Proverbs 31:10-31

10 A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.

11 Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.

12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.

13 She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.

14 She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.

15 She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.

16 She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

17 She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.

18 She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.

19 In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

20 She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.

21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

22 She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

23 Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.

25 She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.

26 She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

27 She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

28 Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:

29 "Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."

30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

31 Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Into Thin(ish) Air

Recently I have been rereading this book about climbing Mount Everest called "Into Thin Air." The first time I read it it terrified me and I couldn't imagine why anyone would subject themselves to that kind of torture, or why they would risk their lives to climb a mountain. Climbing Everest was definitly the last thing on earth I wanted to do. But reading the book again almost 10 years later I am feeling a bit differently about it...I sort of find the whole thing a bit thrilling. Like, maybe I wouldn't want to climb Mount Everest, but the idea of climbing big mountains is very appealing. I think I may be coming down with a bit of "summit fever." Not 29,000 foot summit fever, but rather 11,000 - 13,000 foot summit fever. I suddenly want to climb a whole bunch of mountains. And I don't just want to walk up the mountain to the peak, I want to be challenged and risk a little more to get to the top. So this weekend David is giving me the opportunity to try something a bit more technical. We are going to climb Mount Athabasca.

I am pretty excited. There will be harnesses, ropes, ice axes, crampons, glaciers, crevasses, seracs...just like in the book. To a considerably lesser degree that is (although it would be cool to climb something that required sherpa assistance), but still it will be awesome.

We aren't leaving for our climb for another couple days but I was so excited that, to my roommates surprise, I felt the need to put on all my gear and walk around the house in it. If they think that is weird, wait until snowboarding season when I am tromping around my house in snowsuit, toque, goggles, mitts, and snowboarding boots. They really haven't seen anything yet...

loser club

So a couple of years ago I was having a conversation with Julie Greidanus (now Taylor) about something kind of geeky. We were discussing how exciting it is to get email. Especially when you are sitting at your computer and you hear that new email notification chime that you get when you are signed into msn messenger. AND when you see that little window that tells you that you have a new email...yeah, super thrilling. Actually when we were talking about it, we both realized that, not only were we excited to get new email, but we were excited talking about getting new email. In the end (and with the help of another friend who was listening to our head spinning conversation) we concluded that we were big losers and that we should make a club and proclaim ourselves co-presidents. We would call this club simply "Loser Club" and anyone else who could admit to their own nerdy habits would be welcome to join. Anyway, I sort of forgot about this conversation after awhile, that is, until Julie gave me this special present for my birthday...


The other day I found myself very excited by a new email I got from Julie so I decided to go whip the shirt back out. This is for you Julie...we obviously can't fight it so let us embrace our loser status!

stalker

I'd be super surprised if people even thought to check our blog seeing as we have basically abandoned it over the summer. Actually we started abandoning it even earlier than that but were mostly in denial about it. Stupid facebook. It is so time consuming and yet a poor substitute for blogging. Not that we ever blogged about anything substantial...
So summer whizzed by even faster than it whizzed by last year. I spend the better part of the year wishing for summer to come (the sad fact about canada is that the better half of the year happens to be winter) and then in a blink it has come and gone and I am left feeling this great loss. After my 23 years of summers and winters though, I have decided it's time to cope better with seasonal changes and maybe even try to embrace them. Now if we could only get rid of February, March, and April this task would be easier (my apologies to everyone who has a birthday in these months - you would just have to do without). For some reason those 3 months seem to drag out winter to the max. And don't get me wrong, I really love winter, it's just that eventually one gets tired from being under all those layers.
Anyway, onward to fall. I think New Years should start in September. I can't really explain why, but it just makes sense. School starts, the air gets colder, people return from their summer adventures...and stuff. It just seems like a good time to change life up. You know, buy a new pet (just in case the old one[s] dies in a tragic accident that has nothing whatsoever to do with the owner), get a new hairstyle (double mohawk anyone? hengen?), new timing belt...whatever strikes ones fancy really. Due to my inability to think for myself, I've decided to copy everyone else in my family and take up photography. I'm not expecting anything big here, I just got this new toy for my birthday (a very pretty, almost-new SLR) and now I want to photograph everything in site. Although one of my most recent observations is that fancy cameras have this magical ability to turn even the most innocent, unsuspecting individuals into creepy stalkers. I would like to avoid this if at all possible. Either that or harness it and turn it into something useful. I was thinking that for all the camera stalking my brother Kevan does in his business he would probably be quite successful as a sniper. I mean, there are obvious steps, like maybe he'd try his hand as paparazzi before jumping straight into the sniper business. And yeah, maybe he'd have to learn how to use a gun or poison blow dart shooter or something. Perhaps I will mention this to him. Now that he is no longer teacher full-time this might be a nice little side business apart from his photography business.
I completely forgot what the point of this post was. Oh wait, I never had a point to begin with! Regardless, I feel the need to end this somehow. So...
In conclusion, I really dislike eating fish.