My Own Red Sea Miracle

It's 6:48am.  The boys alarm goes off for school.  I jump up out of bed and immediately the adrenalin starts going:  I'm 2 hours late!!!!!!

As I run into the bathroom to collect my overnight case, throw on my clothes and grab a baseball cap I check my cell phone / alarm clock.  It's still keeping time, but the keys are unresponsive.  It's frozen overnight causing me to over-sleep.

As I gather some necessities and put my slacks on, Priscila takes my overnight case and starts to put it in my suitcase.  I tell her, "My flight boards in 30 minutes".  There's a chance I'll make it so I have to try.  I've only ever missed one flight and been one of the last to board on a couple occasions. 

Without much discussion, she rounds the kids up and gets them into the minivan.  We throw my luggage in the back and start the ignition at roughly 7:00.  If you knew what it took to get the kids in the car on a normal day, that's a little miracle by itself.

Priscila starts praying for protection and that I make it as we exit the neighborhood.  She's the only one thinking straight. I'm still wondering what I left behind.....   We do our normal "keep the angels around our car" prayer but I get a vision of the Red Sea parting and ask the Lord to part the people like He did the waters.  Priscila gives a short laugh, probably at the dramatic image of dozens of people and cars thrown to each side..

She also prays that if I'm supposed to miss the flight, for whatever reason, that I will.  We never know the eventual outcome of a situation and it always best to be where the Lord wants you to be.  Neverthless, I have to try to make the flight for my job's sake.  This is the reality of existing somewhere in the continuum between the Spiritual and the Physical.

Priscila asks the Holy Spirit to guide her on the best path to the airport.  To question the path she chose would be to question my own faith, her ability to listen to the Lord and all the possible unseen traffic problems on the other routes.  Let's just say the Holy Spirit would have led me down different streets  ;)

The drive is uneventful. We pass an ambulance headed the opposite way and selfishly hope the reason we went here is because something clogged up traffic "back there".  Even traffic at the airport is a more quite that I usually see.  Not by much, but Priscila is able to navigate the van to the end of the terminal and get me dropped off. 

The time is now 7:15.  My flight should be boarding.  Alaska Air usually keeps things moving, so I'm betting First Class is already boarded.

For me, here's where the answer to prayer / miracle really starts to come in to view.  As a frequent flyer, I get to go in the "short line" at PDX, but that's typically clogged by Seattle shuttle customers this time of the day.  Sure enough, the line is 15 people deep.  To my right is the TSA agent furthest from the rest of the regular travelers checking in - and she has no one at her station.  I walk right through. 

I pick the shortest line with a bunch of business travelers in front of me to begin the gauntlet we call "TSA Screening".  Like George Clooney said in "Up In The Air", when it comes to airport security, "I stereotype - it's faster."  An agent behind me tells several of us there's an open screening lane.  There's two ladies at that lane who are both carrying walking devices of some kind (canes, walkers, etc.).  The guy in front of me says, "I assumed it was for special screening."  We all did. 

The two guys that are now in front of me aren't ready to go through screening.  Not only are the guys not ready, but they ask me if I want to go around them and there's ample room for me to get through.  The 2 ladies with their extra stuff are nowhere to be seen.  If God didn't make them disappear, He did the next best thing:  He got them expedited to a private screening.

Even with a random gunpowder residue test on my laptop, I still make through the gate and to my seat at 7:26.  I'm not even the last one on the plane. 

The facts are:

• We made it approx 15 miles to the airport, over surface streets and freeways in 15 minutes
• I made it through TSA screening in less than 10 minutes
• It was approx 45 minutes from the time I woke up until the time I was in my seat.

Here's the summary of my story:  God works miracles and he answers prayer. 

Rediscovering Food (Cooking)

My brother Darren gifted me a book The Supper of the Lamb (Robert Farrar Capon, Random House) for Christmas.  I just can't say enough about the writing style of the author or how enjoyable this book is to read.  It's labeled "an unorthodox cookbook".  There are recipes in the back and cooking methods scattered throughout, but what stands out is how he relates God, His desire to be creative, and other things to food.

The core of the book is ferial and festal cooking - not that he dwells on these ideas specifically throughout the book.  Rather, the other ideas expressed in the book will simply end up in either, or both, categories.  Note:  it is not ferial vrs. festal.  As many things in life are it is both-and not either-or. 

I'll intentionally paraphrase this piece at the risk of near-plagiarism as a teaser for you (Random House, don't sue me - it's free advertising!!!):

God makes wine.  Notice the tense: makes; not made.  He didn't make it once upon a time to be burdened with the unavoidable and embarrassing result of that decision.  Wine is because it is His very present pleasure to have it so.  The creative act is intimate to each part, parcel and period of the world.  The bloom of the yeast lies upon the grapeskins year after year because He likes it;  [the chemical process that yields wine] is a dependable process because, every fall, He says, "That was good; do it again".


No you can't borrow mine.  Find your own at your favorite book seller (<$15 on amazon). 
In addition, Priscila and I watched Julie and Julia.  In truth, Darren, Jenn, and I watched it in Denton which made Priscila a little mift.  All I knew is Meryl Streep had done a fantastic job as Julia Child, but nothing else about the plot, etc. so it hadn't "made it on my radar".  All Priscila knew is that it was a "chick flick" and I didn't see it with her.  It's a great film for anyone.  The director/writers did a great job of putting two, almost unrelated, stories together into a single presentation.  Bravo.  Every once-in-awhile Julia Child slips-up and and a little Meryl Streep comes through.  If you need to read that last sentence again, do it now.  It was intentional.

These two singular events have inspired me (The supper of the lamb to a much greater extent) to begin cooking again.  I stopped/slowed because of time constraints, work, etc.  Note to the men (if any bother reading this):  if you've ever wondered about the mechanics of HOW to listen to God through your wife take note.  So with the seed of inspiration in my heart, and post Julie and Julia, my wife says, "why don't you blog about cooking?  What about that Silver Spoon cook book you got for Christmas a few years ago?"  I'll blog later about the significance of God in this idea.

Ahhhh, yes....  Il Cucchiaio d'argento.  The cook book, translated into English, that is the epitome of Italian cooking.  Rumored to be a traditional wedding gift for young Italian couples; passed down from Mother to Daughter like the Americans do The Joy of Cooking.  I'm not sure how much of that is true, but it's a fine cookbook in it's own right.  It's so large, I view it as a reference, not a cookbook.  My first attempts at the "mother sauces" were gleaned from here.  While I certainly haven't memorized any of them, making your first Bechemel will conquer most of your cooking fears.

Now why did I forget where that book was placed?  Oh yes, the great mouse hunt of '08 in the pantry moved it to a cupboard where it was "lost".  Many thanks to Hunny and Brienne for tearing apart the pantry, braving the 3" monster, and saving as much food as they could.

So my break from work today is drawing to an end (or rather, I need to make it come to a close).  There's disk storage analysis to do for customers and family finances to do...  Groan.  In the meantime the rib bones from this Christmas's Prime Rib are simmering into beef stock.  The beginning of new adventures await.

P.S.  It just started snowing!  Andrew's first snow!!!

Global warming scientists email hacked

Someone hacked into the email of some very smart Global Warming experts. This is a good read.

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/hadley_hacked#63657

Do you need a vacation?

I am not sure exactly how this works, but this is amazingly accurate.

The picture below has two identical dolphins in it. It was used in a case study on stress levels at the Mayo Clinic and later at Fletcher Medical Center in Burlington.

Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study revealed that, in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical; a person under stress will find many differences between the two dolphins.

The more differences a person finds, the more stress that person is experiencing.

Look at the photograph below and if you find more than one or two differences
you may need to take a vacation.

Finally a movie about.... ME!!!

Paramount has wisely chosen to cast George Clooney to portray me in the upcoming "Up in the Air" (releases in Dec?). It's hard to explain to people what I see / go through when on a trip. The visuals from the trailer are fantastic. 30,000' aerial shots of farmland, mountain ranges, looking down on clouds, etc. Hordes of people dragging a suitcase in one hand and a trench coat draped across the other. Each one focused on arriving at their next way-point on time.

I laughed especially hard at the part where Clooney takes his trainee through the security line. If you travel frequently and you're NOT assessing who's in line in front of you - you're wasting time. Note: The movie makes it a racial/profiling joke out of the situation. The reality is those of us in analytical jobs are always trying to find a way though faster - independent of race.

If you ever wondered what it's like to be on the road - the trailer pretty much sums it up.

You know you've been traveling too much when you can identify an airport by the carpet. :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xIUtRrTlgo

Where it diverges from my life is that cold, unattached, "relationships weigh you down" business. Clooney does pull off an impressive monologue in the official trailer.

When food and parenting collide

2 blog posts in the last 2 days? I know what all 3 of my readers must be thinking.... What, after the misadventures of being alone with the 5boyz for a week, could be happening?? Nothing really. I worked overnight last night in the OC and am catching up on the dozens of blogs I eyeball whilst waiting for my ride home. Most are geeky things related to work, some are like yours - things that are interesting.

I love the snarky Anthony Bourdain. I think his writing style is a 10 out of 10. I stumbled across his TV show "No reservations" a few years ago in a hotel room. I love his combined take on travel & food. Unlike so many of the "one trick" shows on cable his content varies from show to show. One episode might be in an large metropolis where he's seeing sights and eating both local and haute cuisine. The next could be in the a remote jungle where the closest thing to main course protein is the beetle he just stepped on.

He's recently had a daughter and folded her (and his parenting experiences) into his blog posts. In the post titled "For Parents Only", he's put aside food and given his take on children's programming. Hysterical and dead on. Parents be warned: Mr. Bourdain is for us only. No underage readers please.

When you're done watching Nick or Noggin today, set the DVR for "No Reservations". Old epsidoes can be found online. Tow of my favorites are the one of the Pacific Northwest (natch) and any one where he visits Spain. If you watch one, you might be a repeat viewer. I'm hoping for a full on food/parenting crossover blog. These are, after all, a few of my favorite things.

There is no space, only time

Every once in a while the impact of technology on our lives hits me. It usually the same general revelation, but always with a slightly different context. E.g. my kids will have difficulty comprehending or lack cultural references to:

• Newspaper (we don't have a subscription)
  
• Spending hours researching something in the library - by hand
• TVs with tubes
• Carrying around a large, bulky, music playing device with a limited selection of music
• Fixing a cassette or VHS tape that's come unspooled.
• Playing a respooled tape and enjoying the bad parts, 'cause it's your favorite and there's no way in the world you'll go without it.

"The Internet" is largely the answer to the above list. I could go on, but won't.

To my random thought for today.... Over the last couple days a friend/colleague has been in Dallas installing equipment while I was training the very same people he was installing it for in San Francisco. I'm now waiting for a plane to take me to SNA. I will meet up with him in the OC to work overnight together for a completely different customer.

What a crazy, crazy world. I'm sure it's overstated and obvious, but, sometimes when you stand back and look at it, modern travel and communications has eliminated the concept of distance. All that's left is my aching rear-end after hours in the same airplane seat.

Better walk around for a few minutes. Boarding starts soon.