Shooting Star

Dear Grandma,

It'll be a year at dinner time that you left us. I can't say that 365 days has made me ok with that fact. I'm not sure what the interaction is like between earthly and heavenly realms, or even if there is any. I will not be surprised to find out that it is something we do down here to comfort ourselves. But I'm gonna pretend that one of the fun things to do in heaven is read blogs.

We had to go through many firsts this year - first non-wedding anniversary, non-birthday, Christmas, birthdays, Mother's day, Thanksgiving, Easter, births, etc. These things go on without you, but they don't look the same.

I still miss you quite a bit. I miss calling you after epic baseball games. I miss calling you when God moves in my life. I miss giving you hugs and receiving them. I miss writing you letters. I miss getting letters from you in the mail. I miss all the ways you loved my parents and how I benefited from that. I miss your laugh. I miss the fact that you rarely said good-bye at the end of a phone call. I miss sitting with my laptop and showing you pictures and trying to stop you from poking my screen with your jagged old lady fingernails. I miss teasing you about the constant poor performances of the Blue Jays. I miss having you agree with me that John can get into the craziest situations. I miss that you loved the things in my life, despite the fact that they were less exciting than John's. Mostly I miss you.

You probably know that Grandpa is doing well. But he tells us regularly that there is not a day that goes by where he does not miss you with his whole heart. I can only know pieces of what that feels like 'cause I only knew you for 27 years. He has known you and your beauty since you were both in grade school.

I want to tell you that all the love you gave me, the faith you had in me, and the faith you taught me are still living on. Grandma you were not just a drop in bucket. You were a beautiful wave in the ocean - one that is still rippling on.

I love you,

Laura

The Opinions Expressed In This Video Do Not Necessarily Reflect The Views Of This Blogger

Though she does find it funny.

Plucked From My Head

While looking at blades that have grown too long,
do you ever have the urge to braid your lawn?

Life Lessons From The Laptop

Yesterday evening I was surfing the interwebs on my lappy. I went to look at the time and noticed the little battery icon was telling me that I had little charge left. 90% of the time when the battery drops to 15% charge it say "Hey, plug me in or I'll die!" This was one of the times within that 10% when it didn't. If I had not have looked over at the time, I would not have seen the icon and the lappy would have died right in the middle of the things I was doing.

Being one who is cursed/blessed to see every (expletive) thing as a life lesson or sermon analogy, this little idiosyncrasy of life didn't seem be any exception. Two lessons came to mind as I plugged my computer in...

The first is that we're a lot like the laptop; we can run for a good amount of time, doing all kinds of things, but if we don't plug in, we'll die. Coming from my Christian way of looking at things, I would extrapolate that into meaning that we need to plug into Christ (and really the whole rest of the Trinity). We can plug into Christ by a very wide variety of ways (just like the many outlets we find in our homes). We must plug in by prayer and through the Word. We also need to plug into Christian community.

The second thing I thought about was the warning pop-up that tells me I should plug the computer in. This actually took me in two directions. One, was that as community we need to sometimes be that warning pop-up that says plug in (via the ways above). Sometimes we don't want to be the annoying pop-up that urges action. But if we don't want people to die (spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally, etc) then we have to do that urging to plug into what is good and what is needed to recharge and be able to continue functioning. The second was that we often want to ignore the little warning. I often push the limits of my computer's (and my personal) battery life, thinking that I can look at a few more things, or complete a few more tasks before I have to plug in. But often I end up so very close to the finish and then ending up with no battery life and a forced shut down.

I know that's a lot of thought on a laptop battery. But it was just what was going through my head. Feel free to pilfer these and use them for any uses you may have. Grin.

We Will Survive

From Monkey Goggles:

How to Survive the Bacon Apocalypse

Bacon is fallen. The salty paragon has enjoyed a terrific burst of stardom these past few years — bacon martinis, bacon-filled chocolates, bacon-flavored mayonnaise and other culinary landmarks almost too wondrous to describe — but the recent outbreak of Swine Flu has taken the sizzle off the strip. Baconnaise has become a favorite Jon Stewart punchline (despite the fact that it contains no actual bacon), and in a May 2009 Stranger article titled “The End of Baconmania,” writer Erica C. Barnett declared, “(I’ll take a) fresh radish dipped in butter … over a fatty, greasy hunk of bacon any day.” (lstew's note - I'll be tracking Ms. Barnett down and promptly punching her in the neck and then eating a package of bacon in front of her while she tries to get up)

Thus are the fatty excesses of Baconmania condemned to the freezer-can of history. Radishes. Wow.

I could never give up on bacon. It occupies a dedicated place in my heart that’s both spiritual and potentially life-threatening. Granted, I didn’t jump into the frying pan with the rest of the baconistas – I consider bacon “martinis” to be an abomination of both the breakfast and cocktail hours – but I can’t imagine a hearty breakfast without bacon, and I don’t want to. I love it lean or streaky, smoked or peppered, chewy or crispy. I enjoy simply looking at it – one long, gently bowing strip on either side of my eggs and toast, like edible parenthesis.

However, I completely understand if you’d like to keep your own passion for bacon in check until this plague of Hamthrax has passed. Perhaps you’re leery of blurting out “Hey, howzabout that bacon?” at social functions, where the mere mention of pork-barrel politics could render you suspect as a motorboat riding the wake of a supertanker — a possible baconeer.

It is at that moment, when the eyes of your peers are upon you, that you should burst forth with “Hey, howzabout that mac ‘n’ cheese?”

An electric pause will hang in the air as heads swim and eyes roll in expressions of naked ecstasy. Yes, of course! What better to replace one cholesterol-heavy dish than another, even more cholesterol-heavy dish? A dish that evokes childhood happiness as well as adult rebellion? A dish that could be made at home with store-bought ingredients, or enjoyed in hoity-toity restaurants with the same ingredients at three times the price? What indeed?

And like bacon, thee possibilities for hybrid mac ‘n’ cheese creations are virtually limitless in number. I’ve already seen deep-fried mac ‘n’ cheese balls in some of the finer establishments, and it’s only a matter of time before mac ‘n’ cheese salads, mac ‘c’cheese ice cream and even mac ‘n’ cheese martinis make their appearances. And through it all, we can continue to live the bacon adventure in what will become a judgment-free environment, while also enjoying what a mac ‘n’ cheese renaissance has to offer.

Not convinced? Then consider this: Late at night, behind locked doors and drawn curtains, we can even put bacon into our mac ‘n’ cheese. It’s as perfect an expression of Yankee ingenuity as you’ll ever taste.

Hmm. Now that I’ve said that, it seems like an awful lot of fat and calories to put down in one sitting. You may want to eat a vegetable of some kind afterward to keep yourself from going into shock. A radish, maybe.

Laura, I Keep Going To Your Blog And You Haven't Updated. What Is The Deal?

I'm sorry.

(Mercy Harsevoort August 2009)

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

I have no chickens, but I can tell you this: Willem and Thor won the contest. Yes, you (finally) heard it here first (or if you're my Dad, on the phone last night).





They have both won personally autographed photos of yours truly and if they talk to me nicely in the next couple of days we'll work something out that involves me cooking or baking to their immediate benefit.

Thanks to everyone who entered! Stay tuned this fall/winter for more riveting quiz action!