All Emily’s talk and gyration about peacocks makes me feel a bit threatened. She has chosen to set her sights not on a sexually ambiguous, general peafowl, but on a peacock, the male of the variety, the one with the fantastically fanning feathers. How deeply dare I read into her recent daydreamings of possessing a male whose feathery splendor far outweighs mine?  In fact, my feathers are non-existent. Should I then be ascared?

“Oh, that white one looks like Christmas.”

Do I look like Christmas, I wonder to myself. Maybe I should go albino and sport snowlike dandruff.

Maybe to combat this gross wanting of peacock, I should set my sights on a peahen to replace my peanut. From the same site on which Emily found peacocks listed for $120, I spotted a peahen for a mere $20. Not only is that considerably cheaper than the male version, but markedly cheaper than a peanut living in your house who finds a consistent attraction to Target an itch worthy of repeated and regular scratching.

A peahen is obviously the better option!

The other night when I spoke with my parents on the phone about the upcoming election, I said I was going to post a link to an email that Dr. Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary where I’m currently attending, sent around to the student body. Dr. Akin offers short prefacing remarks before including an article written by Princeton University professor Robert P. George entitled Obama’s Abortion Extremism.

You can read Dr. Akin’s email and Professor George’s article on Akin’s blog at the following address: http://betweenthetimes.com/2008/10/14/why-faithful-evangelicals-cannot-vote-for-barack-obama.

Also, with Dr. Akin’s permission I’ve created a PDF of his email with the article to make it easy to attach to an email or print. Click here to download the PDF.

This is not about propaganda but about exposing Obama’s voting record and lack of concern for unborn babies.

Nursing school is so hardcore that they only give you two days for fall break….”two days?! What in the world can you do with two days?” I hear you say.  Well tacked on to a day we normally have off and a weekend that adds up to five days, technically that is enough time to go visit Grandma, take a small trip to the beach, or put 10 pounds on at the state fair, I just call it sneaky.  Do I sound bitter?  Maybe I am because I’m sitting on my sofa with a sore nose and an annoying cough on the verge of losing my voice and to top it all off we’re too poor to buy tissues with lotion! The good news is ER is on..yay.  And I’ve been able to watch three movies over the past two days…nice.

To be honest though I’m kinda enjoying the excuse to do nothing and with my new recording device for school I can lay back and listen to past class lectures to get ready for the next test.  That reminds me, I have a new theory about tests but I shall share that with you another night..maybe over Christmas break….I think we get three days to celebrate Jesus’ Birthday.

So I say to Drew tonight awhile after our previous conversation,

“Hey Drew I want a baby”

He says

“I’ll get you a peacock”

When Emily says, “Drew, I need to talk with you,” I stop what I’m doing and listen. Today was no different except for the totally random subject of which she wanted to speak.

“Drew, I want a pet.”

“OK…”

“I want a peacock.”

“OK…”

A sage woman once said that if a young couple can afford to have a pet, they should just start having children. I’m not saying we don’t want children (because we do!), but I am saying I don’t want a peacock. One bird around the house getting her feathers ruffled is enough.

25

Happy Birthday!

I overhear some of the most random conversations at work. Observe:

Lady [concerning teenage daughter seated at table]: She eats sour cream like ice cream.

Gal [to the daughter]: You should move to Mexico.

Wouldn’t have been my first reply.

“You shouldn’t do that.”

“Have you tried eating ice cream like ice cream?”

Anyways, you might be thrilled to know that I’ve added new photos to MOT of a recent henna party at which I mixed up some tunes dj style and every one in attendance got ink done.

Goooood work, Town!

Well, only up to 10 hens says the latest ruling of the Wake Forest town Board of Commissioners.

The Triangle’s News & Observer reports:

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WAKE FOREST - Emily Cole can have her chickens.

The Wake Forest town Board of Commissioners last week voted 4 to 1 to let Cole and any other town resident keep up to 10 hens.

Cole spoke to the town board last month, asking them to change a rule that required prospective chicken owners to get all neighbors within 500 feet to approve their plans.

Only one family has successfully convinced their neighbors to let them have chickens.

Cole couldn’t. Though many neighbors had no problem with her plans, a few disagreed.

So Cole started a petition asking the town to loosen its rules. She eventually gathered several hundred signatures.

In August, town board members said they agreed that the rules needed to be changed.

Earlier this month, they considered a draft ordinance that allowed up to five chickens. Last week, after a public hearing, board members agreed to increase that number to 10. Cole had originally hoped officials would allow as many as 20.

“I’m really happy with the outcome, and I’m really excited that it didn’t take six months to do it,” Cole said. “I’m also really happy that the Wake Forest commissioners are open-minded. I’m excited that they realize it’s a good step forward for the town.”

Across the country, more urban and suburban residents are keeping chickens amid fears of the safety of the food supply and a desire to buy local products.

Until now, only the Bissette family in Wake Forest was allowed to have chickens. They were awarded a permit earlier this year after all of their neighbors agreed to their plans.

Neighbors and families at Holding Park across the street often stop by to see their hens.

The new rules mean that the Bissettes no longer have to get their permit renewed each year.

Dave Bissette said he wasn’t concerned about getting the permit renewed, but it was a hassle. The family would have had to canvass all their neighbors again.

“I’m glad, quite frankly, I don’t have to deal with it anymore,” said Bissette.

Nobody came forward to speak out against the new rules at the public hearing. Town commissioner Pete Thibodeau was the lone dissenting vote.

Commissioner Frank Drake said many Wake Forest homeowners who live in neighborhoods where homeowner association rules ban chickens won’t be able to keep them, despite the law.

Drake, whose grandparents tended chickens in a neighborhood when he was a child, said most people who contacted him supported the measure.

“I really don’t think this is going to be as prevalent as vegetable gardening,” he said. “Nobody seemed to have a problem with it once they realized that they lived in a neighborhood that had an HOA that forbade it.”

Cole said last week that she wasn’t sure when she will get her chickens, but it could be in the next week or so. Her husband has plans to build a miniature barn.

When Cole got home from last week’s meeting, her husband and two young children were waiting to congratulate her with chicken drawings taped to the door.

They told her, the “chickens are coming.”

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I’ll see if I can convince my Emily to allow us to acquire our permitted 10 hens.

Nothing really exciting is going on for us, which we guess is good. Most nights we’re at home studying and reading getting ready for the next day’s bombardment of information in our respective classes. I guess yesterday was the first day of fall and it’s really starting to cool down here in Wake Forest already. We’re enjoying the nice change of temperature from the summer’s beating sun. In fact, I don’t think we’ve had our thermostat switched “on” for the past week or so as we’ve been relying on the cool air coming in through opens windows to regulate our little McDowell apartment.

About the only thing newsworthy I can think of as I sit here is that I had a cold shower this morning. Well, it was more cool than cold, but heat mostly definitely significantly reduced when compared with a normal day’s shower. Our hot water heater seems to have been acting up. I can say “have been” because I called the maintenance people this afternoon and they were able to come over soon thereafter and work out whatever was the malfunction. Though this is the second time this has happened in the past two months, we’re grateful in this case that we rent an apartment and can call a maintenance man to come fix the problem because it’s not our water heater.

Over the weekend we watched Chariots of Fire which turned out to be a fairly touching, moving and interest-keeping film of yesteryear. We recommend. Here’s what’s perhaps the most well-known line from the movie apart from the theme song:

I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.

Lastly, Nigel and Georgina are beginning to make posts on their blog at Hayestack.co.uk about adjusting to life in Namibia where they’ll be living for the next two years.

Here’s a mix I cooked up for you of some popular tunes which I’ve been enjoying over the last couple of months. The mix progression centers on avoiding key clashes, a new skill I’m trying to pick up. So, those who are super sensitive to keys and key clashes, please, if you hear dodgey keys mixing together, let me know so I can improve. Slap this mix on your MP3 and go for a run, and most definitely if you really enjoy any one song, buy it to support the producer (e.g. Beatport.com). Enjoy!

01 Eric Prydz - Pjanoo (Club Mix)
02 Kaskade - 4 AM (Adam K & Soha Mix)
03 Dobenbeck - Please Don’t Go (Chris Reece Mix)
04 Jerome Isma-Ae and Strobe - Monkey Square (Original Mix)
05 Delerium feat. Sarah McLachlan - Silence (Niels van Gogh vs. Thomas Gold Remix)
06 Alex Gold - Give It Up/Reaction (Adam K, Soha & Alex Gold Remix)

Download

192kbps, 33m07s, 45MB