Tuesday, February 4, 2014
If you got a 40% I wouldn't push you, but when you get a 69%...
"This is testing your character, not your knowledge." ~Coach
Sunday, February 2, 2014
He who laughs last...
...might have missed it the first time.
Big Frog segued from The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) into some Bare Naked Ladies.
Big Frog: If I had $1,000,000, I'd buy you some art -- a Simon or a Garfunkel...
me: No, it's a Picasso or a Garfunkel. Because Paul Simon isn't an art. A Picasso is art, and a Garfunkel is Art.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Columbia Mall
source:DMG photography -- other beautiful photos there, as well.
What do you say, what do you do, when somewhere you're so familiar with, somewhere you grew up and where you spent countless hours as a tween and a teen, shows up in the national news for an outburst of human violence?
After you call your family and make sure they're fine, you commiserate with your friends about the solidarity of the community. And most importantly, you turn to prayer. I foresee people recognizing need and seeking counsel. Pray for receptivity to the Spirit. God is on the move.
Pastor Randy Lovelace's sermon at Columbia Presbyterian Church (CPC) (the church I grew up in) from the following day, "Hope in the Face of Danger":
Tangentially, an interesting Baltimore Sun article on the 40th anniversary of the mall, including 1971 photo below.
And a resource on talking to kids about the event.
As an aside, I find it interesting how upset I am by this attack on "my" community, my "safe" community. Why am I not surprised or even alarmed when Harrisburg has yet another shooting, or Baltimore?
Come, LORD Jesus!
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Growing as a person
Vicki, to the class:
You've all improved so much over the last 12, 18 months. I'm so happy with how you've grown.
...Now do it again.
And make me happier.
Monday, January 27, 2014
The Happy Formula for Raising Successful Kids
Shawn Achor has cropped up a few times in my life of late.
As far as his Happy Formula for Raising Successful Kids article, there's a secret, and the secret is in the title!
Sunday, January 26, 2014
God is at work in Harrisburg. God is at work in Hershey. God is at work in Mechanicsburg. And God is on the move!
Beth Moore is coming to
Hershey PA this spring, Fri-Sat May 2-3. 
photo source: Jessie Seneca, Action Team coordinator
The city coordinator, Wendy Walters, passed along to us a scripture from Beth to pray over Living Proof Live: Hershey.
Psalm 20 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
May he send you help from the sanctuary
and give you support from Zion!
May he remember all your offerings
and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah
May he grant you your heart’s desire
and fulfill all your plans!
May we shout for joy over your salvation,
and in the name of our God set up our banners!
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!
Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with the saving might of his right hand.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.
O Lord , save the king!
May he answer us when we call.
There also were rally awards: Farthest was the trio of ladies who drove in from Medford NJ. Biggest group - two groups tied for 6, including US! Each of us received a two-disc set-your-head of Beth Moore 10min devotionals, perfect for Automobile University. Plus, our fearless leader received The Resolution for Women, the companion book to the movie Courageous AND an event ticket to be able to bless someone!!
The Giant Center has 7,000 seats on the floor and first level. But in a prayer walk thru the building, there was such need perceived in the upper section. 2,000 women far from the LORD. So the goal is to fill Giant Center to the rafters - 9,000 seats! That's 4500 women of God each bringing a friend along. Who can you invite? 103 days to the event. 6300 seats are open. Pray for those filling each and every seat. UPDATE: as of the 1/24 LPLHershey newsletter, 3052 seats have been sold!
Official website: Living Proof Live Hershey Videos and marketing info available for download. Facebook page: m, LPLHershey
Do noodles make you happy?
Noodles make me happy.
So does getting together with college friends.
And cousins.
And nieces.
And a nephew who, today at least, likes me strictly from across the room, but ADORES Uncle Big Frog enough to scootch across the floor on his bum with a treasure to share. Really.
(What? Me, jealous? Just because I picked you up and you burst into hysterical tears? See if I kidnap you and take you to the Ren Faire.)
(OK, I probably will, but not this year. But your sisters? Mine.)
I've had a yearning for knife-cut noodles for awhile now. Weeks? (Months? Years?) I haven't had any since the 90's. Too long. And Big Frog had never had them ever, although he's seen enough Ching-He Huang on the Cooking Network to drool with Pavlovian anticipation at their mention. Thanks to Yelp, I discovered that the best hand-drawn noodle and knife-cut noodle place in the "Harrisburg area" is in fact Nan Zhou Hand Drawn Noodle House in Chinatown Philly. That's not at all surprising, but I do wish it were closer. If you're not familiar with the wonder that is rustic freshly made noodles, check this street vendor out on Youtube. (Primericans and mathematicians will appreciate the doubling that goes into hand-drawn nooodles. It's just 10 doubling periods to go from 1 to 1000.)
Hungry yet?
So, with a leadership event on the calendar in Philly, Big Frog and I made our usual inquiries into stopping by the Philly (Philly suburbs) cousins' place afterwards. Alas! Alack! They were already committed for the afternoon. But if evening wasn't too late for us to come by they would be home. Hmmm. That might give us enough time to pop by Chinatown. And perhaps nosh a bit? (In my world, both Yiddish and Chinese are food languages. True? Of course true.) Our RVP, who knows we usually visit our nieces and nephew after a Philly event, asked us for carpooling/caravaning reasons if we were doing likewise this time. He's a gourmet chef. We mentioned Chinatown, and he would have joined us in Chinatown if he weren't driving the going-straight-home van.
'Twas the night before Star school and I was on Yelp... And it occurred to me that several of the people who had commiserated with me about noodles were in the right geographical area to join us. The other advantage that provides is that with more people to feed and an expectation of family-style dining, we can try a LOT of different things. Fortunately, some college friends were game. And they brought their kids and a Chinatown-loving friend. My dad asked me after the fact if they were Chinese. I said they were every bit as Chinese as Big Frog and I. We're all 余s, now.
Others sent regrets and requests for 1) pics and 2) takeout.
Pork and chives and shrimp dumplings. (We also had pork and chives dumplings. They look the same from the outside.)
Pea tips, with a tip of the hat to my Aunt M, who introduced them to me several years ago. My YenYen, dad and Aunt M's mom, used to grow them. Although my dad says he'd never had them until I introduced them to him... ummm...
Fish ball soup with hand-drawn noodles. And props to J for dishing them out all around the table! Bear in mind that it's technically all one enormous noodle. Longevity for New Year's indeed! I was surprised and pleased that the youngest kid liked the fish balls the most.
The Yelp absolute-must-try, and my personal favorite, Beef brisket with knife-cut noodles.
UNfortunately, although we got a few snapshots, we dived into two of our dishes before getting photos. Forgive us! Fortunately, they were stir-frys. We had a chicken with hand-drawn noodle and a roast pork with knife-cut noodle.
Eight people ate four entrees, a veg, and three orders of dumplings. We figured we'd start there and order more as we figured out what we liked best. Except that we ended up with leftovers from just that much. (Do noodles multiply? I could definitely see Jesus feeding 5000 Chinese on nothing but umami. Stone soup is real, friends. Sometimes it's the best soup you can make.)
But wait! Cousins! Nieces! A small but surprisingly ravenous nephew! Their function finished, we arranged a rendezvous and ordered... Takeout! More noodles! Three orders went to their home with us. We ate and were satisfied... and once again had leftovers. See you Monday, Coach! It is your lucky day.
Tangentially... New Year's is this coming Friday. Just FYI, here's an intriguing Feng Shui take on this year. Happy year of the Horse! Gung hay fat choy!
(What? Me, jealous? Just because I picked you up and you burst into hysterical tears? See if I kidnap you and take you to the Ren Faire.)
(OK, I probably will, but not this year. But your sisters? Mine.)
I've had a yearning for knife-cut noodles for awhile now. Weeks? (Months? Years?) I haven't had any since the 90's. Too long. And Big Frog had never had them ever, although he's seen enough Ching-He Huang on the Cooking Network to drool with Pavlovian anticipation at their mention. Thanks to Yelp, I discovered that the best hand-drawn noodle and knife-cut noodle place in the "Harrisburg area" is in fact Nan Zhou Hand Drawn Noodle House in Chinatown Philly. That's not at all surprising, but I do wish it were closer. If you're not familiar with the wonder that is rustic freshly made noodles, check this street vendor out on Youtube. (Primericans and mathematicians will appreciate the doubling that goes into hand-drawn nooodles. It's just 10 doubling periods to go from 1 to 1000.)
Hungry yet?
So, with a leadership event on the calendar in Philly, Big Frog and I made our usual inquiries into stopping by the Philly (Philly suburbs) cousins' place afterwards. Alas! Alack! They were already committed for the afternoon. But if evening wasn't too late for us to come by they would be home. Hmmm. That might give us enough time to pop by Chinatown. And perhaps nosh a bit? (In my world, both Yiddish and Chinese are food languages. True? Of course true.) Our RVP, who knows we usually visit our nieces and nephew after a Philly event, asked us for carpooling/caravaning reasons if we were doing likewise this time. He's a gourmet chef. We mentioned Chinatown, and he would have joined us in Chinatown if he weren't driving the going-straight-home van.
'Twas the night before Star school and I was on Yelp... And it occurred to me that several of the people who had commiserated with me about noodles were in the right geographical area to join us. The other advantage that provides is that with more people to feed and an expectation of family-style dining, we can try a LOT of different things. Fortunately, some college friends were game. And they brought their kids and a Chinatown-loving friend. My dad asked me after the fact if they were Chinese. I said they were every bit as Chinese as Big Frog and I. We're all 余s, now.
Others sent regrets and requests for 1) pics and 2) takeout.
Pork and chives and shrimp dumplings. (We also had pork and chives dumplings. They look the same from the outside.)
Pea tips, with a tip of the hat to my Aunt M, who introduced them to me several years ago. My YenYen, dad and Aunt M's mom, used to grow them. Although my dad says he'd never had them until I introduced them to him... ummm...
Fish ball soup with hand-drawn noodles. And props to J for dishing them out all around the table! Bear in mind that it's technically all one enormous noodle. Longevity for New Year's indeed! I was surprised and pleased that the youngest kid liked the fish balls the most.
The Yelp absolute-must-try, and my personal favorite, Beef brisket with knife-cut noodles.
UNfortunately, although we got a few snapshots, we dived into two of our dishes before getting photos. Forgive us! Fortunately, they were stir-frys. We had a chicken with hand-drawn noodle and a roast pork with knife-cut noodle.
Eight people ate four entrees, a veg, and three orders of dumplings. We figured we'd start there and order more as we figured out what we liked best. Except that we ended up with leftovers from just that much. (Do noodles multiply? I could definitely see Jesus feeding 5000 Chinese on nothing but umami. Stone soup is real, friends. Sometimes it's the best soup you can make.)
But wait! Cousins! Nieces! A small but surprisingly ravenous nephew! Their function finished, we arranged a rendezvous and ordered... Takeout! More noodles! Three orders went to their home with us. We ate and were satisfied... and once again had leftovers. See you Monday, Coach! It is your lucky day.
Tangentially... New Year's is this coming Friday. Just FYI, here's an intriguing Feng Shui take on this year. Happy year of the Horse! Gung hay fat choy!
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