"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." –John 16:33

San Pedro Garza Garcia

Month: March 2016

Kelly’s last Easter birthday

Kelly visits us before her birthday 2016Our daughter, Kelly’s birthday lands on Easter today. She checked it out the last time that happened when she was eleven and this will never happen again in her lifetime. So this is a special birthday. She came to visit us for a week, but had to leave after a small, early celebration. She is in a very good place right now. She has very good friends in Seattle. She struggled early in her PhD program, but just finished her best term ever. The picture with this post shows her sitting at her computer working through some of her research. More important than all that and above all, she considers God and her place in this world relative to his will. We are so thankful God lent her to us even it is just for a little while.

Kelly was a beautiful baby. One of the first things we noticed about her when she was born, after the full head of black hair and the blue eyes, was that she had a little butterfly birthmark on her left forearm. You can see it close to her elbow in the picture. It beats the monster Rorschach test birthmark I have on my back all hollow (even though I am quite fond of my birthmark).

It is fitting that today I used up the last Betty Blonde comic Kelly drew as part of her homeschool education. I think there are a few that I lost, because there are some missing dates and we never missed a date (five times per week) in the five years she drew them. Still, 501 is a good number of comics. She drew them from when she was 14 until she was 16 for an absolutely stellar run. The quality of the comics improved greatly over that time. She really hopes she can get back to that one day–maybe not to draw Betty Blonde, but something new.

Happy Birthday Kelly. We love you.

Betty Blonde #501 – 07/19/2010
Betty Blonde #501
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Short term health care

I learned today that Obamacare is every bit as evil as it is represented to be. I also learned that the affordable health care available from some insurance companies is not eligible for avoidance of the draconian health care tax required by our increasingly totalitarian, but abjectly immoral executive branch of the government. Fortunately, the bridge insurance I need to get during my job change is only required for a couple of months. If it were for four months, I would get nailed. This is definitely cause for sadness and trepidation. What is happening to our country.

Betty Blonde #500 – 07/16/2010
Betty Blonde #500
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

First visit to new job

I visited my new work today to meet my new boss and get the lay of the land. It is going to be great. Not only do I get to work on a product that will help the helpless, but I will be able to uniquely contribute. I will be working purely in Linux. It is all C/C++. It does not get much better than that.

Betty Blonde #499 – 07/15/2010
Betty Blonde #499
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Dallas Museum of Art

2016-03-20-DMA-MonetLorena, Kelly, Christian and I all went to the  Dallas Museum of Art. It is wildly impressive. The picture with this blog post is of me with an original Claude Monet. There were Pissarros, Manets, Gaugins and much, much more. It was at least as good as the North Carolina Museum of Art and we truly love the North Carolina Museum of Art. We have just touched the tip of the iceberg in Dallas and are looking forward to much, much more.

Betty Blonde #498 – 07/14/2010
Betty Blonde #498
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Up and running in Texas

We left Christian’s place in Tempe last Sunday afternoon to arrive at Lorena’s cousin Beto’s place in Mesquite, Texas on Monday evening. The next day we had the extreme good fortune to find a great little apartment in Lewisville a short way from my work and only a half a block from Anytime Fitness. The proximity to Anytime Fitness was a happy accident that made Lorena very, very pleased. We stayed with Beto two nights and have been in the apartment since.

LewisvilleNewWasherDryerSince we arrived, we have been out buying “stuff.” Since we sold the old washer and dryer, the gas barbecue grill and all our beds we had to replace all that or go to the laundromat, cook on the electric range and sleep on the floor. We will have to continue to sleep on the floor until Monday because the Nebraska Furniture Mart does not deliver our bed until then. Amazingly, we got the best price on the washer and dryer from the Lowes right around the corner from us and it included free delivery and installation. We still need to buy a breakfast nook table and a sofa, but after that we will wait until we are in a house before we do too much more furnishing of the house.

It is great to be back in the saddle blogging again.

Betty Blonde #497 – 07/13/2010
Betty Blonde #497
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Kelly goes to the opera with Aunt Julia and Uncle Rich

Kelly goes to the opera in Seattle with Uncle Rich and Aunt JuliaAunt Julia and Uncle Rich drove up to Seattle to see the opera last night. I got Kelly a ticket as a gift for surviving a period of insane school intensity. I think she is finally over the hump and has figured out both what is required, but also that it is also possible to for her to do what is required and have a life. That is actually, I think, a very big and important breakthrough.

Kelly bought a new dress for the affair and Uncle Rich and Aunt Julia took her to a really nice dinner. Kelly was a wildly big fan of her Aunt and Uncle before the opera, but even more so now. Her is Aunt Julia’s very insightful quote about the opera:

It was great. Mary Queen of Scots gets killed in the end by the declaration of the evil queen Elizabeth after much hand wringing, agony and weeping.

Just so. That would probably be a good description of many operas if you switched the names out and maybe added a little sword waving and romance.

Thank you Uncle Rich and Aunt Julia. We are grateful for your efforts on our daughter’s behalf. The only thing that might have made it just a little bit better is if it would have been a Russian opera!

Betty Blonde #496 – 07/12/2010
Betty Blonde #496
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Lazy days in Tempe along with quasiconvex optimization

Lazy days with Kiwi in TempeLorena spent the whole day cleaning and cooking. She had the time of her life. It is counterintuitive to me how those first two sentences hang together. Part of it had to do with the fact that she bought him a new mop. Looking back at that last sentence, I concede that, still, none of this makes a whole lot of sense to me. Lorena picked up Christian after school, just like the old days at NCSU and they went down to Target to buy “stuff.” Both of them had a ball. I am losing hope that I will figure out all the joy associated with these events. On the other hand, I hung around in the apartment all day, did nothing and felt really good about it for the first tie in years.

Christian was at school today for his bi-weekly meeting with his sponsor from MIT. The difference about today’s meeting was the quasiconvex optimization proof Christian did for his research. He has been working on it for the last several months and he finally got it figured out since after we arrived. It was a big relief for him, but I have no clue what any of it means. Still, like Conoscopic Holography, even though you have no idea what it means, you know it must be great because it sounds so cool.

Betty Blonde #495 – 07/09/2010
Betty Blonde #495
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

A visit to Christian in Arizona

Lorena hits Anytime Fitness in ArizonaWe are taking a brief hiatus in Tempe to visit Christian in our road trip to Texas. Lorena needs to get her workouts in. She explained it is not so much that she is fanatical about doing it, she just hates the pain of starting all over again when she has missed a week or two. She is actually up to two 35 minute sessions per week on the elliptical and three 60 minute sessions per week on the Concept II rowing machine with some weight lifting thrown in the mix, too. It pains me just thinking about it.

In the meantime, we get to see Christian mostly just in the evenings because he has to work even though it is spring break for the undergraduates. He remains dedicated to his research. I think the classes are just a pain in the neck for him now even though he says he learns some stuff.

We plan to continue on to Texas right after Sunday morning meeting.

Betty Blonde #494 – 07/08/2010
Betty Blonde #494
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Lorena’s last Oregon flower garden blooms the day before we leave

Tulips on the fourth floor balcony gardenLorena loves to grow flowers. She did a vegetable garden last year in the Wilsonville community garden areas. She loves her vegetables but she is crazy about flowers. She bought a wrought iron flower box holder for our balcony and was very gratified her tulips bloomed before we left. She has already donated the flowers to Gladys, but hung on to the flower box holder. We hope to get some ficus trees for inside the house as soon as we get to Texas.

All our bags are packed and we’re ready to go

All our earthly goods in a UHaul headed from Oregon to TexasThis morning we packed all of the things we had accumulated from a year of fourth floor studio apartment living in Wilsonville, Oregon into a 5×8 U-Haul. It is amazing how much stuff one accumulates, even in such a cramped space. Dinner is planned tonight with our dear friend Gladys followed by church tomorrow morning and evening with Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah. After that, we are off to Texas.

It has amazed us how everything worked out for us to return to Oregon, but then nothing worked out after that for us to stay. We are not too excited about spending too much more time in an apartment so we are working hard to find a house where we can settle down for the long term. In the meantime, we look forward to some time with Christian in Tempe next week.

Betty Blonde #493 – 07/07/2010
Betty Blonde #493
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Last day of work in Oregon

I am scheduled to go out to lunch with my manager and several others today as it is my last day of work at my job here in Oregon. These are always melancholy things. My theory is that work is never as bad as one thinks it is while they are in it, but never really quite as good as they remember it after they leave. The work in this job I am leaving is not nearly as “bleeding edge” as I hoped, but it has been a great place to be to have the chance to spend a year close to Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah. I am very grateful for my time here, but look forward to some new and very interesting challenges.

We pack this weekend. We do not have much because we never got out of our fourth floor studio apartment into a house. Everything should fit into a 5×8 U-Haul trailer. Lorena took our Honda CRV to get a trailer hitch so we are all set to go. I pick up the trailer and we plan to pack tomorrow. Kiwi the remaining twin cat sister, Lorena and I should be on the road to Tempe for a visit with Christian early Monday morning.

Betty Blonde #492 – 07/05/2010
Betty Blonde #492
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Will Kelly share her art with us again?

KellyCaricatureKelly went to a conference in Las Vegas. While she was there, here group gambled at the craps table for a little while. Since did not gamble, one of the guys in the group had her roll the dice for her several times and she won him $300. The guy gave her $25 for her trouble which she promptly blew on the drawing she holds in the picture. It was from a slightly tipsy street artist and you can see it is a monumentally bad likeness. You know what they way about ill-gotten gains!

This has inspired Kelly to start to share her art once again. She has started a new Instagram account named Betty Blonde Draws. She has her first three caricatures up there now. They are very good likenesses, but of the very quickly drawn ones. She plans to do more quick ones, but she also plans to spend some time to create some that are more thoughtfully drawn.

This is all great because she is kind of an amazing caricaturist. One of biggest worries is that the kids would have a lousy art education if we homeschooled. It turns out the had a fairly amazing art education including the study of art history. Maybe it was because I am so weak myself in that area, we worked harder to make sure we overcame my weakness. It is certainly true that I also received much more art than I had before we started the effort.

So if you want to be drawn, send her a picture of yourself. She is always looking for more material.

Betty Blonde #491 – 07/02/2010
Betty Blonde #491
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Help from old friends

Kindness for Grandpa Milo and Grandpa Sarah by old friends provided a great, very much needed boost to our move to Texas yesterday. It is hard to express how grateful we are for these friends who have agreed to take on the far from inconsiderable task of getting Grandpa Milo to church. It is really hard for Grandma Sarah to get out much at all any more. These friends met with Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah for Sunday and Wednesday meetings for over twenty years, understand Grandpa Milo in his infirmities better than just about anyone else. This is truly a gift, not only from them, but from God.

Betty Blonde #490 – 06/22/2010
Betty Blonde #490
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén