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We had the priveledge of meeting Reuben Ellis Bishop when we visited the Bishops this Saturday. The family is doing well, and little Reuben is super cute. Big Sister Abigail affectionately calls him Ru Ru, so Barry and Karen refer to him formally as Mr. Ru. Also, he makes adorable faces, especially when he yawns.

This year for Father’s Day, my daughter gave me an amazing gift — a monkey that she painted all by herself! Here he is:

Kaeta and Mommy went to a ceramics store here in Pflugerville, and Kaeta picked out the monkey herself. When they sat her down with a plate of paint globs and a brush, they didn’t even have to show her what to do! She immediately began dipping the brush in the paints and painting the monkey! Here’s our little artist at work:

I never thought I would feel such affection for a ceramic monkey, but I really do! It was a great Father’s Day.

Back in January I bought an iPod Shuffle, and I am totally hooked on it. I load it up with my favorite podcasts (Dave Ramsey, This American Life, Extreme Theology, whatever looks interesting on iTunes) and listen to them every day as I drive to and from work.

A few weeks ago I tried to listen to the iPod while mowing the lawn, but the mower was way too loud. Then, just last week, my dad told me about ear protection you can wear while shooting a gun that allows you to put your iPod earbuds in underneath the ear muffs! So on Friday, I went out to Sportsman’s Warehouse in Round Rock and bought these:

They were about $30. I tried them out on Saturday while mowing the lawn, and I could easily listen to the iPod (at a reasonable volume) the whole time! Success!

Our friends the Bishops had a baby last week. Reuben was born on May 30, and we can’t wait to meet him. Since “Reuben” is also the name of a special corned beef sandwich, I give you:

Top 10 Foodstuffs That Can Double as a Baby Name

10. Falafel. (Thanks to Colin for this suggestion.)
9. Georgia Peach.
8. Papaya.
7. Cookie.
6. Pita.
5. Meatball Hero. (Could also be the name of a poorly translated Italian comic book.)
4. Tarragon.
3. Aunt Jemima.
2. Apple, Cocoa, or whatever the celebrities are going with these days.
1. Garbanzo!

We didn’t think to name our daughter after a food, but we do sometimes call her “Kaeta Potata.” And we’ve already sold the naming rights to our next baby, whom we will affectionately call “PizzaHut.com.”

I came around the corner into the kitchen today, and this is what I saw:

Yep, she climbed into that highchair all by herself! And doesn’t she look proud! I think she used the chair as a step, because later she started trying to do it again.

When I told her, no, she needed to sit on her bottom in the chair, she burst into tears. “It’s not fair!” her face said. I guess what I’m teaching her here is that some things are okay only when Mommy and Daddy are in another room and can’t see you. I don’t think it helped that, when I first saw that she had climbed into the highchair herself, my reaction was to immediately call Karianne into the room and be very impressed. Oh, well.

By the way, there’s a new photo gallery, just click the “Photos” link at the top of this page! It’s short, but it features some pictures sure to embarrass our dog.

Baby Kurth to arrive early November!

For photos from our trip to San Francisco, click here. We were there on vacation from May 3-8, and it was fantastic. At least one funny story from the trip will be posted here soon.

I work pretty close to a place called Friendly Car Care (9110 Burnet Rd) in Austin. Last week I got my oil changed there, and when I went to pick my car up, they said it needed some repairs. I knew it was overdue for a few things (e.g., it has over 100,000 miles on it, and it never even got a 50,000 mile tune-up). They listed all of the things they wanted to do: A general tune-up, new timing belt, yada yada. They itemized everything for me over the phone and said it would cost around $2700.

Yikes. So, I took the car to Riethmeyer’s, a repair shop recommended by Karianne’s parents. I had them do a tune-up, and they suggested more or less the same list of repairs as the other place. But they quoted a price of $1350. HALF!

They itemized, too, and said they would replace the timing belt and another belt together for about $350. The other place would do just the timing belt for around $900! Holy cow.

The moral: If you need car repair in Austin, go to:

Riethmeyer’s Auto Repair
12172 N Mo Pac Expy
Austin, TX 78758
(512) 836-6615

Now, in fairness, I will say that Friendly Car Care wanted to replace 2 tires, which Riethmeyer’s didn’t include in their estimate, so that knocks a couple hundred bucks off the difference. But it’s still pretty substantial.

There’s a new gallery with photos of Kaeta from Easter here.

Something unheard-of is happening right now in Central Texas this Holy Saturday evening…. it is sleeting. Sometimes, if Easter happens to fall in late March, we might get a cold front that comes through that cools it off into the upper 50s. But in April? Cold enough for sleet??

Kaeta had her first Easter egg hunt (since she’s big enough to gether her own eggs) this morning at the neighborhood park. Since it was too cold and wet for a traditional hunt, we stayed under the shelter of the pavilion while the kids took turns pulling eggs out of a big box. Normally we might poke a little fun at the idea, but Kaeta had a great time.

Poor little Marty just came back inside, and after being out there for less than two minutes, came in covered in little ice pellets. Poor dog would have held it if he could.

It is kind of appropriate, I guess, to have a white Easter — because of Christ’s death and resurrection, “though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). We hope you have a blessed Easter and manage to stay warm!