Week 61 - Baptism

As I catch up on more manuscripts stacked in my desk drawers (knowledge just waiting to be gained!), a few things have butted in and provided some distraction that I thought I would share. To date myself, I consider myself to be among the third generation of computer users. No, I didn't use data cards, but I know how they work (or that they exist). And no, I didn't have to code my own game (but I've seen it done). But I did play the original Oregon Trail on the Mac, complete with a lot of .DOS legends, and I did play Nintendo and Sega - no pre- or post-fixes. As a proud part of that gaming heritage, I started digging for the classics and figuring out how to run them on a new-ish PC. Turns out there are a lot of sites that are probably run by teenagers who are thankfully not as devious as they could be and I downloaded a mirror for the old Mac that runs on my computer and I made it out alive. 

And I now possess the original Oregon Trail. I have to say that apart from shooting buffalo, there's really not a lot of value beyond nostalgia. But the old deer-call dance and a spray of bullets after a stray rabbit can put any old guy in a good mood - I just prefer to do it digitally. Also, for those of you with short attention spans, it took me 3 hours and 2 years on the trail to reach the Williamette Valley. My oxen got stolen in Utah and I spent a year there killing varmits and trading them for bullets and clothes to survive. No game now would ever let you extend it into oblivion like that.

After celebrating my victory in this game-feating, I may have gotten a little carried away. A friend recommended the Organ Trail as a comedic follow-up and it truthfully has a little more game complexity (shotgun to Ed, or anti-Z vaccine?) that makes it a bit more fun. Plus, a trip out hunting now represents a scene from the twinkie-hunting "Zombieland". And then there were the gorillas...

When we were kids at Grandma and Grandpa's house, we used to take turns with the "gorilla game" as we called it, where a duo of King Kongs march across the rooftops and chuck atomic bananas at each other. Of course, to make it a fair game, you have to take in the wind speed, angle of encroaching buildings and velocity in order to score the direct hit. The new game comes with a computer opponent that learns as you go, and since the games last about 5 minutes they are the perfect thing to do over lunch or when you're sick of doing anything real at work but don't want to be distracted indefinitely.

Otherwise, I end up reading moving stories like this. Very touching and indicative of the hockey community in Michigan.

This week was third year for our Horse Judging Team to compete at Quarter Horse Congress, and it probably wasn't our best showing. But another good group of kids are graduating through the ranks with improved decision-making and public speaking skills, and I am proud of them for sticking through it - some of them better than others. It is nice getting a bit of recognition from the department that we actually exist.

2013 Horse Judging Team

Our Hannah also turned 4 months old this week, and the photo shoot began anew. You can't really see it most of the time, but someone is usually hiding behind the baby and holding the blanket up, while trying to balance the baby through the blanket. Meanwhile the photographer is trying to keep the dog from plopping right down amidst everything and focusing the camera and calling out to Hannah, trying to get her to smile even though it is the one time that day where she starts to cry instead out of confusion. And then I lost the camera battery charger, so the battery was dying, too. Total chaos. And yet, she looks cute once more, a tribute to her mother who always seems to get just the right picture.

Hannah is growing more attached over the weeks to her little toy cow that we picked up on the Labor Day trip (see previous post) in Arlington, VA. Clarence the cow is going to need washed again on account of the fact that he has become the designated bottle holder. In an awkward state of events, Hannah actually ends up eating her bottle while it is balanced on the butt of a stuffed cow. Perhaps she has associated Clarence with food, too, which is why she is so attached. I'm not sure the reason, but she loves that thing. The picture to the left is of her dressed in the Spartan hat her aunt J made for her asleep in the carseat with Clarence. He goes practically everywhere with us and she always has him close by.

The main even this week was Hannah's baptism. For those of you more familiar with the Catholic ways, she is probably a later dipper than most but we kept running into schedule conflicts and this was the first real weekend we could get it done. We went to a baptism preparation class, but it was unfortunately not helpful. We didn't really learn about the ceremony set-up to expect for the big day or anything about the teachings of baptism. Luckily for us, we both grew up rooted in our faith (despite different denominational teachings), and we were comfortable without all the teaching. But I think the program definitely left something lacking for a lot of people.

Speaking of lacking, when the baptisms (they do all the kids 1x per month, so there were 5?) were ready to start, a good chunk of our families were lacking. Courtesy of a huge block of cement being moved down the road and blocking 2 lanes of traffic, people were over 20 minutes late to the service and my wife and I went into immediate stall mode. Everyone made it in time, thankfully due to the deacon's willingness to delay, but it was a bit more hectic than I expected. Hannah cried a bit at the water, but she looked so angelic in her gown. Her gown was passed down from her mom's side of the family, her bonnet is a gift from Ireland, and her blanket was mine from my baptism. She was quiet through most of the service, but once the baby boy beside us started filling his diaper, and then they all got hit with the water, it was a good thing the service was about to be done. We got family pictures, and pictures with the godparents, her aunt (my wife's sister) and uncle (my brother), and then headed back to the house to party it up with chili and homebrew. A pretty special way to start off this week.

Our family (minus Betsy, the dog) on Hannah's baptism.