Craig's Blog of Destiny

I asked Sam to complete the “About Me” profile I stole from American Express.  Here’s his answers:

The perfect turkey recipe for people who are not sure how to tell when poultry is cooked thoroughly but not dried out:

10-12 lb. turkey
1 cup melted butter
3 cups stuffing
2 cups uncooked popcorn
salt/pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush turkey well with melted butter, salt and pepper. Fill cavity with stuffing and popcorn. Place in baking pan with the neck end toward the back of oven.  Listen for popping sounds.  When the turkey blows the oven door open and flies across the room, it’s done!

The other day I was visiting a recuperating Cathie Cottle and she asked about being able to see more pictures.  So, here’s a page with some pictures on it.  You can click on the thumbnails for larger sizes.  I’ll try to change them periodically.

Here’s one of the whole crew taken about 18 months ago.  From left to right Samwise, J’Neil, Jamie and Mathew (Brandon is there too, though at this point he’s hidden in Jamie’s belly), Jeff and Ashley, Kelly, Christopher and Dillon, Michael, Heather, David, Kristin and me.

Here’s a couple of Samwise, one of my favorites, and a recent one.

 Here’s a couple of J’Neil one pretty recent and one playing a bass 

 Ok, here’s the grandkids, Mathew, Ashley, Brandon (no, he doesn’t need glasses, but I just love the picture) and Dillon:

Kudos to any who can identify this one (he’s sooooooo grown up….):

 Here’s one of the group that went on the Caribbean Cruise a year ago.  From left to right:  Jeston (Kris’ brother), Samwise, Allison (Kris’ sister), J’Neil, Kristin, Alex (Jeston’s son), me, and Ashley (Allison’s daughter)

Here’s one of me working in the yard the other day.   Jamie believes I’ll never dress this way again if I know she thinks I look cute, J’Neil thinks I look like a buglar, and Kristin calls it my farmer look.

Previous Comments to “Pictures”

1. 18 Nov 2007 at 2:49 pm1Heather

   Those are some cute pictures! I believe that grown up guy is Michael, or should I say you just a couple of years younger. I like Brandon’s new look, I think he should keep it. I personally like your picture, working in the yard. If Kris calls that your farmer look, you are Dillon’s new best friend!

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2. 18 Nov 2007 at 8:56 pm2Allison

   What fun pictures. I love the bug eye glasses : )

   You know, that cruise portrait does look pretty silly with short Kris and I in the back. But I was NOT, absolutely NOT going to SIT on the front row. I’m quite certain that photographer wanted to strangle me.

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3. 18 Nov 2007 at 9:20 pm3Kristin

   Why in the world didn’t he just put you and I on the end in the back and Jeston & Craig in the middle? And he called himself a photographer?? That is one of the most stupidly posed pictures I have ever seen.

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4. 18 Nov 2007 at 9:48 pm4Sam

   I agree with J’Neil, that beanie makes you look like a burglar…

   And I remember the aggravation over photographs… I personally lost most of it, since my source of aggravation was simply the fact that pictures had to be taken…

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5. 19 Nov 2007 at 7:46 am5Grandma Cottle

   I enjoyed the pictures. I think the mystery picture is you many years ago. You do look like Grandpa Cottle, Grandpa’s Dad, in your coveralls. He used to wear them all the time.

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6. 19 Nov 2007 at 12:49 pm6craig

   Dillon’s friends are farmers! Freakin’ farmers! Dillon’s a stud…

   Ahh… moron photographers… yes, I rember them well…. My favorite was my hand on Kris’ arm, it was about as natural as a broom stick coming out of my sleeve…

   Grandma, and Heather, – if that were me many years ago there would have been a lot more hair on the head! No, that’s Michael just last summer. Kind of scary, eh?

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7. 20 Nov 2007 at 11:31 pm7Heather

   Yes, Dillon is a stud! Farmers, yes Freakin’ farmers is what he loves, and Freakin’ Ice Truckers, and Dump Trucks, and Tractors, and race cars, and……..

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8. 29 Nov 2007 at 3:02 pm8Jamie

   Yes, i have to put in my input. Sorry dad, it is scary how much michael looks like you. It is a good thing though.

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9. 03 Dec 2007 at 1:38 pm9Kristin

   What I want to know is, how does Mike feel about this comparison??

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Orson Scott Card, like Robert Heinlein and Ken Follet, writes at least two very distinct types of books – in Card’s case at least one way they can be categorized is by their quality, some are very good, some not so good.  Hart’s Hope would fall into the very good category.
While very much a fantasy tale, the style of Hart’s Hope is almost medieval, and the story itself is medieval in nature.  The setting is very much that of the dark ages, but with a feel for something even older in nature.  The brutality of the simple life of slaughter and the elegance of Kings and Queens clash in the tale of the rise of a power greater than our world could contain, and the young peasant type boy that brings about the fall of that power through his own tortured decisions and sacrifices.  This is not a story for kids, but the innocence of the young plays a very vital role.
While the story is very good, perhaps inspired, what makes the book enjoyable is the style of the writing – very old school, very consistent with the characters the story is about.  Because it’s written in an almost archaic voice, it’s a little harder to read, but that only adds to the ability of the book to transport you to a whole different time and place.  I would have liked to have had a little more in the way of character development, but the style does a lot for the characters and so the book works in spite of a shortfall in the character development.

A couple of pictures of Sam and J’Neil helping me clean up the leaves in the yard last weekend:

Here’s a little something from the Four Rivers Band demo cd:  (Kris says I have to give a warning that it gets a little repetitious and drags on some at the end…)

“Houses of the Holy” from Four Rivers Band

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03-houses-of-the-holy.wma

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This weekend we carved some pumpkins.  Here’s the results, you can click on each picture to see larger versions.

Here’s the one Sam did:

J’Neil did two pumpkins:

Here’s the one I did:

And my favorite, Kristin’s PumpkinMan:

You know all those visual aids they have that help you visualize large numbers like a million?  For example, did you know that a wall of pennies four feet wide by five feet tall by one foot thick is just about a million pennies (see http://www.kokogiak.com/megapenny/default.asp ).  Or a million gallons of water would fill a pool almost 300 feet long by 50 feet wide by 10 feet deep.  A million seconds is just over 12 days.  You could actually fit a million dollars in a sturdy suitcase, assuming they were all $100 bills – see http://www.cockeyed.com/inside/million/million.html . 

Well, if you really want to see what a million looks like, stop by our place just about anytime in October and we’ll show you what has to be about a millioin leaves, all of which will need to be raked up.

This weekend we’ll be carving some pumpkins.  Perhaps I’ll post some pictures of them once they’re done, in the meantime here’s some photos I like that I came across last year.