My handsomes

Quite a cute pair, wouldn't you agree?

Another gem of wisdom

While wetting up soils to use in rigorous testing procedures I found another quality gem from Panda Bear, MD. I'll give you only part of the full quote:

Now, in our Godless and tradition-rejecting society, I can understand the panic that many feel when they look into the void and see nothing. But if you’re going to reject religion, then reject it and grow some gonads. It makes no sense to eschew the irrelevant religious beliefs of your parents but then, without a pause, to eagerly latch on to some hodge-podge of Earth Worship and Eastern Mysticism except that these things don’t require the self-discipline of traditional religions and therefore give you a purpose for life on the cheap.

I've often wondered what the draw is to nature worship with new age hippies. So many people get sucked into the whole "mother earth" canard that they can't understand the phrase "dog eat dog world." Mother earth doesn't care if you starve. Nature has far more potent poisons than healing remedies. Just because something is natural doesn't make it safe, it just makes it more marketable to gullible people. There seems to be a mind set that by isolating and purifying compounds out of "natural" substances it is no longer "natural." As if synthesizing a chemical in a laboratory to have the exact chemical structure as the "naturally" occurring counterpart changes the chemical in any way. It does not. "Synthetic" or "natural" its all the same to your body. The point is that we need to make sure our world view does not become skewed. We need to view "nature" (i.e. the natural world (i.e. biological systems)) as something that we can learn from, but not as a benevolent being that will kindly teach it to us in risk free manner. I do not propose taking the environment for granted, it is far too valuable a resource for that. It must be cared for and well maintained. We must do this, however, for the wellbeing of ourselves and our children, not for some mystical earth life force. I agree with Dr. Bear in that if you are going to reject traditional religion on the basis of it seeming "hokey" you should probably apply the same lens across the board.

My new plan

From Panda Bear, MD:

To put it another way, medical school admissions is a big fat guy standing between you and the basket. You’re going to have to get by him. He’s fat but suprisingly agile. You can charge him and hope he backs down or you can try to sneak around him. Sometimes he’ll fall for a feint and you can get around clean but the odds are you will make contact and he will get some sweat on you. Getting past him is the challenge and it doesn’t matter how you do it. I’m not advocating kicking him in the nuts or anything like that but fortune favors the crafty and the bold. Later, as you eat the cheeses and hams of victory, you’re not going to look back and regret outwitting the fat guy.

I think I will have to change tactics a bit to avoid the sweat.

Their little joke

NEWS UPDATE Winter and Spring revealed today details of a secret meeting held sometime in late Fall between the two contrasting seasons. Though information on the content of this meeting has yet to be fully forthcoming it appears Winter persuaded Spring into playing a joke on the residents of the Palouse. "I accept full responsibility for this unseasonable weather," said a contrite looking Old Man Winter. "I convinced Spring to put on a few days of sun and then allow me to bamboozle the people with snow just as they were gearing up for being outside again after a long winter season. I thought it would be a laugh...you know...'Ha ha, Winter you old kidder!' Had I known the severe depression it would throw this region into I would have never even approached Ms. Spring" We have it from a reliable source that Winter will play no more part in the Palouse weather patterns until his scheduled arrival in late fall. Ms. Spring was unavailable for comment for this story as she is still reported to be 'soaking it up in So-Cal'. Daily News Jeff Ritter

Let the Grandparent Detox Begin

For Easter we decided this year to head back to the west side. Jeff and I realized that I haven't had Easter at "Grandma and Grandpa" Ritter's for 7 years .. suffice it to say, long over due. It was great, we had loads of fun, Seth and Levi came home with 6 easter baskets and 3 easter egg hunts under their belt amid numerous other fun family activities. Now Seth is left alone with just plain mommy and not a fan club insight.. poor Sethy he's really taking it hard, so far today I have had to call the poison control center, I have cleaned up 3 urine related accidents and Sethy pushed back his lunch until 1:30 by refusing to help clean up his legos before lunch (he usually eats at 11:30). Lets just hope he doesn't burn down the house by dinner!

Grandparent detox aside, we really did have a wonderful weekend and we were so glad to spend Easter with so much family this year :)

Making and decorating cookies for grandma and grandpaStake Easter Carnival Easter Egg hunt #2: Grandma Moffett's
Seth was getting pretty good.Wouldn't you agree Levi?Planning a Wedding at Rocky PointEaster Egg hunt #3
("Mama"Ritter and Sethy)
("Bop-pa"Ritter and Levi) Egg Fight!!!

Thought I'd throw this one in

Perspective

The way a physicist looks at a problem: What are the forces behind this? The way a chemist looks at a problem: What exactly is happening? The way a biologist looks at a problem: What are the causatory events leading up to this point? The way a philosopher looks at a problem: How can I use this to look smart? The way a lawyer looks at a problem: How can I profit from this? The way a parent looks at a problem: How does this affect my children? The way a mathematician looks at a problem: How can I break this down to numbers? The way a politician looks at a problem: It is not my fault!

Having...

My oldest brother was once into Star Trek. Not into as much as "lets all dress up and go to conventions" or "I can name all parts of the Enterprise" but he did have a poster. It was a "Everything I know I learned from X." Well I remember reading every last Spok-ish message on that poster, but I can't remember any, except for one: Having is not such a pleasing thing as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.

I have only experienced this a few times in my life, and obviously I have always been disappointed when I have. Almost every time it has revolved around some gift that I had wanted so badly for so long. I would build it up in my mind forever and think about all the possibilities I could have with my gift. I would know the page of the catalog it was on by heart and would turn to it often. I wanted it so badly that when I finally got it I realized that it wasn't exactly what I thought it was. In those instances I understood what Spock meant, wanting is more pleasing than having for certain things (food is excluded in most cases). I very recently had this experience again. I was so excited and emotionally invested that when my desire came to fruition it seemed trivial to other things. What then, does this teach me? Or what should I learn from this experience? Should I not want things? No, I think desire of things is natural and leads to self-improvement. I think rather that I need to look at those things which I do desire and be realistic about what they can and more importantly cannot do for me. Realism, though sometimes a hard pill to swallow, will prevent disappointment.

big news ....

... and we mean that literally, Levi has reached an unprecedented 20 pounds by four months. His largeness is definitely a conversation starter with the general public; just yesterday after we attended a local library children program, an acquaintance was so amazed at his size she insisted she take a picture of him to show her family. OH Levi..

Drawing back the curtain: Inaugural blog

Hi everyone! (well whoever is reading this, which is probably not EVERYONE) Rachael and I finally decided to create a family blog. We thought this would be a good way to keep the proverbial "everyone" up to speed on what we are up to and allow people a behind the scenes look into what makes the Ritter household tick. It is a tricky balance being as cool as we are and yet still being parents, but we pull it off nicely I think. With this post we hereby inaugurate this blog into the wide blogosphere world and declare it good. Who knows if anyone will even read it but it at least gives us an outlet to showcase our MEGA-sweet family and show off how cute our two little boys are. Our family life is really ALL this blog is going to be about, so if that is not what you are looking for I suggest you bugger off. This blog, I assure you, will not contain any of Jeff's long rambling rants about his pet ranting subjects which include most biological discussions. If I (meaning Jeff) ever do feel it necessary to peddle my wares (that is, my exacerbatingly long winded logical deducement discussions) on the world wide web I shall create an entirely separate blog. Rachael is very excited for us to have a blog as she also thinks it will serve as a good outlet to keep in contact with people that no longer live close. I tend to agree. In our current situation, being in a married student ward, we make TONS of friends but they move away so quickly. This means we are constantly wondering where they are. I don't know why I'm writing this because, as you are reading a blog, I'm sure you understand the ability to keep tabs on people via blogging. Perhaps it is just in my nature to point out the obvious, or perhaps it lies in some more deeply routed desire to talk as much as possible whenever possible. You'll have to decide. At any rate, this is our blog. You can read it or not, I don't really care. All I will say is this, YOU WILL ENJOY IT OR ELSE!