Snow Day

A bit of a surprise this morning . . .


We were not expecting snow. Here's how much we got at our house . . .

Some folks at other ends of the county didn't see a flake. One friend got 12 inches. Very strange weather. After we shoveled the drive and sidewalk, Sean had some fun.

It is a beautiful, snowy day in our neighborhood.


(It is trash day. I hope they come and get it. We do have a recycling bin under the snow somewhere.)

Africa

I saw a documentary on a blog tonight that tore my heart to shreds, and then gently put it back together.
It was of a small village in a dark corner of Uganda, with two little children whose bodies had been ravaged by starvation and polio. They were left hopeless, and abandoned cared for only by their older sister who walked a few miles just to get water to bathe them. With no food or hope in sight, she knew the least she could do was pick them up out of the dirt and dust and cleanse their broken bodies. I sat here as the tears welled up.

Fortunately, the children were rescued in the nick of time by a charitable organization that took them from the shackles of their deadly circumstances and put them in a home where they received medical attention, and rehabilitation.

I am trying to process the deep confusion I have as to why this is a scene all to familiar from Africa. Why does the continent with the most natural wealth and resources on the planet have so many parts that suffer like this. Why? Civil war, famine, AIDS, dictatorships, polio, rebel fighting, government coups, corruption...the list goes on and on.

I spoke for hours with an old friend of mine last night. They emigrated from South Africa to Canada 2 years ago. His story is amazing. They left their home, (like me) to find a better life elsewhere. He told me that his whole outlook on life has changed. No longer is he living in a constant state of stress, wondering when his house is going to get broken into again, or if he is going to be carjacked on the way to work. His wife can play with their daughter in the park, and he knows they will come home that night.

While I love the USA, there are times when my heart yearns for Africa. The smell of the sweet air after a rainstorm. The feel of the warm, dry Drakensberg winds. The sound of the Indian ocean crashing onto a rocky beach. Looking up at night and feeling the Southern Cross looming safely over me. We left our home for a better life, and we found it but all in all, why did it have to be that way? Why couldn't we have had a better life on the continent of my birth, of 5 generations of my family.

Africa's problems run deep into the earth. I don't know the answer. Perhaps it is the hapless victim of the human nature to take, take, take. Almost as if God gave all humanity this wonderful gift brimming with life, color and variety - and all we've done collectively is to pull it to shreds.

If there is any doubt that man is born with a sinful nature, I present Africa as compelling evidence.

Sean.

Winter Baby

Sean and I are getting an Old English Sheepdog. Right now she's small. Fairly soon, she'll be big. We have to wait for another 2 weeks to bring her home. Ugh! That's so long. Let the photos speak for themselves. Our Winter is adorable! Link

We are geeks

Here are the top 5 best geek toys I bought in 2008.

1. Iphone. If you don't have this device yet, you need it. It will change your life. You will become hopelessly addicted to the ability to be in touch all the time. You will lie in bed at night quietly tapping the screen and surfing the web while desperately trying not to wake up your wife.
You will roll over as you wake up in the morning, and make a half-eyed reach in the dark for your phone. Yes, its that bad.

2. Apple TV. Simply put, brilliant. Stream your entire music library to your living room. No more CD's or CD cases laying around. Download HD movies, view your all your photos (from your flickr account) directly on your big screen TV. We love this thing, and use it all the time. It looks nice too.

3. 42" Toshiba HDTV. Need I say more? Sweeeeet.

4. Tamron 17-35 F2.8 wide angle lens. Take my word for it, this lens takes pictures so sharp its ridiculous. I love it - the F2.8 part is pretty nice too.

5. Flickr Pro account. Ok, so this was $24.95 per year. But, you get unlimited uploads, and anyone can view our photos online any where at anytime and download them to their hearts content. The interface is fun, and easy to use. If you are looking for a service like this, I highly recommend it.

Special mention goes to: Facebook.
While being completely free, I am amazed at how this little application has taken off. Its so much better that Myspace because, well, Myspace sucked.
For those of you who have it, you know you are addicted. Come on, admit it.

I am such a geek.

Sean.

Avalanche

I spent the past weekend at a camp with 150 middle schooler's from LCBC. To say I had a great time would be an understatement. It felt really refreshing to just get out of town for a few days, and hang around with some good friends. Getting to play some bangin' rock and roll worship didn't hurt either. I am amazed at the energy of middle schooler's. Its either full speed go, or a full stop - with nothing in between.

I took the trusty Canon 30D with me and snapped some candid shots of us spending some time backstage. I love that camera, almost as much as my guitar, Susan. After using it for a while now, it just feels like an extension of my eye - I just look, focus and push the button. Snap, there you have it.

Oh well, there's not much else going on these days. I can't believe its almost February.

You can check out the photos from the camp here

Not your fault

As I turned into the last corner on my long trip home tonight, my ear caught these words from a commercial playing over the car radio. It went something like this: "Are you in more than ten thousand dollars worth of debt? Do your credit cards have you locked down? Are you tired of calls from collectors? We'll it's not your fault."
"What?" I thought, as I felt for the button on the garage door opener. How is being in debt way over your own head, not your own fault?" I turned the car off, and left the radio on, determined to listen a little closer. In what can only be described as some brilliant Americanized marketing, the voice I was now hearing went on to explain to me that credit card companies have devised a scheme to "keep you in debt" because "that's how they make their money."
Wait a minute. If I spent over $10,000 dollars of someone else's money and I cant pay it back then just how does that profit them?
Well, to cut a long story short, this genius has devised a plan (not for free I might add) to get you out of debt, and a way to stop the "evil" credit card companies from calling you.

Why not just pay what you rightfully owe? Oh that's right, you cant because you don't have any money.

Personal responsibility. We seem to be missing that in our country these days. I remember amassing quite a large debt with a certain credit card company in my early twenties, but I don't seem to remember an "evil agent" from Visa putting a gun in my back, forcing me to spend money. Oh no, I did that all by myself. Because we are all taught that having debt is normal right? One needs to "build your credit" when you are young so you can take on more debt when you are much older. Spend now so you can be more in debt later - got it.
And why have a savings account for a rainy day - isn't that what a credit card is for? Yes, of course, because borrowing more money when you are flat broke is always a good idea. Especially at a 21% APR.

These days, normal is broke, or only 4 weeks away from it.

I'm proud to say that we (Marci and I) are free of all debt, but our home. You read that right, no car payment, credit cards, student loans - nothing. Why, because we got sick and tired of owing everyone else money. It took 3 years of hard work. Marci (a.k.a Minister of Finances) wrote out the last check for someone else, last year. I cant tell you how liberating this experience was. I firmly believe that one of the reasons we have a great marriage is because we are not under the stress of debt anymore. You should try it.




Sean.

New day

Ok.
So a few words on today's inauguration. Call it historic, "full of change" significant, touching, whatever. If it didn't remind you at least once somewhere deep in your soul that this is truly the greatest country in the world, and that we are truly blessed, you must have a heart of stone.

Whatever side of the fence you fall on, God Bless America, and may God bless our new President.

Lord knows he is going to need it.

S.

Cutting Boards

Sean and I have gone through about 3 wooden cutting boards in our 4 1/2 years of marriage. Apparently an owner of a cutting is supposed to treat a wooden cutting board with utmost care (ie. rub with mineral oil, wash properly, store in upright position), and apparently we are completely clueless. Our boards tend to warp and split apart, so we toss it out and purchase another one. On a stroll through the mall today, while sipping Starbucks, we ventured into Williams-Sonoma. With the intent to simply browse, we came upon the cutting board section. Then Jen, the very knowledgeable sales woman, joined us. After a little lesson on cutting boards, we purchased a not-so-cheap cutting board from said sales woman. Turns out it's the very low maintenance sort of cutting board - knife friendly, composite material, dishwasher safe - my kind of equipment. As I type this Sean is raising a racket in the kitchen as he tries to properly store the new board. I did a quick search on the care of cutting boards and came upon this site. I liked it first for the name "Men In Aprons," and secondly for the information. For your own education, have a look. Maybe you too need to know how to properly care for your cutting board.

http://www.meninaprons.net/archives/2007/04/3_keys_to_wooden_cutting_board.html

Man (I mean..) "hobby room" complete

I have almost completed construction of our "hobby room." I have to call it this since "man room" is not politically correct around my, I mean "our" house.

For years I have dreamed of this. A room where I can record music, set up my gear and leave it out, have some space to move around. No more practice in the cold, lonely basement, or dragging my amp up and down the stairs, ugh.

I think that poor Marci has dreamed of this too, a room where she can close the door on all of my junk without having to step over miles of cables and guitar stuff. At least now our nice study downstairs will stay that way - "nice." She can use this room for all of her scrapbooking as well.

Is it weird that we now essentially have 2 rooms with full scale desk's and whatnot in our home?
At first I was bothered by this, but then I realized that I could care less what people think.
There's only two of us in this big four bedroom home, we might as well use it all.

Here are the pics. We still need to paint, but you get the idea.

Welcome, Welcome

Just a quick blog to officially welcome the new MacBook into the Steele Family.

Hello little Mac, we are glad you are here. Hopefully you will give much better performance than your retarded cousin, - my work PC.




Sean.