Months!

It's been months since I've posted anything. Not really sure why. I think I've just been distracted by...well...a lot of stuff. Maybe I was testing to see who noticed my absence and said something. If that were the case, every single one of you failed. Miserably. Not that I'm keeping track.

Some quick updates:

1. The boys are growing like crazy. Jonah has passed through crawling to cruising in a blink. He's a determined little guy. Jonah's first birthday as well as his dedication at church is in just a couple weeks. Jesse is full of questions and curiosity. He's sleeping in a big boy bed and even memorizing Bible verses. Amazing!

2. I banged up my Honda Civic on my commute home in February. Poor Rhonda ended up totaled. She was a loyal friend (not that you would know anything about loyalty) and I miss her. This prompted me to buy another car. The new ride is another Civic EX. It's pretty close to what I had...just black and with 2-doors instead of 4. We'll call it the (semi) sporty version of Rhonda. I got a great deal on it. I haven't named it yet. Maybe Coop. Or Cooper.

3. Worked on and completed another sculpture. I'll get pictures and details posted shortly.

4. We refinanced our mortgage and started college funds for the boys. We've been meaning to do both for awhile. With rates low and investments on sale, it seemed like prime time to get going. I think this put us working on Dave Ramsey's Baby Step #6 (Payoff home).

5. More reading. I finished the last of the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis. I love Lewis. Good stuff. I also read Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables by Phil Vischer. This book was a look behind the creation of Veggie Tales. And interesting story of a man pursuing his mission. I think that's it. Currently, I'm reading Story by Robert McKee and Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message by Ravi Zacharias. both are pretty intense.

6. Pondering my next creative endeavor. Sculpture? Graphic Novel? Not sure.

Sorry I don't have more pictures. Here's a start.

Earth Quaker

No, I'm not talking about Earth Quaker, a character from The Tick. I'm talking about a little earthquake we experienced here in central Indiana this morning. Earthquakes aren't really anything we regularly notice. I guess that's kind of nice. It helps offset the ice storms and the tornadoes.

Anyway, it was an exciting start to the day. I've had trouble getting up early recently and this definitely did the trick. You can't really snooze your house when it's shaking around you. Here's how it happened. My alarm went off at 5:30am. I thought "Just a couple more minutes." I'm sure I was on my way to another hour of sleep when the house rumbled at around 5:37am. The bed, the dresser, the window blinds were all shaking. Our son slept through the whole thing but it woke up our dog who proceeded to curl up right near me at the head of the bed.

There were news reports the previous night about a sonic boom just north of us as part of an Indiana Air National Guard training session so we wondered if this was something similar though there wasn't any sound. I found the articles on the quake this morning.

Lesson: it takes an earthquake to get me into the office early.

Payment Plan

Retro Brett is a decent blog. I know there are things I could do to make it better. Probably the the best thing would be for me to write shorter, more focused posts. Rather than one horrifically long post, several shorter posts would certainly be more readable. That's one of my top goals for the blog. I think my reworking of my categories was a help. They're less fun but they're also a little less cryptic.

Another goal...making blogging worth my while. I like blogging but, let's face it, it's not exactly paying any bills. I have several friends that have been working with services in which they actually get paid to blog. While I enjoy blogging, I also enjoy getting paid. Why not try to combine these two things? Well, I did some (not a lot...but some) research and, of the various blog advertising services, I opted to try out Smorty. Here's why:

1. I liked their website. It was clear, easy to use, and easy to navigate.
2. I liked the idea of accepting assignments rather than feeling like I had to post about something of which I had little to say.
3. The pay is decent. More importantly, there seems to be opportunity, as I continue, that the pay will increase.
4. Their rules regarding qualification and posting seemed more in keeping with the nature of my blogging.
5. Smorty seemed on the ball with regards to communication (i.e. "you'll hear back from us within 72 hours...").

This chance to get paid for blogging should be interesting. I'll let you know how it goes.

retro brett store!

It's never too early to start thinking about Christmas 2007! If you're looking for something special for that special someone, might I suggest something that includes a spacefaring monkey? No, it's not another sequal to the Every which way but loose movie franchise. It's just about everything available at the retro brett store on Cafepress! Check it out...laser toting, jetpacked monkeys on shirts, mugs, and mousepads. And don't miss the "strange visitor from another planet" themed stuff. I've actually got one of the monkey shirts and it never fails to grab the ladies' attention. Little Jesse is even waiting to grow into a matching bodysuit.