Bye Bye Facebook

I did it. I actually did it. I deactivated facebook. Here are a few reasons.

I never use facebook anyway

I don't get the thrill that others apparently get by knowing everything about everyones life. I realize that they put up what they want people to see, but I just don't care. The people I want to know about are people that I care about and I know about them without facebook.

Things have started to change on facebook though lately. It used to be a thing where I could follow as much of a friends life as I cared to and as they shared. No one ever really talked about facebook outside of facebook itself. Lately though it seems like people are constantly talking about what they learned on facebook. This is okay, I guess, after all, what you put on facebook is public information. It's not even gossip necessarily. My problem lies in the amount of pressure I feel lately to add people as friends that I don't see a need to add. People are constantly asking to be added as friends that see me 4 or 5 times a week. Some see me every day. I feel that if I don't add them as friends, they will wonder why. If I don't add them they will wonder what it is I have to hide. Can't we just be friends without facebook? Other people add me as friends and expect me to participate in normal facebook interaction that I KNOW don't give a real rats rear what the heck is up with me. It is out of their own obsession that they even care to add me.

I realize it is irrational.

There are way too many people spending way too much time on facebook. I think I am going through some sort of weird rebellion. I am like a cyber goth or something. It is just not fun for me anymore and it is quite annoying to be expected to carry on facebook conversations in normal face to face conversations.

PLEASE don't think that I have a problem with facebook at all. I just have a problem with my own relationship with facebook. For all you facebookers, keep on stalking, gawking, and wall talking. I'm sorry to anyone that actually used facebook as a means of keeping tabs on me in a good way (although even that is nonsense considering I haven't updated anything on there for months). Have fun. I mean that.

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Firmly Awana Stands

Last night I went to my first Awana meeting since pre-jr. high. I went with mom and dad and their kids. I noticed a few things.

The books that they memorize from are WAY cooler now.

The kids are WAY cooler now.

They recite the NIV which isn't near as cool.

They no longer participate in the AWANA "Olympics" but rather the AWANA "Games". As if we couldn't have guessed that would happen one day.

Anyway, dad and I got to hang out and talk all night which was fun. Also, we are having WONDERFUL weather here. The CA people wear heavy winter coats when it is 55 degrees outside. We wear short sleeve shirts. I am loving it.

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Martha's Back

Pam has weird cravings lately. I'm sure it is a pregnancy thing or something, but anyway, last night she said to me, "I think you should bake me a cake." I said, "Do we have a cake mix?" She said, "I think you could find a recipe that doesn't need a cake mix." So I did. BUT I went a step further. I found a recipe for Boston Cream Pie. First I baked the cake, then I made the pudding like middle, and then the chocolate glaze. Then I went through the candy cane forest. Anyway, it tastes awesome. I also learned that making a cake from scratch is exactly like making one from a box. It's kind of funny that you would pay for a cake mix when you probably have all the ingredients all ready.

On another note, Gabriel scaled a kid sized mountain the other day all by himself. It was amazing. There was this tall ladder type thing with small holes for the feet and hands and it was straight up and he scaled the whole thing. It was taller than me. He must be part monkey. I am not sure what Pam's been up to but...

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I have been hearing about these 25 things lists and I like to talk about myself, but I hate facebook so, I thought I'd talk about myself here. Jake did on his and it was VERY funny. I think I will on mine as well.

1. I love Craig Ferguson and here is just one of the reasons why.



2. I love NFL football and am currently going through with drawl since the only thing on TV on Sundays now are tennis and basketball. (I prefer the tennis to the basketball, but both suck pretty bad)

3. I am getting pretty good at the guitar. The real one, not the video game one, although, I'm getting pretty good at that too.

4. I listen to NPR news everyday.

5. I am a huge Alistair Begg fan.

6. I want to replace Garrison Keillor on "The Prairie Home Companion" should he ever retire.

7. I have always wanted to be a voice for a cartoon or computer animation.

8. If I could visit anywhere in the world, the top of my list would be Israel and its surrounding area. Our bank lady is doing that next week. It is her 40th birthday present. Pretty awesome present.

9. I would like to be a contestant on "Wheel of Fortune" someday.

10. I am very attached to a quilt that my mom gave me when I was a wee lad. It has red and blue and creme colors on one side with a baseball them. The other side is black and white with a music theme. It is unfortunately falling apart from having been dragged around for many years. I love it though and still use it a lot.

11. Pam, Gabriel, and I once ate Chic-Fil-A breakfast everyday for a week for free.

12. I have a deep desire to build furniture out of wood.

13. I was a camp counselor for a couple of summers.

14. My brothers and I once kicked the crap out of a kid who thought he could take me in a fight. Maybe he could have beat me up, but the Rohde boys don't allow people to find out if any one person can beat any one of us up. If you want to pick on one of us, you better have an army. We taught this kid the hard way. No one ever picked a fight with any of us again.

15. My mom used to make us hug in the middle of the room if we were fighting. Secretly I always thought this was a WAY bigger punishment for whoever had to hug me. I made it miserable for them.

16. I am considering the name "Ringo" for my next child (boy or girl).........Just Kidding.

17. I was on the high school bowling team at Wilton one year. It was AWESOME!

18. I own the coolest business in the world. One big SHOUT OUT to Tro Sno baby!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

19. I love Candy Hearts

20. Once one of my brothers and I went with a friend to the creek with the great idea to be Tom Sawyer, build a raft, and float down the creek as far as it would take us. We walked a few miles on a chilly, gray, autumn day looking for raft building materials. We made our way through really deep mud and steep terrain until lo' and behold, before our eyes, we gazed upon a beautiful truck topper that would become our raft. We turned it upside down and slid it into the rushing current of the creek. Holding onto a branch my friend stepped onto the makeshift raft. It sunk into the water a little but but was still dry and held said friend. I then stepped into the raft. It sunk into the water even further until the water was right at the edge of the topper. The current swept us off before we could get my brother onto the raft and we started rapidly floating away. There was my brother on the banks of the creek yelling for us to stop and come and get him. Both my friend and I stepped to one side of the raft to grab a branch and stop the floating vessel. At that instant the water rushed in, over the side of the raft and drowned our little ship. We were swimming. We got to the edge of the water and started the long shameful trek back home, all the while creating a story we would tell our parents. When we arrived home, mom and dad were just about to leave. They looked at us, shrugged, didn't even listen to our story, and said take a shower. It wasn't a big deal, but we weren't about to tell them how it happened. My friend's mom later called my parents to inquire about her son. Our stories matched and we got away with the lie. I am sure my mom will read this and this is the first time she will have heard this story from me. Perhaps my brother told her, but I have lived this lie for probably 12-ish years. It feels so good to be free from my sin.

21. I think Burger King's marketing directer must be one of the funniest people in the world. Have you ever read their stuff. Seriously, just check out the rules they wrote on the paper crown that you can get at BK. You will laugh out loud in public I promise.

22. I once won an essay contest for Mother's Day about how my mom was the best. It was printed in the QC Times and, if I recall correctly, it made my mom cry...in a good way.

23. I only advise rich kids to attend Central College.

24. When I was young I liked strapping on my Rollerblades and skating down steep hills to see how fast I could go. One time I hit about 40 miles an hour and then wiped out trying to dodge rumble strips that surprised me as I went around a corner. I was wearing jean shorts and they burnt off of my body and left a blue streak burned into the pavement. My entire left leg, thigh, butt cheek, and arm where a mess of torn and melted epidermis and blood. I played a baseball game that very same night. Dude, it was awesome.

25. I once held a cheeky monkey in my right hand. He was dressed in an elevator operator's costume. I'm not sure if the monkey were gay, but he definitely was eating a banana. I was in Romania at the time and some guy wanted to take a picture of it and charge me to keep the picture. This is a true story. I thought, however, that I would leave you with this video.

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I Can't Sleep

I am like a little kid, the Super Bowl is tomorrow and I feel like it is Christmas Eve! I can't wait.

True story:

Pam and I had a girl work for us this year at Tro Sno. Her dad is the Spanish teacher at North Scott High School. She went on vacation this summer for awhile in Arizona. She went to visit her aunt and uncle. I just found out last week that her uncle just happens to be Kurt Warner and her aunt (her dad's sister) is Kurt's wife. Ummm, yeah. Why did she never mention this? Pam said that she knew that her uncle was a professional football player but never mentioned it because she didn't think she would recognize the name anyway. Wow! How does that information elude me? Anyway, our employee was at the NFC championship game where the Cards beat the Eagles. How exciting. She isn't going to the Super Bowl, but her dad is.

Okay, I shouldn't be doing this right now, I get to go to church in the morning. Then eat A LOT tomorrow during the game. Happy Super Bowl everyone!!!

Random fact: The Super Bowl is 2nd only to Thanksgiving in most food consumed in a day in America. This only adds to the excitement for me.

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Hey Dude

For your enjoyment.

Hey Dude

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Double Orange Delight

I've started a new hobby. I am becoming quite the baker. I thought about going for butcher or candle-stick maker, but baker seems to be a little more rewarding. Butching is just too messy and candles are soooo 1700's. I like baking because I can eat what I make. Anything that ends with me eating is favorable to my liking. So I've been making chocolate chip cookie dough because Pam and I like to party when Gabriel goes to bed. We sit up and watch TV and eat cookie dough. Tonight Pam had class though. I thought I would surprise her by making cookies she could eat without feeling too bad (technically you're not supposed to eat raw eggs when you are pregnant). This is the story of my night without Pam.

First Gabriel and I played fetch. Yes, fetch. He got a can of tennis balls for Christmas and he loves them. It is a great game for him to collect the balls and stack them in the can one at a time. He also gets a kick pretending to drink out of the can and having the balls hit him in the face. No kidding, this kid is like a little comedian. Anyway, I would fling the balls one by one out of the can to all parts of the room. He would then collect them and bring them back to the can. As the ball went in the can I would make a funny noise and he would just laugh and laugh. It got to the point where he would delay letting the ball go into the can because he was trying to trick daddy into making a false noise. Sly child.

After awhile of fetch Gabriel took a bath. This was pretty routine.

When the bath was over we did dishes. Usually Gabriel is a pain in the butt when doing dishes. We let him "help" with house chores whenever possible. He vacuums, wipes off the coffee table, and sweeps the floor. He also likes doing dishes. This isn't so much washing as splashing and putting bubbles all over the face. Tonight was a little different though. Usually he stands on the clean dishes side and takes the clean dishes and tosses them back into the dish water. Tonight he stood on the dirty dish side and kept tossing dishes into the water, smiling up at me every time it splashed to see if I was okay with it. I didn't have to grab dishes almost the whole time. He would put them in as fast as I could wash them and put them in the other side. It was a lot of fun.

After dishes it was time to pick up the living room. We played "magic carpet" (all names of these games are made up by me, Gabriel is not yet making up names for things. Well, at least not names like "magic carpet"). Gabriel thinks it is a big game when we fold any blankets that we might use in the living room. Anyway, he sat on one end of the blanket tonight and I pulled him all over the apartment. I would wrap him up in it and then roll him right out of it. He loved the whole thing. He didn't make such a mess today with his toys so picking them up was a breeze.

By then it was almost time for bed so we read the story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho in the Jesus Story Time Bible (HIGHLY recommended for all parents as it is extremely theologically sound and draws out some of the most major themes in the story of God and his creation). I put him in bed and he rolled over with Mr. Bear and Mr. Kitty (very original I know) and he fell asleep just as good as gold.

Then, with the house clean I thought I would try to boost my baking rep from apprentice baker to journeyman baker. I looked through Pam's recipe book to try to find a concoction that didn't take any ingredients that we didn't have. Unfortunately it was slim pickins as we are out of chocolate chips and any of the extra stuff. I did find a recipe on the Lemon cookies though. They involve grating a lemon peel and using lemon juice, neither of which we have. BUT...we do have oranges. I substituted orange peel and squeezed the juice right out of an orange. They are "Double Orange Delight" and they are GREAT! I am taking credit for the new and improved recipe. I was just so resourceful. I was like a ninja, using that which was around me and readily available to create an advantage for myself. Yes folks, I am now a journeyman baker. Maybe if I practice really hard and try my best I can become an expert baker.

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