A good reminder

"Our religious activities should be so ordered in such a way as to have plenty of time for the cultivation of the fruits of solitude and silence."

A. W. Tozer

Unto us a son is given...

...and his name is Hugh Caleb Cash Downey. He was born at 6:12 am on May 11th. He weighed 9 lbs and measured in at 19 1/2 inches.




We arrived back home on Saturday afternoon and have been enjoying lots of family time. Adelaide is doing well getting getting used to having a baby around. Here's a shot of us all together.



I'm thinking about elaborating on Hugh's full name if the mood strikes me. In the meantime, thanks for all your encouragements, love and prayers.

The best kind of invasion

Today I was stopped dead in my tracks while buying my lunch. There was a box of Coffee Crisp candy bars (with French subtitles!) at my friendly northern California convenience store (Red Front in Ferndale). "So what", you say? Well, Coffee Crisp is a Canadian candy bar. In the past you could not buy a Coffee Crisp in the U.S. Yes, you are reading that correctly. The home of the brave was NOT home of the best candy bar in existence (perhaps). In doing a little research I found out that there has been a campaign to bring this candy bar into the States. Yes, there are whole websites devoted to liberating this tasty treat from its socialist government. While it may say much about our culture that more people signed a petition regarding the Coffee Crisp embargo than voted in the last presidential election, they have provided us with a valuable service.

(Sidenote:I haven't been this happy to see a foreign food product since Citra, which I got addicted to in Honduras, came on the scene back in the '90's).

I have to give a little confession here (what else are blogs for?). I sort of love Canada. Yes, it kind of feels like I am cheating on my wife or betraying my friends to admit it, but I can't help it. Admittedly, I have only been to Toronto two times, so maybe I need to visit Manitoba before I proclaim my affections in such a public fashion. But when I think about my trips up to Toronto I have nothing but wonderful memories. Maybe it's because I was always hanging out with one of my best friends Dave the whole time, and he would woo me with Tim Horton's and Coffee Crisp. But I don't care. I'm out of the closet. I love Canada.

(Sidenote:Douglas Coupland is also from Canada and he is one of my favorite writers.)

I hear people mocking Canada all the time and I just don't get it. They're nice, hospitable, they invent awesome candy bars, they seem to be really healthy (which I'm hoping will happen to me when I start eating Coffee Crisps on a regular basis), they wear svelte-looking fleece vests, they have coins in 1 and 2 dollar denominations, and they are the home of Tim Horton's.

I am guessing that now that Coffee Crisp has crossed the border, all of this Canada-hate will fade into oblivion. It's that good! So, do yourself a favor and find a Coffee Crisp bar and as you bite into its, yes, crisp coffee-flavoured deliciousness, say a little prayer of thanks for our allies to the north. We've now imported fleece and Coffee Crisp. Now if we can just get Tim Horton's this side of the border...

(Sorry for all the parentheses)

Bookworm Babblings

As a boy, I was a certified bookworm. I spent many hours in the children's fiction section at our local library, reading everything from the Hardy Boys (for manly sleuth inspiration) to the Babysitters Club (for insights into the confusing female mind). Once, my parents busted me for adding my own artwork in a Tin-Tin book and I had to confess to the librarian that I had defaced one of her books. My punishment was an afternoon washing the covers of the little kid books with a rag and soapy water.

As I got a little older I started moving over into the adults section, reading books about baseball, Jurassic Park, John Grisham, and Tom Clancy. I even started going to other library branches to find the books I wanted to read. I felt mature and smart, although the librarian smirked a little bit when I pronounced Michael Crichton's last name as "crick-tun."

After a while, I somehow got the idea that I need to start building my own library. I stopped using my library card and started buying my own books, mostly trade paperbacks from Costco and used bookstores. My literary tastes expanded to include poetry, theology, paperbacks that didn't get turned into movies, and biography, to name a few.

When I got married almost three years ago, I quickly learned that marriage cuts down on both the buying and reading of books. You can't blow your rent money on John Calvin and you can't take your wife on a date to the used bookstore. So my reading declined a bit and so did my book budget.

Well, last week I did something revolutionary. I got a new library card and took out four books, books that I had been wanting to read but didn't want to buy. I must say, I feel like I am pirating music- all these books to read and no cost!

To celebrate, I started an account at goodreads.com and added a lil' widget over on the side of the blog.

Nerds of the book world, rejoice. I'm back.