Seasonal Strangness

We have now entered that weird time of year where you want your car heater on in the early morning and your ac on by noon.  Yes strangeness is in the air, "Whut you goin' to do?" 

Digging a little deeper: can you reference this quote?

For Those Who Like Math

Rev Barton on Romans 5:12-21; "It's like Adam is one part of an algebraic equation that's about to be canceled out." 

I'm pretty sure that was Divine Intervention for my high  3 + n = -175 school sister, as she finishes Algebra 1 and starts slugging her way through Algebra 2.  

I Gots Culture

Today via discussion with a friend I realized that the town of, blink-and-you'll-miss-it, Stevinson has more culture than Bakersfield. Not that I expect much from the city "affectionately" known as CA's armpit, but still I was shocked.

 Can you imagine never eating clam chowder and not knowing about homemade ice cream?!? The second one left me speechless; around here even the cows know about homemade ice cream! Don't believe me, head over to Hilmar Cheese and watch the video.

Oh just in case anyone's reading this for the first time, I don't actually live in Stevinson. Or Hilmar for that matter. I live near a much bigger city called Livingston.

The Last Supper a True Miracle

Tonight I had an epiphany. On the night of the Last Supper Jesus was working an awesome, mind blowing, unrecognized miracle. "Well, of course He was" you say. "Everyone knows He singled out Judas as the Betrayer and called Peter's Denial.  What else do you call predicting the future."

But I'm not talking about that, nor am referring to the BIG MIRACLE He was setting the stage for. No I'm talking about one that's crazier.

Have you ever stopped to look at the famous painting of the Last Supper? If not take a look at the picture that I have posted for educational purposes. There's a version hanging by my stairs. (The one posted. Don't know if you can tell from the photo, but that's glitter around the clothes. I've never seen another version quite like it. And the frame, which you can't really see, is wood. Pretty sweet.)  Anyway, on my way to bed I noticed something, you have a tiny table with twelve uncouth guys crowded around it, and not one spilled glass. What are the odds? It's a Miracle I tell you, there's no other explanation.

That night with all the crazy stuff about to go down, with His friends about to Betray Him and Death awaiting, Jesus made sure not to stain the table cloth or waste the wine. Amazing isn't it?

What can I say, He pays attention to details.

Central Valley Tea Time?

Thanks to how my works schedule is I had a natural three day weekend. I decided to stay home but pretend I was on vacation. After our water randomly shut itself off last night, I decided to take myself to breakfast. The water came back on in the middle of the night, but I decided to stick to my plan anyway.

Tea Shop in England

It took me 30 groggy minutes to decide I wanted tea and scones. Unfortunately there aren't a plethora of tea shops around Livingston so I decided to settle on the closest thing around, Starbucks. I know, I know, not the same at all. But I really didn't feel like driving to Jantz's on the far side of Atwater, I was hungry.

After staring at the unhelpful menu that only lists iced tea, I gave up and let the cashier help me figure out what the blazes I wanted. Chi Latte, translation, chi tea with milk. (I always put milk in my tea, but whatever.) Apparently they don't normally put sugar in the drink. I must have paled because he asked if I wanted sugar. I said, "yes, a little." I then was asked if two pumps was ok. Pumps? for sugar? What the blazes?!? You don't pump sugar, you either spoon it out of a bowl or plop a nice symmetrical cube in your tea.

I had no guide to go by. What's a pump of sugar equate to, 1 cube? 1 spoonful? If he'd asked how many cubes I could have told him. Heck even how many spoonfuls. Floundering out of my element I said yeah assuming the Starbucks guru's were all knowing and wise. After scorching my tongue I realized two pumps was not enough. I sat there eating my coffee cake, lamenting the fact that I hadn't been able to doctor the tea myself. I was quite disappointed. (In all fairness it did get slightly better as it cooled).

Conclusions:
1) I miss Europe and Felton California.
2) Next time I'll be sure to bring the sugar cubes.