Archive for March, 2009

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Circle-Gimmick Bread

Mar

13

2009

On one of our many, many grocery shopping trips, I was in charge of picking out the bread. Actually, I was in charge of everything because the only one with me on that trip was our kindergartner.

I don’t have a favorite brand of bread, and the bread shelves have way too many different choices. I know I want whole-wheat bread. Other than that, I go by price, mostly.

I saw a row of loaves by one company (company A), and they were lower in price than the next row by a different company (company B, the one with the bugle boys). I was about to go with company A, but the loaves by company B had conspicuous blue circles on their wrappers, and those circles caught my attention. If the conspicuous blue circles had been on the loaves themselves instead of the wrapper, that may also have caught my attention. But not in a good way.

The text inside the circles said something like “No corn syrup added” or “No high fructose corn syrup” or something to that effect. I figured “big deal, just marketing hype” but I picked up the loaf and read the ingredients to verify the claim. It was true, but not surprising.

Then, in order to relegate those loaves to the pile of useless marketing rejects, I read the ingredients on the slightly cheaper loaves of whole wheat bread. I was surprised to read that they did contain high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient.

So I promptly set those down and bought two loaves of the blue circle type. They were slightly more expensive, but better nutrition usually is.  If I could remember the company names, I would list them. But I have no idea which brand I bought and which one I dismissed – that’s how little I pay attention to bread brands.

I do check for corn syrup in the ingredients of my bread now. The loaf my wife just bought did not have corn syrup, but it did have raisin juice concentrate.

“He distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread and a portion {of meat} and a raisin cake. ”
– 1 Chronicles 16:3

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Where Should Your Ad Be?

Mar

12

2009

AT&T Yellow Pages has been advertising on the radio quite frequently.  The ads mainly say how effective their book is for your ads.

My question is this: if ads in the Yellow Pages are so effective, why doesn’t AT&T just use itself for advertising its own services?

Why must they take to the airwaves instead?  Why are they paying other people money to advertise?

The first answer that comes to mind is that AT&T must be getting desperate for more customers.  The next answer that came to mind is that maybe radio ads are more effective. There are probably other answers too.

“for a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”
– 1 Corinthians 16:9

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Salmon and Onions for Dinner

Mar

10

2009

My wife had some raw diced onions on the dinner table one night.  I forget what we were having, probably tacos.  The 5-year-old thought they looked yummy and asked for some (the onions, not the tacos).  We said he shouldn’t have any because he wouldn’t like them.  He insisted that he liked them, so we gave him some.  He put them in his mouth and promptly said “I like onions!”

Then he started chewing.

It took about 2 seconds, but he very quickly changed his countenance and spit everything out.  His face looked like the face of someone eating raw onions.

Fast forward a couple of weeks…

The 5-year-old is eating salmon and liking it.  The 3-year-old is curious, so he asks if it is chicken.  We tell him it is fish, and he should try some.  He takes a bite and promptly says “I like it!”

Then he starts chewing.

It takes about 2 seconds, but he very quickly changes his countenance and spits everything out.

My wife and I can’t help chuckling at that.  That must annoy him, because he tells us that “it’s not funny.”

“We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic,”
– Numbers 11:5

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WORLD Snowman

Mar

5

2009

One of my favorite magazines is WORLD magazine. They have a mailbag department where they print letters to the editor and they also print one picture in that section. The picture always has someone reading a WORLD magazine, and they usually show people in far-away lands.

I decided to take a picture of someone reading a WORLD magazine, but it was in my own front yard, not in some distant country. So I don’t know if it will even be in the running. In case it doesn’t get printed, here it is.

Picture of WORLD magazine snowman

As you can see, I am going for the humor angle, rather than the normal location angle.

{Like} cold water to a weary soul, So is good news from a distant land.

Proverbs 25:25

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Delivery Details

Mar

4

2009

For those interested in the details of the most recent addition to our family:

  • 11:00 am – I get a call from my wife. She is calling as she is leaving her doctor appointment for a regular, weekly check-up in the month before her due date. She tells me that we have to go to the hospital. The doctor said to be there in an hour because we’re going to have the baby today, even though my wife isn’t feeling any contractions.
  • 11:45 – I get home from work, change my clothes, and help see the kids off to school with their grandparents
  • 12:15 – We leave for the hospital
  • 12:30 – We check into the hospital (sweet – they have wireless!) and get sent to a triage room to figure out if she really is in labor.
  • 1:30 – They finally hook up monitors to see how contractions are going. There are some contractions – they’re just slight enough that my wife had been dismissing them or not noticing them.
  • 2:00 – contractions are about every 4 minutes but not very strong
  • 2:30 – contractions are more inconsistent, about every 7 minutes but stronger when they do happen
  • 4:00 – contractions every 2-3 minutes, much stronger now, slightly painful as opposed to just uncomfortable. I enjoy watching the real-time graph that shows the baby’s heartbeat and the intensity of each contraction. Without that, all I have to go on is how hard she squeezes my hand during the contraction. But now I have some numbers to go along with it!
  • 5:00 – It looks like the contractions are good enough, so they now decide that we are going to stay and have the baby. Up until this point, we didn’t know whether they were going to admit us into the hospital or send us back home until we came back with some real contractions. We get moved out of triage and into a normal room.
  • 6:30 – contractions are painful, and my wife thinks she is ready to get the epidural.
  • 7:00 – contractions are extremely painful now. We wonder where the epidural is, and we are told that they had two emergency C-sections come in and they have priority for the anesthesiologist. He can do the epidural when those are done, which should be soon.
  • 7:15 – We are told that the lady next door also needs an epidural, and since she is farther along in labor (a couple of centimeters more dilated), she is getting her epidural first. We hear later that she delivered her baby about 10 minutes after she got the epidural. So if my wife had gotten hers first, then this other lady would not have gotten one at all.
  • 7:30 – The anesthesiologist started the epidural. Due to my being voted Most Likely To Faint During An Epidural, I am relegated to the lounge for the next 15 minutes.
  • 7:45 – The epidural is done, and I am allowed back in the room. It is more peaceful and less stressful than when I left.
  • 8:00 – The doctor broke the water, and everything is ready to go. We know it’s close because the doctor starts setting up the table with all her surgical instruments and towels and stuff and she doesn’t leave.
  • 8:25 – The fun begins – it is time to start pushing. Or – in my case – holding, watching, and talking. My wife does not think it’s fun, as this epidural isn’t as strong as the others, or perhaps it hasn’t had enough time to fully kick in.
  • 8:31 – Baby is born. He is silent for the first few seconds, but then he starts crying like one would expect. It’s always amazing how the baby can go from not breathing air one second to breathing air the next second.

For those keeping track:

  • Baby #1 – at least 90 minutes of pushing.
  • Baby #2 – 20-30 minutes of pushing.
  • Baby #3 – 6 minutes of pushing.

We can’t have any more kids, as the next one might be in the negative minutes of pushing, and I don’t want to find out what that means.

“As the pregnant woman approaches {the time} to give birth, She writhes {and} cries out in her labor pains, Thus were we before You, O LORD.”
– Isaiah 26:17

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Seasonal Update, Spring 2009

Mar

3

2009

Now that it is March and not snowy outside, it is time to update Some Blog Site’s background photo.

This is of a cat stepping through the tall grass, and was taken in the spring a couple years ago.

The scorched land will become a pool And the thirsty ground springs of water; In the haunt of jackals, its resting place, Grass {becomes} reeds and rushes.

Isaiah 35:7

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