As Seen on Blog 9

Football Fans for Truth. Hilarious!

"If You Love Me, You Will Love the Church"

Since I bit the whole "objectivity of the covenant" bullet, I've had a quite different view of the church. (I guess reading Against Christianity also helped.) A couple things recently reminded me of some of the things I was thinking about back then, and some new thoughts spurned as well.

John Kerry, George Bush and Michael Peroutka are all Christians. To my knowledge, they all attend worship services with some regularity (unlike, say, Reagan.) I honestly believe that there is no "Christian candidate." I am a political Augustinian, at least pragmatically in this age. As long as Christians are not getting persecuted, I'm going to be okay with the result of this election. I thrived in the Clinton years. My citizenship is ultimately in heaven, and that's what's most important. I do vote -- even in primaries and odd year elections. I think it's wise to not let others control the government without your voice. But, even as a postmillenialist, I think this nation will not be truly Christian in a theonomic sense for quite some time. And that's okay. Thanks be to God, we have freedom to worship, to educate our children the ways we think best, we have freedom of speech. I'm longing for the heavenly city, but I'm glad to sojourn in such a place as this.

Very Blessed

Sometimes, I get a little down about things like not having living room furniture. I convince myself that my life would be exponentially better if I had comfy seating for six or so. I think, "Woe is me! I cannot show proper hospitality! I do not have the furniture!" And then I get mopey about the state of my life.

Then I hear about a dear friend's brother and sister-in-law, who lost their first baby at four months last year to a rare genetic disorder. They thought their baby born this summer had been spared, but have just discovered that she is dying also. Suddenly, that living room furniture doesn't seem so important anymore. It's pathetic that I need babies dying to convince me that I am very blessed.

And, please pray for this little family, that God would comfort them in the midst of these overwhelming losses.

Thanks

Thanks everyone for your advice on the previous post! I promise to try to make subsequent posts less exclusive in nature.

Ummm... I mean this in the humblest way possible, but can someone explain to me the rationale behind voting for a third party candidate in a two-party system?

*help!* (breastfeeding stuff)

So, I am really getting a bit frustrated with breastfeeding. During the month of August I got mastitis not once, but twice. (The antibiotics, of course, led to thrush, etc.) The culprit was the same plugged duct, which has been plugged again for the last 10 days. I have tried EVERYTHING (nursing every possible way, pin, lecithin etc.) and it won't come unplugged. Argh. Also, Kate often gets frantic in the middle of feedings, while she is latched on. It's not every feeding, but particularly in the evening. I've found that when I pump at that time, I get really watery milk. Do I have oversupply and foremilk/hindmilk issues? (Stool is very green, often watery). Thanks!

*sigh*

So, yeah, after the DSL fiasco, now the dial-up we signed up for ceased working. The last several posts have been from my parents house or the library. I haven't been able to send email from Outlook sinced we moved, so I haven't even sent out a "here's our new address and phone number" email. It's more than a little frustrating. I wish we could afford the >$60/month for cable internet. I'm really enjoying Richmond, but it's hard to be in a new place and to feel so disconnected from friends. I'm literally tearing up in the library now, so I better stop writing such a "woe is Kristen" post.

On to the happy things -- Kate is more fun all the time. She really enjoys reading. Her favorite book by far is _Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?_. It's really cute! She gets her first shots tomorrow. I'm glad she can see the doctor again, since it's been almost 8 weeks. We'll try to check in as the opportunity presents itself. I know our blog has totally digressed to only family updates, but that's what you get when we don't have internet access at home :o/

Public Service Announcement

There is a new album of Kate pictures uploaded.

Lord Peter

It all started when Mike picked up the Lord Peter complete short stories volume we have after we unpacked our books. Obviously, we are now racing through the Dorothy Sayers LPW mysteries. They are so fun! I've never read them before, and am reading them all (including the short stories) in chronological order. We have seen some of the movies, and I recommend the Edward Petherbridge BBC versions. They are top-notch. Also, we are taking applications for Bunters. We don't want just a butler, we want a Bunter.

IDMA THG

I have consulted with several other people about this, so I know it's not just my own conclusion:

Virginia has more personalized license plates than any other state.

About 15-20% of the cars on the road have personalized license plates. Some are more clever than others. Some are so cryptic, I worry about rear ending them while pondering the great meaning of their plate.

Sewing

My parents and siblings came up today to surprise me for my birthday (a day late) which was really nice. My parents bought me this sewing machine for my birthday! I need to make sure that it can handle bottomweights and other heavy fabrics well (as they comprise most of what I envision sewing in the near future) so I decided to carefully open it and try it out. Easier said than done! I have no clue how to use a sewing machine. After following the instructions as carefully as I could, I still didn't get it. As soon as I tried to sew, the thread broke. I need a sewing mentor!

Hilarious

As seen in a Google Ad --

You don't support the Democrats. Why should your ketchup?

Thank You!

I've got more than enough friends signed up to help me get a free iPod. If you are still interested, sign up to help by clicking here.

Getting Older

Everyone's getting older, all the time. I guess that's how life works. Kate just turned two months old. I turn twenty-three this weekend. It's funny, I used to look forward to my birthday. I remember when I was so anxious, I always tried to make sure my party fell a few days BEFORE my birthday, instead of after, so I wouldn't have to wait so long. Now, I am not opening my gifts until a week late and I'm really not disappointed at all. It helps when you already know what you've gotten... :o)

Speaking of which, I need one more person to sign up for the Free iPod thing. It would be a very nice birthday gift...

Ongoing Saga

So, two weeks after we ordered the service, and six days after we received our DSL box, Verizon called to inform us that we can't get DSL on our phone line because we are too far from a hub or what-have-you. Bear in mind, we live less than half a mile (as the crow flies) from a mall, a Barnes and Noble, etc. Ergh. We have dial-up for now, but still...

Free iPod

I never believe that those "get a free ________!" schemes work, but apparently, this one does, according to Wired. You can get a free iPod, and it's pretty easy. You sign up on their website, providing them with a working email, name and address. Then you sign up for an offer -- these are from legitimate companies like AOL, Columbia House, BMG, etc. I signed up to get a free trial of netscape dial-up, which I am about to cancel (incuring no cost to us). You wait a few days, and the offer company gets back to them and confirms you signed up. You get five friends to do the same, and you get a free iPod. Here's one guy's experience.

If you're interested, please use my referral link. Once I get my five referrals, I'll put someone else's link in.

UPDATE: JT (Mike's best man) has a friend who has gotten a free iPod and a free 27' flat screen TV from the same company. It's really legit.

Cheer and Jeer

Cheer - Blog9 is back.

Jeer - We signed up for a free dial-up trial to access the internet, and I wrote several emails since I had my address book accessible through Outlook, but our ISP is blocking all the typical smtp ports and I can't connect to the server and send the emails, which include the requisite "here's our new address" email.