a link, and some thoughts

this is an interesting link about modern day calvinist of sorts, mark driscoll, and his church in seattle. I just read the whole thing. long, but fascinating.

I spent this morning reading they love jesus but not the church, by dan kimball. I'm currently in the middle of it, and loving it so far. then I made hazelnut lattes for my roomies, wished xiaoying a happy new year, made pancakes, and have been doing some email/blog reading since then.

It's snowing, slowly but softly. It's a gray and gloomy day in wyoming. creepy dog next door yelps every once in a while. he's been quiet since elyssa whistled at him. I say he's creepy because of his eyes. he's a husky with these white eyes that just stare into your soul.

I'm not sure if I've introduced you, friendly readers, to my new roomies. laura and elyssa moved in at the same time last fall, jamie moved out before christmas, then laura moved back to germany/italy, and now xiaoying has moved in. things are pretty quiet these days, and elyssa and I have started to cook together more, which is more fun, less expensive, and rewarding because we get to hang out together, and usually one of us will cook and the other will clean up. for instance, I made pancakes this morning and she cleaned up. glorious.

but back to xiaoying. she's originally from china, she's been in the US for something like 7 years, and she's very nice, but quiet. she's getting her phd this spring, so even though I barely know her at this point, I'm very proud of her. phd's are quite the achievement. she also calls her parents once a week at the same time, which seems to be a normal habit for people who communicate regularly across multiple time zones and continents.

last night a few of us went to asian cuisine here in lander. xiaoying ordered a cambodian dish. kortney ordered some soup that reminded her of thailand. and elyssa ordered some curry that is different the curry she makes herself. christy and I both ordered the pad thai, one of my favorite dishes there, and I sprung for the thai iced tea, which is sweet, creamy, and delicious. the unfortunate part of the evening was that it took an hour and a half from when we arrived to get our food. it may take a while for me to get over that service blip. but, it's one of my favorite restaurants in town... so I may just have to get over last night's slow service. or I could hold it against them and save some cash. hmmm.

I heard recently from a friend that country home is done. which is sad news, because it's such a pretty publication, and especially because this friend was working there. I also talked with a friend at readymade (and a bunch of the staff) who is no longer working there. I guess they're moving their offices to des moines (my guess: the country home offices!?). this makes me sad because half of why rm was so clever, I think, was because of their location in berkley. they were always referring to their local thrift spots, dumps, locations to find reusable materials, etc. and with such an eclectic, environmentally-sound community in the bay area, they always seemed to be so in touch with what was going on with all the materials they used. dsm is just not quite there, as far as my recall from living there. and without the original folks at the helm, I'm just not sure if it'll be the same publication I've come to love. while I liked the idea of meredith corp running their marketing and overall business, etc. (that seemed to be a healthy move at the time), I'm somewhat afraid of it becoming just another publication in their creative collection, with paper as thin as bh&g. I'm a subscriber, so I guess I'm locked in to find out how the transition turns out.

in fun news, I finally checked my po box the other day, to find a great collection of christmas cards and personal notes! I can't believe I hadn't check it in so long. it's a reminder to me to catch up on some correspondence, including a few (okay, a lot) of neglected christmas cards, and thank you notes that I've intended to send out. oops.