Sabbath for Sanity's Sake

Ruth and I took a Sabbath this Sunday. A real one. We actually rested and took a day to do nothing but enjoy the day. It was really very nice. It of course started with a cup of home brewed espresso poured over a steamed milk. yum!



It also involved me blogging some of the pictures and events I've gotten behind on. One of those being our visit from Grandma and Grandpa a few weeks ago. We always love having them around. It usually means for good discussion and prayer, and food, and fun. We took them to Ballard locks before church on Sunday. We'd never been there before so it was kind of interesting.




The exciting event (for me) this weekend that also deserved some blog shots, was the final molting of my asian giant mantis. This last molt revealed wings, and a slightly larger size. It's pretty big now, and very entertaining to observe. I haven't been taking a lot of photos lately so it was really nice to break out the camera on this sacred sabbath we took.



You know, God gave us the sabbath for our own benefit. He knows we have to "toil in soil" and work against the thorns of the earth so He asked us to politely take a day off and rest. Hey, if He needed it, I think we do too. But the sabbath can mean different things for different people. For people like Ruth it means taking a bike ride, going for a walk, not having any appointments. For me I realized, it means to go change the light bulb on the porch and find a tiny little spider hanging from a thread - take him inside - give him a little photo shoot with the macro lens...



...take him back outside onto the porch and finish changing the light bulb. That was really refreshing. I have no idea why. Sorry for all the insect pictures.

I did have to go to the grocery store for some items, one of which was cream of wheat which we were out of. I didn't get cream of wheat, I got some other hot cereal stuff instead by accident. But it happen to have a muffin recipe on the back. Ruth responded to my mis-purchase by cooking muffins. I need to buy the wrong item more often.



But no banana chocolate chip muffin is really truly complete without - you guessed it...



...another coffee. And that's pretty much what we had for dinner. We spent the rest of the evening with the Millers and the Mark watching the movie.

Lesson learned: Sabbath is for Sanity's Sake! Take a Sabbath! Take a walk! Take a picture! Take a nap! What ever you need to do. God gave it to us, all we have to do is take it. So work hard, play hard, and then have a second cup of coffee! That's my new motto.

NYC

I have a very special wife.

One of the things I love to do (and don't do very often) is plan a surprise for Ruth. I used to surprise her with special things more often when we were dating - of course. When you're dating you're trying to show the other person that you're worth spending time with, that you think of gifts and plan trips ahead of time because you care for the other person. Then you get married and you stop "dating". I vowed to never stop dating Ruth. I haven't been very succesful in the last few years. It's hard to plan surprises that cost money when you share a bank account.

Especially a surprise trip to New York.



I sometimes still can't get it right. Like for instance, planning a trip to New York in the middle of winter, right after a blizzard. That said, we still had a great time. We loved the city and would love to go back. The first part of our little adventure was figuring out the subway system.




The break dancing guys had nothing to do with figuring out the subway, they were just down there, so I took a picture. We figured that every city should have subways that run thorugh the entire city. I don't know how anyone could live without them. Buses are dumb. Subways - cool.

But this is what we had to do every time we prepared to step outside...



Bundle up! It's freezing! It actually warmed up a little over the week and made the walking a little more pleasant. But we couldn't wait to get back to the "warmer climate" of Seattle. Bring on the rain! It's better then blowing snow!



The thing we enjoyed most was the beautiful architecture.








We took the ferry to Stanton Island and back. The was the free way to see the statue of liberty!

Ruth took that last one. Nice shootin!

Ah yes, Dunkin Donuts on Wall St. The other thing we were dissapointed in was the lack of espresso. Starbucks was literally the only option. Dunkin Donuts was ok, some of the capaccino in Little Italy was pretty good, but there were no decent, home grown, espresso stands anywhere. These signs kind of cracked us up...

It was like starbucks for dummies, "did you know you can customize your drink? One shot, two shot, three shot". Why don't they mention four shots? I've had that before. It should be an option.

Ground zero. The freedom tower is in processes.

And then there was our hotel.

It was a hip little place just down the street from the Time/Warner building and CNN. The room was tiny (150 sq ft) but it was still amzingly comfortable to crash at the end of a long day of walking.

We missed a lot of pictures. Both times we were in Time Square, Grand Central station, and at the top of the Rockafeller building were 'no camera' days. It wasn't easy to bring along all the time.

All in all it was a blast...

...of cold wind. Looking forward to a summertime follow up. And for the record - Dunkin Donuts just taste like Tim Horton's donuts. Nothing special there. But the italian food is a whole other experience.

Caleb and Amanda

Sorry for the lapse in posting. Ruth and I have been busy as usual, and blogging has slipped down the priorty list. And it shouldn't! Bloggin is fun and important!

Well the most recent event that left us with something worth posting was Caleb and Amanda's wedding. Ruth and I shot the whole wedding by ourselves. It was a big job but we had fun and ended up with some fun pictures. Here are a few of my favorites.







Congratulations to the happy couple! Enjoy the motherland ;)

Praying Saints

Please help me in welcoming the newest inhabitants of the invertabrate apartment on my desk.



Saint Luke and Saint Catherine; the patron saints of artists. Thanks to Mark Lautenbach for the names. It does seem appropriate to name two praying mantises after two monks.



Apparently they're expecting more of a long term bed and breakfast. I better go buy some crickets.

This is a picture of the pretty girl who lives at my house.