Kings

If you go north on Business 61 a little ways from Vicksburg's downtown, you'll run into a community known as Kings. Honestly, I don't know too much about the community or the people. I know I'd be pretty scared if my car broke down there, but I hardly ever have a reason to drive that part of the highway anyway.

Today, though, I did. Today I went on a brief photography adventure with a friend from work who lives out of state. People who live in Vicksburg know that about 5 or 10 minutes north of town in Kings there is a wild-looking yard/church/sculpture with signs and towers and words all over. The truth is, I know very little about it -- only what the dozens of signs say. Most of the time I just think it's a spectacle that all who visit Vicksburg should see. I sort of laugh at it because it's so darn shocking.

But today I read some of a newspaper article posted among all of the cinderblocks and sculptures. "Lack of vision, understanding ails state, but leaders can turn dreams into reality." A preacher apparently created this display to raise awareness, to shake up some passion. Hmm... Well, it's not quite my style, but I definitely understand wanting and needing to change the complacency of the area (and not just the Kings). I'm guilty of it myself.



"God dont have no white church and he dont have no black church- only one church. Rev H.D. Dennis"


I wish I knew more about this! I wish I knew what to think. I'm pretty sure it's not doctrinely sound -- there are a few signs that don't quite make sense biblically, and there are some freemason symbols on the main wall -- but it makes a striking and bold display for Jesus! That's another thing, though. The display is such that people drive by and gawk at it. I'm guilty of chuckling at the bad grammar and improper word separation. It's great for taking pictures, and for showing folks a unique part of Vicksburg, but my gut reaction is to shake my head and laugh a little. But is this right? Am I right from brushing this off as the creation of a probably-uneducated, charismatic radical? Ah! I don't think so. Not with that attitude. I just wish I knew more!



This is just for fun. I kind of like the grey telephone pole and wires against the cloudy sky. Looks industrial.

In posts to come, maybe I'll actually show some pictures of what I've done lately (finished the stained glass, and almost finished April's alligator!) and acquired for the apartment (a free loveseat recliner!). This is going to have to do for now.

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Hooray!

Daniel is home for the day!

Squash

It was a hot day today

And it's not even July. I think I've mentioned it, though, but I get a strange delight in sitting in a hot car. The AC is sometimes just too much, and it's really nice to suck in that thick-tasting air. The funny thing is, I'm not even being sarcastic.

One very nice thing about my work is that I can begin at any time between 7 and 9 am. Because I value my afternoons, I usually go in at 7. Today, however, I went in at 7:35 because I was working on a very special and very urgent projectThis shirt is for my dear brother Daniel, and my shirt you shall see tomorrow. I'm going to be wearing it proudly because Holland is playing game #2! I rarely get excited about sports games. In fact, I usually avoid them unless friends are participating or going to watch as well.

In this particular case, I am excited because I have a pretty significant amount of Dutch pride. This is harder to do in Mississippi (because most everyone in Mississippi is from Mississippi), but definitely not impossible.

These squash are not from the farmers' market, but they are from a friend's grandparents' garden. I'm pretty sure both sources are equally "green."

Squash Casserole (Bell's Best 1982):

2 c. fresh squash, chopped (sliced)

1 medium onion, chopped

1 small pkg. (sleeve) Ritz crackers

1/4 c. melted oleo (margarine!)

1 c. grated cheese

2 eggs

1/2 c. milk

salt and pepper to taste

Cook squash and onion until tender; drain off all liquid. Mash. Beat together egg and milk; add to squash. Mix cheese, oleo, and cracker crumbs. Add 1/2 to squash mixture. Pour into buttered casserole dish. Sprinkle remaining crumbs on top. Bake 20-30 minutes at 400 degrees.

It's that easy.

Tonight was the closing ceremony for my church's Vacation Bible School! I wish I had been able to help, but alas, work got in the way. Anyway, the kids in the program tonight were so cute. VBS is always a blast.

As for my summer reading goals, I have now read 4 of the 10 books of the summer, and on to number 5. The Red Badge of Courage I do not particularly recommend. It was not bad, but it took longer than what it was worth. Maybe my problemis that I don't really like war books. I just can't get into them. Anyway, I bought 3 new books on Amazon: Redeeming Love, A Praying Life, and Grapes of Wrath. I'm reading them in that order, so I've already begun the first! SO good, so far.

In fact, I think it's time to go read right now.

Hooray for Saturdays! And brothers!

Rain on my window

It rained today! It seems like it's been weeks since we've had a good, heavy storm -- even if it did only last a few hours.

At my stained glass workshop today we started adding the copper foil around the edges of the glass. I'm not finished with all of the pieces, but I think it's coming together nicely. Next week: soldering! (By the way, I just now learned how to spell that word. I guess I've never had to use it before.)

When I walked outside of the building, it was quietly sprinkling and the sun was beginning to sink. The lighting was incredible so I made a few loops around downtown.

This is Vicksburg's Old Court House, now museum. The first time I saw it tonight the sun was just hitting the cupula, but the second time I made the loop, it had already gone down enough to make a difference. It's amazing how fast things change the closer it gets to dusk.

The "River" -- although here it's only the Yazoo Diversionary Canal-- around sunset is a beautiful thing. It was still a little rainy, as you can see by the drop of water in the upper right corner.

Today was exhausting, although I'm not sure why. It's time for bed.

Baseball and Eggplant Parmesan

So what do you do on a weekend in Vicksburg?

Go to Jackson, of course. Especially when the Mississippi Braves minor league baseball team is playing the Chattanooga Lookouts!

Actually, I really don't care for baseball, but I went with a group from work so it was fun regardless.

The game had barely begun when I took this picture, but I really appreciated Dunkin' Donuts' advertisement on the fence. Dunkin' Donuts coffee with blueberry flavoring and skim milk is almost my favorite thing in the world. [Please note the hyperbole.]

About ten minutes into the game, Emily and two other friends and I went to The Grill to eat dinner, which had so far been neglected. It took a pretty long time, but that was just fine with me. Instead of paying attention to the game, I took pictures of the sunset. The clouds were striking last night!

When I woke up this morning and opened my window, the sky was absolutely gorgeous. I thought to myself, "This will be a day to spend outside." I am so very thankful for restful weekends, and I am increasingly thankful that God made the outdoors for us to cultivate and enjoy. I'm learning I really can't live well without spending time outside.

Thankfully today, Dad was game for my idea of walking down to the Farmers' Market to pick up some veggies. I think I'm going to be visiting our twice-weekly farmers' market often!

This is one of the two pictures I took on our walk before my camera's batteries died. The Vicksburg's claim to fame is that it is the tallest building in Vicksburg (unless one of the churches has a taller steeple, but I doubt it). Pretty cool!

I must say, I had a joyously productive morning. Getting fresh corn downtown in preparation for my Quinoa, Corn, and Mint Salad was just the beginning...

After Dad and I got home, I began working on the window! You may remember seeing the antique window I bought a few weeks ago in Monroe, but that project has been on the very farthest backburner since I started work. Anyway, I worked with paint stripper paste for the first time ever. Oh my gosh! SO fun. Check out these cool bubbles that you just scrape away!

This is what I've done so far. Mom says the next step will be to "sand" it with steel wool. I am so excited, and I promise to stay up-to-date on the pictures and blogging. I cannot wait until I get to paint it!

Mom and I went down to the lake this afternoon. Em was already there with a group wakeboarding and water-sporting. I viewed this two-hour getaway as a chance to catch up on my reading. The Red Badge of Courage is taking longer than I would like, but so be it. I'm enjoying the story.

This is what I do not do at the Lake! :)

After getting home, it was time to start cooking. I've been planning since Wednesday to make Eggplant Parmesan tonight with eggplants from the mid-week farmers' market. I have never made Eggplant Parmesan, but it ended up being very delicious-- everyone agreed, too! (I have no problem with thinking my own food is amazing; sometimes I am the only one, ha!) I have attached the link if anyone is interested.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=332680

The glorious thing about Saturday is that you still have Sunday after it.

Bleeding

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Unfortunately, I was not able to give blood yesterday. The likely reason is that I didn't start the iron pills soon enough; the less likely, but still possible, reason is that the iron pills have expired.

The lady who tested my iron was so understanding, though. Gosh, she pricked two fingers just to see if it would go up from 10.4 to 12.5! On the second try the count was higher: 11.3 or something-- but still not high enough. I could tell she really wanted to let me go through with it.
Anyway, for the rest of the day I had bandaids wrapped around both of my middle fingertips!

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The second time I bled a lot yesterday was at my stained glass workshop! Of course it makes sense, since we're cutting andsanding actual glass, but by the end of the two hours I had 4 bandaids on my hands and fingers from little shards of glass! I felt kind of pitiful.

Here's a picture of my work thus far. It's not finished yet, obviously; I still have to grind all the pieces to be in perfect compliance with the pattern. I think it's going to be pretty cool though.

The instructor of the class is really good. He gets commissioned to make grand stained glass windows for churches all over the country! And his selection of all the different colors of glass is fantastic.

I'm pretty sure I used that blue-green glass in the foreground as part of my border. I love the beautiful textures and patterns.

This is the grinder. It's really fun to use because you can just rub off the rough edges and make everything fit together perfectly! If only everything were that easy...

After work today, I biked downtown to the Farmers' Market. I got two eggplants for Eggplant Parmesan on Saturday night, one peach to reward myself for biking, and a bunch of fresh-picked blueberries! Yum!

One of these days, I will buy a few good-looking squash to make squash casserole. That's probably my favorite comfort food, so future apartment-mates, watch out! :-)

Later this afternoon, I got to spend an hour talking with my wonderful friend Rosemary and I made step #1 of chocolate-cherry sorbet. Oh my gosh. It smells so good.

"Semi-colons only prove that the author has been to college." -E.B. White (I like this quotation.)

And you think we've got it bad.

This is my work:

One of the really cool things about my job is that I get to do research about a foreign country (Nigeria) all day long. Sometimes I get tired of doing google searches, but I must remind myself it's quite a privilege really, and besides, I'm working for the Lord. For example, I spent the bulk of Thursday researching endemic diseases (one of which, schistosomiasis, is caused by snails carrying the disease that attach themselves onto dams. Wow!) and oil spills. I was appalled by what this National Geographic article reports:

"On land, there are oil spills, polluting groundwater and ruining cropland. The government documented 6,817 spills between 1976 and 2001 -- practically one a day for 25 years -- but analysts suspect that the real number may be ten times higher. Old, improperly maintained equipment causes many of the leaks, but oil operators blame sabotage and theft, speculating that disaffected community members deliberately cause oil spills to collect compensation money." http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/02/nigerian-oil/oneill-text

The Niger River Delta in Nigeria is suffering immensely because oil spews over their fields and water sources. Ican't believe that no one is talking about this.

This is my weekend:
I am now two days into my "high-iron diet." Saturday morning, I had quinoa with blackberries. I'd say quinoa is probably the rising star of trendy grains. You know how couscous made it onto the stage a few years ago (at least according to Cooking Light)? I'm pretty sure quinoa will be making it big in the next year or two. It doesn't taste great, but it's definitely palatable -- and it could be that I just don't know how to fix it tastefully. It looks pretty cool anway!

This is a picture of my kale+banana+1/2 apple+orange juice smoothie in the making...

It looks a little weird, but it actually tastes good. The funniest thing about drinking these smoothies is it requires more than just swallowing. I mean, it is made with mashed-up greens so a little bit of chewing is necessary. I made a few popsicles with this stuff and they were quite tasty (if oddly-colored). Yum.

And this is a picture of my eating the prune juice popsicle. The funniest thing about prune juice is that it's brown. I have never drunk any brown fluid other than coke. It's weird.

That is probably the reason that people are turned off by prune juice -- not because of it's taste, but it's color.

I went to Wal-Mart twice today because I got a few of my pictures printed! (--some of which I included in a letter to our friend, the Alaskan chef David! ) You cross under these bridges on the way to Wal-Mart, and I think the vines are pretty cool.

This is my life:

Jesus, Lover of my Soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high.
Hide me O my savior hide,
Till the Storm of Life is past;
Safe into thy haven guide;
O receive my soul at last.

Plenteous grace with thee is found,
Grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound,
Make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art,
Freely let me take of thee;
Spring thou up within my heart,
Rise to all eternity.