Rue Plumet

Yes, I mowed the lawn today, over half way through December. We have a lawn service that fertilizes the lawn and puts down weed killer and stuff like that. In the summer I really appreciate their work because we have a nice green lawn with very few weeds. But in December when my lawn is still growing and I’m out there mowing a month and a half after all of my neighbors have stopped, I start wondering if maybe a couple of brown spots and a few weeds would really be such a bad thing after all. But the yard looks nice now, and if I’m lucky, we’ll get some nice cold weather around here and I won’t have to mow again until the spring.

Click “more” to see a list of all of the interesting web sites I found this week. I keep track of my favorite sites using del.icio.us, a free web site where you can access your favorite links from any computer and share them with friends. You can also see all of my favorite links (not just the ones from this week).

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Yes, I know the saying is supposed to be “Christmas in July”, but that’s not what we have going on here. We’ve had weather in the high 60’s and even the lower 70’s lately for the past week or so, and we’re supposed to stay in the upper 50’s and 60’s for most of the next week. I’m really ready for some nice winter weather!

“The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.”

(Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

As of today I have officially completed my first 90 days at my new job. That means two big things:

1) They liked me enough to keep me after the standard 90-day probationary period for initial hires (Yay!)
2) I can start taking vacation now. You earn it from your first day, but you can’t take it until you’ve worked 90 days. (Just in time for Christmas!)

I still really like my job, and I think the switch has been a very good thing, especially because I get to spend so much more time at home with Joy and Charis. I’m thankful for the opportunity that God provided in his timing, and for his continued provision for me and my family. What a blessing!

Click “more” to see a list of all of the interesting web sites I found this week. I keep track of my favorite sites using del.icio.us, a free web site where you can access your favorite links from any computer and share them with friends. You can also see all of my favorite links (not just the ones from this week).

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We had our Sunday school class Christmas party last night. We had about 25 or so people for dinner, dessert, and a white elephant gift swap. Joy and I had a great time visiting with everyone and enjoying all of the great food. After the gift swap about half of the people left and the rest of us played Catchphrase for about two or two and a half hours. I have no idea why, but our class always seems to play Catchphrase whenever we have parties. My team was definitely the losing team. We managed to win only one round out of the fifteen to twenty we played. Pitiful, yes, but we still had a blast. Everyone was in a good mood and we had a great time laughing at the crazy words that came up and our attempts to get our teams to guess them. After we had had enough of Catchphrase, almost everyone else left and then a few of us stuck around for a game of Settlers of Catan. We played with the regular box and Cities and Knights (no Seafarers) and we used the event cards instead of the dice. Lindsey won, as she frequently does, but I don’t think any of the rest of us were left too far out of the game. We finally finished the game just after 2 AM, and that really makes me wonder: why in the world do we not start games of Catan earlier in the evening so they end at a sensible time?!? It’s madness, I tell you (but it sure is fun!).

“Dear friend, He is not slow in keeping His promises
As some understand slowness to be
Keep a watch out, don’t lose faith, He said He would come for you
He’s gonna come for you, just wait and see”

(from the song “Dear Friend” by Charlie Peacock)

Click “more” to see a list of all of the interesting web sites I found this week. I keep track of my favorite sites using del.icio.us, a free web site where you can access your favorite links from any computer and share them with friends. You can also see all of my favorite links (not just the ones from this week).

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I stacked the rock in the aquarium “for real” last Friday. I had acrylic rod on hand in case I needed to drill some holes and use the rod to stabilize the rocks. However, since the Marshall rock has a branching structure (as opposed to the more rounded shapes from Fiji), I was able to get a good stable stack even without the acrylic rod. I can put my hand on any of the pieces on top of the stack and apply pressure in any direction and the rock just stays where it is. I was really happy with how stable everything turned out. I was able to stack everything and keep the rocks from leaning against the glass. That’s a little harder to do because the glass can add stability to the stack, but keeping the rock off the glass allows for better water flow around the rock. I have two peaks on the left and right sides of the tank, with a lower stack of rock in the center. One of the rock pieces had a nice built-in cave area, so I positioned that towards the left side of the tank facing the front. Overall I’m very pleased with the rock and the arrangement I was able to come up with. It may not be the best stack ever constructed, but there’s not a lot of room to work with in a 58 gallon tank, and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.