Who says white boys can't dance?

Merry Christmas to all!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

And the beat goes on

Those of you who come him for thought provoking inspiration might have to go elsewhere, at least temporarily. Right now, I've got bathroom on the brain...all other thoughts have gone down the tube, flushed down the toilet, shall we say. But the good news for you (and for me) is that it's almost officially done...Santa won't need to bring me a toilet for Christmas. Just a little caulking, some paint on the baseboards....and it's DONE!

Is this an add in "Martha Stewart Living"?


I'll take requests for the next post to be me in a bubble bath?

Will it be done be Christmas?

That's all I want for Christmas.

Operation pinecone, part ???

Is that light at the end of the tunnel? Nah....probably not.


Hey, this looks pretty good in the picture. And as luck would have it, dark stain with marble is back in style. Unfortunately the cabinet is kinda low, the doors need replaced, and the marble counter is fairly stained. In today's throwaway world, replacing the counter, hardware, raising it, fixing some doors....is pretty much equivalent to buying a whole unit. In plus Wonder Woman doesn't like it...even if it is in style :-)


Now I just twinkle someone's nose and we're back in business. How about Dynagirl's? Never mind, I don't want to touch that with a 10 foot pole since she's got step-throat.

Random thoughts from today

From John Macarthur's message today regarding being thankful, something to the effect of "If you're not seeing God's blessings in your life, maybe you're not looking around". Kind of goes with another quote I really like, given specifically in the context of marriage, "If you want to be happy, you got to bring happy with you."

I'd add my fortune (from the cookie I just ate) to the list of quotes for today...but it was empty. Now what does that mean???

Ye ol' Christmas Choir

Some Cosmic Boy dialog, and the best trio (including Dynagirl) ever...


Couldn't be complete w/o some groovy moves by Cosmic Boy and crew...

A few good pens

Actually only one. Do you remember the scene from "A Few Good Men". No, not that scene...I in fact can handle the truth...the other one...about the bat.

======
Kaffee: I need my bat. I think better with my bat. Where's my bat?

Jo: I put it in the closet.

Kaffee: You put it in the closet?

Jo: I was tripping over it.

Kaffee: Don't ever put a bat in a closet.

Jo: He thinks better with his bat?
================

I've been dealing with the loss of my pen. Psychotic...well perhaps. But I think better with my pen. Not just any pen...it needs to be substantial...it can't be a cheap throw-away...it needs to be in my pocket...it needs to have a good clip so it won't fall out of my nerd pocket...and I need to be able to twirl it.

I've been dealing with not having it for too long, gosh it must have been at least a couple of months. So here it is. The 2008 model closeout, thank you Office Depot. It's got good lines, fits well in my pocket and my hand. Doesn't really matter how it writes, no one can read my handwriting anyhow. I think I feel better already.

Bon Voyage SuperBo (aka Marmaduke)

We'll miss you and all, but boy are you a lot of work :-) And if you get any bigger, I don't think you'll fit in my lap. Until next time boy....






And lastly, a few items we used to own. Let's see...a number of baseballs and tennis balls, a pair of rain boots, a bubble machine, 2 pairs of flipflops, a pair of safety goggles, a number of buckets, a few rags, a shirt or 2, a bug catcher, and a few other misc items.

Tis the season

Dash recently reminded us that it's time for us to open the "Advil calendar". There might be a few days during the season that I'll need to open more than one flap. I wonder if I can buy an extra strength ?

I couldn't make this up if I tried...

This is the partial text from the Massachusetts General School Law of 1647, also known as the "Old Deluder Satan Law":

"It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures...It is therefore ordered that every township in this jurisdiction...shall forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants..."

Ironic to think about the origins, isn't it? Here's more info.

400 channels

A recap of the recent channel lineup here at Greenhouse5 headquarters:

2006 and prior: Antenna, broadcast channels with an occasional bout of cable
2006 - sep08: Comcast, 50 channel or so lineup
sep08 - nov08: Nothing except for tv on the internet
nov08-?: 200 channels officially, but 400 channels with the free "preview" that hasn't stopped

So what does one do with 400 channels? Apparently get fat....Eat turkey. Watch TV. Eat turkey. Trying to live up to the Mr. Incredible figure. Or perhaps join the future of the humans portrayed in Wall-e.

So another case of more is not better. Give me a-la-carte TV anyday. I want my sports and a few sitcoms and dramas and I'd be happy.

Snapped these when we weren't being followed

Me, myself, and ?

A beautiful day in Union Square, but have our identities been foiled? Will the Greenhouse 5 make it back for next week's episode? Is this the end of their supercrime fighting?


I clearly spotted them by the ice rink...


Then again with the 3 little superheroes...


Grammie was even being followed...


A mere reflection?


More subtle, but obviously there...


Stay tuned.

Superdog

A new hero in our midst. Bo "Superdog" Reis. There's mixed reaction to his arrival; there's 2 furry members of the house who pretty much think he's Satan. Princess as you can see below has gotten back into character, and kitty, aka "Rock" has been spending a lot of time on the roof.

I think he's a pit bull / lab mix. Man those jaws are strong, but he seems to be one big BABY. He fashions himself a lap dog and tries his hardest to get into Mr I's lap. We're dog sitting for about 10 days. Dash says he doesn't like "to get slimed"; Dynagirl isn't quite sure about it either, tho both certainly spend a lot of time playing with him. Cosmic Boy is sold on the dog thing, but I'm not so sure his superparents are. Boy, cats are nice.

Hodgepodge

So we got WW acting like she was the queen of tiling here...


And we got Dynagirl modeling her stylish headpiece here...


And lastly, we were invaded by aliens in our living room, here they are...

Up from the grave....

Last week our "Walking Stick" pets died. They had been a gift from a friend of the kids last spring or so. The whole family kind of took to them; they'd crawl over you with kinda sticky (pun intended) feet and also generally creep out the insect hating crowd. We started with 4 or 5 of them but only 2 survived and grew (and grew and grew).

Trouble is, like many pets "for the kids", Mr. Incredible ended up having to do a lot of reminding like "Did you give them leaves recently?" or "Anybody give them water?".

So, sure enough, when they died last week, there were some lessons to be learned. There was a sadness and disappointment in the house, especially since we had no idea how to replace them. The friend we got them from is not geographically close if she even still has them.

So, yesterday, I was up early in the morning studying for a Sunday School class. The topic happened to be "In the Garden"; after studying this passage for the past couple of weeks, I was pretty overcome with the "cup" that Jesus has taken on my behalf...the suffering, the pain, the humanity that He took on. Death. I was certainly wishing my study would get past the death and on to the life...you know that Good Friday feeling you get? The one where you can't wait until Easter?

About 7:30AM, Cosmic Boy came running in..."They're alive!" he exclaimed. Huh??? So the big buggers laid some eggs on the way out. And sure enough, we've got at least 8 of them in there now; who knows how many more are coming since the eggs are really hard to see. Hallelulah!



A sidenote, after the death, we pretty much realized that the Walking Sticks are illegal in California. Sounds like they can wreak havoc on beings that have leaves; you know, pretty much all the things in your yard that you want to keep. Apparently, our crime isn't just a state one; seems that they're also illegal in all of the U.S. Hmmm, what to do with this one? Maybe we'll get a ferret so the illegal prisoners can have some company?! More to come on their fate; their lives may hang on the court of appeals, who knows which way the court will go in this country.

Playin' in the mud again...

Getting there. If I'm playing in mud, there must be light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully next Saturday we tile...

Homeschool athletics

Formalized sports teams at school are certainly not a big issue for us now, but it could be in the future. I found an interesting perspective about it here. Not sure I've ingested it all completely, after all we aren't really homeschooling since we use a public charter school, but it was an interesting read. I thought the 4 points below, even removed from the athletics discussion, rang true to my experience.

========================
Snippet of the article
========================
...However, despite these factors, there is continuing pressure for increased state regulation of homeschooling. Once regulations are in place for homeschooling athletes, there will be strong pressure to apply them to all homeschoolers, leading to increased regulation of all homeschoolers.

How do we know this will happen? For several reasons, including the following:

* First, through no fault of our own, we homeschoolers are seen as a threat to the educational establishment, The most powerful interest groups in our society. Most of the educational establishment feels that homeschools need to be controlled and regulated and forced to become as much like conventional schools as possible.

* Second, our society does not trust parents and others who are not trained professionals or "experts." Although homeschooling has gained some acceptance, many people still feel there may be "something fishy going on;" the government probably should check up on homeschoolers.

* Third, the general public has accepted increasing government control of public schools, most recently in the form of new educational standards and increased use of state-mandated standardized tests. Most non-homeschoolers assume the government should also oversee homeschools.

* Fourth, some school officials are telling truants, dropouts, and expelled students to homeschool, or at least suggesting it. These officials are then turning around and saying that greater regulation of homeschooling is needed because truants, dropouts, and expelled students may be escaping to homeschooling.

Now that's what I'm talkin' bout

Hmmmmmmmm. Pomegranate guacamole. It's the BEST! Find it here.

The case has many points

So this morning we were tee-peed. No big deal, pretty tame job...a few rolls around some trees and around the cars. The only thing is, we don't really know anybody local that would tee-pee us. Our kids don't go to school here, we have a handful of friends on this side of the hill, none of which would do such a thing.

So a little closer examination and it all made sense. "Being gay is fun. No on Proposition 8" drawn on the driveway using the plentiful supply of persimmons in the front yard as "chalk". Luckily the vandals were pretty tame, I'm suspecting my 16 year old neighbor who seems to always seems to be in trouble and who apparently has a best friend who is gay is probably behind it.

Let's see...just because we put a sign in our yard...Wonder Woman's been verbally assaulted, the sign's been stolen, and we've been vandalized. I admire the tolerance of those who disagree with me. Our society is tolerant of only those who toe the line. Ironic isn't it?

My other neighbor was agonizing over her oldest son embracing the same agenda. She is a staunch Irish catholic and her oldest (first year of college) thinks she's stupid for being pro-life and pro-marriage. Twelve years of school adds up. Don't believe me? Wait 5 more years.

Capitol(al) G

That's a "G" for Greenhouse and an "A" for Arnie.

Coincidence?? I think NOT!!

As I woke up this morning, I was feeling a bit discouraged over the outcome of our presidential election yesterday. Never-the-less, the kids and I began school together, just as we do every morning. We started off with our Bible lesson which listed our Bible reading as Psam 46. As I began reading with the little superheroes, I was struck at how timely and "coincidentally" perfect that passage was for this "day after the election". I had nothing to do with choosing that passage or assigning it to today--it's in my pre-printed Bible curriculum and we just happen to be on this lesson! So, here is Psalm 46--it helped fix my eyes back on the Lord and encouraged my heart--I hope you will find encouragement in it as well. And, the kids and I had a really good discussion as we applied it to our situation today!

Psalm 46
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A song.

1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.

2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
Selah

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.

5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.

6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah

8 Come and see the works of the LORD,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.

9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields ^[b] with fire.

10 "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

11 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah

It all started by in 1995

He was only 34 years old. He felt silly watching a movie about superheroes...but the draw was strong. He felt as if his future depended on it. In the end, he knew he simply must have it...and he does...oh yes he does.

"The future of {obama} is brain waves. My invention beams any TV signal directly into the human brain. By stimulating neurons, manipulating brain waves if you will. This device makes them feel like they're inside the show. Why be brutalized by an uncaring world?"



Luckily, we canceled cable 2 months before the election and managed to escape the strength of it's grasp. I think it's safe now, or is it? Maybe the mind control has just begun? Yikes, looks like I'll have to wear a funny shielded hat while watching TV.

A little progress

Thanks to Dash for some big help today!

Prayer in schools?

Remember that? Was it really that long ago? Wasn't there this big controversy about how it's religious and shouldn't be allowed? Is the position that school is about reading, writing, and arithmetic? Do I want a watered down prayer to a higher power in my kids classroom anyhow? That battle was really lost long ago. OK, fine, agreed.

With that said, now realize that really wasn't the issue. It's really about not allowing thought that is contrary to the agenda. Am I just towing the conservative line? Maybe so folks, but the line makes sense. Get ready middle America, it's coming, I hope that middle America is strong enough to turn the tide. I know this school. I know people who go here. This is just a few miles from where I used to live. Education is strong; mold the minds of the youth and you turn society. Try to be a conservative teacher in California and have a voice; if you're willing to fit in fine, if you have an opinion, good luck. Go ahead, wear a "Yes on 8" sticker to class, let me know how that works out.

Here's the article. Oh I'm sorry, Prop 8, it's not about schools. You're right. Do you think a school gets permission when it talks to your kids about marriage? About a family? Redefine a family and you think your permission will be needed, as if it is now? ARGGGGHHHH. WAKE UP!!!!

Speaking of morphing...

Well, it's gone

In honor of Halloween, the "Yes on 8" sign made like a ghost and disappeared. Tolerance in our society continues to be a double standard. Darn motion light broke this week or I might have caught 'em red handed.

Morphing Wonder Woman

Why? Well just because, but I think I like her better the original way. I'm quite certain she might use her superpowers to inflict some pain on me for the result. It's called "Mucha". Morph your own images here.

Redefinition of the day

Peanut Butter:
(1) A paste made from ground roasted peanuts
(2) A paste made from taco sauce, flower, and honey

Interesting. I looked up the definition of the word marriage on Merriam-Webster online dictionary and got this:

(1): the state of being united to a person of the opposite as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law (2): the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage

Hmmm. What's interesting is that I have a dictionary from Webster on my bookshelf from 1989 that has NO such definition (of the same sex variety). Now, certainly words evolve; there are no doubt words in the new dictionary that didn't exist in the old one. And in fact, many words have evolving definitions.

But in prop 8 situation, the fundamental elements have changed. We've traded peanuts for other ingredients so to speak. The prop was originally worded as simply a statement of the definition of marriage: 1 man, 1 woman. The liberal legislators reworded it to sound much more like a take-away of rights. Thus the no on 8 folks can market it much more as an attack on rights. But who's really being attacked here? Who rewrote the definition? If we hold this as a religious institution, the redefinition of the word is really the attack; an attack on MY religious beliefs. But religious rights really aren't important anymore are they?

It's time for a new word. As not to offend anyone, I'll let someone else come up with the word, just please, in honor of tolerance, let's not change definitions.

Message in a bottle

Ah, but Cosmic Boy, as you see, I can write letters. Well not very well, but you get the point; my letters need some help in my letter. Click on the image to see it bigger.

Very belated movie review

Usually, I kind of know what I'm getting in to before I go into a movie. There's a few exceptions, as a teenager and young adult, I'd watch most anything and saw some pretty lousy movies. Somewhere along the line, WW and I started to get fairly picky. With few exceptions, we check out what we watch beforehand and try to make sure it's worth watching. I still got some favorites that probably wouldn't make top of stack if it weren't for the fact that they somehow earned classic status...Sixteen Candles, Long Duk Dong cracks me up, but having just watched the movie again recently, I realize you got to overlook a LOT of crap to accept the funny stuff...The Jerk, come on, now that movie cracks me up. Here's a classic monologue from Steve. But yeah, it's got it's crap in there too. This topic probably warrants it's own post someday.

But the movie we just saw was "Million Dollar Baby". I know...old news, best picture like 5 YEARS ago, where have I been??? But I couldn't get over the title, it just didn't hook me in the least. I had NO DESIRE to even look at what it was about.

So fast forward to last week. I was in the library and right now we got no TV. No cable. Won't have any until mid next month. So I was checking out some books, the movie was laying there, I grabbed it.

All I knew about the movie was: Clint Eastwood, boxing, and a quote from my m-in-law from years ago "that movie was really good but sad".

Watched the first third of the movie on Saturday. It hooked me pretty good, good acting, good story. I was actually looking forward to the rest of the movie. But the "sad" quote from my m-in-law was in my brain, so I was a figurin' that the chick would get killed by the title fight.

Well, the fighter actually ends up breaking her neck in some freak accident in the ring brought on by some dirty play by the opponent (do I have to have a spoiler warning for a movie this old?).

At this point, Hollywood takes a good movie and turns it into a bad one; play up the emotions and lead people down the emotional path of justifying euthenasia. Thought provoking...yes. Would I want to be in that situation...no. They discredit the priest early in the flick, bring him back in the end to clearly state morality, and of course promptly contradict his words. Even if I did agree with the outcome, they took forever to get there.

A better writeup than mine here.
Really interested in the topic? Read all this and educate me.

Who do you think has more money?

Apple computer or the California Teachers Association? Apple donated $100K to the "No on 8" campaign, whereas the CTA donated $1 million. The CTA is the BIGGEST contributor of all. Bigger than Apple. Bigger than Levi's. Uh, what's wrong with this picture??? I thought the schools were in a budget crisis? Last time I had a budget crisis, I focused on what was important. I paid the bills I needed to pay and cut out the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream.

So either there's no budget crisis...or the No on 8 is REALLY important to them. So why would it be really important? Com'on these are the questions one logically has to ask! There's a slippery slope that we're playing on here. The bottom line is that it IS important for the CTA to cram liberal ideology like this down our kids throats, directly or subtly. I know parents, I've heard it. "But they have to get my permission to talk about to my kid about sex". And "I love my kid's teachers." Fine. And I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you. But a lot is taught outside the formal curriculum.

Am I a radical? Do I think your kid can survive California public school. Absolutely. But one of the keys to power in any situation is influence. And for a small kid, the authority figures on the top of the influence pole are the parents and the teacher. It's pretty hard for a small child to decipher good and bad influence so you'd better be on top of it.

I'd say I don't really remember too much subtle mind molding until about the 6th grade. Maybe to that point the education was fairly pure or maybe I just don't remember, what 11 year old or lower boy would? Begin 6th grade though and the slant was steep at times depending on the teacher. Once I hit college, forget it. Just keep your mouth shut and get through the class.

So when do I "let 'em go" so to speak?" (the kids that is) You know I don't quite know yet. If I had all the answers I'd be writing books and getting paid rather than blogging (mostly for me :-) This much I do know, I'm certainly training my kids to stick up for themselves and their beliefs. Don't believe me...fine, ask Dash. And we constantly look for new ways to let more rope out.

Next year they want a new bond measure to tax me for more money in our district? Pack that, take your money that's supposed to be used for education and salaries and use it for just that.

So I leave you with a few quotes:

"Who dares take on religion, free enterprise, patriotism, and motherhood?
We do -- and we must!" ("Guidelines for Academic Freedom in the Public
Schools," CTA, 1984)" (25 years ago, long time planned)

"We are going to go right on trying to discredit you in the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly rather than discussable" the late Richard Rorty, professor at Wellesley, Princeton, Univ of VA, and Stanford

Hopefully I'm not the only one

Dang I'm a dufus. I hate it when I flake!!!!!!

Happy New Year

We've all done the New Year resolution thing. Oh, and by the way we've all failed on at least some of it. But you know the concept is a good one. Focus on something and change it. Stop it, start it...do it. So since you failed last year on Jan 1, why not start on October 23rd? How about a reasonable goal...100 days...a long time yes, but yet an attainable goal. And for those of you who like round numbers...100 days from today is 1/31/2009.

And if you don't want to join me, I'll be kind enough to share that we are 63 days from Christmas and 110 days from my birthday...so get shopping.

Guess I have to get another arm before I put up this sign

Been there, had that

Well, Luke and I must be doing SOMETHING, we keep on getting poison oak! I'm back to the theory that we should lock ourselves in our rooms and do nothing. Probably safer that way.

I leave you with a song. What does it have to do with anything? Absolutely nothing, but I'm sure it will inspire you for something. Here it is...

Conspiracy theory of the day

OK fine, you've heard the conspiracy. But how about watching something you won't see on the nightly news. Is it true? Don't know, but quite interesting.

Reflection on a sermon

Our pastor had a message yesterday on 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10. If my memory serves me correctly, at least three of the main points were that the Thessalonians were:

1. Active recipients of the gospel
2. Willing imitators of the apostles AND the Lord
3. Willing examples to other believers

Have you actively received the gospel? Is it something that you grab on to in life, or is it great head knowledge that gets you into a good club?

Who are you imitating? Who do you want to imitate? Who's on your pedestal? I laugh when I see affluent kids here in our town imitating thugs with baggy pants and sideways hats and lots of bling. An extreme and physically evident case yes, but one that gets the point across. We're all imitating someone. Who is it?

Are you willing to be an example for other believers? Do you want to be an example for other believers? It's certainly the easy and culturally acceptable path to say "mind your own business", keeping your focus on yourself and letting others be. It's certainly a lot easier that way. Being an example puts yourself on the defensive and on the offensive as well. There's certainly more critics than leaders in our culture; are you willing to be an example for others? It's not the easy path.

That's some meat to chew on throughout the week. Keep chewing...

Camping on Mt Diablo

We are truly blessed with great friends. Wonder Woman is truly blessed to have the 2nd w/e in a row by herself. More pics here. If you're not my friend on Facebook, you should be! Leave me a comment to add you or go find me yourself.