Hot Dog Quesadilla

I've tried to find my niche in the blogosphere. Perhaps my comparative advantage is in a popular blog subject I haven't tried yet-Recipes. By subliminal coaxing from a friend, I decided to post the recipe to one of my most popular dishes:




Ingredients:
1 cup shredded cheese (of your choice, I prefer mild cheddar cheese from market basket)
1 Tortilla
1 Hot Dog Frank, I usually go for the 3 in one frank -- chicken, beef AND pork (can someone tell me why a hot dog frank with three different meats somehow is 70% cheaper than a frank with only one?!)

Directions:
Put shredded cheese on tortilla
Place frank in the middle
Microwave on high for 45-60 seconds.
Let cool for 20 seconds
roll into a cylinder around the frank

french people piss me off

so everyone by now knows my job requires that i know a lot more than i ever wanted about retirement and pensions and things of that nature. even worse, i seem to get diarrhea of the mouth whenever anyone brings up pensions, retirement, unions or anything and i spew all of my knowledge onto friends, families, or any other unsuspecting victim in the vicinity. although i do try to control this, it is truly like diarrhea in that when it hits you, you just have to let go.

it is so bad that a few weeks ago andrew peacefully woke me up with some kisses on a saturday morning. instead of doing what most almost newlywed couples with no kids would do, we had a heated discussion about 401(k)s and pension plans for about an hour and a half. thus invigorated, we jumped out of bed ready to begin a long day of saving, which is boring in its very nature.

it is clear where i'm coming from. as a responsible, boring american i believe in saving for retirement when you are young, and consistently contributing throughout life. within these plans is the understanding that we'll probably not be able to retire until we're 70 years old (yes, that's depressing), because saving for retirement in america now-a-days comes with many risks to the individual and almost none to the company. one way to offset the risk is to invest in the market in the long term, and let compound interest do its job.

so when i hear about how the FRENCH are STRIKING and RIOTING because they might have to retire at age 62 instead of 60, it pisses me off. they are considering raising the retirement age by TWO years, which is still under the average US retirement by many years, because it costs their government tons of money to pay for the retirement of all of these frenchies. and to top it off, the average lifespan for the french is WAY higher than it is for americans, at 81.5 years! so not only do they go into retirement earlier, they live in retirement longer than us too!

ok, why is this pissing me off so much? i mean, i don't live in france and it really won't affect me (unless france really does go bankrupt, then it will affect everyone, remember a little country called greece?). it pisses me off b/c the french gov't is asking its people to take one for the team. please work two more years so that we don't go bankrupt as a country. please work two more years so we don't have to raise taxes for everyone just to cover your risk. but they refuse to be team players, and as is the way with the french, they decide that taking to the streets in angry revolution is a good solution to this problem.

which leads me to the next point, and that is that i hate all american politicians. it just feels like our politicians care more about appeasing special interest groups than actually doing what is right and good for the long term. where the eff is renewable energy? where is ss reform? why the eff are we in two wars? where the eff is osama bin laden? why are we talking about mosques? why does the gov't care who i marry? why are the craziest people i have ever seen in my life running for office and winning? why do comedy shows make more sense than our news stations? wtf? i often feel like banging my head against the wall whenever i crack open (metaphorically, everything's online now) the newspaper.

and lest you think i am a conservative in sheep's clothing, there is no way in h*ll i will vote for a republican in this election (sorry, andrew...). george bush was in office for eight years and didn't balance the budget ONCE in those eight years...[liberal rant about how bush sucked and ruined our country]. also, the tea party is i'm sure well intentioned, but come on, they are cray cray. the only solution to this craziness that is the world that i see is to join the whole world together in order to accomplish one thing: interstellar space travel. if that is our goal as a world, these other concerns will fade into the background. we won't need to worry about these things, we will rather worry about things like: can we create artificial intelligence that could potentially mimic a mother's relationship to a child enough to raise babies in space using androids? can we come up with a fuel source strong enough to approach even a fraction of light speed? how strong can we make telescopes? how can we use dark matter to travel through space? is it better to create intergenerational spaceships or try to come up with deep freeze technology?

those are the issues i care about. in the spirit of my rant, i will now replace the adjective "french" with "space" in my speech, and i encourage all supporters of my agenda to do the same.

space-fries. space-toast. space-bread. space-wine. space-cheese. mastering the art of space cooking by julia childs.

best birthday present:

watching the britney spears episode of glee with andrew. jemaine and brett "simpsonized."

we went to eat tapas last night also. i am really awkward at tapas restaurants b/c i don't know how much food i am expected to order or when i should order it. do you order it all at once, start with a few dishes and then ask for the menu back? wtf? i tried googling it but there was no "how to order and eat tapas" page.

also, i always feel awkward when the server seems to want you to order alcohol. it makes me want to order it (and not drink) just so my waitress doesn't scuzz me out.

stupid waitresses. we should've just gone to bk....

(j/k, the food was yummy and andrew was perfect)

things i don't care about:

byu football
twitter
facebook
what celebs think about politics
heidi klum's opinions as a "fashion designer" (stick to being eye candy!)
boston college

last night...

andrew and i were finishing our date night in the usual way: looking up videos on youtube. i was comparing katy perry to lady gaga (sorry guys, gaga wins!), and andrew was looking at covers to death cab.

we decided to end on something we could all agree on: the bed intruder song. i know, i know, you are all onto bigger and funnier things on the internet. but really, there is something addictive about the song. i just can't help myself. so, andrew and i were watching and singing and dancing a little.

then andrew says, "man, i wish i could write lyrics like that. i mean, really, 'they're climbing in your window and snatching your people up...' those are some creative, amazing lyrics."

i agree, but you just can't make that stuff up. it is improv, it is "organic" (sorry peter, i know you hate that word... luckily you don't read our blog).

sometimes we will play the game, if you could go back in time and be a rock star what music would you write before the real bands who wrote it could?

me: weezer blue and pinkerton, pretty much any taylor swift song (yes, she counts!!!), green day dookie, no doubt tragic kingdom and return to saturn, alanis morissette's first two albums, brand new's song jesus, that black hole sun song, the pixie song that is awesome, tlc don't go chasing waterfalls and scrub, and some others.

Weber State Great Great Great!!!

This weekend Gwen and I went to the Weber State Boston College game. I guest blogged about it on weberhoops.com a site largely run by some friends and siblings from Ogden.

http://weberhoops.com/wildcatwall.htm

-Andrew Berger

catch up

i have a hard time posting pictures on blogs. please read this blog backwards.

thanks

gwen

the towels were quickly soaked. luckily they replaced the carpet and the mold smell is basically gone.

our apartment flooded a few saturdays ago. we were in the bedroom for about fifteen minutes for a rest on a rainy saturday afternoon and came out to a flooded apartment!!

good bye disney world! you are truly a benevolent dictator! i am so happy i didn't have to think for myself once while on vacation there!

no, andrew, don't go to the dark side!

You are so mischevious on huck island!

I'm on a train!!

I'm on a boat!!

Rusty!! Can you spot the tiger in this picture? Poor tiger, it was so hot.

It was all so well done!

Welcome to Disney World!!!

the bergers

Best friend brothers!!

Andrew was so mad I made him go to graduation. Food didn't even make him feel better.

Andrew's parents and brother Philip came out for Andrew's graduation. We are waiting for Suze Orman, at Andrew's graduation.

We made this turkey. Isn't it awesome??

Halloween 2010. Don't you think I should dye my hair silver?

Why I think strategic default is ok

A not so recent NPR story and a few podcasts and articles I’ve listened to and read have got me thinking about the following question: “If you find yourself underwater on your house (i.e. you owe more than your house is worth) is it morally ok to default on the loan and walk away from the house even if you are still able to make the monthly mortgage payments?”

When I first heard the question I immediately thought no. I figured that if you signed your name promising to pay you should feel morally obligated to do so as long as you were able to. Plus, with homeownership such a systemically important sector of our economy, a mass default would probably cause serious chaos. I have since decided that it is not immoral to strategically default on your mortgage if you find it is in your best interest to do so.

When you buy a house and take out a mortgage, you not only agree to amortize the loan over a long period of time, but there are several other provisions within the contract that you and the bank agree on, I would like to talk about one of these provisions—the embedded option to default. (Stay tuned for another blog entitled “why the government should get out of the mortgage market” that will discuss another embedded option—the pre-payment option)

Most states require bank to offer home loans with no other collateral than the home itself (called a non-recourse loan). If you cease to pay on the loan, the bank cannot come after your other assets—your 401k, your car, your jewelry and they can’t garner your wages until you’ve paid them back, they can simply take your house. This clause implies that the home buyer has an option to sell the house back to the bank for the amount he/she owes on it, even if the market rate of the house is lower than the amount of the loan. In finance this would be analogous to what is known as a put option. For example, suppose I buy a stock for $50 from Steve. I want to guarantee that in a year I will have be able to sell the stock for at least $50 so I pay Joe $1 for the right (not the obligation) to sell my stock to him for $50 no matter what it’s worth in 1 year. If In a year the stock price is $60, I will not sell my stock to Joe for $50 because I can sell it for $60 on the market. If, however, after a year, the price of the stock is $40, I can choose to sell it to Joe for $50. I lose only the $1 I paid to Joe (and I guess the opportunity cost of making the riskless rate of interest on the $50, but alas I digress). In a similar way when you buy a house you are also buying the option to sell the house back to the bank for what you owe on it, even though the bank will not be able to sell it for that much on the market. The important point I want to make is that THIS OPTION IS NOT FREE. Just like in the stock example I had to pay Joe $1 (the option premium) for the option, home buyers pay banks for this implied option through higher rates of interest (this option was probably underpriced in the market, but it existed nonetheless).

To say that homeowners should feel obligated to continue to pay on their houses even though they owe more than the house is worth is like saying to the stock buyer when the stock price is $40 on the option expiration date that he can’t sell his stock to Joe for $50 anymore, that that is immoral. Joe took your $1, he agreed to buy the stock for $50 no matter what it was worth. The bank took your interest and agreed that you could turn in the keys and they wouldn't take your Picasso if the house didn’t cover the loan (we’ll ignore the cost of a ruined credit score for this thought exercise).

To me the real question isn’t whether or not strategic default is immoral; it’s whether the government should require this provision to be in mortgage contracts. My inclination is that it should not (maybe that’s the libertarian in my blood). In Canada this embedded option is not required and as far as I know their mortgage market works fine. I imagine a world where banks offer several different types of mortgages with several different rates of interest. For those who want to protect themselves from large swings in house prices, there would be a mortgage with a non-recourse provision which charges a higher rate of interest. For those who want a lower rate of interest and are comfortable assuming the risk their house will decline in value, there would be recourse possible loans. I imagine that the option doesn’t even need to be embedded in the mortgage in the first place! Perhaps the bank offers a simple recourse loan and you can buy the option to sell your house for what you owe on it from an insurance company (options are insurance products).

What do you think? Is it immoral to default on your house if you can afford the payments? Should states require that mortgages have a non-recourse provision? I think there are rational arguments on both sides of these two questions.

-Andrew Berger

Side note: I said that I think the option was probably mispriced in the housing market—I think that’s true. This probably stems from the increased volatility in housing prices in general. Traditionally housing has been viewed as a stable investment, one that grows slowly (perhaps just a bit faster than inflation) and consistently, so this option was pretty worthless. In the mid 2000s we saw a boom in housing prices followed by a sharp decline. Maybe banks started charging less for this option when they thought housing prices would never fall, but really they should have seen how volatility had increased in housing prices and charged more for these options. Generally speaking increased volatility increases the value of options.

the next stephenie meyer

i dreamt last night that i was a shape shifter (werewolf) in a galaxy far far away. at some point, i was in a spaceship, fighting another werewolf for pack dominance.

shape shifters + space = book deal

great book idea, or best book idea ever?

i wish we could abolish spellcheck

a co-worker of mine laughed sharply at the office last week.

"what was that?"

"a friend of mine from high school just updated her facebook. she said she was mourning michael jackson. but she spelled it m-o-a-r-n-i-n-g."

"hmmm...." in my mind i immediately pictured a woman tearing out her hair and moaning in pain. she had created a brilliant new word! she wasn't just mourning! she was MOARNING! a state so far beyond, so much more intense then a mourn. the rest of the world may be mourning michael jackson. not her. no, she was truly moarning him. i was impressed, and jealous that i hadn't come up with such a descriptive use of language.

or maybe she just knew it wasn't morning, but couldn't quite make it down the list of vowels to u.

being responsible makes me fat

the stress
increased money supply (increased food supply)
decreased time supply (increased fast food supply)
increased intense working (increased intense snacking)

:(

Top 10 ways for Somerville to close its budget gap

10. Turn Somerville Ave into a toll road
9. Levy a property tax on people living in Cambridge
8. 50% tax on bankers bonuses
7. Bicycle excise tax
6. Swearing fine
5. Pay cut for all city officials
4. City parking meters in Market Basket's parking lot. If management complains threaten to investigate the store for child labor laws
3. Sell your half of Holden Green to Cambridge
2. Don't close it. Issue a bunch of bonds, default on them and then flip off Warren Buffet
1. Two words: Prison Labor

The best course of action is to hire me as a budget closing consultant. I can think of these all day long.

-Andrew Berger
The municipal budget analyst

procrastination

we have so many updates we need to do. andrew's parents came, andrew graduated, andrew passed his second actuary exam, we went to disney world. these updates will come with pictures soon.

but more importantly, tv sucks during the summer. the only bright spot? wipe out. it is a hilarious show that reminds me of the "iron chef" except with more action (is that possible?? yes!). check it out on hulu, there is a two hour "blind date" special. you'll be sure to lol.

happy summer

we have a new nephew!

Owen Mark Berger

Congratulations Mark and Jen!!!

Babies make me feel immortal.

Movie Review: Wuthering Heights

Every Sunday evening I get the craving to watch something PBS-ey, some period piece miniseries that takes six hours to finish and leaves you feeling happy and nostalgic. Andrew rarely gives in to my desire, hating both nostalgia and six hour chick flicks, but yesterday I was able to convince him. We watched Masterpiece Theater Classics Wuthering Heights, the 2009 version.

Has anyone read Wuthering Heights? I haven't. It was written in 1847 by a woman, Emily Bronte. I was certain the movie was going to be a great mini series, akin to Jane Austin or Elizabeth Glaskell. Full of family drama but ending with the protagonist happily married.

How have I lived my life as a bookie and 19th century nerd and never heard that Wuthering Heights was the most miserably depressing story ever told? It is full of death and selfishness and evil. The author even dies! One year after it was published.

Andrew and I sat watching, stunned expressions on our faces as the story unfolded. When Cathy tells Nelly that her love for Edger is like the changing leaves, but her love for Heathcliff is like the rocks below the vale. And then she marries Edger! When Heathcliff beds Cathy's husband's sister in revenge for Cathy getting pregnant by her own husband! Then Cathy dies and Heathcliff continues to ruin everyone's lives instead of just killing himself right then!

Andrew and I both went to bed last night disturbed. Andrew was particularly upset by all of the incest. "Isn't Heathcliff like her BROTHER?"

But their love was so passionate and wild! I don't regret watching it but it was NOT what I was expecting!!

My damn econ final

Kind of based on a text conversation Gwen and I had

Andrew: I just finished my damn final

Gwen: Which final was that?

Andrew: My damn final

Gwen: What’s your damn final?

Andrew: Gwen no need for profanity, like I said my damn final. Damn as in Economics

Gwen: Oh your econ final

Andrew: That’s what I said! MY DAMN FINAL!

I guess 3266 spells both damn and econ and in my phone damn comes up first.

-Andrew

delicate constitution part 2: i've always had issues with my tongue

this blog is brought to you by the letter s

as a little girl I lisped. I also pronounced all of my r’s as w’s. this isn’t abnormal for children. since it didn’t go away by third grade, my parents decided to put me in “speech therapy.” a speech therapist employed by the school would drag me out of class and I would go to a little office to play games and work to pronounce all my letters properly. by the end of fifth grade, I was an excellent rummikub player and could successfully pronounce the letter r. by middle school, I was one of only two tweens in my class who still had to go to speech therapy because of my persistent lisp. it wasn’t at all traumatic, as the others never knew where I went and I was excused from gym on a weekly basis. eventually, the system gave up on my lisp and my inability to change. to this day, when angry or especially tired, I drop my r’s and my lisp becomes more pronounced.

on Tuesday morning I went to the dentist to get a cavity filled. I have very bad teeth. it is a legend in my family that my bad teeth are a result of my mother being pregnant with me in west germany during Chernobyl. Andrew and I haven’t had dental insurance since we got married, so we haven’t been the dentist in two years. when dental kicked in after working at the bureau for three months, I quickly made an appointment. Andrew was fine, but I had one cavity.

I strolled to the dentist Tuesday morning while listening to radio lab’s recent episode, “animal minds.” i ended up in the dental chair in a relaxed mood, thinking about how humans could communicate with whales. the dentist pulled up a chair and handed me sunglasses to “protect my eyes from the bright light.”

“wow” I thought. “that is really considerate.”

she began administering the anesthesia. almost immediately, my tongue began to go numb and the pinching, miserable pain in my jaw was echoed in my tongue.

“holy sh*t…it feels like she poked the needle through my tongue…”

after about thirty seconds, the pain became unbearable and tears began to stream uncontrollably down my face.

“don’t worry, I’m halfway through. I am going slow so it doesn’t hurt as bad.”

when she was finished, she began to put my chair back up right.

“wait, wait! I’m going to pass out! please put the chair back down.” it was so traumatic I almost fainted. which isn’t that abnormal, to be honest.

she continued on with the procedure, and I left the office an hour later.

by noon the anesthesia had worn off in my lips and jaw, and my tooth began to ache. weird, my tongue was still numb. by six pm, my tongue was still numb. by the next morning, twenty four hours after getting the anesthesia, my tongue was still numb!

I called the dentist. she didn’t speak to me. the receptionist informed me that it should wear off in about five days. I didn’t believe her, and looked it up online. that’s where I first heard about the sub lingua nerve and permanent nerve damage caused by dental work. I called my parents, and freaked out! they called their dentist, who remembered me and talked them through it. she most likely went through my sub lingua nerve, which is why the anesthesia was so painful. the pain was her damaging my nerve. if I’m lucky, it will recover in one to two months. if I’m not lucky, it could take up to two years.

it feels like I am licking a battery, or that there are little evil gnomes electrocuting the left side of my tongue every time I move it.

surprisingly, this makes me eat more. maybe chips will make it feel better. no? maybe chocolate. no? maybe mint chocolate. still not better…maybe a bratwurst. hmmm, still feels bad. I should drink a couple glasses of diet coke. nope, still hurts…hey, what about veggie straws? half a bag later, I feel like vomiting and my tongue still hurts.

delicate constitution

for the past few days i have had vertigo. the world keeps tilting on its axis and spinning slightly to the left. wtf?

in other news, i think i am going to sign up for a pottery class.

Happy Easter!

we had a wonderful easter potluck at our place sunday night. our friends barry and amelia hosted a delicious and beautiful potluck brunch earlier, and i was sort of hoping a more capable hostess would step up for easter dinner. but i wanted it too badly to wait, so i volunteered our place. it's at least big.

i had a ton of help from my friend eunice frying up about 5 lbs of tofu. that's a lot of tofu for those of you don't eat tofu. unfortunately, disaster hit when i realized we didn't have soy sauce. i was really convinced we did during the THREE shopping trips (without a car) i took to get food for sunday. but we didn't, so i ended up just putting a crap load of maple syrup in the orange glaze i put on the tofu. people said it tasted like "a tofu waffle." i guess that could be taken as a compliment...

we also had an easter family program. everyone talked about a day during holy week or another topic related to easter. it was wonderful. we learned about weird polish customs that include beating judas iscariot, we heard amazing easter vespers music, and even got a few mardi gras beads.

thanks to everyone who came. we had a great time and fell into bed exhausted from the fun, food, friends, and family program.

i was taking a bunch of pictures of the people at the party, when my friend's toddler (who gets his picture taken quite often) really got into having his picture taken. he kept saying, "again!" so i kept taking pictures of him. then he decided he wanted a turn. "my turn!" i handed over the camera, and he quickly became an expert. i showed him where the button was and he was taking pictures all by himself. i've decided to post the pictures andrew and i took, and then below that the pictures by our toddler friend.





pink cardigans





not as pretty as their wives

yes, my friends look like mermaids.

she is not a teenage mother.

andrew crosses his legs like a european.

we could fit twice as many people, if we found out a way to utilize our high ceilings.

liser!!

babies and beads! they kept trying to eat them.

green shirts.

"my turn!"

surprisingly, andrew is not the angriest person in this photo...

our artsy friends.

you can see me in this one.

the following are pictures taken by our toddler friend. the captions are written in his voice.

self portrait.

liser!!!

mommy!

i can only see faces if you are sitting. don't you get it yet? i am short...

i like to take artsy photos.

who's that?! dan! (this picture may have been taken by someone else...)

man that wears toys on his head! (ditto)

who's the real photographer here?!

my godparents!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW!!

It's Andrew's birthday today. He is once again as old as I am. Happy Birthday, Andrew! I am so glad that you were accidentally conceived and birthed exactly six months after I was. I am also so glad that your mom stopped taking that medication while she was pregnant that probably would have made you a little different. Your parents were very inspired, and because of you I will never say that six boys are too many!!

It is amazing to be married to a best friend. It is like having the best roommate ever!!

Andrew, I love you even when you are stressed out and beard-y. How could I not, when you love me in all of my sweat pants no-makeup glory?

It has been a joy growing up with you. I look forward to growing old with you (although if I had my way, we'd turn into vampires).

Our Venn Diagram

Taxes and Weather

Around April 15th I think a lot about taxes. From November through April I think a lot about the weather. There are, therefore, a few weeks overlap between these two time periods which lead me to think about both weather and taxes.

Everyone hates paying taxes. In March, everyone in New England, after a long and miserably cold and wet winter, hates living in New England.

California has high taxes. It has a progressive state income tax. It also has great weather. Alaska has low taxes. It has no income tax. It also has awful weather. Do you think that in order to be incentivized to live in a miserable place like Alaska, people need to face lower taxes? Conversely, do you think that the government in California can charge higher tax rates because it takes a lot to deter people from soaking in the rays of Cali?

I did.

I decided to put together some data to see if there was a relationship between state and local tax rates and weather. For state and local tax rates I used data from the tax foundation at CNNMoney. For weather I looked at the average temperature for each state. I plotted the two against each other and found:



I was wrong

There seems to be no correlation between the two. Each dot represents a state and the red line is the trend line.

My results are hardly conclusive. Both variables aren’t very accurate. For taxes, it would be interesting to see average income tax, average sales tax and average property tax separately. For weather, I don’t think average temperature is the best measurement. It would be interesting to find some sort of "good weather index", one that takes into account rain fall, snow fall, temperature volatility, etc. If you find either of these, send it my way.

I suppose the reason there is no trend might be because there are different preferences in both taxes and weather. Some people prefer higher taxes and more public services; some people prefer lower taxes and fewer public services. Some people’s ideal world has snow year round, others (like me) would prefer month after month of highs in the 70s and 80s.

If you are looking for a mediocre 6th grade science fair project, feel free to plagiarize my idea and results.

this is not a joni mitchell or counting crows tribute

I’ve been sick the past couple of days. It is miserable, especially since the weather is so nice out. Actually, I think it is the nice weather that is at the root of my illness. I always get sick in the spring. Last year it was during my spring break. This year, I am so lucky I don’t have a spring break! It would surely have been ruined by my sickness.

Speaking of things that make you sick, Andrew and I watched this documentary the other night with some friends.

It was intense. I think it upset me more than anyone because I don’t have the self righteousness of being vegan or vegetarian to stand on. Sure, I love dolphins and mammals of the sea. I would never eat one and I would never hurt one. But cows, pigs, chickens, lamb, and pretty much any mammal or bird of the earth that isn’t a rodent? Yes, please! And if it’s cooked Korean style, I’ll have thirds!!

I grew up a vegetarian. When I was pretty young, my mom decided that the meat industry was evil and horrible and that we shouldn’t support it. During my most formidable years I only ate vegetation. It wasn’t just an ideology imposed on me by parents. I believed in being a vegetarian. I believed in living a life that didn’t depend on other living things being tortured and dying.

For some reason, living abroad in a country where people routinely starve made me lose most of my ideology. So, I ate animals and didn’t care. I didn’t recycle and didn’t care. I didn’t pray and didn’t care. I came home to Andrew a meat eater, and Andrew came home to me caring about poverty. It was a strange turn of events, so we decided to get married.

Living in Cambridge, among the most idealistic people in the country, has helped me realize I should care. So we recycle, we go to church, we buy homeless people at Burger King a double Whopper. That’s right, we still eat meat. Part of the reason is b/c of Andrew. Part of the reason is because I’m lazy. Part of the reason is because I still am skeptical of idealism and the impact of an individual.

Then we watched The Cove. It was my idea, because I love dolphins and I also kind of like making myself feel depressed. As we watched it, I realized that not only do we kill mammals of the sea with little regard to their lives, we commit atrocious acts in the name of “living” all of the time. The very existence of humanity rests on the complete destruction of ALL living things, not just things with a heartbeat. We are huge bulldozers that destroy the paradise that God created for us. We attribute our existence, and the existence of the world to God, but we have done such a very terrible job of taking care of the earth, of living peacefully with the most incredible manifestation of God’s existence. Our lives depend somewhat on destruction. But we take it to a new level, we enjoy destroying, conquering. Dolphins are just a PG 13 version of what we do to each other and every other living thing on the planet.

I am no longer ok with being a creature of destruction. I’m just not sure it’s possible to change.

Home Improvement!

There is nothing like home improvement projects to test the health of your marriage. We sanded and painted a bunch of stuff over the past month or so.

The Desk:


Gwen sanding by hand the crevasses in the desk.


Sanding the desk. This picture would be really creepy if the harmless sander were a chainsaw. Keep in mind this New England in February, it's freaking cold out there.



I wish I had taken some pictures of the stuff before we started the project. This is as close as a before picture to a desk as possible. At least you can see the color difference.

After! After long conversations and debates over what color we should repaint the desk we picked these two colors on sort of a whim while in Home Depot. I'd also like to point out that the curtains in the background are also homemade -- Gwen sewed them a few months ago.

This is an old black $10 Ikea coffee table that had a huge scratch in it that we decided to repaint. After repainting it we realized it didn't turn out so good so we found a new coffee table on craigs list a few blocks away that "needed to be refinished". We jumped on the opportunity and bought a new, real wood coffee table, sanded it and repainted it. I think it turned out great

We ended up keeping the old coffee table too. We just couldn't let go.

Next we built four shelves. I also painted the picture frame. There are two shelves in the living room and two in the kitchen.