Question and Answer Time

Q: What the heck?
A: I know. . .
Q: [silence]
A: I know! Ok, I know. I haven't written in like, forever. There's no excuse.
Q: [silence]
A: Well, fine. Since you're being like that, I might as well list my excuses. I was busy, painfully busy; website to develop, school work to attend to, kids kids kids.
Q: Oh, and everyone else was sitting on their hands?
A: No. Like I said, I have no excuse.
Q: But you just gave me excuses. Three of them.
A: No, I was just filling an awkward space.
Q: Is that your form of thinking?
A: No. Are you always this rude?
Q: I'm the one asking questions here.
A: That doesn't sound like a question to me.
Q: On a scale to one to ten, how annoying are you?
A: Can we move on?
Q: Fine. Let's move on (the answer, by the way, was seven). Besides those boring activities you so painfully listed earlier, what else have you been up to in the last two months?
A: I went out to Michigan, to Grand Rapids to attend Sarah's family reunion.
Q: By airplane or boat or train?
A: We drove.
Q: You drove? With two kids? That must have taken forever.
A: We left at 11 pm and arrived around 5:30 the next day.
Q: Why was Sarah's family having a family reunion in MI?
A: Because it was a reunion of her great-grandfather's family. The great grandfather is no longer alive, nor are most of the next generation, but there are a few hundred Vogelzangs from there on down.
Q: Quite a productive lot, et?
A: Indeed.
Q: What sorts of activities did this reunion include? Any square dances?
A: Eating, presentations of various kinds, a pig roast, outdoor games, a church service.
Q: Did you ever see that Simpsons where Lisa becomes a vegetarian, and Homer asks...
A: ...yes; I know, "some kind of magical animal..." Yes. That was funny.
Q: You just cut off my question.
A: Yep.
Q: So, then you drove right back?
A: No, we stopped in new Detroit to visit some old college friends, then we stopped in Niagara Falls for a day, then we drove the rest of the way back.
Q: Did you see anyone jump into the falls.
A: Yes.
Q: Really?
A: No.
Q: Did you stay at the Embassy Suites on a great deal, at room 1003?
A: How did you know that?
Q: I was in the next hotel over.
A: That's a little spooky right there.
Q: What are you up to now?
A: Trying not to drown in school work; oh, and waiting to find out if we're going to be home owners by means of a lottery.
Q: What?
A: Yeah, there's a low-income housing lottery going on that we've applied for, and if we get drawn, we'll be able to take steps toward owning a new townhouse just down the way!
Q: But how will you get financing for such a venture, you don't even have a real job.
A: Details, details. . .
Q: You're kind of a la-la land kind of guy.
A: I'm one who is patiently optimistic about a number of things. If this doesn't work out, we will find some means of having a roof over our heads. If that doesn't work out, there's always the parents. If that doesn't work out, I will still be in the uncomfortable reality that this world is not my home, just in a more profoundly obvious way. But I do have an eternal home.
Q: What?
A: Thought so.
Q: What?
A: Just didn't think you'd understand.
Q: Who says I don't?
A: Well, just the nature of your questions, your tone...
Q: What if I don't like my tone?
A: That's not the point, is it?
Q: We'll we're the same person, you know.
A: I know.
Q: So who does that make you?
A: I don't like answering that when I'm talking to you.
Q: When do you like answering it?
A: When I'm looking at the one in whom I have hope
Q: Oh, him
A: Yes; and that is why you must go.
Q: But I'm not done talking! Or asking questions!
A: You never are. Sorry.
Q: You can't just turn me off!
A: No, but I can try and kill you
Q: You are a crazy man
A: I know
Q: You would be killing yourself
A: I know, who knows where you end and I begin. That's the problem isn't it?
Q: Yes. And where I end you you begin...
Random Guy: Or where I end and you both begin.
A: No, that's a little easier to distinguish.
Q: So where does that leave us?
A: Someone has to die, I think. . .
Q: And you've decided that someone is me?
A: Well, as we've just noted, it's a bit more complicated than that.
Q: I don't want to die
A: I think that inasmuch as that is the case, you have to.
Q: Ok, I want to die.
A: Nice try.
Q: I think we're being read, you know.
A: I know, I've been thinking about that too.
Q: I wonder what they're thinking about this--
A: You would be.
Q: And you're not.
A: Your right, I am. I just don't want to be ...
Q: Right, right, you just assign it all to me.
A: This is wierd, kinda awkward
Q: When, how will it end?
A: Death.
Q: No, I mean this conversation, this strange entry, this attempt to say how things are going through a literary device that has gone off the tracks of normalcy
A: Oh, well I could just press the publish post button
Q: But what about resolution, what about the formula! We have to come to some sort of a resolution, you can't just... no ... you wouldn't! It wouldn't be fitting, it wouldn't be beautiful, it

Just saying hi....

Hi!

Adam, I'm glad you didn't all die on the roads, or freeze. Hope it was fun, any new movie ideas this year?

Dave, what's hap'nin'? you still alive?

As for me.......my life's pretty boring right now. It's plodding on as normal. The two most exciting things that happened recently are as follows:

1: I was able to capture in a single photo my two daughters both smiling, both looking in the general direction of the camera, in focus, not over/under exposed, and doing something very 'cute'. Yes, this picture is completely untouched! These are the the things that excite these days. Just before this was shot both girls were licking the metal bars they are holding.

2: I was able to get out for an afternoon to go disc golfing at the local course and I beat my personal best by one point! Woo-hoo! A 77 on a 14 hole course. . . it's a hard course. It was fun because I didn't loose any discs.

Oh yeah, one more thing... April and I (and kids?) are going to Africa sometime next year. At least that's the plan. Our friend Jeremy Lang and his fam (http://nowjdrl.blogspot.com/) are over in Nairobi, Kenya working with Wycliffe Bible Translators and we (us and some friends) are hoping to visit him late next year.

Opinion time: Should we...

a) Both go and take both the girls with us for 10 days

b) Both go and leave the girls with some gracious soul for 10 days

c) Just me and Allison go and leave April and Sammie home

d) Take a nice family photo, all sign it on the back "watch where you step around the Elephant herd", and send it to them.

Seriously, we don't know what to do because there are pros and cons to all options. One thing that is nice is that airfare will probably not be a deciding factor due to an anonymous financial offer.

So that's us for now, Peace, g'nite.

SABBIKICAL 2K7

If you read my first post "Lost Blog," you'll know what a Sabbikical is. If not, here's the gist - bicycles, escaping the city, camping, tilting at windmills. For some reason, on the first Sabbikical we started saying "Sabbikical Abides" in hopes that it would force us to create some sort of annual tradition out of it. Well, we did it again in 2006, and we just got back from SABBIKICAL 2K7!

We've grown in numbers; Brendan joined Dan and I this year. Last year's Sabbikical was flat and boring, so this time I decided to use Google Earth to plan a route. The problem is, what looks like "interesting terrain" turns out to actually be "misery on wheels". At one point, I appologized for the route being a little hilly, and Brendan said, "Hilly?! This is a mountain! This is not a Hill!!" He then pointed to the ski-resort sign. In fact, we almost could have gone skiing, the overnight low where we set up camp Saturday night was 33 degrees.

Needless to say, between the hills, the cold, the lack of sleep, and one muscle injury we did not make it to our destination. We were rescued by a friend on Sunday afternoon. But it was not a loss. We still had many adventures, spent some time with America, and learned once again how blessed and easy our day-to-day lives are. Sabbikical abides!

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Hey........














Howsgoing?