No, I'm not dead.

Ok, every now and then I take this incredibly long hiatus from blogging. It's not that I don't have anything interesting to blog about, a ton has happened since my last post, it's just that I've been INSANELY busy with school this quarter. I really don't even have time to post right now, but I've started feeling guilty. You know, like when you haven't used your favorite mug in a while, and you think it's starting to get lonely? That's how I feel about my blog sometimes.

So, here's the update on the Joshua.

I'm trying to learn three languages at once.
Part of me wants to stop the post right there because I think it would be funny. And it would also almost be accurate. Trying to get the finer nuances of Hebrew vowel changes, while also learning Akkadian, and trying to self-teach German well enough to pass two translation exams... yeah. I'm pretty much up to here with the accusitive case. This whole learning lots of languages thing, and learning the rules behind languages reminds me of just how artificially we learn new languages here in the states. So many times when I'm reading something in Hebrew, I'll think to myself, "Wait! That's breaking the rules!" I forget that people who actually speak these languages fluently, are largely ignorant of the rules. For example: Let's say someone calls you on the phone and says, "Is Joshua there?" (Assume your name is Joshua) Do you think to yourself, "Ok, I need to construct a sentence consisting of the first person singular nominative independent pronoun used predicatively to the third person nominative neuter singular independent pronoun" before you say "It's me." And when you say, "It's me." Does anyone say, "Wait a minute! You just used the first person singular OBLIQUE independent pronoun! You can't do that! You're supposed to say 'It is I!'" No. No one says that, because when you know a language fluently, you don't care about the rules anymore. You just talk. I'll never be at that point with any of the languages I'm studying, (because they are all dead languages, and no one speaks them any more) but every now and then, I have to remind myself that these things are organic, and though we use rules to understand them, that doesn't mean the texts have to obey the rules all the time. And when they don't obey the rules, we get really cool passages.

Anyway, that's a very, very involved discussion regarding the fact that I'm trying to learn three languages right now. (Which no one, and I mean no one, should ever do.)

Now that I didn't just stop at "I'm trying to learn three languages at once." I realize that I don't really have anything else to talk about. Because that's pretty much the only thing I've been doing since the last time I posted. Which means that for over a month now, this blog has discussed nothing other than the fact that I'm learning different languages.

Which means if you're still reading, you must really like me. Thanks.

P.S. Rach and Norah are great. We're going to Madison this weekend for Halloween where we'll hang out with Tim, Marisa, Jim, Charlotte, Jeremy and Truman! (Oh, did I mention my big brother had a baby? Geez... I'm the most self-centered jerk sometimes.)

More on all that later, as I'm almost certain no one is reading anything this far down.

Okay. Bye.

Seriously. You can go now.

Frontyard Games

When we were kids, we used to play some messed up games in the front yard. There are three that I remember in particular, and can't remember exactly how to play them. I don't know why, but I'm suddenly curious. The first one I found online, but can't find the other two. Does anyone know the games I'm talking about or how to play them?

The first one was called Witch in the Well and was basically tag with a ton of backstory. At first, all I remembered was the first of the Dad's lines, which I googled and found the game here.

It involved a short play followed by a game of tag. In the first scene, a few of us were on the porch and one person was hiding behind the bush near the street. One of the kids on the porch played the role of "Dad." He would turn to the others and say, "I'm going to town to smoke my pipe, I won't be back till Saturday night, so don't get into the brown sugar and butter." Then that kid would walk away and everyone on the porch would freak on pretend brown sugar and butter. When Dad got back he'd ask what you were doing and everyone would say "Ah.... er.... nothing! NOT A THING! Etc..." Dad would ask to check your hands and say "Dirty! Dirty! Dirty! Go wash them in the well!" You everyone walks to the well, and just when you get there the person hiding at the bush, who is playing the part of the witch, jumps out and everyone runs back to Dad. They tell Dad there's a witch in the well, and he goes to check it out.

I think in our games, when Dad got back to the well, the witch jumped out and there was a game of tag, but the website I found this on had another short play at the well. I think I remember us having a dialogue with the witch, but I can't remember it so I'll just put up what that guy used to say:

Dad says to the witch, "What are you doing in the well?"
The witch replies, "Smoking a pipe."
Dad asks, "Why are you smoking a pipe?"
The Witch answers, "To make ashes."
"Why are you making ashes?" Dad says,
"To sharpen my knife." the witch answers.
Dad finally asks, "Why are you sharpening your knife?"
The witch screams, "To CUT OFF YOUR HEADS!"

And then everybody runs for it. Whoever gets back to base first, plays Dad in the next round, and whoever gets tagged by the witch, is the Witch the next time. The game goes on like that forever, with the same lines repeated every time.

The second game was called Colored Eggs. I don't remember how to play that one at all, but I know there was some wolf involved who asked what colors you were and a game of tag.

The third game I don't remember at all, but I remember it involved saying "Mother May I?" Any ideas?

And if you played any whacked out yard games, tell me about them!

Madison

Rachel and I went to Madison on a whim last Sunday and stayed there for Labor Day. We had a lot of fun just chillaxing with Tim and a very, very pregnant Marisa. I don't know how she stands up, let alone does everything she does. She's nuts.

Anyway, because our camera hasn't been working, we haven't been able to post many pictures up on the blog. Tim, on the other hand, not only has a functioning camera, but has a very nice, functioning camera. As a result, we have some fun photos from the weekend that I figured I'd post here. The first is currently my favorite photo of Norah to date. It sort of sums up the goofy zany personality she's been developing. I seriously love hanging out with the little girl. She's just so fun, and she's getting to be more and more of a clown every day. She's just a ham. Anyway, here are the pictures.

Here's that goofy face I was telling you about. Tim thinks she looks like Grandpa here. Ha!

When I first put this on her, I was surprised she didn't just rip it off. Then, she did.

Pick a hand! Any hand!

This cute moment was a second before Norah grabbed Rachel's hair and started pulling like she was trying to yank a horse out of the mud.

She thinks it's funny if you rub your hair in her face. Apparently she also thinks it's funny if you rub your mostly bald scalp in her face.

Hello!

One of her many moments of tackling an adult. Norah's new favorite game.

I see you!

Tackling an adult again.

After writing this I found out that my Brother and Sister-in-law who we went to see in Madison, just went to the hospital because her water broke. Which means, I'm about to have a niece or a nephew! Yippee!

Almost School Time!

I have no idea what this says. But someday, I will.

I'm wrapping up my first summer of Daddy Day Care, and I must say it was more fun, and more draining that I thought it would be. Spending a large portion of the day talking to someone who can't say more than one word at a time, eventually made me thirsty for grown up discussion. Luckily for us, this was also an incredibly busy summer.

Norah has started talking more, and is officially at the stage in life where she repeats everything she hears. Which means when Norah drops something, or falls over, she says "Osh!" Which I'm pretty sure is her mimicking our attempts at self censorship. We don't say the whole thing, but we tend to catch ourselves at just the last syllable. Pretty much makes you feel like the world's worst parent. Oh well...

I also have made a full year now of being a vegetarian. I bring it up largely because I'm watching someone cut up the grossest looking fish I've ever seen on PBS. I don't know who this lady is, but even if I ate fish, I wouldn't eat that thing. It looks like a construction worker dropped it into an ash pit, dug it out with a shovel, and then drove over it. "Does this look like a sunset on the beach to you?" She just said. No miss. No it does not.

Anyway, Summer is winding down, and I'm trying to prepare for what looks like it will be the craziest Fall in my life. It's going to be as busy as a Nascar pitstop, but I'm excited for it to start.

I remember feeling this way when I was in elementary school, like I couldn't wait for school to start again. And I like feeling that way again. I'm excited to dive back into learning Hebrew, hopefully by the end of this year, I'll have a much better grasp on the language. I'm also going to take a class on Akkadian, which makes me both nervous and super excited. (The picture at the top of this post is a photo of a clay tablet written in Akkadian.) In addition to Hebrew and Akkadian, I'll be taking a class on the Biblical book of Amos, and sitting in a class on Ancient Mesopotamian Literature. That will be a pretty full schedule, but I'll also be applying for PhD positions at a handful of places, and filling out my petition for PhD work at the U of C. So, I should know where we're going to spend the next five [read eight] years by March of 2010. In between all of that, I'm trying to teach myself German so that I can pass a reading test this fall. If I don't pass, then I pretty much can't apply for a PhD anywhere. So I really have to make that a priority.

So, while it's been a pretty casual summer, I'm going to pay for it in just under 3 weeks. It's about to get pretty nuts around here for me. I feel like I'm in a canoe in a deep calm river of water, heading toward a sixty-foot raging waterfall.

Whoooooopieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!