Got baptized yesterday at church

Yesterday was a pretty great day.  We (Katie, Alyssa, and I) went to church and all got baptized (via immersion).  A funny thing about the baptism was that I had been thinking about getting baptized myself for the past month or so.  Then my wife told me that my step-daughter mentioned to her that she wanted to be baptized, without me ever saying a word.  Pretty amazing for an 11 year old girl to want to do that on her own.  That was awesome!

We received an email from church last week that told us they'd be doing baptisms this past Saturday and Sunday for anyone that wanted to be baptized.  I thought that it would be a great time to do it.  I didn't plan very well for it, because it's a full water immersion baptism (you get in the large tub/pool with your clothes all on).  We took our shoes and socks off, but other than that we had all our normal clothes that we wore to church that day.  As God would have it, it was abnormally warm for a November day.  High was in the upper fifties.  Katie decided to do the baptism also, because she had never done the full body immersion baptism. 

Jesus, John the Baptist and the early church did it that way, so we thought that so should we.  God commands us to be baptized (not as a term for salvation), but as a testament to the world and as an outward sign of our commitment to Jesus.

I thank God for the opportunity to be able to be baptized as a family.  It's amazing to be baptized with your wife and step-daughter.  Thank you Lord for your gift of salvation and we praise you.

Taken from one of my favorite ministry websites (InTouch.org):
Baptism is a command of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not optional. It’s an obligation for every single believer. It is not only an obligation, but it's an awesome privilege. In baptism, we make a public confession of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—in His death, burial and resurrection, and the fact that we, too, are going to follow Him.
Why should we be baptized?

1. Jesus commanded it.
2. It's a public confession of becoming a follower of Jesus.
3. It represents what happened to Jesus in terms of His death, burial & resurrection.
4. It also represents what happened to us at salvation.
5. It identifies us with the body of Christ.

Old pictures from my youth

My brothers and me (Jason, Chad, Christian)

My dad and I.

Christian getting pulled behind the big snowmobile on my little snowmobile.

Christian learning how to ride a dirt bike under my uncle Art's watchful eye.

Me showing off my sweet Zip shoes while riding the old Kawasaki.


Riding my tricycle at age one (1974)

Me pumping up my brother Jason's belly while wearing my favorite Winne-the-Poo pajamas.

Great shot of our Aussie, Bogi

Snapped a great shot of Bogi last night. It made a great desktop background.

Free Mac mp3 player

I'm not a fan of iTunes, so I won't install it on my MacBook Pro. It's a memory hog and I don't like it messing with my music files (organizing, etc.), so I was looking for a free mp3 player to install and found a nice little app called Audion. It used to cost money, but they stopped supporting it, and now will give you the serial number for an unlimited use install.

Download page: http://www.panic.com/Audion/download.html
Direct download link: http://www.panic.com/Audion/d/Audion%203.0.2%20Free.dmg
serial #: RNL07P0-030HWMV-4MAGDS3-4U17REX

Good Monday

So yesterday we finally figured out our lake lot pump we'll be using for the feed to the camper, the outdoor shower, and the sprinkler system (yes our rent-a-lot at the lake will be nicer than our regular house). I owe a big thanks to my cousin Bryant and some other guys at the lake (Walt, Jim, Jeff, and my dad) for helping out. Having never set up a well pump turned into a daunting project for one person. Thanks for the help guys.
Now our grass seed will have plenty of water.

In other news, I decided to sell our free camper that we got at the start of the year. I had fixed it up a bit, gutted the rear bathroom, replaced the floor, put carpet tiles in, and used it for a couple of months this summer. Total invested was about $100. Put it on Craigslist last Friday night, and sold it today (Monday) for $900. Gotta love that! I'm glad to see the old pig gone, but it served it's purpose for use for a little while. God was good to us for providing that and then allowing it to sell so quickly when we wanted to get rid of it.

Another cool thing is this bike. It's a Harley Knucklehead and I don't know who it belongs too, but it's the nicest looking Knuckle I've ever seen. Just thought I'd share the artful beauty.

DarynKagan.com

A novel thought... positive news stories on darynkagan.com

It's nice, and rare, to get this type of reporting these days instead of the media bias and thought control from today's mainstream media.

Oh, how Bogi has grown

We have the best dog in existence. He's a people pleaser and a extrordiarally good dog.
We love our Bogi. He was supposed to be a mini Aussie, but he kept growing. He's standard size at about 52 lbs. Our other Aussie is a true mini and probably weighs about 17 lbs.

Wake Nation - Ohio trip

I mis-timed my first dock start a little and took off a bit late, which launched me about 15' out into the water. I landed it, but the board slid out on me. The cable system is pretty fast at Wake Nation so it took a bit to get used to the dock starts. All in all it was a great day and we're going back in August.

I ended up taking a lot of pictures of everyone and then wakeskating for the rest of the day.

The tripod saga

I've been wanting to get a camera tripod since before our Alaska trip (since May), but I was having a hard time finding one that would work for a medium size camera with a larger lens (350mm) that was packable. I originally ordered a Slik Pro 550DX, but as soon as I got it decided to send it back since it wasn't decent to carry around while trekking in Alaska. It was built like a truck, but weighed as much as one too.
So I wasn't able to get a tripod before our trip. No biggie, but would have been nice.

This is when I started researching a lot more and decided I really wanted a carbon fiber tripod, and preferably a Gitzo, as the reviews are all top rated.
I soon learned that a Gitzo carbon fiber was well out of my price range, even used, so the search continued. I almost ended up buying a Benro, but at the last minute read a blog about someone who had ordered one and how it looked good at first turned out to be a piece of junk later. You wonder how a Chinese knockoff company (Benro) can produce these products for 1/3-1/4 of the price and you find out because they only concern themself with the outer visual appearance while the rest of the units are complete junk. So scratch the Benro junk, I'll keep looking.

I finally came back to Gitzo, but decided I'd just get a Basalt legged tripod instead of the carbon fiber, so off to ebay I went.

While doing a search for Gitzo, I came across the last posting (listed by time left) on ebay. It was a Gitzo tripod with Gitzo head, a case, 2 extra quick releases and a cloth shelf. PERFECT and exactly what I was looking for! I quickly did a search on weather the tripod and head would hold my camera's weight and if it was tall enough and that was a yes for both. Awesome, so I hit the buy it now.

Got the tripod a few days later and it looked great! I looked up the model numbers again, Gitzo G1227 MK2, Gitzo G1276M Head, Kakuba tripod case, and two quick release plates.... I got a really good deal.

So the GREAT part of all of this is that the Gitzo G1227 MK2 turns out to be a CARBON FIBER tripod! Funny what prayer will do even though this was a minor thing in the grand scheme of it all.

Out at our lake.

My wife took a great picture.