We gotta go to the crappy town where I’m a hero! (4:29)

If you are a Browncoat and you have not seen this video of Adam Baldwin singing Hero of Canton, do yourself a favor and watch it now. I’ll wait for you to come back.

In case you have not figured it out by now, this mug is part of my Geek Dottery series.

So is this mug I painted for Jen from Following the Road a while back, at her request. The pineapple is a Chuck reference. Big surprise, right? You can watch this video and this video to get in on the joke.

Guys, I know kung fu. Even though there have been a lot of great moments in Seasons 3 and 4, sometimes I think back to the sheer awesomeness of Season 2 ending with that line, and wish that it had all stopped there and any further adventures of Chuck and Team Bartowski had been left up to my imagination.

I tried an experiment, painting that tiny pineapple, and wasn’t sure how it would turn out. I was so happy when it worked just like I wanted it to.

Madge requested that I paint another geeky mug for Fish’s birthday, this one an X-Files/Big Bang Theory mash-up. I tried to make the colors of the mug match the greens and dark blues and purples that I associate with X-Files.

This last mug isn’t geek dottery, except in that I painted it as a gift for my friend Elaine, whose blog’s brilliant tagline is “where geek meets granola.” She wrote this heartfelt post for her daughters about how she wants them to know that they owe kindness to everyone, first and foremost, but that it’s not okay for anyone to take advantage of that kindness to abuse or hurt them or treat them with disrespect. Hence, the inside of the mug:

Ahem. I’d like to point out that this is a direct quote from Elaine’s blog, which I used on a mug with her permission. (Man, I’m such a square. I can’t even cuss in a photo covered with asterisks on my own blog without feeling totally embarrassed about it.)

I didn’t make it to the monthly Ladies’ Night at my usual pottery studio this month, and I really missed it. I’ve been feeling fairly stressed out lately thanks to Troy working long hours leading up to a deadline and a pulled muscle in my neck and blah blah family blah homeschooling blah blah life in general. Nothing is wrong, exactly; it’s just one of those times when life is a little extra challenging, you know? On Saturday Troy told me to get out of the house for a couple of hours, so I went to paint at a local studio. I sat all by myself with paint and a Coke Zero and dotted to my heart’s content for 90 minutes. When I went home I felt much calmer.

Thank you to all of you who keep supporting my painting habit by asking me to paint you mugs and bowls and things! It helps keep me sane.

p.s. The Firefly mug at the top of this post is up for grabs! If anyone out there wants to buy it, let me know and I can stick it in my Etsy shop as a reserved order.

“Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s PARTY!’”
~Robin Williams

I made a poster once with this quote on it when I was an RA, and put it in the elevator lobby on our floor. My co-RA told me it was a terrible quote to put up during dead week on a college campus, that the last thing students needed was to be thinking about partying. He was cranky and serious when he told me that. I knew what he meant, but I still had to laugh. I don’t think there’s ever been a bad time to appreciate the miracle of renewal and color and bloom that is Spring—not even when you should be studying for finals.

“…our despair He turned to blazing joy.”
~John Geyer, “We Know That Christ Is Raised”

I’ve always loved that line. Blazing joy!

Happy Easter and a blessed Spring to you!

Her most recent post is about her experience during the past year with being poor, poor enough that she was worried about paying rent and changing her oil and buying food, and how she hopes the experience stays with her because it taught her empathy. I loved this:

“No matter your situation, happy holidays to you. If things are hard, I hope they get better soon. If things are better, I hope you share the wealth. If you have nothing else to give, at least be kind to the person bagging your groceries or waiting your table. None of us want to admit it, but we have at least occasionally thought to ourselves that the unprofessional, sullen woman filing her nails behind the counter for nine dollars an hour deserves to be where she is. Even if she does––even if the different strata the two of you exist in really are separated by a cushion consisting entirely of your merit as a person, which is so beyond debatable that it’s laughable to even contemplate––your life is likely infinitely better than hers, and you can afford a little patience and a little grace.”

The other day, Annalie and I went to a Chinese place for lunch. Annalie usually likes Chinese food, but she was stubbornly insisting on this day that she wanted nothing to do with rice or broccoli or water chestnuts. So I ordered her a bowl of egg drop soup.

When our food was brought to us, Annalie cautiously sniffed the soup. “It smells good, but it looks kinda gross. Hmm, maybe if I can’t see it then I’ll like it.” She slapped her hand over her eyes and brought a spoonful of soup to her mouth and took a tiny sip.

“Hey, I do like it! This is pretty good, as long as I’m not looking at it!”

“Mom, I have an idea! You should take a picture for Daddy, since he always eats egg drop soup. He would be so proud of me that I tried it and liked it.”

And then I got a great fortune in my fortune cookie. It’s really more of a truism than a fortune, but I liked it so much I didn’t care. I brought it home and taped it up in my kitchen so I can read it often and think about it.

Only you can change your life. No one can do it for you.

Hello there! I promised myself I would go to bed early(ish) tonight but I had already edited a bunch of photos earlier in the day, so…I’m already behind on blogging about North Carolina and Virginia Beach. I hate it when I get behind because then photos go unseen and cool stuff goes unblogged. Like last February when I visited Maryland, I never really blogged about Rebekah’s fantastic all-day drop-in-when-you-can craft-o-rama birthday party that she planned for herself. It was such a cool idea I really wanted to blog it, and I just never did. And Sea World! I still have not blogged our visit to Sea World! I know there are a couple of pottery and crochet posts that I need to write, too.

So before I get even MORE behind, I’m going to slap some photos up here real quick to tell you what we’ve been doing to keep ourselves busy. And I’ll be in bed by 12:30 12:45 1:39.

We’ve been swimming.

We’ve painted some pottery at the newly-remodeled, under-new-ownership pottery studio. The new owner is someone who worked there for years, though, so only a few things are different. It’s still the same really cool, laid-back place to paint. Notable changes are the new fish tank and the new curtains on the window between the kiln room and the studio that look strangely familiar to me. Hmmm.

We’ve been riding bikes and playing on the swings and shucking some corn.

Annalie found a little worm on one of the ears of farm-stand corn and was a little grossed out. I told her to just flick it off, and she said, “Uh, I’m not really a worm kind of person.” Christa flicked it off for her.

We’ve been watching a little bit of Chuck. Yes, yes we have.

I know I should be getting sick of this show by now. Over the past four months I’ve watched both seasons, all 35 episodes, at least twice by myself while crocheting. I’ve watched many of the episodes again at different times with Troy, Sonja, Brenda, and my mom (all of whom are confirmed Chuck fans now, as is my brother who watched the Season 1 DVDs with my mom), as well as for Chuck Me Mondays. That right there is a LOT of Chuck.

Here’s an odd thing about me, though: I like watching and listening to the same things over and over and over. I’m like a toddler who wants to watch the same episode of Dora a hundred times in a row or listen to the same freaking WeeSing CD on every single car trip. I will leave the same CD in my player for weeks at a time if I like it and the songs are singable. I watch the movies I love repeatedly.

Considering that, I guess it’s not terribly surprising that I have been okay with these repeated Chuckathons. I think it helps that I’m usually crocheting while I’m watching, so I’m not giving my whole attention to the screen and will pick up on something each time that I missed on the previous viewing while I was looking at my yarn. Also, the writers and producers of Chuck delight in creating stories with many layers, sprinkled liberally with pop culture references. I never catch them all the first time.

The main reason I keep trying to convince people to watch Chuck is that I truly think they’ll enjoy it, that it will make them happy for at least an hour each week. There aren’t many shows out there like this one, shows that are a blend of humor and emotion, action and heroism, geekery and gorgeous people. On a technical level, the writing, acting, music, editing, and action scenes are all excellent, and isn’t it always nice to give attention to the shows that are doing a good job?

Even more than all that, though, it’s just plain fun. The other day I stumbled across a great post on the blog of TV critic Alan Sepiwall, recapping the Season 2 finale before we knew if there would be a Season 3. Parts of his recap were so spot-on that I found myself actually laughing and saying “Yes!” out loud to my laptop as I read, particularly this:

There are deeper shows on TV, more complex shows, shows with tighter plot logic, possibly even better comedies—though I find that last statement hard to believe after an episode that featured a line like “Why are you letting Sam Kinison and an Indian lesbian wreck your wedding?”—but none features as much pure, concentrated fun as “Chuck.” It’s overflowing with joy, as if Schwartz, Fedak and company (in this case, Allison Adler, who co-wrote the finale with Fedak) repeatedly ask themselves, “What else can we put into this scene that’s awesome?” [emphasis mine]

and this:

But here’s the thing: if “Chuck” was just a collection of in-jokes and ’80s references, then…well, then it’d be “Family Guy.” And while “Family Guy” has its place, what makes “Chuck” so special—what suddenly has this storm of bloggers and Tweeters and sandwich aficionados doing all they can to help it get a third season—is that there’s a fundamental warmth and humanity underneath the jokes about “Back to the Future” and “Tron,” and then cool action and high stakes piled on top. It’s a cast of appealing characters played by very good actors, and so the laughs feel more satisfying, the action cooler, then if it were all just a big joke. [emphasis mine]

All of this to say that when Bekah mentioned she might be interested in watching a few episodes of this show I couldn’t seem to stop blogging about, I said, wanna watch the pilot tonight? And we did, and when it was over, Bekah said, “Quick, let’s watch another one before I need to go to bed!” The next day when we got home from church, she said, “Maybe we could watch an episode of ‘Chuck’ while the kids are outside playing and lunch is cooking.” And another Chuck fan is born.

And THAT is why I have fallen behind in blogging again. We’ve been using my laptop to watch Chuck in the evenings when I’d normally be editing photos and writing. But hey, at least I’m getting caught up on my crocheting again!

“Success is a movement into invisibility. Success is decreasing so that others may increase. Success is a seed dying in the ground and bearing fruit upwards. Success is becoming dispensable. The successful man is the one who will not be missed.”

—Peter J. Leithart, in the June 2009 Touchstone Magazine

“Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in books alone,
but in every leaf in spring-time. ”
—Martin Luther

Happy Easter to you! I hope you have a wonderful day, as my friend Jen said, “for Jesus reasons and for chocolate reasons!”

A couple of days ago, this colorfully-decorated package arrived on our doorstep. (Okay, mail doesn’t arrive on our doorstep, it arrives in the mailbox by our gate. Though this package didn’t even arrive there, our mail carrier walked it around back and left it by our garage. Our mailman is thoughtful like that.) We noticed it as we were leaving to go out to dinner, so we took it with us and opened it at Boston Market while we were waiting for our food.

It was an Easter package for Annalie! Her cousins Brett & Leo made these signs for her and her Aunt Dana packaged them up with a cute stuffed frog (promptly christened “Froggie”) and an assortment of Easter goodies including sour apple edible Easter grass, neapolitan chocolate eggs, and a chocolate bunny.

We all tried the edible grass, curious what it would taste like. Annalie thought it was just okay, but Troy and I quite liked it so Annalie generously told us we could have it. It sorta has the texture of a rice cake and is mildly sweet. What Annalie really wanted to eat right away was one of the Neapolitan chocolate eggs, which were flat egg-shaped candies with layers of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. She ate one the day we opened the package, and another the next day.

This morning she asked me if she could have one of her chocolate eggs. Distracted by a phone call from a friend, I said that was fine. Sensing my distraction, she asked if she could have two chocolate eggs. I said, sure, go ahead, and went back to my conversation.

Ten minutes later I was off the phone and leaving the bedroom when Annalie walked up to me and said apologetically, “Mom, I have to tell you something. I accidentally ate ALL my Neapolitan chocolate eggs that were left.”

I sighed. “Annalie, why did you do that? I hope you don’t get a stomachache now. How many did you eat?”

“I dunno. I think there were…twenty-ten?”

“Well, you can’t have any more candy or sweets for the rest of the day.”

“Okay. I’m sorry I ate them all without asking you but…they were just so DELICIOUS I couldn’t stop eating them!”

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since Troy’s dad died. It seems like it was just the other day that Troy was calling him on the phone, that I shook my head and tried not to smile while Keith laughed uproariously at an awful joke he’d just told me, that Annalie was asking her Grandpa Keith if they could go feed the neighbor’s dogs some treats from the container they kept in their garage.

I’ve been looking through old photos and have realized something: I don’t have many photos of Keith. It’s not that he disliked having his photo taken, exactly; but he didn’t encourage it either. After Annalie was born I took more photos, but still not many. I think back now to the one Christmas we were all together in Omaha: Keith and Valetta, both of Troy’s sisters and brothers-in-law, Troy and me, and Annalie and her two cousins. For some reason I didn’t take many photos that day, and I truly regret it now. It would be nice to have even one photo of Keith with all of his grandkids. Not that the photo would make us miss Keith any less, but it would be something.

Next time I want to take some pictures but am feeling shy or afraid of appearing pushy, or someone’s telling me, “Point that thing somewhere else!” I’m going to try to remember that regret. Because someday I might want those photos to help me remember.

…When Casper said she was somewhere last weekend where “WAY too many photos were taken,” my heart creaked a little bit. There’s no such thing as too many photos!…

Photographs are the way you remain immortal to your family. Don’t cringe and pull away when someone wants to photograph you. (THAT’S what gives you the appearance of a double chin, by the way, the cringing and pulling back. No one is as fat as she imagines herself to be. Your chin is lovely, I promise.) Photograph everyone you cherish, and let them cherish you the same way.

Written by the unnamed “actual photojournalist-type person” who contributed some tips about appearing one’s best in photos to an August 2007 Advice Smackdown.

–Jamie Madigan in his weekly report on his daughters’ lives, Week 232: Fireworks, Flames and Sleep