Some Blog Site

While reading a computer/electronics catalog (yes, something I do for fun), I noticed a description of one particular item for sale.

Of course, the catalog tries to hype accurately describe the items for sale. I think they may have been reaching a bit far with this one though.

A video camera the size of a credit card? Now that would be impressive. I’ve seen some things the size of a credit card, like that handy magnifying glass thing that you can fit in your wallet. I’m sorry, but there’s no way that camcorder will fit in my wallet.

And it’s convenient that they have the credit card right next to the camcorder so you can see how close in size they really are. From my perspective though, I’d say the camera is about as large as 50 credit cards.

Giving the copy editors the benefit of the doubt, I will say that I think they meant that the footprint of the camcorder is about the same as the credit card. It occupies the same area, not the same volume. But why stop there? Stand the camcorder on its end and claim that it is smaller than a credit card! That impressive claim would last only as long as it took someone else to stand the credit card on its end…

“You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight, or capacity.”
– Leviticus 19:35

We tried a craft project to make new crayons out of old crayons.

The intent of the project was to be able to use the bits of crayon that accumulate in the crayon bucket after a length of time. In general, a crayon either breaks (most likely) or get used so much that there is a very short piece of crayon that is hard to hold and therefore hard to use. No one uses it, but no one wants to throw it away because it possibly could be used. Okay, I do know some people who would have no problem tossing them out but they are not blood relatives.

My wife found some directions for the project, and they went a little something like this:

• Take the wrappers off the crayons
• If they are not already tiny, break the crayons into tiny bits
  
• Put them into a muffin tin that has been sprayed with non-stick stuff
  
• Put the whole thing into the over for 10 minutes at 200 degrees.
  
• After it has cooled, put out the brand-new circle crayons
  

The directions were fine, and the result was mostly as expected. But there were some glitches. In order to be helpful to those of you who may be interested in trying this craft, I am providing these hints and tips. Learn from our mistakes.

1. Do not mix types/brands of crayons. We just had a crayon bucket that had crayons from the store, free crayons from restaurants, random crayons that just appeared in the minivan, etc. They were not all made out of the same formulation and they did not all melt at the same rate. Some didn’t even melt at all while others were as liquidy as could be.
2. The kids aren’t strong enough to break them into small enough pieces. Either get some kids with really good hand strength to help, or provide the smaller kids with some tools to help (meat grinder, nutcracker, etc.) Otherwise they will just peel the wrappers and your thumbs will be sore from all the crayon-breaking.
3. The wrappers don’t come off the old crayons very easily. I don’t know of a method to help (maybe soaking them in water first?), but for a lot of the crayons it seemed that the wrappers had fused with the crayon itself. Use only crayons that have already lost their wrappers, or bring a vegetable peeler to help..
4. This project doesn’t produce usable crayons, but it is useful as an art project. The circles that it produced did not draw very well, but they did make interesting designs. Use this project more as a way to fill an afternoon and learn about color design than as a way to make crayons that the kids will use.

“The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.”
– Psalm 97:5

I had a postage-paid package to mail. Everything was ready, I just had to drop it in the drop box. But when I got to the drop box, I saw a warning that anything over 13 ounces must be taken in person to the clerk and must not be put into the drop box. Something about heightened security concerns…

So instead of just dropping off the box, I now have to go into the post office. Normally, I drop off mail on my way to work, which is well before the post office opens. Change of plans – I will stop by the post office on the way home from work.

Usually when I go to this post office, there is a long line. They have the equivalent of a postal ATM (a machine that dispenses stamps instead of cash), but last time I needed that it had 3 people in its line. So I did not have very high hopes to begin.

But it was 3:50 pm on a Thursday, so I didn’t expect that many people in line. Aren’t these people supposed to be at work? Maybe they’re wondering the same thing about me…

There are a handful of people in line already, with 2 people being served at the 2 open register/counter thingies. I am about the 6th person in line. At 4:00, 10 minutes after I got there, I was the 5th person in line. The one postal employee finally finished helping the one guy who had been at the counter the whole time, apparently with a complex postal problem.

Okay, now the line can start moving.

Nope, it’s 4:00 and that is apparently the end of his shift. So he leaves the counter and goes through the back hallway, leaving one postal employee to handle the now 10 or 11 of us in line.

The guy ahead of me remarks that there are 6 counters available for use, but only one person working. I agree, why waste all that space? Maybe they’re keeping it for the Christmas rush.

The worker guy comes back to the counter! Maybe he just needed a little break. Nope, he grabs some keys and leaves us again. The guy behind me keeps cursing and mumbling.

The worker guy comes back again. This time he opens and closes a drawer before leaving. The guy ahead of me comments that “he’s just teasing us now.”

At 4:05, a replacement worker opens up the counter that the worker guy had vacated. Okay, the next shift is here. The line starts moving – far counter takes the next customer, near counter, far counter, now it’s my turn. The mumbling cursing guy behind me makes sure I know that it’s my turn to go to the counter.

I tell the clerk lady that I’m not sure how much this thing weighs and the mailbox said to bring it in person. She takes the package and says “No, it’s fine” without even weighing it.

I’m leaving the counter about 10 seconds after I arrived there, but I’m leaving the post office about 20 minutes after I arrived there. The post office has a nice big sign out front that says something like “Open later to serve you better”. I don’t want better service later – I want better service now. But now I know why they say that – they need to stay open later to accommodate all the customers still waiting in line when they close.

A good meal plan is to eat as many different colors as you can. This would normally be something like blueberries, oranges, corn, broccoli, cauliflower, beef, strawberries, jellyfish, etc. The more different colors you eat, the more different nutrients you get.

I put that strategy into action today for lunch – I packed M&Ms.

I was wandering around some blogs the other day and discovered that I was lost. I had been reading my sister’s blog and followed a link to MckMama’s blog. I had participated in one of MckMama’s Not Me Monday events, and so I was looking at the other participants. Well, not them, but their screen names.  I noticed that they were all female. I felt very out-of-place.

Ah-ha. I saw a guy among the women at MckBlog. “Lazy Phil” it was. So I clicked on the link and it took me to the blog of the “Lazy Philosopher“. Entertaining, but that philosopher happened to be female. I couldn’t find any sort of biography on Lazy Phil, but since Lazy Phil attends a Ladies’ Bible Study, I am assuming she is female.

I saw that a lot of these blogs belonged to a group/website at blogher.com. I wondered “Maybe there’s a bloghim.com too.” Of course the domain is taken, but it is just a landing page that has ads and is of no use to anyone. It’s a shame all the good names are taken and not put to good use. That’s why I have someblogsite.com – the dozens of other names I tried were taken.

Then I followed a link from my sister’s blog to BooMama’s blog. I flipped through and saw a recap of American Idol and there were some other blogs that linked to that post. I saw one belonging to “Scott”, so I followed that one because, having learned from “Phil”, I could not think of any other word whose abbreviation is “Scott”.

It was like being a kid when your parents had company over for dinner, and you are sitting there while they make polite conversation but you’re wondering “Where’s the stuff that I like?” And you’re wearing nice clothes, not your comfortable clothes. It was like someone had come into the room and told you that all the other kids are having fun in the other room and you should go there. Note to self: get a better analogy, one that doesn’t equate women with adults and men with kids.  That tired sitcom formula of man-bad/woman-good needs to end.  Not that this analogy does that explicitly, but someone could incorrectly infer that.  Mine’s just an out-of-placey analogy that doesn’t also involve males and females.

Honey, I Fed The Kids was different, refreshingly so, from those female blogs. That’s blogs by females, not female blogs. I think blogs themselves are neutral. Like Christian blogs. No, the blogs are not going to heaven, so they’re not Christian blogs (thanks Justin). But they are blogs by Christians.

If you’ve watched American Idol this season, then you’ll appreciate this post by Scott. If you’ve ever watched the Muppets, and are aware of the American Idol judges, then you’ll appreciate this post by Scott’s wife.  And I followed a comment from Scott’s blog to the Big Doofus blog, and it was equally entertaining.

There’s really not much of a point to this post, so thanks for reading to the end.

“but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.”
– Acts 10:35

Here are some more conversations that the children had recently:

Spelling Lesson

The 5-year-old like to read, and if he encounters a word he doesn’t know, he spells it for us and asks us what that spells. The 3-year-old wants to be like his brother, so even though he is not reading anything, he will starts spelling whatever letters come to mind and ask what that spells.

One evening at dinner, I heard “What does S-O-I-S-A spell?”

He was just making up letters as he went along. Normally I oblige and try to pronounce whatever he spells, but this time I just replied “I don’t know”

To which the 3-year-old responded, to his brother, “That word is too hard for him.”

Boys-Only

3-year-old, acting playfully distraught: “Ahhh! I said a girl word! Ahhh! Ahhh!“, accompanied by great arm-waving.

Their mother, after exchanging quizzical looks with me: “What’s a girl word?”

5-year-old, helping us understand his perspective: “He said ‘Beautiful’.”

This post is for all of you who were wondering how much it costs to have a baby these days. And if you weren’t wondering, maybe you are now. And “have a baby” does not mean raise or care for a baby – it means “deliver in a hospital”. And this does not include C-section, which would cost significantly more.

My wife gave birth on February 27th. Our insurance company has notified us of the claims entered, but we have not yet received any hospital bills.  If they can wait 3 months to send the bills, does that mean I can wait 3 months to pay them?

We have an HSA plan, so the way our insurance works is that all claims go to the insurance company. The insurance decides how much the hospital can actually charge (based on whatever deals they had worked out ahead of time for being in the network), and then the hospital sends the revised bill to me. I have a medical checking account and I write a check to the hospital (or doctor or whoever is charging me for medical services). The insurance company does not pay any money unless I go over a certain limit for the year. By the way, having a baby will put you way over the limit right away.

According to the claims, it costs $14,500 to have a baby (staying in the hospital Friday night, Saturday night, and leaving Sunday afternoon). That’s not what it costs me, and that’s not what it costs the insurance company. That’s what it would cost someone without insurance who just paid whatever the doctors and hospital charged.

Here’s the breakdown:

• wife’s hospital stay: $8,000
• wife’s doctor: $3,000
• anesthesiologist: $1,000
• baby’s hospital stay: $2,500
• circumcision: $255

The epidural cost $1,000, but after going through insurance, it cost only $500.  Believe me, that’s money well spent.  And if you don’t believe me, ask my wife.

I got to sleep at the hospital for no charge! So what if it was just a couch? And I got all the free water I could drink. And free wireless access in the room. All that free stuff, for only $14,500!

Due to the extra charge for circumcision, it is more expensive to give birth to a boy, but I think a boy costs less in the long run.

“Let your father and your mother be glad,And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.”
– Proverbs 23:25