psssh math!

As I await to skype-chat with my dear best friend (or "bestie", as I guess they're called now?), I decided to peruse Google for a daily/weekly devotional book of some kind, using these exact search criteria:

"recommended devotional book that doesn't suck"

...which in turn linked to this book, via some homeschooling websites:


So... does anyone have any devotional book recommendations? Preferably something of substance, and maybe with workbook-like features. I'll continue the hunt on Google for a while, changing up the search terms a bit as well. :)

<"

okay, I'm back. for reals, for reals.

Allllll righty then! Whew, the summer just came and went, huh? Siiigh.


SO MUCH has happened, and I need at least a month and a half more of this gloriously warm season.


Pardon the change of templates! I'm experimenting, you see, and I hope to get the aesthetic right on the ol' blog. You know, to match the mood. Whatever that may be--I guess based on the background, the blog's feel is "hipster blue birdy". I'm kinda down with that for now. 


So I won't go into an excruciatingly long "catch up" list of any kind because right now it would be torturous for me to even figure out where to begin. All you need to know is: (ONE) I'm fi-hiiinally working full time hours (TWO) my dearest brother Stephens is engaged to a darling New Jersey-an (THREE) we have officially moved! To a small house! Oh, sorry, one more thing (FOUR) we got LIBRARY CARDS today. Blammo!!

New kitchen, pre-paint, pre-moving in

Aaron is in his 2nd year of seminary, and I can't even believe it. Now he's reciting the Hebrew alphabet and explaining Saint Augustine's views on marriage to me. He's putting down tile on our floors and has been our home's resident expert on boxelder bugs. He also put air in my new-used bike (thanks, Molly!) this afternoon and bought me an awesome t-shirt. So you see, he's still the best husband in the world.


And with all of the change and what-not, I've begun a whole slew of new mental (soon to be on paper) to-do lists. Getting library cards was definitely on it, so I feel very accomplished. Soon I need to finish the stain work on some shelves we're putting in our living room/dining room, and after that I have a photo frame decoration project that I'm super excited about. On top of that there are several borrowed books from the aforementioned library about gardening...

One part of our yard that will house a new, colorful (or edible) garden someday!

<"

Talkin' 'bout my sense of humor

I am emerging from a bit of a hiatus to address an accusation made today at work, which is that I, Christie Dean, do not have a good sense of humor. Now before I go any further, let me first point out that I'm 99.9% certain that this was said in jest. After all, I have a GREAT sense of humor, if I do say so myself. I will even go so far as to say that my grasp of the amusement in most things may, in fact, be my best quality. It is at least the part about little ol' me that I value most, probably because it keeps me sane. But in case there is any hint of doubt in anyone's mind that I am aloof in the sense of humor department, or that I take things waaay too seriously, I have prepared a list of things I find humorous. You will find that the items are varied, for my sense of humor is well-rounded. Eclectic. Cosmopolitan. You be the judge.


Different things I find humorous (This is just the tippy-top of the iceberg, mind you):

• Most animals and their sounds
• This Red Hot Chili Pepper's lyric: "Keystone cops and the billy bob chops / Gonna scare my kids gonna share my crops"
• What Up With That
• The word "wharf"
• Dr. Seuss books
• My philosophy professor at my alma mater
• When an outfielder during a major league baseball game so thinks he's about to catch a fly ball and doesn't
• Bubsy
• My husband's made-up jingle for the brand of romaine lettuce we recently bought at Garden Fresh ("Andy Boy/He makes the lettuce for the girls and boys")
• Informercials
• Canadian stereotypes
• Listening to what people get really frustrated about when they're playing a board game, e.g. "Crap, I could really use some ore right now!"
• public access TV
• Baby/child toys and games
• Crazy eyes
• This joke
• Paul F. Tompkins stand-up 
• When the little boy who lives in my apartment building practices riding his bike up and down our very short hallway
• Passive-aggressive notes
• Suspenders
• RickRolling
• Conversations between two people who are way into computers
• Made-up words
• Grapefruit spoons 
• Stock photos

Of course there are things I don't find to be amusing very much at all. Some examples are:

• pen ink
• grass 
• grilled chicken
• tires
• grids (of any kind, really)
• algebra

Video Friday! 5/6/2011

Some friends and I will send each other a group email every once in a while with the subject "Video Friday!" (or maybe Video Saturday. You know, it all depends.). It's a pretty straightforward concept; one of us watches a video on YouTube or another site, finds said video amusing, and shares the video via email with friends, who then react with a comment or respond with a video of a similar nature. Anywow, I've decided to make Video Friday a weekly feature on the blog, because I find many things humorous and want to share them... and just because I can.

Enough with the banter!

I love "Weird Al" Yankovic (understatement of the millenium), and his new album is coming out in June. This is cause for celebration. Let's watch a couple of his best videos, shall we?

Duh.


This song is easily in my top three Weird Al tunes... and the video is so delightfully random.


Here's something a little different... I was trying to find a different video but came across this instead, which is more than okay. Weird Al had a couple TV specials and videos (in VHS form whoooooa!) in the 80's and 90's which had all sorts of amazingly bizarre clips and guests. No other words of introduction are necessary.



Special bonus video!

a flu-ridden re-cap

I apologize for the unintended hiatus! This week has been especially weird, since I came down with the flu (or something flu-like) on Tuesday and had a fever for the first time since who knows when. I'm still getting over it all, but since my head doesn't hurt anymore at the very thought of typing I thought I'd have a go at a more lackluster blog post. Better than no post at all, right? Right.


It's been an eventful two weeks. We had to take our car to the shop for the first time since we got it last year because we thought something had broken off of it. 

After Aaron took it to the shop though, the mechanic called to let us know that the part that came off our car wasn't even a part of our car... but rather was just a piece of metal that had gotten lodged into our wheel. What?! He ended up repairing our transmission pan since Ole Paw, our car, was there anyway, but that repair was $500 less than the original one would have been. Whew.


Also, pretty big news, we are moving off-campus over the summer. This is both exciting and heartbreaking at the same time (sort of like The Lion King?) since we'll be living in a bigger space in a cute neighborhood at a very nice price, but will be a good 15-20 minutes drive from the seminary community that we have gotten to know and love. I have to keep reminding myself of one of the huge perks of relocating in order to make me feel more at ease... our new neighborhood has SIDEWALKS. How I've missed them!


My parents are coming to town this Thursday night! It will be their first mid-western adventure together as they take the 14 hour trek to Deerfield from New Jersey. I have to still think of some interesting places to take them (my apartment might be interesting for only an hour, but that's pushing it) and hope that some warmer spring weather manifests itself in due time... 


Finally, here is a picture of a fake coyote staring at a goose. 

You're welcome.


Happy Easter Weekend!


<"

Happy April!

Happy April, everyone! I've been meaning to post a ton more than this, both here and on the Trinity website, but this week in particular was the busiest I've had in a while. And it feels GREAT! I don't know about you, but April's been pretty okay for me so far. Actually, it's been downright fantastic. We have some friends coming over tonight for dinner with two of their little munchkins (the human baby kind, not these), I got a MUCH needed haircut with my dear friend Laura, I browsed through some awesome Google April Fools Day pranks, I got an awesome package of letters and gifts from my lovely Rachely Rachel, and Script Frenzy began! 


I haven't had the greatest of starts for this year's Script Frenzy. I'm already three pages behind on my screenplay! 100 pages in the month of April is the goal, but I really need to get rollin' on it. Oh, and I have no solid story idea yet. That might be a problem.


Anyhow, something of more substance (i.e. a post with pictures) later. I've got a lot of talk about, but unfortunately cookies don't bake themselves. Laters, gators!


<"

Why is it snowing again???

One of our next door neighbors came over just now to borrow a movie. As he was talking to us, I happened to glance in the direction of our massive windows only to see a form of precipitation from yester-season falling mercilessly onto our precious earth.... It IS spring, weather!! It was official as of last Sunday! Didn't you get the memo that the weather-memorandum person sends out to your vicious kind?!?

You make Aaron grumpy, too!!

<"