Taking the Day Off

I'm taking today off, to celebrate my youth, and in dread of what is happening tomorrow.

On the bright side, I get to take my children out to the Science and Technology Museum this morning, and this afternoon after Hannah wakes up we are going shopping for a new dishwasher. Karen wanted to get some cleaning done, so I'm taking the children out of the house (and enjoying some time with them). I LOVE being a Dad (especially one who is still young).

A big change is coming up, and I thought I would be able to announce it this week, but it looks like I'll have to wait until next week. Stay tuned.

Last Sunday I finished preaching through Romans. 22 messages over a period of several years. It's done! I think I might tackle Galatians next, although I was thinking of doing a survey of basic Christian doctrine.

On a different topic, I finished reading "One Up on Wall Street" by the legendary investor Peter Lynch. I wouldn't try some of his strategies for investing, and the book is somewhat dated (I got it at the library for 50 cents) but he does have some helpful rules about investing and understanding the fundamentals of a balance sheet.

What is your definition of Tolerance?

Abdul Rahman converted to Christianity about 15 years ago. He is now living in his native Afghanistan, and is on trial for his life. If found guilty of converting from Islam (and his has openly admited it) he will be sentenced to death. The officials involved have said they are very tolerant; if he converts back to Islam they won't kill him. Maybe they have a different definition of tolerance than we do.

Interestingly enough, the judge says he doesn't know what all the fuss is about; after all western countries allow two women to get married. In other words, we do something they consider totally indecent, so why shouldn't they do something we consider totally indecent. It's interesting how the same sex marriage crowd insist that this is a private matter between consenting adults and so it affects nobody. In actual fact it turns out that our moral actions have a far wider influence than we realize. To the judge who made this observation I only have one point to make... the issue at stake is freedom of religion. We permit people to convert to Islam in Canada, so why won't they permit people to convert to Islam in Afghanistan? Could it be that the Islamic religious leaders fear a level playing field? I'm willing to bet that if everyone is free, far more people will choose Christianity... and I bet the Muslim leaders think so too.

As for me, I wrote the Afghan Ambassador to Canada (and cc'd our Foreign Minister) expressing my strong support for Canada's involvement in rebuilding Afghanistan (an involvement in blood and treasure) and expressed my concern for Mr Rahman. We'll see.

The obvious answer is for the judge to declare that Islam is the true faith and that anyone who would convert from Islam is obviously crazy and cannot be held responsible for their apostasy. That way they can keep their (to my thinking offensive) laws on the books and yet join the 17th century.

Busy

I haven't had a lot of time for posting on my blog lately. I did my taxes the other night, and the past two nights I've been working on a sermon for Sunday. I also have the next issue of Learning at Home coming up.

I've also been pushing my way through a number of books. I just finished "Preaching the Parables to Postmoderns", which is an OK book that could be much better if the author didn't feel the need to make the Parables more interesting by throwing in a bunch of extra-Biblical (and in some cases questionable) details. I also wrote a short book review of this book.

Karen is now fully recovered. Sick for 2 weeks, coughing and wiped out, we're pretty sure it was pneumonia. No fun.

Slightly more fun was exercising some stock options last night. I have a huge number of stock options that are all underwater, but a few that were "in the money". I exercised them and will get a bit of money for them. Ah yes, I remember the good old days...

Liberal Leadership

The Liberals have announced their leadership convention will occur in December. Very interesting because the Conservatives will bring down a budget in April which will contain spending measures the Liberals have vowed to fight. But if they fight too hard and manage to defeat a spending bill, we'll be forced to head back to the polls and the Liberals will need to fight an election without a leader and $4 million in the hole. Methinks the Liberal Whip will be giving very clear instructions to the Liberal MP's to make sure they raise lots of protest without actually bringing the government down.

Update

Karen isn't coughing as hard, but she's pretty wiped out. I took the children out to Home Depot to buy a couple of lamps, and then for groceries. This afternoon it's 9 degrees outside, and so the children have been able to go out without jackets (wearing sweaters). They've been playing outside for over 4 hours! Hannah slept for over 3 hours, which gave me the chance to have a nap and get a little work done.

I took yesterday off work to help out. At lunch I was quite pleased with myself. I made pasta for Hannah's lunch, and made a cheese sauce. I just warmed some milk, added some shreaded cheddar, stirred until dissolved and added a little flour. The best part was, Hannah actually enjoyed it! Usually she hates my special creations.

On the mend?

Karen got some antibiotics on Tuesday. The doctor wasn't sure if she has bronchitis or pneumonia. Anyway, she seems to be on the mend. She was able to look after the children today, while her mother visited to help the past two days. I have a cough and a heavy chest in the evenings, but haven't missed any work.

Hannah has a runny nose and she is not herself. On the other hand, this morning she wanted breakfast so she went to the cupboard and pulled out the cereal she wanted. I poured her a bowl, she started eating, and then she got up, went to the bookshelf and pulled off a Disney magazine. She opened it up and "read" it while eating! It was so cute.

How do you spend a 4 day weekend

Well, I decided to take last Friday and this coming Monday off work. I have a few things I wanted to get caught up on. However, it hasn't worked entirely the way I planned.

Joel had been sick last weekend, but is mostly recovered. On Friday, Karen got it. Fever, cough and fatigue. I was able to take the older two kids out to Chapters, and I was able to finish the March issue of the Learning at Home newsletter (for homeschooling families in the Ottawa area). However, by the end of the day it was also clear that Hannah was also sick.

On Saturday, we had to postpone Joel's birthday party. Karen was too sick, and I couldn't do the whole thing myself, in addition to looking after a sick child and a sick wife. Joel was pretty good about it. I did get to take him to Toys R Us, where he spent his birthday money on a big Viking ship. Hannah was about what you would expect from a feverish child.

However, about an hour before the children's bedtime, Karen was feeling well enough to let me go out to the Kanata Symphony Orchestra. They were giving a concert. While not a professional orchestra, they definitely have talent. The pieces they selected were also quite sophisticated.

This morning I got up with Hannah at 6:00am. By 7:00am I had to wake Karen, because Hannah had vomited all down the front of my t-shirt. Karen looked after Hannah while I pulled the vomit soaked t-shirt over my head and went to the shower. This is probably poetic justice because as a baby I did the same thing to my Dad.

Anyway, Hannah is very clingy, and for some reason wants me. If I come upstairs, she follows. As a family, we are not well enough to go to church today.

Tomorrow, hopefully everyone will be a bit better. I've got to do the car license renewals, but that's about it.

Protests

U.S. President Bush visited India yesterday. India has agreed to open 14 of their nuclear reactors to international inspection. You would think Bush would get some credit for the diplomacy involved in this. Of course not. Rather than emphasizing the increased world stability and the fact that Bush is working through international inspectors, the press is pushing the angle of the protesters.

Short of converting to Islam, attacking Israel and handing Iraq back to Saddam, is there anything that could make the protesters stop complaining against Bush? Oh, I almost forgot... he'd also have to give up on capitalism (to please the leftists), make the United States 100% dependant on foreign oil (to please the environmentalists), give up on free trade (to please the anti-globalization nuts) and unilaterally disarm (to please the liberal church groups). Then people would like Bush.

Good thing Bush doesn't care if he is liked or not.