Sprigler Collective

Prayer Request

khaley — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:00:00 GMT

I whole heartedly believe in the power of prayer. Isabelle has been sick for a week now with a stomach bug and now double ear infections on top of that. It breaks my heart every time she gets sick. The little trooper is happy and playing most of the time but obviously something's up. She's on an antibiotic so hopefully that will take affect soon...

Even idiots and bigots make good decisions sometimes... sadly only sometimes

merkmal — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:14:00 GMT

Well I know I haven't posted in a while but with a historically significant election how could I not? I am overjoyed that Obama has won the election. I'm not a huge Obama fan or anything, but the whole lesser of two evils scenario comes into play. A person who is truly qualified to be president wouldn't ever run for presidency. That's just a simple matter of fact. Who in their right mind would want the job?

That being said, Obama is definitely a step in the right direction and maybe our country can get back on its feet. Maybe we'll become respected again by other nations in the world. One could only hope. It will be a while before our nation will right itself, not just financially (is there hope for that?) and economically, but in our international responsibility. The American image has been tarnished over the last 8+ years and I'm not sure we'll ever be able to make up for how irresponsibly our president(s) have been running our country (or countries if you consider the stance some have on the power of governance the United States has the rights to impose on any nation it deems isn't running in accordance to its ideals).

I would like to be heartened by the election of Barack Obama as indication that civil prejudices are a thing of the past, but the number of racist statements made by voters (democrat and republican both) stating they simply could not see voting for a black president proves our nation is still full of ignorant bigots that can't see past the color of an individuals skin in judging their character or merits as a human being.

I get physically ill when I think about how close the election really was. Obama won by a large margin yes, but considering who he was running against and how badly the GOP ran things during all of this... I'm simply shocked McCain got as large of a percentage as he ended up with. Are we seriously willing to elect someone who isn't fit to be president, along with their even less qualified running mate for vice president, simply because a significant portion of our population just "can't see voting for a black man?".

I'm not naive enough either to think it came just to that. It's been blatant for a while during all of this that churches and religious institutions were leaning on congregations to vote in favor of McCain... or actually they really couldn't tell you to do that... but you definitely should vote for the candidate that is against abortion rights... but wait... no they really can't tell you to do that either. Sadly though it's come out that they did and in many areas of the country they didn't even try to hide that they were recommending a presidential candidate based on religious agenda and not based on the qualification of the individual to lead an entire nation in issues outside of the rights a woman has concerning abortion.

Yes, I'm happy Obama will be our next president. I'm very disappointed he didn't win by a larger margin. I'm very disappointed in those who voted against him simply due to race or pro-life reason. I'm also INCREDIBLY disappointed in states that passed even more bans on gay marriages. If you don't believe marriage should exist between same sex individuals then DON'T MARRY SOMEONE WHO IS YOUR SAME SEX. If someone else chooses to do so it's NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. Why on earth do people think it's okay for them to decide who other people can marry? Why is our nation slipping even further into a conservative idiotic intolerant nation where everyone is allowed to do anything they want as long as they're straight, white, christians?

GROW UP AMERICA. This isn't high school where you can bully less popular people around. This is REAL LIFE. Count yourself lucky you live somewhere that you can practice your religious beliefs. You are allowed the freedom of religion here and this might be a surprise to some people but that freedom doesn't pertain to just christianity. What?!?! Really?!?! I know it's crazy. It's pretty simple though... you can believe whatever you want, your neighbor can believe whatever they want, and none of us has to believe anything anyone else believes. So it's cool if you don't think gay marriage is okay... you're allowed to be intolerant and a bigot! It's in the constitution! It's also cool to be gay and get married if that's what you believe. It's almost like two different groups of people with two different opinions are allowed to have their own opinion without being discriminated against. Wow. Do you think that's like what the entire idea our founding fathers had when starting this country?

Seriously people. Black people can be president, gay people can get married, and yes conservative fundamentalist christians can be intolerant bigots. It's just like they tell us in grade school when we're little kids... you can grow up to be anything you put your mind to. Some of us aspire to lead a country, some of us just want to be happy being married to those we love, and some of us want to be able to practice our religion and live life according to how we see fit yet inhibit others from doing the same. I'm just sad so many of us seem to have chosen the latter.

Maybe when Obama makes it through his 4 years of presidency without the world ending or god coming down and punishing us for having a liberal leader and people see that more nations actually like us again instead of hating us... that maybe we'll be a nation of a more tolerant people. I'd like to be optimistic in this... but it's going to take a while before I feel like I'm not surrounded by bigots who are more concerned about themselves than living in a country where everyone is allowed to be free and pursue happiness... not just white christians.

I'm constantly inspired by our capacity to love but I'm also constantly discouraged with our capacity to hate and discriminate. "It's just human nature," is not a valid argument. "People are scared of things they don't fully understand," is a valid statement but at the same time it doesn't give anyone the right to discriminate against anyone else, it just explains the emotions behind why someone feels strongly about some issues. As a species we're capable of such incredible emotions, for better or worse, but we're also gifted with the ability to act responsibly in spite of them.

So the score so far is... good job America for voting in Obama. Shame on you America for almost blowing it by not voting for Obama, for voting in legislation that discriminates against your fellow Americans, and for letting your religious ideologies interfere when you should be focused on the actual issues at hand... a president should lead our nation and protect all of our citizens' rights as human beings not mandate everyone follow a religious bible based agenda. Bigots are bigots and I'm sorry there are so many in our great nation. I'm proud of some of you for putting your differences in opinion aside to vote for our new president but I'm ashamed of many of the same of you who couldn't see fit to put your differences aside beyond that.

Let's All Thank David Ward

tsolfan — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:52:00 GMT

For letting the world now think New Albany is a city of racists:

From the Chicago Tribune:

"For others, like David Ward, who runs an antique shop with his wife in New Albany, the issue is race. Ward, a registered Democrat, said he will vote for McCain "mainly because he's not black.""

Loaning My Credit to California

tsolfan — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 01:26:00 GMT

When I read about Schwarzenegger requesting a loan to keep the state of California running, I had no idea they were going to take it from me personally.

Apparently, our Discover card is being used somewhere in California. Discover called me today to notify me of the charges, and after confirming they weren't from me, they shut down our card. Oddly enough, I had just used it about 15 minutes earlier to buy some more books from Destinations Booksellers.

Here's hoping Randy at least gets his money before they canned our account.

Their fraud investigation unit is supposed to be calling me in 5 days with their findings. As of right now, I've no clue what could have happened, as we aren't missing any cards and shop safely online, unless there was something with our account numbers that got pulled from the house/dumpster after the fire and sold to California, but that's probably just a coincidence.

Inquiring minds want to know...

Adaptive Reuse: How Not to Do It

tsolfan — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:50:00 GMT

It's a very enlightening experience when you tear out all of the walls and ceilings from a home that you know for a fact has had some major construction done inside over the course of close to 115 years.

Enlightening as in, now we can clearly see why all of the problems we've had with the home since we purchased it almost 5 years ago are actually happening and also the ones we've seen visible signs of when we bought the house, what the underlying causes of are.

We've always known the kitchen was added on, and a wall or two was taken out to make it. What we didn't know was that the second floor of the home was never intended as living space. We've found where the original framed out doorway to the back bedroom that became the kitchen was blocked off in order to put in a set of stairs to the attic space when the owners of our home at the time decided to make attic space living space (to still get access to the new kitchen area, they carved out a doorway into the side of the existing closet so you could walk through and gave it an arch to match the arch going into the hallway (though, nowhere near as good craftsmanship), and then they took the closet door off its hinges to open into the new found mini hallway).

The end result? We've got ceiling joists on the first floor that then suddenly became floor joists for the brand new second floor. The problem? The ceiling joists were never intended to support the load.

What does that mean to us? Well, there's an inch gap between joists and floor above in spots where the joists have sagged. We have 2"x6" ceiling joists that run 19'. According to current building codes, they are overextended about 5' too far for ceiling joists. What about the fact that they reclaimed the attic space as living space and now the ceiling joists now pull double duty as floor joists? According to current building codes, they are currently overextended about 9' too far.

Suddenly, things are starting to make sense. That's probably why that's the ceiling that fell in while Tabitha was at home in the room doing homework back in 2004. Plaster isn't known for it's flexibility.

So, the framers have stopped work on the second floor and roof, and work has switched to try and fix the structural integrity of the house. We'll lose more than a few inches of ceiling height in the process, but we don't have a choice if we want the house to pass inspection. We are also happy to oblige, given that it will prevent us from one day crashing into the first floor from the second floor when we actually started using the upstairs (it was currently used mostly for storage) and putting some real furniture up there.

This little insight instigated a full investigation of the entire house, and there are apparently problems ad nauseum in the cellar such as floor joists hidden behind crawl space that aren't adequate to support the load of the house, and with the previous back few rooms of the house being consolidated into one large room for a kitchen, nothing down there is up to code for how that room is now being used (to support heavy appliances). Oh, and apparently, the entire roof is mostly resting on a series 1"x6" boards that run the entire outside span of the house, rather than being supported by the walls. All of the people working have been commenting that they are surprised we've not had major problems with the roof prior, since there are plenty of spots where the 1"x6" boards are sagging from the weight of the roof, and some that have even started cracking.

Needless to say, all of these problems are going to be fixed. Though, right now, on our dime, since none of it was included in the insurance estimate to repair the damage due to the fire. The current financial market crisis isn't affecting us at the moment as much as it would have, as we cashed out weeks ago (for these new items and all the insurance work as well, since we are still waiting on the insurance check, and we refused to let the house sit as it was right after the fire and started work immediately, flipping the bills ourselves).

Oddly enough, all of these problems we would have mostly been oblivious to until something serious happened. I guess we should be thankful for the fire, in a way, as it's allowing us the opportunity to basically re-engineer the internal framework of the entire house to ensure that it will be around for much longer than it may have. We've been rolling the dice every day without ever realizing we were playing.

I guess they actually have building codes for a reason. Too bad none were used when our home was originally built.

!@#$%^&*

tsolfan — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:04:00 GMT

This morning someone broke into the house and stole most, if not all, of the contractors' tools that are being stored in our house during the rebuilding.

Apparently, they had gotten in through the cellar door, which has never had the best lock in the world on it. From there, they were able to get into the kitchen and unlock the back door. Since power is still out at the house, and the alarm system has been disconnected for the time being because of it, of course, no alarms went off during this entire process.

They stashed all of the tools by the back gate leading into the alley for easy transport.

The reason we know that is because when one of the contractor's showed up this morning, the guy was still there in the house.

The guy's story was that he was there to work. For all the contractor's knew, he was there to work. They called our friend Mark who is the project manager, and he made the trip over.

Mark kicked him out of the house, and told the guy we didn't need anyone else to work, and no need to ever come back. Initially, they thought he was just a guy showing up for work. That is, until they started working and noticed none of the tools were where they left them and know one had moved them on anyone else.

That's when they split from the house to look for the guy.

The guy wasn't found, but the stash of all of the tools he was leaving by the back alley gate was. Apparently, he had gotten greedy/cocky and had made another trip back in to look/grab for more stuff, and that's when the one of the contractor's showed up, and he made up some story to keep them from calling the cops on the spot. Best we can figure, he was making a nice pile to haul off with a vehicle zipping through the back alley.

Will he come back? Who knows. Hopefully, he's the first and last person to break into the house.

We've added padlocks to every single door, but can't do much for the windows except board them up. When you notice all of the boards going up today on every single window in the house, that's why.

Needless to say, we are no longer leaving Tabitha's car in front of the house during the night. Apparently it's not a deterrent in any way or form, and we'd rather not have it broken into again (she's still waiting for it to be fixed from the last time :)

What a Difference a Day Makes

tsolfan — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:54:00 GMT

I walked around town on Saturday during the Historic Home Tour snapping random photos. I picked a few key photos and took the same shots this morning after the wind storms on Sunday.

I tossed them into the Flash viewer I built to do comparisons between DVD snapshots and HD DVD snapshots for a friend, hence the loading text at the beginning and the 1920x1080 resolution. Just drag your mouse across the image to view the changes. You'll probably have to use the scrollbars on your browser to move around, unless you are running your monitor at HD resolutions.

Riverfront Ampitheater

St. Mary's of New Albany

Baptist Tabernacle

Ticket to Ride

tsolfan — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:41:00 GMT

Reconstruction efforts on the house have officially begun. The first step in the process is to remove all of the oak baseboards, trim, crown and shoe molding to prevent damage to them during the demolition of the rest of the plaster walls and ceilings. Down the road, once the new walls and ceilings are back up, everything will be put back in its place.

Right now, it's like one big puzzle with all of the pieces on the floor, labeled as to their exact location.

Yesterday, we did have an intereting find. Apparently, someone lost a ticket that fell behind one of the baseboards. We found it for them, but I think they missed the boat.

There's a signature on the back from a Georgie Green. I drove past Central Christian Church after work yesterday and noticed the cornerstone has a date of 1907, so I'm not sure if this was some sort of fundraiser or just an all around celebration for everyone involved. Any Central Christian Church members have this trip on record? (ahem, Courtney :)

Skylight We Never Wanted

tsolfan — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:38:00 GMT

We've been collecting photos and uploading them all to Flickr. I apologize for the mess, the house was clean when we left.

Photos from the New Albany Fire Department (Day of Fire)
Photos from the New Albany Fire Department (Day After)
Photos from ServPro (Day After)
Photos from Steven (Day of Fire)
Photos from Tabitha (Day After)
Photos from Jim (Day After)

Thanks again to the New Albany Fire Department, not only for saving the house, but also for giving me a copy of their pictures (for once, somebody took more photos than me).

New Blog Update

khaley — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:39:00 GMT

Okay... it's been a while. Okay... it's been a LONG while. I decided I needed to update everyone on what's been going on seen my last post over a year ago. First, Sprigler.com has been denied by the NAFC School Corp so that limits my access. It's just easier to do it at work.

Then of course we got pregnant, I was put on bedrest after a miscarriage scare, and later after the grace of God gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Isabelle Grace.

Emma is a proud big sis and a big Mommy's helper... most of the time...

So fast forward... not much of interest until Emma's trip to the hospital. Emma had a sinus infection and possibly something else as well. Her meds made her sick and she wouldn't take medicine, kept getting a fever, and didn't really want to eat or drink. So after another visit to the doctor we were sent to the hospital. She was admitted as an outpatient and giving IV fluids and antibiotic. Total she was there 24 hours. It was a bit tramatic for everyone. Emma was so dehydrated they had to get a professional to insert her IV and they denied her request for chicken nuggets... that is until Dr. Fisher saved the day and Uncle Steven's chicken nuggets were finally eaten (with ketchup of course).

Since Zach and I wanted to stay with Emma and were worried about what Isabelle might catch at the hospital, she was shipped of to Grandma Betty's house. It was Isabelle's first night away from Mommy. Luckily she was only about 10 minutes away and she did great. Everyone was glad to get back home.

So now school has started. Things are going well so far. Some time later this year I will get to move into my new room at school. Our building is under construction and the FL and Math classrooms should be done in the Spring. I am excited about some new leadership opportunites at church. I decided (after promptings and a lot of prayer) to take a more active role in the women's ministry at Northside. All that should start later next month.

So that's all for now... but one last pic...

So... here's hoping it's not a year from now until I post again...

Home Sweet Home...

tsolfan — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:05:00 GMT

By now, most of you have probably heard, our house caught on fire earlier today. I was in Phoenix for work and scheduled to leave on Saturday, but I'm now home. So is Tabitha (I was in training when the alarm company called me, and she was actually in the air returning from Grad School).

It's not pretty on the inside, plenty of mementos lost, but we still have the memories, and the rest of the stuff, it's just stuff anyways.

Major props go out to my friend Mark who was there to get Carson out of the house (Annabel is still away at puppy Summer camp).

Thanks also to everyone that stopped by to offer support. It just goes to show what a great neighborhood we truly live in.

As soon as we get the all clear (I just got in town, and I'm supposed to talk to some inspectors tomorrow), it's back to work on the house as usual. I've said it before, nothing with this house is ever easy :)

We are definitely not giving up, it was our dream house from the day we step foot in it just to check it out, and we have and will continue to do everything it takes to keep it around.

Just a minor setback...

Beauteous Rot

tsolfan — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:36:00 GMT

Well, not rot, as much as termite induced damage. During the original home inspection prior to the purchase of our home, termite mud tunnels were found in the cellar, leading to a corner of the house where the living room met a small bedroom on the other side. The only visible damage was the edge of a sill plate, which we had the replacement of said sill plate one of the items to be done prior to purchase of the home (as well as spraying and whatnot for termites).

Fast forward a few months after purchase and when we started ripping up carpet to expose the parquet wood floors, it seems that the sill plate wasn't the only thing the termites found tasty. All of the darker wood border inlay in the very most corner of the living room was dust. Oddly enough, they left the lighter wood that also composed the border untouched. We just added that to the list of potential future repairs, though, it was in no way a priority.

Fast forward a few years for when we start scrapping the paint off that side of the house as well as off all of the decorative trim. Well, this same section of the house proved to be an interesting challenge. Mainly due to the fact that in some areas, when paint scraper met house, there was no house (or trim) underneath, only many layers of paint that created a realistic looking facsimile.

It seems the termites decided to go vertical.

They ate through a majority of the wood in that area of the house, and as seen in the photo, in parts, they left no wood, just the numerous layers of paint (which in some spots was close to a quarter of an inch thick, leaving just an outer shell of what once was there). Our mission has always been to repair, but in the case where there is no wood, in this instance, we have no choice but to replace.

As we continue to find out with this house, nothing is ever easy (or cheap :)

Wallpaper Treasure Hunt

tsolfan — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:41:00 GMT

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to track down a place to purchase this wallpaper.

Even though we've removed the wallpaper from every other room in the house, it has remained in tact in the foyer as we attempted to keep something original to the house prior to our arrival. It was in pretty rough shape to begin with, as it's not the original wallpaper to the room (there are about 3 layers of other paper underneath) so it was bubbled up in the corners, plus, where there were holes in the plaster walls, so were there holes in the paper. Plus, it looks like at some point in time, the side window in the foyer leaked as there are water stains down the wall (probably during the same incident that caused that side of the porch to be replaced with plywood and the entire porch covered with outdoor carpet to mask the repairs). On top of that, we had to bring the plaster ceiling down in the foyer last month to repair an electrical issue that was a definite safety hazard (as an added bonus, we were finally able to track down the wiring that powered the upstairs which was hidden behind the ceiling and the second floor now has grounded outlets), and since all of the ceilings in the house were wallpapered (foyer included), when the ceiling came crashing down, parts of the paper near the top came down with the paper from the ceiling (they were all layered over-top one another, crazy stuff). All said and done, it's time for this room to also have it's wallpaper removed.

As foreign as it sounds, we are actually looking at putting wallpaper up in the house, back up in the foyer. Since we liked the original paper so much, we have attempted to find the same pattern, with little luck.

So, anyone up for the challenge?

Oh, and to save your eyesight, if you are someone that clicked the picture above and then clicked again to view the full size, and are wondering what is written in the scrolls at the bottom of each medallion, one says "Independece Hall 1735" and the other says "State House Boston 1748".

Whoa. Second Post.

indiana1979 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:10:00 GMT

Took two years, but here is post number two.

Training - June 2008 - Recap

witheringintuition — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:51:00 GMT

Woot! Another month and another goal met. This month, my goal was 60K and I covered 74K. So far, I have covered 127K < I have met many other goals this month, but I am not going to share them here. In short, I participated in Relay for Life and Jim cut off 27 inches (!) of hair. My friends Giselle and Roy Limpawuchara were married and I participated in Champions4Her. My July goal is 70K. In other news, I recieved a partial scholarship for my graduate program and work has been - whew! Anywho, more...(read more)

Shave and a Haircut (minus the shave): Two Bits (or more :)

tsolfan — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:17:00 GMT

My last haircut was a little over 4 years ago, right before Tabitha and I got married. With about 27 inches of hair grown on my head since then, my next haircut is currently scheduled for Friday night at the Locks of Love event at the Relay for Life, where my mom is walking in the memory of her brother/my uncle.

Feel free to jump over to my mom's team page and send a donation her way if you are one of the many people that have offered money over the years just to get me to cut off my hair. Finally, you are given your chance.

http://relayforlife.sprigler.com/

Training - May 2008 - Recap

witheringintuition — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:05:00 GMT

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Week One - May 5th - 11th , originally uploaded by Tabitha (^_^) . This month I began training for a marathon in 2010. I have smaller goals as well. This month's goal was to cover 50K - I did! Actually I exceeded the goal and covered more than 50K . Right now, I am at 53K and there are two days left (I may reach 60K). This isn't...(read more)

The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women by: Naomi Wolf

witheringintuition — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:19:00 GMT

This is an important book. It is not particularly well written, but it highlights important concerns. Naomi illustrates how women struggle to become "professionals" and how beauty can become a woman's economic asset and limitation. She also covers the same cultural myths that most of us are familiar with :"men are the heroes of the stories that make things happen." "Because women are beautiful, things happen to them." She then touches on religion, sex, hunger, violence, fear of aging, fear of fat,...(read more)

Bagels and Grits: A Jew on the Bayou by: Jennifer Moses

witheringintuition — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:17:00 GMT

I wanted this book to be great. I willed it to be great. It was not great. It didn't feel genuine to me. I kept checking the copyright to see if it was written several years ago. It wasn't. My largest complaint was her description of individuals in a hospice for folks with HIV. Yes people still die in the States, but the majority of my clients are very healthy. Most are poor. Most have to struggle for medications, insurance, work, housing, and basic human dignity. The stigma is still massive! Most...(read more)

Mom's Cancer by: Brian Fies

witheringintuition — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:13:00 GMT

Interesting concept. Brian Fies chronicles his mother's journey with cancer in comic book form. It seems strange, but it works. I read it in less than an hour so it wouldn't hurt you to give it a chance. :p Mon's Cancer by: Brian Fies...(read more)

The Memory of Running - Ron Mc Larty

witheringintuition — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:11:00 GMT

Years before this book was published, I heard about this author publishing it in audio form and hoping that it would one day be a physical book. Year later while searching my favorite bookstore, www.destinationsbooksellers.com, I found it on the shelf! I took it home and read it in one day. It is fantastic. I collect quotes: "There is a courage a man - well, anybody - should show. A resolve. A goodness. A heroism that puts away all of the things you're unsure about and sends you off the porch, arms...(read more)

Lollygagged and Flannel Flogged by: Adam Watson

witheringintuition — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:41:00 GMT

I was once a member of the site louisvillemojo. On there, I joined a writers group and met another writer. He told me that he wrote a book. Many people say this. I located, ordered, and read it. It was/is fantastic. You should read it. I'm not typing this because I knew the guy. We fell out of touch - as is my habit with most people. My favorite poem was "The Room You Requested Is Full." It touches on the conversations in an online chatroom : "i cyberscuffle and scroll third wheeling down the dialogue...(read more)

A Language Older Than Words by: Derrick Jensen

witheringintuition — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:39:00 GMT

This is not his best book. That said, it was the first book that made me consider vegetarianism. There were many parts that I enjoyed, but there were also many parts that were not logical to me. I appreciated his awe of the world and his respect for nature. As an example, while I believe in The people creating change, I cannot justify blowing up a dam. I believe there is another way. Dams are ugly structures that damage communities. They destroy local ways of living. This is true, but we also must...(read more)

Wise Child by: Monica Furlong

witheringintuition — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:37:00 GMT

I read this book when I should have been sleeping during my last home-stay in Thailand. It is fantastic and I only wish that I had not waited over 24 years to read it. As always, here is a quote: "Being ready for death - that is something one has to learn. Knowing that it doesn't matter. That is what makes it possible to Live." Wise Child by: Monica Furlong...(read more)

The History of Love: A Novel by: Nicole Krauss

witheringintuition — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:35:00 GMT

I love this book! Nicole tells the story of an aging man that has lived, loved, and accomplished beautiful things (well nearly). It provides a clear insight into a fear that I can understand. It is lovely and honestly written. " I often wonder who will be the last person to see me alive. If I had to bet, I'd be on the delivery boy from the Chinese take-out. I order in four nights out of seven. Whenever he comes I make a big production of finding my wallet. He stands in the door holding the greasy...(read more)