shane’s posterous



November 24, 2009

Thanks, not Cranks

The UPS guy stopped by today. This is almost always good news and today exceptionally so. 

I'm speaking on gratitude at our church this weekend. To help people shift out of habits of complaint, criticism, and gossip to patterns of thankfulness, I'm taking a cue from A Complaint Free World and passing out purple bracelets. Ours are embossed with the title of my talk, Thanks, not Cranks.

The idea is that you wear a bracelet on one wrist. When you hear yourself complain, criticize or gossip, you switch to the other wrist. The goal is to go 21 days straight without switching! If you switch you start over at the beginning! 

The two thousand bracelets I ordered last week arrived today and I could hardly be happier.

         
Click here to download:
Thanks_not_Cranks.zip (231 KB)

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November 18, 2009

New Word Wednesday: Doolally

doolally: mad, insane, eccentric

Etymology

shortened form of doolally tap

[edit]Pronunciation

[edit]Adjective

doolally (comparative more doolally, superlative most doolally)
  1. (chiefly British) insane, mad or eccentric

I first read this word about five minutes ago in this totally cool article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/nov/17/tobias-jones-woodland-commune?showallcomments=true

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November 7, 2009

Geocaching success

Feeling low in the Dad-point category, I proposed a little geocaching this morning, on the most glorious November day in Indiana history. For a trial run, I took Alia and Abigail down the road about five minutes to our local cemetery. We looked around for a long time before finding the cache on the ground near where it was probably supposed to be hidden. Here's our victory shot:

Flushed with success, I grabbed the rest of the kids who were loitering about our house today, seven in all, and set off in the Suburban for three more nearby caches. The first two were complete strike outs, but I was impressed with Joseph's tenacity. At our third and final site of the day, we looked and looked and prepared to concede. I called Ann and asked her to re-read to me all the info on the web for this particular site. With that in mind, I went back and looked some more and uncovered the little cache. I then proceeded to lose most of my Dad-points as I yelled, "I found it!" grabbed the cache and danced around. Two seconds into my victory lap, my brain pushed play on an old parenting tape stored deep in my cerebral cortex: "Let your kids win. Let them succeed. Give them the victory." Dang. Next time I'll have more self-control. I hope. 

Our score on the day (which also equals our lifetime geocaching score) is 2 for 4 finds. 

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October 4, 2009

the creative outlet/small business I've always dreamed about. . .

During our brief visit to the Riley Festival in Greenfield, IN I saw this sign. Hmmmm, maybe this is a way to fund my IRA. I need some friends who are looking for cheap tattoos who will let me practice on them. Any takers? 

Visit Shane's here: http://www.myspace.com/4tattoos

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October 4, 2009

Sitting on the National Road. . .

Last Thursday, between our annual autumn trek to the apple orchard and a soccer game for Joseph, we had a brief pit stop in Greenfield, Indiana. We happened upon the Riley Festival commemorating Hoosier poet, James Whitcomb Riley. The festival radiated out from the intersection of Highways 9 and 40. I gathered the girls around and said, "Look kids, this road starts at the Atlantic Ocean and goes all the way to the Pacific Ocean." (Turns out that "Pacific Ocean" part isn't actually true, but used to be!) "How about you sit here on the National Highway and let me take your picture?" They complied, but Joseph opted out. He thought it was a little too weird and complained that Abigail sat there with major "plumber bum." (From the photo, this seems likely, but inconclusive.)


Sitting out a green light on the national road

 

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September 24, 2009

New Word Wednesday: Almond

Almond: n. ( am mund ) Tasty tree born nut, raised with love and care by the Blue Diamond folks n Modesto, California. 

Yeah, I know, you thought it was pronounced "all mond." Me too. Well, apparently the "L" sound, though not the actual letter, has gone missing. Surprisingly to me, the growers, processors, and local consumers in Modesto prefer not to acknowledge the "L." And if you do, it's like writing "outsider" across your forehead in lipstick! 

It's worth learning to say "am mond," at least while you're in Modesto, because the little critters are awesome!

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September 21, 2009

Content like a Monday morning

Like a good Reuben sandwich, contentment is elusive, wonderful and not alway popular. But let's face it, anyone can whine and complain (and the list of reasons why to do so is long and frequently refreshed), but to be content, even on a Monday, that's grace and mercy multiplied. 

Thanks to the brilliant person who penned this cartoon. Alas, if I ever did, I now no longer know who you are. 

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September 13, 2009

The Wild Kingdom, just south of Farmland, IN

Thought I'd try for some Dad Points tonight and take my two youngest girls fishing at Mom's pond. (Actually, I wanted to go fishing and hadn't banked enough wife karma points to leave the kids with her and go on my own!). We got to Mom's and started our customary cricket hunt. Since our normal places didn't turn up enough chirpers to really start with, we ventured further afield. 

I moved a couple of brick and flipped over an old piece of plywood. Sure enough: a cricket. But also, surprisingly: a little king snake. I quickly realized that this was a good chance to impress my little munchkins. I like to project an air of reptilian fearlessness, but have a hard time walking it out. However, when the snake's not much bigger than a healthy earthworm, I do ok. I reached down, grabbed the little guy and tossed him in our cricket container. The girls were excited and duly impressed. We then walked down to the pond and commenced fishing.

I went back for a cricket after a few minutes and discovered the snake had decided to punch the eject button on his lunch. I'd read out this, but in forty some years of hanging out with the legless, had never seen in it person. We kept tabs on him for the next hour until, as we were driving home, he got the full meal regurgitated. I'd predicted a small lizard, but 10 year old Alia won the prize for saying, "I think it could be another snake." 

Sure enough lunch was little garter snake, measuring in at ten inches. As best we could tell, the young king snake is maybe eleven to twelve inches long. Imagine ingesting a piece of spaghetti that's 90% of your height. Kind of creepy. 

Check out the shots below. Plus there's a bonus one of the little king snake biting my finger!

         
Click here to download:
The_Wild_Kingdom_just_south_of.zip (269 KB)

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September 11, 2009

New Word Wednesday: Torturellini

Torturellini: n. Food based on tortellini, but so spicy it burns your mouth.

Here's the story: Ann had some leftover cheese tortellini that she wisely planned to warm up for the kids' lunch. The kids, who normally are decent eaters, didn't express over the top enthusiasm for the menu. But once Ann had added a left over jar of spaghetti sauce, covered the whole thing with mozzarella, put it under the broiler to get bubbly, and it's lovely aroma began to fill the kitchen, five little hearts took notice. Now it was all, "I'll have it." "Smells great." "Is it ready yet." You know the drill.
 
So Ann pulled it out and gave Alia the first serving. She piled a fork full and popped it in her mouth. As soon as the fork undocked from her face, she began to yell, squeal, dance about, cry, and through a mouthful of tortellini scream, "It's spicy! AAAHHhhhhh! It's burning my mouth." Bit's of pasta flicked and dribbled from her scorched tongue.
 
After unsuccessfully trying to convince Alia to settle down because there was no way the tortellini could be spicy, Ann began to investigate. Turned out that the spaghetti sauce was in fact chili paste, left over from a dinner weeks ago in which the main dish was sufficiently seasoned by a single teaspoon! The pasta was tentatively sampled by the other kids who quickly reached consensus that it was inedible.
 
Hearing this account upon my return home from work, I redubbed the food Torturelini, diluted the spiciness wtih a big can of certified spaghetti sauce and finished it for my lunch of the next two days.

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September 2, 2009

New Word Wednesday: Joke Insurance

Joke   Insurance

When two mates have a mutual understanding to laugh at each others jokes, no matter how lame or awkward said joke is, therefore lessening the social failure of the bad joke.

I was talking to some girls the other day when I cracked a 'your mother' joke. Luckily, I had joke insurance with Chris so I still ended up alright. All Chris got was a weird look for his over-the-top laugh.
Sometimes I could use joke insurance in my own family. Hmm, I bet Joseph and I could work a deal.

Thanks to Urban Dictionary (peruse with discretion) for this week's New Word Wednesday word. 

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