I fell for this one

I haven't been here for a while, I might as well make a big re-entrance...




Hat Tip to Marcel.

Gluten Free Review #2: Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Pancake Mix

Well, I also picked up some more pancake mix. My oldest loves his pancakes so we go through the stuff pretty quickly.
Something I've noticed about GF Pancake mixes in general: they tend to be thick. We've tried three different brands and they all come out extra thick when they are prepared according to the directions. It took serious extra milk to come up with pancake batter that would run like pancake batter should.
Bob's Red Mill makes a bunch of different Gluten-Free mixes and flours. After trying some Maple Grove GF Pancake Mix we tried out Bob's.
Preparation - Nothing special to note. Even a really groggy 14 year old boy can make these. Of course the first ones were over an inch thick. After cooking those we added more milk, and a bit more. They seem to cook up fine on the griddle though. They did come out a bit browner than most and since they were so thick, you had to flip them before they formed bubbles on the top.
Texture - Somehow these came out fluffy like Bisquick. I don't know how they did it. The first batch were a bit dry. The second time we made some (the bag has 22 oz, enough for more than one breakfast) we added even more milk and they came out wonderful. Fluffy, light, spongy, amazing. This was what we were told we were going to miss with gluten-free stuff. Really a home run.
Taste - If you check out my previous review of Maple Grove, you'll notice that I reviewed their taste before their texture. That was intentional as I liked their taste very much but their texture, while not bad, wasn't all that great. I've intentionally reviewed Bob's Red Mill's texture first because it is that good. The taste though, not so good. It just wasn't pancake like. A bit too whole-grainy. A bit bitter. I think it would have been OK in a slice of bread for a sandwich but not with butter and syrup. My 8 year-old son said that it was like eating a soft pretzel. The 14 year-old didn't like it as much as he liked Maple Grove but he proved that with enough butter and syrup he can eat anything. He did make a second batch but that was because we were out of Maple Grove.
Value - Bob's Red Mill is widely available in my area. I can find it at all the grocery stores (Krogers, Tom Thumb (a Safeway variant), and Albertson's), at "Market" stores (Sprouts, Market Street, and Central Market) and at the big box superstores as well (some WalMarts and Target). I think this pressures the price down a bit. I think it's a shade less than Maple Grove per pound on special. And it does go pretty far because you have to thin it out to make decently runny pancake batter. So it's in a pretty good spot price-wise. You can also find it by the case online, either at gluten-free vendors or on Amazon.com, even at Bob's Red Mill's website.
Final Verdict - I'm not buying more of this stuff unless it's for a non-pancake recipe. The flavor just doesn't work for pancakes. The texture is really great though. Maybe we could doctor up the batter with sugar or some other flavors but it's just not a hit for our family as-is.

Gluten Free Review #1: Maple Grove Gluten-Free Pancake & Waffle Mix

So we've dove into Gluten-Free food now, I thought I'd post some reviews of what we've tried. Since there's actually quite a few different brands out there, it's as much to keep track of what we like and don't like as it is a review for anyone else.
Today I'm going to talk about pancakes. Our family loves pancakes. Sometimes we eat them for dinner. My 14 year-old son Joseph has no problems with getting up and making them himself before anyone gets up. It used to be Bisquick or even a from-scratch recipe. Now we can't use those anymore, so I decided to try a mix. There are plenty of gluten-free from-scratch recipes out there (I'd go check out the Baking Beauties Blog if I were you, even if they haven't updated anything in months, it's still got a TON of recipes) but I didn't want to have to invest in all the different flours and starches and gums that you need. I just got some mixes. The first one I'll talk about is Maple Grove.
Maple Grove is not a big Gluten-free house like some other shops. They have a bunch of gluten-included items (we call them gluten-full at home), Belgian waffle mixes, syrups, salad dressings, maple candy. But their gluten-free mix was a shade cheaper than the Bob's Red Mill at Krogers so I picked them up. I seem to remember $3.29 a box.
Preparation - Cub Scout's Honor, I don't remember anything about the making of them. My wife whipped them up. I seem to remember that the batter came out a bit thick. But no complaints about the preparation. It was basically the same as any other pancake mix. No special gluten-free extra materials to add, no special dances to shoo away the gluten. Just mix it up and slap it on the griddle.
Taste - These pancakes came up tasting really nice, a bit sweet, with a hint of vanilla. Seriously, a hint. They did have a different texture than Bisquick pancakes though. Almost gritty. It wasn't terribly off-putting. A guy I work with whose wife has Celiac Disease told me that in general, gluten-free food tastes good, but the textures that I'm used to are hard to repeat. In fact he told me to get used to nothing having that good texture ever again. On the whole the kids thought that they were OK but they wanted to try other brands to see how they came out. So overall they were OK. Not light and fluffy like Mom used to make, but the taste was better than I expected.
Value - This is a touchy subject, because not everyone is as cheap as I am. But then again, they may not be supporting a family of eight and a half. So I actually check price per pound. Gluten-free stuff is expensive and I ain't made of money. The pancake mixes aren't at as much of a premium compared to some other stuff (like pasta or bread) though. And Maple Grove is less expensive than some other gluten-free brands. As a comparison, regular old "gluten-full" Bisquick runs about $6 for 40 oz. That's two and a half pounds. This stuff was $3.29 for a pound. Not bad. Bob's Red Mill was a little less per pound but a bigger bag (22 oz) and there was a mix from Pamela's that ran about $5-6 a pound (I think). So Maple Grove scores pretty well in the value department.
Final Verdict - The price was OK, but that may be an indication of the market for gluten-free pancake mixes. Preparation was straight-forward, no different than what you would expect. The taste was well above my expectations, better than what you would get out of most "gluten-full" pancake mixes. Texture left a bit to be desired though. At first we thought that we might pass on getting more Maple Grove for our pantry due to the texture but after tasting some others we might go back to it. It seems that getting a good taste is harder than we thought. More on that later.

The Spelling Gene

OK, in our house we often talk about the "packing gene." It's the one that Kim has that enables her to put more dishes in the dishwasher than I can. It usually shows up when I think the dishwasher is full but there are still dishes in the sink. Kim exercises her "packing gene," and more dishes get crammed in, rearranged, etc.
I think there may be a "spelling gene," and that some of our kids skipped out on it. I'm a good speller. English is a tough language and I guess all the phonetic reading that I learned as a kid really came in handy for spelling. I can even spell hard words usually. Not a Scripps level speller, but I'm pretty dang good. Our oldest has always done well with spelling. The next one, not so much. The third was also great. The fourth, he's positive about it, but he's having to work hard at it. Notice a pattern?

So, the other day, the three year old and two year old have this conversation:

Isabel(3): W makes the "wuh-wuh-wuh" sound, like wuh-wuh-water, and wuh-wuh-wet.

Audrey(2): No it doesn't! W makes the buh sound, like "buh-buh-buh" sandals.

Someone missed out on the spelling gene.

Celiac Disease

A couple or three weeks ago we got a diagnosis for our 10 yr-old daughter, Allison. She's always been amazingly skinny and we thought it was some combination of genetics that she had six pack abs in preschool (my wife would still be within ten lbs. of her high school cross country weight if she weren't pregnant and I graduated HS at 6'5" and 165 lbs). She's strong and seemingly healthy, just skinny. We have asked her doctor if she were too skinny before but they just pushed us off. Too many obese kids out there to deal with I guess. Kim had taken her in for a different issue (a slight scoliosis) and the Nurse Practitioner had noticed a bruise on her arm and asked if she could run some blood tests. Kim had thought that she might show up as anemic but instead she came back positive for Celiac Disease. I'd go on about what it is and what it does, but instead I provided a handy link. Go ahead, click on it. I don't mind waiting.
So you back yet? Malnutrition. Yeah, I think all parents want to hear that attributed to their child. So then we noticed that our skinny daughter also had pale skin and dark circles under her eyes and while she could do more dips and could hold a plank position longer than any of the other kids, she got winded easily. OK, so we have to go gluten-free now. My first response was that we would all do it. I didn't want to create a "gluten-free" zone at the dinner table and I didn't want Ally to feel marginalized. On top of it, I discovered that we would have to get a second set of kitchen tools just to make sure that the gluten-free stuff doesn't become contaminated. That's the rub, it only takes a little bit of gluten to go a long way with Celiac Disease. It's can't just be about reducing the amount of gluten, you have to get rid of all of it. Just cooking some Malt-o-Meal next to her gluten-free oatmeal can mean that she gets malnourished for the next week or so. Yuck.
So since then, we've gotten confirmation (via a biopsy) that she does have Celiac Disease. We've started buying and eating gluten-free food. We've stopped making food with gluten in it and I think we'll be giving away the last of that Bisquick in the pantry sometime soon. I decided that I'd blog about it a bit. I'll be reviewing the foods that we try as well. It might get me blogging regularly again.

100 miles of nowhere, or more

So in my efforts to finally find the end of the internets, I've stumbled across many a cycling website. One that caught my eye is that of Fatty, www.fatcyclist.com. Being a man of size myself I was naturally attracted to the title and they guy is a fine satirist. His big push is now to organize others to fight cancer by supporting the Lance Armstrong foundation. I don't have a particularly special place in my heart for Lance (although that's changing a bit) but cancer, you can't quite argue against fighting cancer. So I noticed he offered others a chance to do a century and donate to the Lance Armstrong foundation and you wouldn't have to leave home to do it, I jumped. Well, not literally, I think I was sitting down at the time and if I had, I'm sure I would have injured my knees on the desk. Discretion is the better part of valor and all that. A year ago he rode 100 miles on rollers to raise money. This year he posits a 100 Miles of Nowhere for everybody everywhere. You sign up and donate, then you ride your century on a trainer, rollers, or as small a course as you can find. There's even a bunch of guys who are going to do it on May 30th up at the velodrome in Frisco, TX. So I decided to do it as well, but since I live on a cul-de-sac, I decided that I'm going to do it right at home. Yup, 100 miles on a cul-de-sac. I also wanted to show it off with my handy-dandy GPS ride tracker on my phone, BimActive. I tried about 20 laps the other day and all I got was zero miles. Yup, all that spinning around and around just looked like random GPS noise. So then I tried adding the cul-de-sac circle and the rest of the street. Per my son's odometer, that equates to .09 miles per lap. I think I need to do over 1000 laps to get this done. We'll see if I can keep it going that long. Part of it is to raise money to fight cancer (an old school buddy just started his 1st round of chemo this month, my wife has one aunt who's a survivor and another was diagnosed in March), part of it is just to do something crazy. I always seem to be looking for a windmill to tilt at. This Saturday, May 23rd. From whenever I get up to whenever I finish. The girls are having a bake sale. They've already made flyers.
Oh, did I mention that I'm going to do it twice?
See that link above where there's another group of guys doing the same thing at the velodrome, the bicycle track? They are doing it May 30th. I know a couple of them and it just looks like fun. I'm not track certified though (maybe I can work on that) so I'll have to pull out my trainer on the infield and do my miles there. Who knows? Maybe my girls can bake some more cookies.

Ninja news from all over

OK, I had a couple of imitation ninja stories over the past year, but nothing seemed to show up for weeks on end at news.google.com.  I had given up hope that I could regularly record the exploits of the near ninjas among us.  True ninjas, of course, we would never know about.  Or if we did, we'd be dead before we could blog about it.  Enough of such happy thoughts, on to the news!

In Massachusetts, a man wearing a ski mask and carrying a sword in a scabbard tried to hold up a dry cleaners.  In a classic Not-Really-A-Ninja move, he first went to a nearby convenience store with said ski mask on and said sword in scabbard in plain view.  Presumably he was trying to carb up for his later efforts in the dry cleaners.  Maybe picking up some beef jerky, some Cheetos and a Red Bull.  You know, ninja food.  Well, the clerk in the store decides to call the cops, when Mr. Not-Really-A-Ninja asks, in an obvious homage to Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver, if the clerk is talking about him as he hurriedly takes off the ski mask.  When the clerk tells him, "Uhmm, yeah," he takes off.  Later attempt at holding up the dry cleaners fails, as the person there claims "I can't open the money drawer."  This guy is so Not-Really-A-Ninja, I have to wonder if his sword is sharp.  Also, the total ignorance tactic seems to work for dry cleaner clerks when faced with inept ninja-tude.  Just remember to take a note of that, dry cleaner clerks everywhere.

In Nearly-Ninja News, a man under arrest for posing as a ninja during an armed robbery last August got into more trouble this week.  The news of note is that, after being caught, still waiting for a trial, he was being moved from one cell to another for a disciplinary infraction when he resisted.  Jailer grabs the suspect's arm and executes a take-down.  But apparently there was some Ninja-dom in this suspect, as the deputy ended up going knee-first into the concrete floor, causing him "extreme pain."  Of course, the news is that said deputy has filed a criminal complaint.  "Interference with official acts causing injury."  At least it wasn't the suspect suing the deputy.

Expect more Ninja News as it breaks.

Review of Action Wipes

Gotta story for you folks.
They are finally building a gym here at my office. Hooray! We've got more than 500 employees officed here and it was part of the original building plan, so it makes sense to have it. Unfortunately, it won't be here until October, and as they are going to have to do some renovation work, the only office shower will be closed soon. Then new facility will have three or four showers in the Men's Locker Room, which will be great. I think we'll be able to get some folks to do some lunch rides. But how am I to be able to ride my bike to work and not be stinky all day? With no shower? Of course, lots of folks do this. One option I had seen was Action Wipes. They're supposed to be like baby wipes but for adults. I'd also heard of them through their Twitter campaign during the Tour of California. Really genius if you ask me. So I figure these might work. I look them up, decide to try them, place an order, and right before I do, I realize that hey, there might be an online coupon code out there, let's Google it to see. I did that and came across Ultra Rob's site. He had a coupon code from that week and was having a contest to give away a free set of wipes! So I used the code and entered the contest. I didn't win, not surprising, but I did get surprised by what happened next.
When you order something online, you usually expect some email traffic from it. So Paypal will send you an email if you used that. Then you would expect an email confirming the order, and perhaps an additional one confirming that your stuff has shipped. That's what I get from Amazon and eBay, from small and large online bike retailers, from everybody. Well, there was more from Action Wipes.
I got all those emails when I ordered my stuff on Thursday and then I got another the following Tuesday. It was the owner of the company (Action Wipes is still pretty small) apologizing for not emailing me sooner, and telling me that she had sent the stuff priority mail and that I should expect it that day. Nice, very nice touch. Then I get home and open the package and in it are my order, and an extra, small pack of wipes (what was being given away in the contest), and a short hand-written note. I have to say, those are not what you expect. Those are things that say above and beyond. From that point onward, I wanted these to work out for me. So the whole un-biased reviewer thing goes out the window at this point, but that's part of the review. I'm biased and it's all their fault!! That's not something that Action Wipes should be upset about, obviously. It's one thing to drool over a piece of beautiful bike equipment, ridiculously light, impossibly stiff, made from unobtainium and priced to show it. When you dump out eight grand for a set of wheels you set yourself up to love them (note: when you have six kids, eight grand only equals three hunnerd dollars, but it feels the same). You have to like that stuff. But wipes? Who gets all geeked up about wipes? Me. I do, and only because they went so far to make sure that I had an individualized, personal experience. The shower at my office is still operational but I brought Action Wipes today because I wanted to try them out. I wanted them to work really well. I wanted to show them off and say "check these out, even more, listen to how much they made me feel like a real human being."
So, review time. I used them today and I don't stink. I don't feel slimy. It was only after about nine miles, at about 60 degrees, with a tail wind, and I didn't average 20 (although the guy in the truck behind me was pretty impressed at my 35 mph on a short downhill). But they worked fine. Well, I only used one, they're pretty big, almost like a thin sponge. And they point out that they are washable and reusable, which I'll try to verify. I don't know how they will work after riding a century, but I didn't buy them for that. I don't know how they will work after an 80 degree ride (we'll get 80 degree mornings off and on from June to September) or after a 30 degree ride. But I like them. I encourage you to give them some money and see if they work for you. Or maybe just give them a chance to impress you before you use them.

Bike Commuter Tax "Benefit"

OK, so as part of last year's "stimulus" package, something called the "Commuter Tax Benefit" was extended from mass transit commuters to Bicycle Commuters. By the way, the writer of this blog commutes on bicycle to work quite often. It's only for $20 a month, which doesn't pay for a ton, but hey, that means I never have to worry about having the dough for some spare tubes, eh? Maybe I can throw it all at a nice set of lights or a helmet or some shoes. Yup, it's looking better and better. But it's up to the company to offer it, it's not something I can set up for myself. Dang it! I would have gotten away with it if it hadn't have been for those meddling kids, and their dog too! But I digress.
Then I noticed a glitch in our local HR's web site where for one afternoon, there was a banner headline about a "Commuter Savings Account." Of course it was gone the next day, and the link never went to anything. Shortly thereafter, I was contacted by a buddy of mine who's a journalist for the Dallas Morning News. He was researching it and he knew that I rode a bike. So I really looked hard into it. Here's what I found out so far.
OK, the "Commuter Tax Benefit" has actually been around for a while. The original law was drafted to give tax incentives to big companies to offer fringe benefits to employees tax-free. Note that the companies still had to fund the bene's, but now they could fund them tax-free on their part. So it would encourage (theoretically) the employers to offer more bene's in lieu of or in addition to salary. There are several sections of it including moving expenses, retirement planning services, and a fringe bene for folks who's home valuation is adversely affected by a military base closure. The transportation section is focused on parking and mass transit costs and is just now being opened up to bike commuters. Please note that no employer is obligated to offer any of these cash benefits. In 1998, the law was amended to allow employers to offer these benefits in a different manner. Instead of funding a cash benefit, it allowed employees to set aside money from their own paychecks as pre-tax dollars, then draw upon those accounts to pay for these qualified costs. If you are an employer, which would you choose, to offer free money to your employees? Or to offer your employees the chance to bank away their own money tax-free? Hmmm... Not a hard choice. Fund the management of the plan instead of funding the plan itself. So instead of bicycle commuters looking for a cash benefit, now the best they can expect in some circumstances is a tax-free reimbursement. If their employers offer it. And so far, mine doesn't. Actually, I didn't expect it. We've got thousands of locations, some with hundreds of employees and some with only a dozen or less. It sound like a nightmare to manage that plan. And the taxes that I pay on $240 are next to nothing. OK, with six kids and 14 dependents on my W4, it is nothing. It would have been nice to have as a bike-stuff-in-a-pinch security blanket, but I don't see anything suggesting that it's going to happen soon, or at all.
So I'll just have to ride my bike in order to ride my bike, like I always have.

Funny funny funny

Just had to post this. Hat tip to Mark Shea.



Hilarious.

Joseph is now back in public school

For the last year and a half, my wife has been homeschooling our kids. We started a couple of summers ago because we were in the process of selling our house and thought that homeschool would give us some continuity if we moved mid-semester. Well, for our oldest, it really hasn't panned out like we'd like it to. He's a year ahead in math or so, but he really hasn't been motivated in his other subjects. Our 9 year-old also has been feeling the lack of a social net that public school can provide. So, for now, the 14 year-old boy and the 9 year-old girl are in public schools, while the 11 year-old girl and the 7 year-old boy are still doing homeschool. Probably just until the next academic year. We have a high opinion of our school district and we aren't really afraid that we won't be passing along our own faith and values. So we're OK with it. Plus it will mean that Kim gets more time with the babies.
Well, for my oldest, it's a new universe in many ways. He's in 8th grade and knows several kids there from elementary school. He's in Athletics, which is a stretch for his 5'7", 115 lb self. Actual conversation I overheard yesterday between him and the 11 year-old girl.

Boy: Today we did the bench!
Girl: What's that?
Boy: Well, you lay down on it, and there's a bar, and you hold it in your hands and slowly let it down to your chest and then push it back up.
Girl: what's it for?
Boy: Well, you use it to build muscles. It weighs 45 pounds, and you can put weight on it if you want.

I just about fell over at that last comment, like the weights on the end of the bar are just optional.

Another poor excuse for a Ninja

Just when you thought there were enough Southerners who thought that they we just a few dojo lessons from being a true Ninja, another one crops up. This one in Florida. Of course, he was shown to be a Ninja wanna-be, he has twice tried to steal an ATM but failed. A Ninja would not have failed. Well, that and a Ninja wouldn't have been caught on camera, or had a beer belly.

Definitely not a Ninja...

Some folks think that they have super powers, some think that they are Ninjas at heart, and some are probably just desperate. So yesterday some dude apparently has some combination of the above three and goes into a chicken restaurant with a white rag over his face (classic Ninja) and a tree branch (not classic Ninja) and tries to hold it up. Yes, he threatened an employee with a tree branch "in what police called 'strike position'." Employee however, pulls out a broom, and Ninja-dom ensues, downtown FW style. The story in the paper quotes the police spokesman as saying "the two engaged in a battle of wooden swordsmanship." Employee hits dude with a chair (who knew that Ninjas were vulnerable to WWF moves?) and dude flees. They found him hiding in a dumpster. Methinks the employee is the true Ninja. Judge for yourself in the details at Star-Telegram.

Nite Hawk Lights, out of business? Yup

I'm sometimes concerned about stuff I buy for cheap, especially on the internets. You never know if the folks you buy it from are reputable or not. I felt pretty confident about my purchase of a Nite Hawk bike headlight last year though from my LBS (local bike shop.) It was on a huge discount (about what it would be on line) and I could see why. It was the last one, in fact, there were only two lights from that maker left in the shop. So I guessed the shop had decided to stop carrying the brand. Then I noticed that the light's battery had 0103 stamped on the side, which I took to mean the date it was churned out at the factory. That's OK, it's old, but it still worked fine. It's not as bright as I'd like, and it doesn't have a helmet mount though. So I thought I would place a call to the manufacturer and see if I could buy a brighter light (or just a brighter bulb) and a helmet mount. In their FAQ, they listed a 1-888 number. Today I finally found a spare minute and called them, but the other side of the line didn't pick up saying "Nite Hawk Lighting, how may I help you?" Instead I just got "Hello," with a slight Canadian accent. Hmmmm.... Well, maybe there's a newer number elsewhere. Let's check out their Contact Us page, hmmm... No number there. (Do you see where this is going?) They show pdf's for all their manuals, so let's check there. Hmmm... It's a number that gives me "the number you have dialed is no longer in service." I checked multiple pdf's, figuring that they might have changed their number, but nope, they show the same number. I also went to the wayback machine to check the Contact Us page and I can see a number there, but it's the same one that I've called before. There is an email. I tried that and we'll see if it bounces or if it dies or if someone emails back. I guess buyer beware. There are still online places selling lights from these guys.

Update: Either there have been recent developments or my email started something at the ISP level. The webpage now simply states that the company is out of business. I did some more digging and found that they are part of a parent company in Canada that produces batteries, Infinity Trading Company. When I called a phone number listed for the General Manager, the other side responded "GS Infinity." I asked if they were still associated with Nite Hawk lights or if I had a wrong number, to which he stated "Wrong number." I looked up GS Infinity and they seem to be a company in the same town in Canada making (surprise) rechargeable batteries. It sounds like they started up the bike light/ headlamp business to move batteries but it didn't provide as much as they wanted so they shut it down. I can't say when that happened but probably earlier this year. All of the links to the site have gone down so I replaced them with ones from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. And yes, I guess I do have too much time on my hands.

Update #2: There are still a few businesses out there still selling Nite Hawk lights. The only one I would really trust would be www.batteryspace.com, and that's not from personal experience but just from noticing that they are selling them with a batterspace battery and charger.  They should be able to warranty that.

What brings folks to the blog

So what brings folks to this blog?  There are a precious few things attractive about it.  The most compelling blog entry seems to be this one where I rant about my dealings with Leader Bikes.  If you Google it, it comes up third on the list, right behind the Leader Bike Store.  Recently, another blog entry had generated some hits from Google searches.  It's also third on the page under "We have been blessed."  That's something unexpected, and something I'm quite thankful for.  It's almost as much as an achievement as when I was listed in the top ten for "Lame blogs."  Apparently the internets have gotten lamer, because the quality of this blog obviously hasn't improved.

Gaudete!

As you may or may not know, I'm waaay Catholic (six kids, who woulda thunk it?). In the spirit of the season, I greet you with Gaudete! Rejoice! Yesterday is commonly referred to as Gaudete Sunday, coming from the Introit for this day which begins "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say 'Rejoice!'" Typically, this day is also marked on the Advent Wreath with a pink or rose candle. Each Sunday, a new candle is lit. The first two and last are purple, but the one for the third Sunday, for Gaudete Sunday, is pink or rose. Of course, you don't have to use purple and pink colored candles. All four of the candles in the Pope's Advent Wreath are red!

Links to:

Gaudete Sunday Wikipedia entry
Gaudete Sunday Catholic Encyclopedia entry
The Papal Advent Wreath at Catholic News Service
Music to Traditional Christmas Carol Gaudete (I can't get that melody out of my head)

We have been blessed with true genius in our family

Isabel, our three year-old, has been quite the artist as of late. She's still has some lessons to learn, like not to use glue to put her artwork on the refrigerator, but she's making great strides. An example:

(cue violins)

In this one, self described as "It's a hedgehog sitting in the sun."  One can feel the oppressive heat that the sun is pouring down upon the hapless hedgehog, who seems nonplussed, indeed, quite amused at the entire ordeal.  Or perhaps this is more of an observation of the Winter sun, vainly attempting to regain his prior Summer glory, impotent to the gentle insectivore. I look forward to further insight from this gentle and curious soul.  Perhaps an exploration of a second colored crayon? 

Sister Wendy

Boldness wins

This might not make sense, as some of the folks here know that I'm a really faithful Catholic (we do have six kids), but half of them aren't baptized. It's not that I haven't wanted them baptized as infants. I do. It's just complicated. I know, lame excuse. I'll get to it in a later post. Suffice to say, Jacob is seven and not baptized, and he wants to be baptized. He wants it in the worst way. Since he's past the magic number seven (the age of reason), he's not going to just be baptized, but he's going to be accepted into the Church in a full way. They call it the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA, also at Wikipedia). Of course, he's not an adult, so instead of calling it the Rite of Christian Initiation for Children, they call it the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults for Children. There are some things that the Church created beautiful names for (like theotokos) and then there are things like this.

Anyway, a couple of months ago we officially signed up in this parish and signed up for Religious Ed, including RCIA(C) for Jacob. He's the youngest one in the program I think. We went to an intro meeting, then completely forgot about the second. The third one we were late for, they had that one in the church and it was locked when we got there. So we missed out on everything. I had a schedule and noticed that they were having a Rite of Acceptance. It's the public introduction of the folks in RCIA to the parish, sort of a big deal. I knew it was on the calendar, I had wanted to call the church to say "Hey, we're still in this, don't forget us," but I let work get in the way. We showed up to Mass a minute late and the folks in the program were already lined up out the door. The program director walked right by me and didn't even recognize us. It was happening without us. It was just passing us by like we weren't part of the parade. I felt crushed. I didn't want Jacob to wait another year for this. I wanted it to be their fault (Why didn't they call this week? Why doesn't someone wave us over right now?). I felt intentionally left out (maybe they just didn't want to deal with us, we had missed 2/3rd of the meetings). I just wanted to slink away and be mad at what was going on, to be a righteous victim. I was already embarrassed that I hadn't had Jacob baptized yet. I'm a real Catholic, not just a "devout" Catholic, I don't want to be seen as someone on the outside. Like an adolescent, I was more concerned about appearances that I was about the task that needed to be done. I just stood there and stewed.

Kim had parked the van and had come in as the priest was handing around a microphone to all the folks, letting them be introduced. She noticed that the Bride's room was open and a table was set up therein. Ducking inside, she walked out with a name tag for Jacob. I felt mad. I kind of wanted to ruin their world by walking down there with my son, introducing him, and then showing them that I knew as much about that stinkin' rite as they did. I'd seen it a dozen times, I think I'd even done it as a sponsor a time or two. I told Joseph to "pin up" his brother, then I walked down there with my boy.

My heart was beating like I was racing Lance Armstrong. I smiled (probably smugly) at the coordinator as she (without much of a beat) smiled in return. I told her that we were ready and she told me to remind the priest that Jacob was a Catechumen (unbaptized), we were out of order. I spoke and told the parish that Jacob was our 4th of 6 kids, our second son, our record breaker, no one had had a second boy in a hundred years. The congregation laughed in approval. Jacob beamed. The rite went off without a hitch. You can read the general version here. There's a series of blessings read by the priest where the sponsor or parent then signs a cross over the catechumen's head, followed by their ears, eyes, lips, heart, shoulders, hands, and feet. After the first few, Jacob kept reaching out to embrace me. I had to tell him it wasn't over yet. Finally they released us to sit down. Jacob wrapped me up as much as a seven year old can, and we walked back to the rest of the family. They had a formal sending off halfway through the service as they went off for a class. I walked him over to make sure he was set up. I caught enough to see the light turn on in his eyes. Our kids are good classroom kids. They enjoy speaking up and sharing, and they aren't afraid to know the answer.

Teacher: Does anyone here know what Advent is?

Other kid: Even I don't know what that is.

Teacher: You set out a wreath, and you have candles...

(Teacher's daughter starts drawing an advent wreath on the chalkboard)

Jacob: Oh, so that's what it is. I know the song you're supposed to sing. O Come O Come Emmanuel...

Teacher: Do you know how many candles?

Jacob: Four.

Teacher's daughter: And the colors?

Jacob: Three purple and one pink!!! (almost shouting by now)

Afterwards, they had a small reception (cake, punch, mixed nuts), and the kids of course flocked to where free cake was. One of the leaders for the adult program is a friend of mine (his wife still works at St. John's) and told me "You guys did great. When I saw you come down late, I was startled, but I thought, if anyone can wing it, it's Bull."

I didn't want to attract attention. I didn't want to be bold. I wanted to be a victim, a whining baby upset that the world doesn't revolve around him. Instead I needed to step forward for my son's sake. It's a legitimate question as to "Why is there such a rigamarole just to get a kid baptized? Can't they just do it?" I guess my only answer is that this is a big deal. A really big deal. This is grace stuff, God stuff. You don't just jump into that with a "Yeah, that sounds fun" level of initiative. You have to want it. You have to be ready to be bold for it.

Saturday - great day for the eldest boy

Yesterday was a great day for the older boy.  We had the Last Race, a crit that was almost a road race but was sort of a crit.  OK, see, a road race is out on the road.  You might go from point A to point B, or you might ride a circuit one or several times, but usually it's at least ten miles.  Maybe seven, but that's pushing it.  On the other side you have a crit race, where you have a short circuit, from one kilometer to maybe mile and change.  This course, out near Decatur, was two and a half miles.  We ran it as a crit, but we had a follow vehicle like a road race.  On top of it being the coldest day since last winter, there was a north wind of about thirty miles per hour.  It added up to feeling AMAZINGLY cold.  On the observation tower, I had to lean into the wind to keep myself from being blown over.  Joseph raced with the adults for one race and with the juniors for another.  He got 20th out of 23 finishers in the adult race and 6th out of 11 in the junior one.  Not bad at all.  Since I was officiating, we had to be there early.  It's about an hour's drive, we had to be there an hour early, and the first race was at 7, so I was dragging the kids up at 4 am.  Did I mention that Emily decided that she wanted to come?  She ended up sitting in the snack bar the whole time while we were freezing out on the track.  Afterwards, we're a few miles down the road when I get a call, Joseph left something.  So back we go.  Then we went into town and ate lunch.  After leaving there, Joseph can't find his sunglasses, so we go back to the restaurant.  It turns out they were in the van the whole time. The races ended at 12:15 and we didn't get home until three.  Then we ran over to Irving to check out the last leftovers from another bike team.  They were selling off some of their used equipment.  Joseph picked up a nice saddle for $30 (used, but new it's $150 - $200) and I got a really nice helmet for $30 (not used, still in the box, and worth $150 new).  As we were leaving, Joseph leans back in his seat with his eyes half-closed in the lazy afternoon sun and mentions, "this is probably the best day ever."  Nice.  Glad I could help offer that to you.  I encouraged him to find out what would be the best day ever for each of his siblings and try to help those days happen.

Got some new lights

I got a new set of lights this week. It's funded by good old VZdubya. They had given me a nice award for my volunteering to help with Hurricane Ike, redeemable as cash or as gift cards. So gave myself a $30 budget at Amazon and I wanted a new set of lights. $30 doesn't go too far, I wasn't expecting to get a new Minewt or anything. I just wanted either a decent headlight (I was hoping someone was moving something nice cheap) or a really nice taillight, or a half-decent safety headlight and a taillight. I almost got another Planet Bike Super Flash, but I thought I might be able to get something close to it and a decent safety headlight. I looked at a bunch of the combo packs. Most of the headlights are not really high-power, but they wouldn't hurt along with my existing headlights. I wanted something that would blink, or maybe something that would attach to my helmet.
Well, in the end, I fell for this set. The MSRP lists for $54 but Amazon had it for less than $40. Yeah, MSRP was probably too steep, but the taillight looked OK and the headlight was potentially a nice light. It's hard to tell what 180 lux is but it seems to be what their other lights do on a low setting. Again, comparing lights is hard to do from manufacturer, expecially without picures. I saw another manufacturer with a significantly stronger light bragging about 14 lux. There weren't any reviews of this item anywhere, but I decided to try it anyway. Incidently, you can find some rather unbiased reviews of lights here and here. Of course, neither really reviews the Vetta. So, how did it do?

1st, I was only really looking forward to the headlight, figuring that taillights are pretty much all the same, unless you get a Dinotte. But the taillight was nicer than I expected. This thing is pretty sizeable, taller than my Super Flash. It's set up to attach to my seat post like most others. That's another thing I like about my Super Flash. You can attach it to your seat stay or clip it on a saddle bag or a messenger bag. The Vetta taillight looks like it will be OK. It's not as bright as the Super Flash, but it has a steady beam, a blinking one, and a running one, where the three LED's blink sequentially. That's the one I think I'll use the most, I think it will catch someone's eye a bit more with the movement.

2nd, the headlight isn't set up like a headlight. It's a triangular flashlight with a handlebar base. You can pull it off and use it like a flashlight. There are others like this out there, but I didn't expect it out of this one.

3rd, when I first turned it on, I was a bit disappointed at how bright it wasn't. It's a one-watt bulb, so it's right on the border of being something that will let you ride fast with it down a busy street. It's not going to throw out light farther than what I already have. But then I noticed that it is noticeably brighter than some other safety headlights I've seen and used. It looks to be on par with the Niterider Ultrafazer Max or the Cateye EL 530. So for the cash, it's not bad at all. It's NOT a $450 HID or even a $50 LED. I would not recommend this as a first light, or an only light for someone commuting. If you are riding only suburban streets or slowly on a paved trail in a park though, it might do the trick.

4th, it doesn't come with a helmet mount. Bummer. It kind of looked like a helmet mount in the pictures on Amazon. No such luck. Another $14 and I can order one from Vetta but I may get a helmet mount for one of my other lights.

5th, it only has one setting, on. No low, no flash. Another bummer. I would have liked to have something that flashes to go along with my Minewt.

The Eddy's site is a bit misleading. Check out how bright the MiNewt looks there, and then check out how dim it looks on the trail at the second review site. I think I may just have to save my pennies for something spectacularly priced if I ever get into riding trails at night. All in all, I was a bit more impressed than I expected, but I was also holding out hope that it would be special. It is what it is.