Surprise Peanut Butter

More than once I have mentioned that the availability of some of my favorite foods here is, well, nil. One of those foods is peanut butter. While this is for the better of my waistline, I have to say that I really miss it.

About a month ago a friend (Hutch) sent an email asking what my address was, and saying that he wanted to send a package. It had my curiosity up to pretty high levels because he wasn't saying what he was sending.

Time passed, and I nearly forgot all about it. Then a big heavy box comes in the door with the mail. From the United States. Filled with several jars of extra crunchy peanut butter.

Friends are awesome. Thanks Hutch and family!

[composed and posted with ecto]

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Fighters

If you missed a post or two recently, you may have not have seen the post that says my mom has cancer. I also have a close friend (Pat) who has cancer. My mom has finished radiation, and is continuing chemotherapy. Pat is recovering from surgery, and heading into radiation and chemotherapy.

Allan and I are wearing the yellow bracelets to remind us to pray for them. They are from Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong Foundation.

There are a few other posts that I have not emailed out, so you may want to check the front page to see what else I have been writing. :)

[composed and posted with ecto]

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Storm

Dark clouds gather on the horizon of late. Bearing down with sinister intent, and guile such as is rarely seen in nature. In the moments before this storm breaks the calm, nature waits. The air is calm, pregnant with moisture; heavy with the burden of knowing this sleepy afternoon will soon be torn from its bed with a start.
Lightning begins to flash all around as the sun sets. The boiling clouds draw near as if by the very darkness itself. Light fades. Thunder tears through the clouds with vengeance and malice that would melt the knees of the very strongest man to the consistency of warm butter. It is distant at first, but clear. And coming.

Wind winds its way between the trees, down the streets and through open windows. Sometimes even through closed ones. It carries on its back the rain. Drops the size of a man's fingertip begin to pound the earth. It has begun.

The storm's rage and wrath continue, now shaking the bones of children and men alike with great claps of thunder which seem to sear the clouds together—though its motive seems to suggest tearing them apart—now pounding roof, ground, and unwary pedestrian caught by its overbearing hand.

Fury, though, must also meet its end. The clouds, with their effusion of lightning, are soon borne away by the very winds that brought their wrath. Breezes, calm and cool, take the place of the wind; stars and moon begin to shine once more.

In the houses of men calm takes the place of fear while husband and wife and son and daughter drift to sound sleep in the fresh, cool air.

Tomorrow will bring new things. Another storm is likely already building it's anger, but that will have to wait until the appointed time.

____________________________________

No, this is not the beginning of a detective mystery, or some other adventure. That is what a storm is like here. I love huge storms. They remind me how small and insignificant I really am in the scheme of larger things.

The photo is from last year, but is illustrative of the nearly nightly storms we have been having this week. I love it. I hope soon to be able to record audio from one of these. When that happens I will at least post some excerpts.

I also want to take a moment to congratulate Tré on his recent engagement!

[composed and posted with ecto]

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Summary of Karl's trip to the States

Whirlwind. It is sort of cliché, but that is how I felt the trip went by. So many people to see, and things to do, and so little time.

I said before I left that I would update while I was there. Unfortunately, I that plan was hampered by a lack of time, as well as an unhealthfully slow internet connection. So, I am doing an update now.

Instead of detailing everything that happened in my little-over-two-week-trip, I think I will overview the major events. Some of the details may be a little messed up, so if the one I mess up is one you know about, let me know. We will go in chronological order:

Wedding:

The primary reason I went was that my brother, Nathan, got married on the 20th. I arrived the 18th in the afternoon, and we had the bachelor party that night (I guess he wanted to be well-rested for the wedding, or some-such.).

The next day, I got to rest a little, as well as having the rehearsal, and rehearsal dinner that night. I recall being very tired, and was probably not a lot of fun to be around.

The food was very good. I do remember that!

Saturday the 20th of May, we did the picture thing before the wedding, and got the ceremony started at noon. I am pretty sure a woman would tell you all about the flowers (which were beautiful), the dress (which was also very chic, as they are saying here in Brazil), the other decorations, and, of course, the bride (I can only think of one more beautiful--mine). I am not a woman, though.

My tux was smelly. The last person that wore it had forgotten to use deodorant, or something. It also became apparent that the designer shoes I was wearing--well, the “designer” forgot the inside part of the shoe... they were pretty uncomfortable.

All of that, though, did not overshadow the very special time with friends and family, and seeing my bro get married. It was a beautiful time, and... Well, how about I quit talking, and show you some pictures. There are more, but these are the highlights. My dad took the pictures, so he is not in any of them for that reason (Just in case you felt left out, dad.).

More information about the photos can be found at our Flickr account (there is a link on the top right-hand side of this page).

Packing:
After the wedding, I rested a bit, and visited with some of the family was around. It was good to see them, as well as my church family on Sunday.

The rest of the week I spent packing my belongings better. My parents are moving, and I needed to get my things in order as much as possible, as they are storing them for me.

I did see a few friends during the week, which was wonderful. I am blessed to have wonderful friends, and very supportive ones, at that.

When I had all my boxes packed, I put them in a little truck my dad owns, and my brother, Ryan, and I headed to my parent's new home in Idaho. My mother's parent's live near there, as well as other family, so we visited them as well. Another great weekend.

Of course, it was quite a drive; essentially, two days of driving, and one day to visit and rest.

I knew I had to sell some things in order to make the finances work, as well as everything fitting in the storage space. So, undaunted by the impossibility of the tasks (well, “undaunted” might be exaggerated a little lot), I looked in the first places I could think of to sell. God blessed my efforts, and everything I had to sell sold within that week. With one exception, and it looks like my '71 Jimmy is going to sell as soon as we get the title stuff worked out.

The last weekend, I saw more friends, and visited my home church once more.

What's With This Job?
I got some emails after the last entry asking what the deal was with my new job. Sorry, I have not kept you very up-to-date on that.

Nádya's brother works at a company that he really likes, and gives him great benefits. So, he was able to hook us up with jobs there. Since we are in “hurry up and wait” mode, we decided to give it a shot.

As a result, it looks like we will be here another year, at the least. We are looking forward to having our own house, as well as me having a job. It would have been nice for both of us to visit together for this reason, but that did not work out, due to the huge wait time for visas to the US at the moment.

Yeah, I will miss my family, friends, and guitars for another year, but that is better than being away from my wife for any amount of time. We (at the moment, at least) plan to visit next year sometime. There are a million and six possiblities between here and there, though, so don't start making big plans yet. :D

Nádya Update:
She is feeling quite good today. Good enough to be pulling pranks and making jokes all day. As I have said before, we get the results of the biopsy on Tuesday.

Another Interview

Had another interview today. This time it was at Skill (see the first comment in previous post). It went well, the guy seemed genuinely interested. He mentioned that I looked like a “white” Brazilian, as well as saying that my pronunciation of Portuguese words was very good (he said this after exploring the limits of my command of the language).

He was not sure if he would have any openings for me because my Portuguese is limited, which leaves me with more advanced students, and there are not as many of those. (For reference, this is the story I have heard all over the place.)

It is sort of funny how this interview got set up, so let me tell you the story:

My friend Phil left a comment on the last entry here mentioning that he had worked at Skill (the name of an English school here) when he was here, and that I should call them, and see if they might be interested.

During the day, my brother-in-law Allan saw the comment, and called to see if I wanted him to put in a good word for me. I said sure, and he called back a few minutes later saying that I needed to be there at 10:30 AM today.

Funny how that bounced around the globe like a hot potato in such a small amount of time.

Last Nights Excursion and Other Stuff

Last night we went out with some of our friends to the June fiesta, but here it is called Festa Junina. I guess that during the entire month of June there is a festival going on here celebrating Saint John. We mostly just walked around and looked at all the people. It was fun.

We did have the fish you can see in the new photo album, which was very tasty.

I went to this festival last year when I was here, and we watched quite a bit of the dancing. The one group we got to see this year seemed like it was a lot more “together” than the ones we saw last year.

As far as the weather this time of year, it is pretty warm 24 hours a day. I brought a digital thermometer that also has a hygrometer (that´s what measures humidity), and its been reading in the upper 80´s (F) with about 70% humidity during the day, and at night it gets down to about 82 (F) with about 80% humidity.

Sleeping in this climate (for me anyway) seems to work best in a hammock, with a fan blowing on me. Otherwise it tends to get quite warm, and the mosquitos eat me alive...but just my feet. For some reason they don´t like to bite me much of anywhere else.

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