Wise, wise teethy

My morning dental appointment went well. Dr. Lyudmila Shur was very helpful and encouraging. She explained what she was doing, didn't talk down to me, didn't give me the old scare about my teeth; [serious look] "We've got our work cut out for us in your mouth, young lady ... now pay attention: this is dental floss ..." Turns out my wisdom teeth are just coming in on one side. Insert big sigh of relief from me here.

However, she is recommending that I see an oral surgeon to get them checked out, see if they need to be removed. So, I'm online finding out which local oral surgeons my insurance covers and checking their licenses for legal action and/or validity. Here's the weirdness so far:

• 9 of the 11 oral surgeons listed as covered by CIGNA PPO within 75 miles of Bellevue and Bellingham are 2 people: German Trujillo and Sohrab Moshiri.
• Neither of these 2 people are actually licensed in the state of Washington to do surgery; their licenses are for dentistry and general anesthesia. Yet, their specialty is oral surgery. Hmm.
• One of these 2 people has had action taken against them, according to the Washington State Department of Health. It involved a patient being hospitalized for dehydration and stuff post-oral surgery.

Which actually only leaves me with 2 oral surgeons from my PPO list to choose from: Michael Whelan and Thomas Maring. They actually have licenses to perform surgery, which I like.

I'd appreciate any input people could give me; this will show up on the prayer calendar at the bottom of the page but I'd like people to specifically pray that I would know which surgeon to see and, if you're comfortable, share anything with me that you sense in prayer. If you have personal knowledge of either of these doctors, I'd like to know that as well. You can email me about it at eshinee@earthlink.net.

Marcel Gagnon

Driving down the Oregon coast and seeing the crashing waves and jagged coastline reminded me of similar scenes from Canada, particularly Newfoundland. Newfoundland's coasts are just as nice as Oregon's ... minus the earthquake, tsunami and mudslide threats. I guess that's why so many Hollywood types are buying up property near Corner Brook, Newfoundland, at Strawberry Hill. Same coastline, fraction of the price, won't slide into ocean anytime soon. This is some of Newfoundland's coast:



Was also remembering an artist my family used to visit in Quebec, Marcel Gagnon. His work is different than it was when my parents were buying it. Looks kind of cartoony now. His paintings used to be more oily, viewed-through-patterned-glass looking. I can't describe it, really, but I like them alot. His concrete sculptures going out into the ocean were (and still are) pretty neat.



I remember having lunch with the family, watching the tide moving over statues to either reveal or conceal them, depending on when we were there. Lovely.

Gloria Dei

We're at Gloria Dei in Coos Bay, OR now, between services. They have wireless internet here so I'm blogging, of course.

This is the first church I've ever been to that has tsunami evacuation instructions on it's information table.

We're staying in Lincoln Bay tonight, roughly halfway back to Bellingham, WA, and making it to Seattle by early afternoon on Monday.

I'm about to set up a Veith PD Tour first; a looping slideshow on our display table. That should generate a little interest. Either that or it'll be so annoying that no-one will come near us. The prospect of being annoying rarely even slows me down ... this is a chance I'm willing to take. The visuals are pretty fun. I'm thinking of texting the slides so they're useful when no audio is used. Names, places, stats ... stuff like that.

Oregon Spout

Oregon Spout, originally uploaded by eshinee.

We stopped for a breather on our trek to Gloria Dei Lutheran and saw this. Talk about healing negative ions! Very refreshing.

The great and first commandment

I've been working with my Translator's Workplace software for 4 reasons:

• keep my Greek reading skills up
• pick up new Greek vocab
• get familiar with the software before needing to use it in country
• finally be able to read the Bible interactively

Interactively: there's a loaded word. What do I mean by that? Well, I want to be able to see in front of me at all times:

• the plain Greek text
• an interlinear Greek-English version with grammatical tags
• the Louw Nida lexicon for any word I click on
• the Biblical background on the passage I'm looking at
• exegetical tips for the passage
• an editable Bible in which I can replace the text with my own translation as I go

For this last part, I have selected an NIV translation. Many of you may know how much fun I must be having directly editing the NIV translation. I duplicated the base file, changed the title and am now going to replace, on a weekly basis, the Gospel reading for the week in my heart language. And what is Eshinee's heart language? I was trying to explain this to Rob yesterday, not sure how clearly I can do that yet. Will try, though.

The Bible in Eshinee's Heart Language (EHL) has the following features:

• English words in the same order as the Greek -May be more cumbersome but, hey, I like to stop and think about every sentence. Word order isn't arbitrary in any language so I'd like to retain that. The only reason I'm doing an English translation at all is it will make it faster for future reference, particularly if I'm trying to discuss a passage with someone in English.
• retaining all the kai, de, gar conjunctions - kai and de don't mean exactly the same thing so, if the writer used one word instead of the other, they must have had a reason. I may not know what it is yet but I hope to get a feel for that. So, I'll keep them as they are, just transliterated and put into CAPS, until I figure out what's up with that.
• verb tenses are the same in English as they are in Greek - I think this is an important peak-indicating device in Greek. I want to be able to see where tense is switched, particularly if it looks weird in English. This will trigger the "Aha!" response in me, in future readings.
• one English word or phrase for each Greek word or phrase - I'd get in trouble with most translators for this, I think. But, for my own reading, this will make it easier for me to recognize places where the same Greek concept crops up repeatedly, even if the meaning relationship between the Greek and English words aren't a neat and tidy one-to-one map. Like, I'm probably going to bring agape neatly into English as agapeh, or something. I don't exactly need a translation for that.

With these in mind, here's my first rough translation, of Matthew 22:34-40

DE the Pharisees, having heard that (he) silenced the Sadducees, gathered
together.

KAI (he) questioned, one out (of) them, [a lawyer], tempting him: “Teacher,
which commandment (is) great in the Law?”

DE (he) said to him: “ ‘(You) shall love Lord the God of you in whole
the heart of you KAI in whole the being of you KAI in whole the mind of
you.’ This is the great KAI first commandment.

DE a second (one) is like to it: ‘(You) shall love the neighbor of you as
yourself.’ In those the two commandments whole the Law is being hung KAI the
Prophets.”

Dairy fungus

Yesterday was my grossest dairy day ever. It started with raspberry kefir. Having never had raspberry kefir before, I had no idea what the texture or taste should have been like. I drank a whole pint of the stuff a couple of weeks ago with the same feel and taste. Anyhow, something in my glass felt weird so I spit it out. It was a white disk, kind of thick around the edges, as big as my little finger-tip. I was utterly grossed out.

Later that day, I drank a glass of milk and felt something slip into my mouth. I spit that out. It was a white blob, looking like the size and texture of an egg-white. Again, grossed out.

I'm trying to figure out what I ingested, if either of these things need treatment. Here's what I've found so far:


The white disk in the center is a common dairy mold, penicillium. So, may not be toxic for me. Might have been dangerous for Rob, who is allergic to penicillin.


Except for the colored center in most of these cultures, it could also have been a young fusarium mold. This one is most associated with sinusitis.


This is the closest aspergillus so I'm thinking it was a penicillium.

I think I'm done with drinking cold dairy products for a bit.

Denny Park

Well, we got our presentation together for the fall missions festival at Denny Park Lutheran in Seattle. Essentially, I wrote an 8 page paper on Saturday. We had a 45 minute slot so I was making sure we had enough good material to fill that. It ran roughly like this:

• sang "Ancient Words" - 3 minutes
• first part of talk - about 10 minutes
• slideshow - 12 minutes
• last part of talk - about 10 minutes
• sang "Hear Our Prayer", by Steve Bell - 4 minutes

And people seemed to enjoy it so it was worth the grueling Saturday. Our weekend starts today, I think. Maybe Monday/Tuesday is the best combination of weekend for us. Or maybe we should split our weekend, break the week up a little more. Maybe go Monday/Thursday. Ah well, one day at a time, as they say.

We're sitting in Toad Mountain right now, having the morning coffee. The young woman who made our coffee has the coolest color hair; like a Razzmatazz Crayola crayon. It kind of looks like this, but a little lighter and brighter:

Birthday boy

We're in Bellevue, WA at the Buerer's tonight and Rob is celebrating his birthday by running a D&D campaign that he put together.

While we're in Seattle for the weekend, we have to run back to Bellingham tomorrow to get our Sunday best. We thought we'd have to run back to pick up a package after Thursday so we didn't bring everything we were going to need. [sigh] Ah, well ... as long as the weather is nice.

Like fine wine ...

Blasts from the past

I'm waiting for our Powerpoint for Sunday to download right now so I though I'd throw up some fun pictures of mine from years past that I found online in a gallery I forgot I'd made. Typical.

Here they are:



I took this shot when I went camping with my sister, Lily, and our dog Mookie at Shallow Bay Campground in Newfoundland, back in the late 1990's.



This is a fun photo from the same camping trip.



Lily and I did a Christmas photo shoot in the woods behind our house in Newfoundland, Christmas 1999, I think. This was my favorite shot. For the shot, I had dressed up as a reindeer and she had dressed as an elf. This is her "I'm about to be attacked by a reindeer" face. Can you see my silhouette on her chest?



When I worked at my parent's pharmacy, we had a lot of giveaways for a while there. This was one of them, again, back in the late 1990's.



I was licensed as a layminister in the Anglican Church, in Newfoundland in 1999. This was taken on the steps of the church where I was baptized as an infant, in Corner Brook, Newfoundland.



Here I am with my YWAM Haiti teammates, in Haiti in 1996.



Giving my first linguistics presentation; "The many faces of Na" - on focus marking in Tagalog. Yes, I did get extra marks for the floor-length red velvet dress.



My graduation photo, from Trinity Western University in Langley, BC in 2001.



Taken after our engagement, at a concert.



Eating crawfish in New Orleans, when I travelled there with YWAM in 1997. For those who know of my rocky relationship with sea creatures, you'll know that this is a disturbing picture, on so many levels.



Dad, at the Pointe Riche lightchouse in Newfoundland.

New - Prayer Requests and Speaking Schedule

I've been wanting to get prayer requests and scheduling info up here for while but wasn't sure how to do that. Well, I've done it! At the bottom of this page will always be our current monthly schedule and current prayer requests. You can access different months' schedules by going to the page where the calendars are actually hosted and selecting a different month.

So, to know where we're at and what we need, go all the way to the bottom of this page ...

Happy Canucksgiving!

I can't believe I missed Canadian Thanksgiving! I didn't even realize it had passed until I got an email from Dennis, Rob's dad, with a list of 5 reasons to be proud that you're a Canadian:

• Canada was the first country in the world to adopt a policy of multiculturalism.
• Canada has the world’s largest national park (Wood Buffalo National Park).
• Canada consistently leads the world in adult literacy.
• Canada has the longest bar in the world (Lulu’s in Kitchener, Ontario).
• According to one study, Winnipeg, Manitoba is the dandruff capital of the world.

The item of particular note on this list is the "longest bar in the world" claim because, as Dennis pointed out, the Beer Barrel Saloon in Put-In-Bay, OH also claims that. And they are correct; the BB Saloon was recognized in the 1994 Guiness World Book of Records as having the longest bar. Guess I'll have to find new reasons to be proud of being Canadian. [tee hee]

Millet recipes

Since millet is a staple in Namibia and we just bought some last week to try before we go, I've looked up some recipes to work from:

• Coconut Millet Pudding - Looks tasty and is gluten-free, incidentally. 6 ingredients; now that's what I look for in a recipe
• Millet Loaf - I don't do much with loaves, generally speaking, but this might be worth a try
• Millet Burgers - This one just seems a little on the scary side. Takes me back to the white bean patty incident early in our marriage. You'll have to ask about that one.
• Millet Porridge - Simple, straight-forward; looks doable. Probably replace the raisins with nectarines, though. Kati Rosten made us oatmeal with peaches the morning we left Redding to move up to WA. Total yum.
• Broccoli-Millet Timbales - Not sure what the Timbales part means. If it is, as I suspect, referring to the moulding part of the recipe, where you pack the cooked mixture in greased tins to make for pretty presentation, what I make will be called Broccoli-Millet Mounds.
• Pumpkin Millet Muffins - Here, the millet seems to be used more as a seasoning than anything else.
• Millet Fruit Squares - A nifty looking dessert.
• Millet Sweet Potato Congee - Another one of those recipes that is outside of my experimental paradigm but has so few ingredients that I can't resist.
• Millet with Spinach and Pine Nuts - This just flat-out sounds yummy. I do resent being asked to toast anything, though.

Idaho, Oregon and back

We've had a pretty full week.

• Wednesday: drove to Potlatch, ID to see Rob's brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephews (Larry & Suzanne's family).
• Thursday: actually saw the family; Wednesday was all about driving. We went through our stuff in the basement and packed the car as full as we could (or, as full as Rob could, actually) to bring back to Bellingham to sort. We got to spend some time running around Moscow with Larry and seeing the sights in the afternoon. Celebrated nephew Sammy's birthday in the evening with balloons (pictures to be posted later).
• Friday: drove back to Bellingham.
• Saturday: drove to Grants Pass, OR. This was a pretty weird trip. Rest stops were the place of much action along the way. At the rest stop where we lunched, we were descended upon by more than 50 Porsches. One after another, they pulled in and filled all available car spots, moving on then to occupy the trucking spots in 3 car strings. They all got out and started smiling at one another, chatting and (presumably) pottying. I have never seen so many 'spensive cars in one place. I felt decidedly self-conscious about getting out to shake the Ezekiel bread crumbs of my pants from my turkey sandwich next to the smiling supermodel with the Dior sunglasses and tiny matching dog. Our next rest stop adventure was one where we couldn't actually use the rest stop because it was barricaded off and crawling with cops and soldiers brandishing weapons. We found out the next day that they were trying to apprehend some people they had been chasing there.
• Sunday: Spoke at St Pauls Lutheran Church in Grants Pass. Had a half-donut, changed out of our monkey-suits and went to find a lunch place. Ended up at El Paraiso, one of Grants Pass's many fine restaurants. Had wonderful tacos. Then, we drove back to Bellingham, rolling in around 10:30PM, exhausted.

Today, we're doing "stuff". Need to:

• Select and make an appointment with a dentist
• Work on 45-minute presentation for missions conference at Denny Park Lutheran in Seattle on Sunday
• Unpack and sort more from our sea of boxes
• Buy toilet paper and paper towels
• Maybe go online out there, somewhere, find out what Seattle area churches have mid-week events in December for us to be a part of
• Do something fun, weekendish type something