Growing up, I was taught about the value of saving money.
In particular, I came to realize that if I could manage to earn and save one million dollars, I could then invest that money in U.S Treasury bonds or another very safe security, receive maybe 6% interest each year, which would amount to $60,000 annual income, keeping the one million dollars of principal intact.
If I had a mustache, it would be burning right now because I just crushed up my tabasco chile peppers and started making my own homemade tabasco sauce!
My mustache is burning because I touched that area after mashing up the peppers; I washed my hands first, but it was no use, much hot pepper juices permeated my skin.
The cool thing is, the peppers are fermenting now with a layer of salt over them, and after a month or two, I will strain the mash and add vinegar to the liquid, aging it another few weeks before hopefully enjoying it!
I used the Fermented Pepper Sauces (Tabasco) recipe I found on this site. It mini-simulates how the famed McIlhenny Company creates their famous Tabasco sauce, which ages for 3 years in oak barrels (that is so cool).
We affectionately refer to our chicken operation as “The Coop at Turtleback Lane” or alternatively, from my friend Doug at work, “Pointe One-Seven Farms” (because our house sits on a 0.17 acre lot).
The total cost of everything associated with the chicken setup (coop building materials, including two staple guns: a replacement for my friend Nathan’s gun that I broke and then one for myself since they are so useful, the chickens themselves, their feeder and waterer pails, feed, a book, etc.) was $240.
So far, we have gotten about 20 eggs. So our current cost per egg is $240/20 eggs = $12 / egg.
That is obviously nothing to write home to Aunt Mabel about, but now that we are getting 2 eggs a day, and when the third chicken starts laying, please God, 3 eggs a day, the amortization will really kick in!
I will keep you posted with a weekly or monthly Egg Report.
I watched The Bourne Ultimatum with my wife and friends recently, and–wouldn’t you know–it got me thinking about God and the radical freedom and responsibility He has given us.
If you haven’t seen the movies, I’ll catch you up on the relevant parts for this post: Secret CIA agency (Treadstone) brainwashed Jason Bourne to be a deadly assassin. Bourne diverted from the murderous course that they planned for him and so they sent out other assassin’s to kill him.
Last night Katie and I met the Lord family.
It’s really cool because they found us through our blog and discovered that we lived in the same general area and had many similar interests! We set up a time to get together, and yesterday we got to meet them.
They told us about a blog from a former atheist who recently converted to the Catholic faith, which was interesting because I converted from atheism to the Catholicism as well (by way of Evangelical Protestanism).
Finally, through these blogs we found this neat family who is building their own home from the ground up on land they bought and living in camping tents in the meantime! They have another blog here.
It’s awesome that our blogs have helped us to find others who share our love for the Lord and for other important matters of life; I never would have guessed it, but this blog has been a great way to get to meet people!
“Let the buyer beware.”
I just read an article on the New York Times’ site about Countrywide Financial and its current problems due to the sub-prime mortgage crash.
Interestingly, the author of the article blames Countrywide for what it implies are its greedy practices that–gasp!–didn’t have the best interests of its loan-purchasing customers at heart. The customers who purchased these loans with horrible interest rates and terms are not held responsible for their actions.
Our egg-laying champion, Eunice, laid 7 eggs this past week, not missing a day!
Also, a second hen began laying about three days ago. We thought it was Gertrude (the most timid) but today we discovered it was Lobelia.
So now, thanks be to God, we are starting to get some significant eggs coming our way. 
 Katie told me that I better start getting used to a daily routine of eggs for breakfast and quiche for dinner…sounds good to me!
I’ve known for some time that Devin’s the most brilliant man in the world. And, it looks like his co-workers are getting the message, too. Congratulations, my love! Check out the high praises listed below from Devin’s manager:
“Devin started his career at NI in 2001 in the MAX group, where he worked on the MAX configuration database known as MXS and other MAX components such as Portable Configuration, Remote System Configuration, and MAX installers.
Devin became the lead MXS developer in late 2002, taking over the reigns of this core NI technology during the MAX 3.0 development cycle. Over the next four years Devin led the MXS team to deliver key features for MAX clients and to improve the scalability, robustness, and performance of MXS. Much of this was to enable driver groups to leverage their existing configuration investment in MXS in new ways and on new platforms. For example, Devin extended MXS to enable off-line driver configuration in LabVIEW Project, and he played a major role in porting MXS for the Linux releases of NI-DAQmx and Modular Instruments drivers. He later led the VxWorks port of MXS for PowerPC based NI PACs.
Devin has proven himself to be an effective mentor and cross-group collaborator. He is enthusiastic and ready to help other developers when they need assistance, taking the time to share his expertise or to jump right in and help drive the right solution. He has repeatedly been praised by people around R&D saying that he provided time-critical assistance to solve a development issue or to resolve a customer support problem.
Earlier this year Devin transferred to the LabVIEW group where he brings his considerable talents to the Blueprint and System Diagram initiatives.
Please join with me in congratulating Devin on his past accomplishments, his promotion and his strong commitment to NI R&D.”
Today I was promoted to Senior Software Engineer!
What can I say, but God is good? At my company, you start out on the “technical track” as Software Engineer, then next comes Staff Software Engineer, and then Senior. There are other positions after Senior, but it will be many years before I would even be considered for them.
The neat thing is, I have realized how much I have learned in my 6.5 years of professional software development since graduating college. I work at a great company with very intelligent coworkers. Many of them far exceed me in programming talent, skill, and understanding, and I have learned a lot from them.
It is therefore an honor to be given a promotion by my company that accurately recognizes the value of my work. Some people say titles are meaningless, and in some places they are, but when they really do reflect the underlying reality, they are very meaningful.
This post is a response to an article written by my sister in Christ, Anne Rice, which is posted on her website.
Ms. Rice has recently returned to her Catholic faith and even written a book from the child Jesus’ perspective. Further, she has clearly committed to growing in her faith and writing edifying literature for Christians and others.
I want to tell Ms. Rice how grateful I am for her love of our Lord and encourage her in her desire to grow closer to him.
She writes in this article that she is supporting Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential election. Why?
Though I deeply respect those who disagree with me, I believe, for a variety of reasons, that the Democratic Party best reflects the values I hold based on the Gospels. Those values are most intensely expressed for me in the Gospel of Matthew, but they are expressed in all the gospels. Those values involve feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison, and above all, loving one’s neighbors and loving one’s enemies. A great deal more could be said on this subject, but I feel that this is enough.
If I could summarize, I would say she feels that the Democrats believe in solving social justice issues strongly, as Jesus commands in the Gospels.
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