Happy Thanksgiving!

Drove to Daniel's and Jennifer's for a two-day Thanksgiving retreat. I'll let the pix tell the story:

Lots of reading Wednesday night -- The Goat Lady and Make Way for Ducklings:




Then Daniel continued the nightly installment of the George MacDonald stories. These are intensely deep, complicated, and fantastical, steered by MacDonald's biblical/moral compass. The fact that the girls can follow and comprehend these stories puts them in the rarefied air of those who even know who MacDonald is, much less appreciate what he wrote. If you're not familiar with him, read just the first few paragraphs of the Wikipedia article on him to see his influence on people like J.R.R. Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, et al. While the girls look distracted, when Daniel would ask them questions later about what he had read, it was obvious they were listening:




The next day, Ellen read the entire Make Way for Ducklings book to me without missing a beat, and Arianna read me a chapter from one of her books. They are amazing readers:




I took my waffle maker for Belgian blueberry waffles on T'giving morning, ably assisted by Ellen and Arianna:



The tedium of waiting on the waffles was relieved by multiple helpings of the seasonal Kruidenier opiate, Silk Nog:




Chef Daniel helped prepare my contribution to the meal, a rice-eggplant-whatever dish that turned out surprisingly well:



Jen prepared an amazing vegan Thanksgiving feast: two Tofurkeys w/ dressing and gravy, her own (much better) stuffing, sage mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes topped with vegan marshallow, broccoli slaw salad, from-scratch cranberry sauce, croissant rolls, plus my rice-eggplant thing . . .









And her from-scratch apple pie for dessert (and brownies as well):



After recuperating from a wonderful meal, we took the obligatory post-feast walk in the neighborhood before tackling dessert:



Bookin' it:




Then it was time for pictures in the front yard:






















Look at this beautiful hair:




Then it was time to decorate -- while Daniel and I strung white lights on the outside of the house, Jen and the girls set up the manger scene and the Christmas village:










And a few miscellaneous shots to wrap up:

Arianna getting comfortable with Grandaddy's camera:




Daniel and girls in serious reading mode. Ellen and Arianna gave up their room for Grandaddy and camped on the playroom floor. I was happy to see their L. L. Bean sleeping bags that I gave them for Christmas a couple years ago holding up and serving well.




Here's Ellie getting in a few final pages before lights out. (Credit to Jen for this great shot.)




Thanks to DJEA for great hospitality and a good time and happy Thanksgiving. By the way, if anybody wants a copy of any of these pix (plus more that I didn't post in the blog for lack of space), just click on any picture and you'll be taken to my Flickr account where you can download various sizes of all the pix. (Click on "William Kruidenier's Photostream" to navigate away from a single picture back to a layout of all the pix, and go to succeeding pages via the arrows at the bottom of the page. Click on the picture you want, then click on the "All Sizes" icon above the picture and you'll see a download button for each size you click on.) And thanks to Jen for taking many of the pix on this page!

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Not Looking Good

Not to be an alarmist, but some analysts outside the U.S. don't think America will recover. (And who can blame them?) You can read the views of a Russian political analyst here -- he sees the U.S. being broken up into six smaller units. Granted, the Ruskies have always had an elevated opinion of their own competencies compared to others. But his views are just an example of how dire the situation looks to those who are standing at a distance and shaking their heads -- and anticipating the worst.

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Books Off the Floor

The bookcases are up and 98% (give or take) of the books are on the shelves. What a project -- can't believe I lived with the "mess" (below) for so long. Built the first six bookcases 2-3 years ago, then finally got the remainder up over the last couple of weeks. Thanks to my friends Dave and Paul for lending time and expertise to the process on two different days -- many hands and backs make for light work.

The need for more shelves:





Dave helped me move the workstation out of the corner and into the middle of the room, and move the new bookcases from the garage to the office:





Paul helped me space out the books in the existing shelves and begin loading new books into the new shelves:





Finally, most of the books are in the new bookcases, with expansion room left over:



And a little tour of the whole operation (with accompaniment from the FolkAlley.com streaming radio station -- great background music 24x7 -- folk, traditional, Celtic, acoustic -- great blend -- I started filming when some guy started wailin' that "love can be a messy thang" -- profound, though I can't argue). Still a lot of odds-'n-ends to put away, but you'll get the general idea: (Click the arrow to play.)



Lots of these books will (hopefully) be gone in the months ahead as I winnow out what I no longer need or have interest in. I dug into several boxes of books I had brought from my parents' home in Alabama -- lots of my childhood books, gift-books from my grandmothers when I was small (9-10 years old): not children's books, but biographies, histories, "documentary" books. I was really amazed to see them, and realize how much my own love of books and learning was fueled by grandmothers and parents who were constant readers themselves, and who made sure we had challenging books to read and well-worn library cards.

My focus the last 8-9 years has been on food, health, gardening, agriculture, sustainable living, and the like, and books on those subjects comprise much of what needed organizing and shelving, which I did in four categories:

Food Production (gardening, farming)
Food Preparation (kitchen, etc.)
Food Processing (processing by the body -- health, etc.)
Food Promotion (books on worldview and philosophy related to the above subjects, including a dearth of books from a biblical/Christian perspective, more of which are needed -- not needed to be bought, but written)

Now -- back to work.

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The End of the Great Avocado Experiment

The avocado trees have taken a beating in the freezing nighttime temps lately:







Strangely, there was one tree that had sprouted near the house that suffered nothing in the cold -- looked just fine. It's supposed to go down to 17 degrees tonight, so this afternoon I dug it up and put it in a large planter and brought it indoors (in front of a south-facing window) for the remainder of the winter. This was motivated by Daniel's friend Hector who has had an avocado tree growing inside for several years and is quite tall. So I'll make a house-tree out of this one and see what happens:

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Have a Nice Day

WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - U.S. economic and political clout will decline over the next two decades and the world will be more dangerous, with food and water scarce and advanced weapons plentiful, U.S. spy agencies projected on Thursday.

The National Intelligence Council analysis "Global Trends 2025" also said the current financial crisis on Wall Street is just the first phase of a global economic reordering. The U.S. dollar's role as the world's major currency would weaken to become a "first among equals," the report said.

The outlook is intended to inform U.S. President-elect Barack Obama of factors that will influence global events. It is based on a year-long global survey of experts and trends by U.S. intelligence analysts.

If that much of the article doesn't cheer you up, you can read the rest of it here.
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A Great Innovation

"They" often say that the best ideas are the simplest ideas. I've found something that seems to verify that observation. You may already be using this product, but I like it so much that I want to pass the word on.

At least two paper towel producers (there may be more) that I have found are now producing standard rolls of kitchen-type paper towels with a twist. Instead of the standard-size large sheets that you tear off the roll, that standard sheet now has an additional perforation in the middle of the sheet, allowing you to tear off only HALF a standard sheet instead of a whole sheet. I have found that the VAST majority of times I need a paper towel in the kitchen or bathroom, a half-sheet does just fine. If I use a half sheet instead of a large sheet, I use half as much paper (trees) and the rolls last twice as long. What amazes me is that these companies have been willing to introduce this innovation at the risk of reducing the sale of rolls of paper towels since a roll now lasts longer. (I may be missing something there -- let me know if you see it.)

The two brands I've found that are putting in the extra perforation in the standard size sheets are Brawny and Bounty. Look on the outside of the packaging: You'll see a feature advertised like "Pick-a-Size" or "Select-a-Size" for the ones with this feature.

So now instead of being limited to one or more standard sizes of sheets, you can tear off sheets in multiples of half-sizes. For me, a half-sheet accomplishes almost everything I need. Very cool idea.

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Okay, I Confess

I have laughed at these two movie trailers so many times that I finally decided to out myself and admit that Jim Carrey cracks me up. The older he gets as an actor, the more I like him. Even though he is still a wacko in his movies, there is a maturity in this one that I really like. He's a winsome, likable guy in this movie, which draws me to him -- and maybe one of the funniest people on the planet. I won't go see the movie because it (apparently) has stuff in it I don't want to pay to see, but the trailers are clean -- and hilarious. (Especially the "Red Bull" and "Korean class" scenes.)

There are two different trailers available for the movie "Yes" at the Apple trailer site, here. They are slightly different, both with very funny scenes, so watch them both.
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Norma for President

A friend sent me this guest editorial from a newspaper somewhere -- the lady appears to be a private citizen who offered her opinion on change to her local newspaper, and they printed it. I like her ideas. Why wasn't she on the ticket this past November 4?

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10 Healthiest Grocery Store Chains

CNN.com reported on a study to find the healthiest grocery store chains in America. You can read here about the original study, the judges panel, and the vocal complaints from lots of readers that their local-favorite stores weren't included -- like Wegmans, the legendary New England chain that supposedly is the most customer-friendly grocery store chain in America, even if not the healthiest.

Here's the list, in descending order from #1 to #10. (How did Food Lion get in there?):

Whole Foods
Safeway
Harris Teeter
Trader Joe's
Hannaford
Albertsons
Food Lion
Publix Super Markets
Pathmark
SuperTarget

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A Piper Worth Following

I know the election is over -- but here are some wise reflections for Christians from the voice of one worth listening to: pastor John Piper. He is an elder statesman for the church at large -- a strong, sober, and sane voice for biblical thinking:

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Morning Glory

Don't know what these bushes are named that are in my front yard, but they do this outlandish color display every fall. Took this picture in this morning's early light: (Full disclosure: the reds are more saturated here than they are in real life due to a bit of digital enhancement -- not unlike the analog enhancement we do to ourselves when we want to look our best, right?)

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The Beautiful Truth

Here's a short trailer to a very important movie opening in L.A. and New York City this month. You can view the longer trailer at the Apple trailer site.



This is a movie that tells the story of cancer and how one man, Dr. Max Gerson, a German doctor, discovered that cancer could be cured nutritionally. The American Medical Association (along with sanctioning doctors to appear in cigarette advertisements and commercials) was so threatened by Dr. Gerson's work in the late 1940's and early 1950's that they used all manner of surreptitious means to shut him down and make his work illegal -- Dr. Gerson being the man that Dr. Albert Schweitzer called "one of the most eminent geniuses in the history of medicine." I have read the books available by and about Dr. Gerson -- they were a primary impetus in my own pursuit of the power of nutritional healing therapies. (Dr. Gerson's work is carried on by his daughter, Charlotte Gerson, at the Gerson Institute in San Diego, though the Gerson Therapy has to be practiced at a hospital across the border in Mexico -- it's illegal for doctors to use the Gerson nutritional therapies in the U.S. And you didn't think the AMA has power?)

From what I can tell, this movie isn't scheduled for nationwide distribution -- only the two openings in L.A. and New York later this month. You can read more about the movie at its website.

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Do You Have P-O-V.S.D. (Post-Obama-Victory Stress Disorder)?

From the Onion News Network comes this latest news flash. (If you're not a fan of TheOnion.com, you may not want to watch. Thanks to Paul Stack for the tip.)


Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

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Animal Scenes

A couple of pictures I came across in magazines that touched me.

The first is of workers in a knife factory in France, taken around 1900. The craftsmen lay on their stomachs all day to sharpen knives as it was easier on their backs (the whetstones being out of sight, below their platforms). The workers would bring their dogs to work not only for the companionship but to keep their legs warm as they worked. You can see two of the dogs resting between their masters' legs. What a great picture (credit: the Orvis "Sporting Gifts" catalog, Holiday 2008, p. 30):



The next picture is from the Small Farmer's Journal (Winter, 2006, p. 29), from an article entitled "What You Can Learn from Your Horse" by Hartmut von Jeetze. The author had worked for many years in England at a home for juvenile delinquent boys -- a sort of working farm where the boys gained discipline and maturity by participating in farm work and responsibilities for caring for animals. This picture was probably taken a number of years ago given the dress of the boys, but I love what it conveys. You may not be able to see clearly in this photo, but both the boys are wearing ties under their farm work clothes -- so typically British. The small horses look scruffy -- delinquent? -- themselves. Perhaps the boys and horses bonded so well because of their similar backgrounds and temperaments. The author gave many examples of the power of animals to change boys for the better. After describing one such event he wrote, "Who thinks that horses and oxen do not know what goes on in your mind? It is of immense value to have the chance to learn from such events." Think how many young people today (and old) are completely missing the experience of being psyched out by a "horse or ox" or other animal in a farm-type setting. The (apparently) mutually respectful and peaceful relationship between humans and animals, described in Genesis 2:19-20, has its last remnants in the small farms of the world. How much better we would all likely be to maintain contact with such settings. Don't hurry past this picture until you've thought for a moment about the redemptive power of animals in these two young men's lives -- the acquisition of close companionship and love, perhaps for the first times in their lives.

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Back Attack

Daniel was laboring with the Kruidenier "bad back" syndrome this weekend, so I drove to Columbia Sunday afternoon to take him my ultrasound wand to use on his back. Enjoyed a nice visit for a few hours, a delicious soup 'n salad supper from the kitchen of the lovely Jen, and lots of hug time with E & A.

Part of the winter gardens:



A cute little winter sprout:



We were eating these greens within the hour:



Another section of greens:



Spreading bubbles:



Double dose of bubbles:



Hot water bottle strapped to the back:



A little more erect:

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