Heckuva Blessing

...Because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob,
because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
because of your father's God, who helps you,
because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above,
blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breast and womb.
Your father's blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains,
than the bounty of the age-old hills.

(Genesis 49: 24-26)

And thus my long haul reading through Genesis concludes.  This is a portion of the blessing that Jacob pronounces over Joseph before he dies.  I understand that it's meant for Joseph, or perhaps for greater Israel, but it's a heckuva blessing for me, too.  And you, too.  I hope pray that we experience even the slightest hint of these blessings in 2012.

Goodness in the World

Some randomness to share with my blog peeps today.  I went to church on Sunday - it's been quite a while, for one reason or another.  The associate pastor taught us by looking at notes on his iPad.  The world, it is a'changin.  But I like it.

About once a week, I order Thai food from a place down the road.  It's like the only restaurant that will deliver, and I'm a sucker for convenience, so I do quite a bit of business with them.  Well, sometime last week I had ordered some steamed dumplings & a main dish, and the delivery guy was super apologetic because he forgot to bring me the dumplings.  It was no big deal, I told him, it happens.  But he told me repeatedly that the next time I called in an order, to tell them the situation, and they would give me some dumplings. 

Last night I called them and of course I didn't do that.  The language barrier is what it is, and I didn't want to complicate matters exponentially over some missed $4 dumplings.  Lo and behold the same delivery guy showed up.  He was beaming and he goes - I remembered your dumplings!  I was like, No way!  Dude gave me like 16 free dumplings!

There is goodness in the world.

And....Hogs win 29-16

Woo.
Pig.
Sooie.

Razorbacks.

TGIF, people! Ode to the Cotton Bowl

Go Hogs!  Beat K State!

Christmas Card from the UA Alumni Association

dawrighthouse, in a nutshell

Remedy: Plane Fun

We are entering our least favorite season of the year.  And unfortunately for us, it's the longest season of the year where we live.  The Long Winter.  The holidays have flown by, and all that's left is months and months of brown landscape, cold blustery-ness, and precious few days off.

Not that the monotony has hit yet or anything, but in an effort to stave it off, we had a mini-adventure yesterday.  It was entirely plane-centric, which means that G was in Hog Heaven.

We started the adventure by having a car picnic and waiting for an Airbus 380 to land.  This is the new double-decker airplane:

These are monsters in the sky.  Truly huge.  G loves them and knows all about them, but it would take perhaps both Divine and alcoholic intervention for B to step foot in one.

My pictures are crap because I was using my phone, but here is G taking pics of an A380 landing.  My phone doesn't do justice AT ALL to the majesty of this thing, so you'll just have to take my word for it. I love, love, love this sequence.  It truly captures the nerdiness of this man.

Afterwards, we spent a bit at the Dulles Air and Space Museum.  This is like a second home for G.

I love this shot.  It's the SR71 Blackbird (famous spy plane) with the Enterprise Space Shuttle in the background.

Cheesy (blurry) pic in front of the Enterprise.

This is, perhaps, G's very favorite museum.  I have to say it's well-done.  It's an enormous hangar with planes and spacecraft everywhere.  As G said, it looks like someone opened the doors and just threw in some aircraft.  But it's a beautiful use of the space.  If you're ever in the area, it's worth a trip.  G will even be your tour guide.

New Year

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too litle,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

---Sir Francis Drake