Anyone that has read my blog or interacted with me much at all will know that it is almost physically impossible for me to pass up a pun. (Hey, if I don't say it, odds are good I was thinking it.) Thus today's title shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. Now please leave your sharp comments elsewhere, they will be moderated.

For Christmas, or my birthday, this year Lisa gave me 6 credits to a private cooking school in Seattle called, "Bon Vivant". I was a little leery of taking a class at a place I had never been before, so I invited Lisa to come to a class with me. We ended up going to a "Knife Skills" class. (As we seem to spent a lot of our time in the kitchen cutting things.) The class was from 10am to 2:30 on Saturday and we both really enjoyed it.

It was held in someone's house who had a very large and well designed kitchen for things like teaching a class. We listened to a knife lecture for a bit and then then had us get stuff out and actually try cutting things. The nice thing about this was there were only 8 people in the class and so the teacher could afford to come around and personally help everyone improve their knife skills. After we had cut up a bunch of stuff we paired off and started to cook with the stuff we had cut up. Lisa and I made a chicken recipe and I am not 100% certain of this, but I think we made the best dish. Granted we were following the recipe that were given, but I think perhaps us not being afraid to tackle the "meat" dish paid off.

The instructor and the aids, as well as the other students were all really nice people. If any of you, gentle readers, have any interest in learning to cook better I would suggest trying out Bon Vivant. They are great people and you get to eat afterwords. You learn something AND you get food. Didn't get THAT in college. (Unless you went to a cooking school)

This week is Lisa's Birthday (September 10th!) and we plan to party! Dinner out with the folks and the sibs who can make it. This week should be fairly calm otherwise. This weekend we are heading out to Colorado to take a look at Colorado Springs and see what we think of the city and of the job.

Thank you for your continued support in that area and we would appreciate your continued prayers as we see if that is what God wants us to be doing.

~B.

Labels: food, prayer request, travel

But when they aren't on the computer I need someone else to do them. (Smart-alec response: Well, why don't you put in Linux instead, it's free...)

I spent the day at home working remotely so I could be here for the Window installers. Pretty crazy how effective they are at their jobs. It would have taken me a very, very long time (3 or 4 times as long maybe longer) if I was following directions to do the same thing. They tore out and put in the new sliding glass door first and woah, that sucker was crazy heavy. They joked about having me help, but when I said I'd help if they paid me they stopped joking. (Which is probably ok because frankly just looking at that glass made me tired.)

Anyway, we have new vinyl windows with a "low-e" coating on them. (Less UV for me and you!) Kind of funny timing with the potential for moving, but sometimes that is the way it all goes. The windows look nice anyways, and we'll enjoy them while we have them and hopefully the next person to get this place will appreciate them as much as we do. ($$$ if you get my meaning...)

I have a bed to move back against the wall now. (We leave for our trip to CO in 8 days!) We appreciate any prayers on the subject. (And honestly we are both open to dialoging about it if you want to talk about it with us.)

~B.

One of the reasons I picked up a new hat in Seaside was that I was looking for something with a little more "definition" than what I had before. (and wasn't as hot (wool + beating sun = too hot)) The other night Lisa and I were at Safeway and we were both wearing our Fedora type hats and peacoats (Lisa in brown and myself in black) and the guy behind the deli counter was like, "Are you guys in a band?"

No... but that could be fun.

Either that or maybe we should start carrying around guitars when wearing our hats and seeing how much hype we can generate for our "Band" without ever having to record a single note.

We could make a website and then post some quotes about how ground breaking our music is and post some very professional looking shots. Take email addresses for information about when our new CD will be out, etc. I wonder at what point you'd have to pony up and produce something. In thinking about it I just wondered pretty much the whole "Internet Startup" bubble in the Late 90's. How long can you go on hype alone?

Not to build any more hype than is needed around here... so keep praying about Colorado, and we'll let you know when we know what's going on!

~B.

Yeah, Sorry about that. It was partially intentional and partially something that just kind of happened. I wanted that last post to stay "on top" for longer so that it wasn't missed by any of you "random" drop-ins.

No real further developments on the job front other than learning a bit about their medical insurance. Sounds just as good and/or better than I have now. (A good sign) Lisa and I have booked tickets to go to Colorado Springs on the 13th of September to check everything out. Other than that I would ask that you continue to pray for us as we make this choice and figure out if "The Spring" is where God wants us to spend a part of our lives. It's could all happen pretty quick if we decided to go that route, so while we can do some prep now, it'll really have to wait until we make the choice after the weekend in Colorado.

Thanks for your continued support. I'll let you know how everything is proceeding.

We spent a lovely weekend on Whidbey Island with some friends who were camping. It was kind of funny, the people without kids (us and another couple staying with us) were staying at Lisa's parent's place and all the people with kids were staying at a camp-ground. We cooked a whole meal over the fire (veggies, steak, chicken, dessert) and they called US adventurous! (We got to sleep on beds that night... without children waking us up every few hours. Not what I would consider adventurous.) However cooking over the fire was pretty interesting. I could see trying that again.

~B.

Labels: food, travel

We don't have a cat to take out of a bag, so our bird will have to do... and frankly he's not too hip on bags, so we'll simply take him out of his cage. (No that's not a picture of Niko, he'd never sit on something so froofy.) So what bird/bag cat/cage am I talking about?

For the past few weeks I have alluded to something at the tail end of a couple of my posts. Well, I finally feel like I can speak to that "thing" and give you all some details. I am in the process of working with a missions organization (OCi) to possibly fill their soon to be vacant "Director of Internet Services" position. Lisa and I are still praying and thinking it over, but the job would require a move. A move to Colorado Springs, Colorado.

As you have prayed for Lisa and I in the past we would ask that you pray with us now as we look to God to direct us as to whether we should go or not. For those of you wondering about my medical condition I feel like my oncologist had some really good advice that applies in this case, "Don't let your medical situation stop you from doing what you feel like you need to do." In my case it might be modified to "don't let your medical condition stop you from doing what God wants you to do."

As for time frame we'd probably be looking at sometime in October. They have said they'd like me October 1st, but I don't know if that is possible with everything that comes from moving to a new state.

Anyway, feel free to ask questions and such, we're open about talking about it. And please remember to pray for us.

~B.

Labels: prayer request, travel