna's ever ridden in the car at once. She did admirably. She slept most of the way, waking up periodically to try to get into my lap, and stink up the car with her dog breath panting. For whatever reason, her breath started smelling like fish on the way down, so it was like fish dog breath.<br /><br />Somehow word got to my dad that Harmony is a very good flautist. He proceeded to bring her book after book after song after song, and she played them all. Eventually I got out a guitar played some basic accompaniment. At the request of my parents, we ended up playing hymns; they were singing and we were playing. Next time we visit my parents, I will most certainly bring a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capo" target="newwindow">capo</a>. Many hymns seem to be written in Eb. As far as technique is concerned, it is extremely simple to play in sharp and flat keys on the guitar. However, the difficult part is muscle fatigue in one's fretting hand. Anyways, this hymn playing happened on at least two nights. <br /><br />Friday, Harmony and I were left alone. My sister had not yet come home, and my parents had gone to my dad's PhD advisor's funeral in Tallahassee. Since Luna had probably fully recovered from her spay, we wanted to take her to a dog park. Now Georgia dog parks are all taxpayer funded and you just bring your dog and walk right in. NOT the case with Florida dog parks. All the dog parks in that area required you to present updated shot records. They also required you to register your dog with the attendant. This may not seem like much to some of you, but we are used to bringing Luna to the park and going right in without any hassle. The one we tried to go to had an entrance fee even though it was already funded by taxes. Needless to say, Luna did not get to romp around at any dog parks during our visit.<br /><br />I'd been toying with the idea of fishing in the backyard, since my parents have a canal front house. Not so much for myself, but for Luna. The softness of her fur seems to correlate fairly strongly with feeding of fish, so why not try to get some for free? So I got a couple of fishing poles and some frozen shrimp and headed off to try to catch some fish for her. Harmony joined me with the intent of just keeping me company, but eventually joined in and out-fished me. I didn't catch anything that day, but she caught four, I think. <br /><br />Out on the dock:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R9m4SkrjcBI/AAAAAAAAAK0/N1CuzEmf3bc/s1600-h/fishing3.jpg" target="newpic3"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R9m4SkrjcBI/AAAAAAAAAK0/N1CuzEmf3bc/s400/fishing3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5177371875862605842" /></a><br /><br />Even though it's not red, I deduce that this is a young <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_drum" target="newwindow1">red drum</a>, judging by the spots on its tail. This was the biggest fish that we kept (I caught a stingray, which was the heaviest, but we didn't keep it).<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R9m4RUrjb_I/AAAAAAAAAKk/hTeQ6SFra8A/s1600-h/fishing1.jpg" target="newpic1"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R9m4RUrjb_I/AAAAAAAAAKk/hTeQ6SFra8A/s400/fishing1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5177371854387769330" /></a><br /><br />I believe this is a pufferfish. It didn't puff up at all, so it apparently wasn't that distressed, or it wasn't a pufferfish. This, BTW, is quite a rare catch around these parts. It must've taken a wrong turn, because it's pretty far away from the ocean. Needless to say, we didn't want to give this one to Luna, so we tossed it back.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R9m4SErjcAI/AAAAAAAAAKs/hxZhL5xZ_Vc/s1600-h/fishing2.jpg" target="newpic2"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R9m4SErjcAI/AAAAAAAAAKs/hxZhL5xZ_Vc/s400/fishing2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5177371867272671234" /></a><br /><br />I did end up catching two <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weakfish" target="newwindow2">weakfish</a> and the aforementioned stingray, which I threw back while the women fretted whilst thinking about Steve Irwin. (BTW, I survived)<br /><br />Luna shows off her wonderfully soft coat, which will continue to be wonderfully soft with the five fresh fishies that we brought home for her.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R9m7K0rjcCI/AAAAAAAAAK8/6KSljItL398/s1600-h/luna_dock1.jpg" target="newpic4"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R9m7K0rjcCI/AAAAAAAAAK8/6KSljItL398/s400/luna_dock1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5177375041253503010" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R9m7LkrjcDI/AAAAAAAAALE/VQaevQ5OhZE/s1600-h/luna_dock2.jpg" target="newpic5"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R9m7LkrjcDI/AAAAAAAAALE/VQaevQ5OhZE/s400/luna_dock2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5177375054138404914" /></a>JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-53041146498832806582007-12-28T09:10:00.000-05:002008-12-09T17:10:04.609-05:00Christmas AftermathAfter spending gobs of (unsolicited) money on us during their stay, my parents left this morning around 7 AM. Among other things, we now have an area rug for the couch/coffee table area, two sets of much needed drawers for our bathroom, and a big pegboard for our garage.<br /><br />The visit was busier than I would've liked, but what can you expect when you only see your parents a couple times a year, and your area has a big Korean presence? Almost every day had large amounts of driving around, except Christmas day, where we sat around, pleasantly doing nothing in particular. I thought we had told my mom that Harmony would be cooking, but apparently she did not get the memo (she brought lots of food); much of the food that Harmony prepared remains frozen or otherwise uneaten. As predicted, our house is much more organized now, thanks to my mom. As predicted, my dad enthusiastically devoured the carrot cake, monkey bread, and whole wheat chocolate chip oatmeal peanut butter cookies with walnuts. <br /><br />Among other things, one of our visits to one of the farmers' markets yielded a 5'9" stalk of sugar cane. It was only $2, so I didn't feel too bad about tossing it in the shopping cart. Pictures below illustrates parts of the peeling, crushing, boiling, and reducing. The boiling and reducing took hours.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R3UJ6eskZDI/AAAAAAAAAHs/18G6D9EZodw/s1600-h/IMG_3229.JPG" target="newwindow"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R3UJ6eskZDI/AAAAAAAAAHs/18G6D9EZodw/s320/IMG_3229.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149032649245090866" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R3UJ6-skZEI/AAAAAAAAAH0/0L-dqFuyS-8/s1600-h/IMG_3231.JPG%20" target="newwindow"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R3UJ6-skZEI/AAAAAAAAAH0/0L-dqFuyS-8/s320/IMG_3231.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149032657835025474" border="0" /></a><br /><center><i>I know, I should've used macro focus...</i></center><br /><br />Let it be known that a 5 foot stalk of sugarcane produces this much cane juice. If we let it reduce to syrup consistency, it would, of course, be even less. But it's very sweet and very good. We had never made our own sweetener before, and we can see now that when heating costs and labor are factored in, buying sweeteners is much more cost effective. But it was just an experiment, and sort of fun to be able to say we made our own cane juice syrup.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R3UJ7OskZFI/AAAAAAAAAH8/C6zPjipfikc/s1600-h/IMG_3236.JPG" target="newwindow"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R3UJ7OskZFI/AAAAAAAAAH8/C6zPjipfikc/s320/IMG_3236.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149032662129992786" border="0" /></a><br /><br />And now some pictures of mischievous little Luna after taking a romp through a damp and dirty backyard. She had also been given a bath <i>that very morning</i>. All was forgiven when we saw how cute she looked in these pictures. Make sure to click on these pictures to fully examine all the dirt that she got on her.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R3UL2-skZGI/AAAAAAAAAIE/V0NIhts1fAo/s1600-h/luna_dirty1.jpg" target="newwindow"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R3UL2-skZGI/AAAAAAAAAIE/V0NIhts1fAo/s400/luna_dirty1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149034788138804322" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R3UL3OskZHI/AAAAAAAAAIM/T-8dtg1U93Q/s1600-h/luna_dirty2.jpg" target="newwindow"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R3UL3OskZHI/AAAAAAAAAIM/T-8dtg1U93Q/s400/luna_dirty2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149034792433771634" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R3UL3eskZII/AAAAAAAAAIU/nG6E9lg9IuI/s1600-h/luna_dirty3.jpg" target="newwindow"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_avUUQxpy30o/R3UL3eskZII/AAAAAAAAAIU/nG6E9lg9IuI/s400/luna_dirty3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149034796728738946" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We also found out that Luna makes a very good watchdog. Perhaps too good of a watchdog ;) She would bark if she heard the slightest noise out of my mom or dad during the night. To her credit, how was she to know that my mom or dad made that slight noise?JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37491865.post-47017434137499780312007-12-20T07:53:00.000-05:002007-12-20T08:41:33.106-05:00December's RandomnimityBunches of relatives are coming into town this week. Harmony's dad's side is coming in, as well as my mom and dad. A month or two ago, I told my mom and dad they should come here because other relatives were coming here. I figured it would be nice to be able to see more relatives at Christmas time, without having to zoom all over the southeastern U.S. Well, for any future newlyweds out there, having everyone come to your vicinity does not necessarily make things easier. When you have everyone in town, it will seem like everyone's going to want a piece of you. You will have achieved a great feat if everyone walks away from the break completely satisfied. But no worries, because everything's going to be fine.<br /><br />However, in future Christmases, we might just blindly choose where we're going to spend Christmas before alerting ourselves to others' plans. After all, if we were spending Christmas in Florida this year, there would be no question as to when we're going to see who, where, and for how long. Once again, just a friendly note to newlyweds who have not had Christmas breaks yet.<br /><br /><b><u>My Mom and My Dad</u></b><br />My mom will, no doubt, spend lots of her time up here cleaning the house. Apparently this is what moms like to do when they come to their kids' houses. I have noted this myself with Harmony's mom. I predict she will spend time organizing our medicine cabinet, pantry, the conservatory, and maybe the utensil drawer. There is a 100% probability that she will spend LOTS of time fawning over Luna, who welcomes such activities. <br />My dad will, no doubt, comment on how pitiful our backyard is. This does not bother me, because 1) it's true, and 2) he himself will spend time rectifying it. In fact, last time they came over, the first thing they did was each begin cleaning their stereotypical domain: my mom the house, my dad the backyard. There is a high probability that he will love the carrot cake, cookies, and other baked goods that Harmony will make. There is also a high probability that he will love the traditional Western Christmas foods that Harmony has been prepping all week, including homemade trans fat free cornbread dressing! Who needs Pepperidge Farm when my wife is around? Another event having a high probability of occurrence (but lower than the others) is my mom telling my dad to take it easy on the less-healthy (for the body, not the soul) foods.<br /><br /><b><u>No Mistaking Who's Omega</u></b><br />We took Luna to a couple of dog parks last weekend. She spent most of her time being slightly-to-greatly terrified of other dogs. Whenever a dog would come sniffing at her, she would <i>firmly</i> assert herself as the omega and halfway flip over onto her back. We're not quite sure how to have her gain more confidence around other dogs other than exposing her to more dogs more often. Or do you think that would make things worse, if dog parks traumatize her? Anyways, I guess the more important thing is that she still has not met any person that she didn't LOVE. That's important because we want her to become a therapy dog :) <br /><br />Here's video of Luna the sissy dog:<br /><br /><center><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Fl3pH5NgQw4&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Fl3pH5NgQw4&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object></center><br /><br />Ironically, we chose her over her sister because she was the more active one, initiating the roughhousing and play-biting. There is a Bichon meet-up group in our area, so hopefully she'll be able to interact with some similar looking dogs with perhaps similar temperaments.<br /><br /><b><u>More Garden Pics to Come</u></b><br />Later on, I will post another garden update. Nothing too exciting...more of the same, really. But when posting is slow, "filler" posts like garden updates are at least good quality filler posts. And I'm sure Ginny will appreciate the garden update ;)JunkMalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619673168896233941noreply@blogger.com2