Daniel wrote a reply when he came back from school.

Megan posted it on Facebook. Apparently it went viral with their Asian friends.

What a funny family I have!

See more at Design Arts Today.

The other week we were chatting and discovered some of us loved high tea. So we decided to have an outing and we went to Linde Lane in Dixon. I have been there a number of times but it was the first time for the others.

We had a great time. We had a little alcove and admired all the cool decorations. Linde Lane has the best ambience of the many tea places in the Sacramento area that I have been to. (I am also impressed that the lady who took our picture did a really good job!)

A number of us are interested in photography so part of the conversation was talking about cameras. (I must say that it is unusual to be among a group of women and be talking about gear.)

Stephanie kept taking pictures of her food because her camera has a cool macro lens.

Yes, she was taking pictures of the sugar cubes. I thought that was a good idea. The sugar cubes were super cute. (Except my camera does not have a macro lens so the picture was a little blurry.

First was a strawberry sorbet and shortbread cookie. (Too blurry — I was too close again.) Then we had a yummy salad. I don’t usually like croutons but these were delicious!

Then there was Italian Wedding Soup. That was the only name of the food I caught the whole time. It had a round pasta and sausage. So good! This place always has good food. Every time I’ve been here it’s different and it’s always delicious.

The sweet and savory food was awesome. I got my own plate because we were an odd numbered group. I don’t know what any of these things were because all I heard the lady say was, “This is a lemon (something) cookie… blah blah blah.” I didn’t catch a single other name.

However, from eating I discovered the quiche was a bacon quiche (sooooo good!), there was a puff with something yummy inside, the sandwich was cinnamon roll bread with apple and cream cheese, and the back was some kind of pastry with cucumber and cream cheese.

In addition, there were scones with delicious jam and cream. So delicious and huge! This is the two-portion plate, and all our scones came out on a single plate.

We had an awesome time and decided we needed to do another girls’ day out in a few months!

Megan loves to do videos. In college, she wants to study film making. Her project this past week is an example of her mad video skills.

For Japanese class, she and her friends had to do a cooking demonstration. They decided to spoof the Iron Chef show, one of our favorite shows.

Take a look at what they came up with.

They went way above and beyond the call of duty. I think it was something like 11 hours of shooting and I don’t know how many countless hours Megan spent editing it.

I think her direction of studying film making is a good fit!

So proud of her!

This video was shot with my Canon 60D in my office with florescent lighting with makeshift curtains that are actually strips of black velour hung from a wire in front of my shelf. Not the best setup, but hey, it worked!

It was great fun shooting and editing the video (and picking out the photos for them). It also gives a great flavor of the personalities of the people we have on staff!

Original text: Matthew 5:38-42

³⁸ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’^[g] 39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. ⁴⁰ And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. ⁴¹ If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. ⁴² Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

The girls’ version:

If you played Battlefront, you would have heard: “We lost a command post! Take it back!” but I’mma [slang for I'm gonna] say don’t be like that.

If Mrs. [unpopular teacher] takes away essay points for no good reason whatsoever, take it like a man!

If someone cuts in front of you in traffic, don’t honk! (Excessively.)

If your brother stalks you to all your classes, don’t say anything about it. [The big joke is Daniel stalks his little sister at school.]

If someone asks you for lined paper, give it to them. Don’t turn them away. (No matter how tempting it may be.)

Original text: Matthew 5:43-48

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor^[h] and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you: Love your enemies^[i] and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The boys’ version (all avid video game players. Their most-played game is League of Legends, so this may not make sense unless you play that game.):

You have heard that it was said, “Friend your carries and ignore the feeders.” But I tell you: Comfort your feeders, pray for those who rage at you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He sends winning streaks and disconnects to all. What reward will you get if you only love your carries?  Even randoms do that. And if you only gank for your friends, what are you doing more than others? Do not even baddies do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

If you play LOL, this paragraph is hilarious as it pretty much translates that passage into video-game speak.

We all enjoyed the exercise and discussed what it meant to love your enemies.

There is a DVD on the Gospel of John and as I was watching it, I was inspired by Israel’s countryside and tents that were in the video. I wanted to create a set that felt like it was back in Bible times. So I got out my handy dandy Illustrator program and threw together a quick design idea.

The idea was to use two pieces of burlap fabric and some gauzy material to create a tent-like look.

Glen went to the fabric store and found burlap. I went to another fabric store and found cheesecloth, which was the exact look I wanted.

We lowered our cyc booms and started tying up the fabric to the booms.

Because the fabric was pretty light, fishing line was threaded directly into the fabric and used to tie the fabric to the black booms. Peter did a lot of the tying because he was the guy going up and down the lift.

It’s great working with someone who isn’t afraid of heights!

We also have some pulleys for some of the booms so that there is no need to go up the lifts. The pre-drawn diagram was really helpful because we could pre measure the fishing line and estimate locations of where it had to be tied. We had to do very little adjustment in terms of tying this time.

I even braved the lift at times… except I couldn’t go higher than 10 feet, since I’m scared of heights. That was high enough for me!

We had to attach additional lines after it all got pulled up — tying strings on both the front and back of the fabric helped it drape more like a tent.

Then we added lights and palm trees. (The palm trees were a later addition, as I wrote about in my blog entry the other day.)

Here’s the end result.

At first I didn’t like the lighting, as I had pictured more of an earthy feel. But after a while it grew on me and I decided it was a modern-day reinterpretation of a Bible time feel.

Today Albert and I were at Lowe’s where I discovered they had 8′ palm trees for $10 each! This was exactly what was needed.

We went back home because we had our car. Albert had to go run other errands, so I took the van back out and got the palm trees. Then I went to church to set them up. Since it was kind of last minute thing, I did it myself. But it sure took a long time.

Afterwards, I was scratching my head as to why it took me 2 hours when I only had to set up 3 palm trees. Then I realized the process I went through:

1. Pick up first palm tree and take it from the van to the door (because I’m not strong enough to carry multiple trees without dropping them or getting blown over by the wind).
2. Repeat #1 two more times (3 palm trees total).
3. Unlock the door and pick up the first palm tree and put it inside the door.
4. Repeat #3 two more times.
5. Lock the door because I’m the only one at the church.
6. Unlock worship center and go to electrical room.
7. Unlock electrical room.
8. Turn on breaker switches.
9. Unlock AV room.
10. Turn on light board.
11. Turn on the lights.
12. Reprogram the lights because they were wrong from last week.
13. Haul palm tree #1 onto the stage.
14. Repeat #13 two more times.
15. Haul cinder block from back room to raise one of the palm trees.
16. Repeat #15 two more times because I can only carry one cinder block at a time.
17. Go upstairs and get some styrofoam plates so when the trees get watered it doesn’t drip on the stage.
18. Go downstairs and set up the palm tree on the styrofoam plate.
19. Realize that the plate is too small.
20. Go to the kitchen and find larger paper plates.
21. Realize the water will soak through the paper plates.
22. Find some foil and tear off 3 pieces for the 3 plates.
23. Wrap the foil around the plates.
24. Put each plate under each tree.
25. Go to the kitchen and get a pitcher of water.
26. Water the first tree slowly to see how much water it can hold without dripping out and filling up the foil-lined plate underneath.
27. Realize I didn’t get enough water so go back to the kitchen and get some more.
28. Water the other two trees.
29. Scrounge in the back room to look for burlap from our other stage design, so I can wrap the ugly pots the palm trees are in.
30. Find one piece of burlap.
31. Climb on the cabinet to reach the other boxes high up to see if there is fabric in there.
32. Go to back shelf to find fabric. Discover the fabric is a mess.
33. Pull out the fabric and refold/reroll it so I can actually see what all is in there.
34. Find second piece of burlap in a box underneath the fabric shelf.
35. Can’t find the third piece of burlap but find a piece of denim.
36. Go out and wrap the trees’ pots with the fabric. Looks much better.
37. Rotate the trees so they  look balanced and full from the audience’s point of view.
38. Realize the leaves crash into a piece of fabric hanging down.
39. Go to back room and find a long stick.
40. Get a stool and move it over to the fabric.
41. Use the long stick to poke the fabric in place.
42. Do this multiple times because can’t get it just right or the fabric keeps falling down.
43. Clean off the stage so I can take a picture.

In addition, she is very interested in movie making, including video and audio recording. Two days ago she was so excited because she got a new microphone!

She saved up her allowance and bought a very nice microphone — one of those kinds that sit on your desk and look like they are really old fashioned. To test it out, she sang a song and videoed herself. What was pretty cool was she also recorded the harmony parts using Garage Band. So this recording is her singing all the parts in the song!

Yesterday she was up in her room recording. Tonight a friend is over and there are strains of violin and cello coming out of the room.

Our house has turned into a recording studio.