58 minutes cycling

30 minutes shooting

10 minutes walking (I broke the left crank off my bike so I had to walk to get home.)

Yesterday

60minutes cycling

30 minutes shooting baskets

High Chair with Tray

I finally got a tray made for Georgia's high chair. Everyone says they like the way it turned out. This week I am going to varnish the whole thing. I think I'll spray it. A friend at church suggested a clear finish that he likes to use.

I've been under the weather since Monday and today was my first back on track.

22 minutes cycling

17 minutes shooting baskets

Tomorrow I'll get high chair pics up.

I've been trying to live a little healthier. Today I did the following.

60 minutes cycling
25 minutes shooting baskets

I've been trying to live a little healthier. Today I did the following.

49 minutes cycling
22 minutes shooting baskets

Here is a website that calculates calories burned.
Fitness Jumpsite: Calorie Calculator

Milestones

We passed a new milestone today. Georgia grabbed a good handful of beard hair. I've been wondering when that would happen. Her mom and aunts were real good at it. It looks like the skill didn't skip a generation.

Yesterday and Friday I worked in the garage some. Among ather things, I rewired an old ceiling lamp that my dad had made out of an old acetelyne lamp. It used to hang in my parents house. Actually I have two. I hung the first one in the garage and have the second ready to go too.

I may blog some more later, right now I'm off to the mall with Sara, Rebekah and Georgia.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. All the kids and baby Georgia were here. We had Christmas dinner and breakfast Christmas morning.
Christmas Eve mom, Doug and Janie, and Heather and Randy were here. It was a real good time of seeing and talking to everyone. We had barrel cooked tri-tip, and other delicious dishes. Rebekah had done apple and pumpkin pies for dessert. After dinner we opened presents.
Christmas morning Jan made a great breakfast with Swedish Pancakes, bacon, saugage, English Muffins and bagels. Anna and Ken cooked the sausage at their house and brought it over. When breakfast was over we opened our stockings. It is always fun to see what stocking stuffers everyone has come up with.
By early afternoon everyone had left for other festivities and we spent a peaceful afternoon at home.
It was a great Christmas.

Wireless

Rebekah and Jan got me a wireless router for Christmas. They decided I should open it early, so I did. It works very well.

Over the weekend I was part of the Urban Mission Fresno project. We started on Friday evening at the Mennonite Biblical Seminary. For dinner we were sent to restaurants that were supposed to broaden our horizons. My group, made up of more veteran Fresnans decided the Chinese buffet we were assigned to was not outside our box so we went to a Pho restaurant on Kings Canyon. It was good. A couple of us think nezt year we'll offer a list of restaurants that really should broaden a few horizons.
Saturday the team I was with spent the day in downtown Fresno near Broadway and Divisadero at the World Impact building. We helped get ready for their Christmas Open House. We cleaned up, hung lights, and generally decorated. As 5:00 pm approached we also helped get food ready.
When the doors opened at 5:00 most of us worked food booths. I served egg rolls. People loved them. Lots of people from the community came and enjoyed the evening.
When we were finished, about 7:30, we cruised a few neighborhoods. We were given directions that took us to the westside, the Rowell neighborhood and the downtown area.
On Sunday we went back to World Impact and cleaned up, then had a touring church service giving us a look at some of the areas in town that World Impact is impacting. We were greatly blessed by the opportunity to see their ministries. Our weekend ended back at the seminary at 3:00 pm.
It was a great time. The staff was well prepared and worked hard to give us a missionary experience.

Thursday Afternoon

This afternoon I met at Starbucks with my men's group from church. We meet every Thursday. Mostly we talked about Acts chapter 20. That's where Mountain View is in our annual Bible reading. It is always a great time. It is good to get together with the men and talk about God and come to him in prayer. I look forward to it every week.

Cookies

Tonight I made Scotch Shortbread (p. 674,Boston Cooking School Cookbook, 1944). I used the wooden mold my Aunt Sibella gave me when she found out I like cooking shortbread. It has a Scotch Thistle carved in it. I plan on taking the cookies to school tomorrow. I made enough for home too.

Since a week ago yesterday I've been meeting with a friend and going for a walk before work. He is a former Calwa student, although he was a middle schooler when I started working there so I didn't have him in class. He is a fire fighter and in lots better shape than I, but he seems to be okay with me as a walking partner. We have settled on a route that takes us down Cedar Ave. to the railroad tracks on California Ave. It is a little less than a mile one way and gets me back at work by 7:30 which is a little later than I'm used to, but plenty early nonetheless.

Newness

We had a great weekend. Saturday Sara sent me a text message asking if we felt like having company, which of course we did. So, the Woodys came up.
I got to have Georgia at 5:30 or so on Sunday morning while Sara got to get a little sleep. I greatly enjoy those mornings. Sara, Ricky and Georgia came to church, making everyone happy. Lots of people had been praying for and looking forward to getting to see the baby. It was a great day. Georgia's aunts had a wonderful time showing her off. They really love her.
I imagine everyone who has ever been a grandparent can relate to what it has been like these last few weeks. Even before the birth, I was realizing that this is a new amazing time of life with interesting things around every corner. I think grand babies make you pay more attention to life.

Back to the Salt Mine

Today was the second back from Thanksgiving and I got to fill in for a teacher who is sick and who had no substitute show up. It is a sixth grade class. The students are good and smart. It is nice to get back in the classroom once in a while. Of course some things I wanted to do didn't get done, but I'll work them in sometime.

Day After and Still Thankful

Thanksgiving was great at Anna's. The food was almost as good as the company. Anna did a great job with everything. It was our first time cooking baby backs (Actually I did one rack in a small barrell for Rebekah's birthday, but never on this scale.) in a barrel tri tip style. They took about two hours and came out just fine. It will be interesting to experiment with different rubs and maybe wood chips. I'd also like to figure out how to cook a little slower like they do on the Food Network.

Today I got a picture album of Georgia up on Yahoo. I've never had an online album, I guess it worked out.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have much to be thankful for. Our girls and boys are doing well.
Rebekah is a history major at Fresno State thinking about being a teacher. She works at Gottschalks. She makes the best holiday pies in the world and is making one right now.
Anna and Ken are working hard and successfully. She is a sixth grade teacher at Turner School in Fresno. He is the youth pastor at Mountain View Community Church. They keep busy with work and church projects. They are hosting Thanksgiving dinner today, their first in their new house. Anna has baby back ribs as well as turkey and the traditional fixin's on the menu.
Sara and Ricky are in the funeral business. It keeps them busy. They have five funeral homes in the business now. They had a baby, Georgia, on November sixth. She is a wonderful little girl and Sara and Ricky are great parents. They are coming to Fresno this weekend to see some friends and it will be nice see them all.
I am thankful for Jan being my wife for 30+ years. She is the best.
Jan and I are thankful to God for his great provision, protection, presence and salvation.
Have a great Thanksgiving

Homecoming and Thanksgiving

Jan came home last night and although I am glad she got to be in Bakersfield, I was sure happy to see her. She had a great time with Sara, Ricky, and the baby. She got to help out with Georgia's first real bath.

Tomorrow we have Thanksgiving at Anna's. She is having ribs. Granny, Heather and Randy are coming.

The blogosphere is getting bigger. My cousin Betsy has put up a blog. I've added a link to it.

Visiting the Mom, Dad and Baby

Yesterday after work I drove to Bakersfield. Last night everyone got a good night's sleep. I thought I might be some help in case Georgia needed to be awake, but she slept just fine.
Today I baby sat a little while Sara went on an errand or two. One thing she did was print birth announcements.
We went for a walk with Georgia in the stroller. The ladies across the street having a Christmas Bazaar rightly think Georgia is beautiful.
Tonight I might get to make dinner or maybe stay with the baby if Sara and Ricky want to go out.
Tomorrow after Thanksgiving lunch at church Jan is coming down.

Today I spent the day back at work, although my mind was in Bakersfield. I don't have any new pictures to share today, but Sara has some great ones on Georgia's blog.
Sara and Woody are great parents. It has been great seeing them with Georgia. She is a lucky little girl.