This has been a month of meeting new friends for Benjamin! In the last week, Ben’s met 7 kids his age — including one little guy all the way from Malaysia! Here’s a couple pictures. More are uploading, and will eventually show up in the Flickr bar on the right.
It was good for him and Nic to get in a visit at home in Canada, but I sure am glad to have my family back to me!

Look what you’ve done, random button-clicker. You’ve ruined it for everyone. You are the digital equivalent of a toddler who scribbles crayon on every page of a book.
Maybe we’ll try it again when our readers are a little more grown-up.

Check out our Pastor’s blog: www.BuddyCremeans.com
Seems there’s some guest blogging going on over there 😉

The one good thing about living on my own: the apartment stays sooo much cleaner…
PS to whoever keeps clicking all of the buttons: This post is not inspiring, creative or a great find. Please do not click the buttons just because they are there. If you must do that, find yourself an elevator in a tall building…

Yesterday I spent just shy of 12 hours on a train. Its normally an 8 hour drive from Canada to our home in New York. My bum still hurts.
This weekend was long. Some day I’m going to actually use my vacation time to vacation.
That day is not likely to come soon.
I really want to try this. Its like hyper-miling in your car, only cooler.
The guy in the cubicle behind me just farted. And not quietly either. He just let it rip.
Only babies and old people can get away with that.
Babies can get away with a lot of stuff that adults can’t. Nobody cheers for me when I finish my dinner.
July is not going to be a good month for me. Nic and Ben are home in Canada all this week, and I’m stuck in our apartment alone.
This morning the power went out and I had to shower in the dark, and dress by candle light.
I didn’t put my shirt on backward.
Nothing is working right at work. I had hoped that after going home for the weekend, I’d come back and it would magically work again.
I was wrong…
Transformers was a good movie. But the Citroen Transformer was better.
I have a recurring nightmare in which my high school calls me up, and informs me that there was an error… 10 years ago, and I have to repeat 11th grade.
I’m tired.

I often give our American friends a hard time about the differences between our new home, and the country I (mostly) grew up in. Truth is, we quite like it here — I’m not a huge fan of its current government, as is probably pretty obvious — but this is still a pretty great country, filled with pretty great people. Also, American employers pay so much better than their Canadian equivalents 😉
In honor of the independence of the United States of America I’m at work… I’m the only one here, but working today allows me to take Friday off, so its worth it. I figured though, that I could take a break and list some of the things that are awesome about living in the States — some things we wouldn’t enjoy if it weren’t for the passion, dreams and even blood of its founding fathers…
– We love U.S. healthcare. I haven’t seen SiCKO yet, and I plan to, because I’m not convinced that Capitalism is the right solution to every problem (the love of money being the root of all evil, and all that.) But I know for a fact that it works on health care. The concept of the patient being a customer means that you get treated better and more quickly than you ever would in a government funded healthcare system where you’re only a number. I imagine I’d have a completely different take on this if I were unemployed, or didn’t have healthcare, but the truth is, if you have a plan, this system works. We’ve had lots of opportunities to try it out in the past 18 months, and trust me, the hospitals in Canada pale in comparison to the treatment we get here.
– We love the American dream. It may have been diluted in the past century or so, but the fact remains that this is a place of opportunity, of entrepreneurship and of dreams. Its a place where if you work hard you have a good chance of succeeding. Its a place where you can dig into whatever you enjoy and find continuous challenge and reward. And while not everyone lives it, everyone understands it.
– We love that this is a Christian country. Sadly many Christians have forgotten what it means to live like Christ and spend more time spewing hatred and vitriol at their political opponents (Ann Coulter, I’m talking about you) than sharing God’s love with others. But nonetheless, there is no negative reaction to telling people you believe in God. I talk freely at work about going to church and being involved in ministry, and no one looks down on me or suggests that I’m wasting my time — more frequently I hear support and encouragement, sometimes from other Christians, sometimes from people who don’t profess it, but still respect it.
– We love that this is a beautiful country. We drive 30 minutes north on the highway from where we live and we’re in the Adirondack mountains, surrounded by trees as far as you can see, the landscape interrupted only by peaceful lakes. New York City is an amazingly full and bustling town, vibrant and alive and yes… polluted. But you travel 2 hours outside it, and you’re surrounded by healthy, beautiful country. We spent our Sunday afternoon on a beach on a lake enjoying a truly gorgeous day in a very beautiful and safe country, surrounded by good friends, and we were very content.
– We love the people here. We love that they share common ideals and a common hope. We love that they are free, that they are passionate about what they believe and that their country grants them the resources and the opportunity to pursue it. We love that they believe in the principles their country was founded on, even if sometimes their government loses track of those things, and that they’ll fight with all they have to keep those things alive. We love that they treasure their freedom and wish it for others, and that they’re willing to fight for those people too. Canada has plenty of good things about it, but I really believe that it lacks the shared vision that the USA has. I watched Transformers last night in theaters with 6 American friends — it was a very patriotic movie (although they did throw some wry social commentary in there at the end) and you could almost feel the solidarity in the theater. Everyone here treasures what they have — even when they’re politically opposed to each other, they all know what their freedom is worth, and that common theme is embedded in practically every American you meet, regardless of whatever other differences they have.
I’m very proud to be Canadian. Its great to know that my country has gifted me with a good education and reputation. But I’m also very proud to be working in a country like the States. That our countries share enough in common that free trade allows me to easily travel back and forth between two great homes, and explore my career and grow our family. But on July 4th, I’m particularly grateful for for our current home and all it stands for.

OK, I’m trying out a new plug-in for the blog. According to Google Analytics, we get an average of 110 visits a day, with each visitor saying at least long enough to read one or two posts. But comments? Not so much…
Now I’ve long maintained that this site doesn’t exist for comments — but it sure is nice to know if people enjoy or are intrigued by my babbling at all. I know I have a somewhat random assortment of topics — from baby news, to geek gadgets, to weekly updates, to faith related ponderings — and that not everyone visits the site for the same reasons. But I’d like to think that each of you find at least something interesting about the blog — or else, why do you keep coming?
Originally, with eXpression, the barrier to commenting was too high. You had to create an account just to comment. I fixed that in eXpression, and later in WordPress, and we do get a few more comments now. But I know that there are lots of you lurkers out there, who read the blog regularly but don’t say anything. I also know that there are a few of you who comment just to say “cool” or something similar. So this new feature is aimed at these two groups of people.
If you read something and want to discuss it, or add your two cents, or disagree with it, please feel free to write lengthy comments! I am a fan of the written word, and as much as I like to read my own writing… other people’s is much more interesting.
But if you read something and enjoy it, or appreciate the effort that went in to it, or generally just want to encourage the author, and aren’t the type who likes to write long comments, check out the little strip of buttons at the bottom of each post. Each button can communicate to us what you think of the post. You don’t have to register, or put in your e-mail address. There’s no form to fill out, and no one knows who you are so you can still lurk away in anonymity. Just click a button to let us know you came by and found our stories and thoughts were worth reading.
Update: Please do not abuse the buttons!