Favorite Moment from the Holidays

Mine was watching Dad come full circle. On the night of the 25th there was no way he was going to play golf with the remaining male faction of the Roberts clan.

Watching the balls fly on the driving range on the morning of the 26th, he was feeling pretty good about his decision.

At around hole three later on in the morning, he was back-pedaling a bit.

By hole six he confirmed that had he known then what he now knew, he would be digging holes in the tee-box along with the rest of us.

By the time I was packing the van up to go home, he was poking around in the basement to see whether or not he had given his lefty clubs to the Goodwill.

My how things can change in a matter of a few days.

Pops, you'll have to post some pictures of the great event here on the blog...if you can figure out how to get negatives scanned into a computer...Maybe there's an "app" for that?

savings bonds

www.treasurydirect.com

This will show you the current value of your bonds, the interest rate, the accrual date and the final maturity. 4% seems pretty low but two of Leslie's appear to be locked in at that. 4% is really high right now for just about any investment. I would recommend hanging on to them until final maturity. Merry Christmas from your personal banker.

Baby-X wishes everyone a Merry Christmas!

We got to hear the heartbeat on Friday! Everything seems to be doing fine with the baby...except that to get this audio file onto this blog, I had to convert it from the M4A audio file I took with the iPhone, convert it to MP3, and then use Windows Movie Maker to make a "movie" file in order to post it on the blog. Silly, but the end result is cool nonetheless. The voice you hear is that of our doctor, Dr. Muasher. She's pretty freaking cool I must say.


Merry Christmas! Love,
Brooke, Heather, Geena and Baby-X

GENIU$ BAR

So, the other day Heather and I went to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store. Without getting too far into the details, we’ll just say that Heather’s iPhone wasn’t working properly (which had nothing to do with Geena putting it in her mouth). So, the guy turns the phone on, sees the error message come up, and then shines his magnifying light thingy into the contacts. He then says that will be $199. Apparently the iPhone has a white strip that turns pink upon water damage (Genius!), so that they cannot be swindled out of replacing “malfunctioning phones” when some donkey drops his into a cup of Dr. Pepper while driving on the PA turnpike while talking to his mom on the phone (I don’t know anyone who’s ever done that…). Anyway, so I ask the guy for his magnifying light thingy so that I can see the metal contacts. They seem to mostly be intact except for a little surface corrosion. Geena obviously has the superpower of corroding tiny copper contacts. [If we could only market this amazing skill!?] Anyway, I ask the guy if they sell a cleaning kit, and he says “No” (Genius!- why sell a cleaning kit when they can just sell you a new phone?). He then says, well, if you can clean it with a little rubbing alcohol, but don’t use too much, then great. Otherwise, we can just get you a new phone (Genius! - they said that, but I think they meant I could pay them to get me a new phone.). Bottom line: I said ‘NO’, I’m not ready to drop $199 on a new phone. I then bought my own magnifying glass for $10.50 at Restoration Hardware, took the phone home, got an old toothbrush, and then went to town on brushing the contacts. I didn’t even use the rubbing alcohol. And Viola! Genuis! The phone worked like new!

And about this magnifying light thingy, it is basically the same thing doctors use to look into your ears. So, no doubt, these Apple Genius Bar peoples are in the back checking out each other’s ears and comparing brain sizes while charging people lots of money for unbroken phones- while at the same time appearing to be very smart, gracious and helping you out tremendously with excellent customer service. Geniu$ indeed. No wonder Apple’s making such a killing.

So, lesson of the day, beware of self-given titles, as they may be true, but they may not accurately reflect who they are truly meant for.

We're Ready

This might be bragging a bit, but we're ready. We're normally fashionably late for most everything, holidays included, but not this time.

Argh!

I'm sure the gentleman was a perfectly nice person, but he had no business using tools. I'm referring to the man, "Old Man Pete" as he was known in the neighborhood, who owned our present home prior to the couple we purchased it from. Pete did a lot of work in and around the house. But he had a particular knack for doing things backward, taking lots of short-cuts, and making step two fit whatever happened as a result of step one. The jig-saw nature of our shop / barn is a good living example of his handiwork.

My frustration at his waywardness came to a head over the weekend as I continued to chip away at the paneling in the room that used to be an attached garage. There was some very curiously placed plywood around the trim to the door leading from there into our kitchen. Not wanting to make my step five have to fit Pete's step four, I had to take the door trim off to remove the plywood. Once off, it became apparent that the trim was the only thing keeping the door in place.

In case you don't know, which you might not -- but if you're installing a door you should -- a combination of the door-frame and the wall hold the trim in place, not the other way-around. In taking the door completely down to remedy this situation, I get a brief shower from a stash of white beans that some mouse thought would make a good Thanksgiving dinner some day. And once down it becomes apparent (by looking at the manufacturer's sticker that is still on the concealed portion of the door-frame) that not only did Pete not really hang the door, he also managed to set an out-swinging door in an in-swinging position.

All is better now. The only thing left to do is to lobby congress to mandate a hand-tool competency test.

Rain, rain, rain!

Rain, rain, rain! I hope you all made it through Ida safely. If I can figure out how to do it I am going to post a picture of a football field turned lake off of Old Rocky Ridge. Water truly is an amazing force!
-Les

Press Conference

[A Presidential press conference from earlier today. Not widely televised.]

[click, click, click]

As most of you may already know…there was a gunperson attack at a military institution late last week. The suspect [click, click, click] is thought to be a gentleperson of male persuasion and orientation. [click, click, click] Now the good news in all of this [click, click, click] is that this Mr. Hasan was a muslin. I think we can all take great courage in knowing that our affirmative action reverse discriminatory polices have ensured that persons like Mr. Hasan are and will be indefinitely retained in publicly funded positions, despite very creditable evidence that would call for contrary procedures. This is a public good that should be celebrated. [click, click, click] [click, click, click] [click, click, click]

But despite the positive GDP numbers we have seen for our most recent economic quarter [click, click, click] it is being publicly discussed in the media that this Mr. Hasan is not cooperating with either civilian or military investigators. In an effort to shore up the interrogation sector, I have called on Fed Chairman Bernanke to begin administering an injection of water-boarding stimulus immediately. [click, click, click]

Now…some of you…may [click, click, click] be inclined to think that this action, and others like it, will somehow darken the US’s perception in the global economy. Therefore I have given Treasury Secretary Geithner additional regulatory powers to have Mr. Hasan retroactively aborted once the stimulus has had a chance to work its way through the system. So as to forestall any hang-ups in the House of Representatives, we have assured by various means that this will be performed without the use of any federal dollars. Such prompt action, and performed in this particular manner of implementation will provide value added services to our economy…creating approximately one real man-hour of work to be divided equally by thirteen immigrants who will be pronounced “legal” later on in my administration. [click, click, click]

Also…[click, click, click]…I am advising the American public…[click, click, click]…that next week…Due to the stress and nature of being President of this great nation…[click, click, click]…My family and I will be taking a brief three-week vacation in an unnamed amusement facility just slightly southwest of Orlando. In my absence, I would like to defer any Presidential responsibilities to my Vice-President, Joseph Putin. Thank you. [click, click, click] [click, click, click] [click, click, click]

About one year ago. Not much has changed.

Brooke's post from last November: http://threeplus3.blogspot.com/2008/11/democrats-and-halloweeen.html.

Happy Halloween!

Now I know the rest of you out there are parents (minus JCB) but over the next 3 days I will be meeting with 17 sets of parents to discuss their wonderful (some, not all) children. For some reason this years class seems a little different than others, so wish me luck!

Hey! I am trying to post to the blog directly from my phone...we will see if it works!

Clearly He's Upset

I think we all here shared in the same breakfast -- a big bowl of you-gotta-be-kidding-me. My pastor has fired off two good ones today, and he normally only posts every few days. Clearly he's upset with a small collection of Norwegians.

http://ppgi.blogspot.com/2009/10/weve-all-won-nobel-booby-prize.html

http://ppgi.blogspot.com/2009/10/nobel-finalists.html

Fall is upon us

What a blessing. Let's hope it sees its shadow and hangs out for awhile.

Thank You, AFL-CIO

No, I haven't gone pro-union on the old conservative Roberts family, but I did have a great Labor Day, and I feel like I can at least thank them for an excuse not to work. (That's what unions typically do in my industry...think of excuses not to work).

We started the day with a trip on the Garrison Creek trail right off of the Natchez Trace, and only a 10-minute drive from our house. A quarter of a mile later we were up at the overlook, and took a break to enjoy some pecans, raisins, and a few moments to sketch a bit of God's creation. We then hiked the remaining mile and a half of the loop back to the car, and then headed to Puckett's Grocer for some lunch. Those from Birmingham will know that its hard to find good barbecue outside the shadow of Vulcan, but Puckett's is pretty good. Top it off with a little Blue-Bell ice cream and you're good to go.

Now that's what I call a day.

"There all there" and "A visitor in the barn"

There All There

We had our ultrasound for the new wee little one last night. All the finger and toes were there, the heart has four chambers, the hearts beating good, etc., etc. So, praise the Lord for that. There are two people on the planet who know whether we have a boy or a girl, but unfortunately, Andrea and myself are neither of those two people. Don't you just love surprises?

A Visitor in the Barn

Upon arriving back home from the ultrasound, It was my chore to feed the goats for the evening. We've known for a few weeks now that we have had visitors to the barn at nights. Sometimes the garbage is strewn around. Oscar's bowl is usually on the floor. And someone stole our goat hobble (that's a nice invention made with velcro that keeps dirty goat hoofs out of fresh goat milk. Now we have to rely on sweet-talking).

Last night I caught our culprit red-handed. I was expecting a raccoon, because I knew they stole things, but it was actually a docile little possum. So docile in-fact that I completed all of my chores -- grain, hay, cat food, and water -- without him or her barely moving. Oscar didn't notice at first and was a bit shocked to see another creature on his table, but not so shocked as to interrupt a good meal.

If I could speak possum, I'd ask him to bring me my hobble back.

God's Provision is a Funny Business

That's a nice way of saying that Tecot is now in the refridgerator. Many thanks to my neighbor, Mr. Duke, for the helping hand. For one raised on momma's milk, Tecot was a fat little booger. We're having our first "feast" on Saturday. I'll let you know how it goes.

Fitting

Nahum spoke her first word yesterday that Andrea and I could decipher: "flower."

Fitting for the little girlie-girl that she is.

We're still working on "Zinnia angustifolia," but flower will be good for now.

Some Digital Photos

Nahum, the birthday girl, on her birthday.

Quick hiking trip off the Natchez Trace

Kids throwing rocks. Endless facination with kids + rocks + water.

Elias, cautiously testing the waters.

Timnah, knee deep at the work "go."

Me and the wee one. Chillin'. Taking pictures.

Well Thanks

This past Saturday, Andrea and I made the rare move of taking the family out to eat. We opted for some-what upscale restaurant called Saffire Grill. The food was really, really good. As we were waiting for our dinner to be served, Andrea took Timnah and Elias over by the front entry where they could get a good look at the little jazz trio providing a little ambiance. Elias loved it. So much so he started dancing (not terribly unlike his father's dancing). A middle-aged couple at the end of the bar obviously thought it was a hoot. So much so that they paid for our dinner! We didn't get a chance to thank them before they ran out, so I'll say it here: Thanks!

Reading the Shampoo Bubbles

If the type of shampoo you use says anything about one's personality or mood, then Andrea is apparently tired of being a horse and ready to be a refreshing tangerine.

I quizzed her on this to see if there was any deep-seated emotions that we needed to talk about. Apparently, though, the only issue was that Publix was out of "Mane and Tail."

A Few More Firsts

On Friday, Timnah, Elias, and Nahum all got to experience their first '80s cover band. Timeless classics like "Funky Cold Medina" and "Smooth Criminal". The treat was complete with band member costume themes of Slash, Top Gun, Karate Kid, Mr. T, and Pee Wee Herman.

On Saturday, Timnah's Sunday School class had a slip and slide party. We were expecting visqueen and baby-shampoo. We had no idea there would be this:

Timnah and Elias both loved it.

Unfortunately, we don't have pictures from either event. We'll do better next time.

You heard it here first

Andrea just called a moment ago, and Nahum has taken not her first step, but her first two consecutive steps. I've not consulted a dictionary, but I think you need at least two to be officially considered walking.

Friday's Excitement

Last Friday, I was trying to close out a work week that was both busy and short (bad combo). Andrea had the luxury of staying at home with two people kids, two goat kids, a sick infant, a nursing doe, and another doe ready to kid at any moment. About nine in the morning, I got my first panicked call. Kelly, the doe ready to kid, was laboring, and things weren't going well. 

Kelly's kid was backwards, not uncommon, but only one leg was showing, and the other was caught. That's a problem. My advice was to call the vet and then let me know how it when it was over. She did call the vet, and also solicited the help from a neighbor. She called Mr. Duke, the local beekeeper / ag-expert / jack-of-all trades (he drives a tractor, surely he knows what to do!). He was about to go out of town, so it was nice of him to come and provide some moral support. According to him, when his family used to raise cattle, they just let them "do their thing." So when he saw the one leg, he figured all was well with world, and couldn't figure out why Andrea was in such a fuss.

To make a short story short, Andrea got her instructions from the vet over the phone (He was in surgery and couldn't come. Probably just as well, as time was a huge factor here). She washed her hands, donned a rubber glove, freed the leg, and saved the day for Kelly and the goat kid. Something that 95 to 1 would have been my task had I been home. Andrea doesn't have the nerves for such things when she has a choice not to. Thankfully, though, she is quite capably when need arises.

The kid is a beautiful little doeling, weighing in a 8 ½ pounds, and looks almost exactly like her mother. Despite her traumatic entry to the world, she has the good fortune of bearing the name Chod - administered by Elias.

Here are some pictures to make all of the above words worthwhile:

 

Chod

Hadawn

Tecot

Oscar with Hadawn

Timnah with Tecot (or Hadawn. Hard to tell.)

Strawberries from out patch (slightly embellished with a passion-flower)

Elias with his friend the worm

Kids

Well after a fairly restless, yet uneventful night (and a few trips to the barn at hours that I care not admit to in a public forum) we have been granted the gift of two new goat kids, compliments of Kate. The firstborn was a buck, Tecot* (tea-cott), and the second of the two was a doe, Hadawn (hay-dawn). The names come courtesy of Timnah. I'll have more info to follow on the morrow.

* - This is a correction. My post originally had Pecot.

Fodder for Foxworthy

After vacation, Andrea and I came home to an interesting voicemail message. It was our neighbor. He wanted to know if we had lost a chicken. We had not, in fact, lost any chickens...we did not have any to lose. So Andrea called our neighbor to inform them of such. But before just leaving it at that, Andrea had to inquire as to whether this particular chicken had laid any eggs...you know...just in case.

Also, over the weekend, Andrea and I broke (or upheld, depending upon perspective) our long-standing rule about leaving the house on Saturday. When we leave the house on Saturdays, we normally come home with less money than we left with. Andrea picked up a stand-mixer, as a replacement for our bread machine that had gone bad. I was much impressed at how Bed Bath and Beyond dealt with the return of a machine that was defective, but had also seen a good deal of use. But before we could leave it at that, we also had to run by The Home Depot and get a "wheeled trimmer."

A wheeled trimmer is basically a 22" wide weed-wacker with wheels. Its what rednecks use to find their missing automobiles. It did an excellent job of taming the waist-high flora that was populating the ditch in front of our house.

The only thing missing was a round of target practice at some old beer cans.

Time Off for the Spring Tour of Offspring

Well we're back from an all too brief vacation. Andrea and I have called this the Tour of Babies, because babies seemed to be nearly central to every stop we made. The first stop was Greenville to visit with the Stoddard's, and meet their sixth daughter Joanna. Stop number two was Florence, where we visited primarily with the Terrell's, Garris's, and Frost's, and meeting Lillie, Ethan, and David along the way. The last stop was a quick run through Birmingham to catch a glimpse of our adopted nephew, Coulton.

All that having been accomplished, I don't think the Tour will quite be complete until we get to visit Geena sometime over memorial day weekend.

Doubting Thomases

Well the stereotypical bible-belt church goer is known to darken the doors of churches around the holidays of Christmas and Easter and only when they feel like it in between. Well for '09 our family lost eligibility for the perfect attendance award because we didn't make it to church for Easter. With four out of five being sick at some point in the day, the congregation is probably thankful. We'll have to delay our public celebration of the Lord's resurrection for a couple of days like a bunch of doubting Thomases.

Chicken Leg

After Brent posted those awesome pics of thier kiddos on palm Sunday, I feel kind of bad for posting this; but the pics are funny enough, so here goes:


Geena - learning from her mommy!



Geena - learning to be a carnivore at a young age.

Palm Sunday

Its calling for snow today and tomorrow, but it was a beautiful Palm Sunday. Pictures were in order.

Look alike?

You know the famous question: "Who does your child look like the most?"

Well, at least for now, the winner seems to be me. What do you all think?



[I personally think Geena makes me look better:) ]

An Orange Room

Just like home...

I was home with Geena today and saw my neighbor next door...parked in his front yard unloading his groceries. Now, although we do live in the burbs, there's nothing like a car parked in the front yard to remind you of good ole Alabama!



Fortunately, he parked it back in the driveway once he was done.

I feel better now, don't you

Geitner wants to regulate the world. Why should he bother stopping at financial institutions? I think if we just give government a little more power and a little more money, they'll get it right next time. Until they blow it again, and then ask for more money and power.

It doesn't work that way in the buisiness world. "Hey boss, I really screwed things up. Like big time." "Well Mr. Roberts, Its apparent to me that you need a raise and a little more responsibility. Perhaps some dynomite to boot!"

Hi there Granna!

...and you too Pops!

Geena's Mission: Get your thumb into your mouth!

It's a little long, but pretty funny.

Geena helping Mommy and Daddy tape & paint

Good cookin'

Well, I'm not sure I even come close to that, but I did enjoy my first time cooking in our renovated kitchen this afternoon/evening! I still need to take some good photos of the kitchen, which will come someday. Right now the kitchen has blue painter's tape on it and is still in need of a good backsplash, which will not be installed for awhile. Our goal is to have it completely done by the time mom/dad come visit for Mother's Day. So anyway, on to the meal. I made oven-fried chicken with oven-roasted vegetables, and capped it off with a banana pudding dessert. It turned out to be delicious, if I must say so myself (and I must, because Heather doesn't really post anything on here). So, although I don't use au natural goat milk or pluck the vegetables right from my deck porch like some people (you know who you are), I do still have within me some culinary skillz- but we'll use that term loosely:) Love to you all!

A Professorial Assessment

A historian's account of our present situation (http://mises.org/story/3354). The gentleman author, Paul A. Cleveland, happens to be a professor from Birmingham-Southern.

Kidisms

Andrea relayed this one to me this morning in a voicemail:

Timnah: Elias! You need to share.

Elias: I don't want to share.

Timnah: God said you should share. And God said, "Let there be light." And, Elias, he said you should share.

Woe Kitchen-

Below are a few pictures of what we've been up to. The first shot is a look at a half finished kitchen. The base cabinets are all installed and the countertops have been measured and will be put in this Friday. This week my contractor should have the remaining top cabinets installed. We have run into a few problems, and I've documented those for you as well. Enjoy!


Half & Half


The Infamous Slant Route: The ceilings are...surprise!...not level across. There is more of a slow decline from one side to the other, resulting in a large gap between the cabinets, ceiling and molding. We have decided to put on a kind of "extension" to the cabinet with some filler materials- that way, it will be mostly covered by the molding but should not show any gaping holes/gaps. A good, but complex fix. You can see a small piece above the cabinet here. Note: in this example, the molding will cover the whole thing, so we didn't have to use filler material. The problem is in the top cabinets over the dishwasher.


Hit me in the box! This wonderfully placed electrical box is, surprise!...in the way. So, we're going to have to move it down...more problems...I smell them.



A Kinder Cinder? No. To remove said electrical box down, we (I mean, the contractor) have to use a hammer-drill to chip it out and then place a second box underneath it and pigtail from the one above it. This little side project should all hopefully be done by tomorrow. We'll see. Have a great day- we're hoping and praying for a snow day! We're looking at anywhere from 5 to 9 inches. Yay! Thanks for the pics Mom/Dad and Les!

Obama's es"State of the Union"

Any thoughts on his speech Tuesday night?

I at least agree with one or two things that he said: now is the time to tackle all of these big challenges. I mean, everything's in the crapper, so why not do all the crazy stuff now, right?

Although he didn't say it, there continue to be rumors of banks being nationalized, which just gives me the heebie-jeebies...and of all the Presidents to tackle social security reform (or its complete phase out!), Obama and his socialist tendencies is the last person I would have wanted to do that.

Sad though, that I do kinda agree with him that we "wasted" our many years of surplus. However, I believe it is turning out that the supposed surplus wasn't so much a surplus as much as it was a wave of strong GDP based on underlying and accumulating household debt.

Separately, if Obama does open up his energy policy to include more nuclear plant developments, I might be finding myself a job at the NRC. We'll just have to see:)

Happy Birthday Andrea

To celebrate Andrea's birthday, I bought a half-dozen "gourmet" cup-cakes. The only thing missing was a good round of putt-putt.

Giggles: Must love dogs!

We got our first giggles and squeals from Geena this weekend, and they all started when the dog began barking. So cute!

Long awaited pics of the "G" (hint: not gatorade)

Geena growing up! Going to her first baby shower with mommy!


Smiley little Geena happy about the Steelers winning the SuperBowl!
(more likely she's smiling at her awesome mommy)


Geena psyched about the Steelers in the SuperBowl!
(and Daddy knocked his head on the towel rack in the bathroom:)


Geena going snow skiing


Geena enjoying a 'different' view of the Christmas lights

Way to go Mom and Dad

Pre-race

Just before the finish line! They faked it to look like they were running.

Post-race in front of Boutwell Auditorium

Mom and Dad successfully completed the BE&K 5K which is a part of the Mercedes Marathon Weekend. They did a great job, especially for Dad. It's his first race ever! Let's all put on our Christmas list to buy him some running/walking pants. The hunters orange hat made it easy to spot him though. Way to go Mom and Dad!