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It is always a little uncomfortable for me when I talk to someone and they say that they read my blog. I'm not too comfortable with people praising my work, though fortunately, that is seldom an issue. Instead it is that all of my worthwhile stories and anecdotes end up either here or on Twitter (http://twitter.com/aristeos). What little wit I can muster I pour into my posts (yes folks, this is the best I can do), so I'm forced to try to come up with some new and interesting topic that I haven't blogged yet.

Living on the plains of North Central Montana, like anyplace, has its ups and downs. There are the winters, the hot dry summers, and the wind (you know, it makes the mountains sound like folks were up there dyin'). However there is one good thing we've got, one of my favorites. Something that most places have and likely take for granted. But sometimes things that are commonplace in one area become near miraculous in another. Frogs. I know, every place that has water has the slimy little guys, but that's the thing, we don't have water, not regularly at least.

Ruth, Sophia and I recently attended an "infant dedication" at a Foursquare Church. Dedicating your newborn to raised in your faith with the belief of a loving God is an idea I understand, and for the most part approve of. I wholeheartedly believe this to be the intention of the parents who were dedicating their baby. The thing that scares me however is the venue. I will freely admit to having a problem with the Foursquare denomination and all the the related Pentecostal and Charismatic belief systems.

I really don't like talking about myself too much. Regular readers of this website may well disagree, and its very existence would argue against that statement. But it is more or less true. However, when certain things are going on in your life it can be awfully hard to write, much less think about anything else. That's where I'm at right now.

Is it ironic that this year we have had a mostly pleasant spring, but since I haven't had cows to take care of, I haven't been working outside enjoying it? Ruth and I have an ongoing argument about the meaning of irony, but I think that the first nice calving season in years--just after we sell the cows--counts.

It has been quite an adjustment living without the cows, but I have to admit that the opportunity to travel in February and March have been a rather welcome upside.

Leaving tomorrow for Seattle, then Oregon then back to Seattle. Ruth has a dollhouse show next weekend and Emerald City Comic Con is the weekend after, and we thought it'd be fun to spend some time on the coast in between. Getting excited to go, even though we just got back from Arizona. The Oregon Coast contains three of the best places on earth: Robert's Books in Lincoln City, Tillamook Creamery in Tillamook, and Doogers Seafood Restaurant in Seaside.

Ruth and I (esp. me) can be a little lazy, one of the facilitators of said laziness is iChat. We tend to chat rather than get up and go up/down-stairs to talk face-to-face. Sometimes I think this has affected our brains, I want to share a snippet from a chat earlier today, if only because it gives an insight into the environment Sophia is being raised in:

Ruth: every time the computer made a noise for me responding to you Sophia made the same noise at it while reading a book it's hilarious

Ruth, Sophia and I are leaving tomorrow for Arizona to visit Ruth's grandparents. In February. I haven't been anywhere in February in almost fifteen years. When I was a kid my family would take a yearly trip to the Oregon Coast nearly every February, but that was back when we had help taking care of the cows. For a long time now it has been just my dad and I every winter, working seven days a week for five to seven months (depending on how long the winter was).

Last Wednesday, while I was leaned over with my doctor digitally inspecting my prostate, I had a flash of inspiration. Okay, that isn't true. It was more a flash of searing pain, but I assure you I would have been much happier had it been the former. Happier still if the whole situation had been different.

It has been politely pointed out to me (please take careful note of the the sarcasm there), that it has been a very long time since I've blogged. I have some very good excuses for that, really I do. But to keep my critics at bay, I've decided I'd better actually post something.