28.11.09
Book Review Brings The Bacon
Now that we're moving to Kenya, our periodic blog book reviews for Multnomah publishing will likely come to an end, so we're now free agents, and boy are we in demand!
24.11.09
Miniature Disasters
Sometimes people ask us if Maggie ever cries. Of course, the answer is yes. She just has her "public face" and her "private face," and tends to be happier in social situations. When nap time is approaching (or has already come and gone), the crying tends to emerge. I'd like to share one such example that happened yesterday, and centers around the discount stroller we purchased at WalMart during our first few days here (only $12!).
19.11.09
Albuquerque
This last weekend, we had plans to drive up to Moab, UT and meet up with one of Rachel's good friends from med school who lives in Salt Lake. We were looking forward to the visit and the national parks. Of course, plans changed when Rachel and Maggie flew out to Michigan for the funeral. We came back on a Saturday afternoon, though, and Eric already had the weekend off, so we decided to improvise a mini-vacation in Albuquerque. Eric got us a smokin' deal on a really nice hotel called Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town off of priceline. I love that website. Old Town is a fun area built around the 1700s and 1800s. We spent Sunday morning touring around the area, attending a 300 year old mission church named San Felipe, and trying to stay warm in the 45 degree (and windy) weather.
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_f6pirciO4DY/SwVygCbYW5I/AAAAAAAAB60/0dTcMTht-To/s320/church.jpg)
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18.11.09
Return of the Ethnic Bread!
We were down in Phoenix a couple weeks ago, and had a wonderful time hanging with the fam. While there, we decided to re-engage the baking experiments of yore, with a southwestern standard, that it, some kind of fried dough, in this case sopapilla.
15.11.09
Missing A2: #1
Some of the most faithful devotees can likely recall our list of Top 10 things We Will (Do) Miss About Ann Arbor. You also may remember the singular fact that we never never finished the last post. You may think that this is because we wanted to build suspense for a stupendous ending. You may. But you would be very wrong.
So, on to the anticlimactic groceries. First there was Kroger and Meijer. And of course, Ann Arbor has many high-end stores like Whole Foods and Plum Market, but we're not qualified to speak on those. But we did discover Trader Joe's, the happiest food store ever. And a slew of international groceries, including Dos Hermanos, Bombay Grocers, Hua Xing Asia Market, and Aladdin's Middle Eastern Market/Sunshine Fruit Market. Each of these made our food discoveries an experience in and of themselves, and we miss them, especially in Gallup. And though, we never had the guts to purchase a durian from Hua Xing, it was still nice to know we had the option.
12.11.09
Helm's Deep
For the sake of nostalgia, I'll repost this picture, which Justin Steidinger shared with me a few weeks ago. This is circa 1998, around the time when I graduated from high school, playing with my old band "Helm's Deep", which was back in the pre-LOTR movie days, when no one knew that reference. So it was cool, right?
Isaac and Arwen Meek (now Jones), Matt Sigmon, Justin Steidinger, and I played together for a couple years, at various random local venues, mostly for very small audiences, but we had a great time doing it, and I look back fondly on it all.
We knew we would make it famous as a rock band, and that we would be together forever, and we were right.
Thanks, Justin, for the picture.
9.11.09
Tribute to Grandpa
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7.11.09
Serendipitous Meetings
In our sundry wandering these past months, we have had a number of wonderful and sometimes amazingly spontaneous meetings, and two days ago, when we arrived in Phoenix for a brief break from work and Gallup, we had another.
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6.11.09
Secret Weakness for the Exotic
2.11.09
Halloween Cuteness
We really weren't thinking much about Halloween this year (since we were planning on being in Kenya by now), but when Maggie and I were out in Nashville several weeks ago, Aunt Mariah came through and picked out a really cute pink leopard costume. We decided to trick or treat at the hospital since Eric was working, and skype the grandmas, but not walk around the neighborhood. It seemed a bit embarrassing to me since a six month old obviously doesn't eat candy, and thus it would all be for me, benefiting from her cuteness....but anyways, here are just a couple of pics. Couldn't help myself! There's also a little detachable tail on the backside, not featured in the photos, but just adds to ensemble.