Millstone--the real part 4

OK. This is part 4 of a possible 66 part series. As you may have guessed, it's a man with a millstone tied around his neck being thrown into the deepest part of the sea. I would have posted a photo of it earlier, but it was up at Arts/West for a while. I only just got it back today.

Part 4

...or maybe it's part 5 of a 66 part series. At any rate, this is my great aunt Clara. She illustrates, to me, Titus 2. She's been a good example to me. Not a gossip, not overindulging. Teaching me to love people, to be kind, and faithful. Thank you Clara. Thank you God.

Part 3

Of a possible 66 part series. This is the prophet Jeremiah feeling like the word of the Lord is a fire inside his bones. When I showed it to guys at the Timothy House, two of them said, in unison, "That would make a great back tattoo!" I took it as a compliment. He is yelling on their behalf, after all.

Hygiene

So...I was brushing my teeth just now and accidentally smacked my hand really hard into my toothbrush while it was still in my mouth. The toothbrush, in turn, smashed my lip into my tooth. What I'm saying is, I just gave myself a bloody lip brushing my teeth.

Full contact hygiene.

Happy Anniversaries!

So I celebrated two great anniversaries last week. The first was my four year mark with Good Works. I like my job and I love the people that I work with. It's an opportunity and a privilege, and I feel that way even on crappy days, so I count myself the fortunate one in this scenario.

Then, over the weekend, Ben and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. Ben got us a cabin at Dillon State Park for the weekend and we slept in and went swimming and hiking. We cooked great food. It was awesome. First marriages have a way of tanking right out of the gate among the young people in my family, and staying together, working things out when we have conflicts, and generally being happy at the five year mark is something to be proud of. I'm proud of us.

Finally, my parents hit their 40th anniversary on Christmas Eve, but are just celebrating it now. They are currently on an Alaskan cruise. I'm so happy for them and I know they'll have a great time because they're so easy to please and there's so much to see.

This might sound weird, but I think the reason they've made it so long is that they had low expectations from life and marriage. I think, even though they've worked hard for it, that they've taken the good things in their lives as pleasant surprises.

For your viewing pleasure

This is #2 out of a series of 4 seasons. This is SPRING. I'm pleased with how it turned out. The pictures aren't great, but they'll work for now.

Nerd Love

Ben and I are about to celebrate our 5th anniversary. When we were falling in love six and a half years ago, we made several discoveries that sealed the deal, so to speak. They were mutual loves of the following things:

1. Red wine
2. Spicy food
3. Left-wing (dare I say socialist?) political leanings
4. The Impressionists--not Monet, but the rest--innovative geniuses
5. STAR TREK

All of the above were a shocking delight to uncover about another student at our uber-conservative, fundamentalist Bible College, but #5? That bumped him up to marriage material.

You know, there are a few levels of Trekie nerddom...Lovers of this particular fantasy world range from the totally obsessed Klingon language learners who own full convention style wordrobes and can't tell reality from their favorite episodes, to people who take in an ocasional movie and watch original episodes when they're a little baked out. But Ben and I discovered in one another an equal match of nerdiness.

We had a very memorable discussion one day to feel this out. Our answers to most of the big questions were the same:
Kirk or Picard? (Picard)
Original or TNG? (TNG)
Seen all the movies? (Yes)
Seen all the episodes? (Yes)
Own all the movies and episodes? (No, but I would like to one day buy them used)
Read any of the books? (Yes--nervous laughter as we know the answer to the next question is a deal breaker)
How many? (Three, but I never bought any or anything like that)

Wow. We were even. We had each dipped our toes in the world of TV based sci-fi fantasy novels and decided we didn't want to swim in that sea. Tied--just to the weird side of socially acceptable.

The first time we hung out alone together we drank Merlot and watched two episodes of The Next Generation. I would still maintain that that evening is the quintessential picture of our relationship.

And can I tell you that the best man's toast at our wedding was the toast at Troi and Riker's wedding? He memorized the whole thing--it was our favorite wedding present.

All this to say, I had the best time seeing the new Star Trek movie with my husband tonight...

but I don't speak Klingon.