New Post, Old Photos

St. Patrick's Day is coming up, and I thought that would be a good time to post photos that I've finally developed...from last St. Patty's Day!!! I wish I could say that's the oldest roll of film I had, but I'd be lying. :)

Sonya had the camera on this outing, so no shots of her, although you can see her shoe here...
These are Sonya's parents...

Ninjas are everywhere.

Happy New Year! We entered the new year peacefully, and relatively quietly. I say relatively, because people here in Texas like to shoot fireworks off on New Year's Eve, so it can get pretty loud. I could probably sleep through it, but for the crazy dog that lives in our house. He can't stand loud noises. Makes him vibrate and pant. Tries to climb in bed with you. That kind of thing. Sonya and I took turns keeping him quiet and off the girls beds. That lasted about 2 hours. That and watching a DVD was the extent of our celebrations.

Sonya and I started training again. We have our little family dojo now, and are teaching the girls taijutsu. The saw a karate demonstration at school and got excited about it. Sonya said, 'Heck, we can train them ourselves.' And so we are. Its all starting to come back to me. It feels good to train again. Sonya and I hadn't trained for about 5 years.

In other martial (sort of) news - I went deer hunting last weekend with an acquaintance from church. We saw a young buck, but decided not to shoot him. If he makes it another couple of years, he'll be really nice. We were hunting on a private ranch, and they try to actively manage the deer, so it could be that he'll make it.

A friend sent us this a while back, and I just found it. It makes me smile. (The picture is of Ogata Shuma Hiroyuki later known as Jiraiya, a ninja in a Japanese folk tale, with a heavy gun, overcoming a huge Snake which has preyed on his friends the Toads):

Ninjas are everywhere. Ninjas are in movies, ninjas are on TV, there is probably a ninja clinging to the bottom of your desk right now. With their roots in the battlefields of 14th century Japan, ninjas were assassins who practiced the are of ... oh, who cares? It doesn't matter where ninjas came from. All you need to know is that ninjas can totally kill you without even thinking about it. In fact, ninjas are so lethal that it takes an enormous effort of will for them not to kill you. YOU are only alive because a ninja is trying very hard not to shoot a blow dart through your neck right this minute. Ninjas are being kind to us and yet we haven't returned the favor. Even so, ninjas have stealthily taken over the planet in the last few years and no one over 30 saw it coming.

Las Posadas

Christmas is looming!

Soon, we will 'light' the third candle on our Advent wreath. We all had a lot of fun making it out of construction paper on the morning of the first Sunday of Advent.

Wednesday we went to buy our Christmas tree. We were going to wait until Christmas Eve, but thought we might not find one then. The girls enjoyed decorating it - we went with an antique theme, using ribbon as garland, and old-fashioned toys and bells for ornaments.

Next week we will be hosting Las Posadas, a traditional Mexican Christmas novena that reminds us of Joseph and Mary’s desperate search for lodging in Bethlehem. I will post some pictures of that afterward. We got our neighbors in on the act - the houses on either side of us will be the first two 'inns' that Joseph and Mary are turned away from. Then the procession comes to our house, where we have a big party. It should be great fun.

Las Posadas: In 1578, an Augustinian friar introduced this novena in Mexico to combat the pagan customs of the Aztecs. They honored their warrior god, Huitzilopochtli, during the time that corresponds to Christmas - the friar’s intent was to begin a Christian devotion that would lessen the attention that the Indians gave to pagan rituals.

Tiny Toons do TMBG

I fondly remembered these Tiny Toon's videos for 'Istanbul (Not Constantinople)' and 'Particle Man'. It occurred to me today to Google for them. You can find just about anything now.

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - Tiny Toons

Particle Man by Tiny Toons

Big Ol' Texas Halloween!

We celebrated our first Halloween in Texas, and Nana's Birthday! It was a fun evening. Sonya and the girls made a gluten-free birthday cake, which Uri and Gabi iced. Sonya worked very hard to make all the food and decorate. In the process, she managed to rearrange the living room and play room. Now we have a much nicer layout.
That wasn't all - Sonya made the Underdog costumes the girls wore. They were very excited about those costumes.


The girls had more fun handing out treats than they did Trick-or-Treating. We don't give out candy, instead we distribute little toys. This year we had small plastic ninjas and rubber bracelets. I must say, there were a few ungrateful kids out there. Most of those had about 3 pounds of candy in their sacks. Most kids said thank you, and a few got pretty excited about the ninjas.


Sonya's brother, Steve, and his wife, Amanda, celebrated their daughter Laiah's first Halloween with us. Laiah is dressed as a chicken in this photo. Gabi and I went with them around the neighborhood to trick-or-treat. Laiah's only about a year old, so she didn't do much, but she had a good time. The girls think my fat witch costume is hilarious. This is like the 3rd year I've worn it.

Now that Halloween is behind us, we're getting geared up for a visit from Grandpa Carl & Grandma Mary Jo, and Thanksgiving!

Pax et bonum



(Photos by Amanda)

Simpsonized Redux

4th of July

We had a little shindig on Independence Day (hence the red clothes and beads). Sonya is holding our neice, Laiah, in these pictures. You can visit Laiah's blog here. Uri calls her tie-died shirt her 'fireworks shirt'.

Us

Well, its been a while since I've updated...
Here is a picture of Sonya and me hot off the presses.

Simpsonized!

As you can see at the top left of the page, I've been 'simpsonized'. You, too, can be simpsonized here.

Sonya and I saw the movie on opening afternoon [we're so trendy :)]. We laughed pretty hard. I give it 5 donuts (out of 5).

Uri's Art

Knights of Columbus & Altar Society

Sonya is being installed as an officer of our parish Altar Society today. She is the Recording Secretary. One of the ladies told me they love having her their, that she 'brought new blood to all us old folks' or something like that. I think they were afraid they would scare her off in the beginning, but she likes it and enjoys serving with them. She is in the sub-group called St. Anne's Circle. They are in charge of sewing and acquiring altar linens and vestments.

Last night I was inducted into the Knights of Columbus as a 1st degree Knight. It was an educational and spiritual ceremony. I am looking forward to doing service with the Knights. The ceremony was held at a neighboring council, but there were a few people from my council there, including the Deputy Grand Knight. One of the other candidates there is from my parish, and I knew him from a retreat I went on recently, so there were some familiar faces there.

New Home

Well, if anyone still checks this after a 5 month lapse, you'll be interested to know we've moved to San Antonio! We moved around Thanksgiving of 2006, but it took until February to find a permanent home. Now the fun of unpacking and organizing fills our days. The girls love it, not least because it has stairs, and often do not want to leave it. As you can see above, we have a nice back yard, with lots of shade from several very large live oaks.

There is a bit of work to do inside and out, but nothing major. I do have projects lined up for quite a while. That's good, actually, as I didn't know what the heck to do with myself when we were in our temporary quarters. The trees in front are in decline, and will have to be cut down. Soon I will build a playstructure/tree house around the oaks, and we plan to have a lot of out-door living space where we can cook, eat, and hang out. We are very close (10 minute walk) to church and school. We couldn't be more pleased.

We gave our chickens to Sonya's brother's neighbors when we move. I don't know if we'll have chickens here. They aren't prohibited, but I'd like to get to know the neighbors before I add a bunch of squaky hens. Love to have fresh eggs again, tho'.

My new job is working out really well. I'm getting to do a lot of creative stuff, and we have some interesting projects. I realize now that I was falling into a bit of a rut in Arizona. Now its full speed ahead! Many times I feel like I did in college, where my creativity was nourished, and not really limited.

...Meanwhile, back at the ranch.

I've been really lax in keeping this updated. I don't know if anyone reads it, since no one comments, but I'm sorry, in any case.

Here's a nice photo of the girls. This was taken by their babysitter for some contest.

We've been extraordinarily busy lately. We are remodeling the kitchen (all new cabinets) and we've finished putting saltillo tile in the house. Finally, six years later, we have the house where we want it. We've vowed that the next house we have we will improve first so that we can enjoy the fruits of our labors.

I'm looking for a job in San Antonio, Texas. Soon (hopefully) our home improvements will result in a quick, profitable sale, and we will emigrate to Texas. I have a couple of good leads on jobs. I hope to hear any day now.

Rio Grande Zoo

I went to a conference held in Albuquerque, NM. During some free time, I visited the Rio Grande Zoo. It's pretty nice - lots of different animals, nice displays. I spent about 4 hours there. My favorite is the chimp, who brought over a nice pile of poop to smear on the window. Then she ate it. Yum.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Gabi, Uri, and Sonya await the parade floats. Uri is hiding.

There were some really good floats. Unfortunately, I had Gabi on my shoulders most of the time, so I don't have any other photos.

We had a great time watching the parade. The weather was pleasant, but a little windy. I didn't think the parade was quite as good as in years past. None of the Irish dance schools performed in costume - they just wore t-shirts and shorts. We walked around the festival grounds for a few minutes, but it was very busy and we were hungry. We went home, ate, and took naps.

While trying to sleep, I kept hearing an odd scraping sound. Later, I went outside to look and discovered the high winds were starting to peel up the roof! Sonya and I quickly weighed it down until we could fix it.

Gabi celebrates the big win!

This is Mulan, our latest chicken. She is a Silkie. They do not have functioning barbicels on their feathers, so it is like they are covered in down. She is smaller than our other two, so she will no doubt be at the bottom of the pecking order.