Life on Walton

Mostly, I just felt that this photo needs to be on the interwebs:



I know... it's epic. And Thomas looks amazing.












In short, life on Walton is GREAT! We love our neighborhood and our house. We still haven't gotten to know too many of our neighbors (language barrier) but the early-morning construction has ended and things continue to feel quiet, safe, and looked-after.

The Little Blue House must be feeling special with all the attention we've been giving her: termite tent, re-inforced the rafters, minor roof work, electrical facelift, A/C re-balance, a small plumbing "cleanse," tree trimming, and 8 more inches of fluffy pink insulation. God has been so kind in easing us into homeownership financially. Some of these costs were part of the buying agreement and for the others, He either provided them for free (or nearly-free) from Zack The Seller or very affordably from a friend from church that needs the money. Next up: DIRT! For under the house. And then on to the foundation maintenance.

Here are some photos of things I like to remember from our first weeks on Walton.

Rob couldn't be there on moving day. I texted him "Welcome Home" with this photo to let him know the truck made it to the new house:



We've enjoyed having Lottie and the Fords/Warmaths for grilled dinners, along with some of our single guy friends. One pro-house thing I hadn't thought about is that the house gives us more privacy than the apartment did. Personally, I liked how no matter which room we were in, Rob and I could always see each other in our first apartment. :) But on more than one occassion already, I like seeing how R can sit on the porch with guys from his Bible Study have personal conversations.

Speaking of the porch, here's one of my favorite porch guests, all way from Katy, Texas! :)



I believe this was the Hays first visit post-move-in, and we were so grateful for the dinner they brought over.

They have been back several times, mostly for additional shelf-lining projects and this...



...which there will be much more of eventually. Our walls are SOOO STRONG - these guys were having quite the workout trying to get a nail in there.

And speaking of hard work, here's another favorite photo:



A true big brother, helping out. All the helping hands that day will be glad to hear that our washer and dryer are both working beautifully! It really is a luxury. And I'm so thankful we bought a washer/dryer set that R likes. I am sure he has initiated 10 times more loads than I have. It is definitely worth buying appliances your husband enjoys using. :)

Speaking of sweet husbands, here he is with his perfectly-sized, bargain-bought lawnmower!



I will never EVER forget the time when we got some sad news from a friend and Rob said "I just need to go mow and pray." I still think about it, and what a sweet reminder it was that even the most mundane tasks that homeowners/homemakers must regularly endure are made sweet with prayer.




Rob also embraced my "purging" that came with the move into our new place. Not only did he get rid of about 25 ties (did any of those work for you, Dad?) ;) but he also arranged the ones he kept by season! I was actually embarrassed by how happy this made me...and still does. :)














Our first Saturday at home was a sweet day. I thought I'd miss our Antidote walk but we quickly found a replacement - Shipley's! (I know, you're shocked) ;)









That is one happy homeowner.


We've enjoyed some evening walks in our neighborhood - they give us the chance to look at other houses like ours and get ideas on how to care for and improve it, and to meet other neighbors we can talk to. As a sidenote, we're considering quiting our YMCA membership next month and using that money to buy a dog. We're hoping to replace the (infrequent) trips to the gym with daily morning/evening walks, which will work better with my new work schedule anyways. We'll see how all that goes...


Also in other news - we are going to be hosting a temporary community group for new young couples to Christ the King! The church called us last week to ask if we would be interested. Of course this is EXACTLY the kind of thing we want to use this house for! What beautiful timing, and how sweet of the Lord to give us that desire, give us a house, and then give us a group of 6-8 couples looking to be plugged into the body. CTK is experimenting with connecting new people to other new people instead of asking them to "break into" a group that's been together for a very long time. Pray that we will remain excited about USING our house and not SHOWING our house. But also pray that God will allow us to furnish our home quickly and affordably this month. We may have found a dining room table:












(hahaha :) Just kidding.) The dining table we want is backordered until November so we may not have it this year! We're looking for alternatives in the meantime. But we did order a new sectional (with a pull-out sofa!) which will arrive in about 6 weeks along with our first 4 dining chairs and a rug for the living room.

I wrote most of this post before I started my new job but since I finished my first full day of work today I will go ahead and give you some of my initial reactions:
-the staff is smaller than I expected. Just a school director (my boss), the registrar and 40 teachers. We also have some wonderful part-time front desk staff and full-time teacher support staff.
-I LOVE my front-desk staff!
-I have no doubt that I will pick up a LOT of Spanish very quickly!
-Everyone is running around like chickens with their heads cut off this week. In order for anyone to talk with my boss, you must walk and talk since he's doing 5 other things at the same time. And while you're talking three teachers will also come and ask their questions and he will mention four things he's forgotten to do and ask everyone he passes to do something different as well. Craaaazy!
-There is so much room for improvement in organization and operations. It is both energizing and totally frustrating.
-I am amazed by the attention and help these students receive. I sat in one 8th grade teacher meeting where the 7th grade teachers from last year literally went name by name, telling each kid's strong and weak subjects and describing their personality, home situation, friends, who they should/shouldn't sit next to, how to motivate them, etc... These kids are truly LOVED, whether they realize it or not, and it blows me away.
-Walt will be happy to hear that soccer is one of the two sports offered at my school!
-All and all, I LOVE the atmosphere and the people I've gotten to work with so far. I can't wait to see my school full of kids tomorrow morning!!

That's all the updates from Walton for now. Rob said he might also write a few words soon... And I hope he will!! :)

Merry Christmas, folks!

To: All our dedicated readers (because you wouldn't be reading this if you weren't dedicated)
From: The sibs

Merry (belated) Christmas!

Happy Birthday, Chandra!

Today is my wife's birthday. As part of my gift to her this year I want to say a few words about what makes her so special to me. I have just finished reading Tim Keller's The Reason for God, and the idea for this post came to me while I was finishing the book on the flight back to Texas. It is a great book, and I have already told some of you how much I was enjoying it and how impressed I am with Keller.

In this book Keller describes two people falling in love and getting married. Keller asks, “Sound like heaven?” and answers “Yes, because it comes from heaven.” Chandra is not just a breath of fresh air in my life—she is a breath of God's love and grace poured into my life on a daily basis. She is a breath of heaven. When I asked her to marry me I told her that. It is more true now than it was then.

Since the rest of Reason was so good I went ahead and read all the way through the acknowledgments at the end, too. I am glad I did since the last paragraph in the Acknowledgments was the highlight of the book for me. Keller says, “My wife, Kathy, never gets footnoted, yet she is the main author of the faith and thought of this author. She put me on to Lewis, to Edwards and Reformed theology, and to the importance of prayer, social justice, and the city.” I choked up when I read this, because it reminded me of how much Chandra does for me, too.

Chandra, you mean so much to me. It is wonderful to have you by my side in this crazy, blessed life we live.

Happy Birthday!

More on names

Michelle: "I know I’m your wife, but I always forget if your middle name is Allen or Alan."

Rob: "Actually, it’s Allain." (Note: actually, it’s not)

Michelle: "If we ever have a daughter we could name her Allyn."

Rob: "Uh huh. And her middle name can be Cinderella."

So, for those of you keeping track at home. Walt is claiming “Ann” and the Hays are claiming “Allyn Cinderella.” :)

While reading the Bible last night:

Judges 4:11 "...the descendents of Hobab (pronounced hoe-bob in Hebrew) the father-in-law of Moses..."

Thomas "Moses' father-in-law was Hobab. My father-in-law is Wally Bob!"

Pizzaioli

My name is Thomas. Some call me T. Lately I've been on a bit of a pizza odyssey of which many of you are aware. I've decided to give a little bit more insight into the pizza odyssey and, consequently, a bit more insight into me and my head. Hopefully you'll leave hungry, but if anything you'll leave with a little more understanding of what it is that Amy married. In fact, you already have that insight! She puts up with all sorts of long introductions to statements ranging from important to inane.

Now to the pizza. First things first though, a little more introduction. The sagacious Inigo Montoya once said, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." This is the case with the word at hand, pizza. When I say pizza, I'm referring to more than just doughy roundish bread topped with cheese product. I'm referring to something more ideal, what is meant by the word in Naples, Italy. Here is a good picture (not mine) of some pizza di Napoli from Pizzeria da Michelle along with me eating pizza in 2003 on the street from Pizzeria di Matteo in Naples. My mother originally saw the photo and said I looked like a hobo. I now acquiesce.















So, pizza as it exists in Naples is the Platonic form that I'm shooting for, and though I'm still a ways off, I have made some good advances. This brings us to the reason that I see this post as insight into the mind of Thomas. Yes, I enjoy good food. Many say I'm a "snob" in this regard, though I prefer the term "enthusiast." Call me what you will, but it isn't just about eating the food. I also enjoy process and find considerable pleasure in the process of food. Thus, I very much enjoy the process that I'm showing you below.















I made some pizza last week. Here it is.

Step 1.














After Step 1, I get out my yeast (actually, it's been sitting out for a few hours already). Yeast is a tricky species, and I have much to learn about it. I started my own sourdough culture a few weeks ago from some brewers yeast, which is what bakers have been using for centuries. The brewer-baker relationship illustrates well the communal and symbiotic potential that food has in a society or even in the home.















Then come the other ingredients. As you can see, Step 1 is about half complete. If I had a quality wood burning dome, I would probably only use the flour seen in the picture, Caputo type "00," which is from Naples and is very finely ground. I've read that it doesn't brown well in the temperatures that my oven does, so I do about 1/3 to 1/2 Caputo (by weight!) and King Arthur bread flower for the rest. Perhaps I'll try 100% Caputo next time.
















Other ingredients include salt (kosher, wouldn't Alton be proud, Walt) and water. When it comes to good food, some of the most simple things (flour, yeast, salt, water) can make some of the greatest meals. The simplest things can also be the most challenging. I sift the flour and add the salt into the Kitchen-aid mixer bowl (thanks, Sternaus!) I guess I draw my process line at kneading, which I don't do by hand, though I've tried.















At this point in time, Step 1 is finished















Ingredients begin to get mixed. The drippy stuff is the wee yeasties.















I initially only mix about 2/3 of the flour for a couple of minutes and then let the whole thing sit for about 20 minutes to get the yeast going. Thus, it looks more like oatmeal than pizza dough at this point.















After the rest I begin adding the remaining flour with more of an eyeball on the consistency of the dough than a view to getting all the flour in. I then knead for about 15 minutes. This dough was a little on the dry side. Sometimes it continues to look like oatmeal for most of the kneading. Notice the dough climbing its way up over the hook, something which olive oil on the hook is supposed to help.















After the kneading is finished, the dough looks like this. The exciting part is that I let it rest for another 20 minutes or so.















See, it's resting.















After the post-kneading rest, one might check to see if the dough is "window paning." This is a test in which one stretches the dough without it tearing all the way to the point of being able to see through it. I couldn't get a good picture of this, one hand holding dough stretched across the fingers and the other trying to use the camera, so I'm not including it. Thus, with nicely kneaded dough, I sprinkle the counter with flour. The dough is pretty moist, so all stages of handling from this point on require flour to avoid the dough sticking to everything.















I set the dough on the counter and get it in a nice lump like this. Once it is round I put it in a very lightly oiled bowl to refrigerate and rise. I've tried various lengths of time for the rise, from one day warm to about four days cold. So far, my best results have been from at least two days in the fridge.















After a day or two in the fridge, here's how things are looking. Interestingly, the dough hardly appears to have increased in size as most would expect it to do in the rising stage. All it really has done is flattened out. Worry not. The yeast and its bacteria buddies (lactobacillus and what not) are doing their job. The glory of the pizza we are talking about in this post (remember Inigo's words) is in the flavor of its dough. Yes, the sauce, cheese, and fresh basil coming below are important, but the dough is most important. Thus "pizza" as it is often used in American culture, is all about a bunch of toppings. Not here my friends.















Here are some San Marzano-like heirloom tomatoes. Their destiny is sauce. Good sauce is simple, and the starting ingredients are most important. If you don't know what an heirloom tomato is, click here. I recently tasted a sliver of an odd looking heirloom up next to a sliver of your run of the mill shiny red round tomato. The difference was scandalous. Try it sometime.















A few hours before it is time to cook, I take the dough out and break it into smaller lumps. These are probably about 250g a piece, which is the size Pizzeria da Michele claims to use. However, I plan to begin making smaller pizzas. I recently realized that the smaller pizzas cook more quickly in the oven. The cooking temperature and time are both very important. The wood burning domes in Naples will cook a pizza in about two minutes. Not only does such heat create nicely charred crust (seen above) that is ever so lightly crisp on the outside and ever so soft on the inside, but I speculate that the quick time that results from the heat has other benefits too.















Here's the sauce.















Fresh mozzarella and fresh basil. This basil is from my second basil plant, St. Peter's Basilica. This one is doing better than my first plant, Count Basie, though I'm still having trouble getting leaves to maintain their dark color. One of my ultimate goals is to make this pizza with my hands in as many of the processes of its creation as possible. As I conceive of it, I will grow tomatoes myself and make the mozzarella myself in addition to what I'm already doing.















Here I am gently stretching the dough on the peel. In all its time in the fridge, the yeast did lots of hard work to develop a dough that has small bubbles in it. These bubbles will contribute a desired springiness to the pizza, so one wants to spread the dough out in a manner that does not destroy the work of the yeast. The peel isn't just for looks. It is actually critical for getting the pizza in and out of the hot oven. Semolina flour (or corn meal) is also critical for getting the pizza to slide smoothly off of the peel and onto the stone in the oven. I learned this the hard way.



















This is me getting saucy.




















This is me getting cheesy. There is no point to shredding the cheese in my opinion, as thin slices melt well and evenly.



















What do these bricks have to do with anything? And why are they on the counter? I'm glad you asked. They are fire bricks. My friend, Chip, who knows everything about most things, recommended using them inside my oven to help with heat retention. They seem to make a significant difference.















Here they are in the oven, where they really make a difference, at least until I build a wood burning brick oven someday.
















Putting the pizza in the oven.















Here is one of the pizzas fresh out of the oven. As you can tell, I don't have the charring on the crust like the pizza at the top of this post. I have a little bit on the bottom of the pizza, as you can see in the next picture. Even without the charring, this was still a very flavorful crust with a very good texture - crispy, soft, and airy. The smaller pizza that I made a few days after this displayed much better charring.




















The bottom should be at least this charred.















Here is another pizza that came from this batch.















There you have it. Come eat pizza with Amy and me sometime.

Photo credits for some of these photos go to Amy Lane Warmath
Also, to see where I learned some of what I'm doing and where I got the photo at the top, check out this web site.
Finally, check out Pizzeria da Michele's web site. Click on the link for the English site, and then click on the tab "la nostra pizza" for some great photos. They make pizza while wearing ties.

Bonaire!

Scuba supplies! We stocked up on some necessities and some non-necessities before the trip. The coolest items are my "water wallet" (submersible waterproof container up to 100') and my new flashlight. Other items of note are Chandra's snacks and her gloves, which were not allowed to be worn in Bonaire.

Here is me planning our dives in the room. It was pretty hot most of the time, but there was always a breeze and so we left the windows open during the day.

The owners paint guests' names on driftwood that they find around the island. A sign with our names welcomed us on our arrival! Also there to greet us were eggs, cheese, bread, jam, and juice.

Here we are after our checkout dive on the first morning. We have already changed and are heading off to lunch at...

a great little French bistro on the island's main drag. It was very authentic--Chandra enjoyed listening to the owner and the French tourists speak to one another. I enjoyed the French onion soup that was made with dill. For such a small island there were lots of great restaurants. We were very pleased with almost every meal, and there were still lots of highly recommended restaurants that we did not get to visit.

This is the view from the front gate of the complex to our cottage. If you look closely you can see me. The "office" is on the left, too.

These are probably the best pictures we took. They are just before I went on my night dive. Chandra waited on a lounge chair on the beach and listened to some R. C. Sproul in the dark.

Karpata. The. Best. Dive. Of the trip. The dive books warned us of the stairs and of the surge when entering the water from the platform, but it was not bad at all. We saw purple tube sponges taller than we were, brain coral the size of Volkswagens, and Chandra's favorite "lips" coral.

All the dive spots are marked with yellow rocks. We made sure to get our picture taken with this one. When we first got to the middle landing it was full of Royal Dutch Marines with their M16s and SAWs. They must have been doing some kind of tropical special forces training.

The car we rented had a special scuba tank carrier in the back. We purchased unlimited air for the three days where we were diving. All we had to do was take our empty tanks out of the car and load in the full ones.

When Chandra and I look at this picture we almost start sweating. It was so hot. I can almost feel the salt starting to crust up on my forehead. We took this picture from the bumper of our car with the timer. Most of the shore was rocky like this one. We saw a spotted eagle ray and some garden eels on this dive.

This picture was at a sandy beach across the street from where we stayed. It was about 12 feet of sand backed by 10-15 foot rock walls. There were several small beaches that were only large enough for a few people each.

We decided that we needed on picture of both of us in our gear. This was after our dive at Red Slave. We saw more big fish here than any other dive. We didn't read our planning book until we got back to our room after the dive. Here is what it said: "This is a good on to do with an experienced guide, as the next stop from here is Venezuela." But we didn't have any trouble and enjoyed ourselves.

This is just a cool picture. The huts were built for slaves who worked the salt flats and who loaded ships that were picking up salt to take back to Europe. The obelisk was used to indicate the grade of the salt to the inbound ships. Chandra and I were struck by the oppression those men faced in such a close proximity to such beauty just beneath the water.

This was our last dive--the "predator dive". The goal was to make it to the salt pier (seen in the background), but we turned around just as it came into (my) view underwater. Chandra wrote down some of the cool animals we saw on her underwater writing tablet. (It says, "crab--back side of rock. Sea urchin. 2 moray. sea snake. pickle.) The sea snake turned out to be a sharp-tail eel. We also saw a couple barracuda and another moray which were not listed on the tablet.

Amen. Also, there is a concerted effort to rid Bonaire's reef of the invading lion fish (pictured in the bottom left of the mural).

We had a nice night out once diving was finished. We had Tapas at a swanky downtown restaurant.

This was our first morning of non-diving. Almost nobody served brewed coffee. I guess it was the European influence on the island. If you asked for coffee espresso showed up. This is a picture of Chandra's and my morning drinks on a pier looking across the bay to Klein Bonaire.

We took a ferry to Klein Bonaire on our first morning without dives. That is where the nicest beaches are. We got some sun and I read my Bonhoeffer bio. Nice beach; no shelter; no bathrooms; no quick way back.

I did a photographic experiment on the random motion of hermit crabs moving away from a central spot in the sand. The results were not so impressive, but this is a cool picture.

This is a picture of a tiny animal I found in the shallow water at Lac Cai. It was the best thing about Lac Cai. I yelled down the beach, "Chandra, I found a tiny animal!" as I held this and some water in my hand. Chandra hurried over to see...

So the lizards were really fast in Bonaire... Chandra actually found this tree frog by sitting on it in our hammock. I decided to have my picture made with it since I couldn't catch a lizard.

While we were packing up on the last afternoon we realized that we had a bag from each of the other family units. From left to right, the bags were given to us by Mom, Amy, and Rob. They were used daily to hold scuba or beach supplies. You can also see the frog's hammock in the background.