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We did the blueberry picking thing a couple weeks ago. Now raspberries are in season, so we picked some of those.

Rather, I picked raspberries and the children just held the baskets for me.

Maybe there were too many bees buzzing around. I told the boys that they won’t sting you unless you hurt them, but they were very wary of picking after seeing all the bees. And it was very hot. We spent about a half hour picking raspberries, but it felt much, much longer.

Alpha just wanted to go home.

I had to carry Gamma the whole time because I did not want to clean squished raspberries off every surface within his reach. I did set him down at the beginning – because he did a fine job at blueberry picking – to see if he would help with raspberry picking. But it took one raspberry to see the damage he could do.

And Beta just wasn’t interested in picking berries. Worse than that, he was actively taking berries out of the basket and throwing them as far as he could.

I asked him why he was doing that, and he said he was getting rid of the squishy ones. He meant well, trying to weed out the bad berries. But, as Alpha then reminded him, all raspberries are squishy. I told him just to leave all the raspberries alone and I would sort them at home.

We finally finished, after about 20 reminders to the kids that the more berries they pick, the faster we’ll be done and the sooner we can go back home.

Did I mention it was hot?

Back home, I sorted the raspberries and found a stowaway.

I quickly disposed of him, and any raspberries that had any dark fuzzy spots. Those went in the garbage. Any raspberries that were not moldy but were just on the too-ripe side of things I also disposed of. Those went in my belly.

And now, some gratuitous close-up shots of fruit, compliments of the macro setting on my camera…

In case you’re wondering about the trends in U-pick berries: 3.25 lbs. cost $12.50, so that’s about $3.85 per lb. Last year, they cost $3.75/lb. So it looks like raspberries cost more this year, and blueberries cost less this year.

Side note: When my wife was looking up U-Pick places, we wondered what else could be U-picked. So after a little research, we found a U-pick chicken farm. They also have U-pick rabbits and U-pick fish.

I wish someone would have a drive-thru u-pick place. I would donate them some letters so they could upgrade to a drive-through you-pick place.

Secrets

My wife was sitting at the computer. She saw me walk in and asked “Do you want me to check your email for you?”

It was a helpful gesture, but she had never asked that before so I had a somewhat surprised look on my face.

Before I could give an answer, she responded to my puzzlement with “What? you didn’t want me to do that? Why not? What are you hiding from me?” which was meant in a humorous, not suspicious, manner.

We both heard Alpha pipe up from the other room: “chocolate!”
which is funny because I don’t recall ever having hidden any chocolate from my wife, let alone telling Alpha about it.

Cheese

After dinner, Alpha came running into the living room – “Dadda, Gamma made a mess!”

Sure enough, Gamma, who was secured in his high chair because he was still finishing his meal, had dumped Parmesan cheese on his tray and on the floor.

Quite a mess.

But wait, the Parmesan cheese wasn’t anywhere near Gamma when I left the table. And he can’t open the top either.

Me: “Alpha, how did he get the cheese?”

“I gave it to him.”
“And did you open the top for him too?”
“Yes”
“Then go get the broom and dustpan and sweep it up.”

The kids sure are good at trying to get the other one in trouble.

One of the things about Maranatha is that they have contests almost every day (at 2:00 at the beach). They announce the contest in the morning (disc golf, water balloon catch, etc.) so that you can prepare yourself for the afternoon contest. I think if they wanted more participants they would also advertise that the winners get free ice cream (which they do, but for some reason that is never announced).

Anyway, the one contest in which I participated (along with other family members) was the sand sculpture contest. My brother-in-law spent some time that week browsing the internet researching sand sculptures, and he found one that was amusing. It was someone’s head.

You put a bucket on its side (mouth), pile up sand around it, and put seaweed on top (hair). Then you just have to make eyes and a nose somehow. Even though it isn’t 100% sand, you do use items that are normally found on a beach.

So when the announcer guy said “Today’s contest is the sand sculpture contest.” we were prepared. Then he added that they had a theme for the contest – the sculptures should be patriotic in nature. Or was it American? Either way, there was a specific theme and all we had were plans for someone’s head.

We went ahead (get it?) and built it anyway:

But to make it patriotic, we added some words: “God Bless America”

There, now it’s not just any lady – it’s Kate Smith!

Maybe not the most flattering representation of her, but an honoring tribute nonetheless. And very patriotic.

Plus the judges liked it.

On a totally unrelated note: Next year, if the theme allows, I have plans for a great Jabba the Hutt sand sculpture.

I was reminiscing about my early years in college and thought I would look up what the internet had to say about the band Tree Climbers Guild. Since there was no information out there, I get to write something. Now whatever I write will become the definitive guide to TCG.

Ahem.

Tree Climbers Guild was an award-winning band from Cedarville College in the mid 1990s.

The award was the Alpha Chi talent show, in case you were curious. Might not matter to anyone outside of the Cedarville family, but it was a big deal back then. It propelled TCG to fame and fortune. The fortune was, if I remember correctly, $100 for winning the talent show. TCG then put that $100 into studio time, produced an album, and sold a bunch of cassettes.

It had to be in the dozens, maybe even hundreds.

Here is their debut album: conclusion of the matter

I think that was their only album. The artwork, in case you can’t quite make it out, is a tombstone with a rose lying across the grave bed.

Here is the side of the cassette tape:

And here is the back of the tape:

Here is the outside of the album cover/liner thing:

And here is the inside, the liner notes and all the lyrics:

I am not going to type out the lyrics (go on, click on the picture to enlarge it and read for yourself), but here are all the song titles (aka discography, although it might be more appropriate to call it a cassettography or a tapography):

Side 1

• ghost of the coyote
• flight of the unsure soul
• never ending dream
• you are not
• the hungry sea
• as we stand

Side 2

• maybe tomorrow
• seventeen to my plateau
• silver burning
• foreign ground
• conclusion of the matter
• evening reverie

Bonus feature:
Riding on the coattails of the success of TCG was Somewhere In a Box. Since that tape was next to TCG in my collection, I will post its pictures here for fun.

At the risk of alienating my remaining readers with yet another recap of my family’s vacation, I am writing a recap of yet another family vacation. But don’t worry, this is a different kind of recap: little text and many photos.

About halfway between now and the last trip, we visited Lake Michigan for a week. The part of Lake Michigan we visited just happened to be connected to Maranatha.

Background Note (for those unfamiliar with Maranatha): The full name is Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference. The way I usually describe it is that it is somewhere between a resort and a campground. Or VBS for adults.

Now on to the recap:
We went to the beach

and dug holes

and chased seagulls

and went for long walks on the beach.

Beta and I played shuffleboard

while Alpha painted some crafts

There were sunsets over the lake.

And we finished out the week with the kids’ program, where they recited the verse they learned that week and performed the song (with motions of course) that they also learned that week.

Oh, and here is the view out our front door, over the balcony.

And here are the views to the left and right on the balcony. No, I did not make a panorama shot.

And there was a lot of preaching. Ron Zappia was a good speaker to have that week. Or any week, for that matter. But I don’t have pictures of any of the sessions because that would be a little rude to be taking pictures during what is essentially a church service.

Conclusion: Everyone had fun (and plenty of ice cream) and no one ever wants to leave Maranatha. But leave we did. Of course, as we did after our trips to Boise and to Wisconsin, we stopped at Bob Evans for lunch on the way home. Now it’s tradition.

The end.

(Well, almost the end. There are two more smaller blog posts planned. Stay tuned.)

“Hey look!”

“A caterpillar!”

“Let’s scoop it up with your Croc!”

“The Croc’s not working!”

Then I transported it to safety underneath a tree, away from the sidewalk. I didn’t get a good picture of the caterpillar itself, but I think it is known as the caterpillar of the polyphemus moth.

And yes, I do believe each statement was spoken with an exclamation point.

Here is my contribution to the world of visual puns:

Prov-together, prov-alone.

That’s a lonely slice of provolone there.