Kate and Neil’s Awesome Website

We made it to Mexico City this afternoon and hit the sites right out of the airport. We are staying in an old favorite hotel. After we checked in we went downtown to see a few Diego Rivera murals in a government building and then to a luchador wrestling resturant, owned by a former wrestler. It was great. The food kind of sucked by the decore, atmospher, and manger were great. The manajor rattled of the names of all the original luchador masks on display. Afterward we went to China town and then home. Traveling sure is hard and walking around all day can really take it out of you.

Last night as we were getting ready to go to bed Neil and I discussed the critical topic of “What would we name our kid(s)?” if we were to some day procreate. Baby names, like many other normal topics this one quickly turned into a marketing scheme. We have narrowed it around to a few unisex options.

1. Of course is the .com option. Joseph Neil Ransom II.com
2. Popular search engines. Google Kelly-Ransom, Yahoo Kelly-Ransom. (This option may have better luck if we end up living in Nigeria where it is common practice to name your child Monday, Forgiveness, Honest, Winter, Orangello, Limegello [these are real examples from people we have met] or really any other word you like.)
3. Sell the child’s name to a corporate sponsor. REI Kelly-Ransom. McDonald’s Kelly-Ransom. Albertson’s Kelly-Ransom. (I’m surprised this option isn’t more popular. I feel certain that there are a lot of young couples that would be willing to give their offspring appellations of their favorite brand names. Just imagine all of the Roxys, Abercrombies, & Hollisters we would have running around if corporations picked up this brilliant marketing tactic.)
4. The ultimate success, we feel, though lies in naming the baby what you want it to turn out to be. For example: I would name one child Chiropractor & Neil will probably name one Web Master. Success is almost guaranteed, I mean, who’s ever heard of a dentist named Chiropractor? That’d just be silly.

And of course, let us not rule out the possibility of the glorious combination of them all.

Millionaire Subway Google Kelly-Ransom.com

Leave a comment if you have an idea for our future (inevitably very disturbed) child. If you come up with a good one we may give you a cut of the corporate take. If we get one million comments, Kate has sworn to let Neil name the (poor) child The Incredible Hulk irrespective of gender.

First of all if you are a retuning visitor you can already tell the site has changed. We are still working on it but wanted to get the site live first. Today we are working on major changes to the color schemes and border layouts, so check back often. Also all the old comments will be put back on as soon as possible. Thanks for the patience.

Admin

Be warned we are taking the website off line tomorrow night (Monday 18th June @ 10PM central time) to update the system and install new software. It will be back on line Tuesday morning before most of you wake up and get on the internet for the first time (except maybe Jason). Please be patient if it takes a little longer, we are trying a new system for better content management and user acceptability. Be sure to check back frequently. It is going to be great.

p.s. don’t worry we are transferring all the old articles and comments over, nothing will be lost.

After nearly a decade away from the gym Kate and I have returned to our high school roots and start lifting weights and exercising once again. We go to the neighborhood gym, a small attachment on a neighbor’s house, and work out three times a week. All the equipment is made in Mexico with some of the weight machines looking a little more homemade than safety would require, but otherwise everything seems in good shape. It has actually been a lot of fun and we both enjoy going together, not sure why we didn’t do this ages ago. Anyway since I am sure you can’t wait to see what we look like in 3 months when we return from Mexico we have gone ahead and compiled an accurate portrait of us in 3 months. Seriously folks this is no joke.

Drumroll please…. KATE IS THE OFFICIAL WINNER!!

Kate = 191 Unique visitors

Neil = 166 Unique visitors

At final tally this morning Neil appeared to have jumped ahead to 196 in the 11th hour, but upon further investigation it was revealed to be a sneaky snake friend Jason Dilworth trying to cheat. But, as we all learned in our youth… cheaters never prosper.

Keep on checking our website & your favorite blog, which going by the stats is probably Kate’s.

2:30, Kate and I were watching an episode of Lost during our siesta when I started to feel the bed shake. I asked Kate is she felt it too. She thought it was just me paying a trick until I pointed out the swinging curtains, Kate’s purse, and everything else hagging on the walls. We got out of the house just in case something bad was coming on but nothing else did. Turns out there was a major earthquake int he ocean outside Guatemala and we were just ridding the waves. Read more about it at www.kateandneil.com

At 2:30 Mexico standard time (Central), while Kate and I were in a deep lost induced trans I started to feel the bed shake (we don’t have a couch). I asked Kate if she felt the shaking because I was scared my body was just doing it in response to this morning’s workout (more to come on that). She just thought I was playing a trick until I pointed out that everything on the walls including the curtains were rocking back and forth. We jumped out of the bed, turned off the TV, and moved outside in case things got worse. They didn’t. No one else in the complex mentioned anything so I was begging to doubt anything had happened until I checked my email a few hours later and a friend asked me if I was affected by the earthquake. A quick search on the Google, CNN, and the USGS site revealed that a 6.8 earthquake struck 70 miles outside Guatemala City in the Pacific Ocean. According to news feeds many people were shaken up but serous damage and causalities have yet to be reported, but we won’t be able to see the full extent of the damage until communication lines are fixed.

Well just in case anyone was worried, we are safe, San Cristobal was not affected, and Kate now knows I don’t have a sense of humor.

I was going to add a map and some links but once again the linking software is not working. Alas you will just have to search for more information yourself.

There are an estimated 2 to 50 million insect species on the earth and I have come into contact with just about all of them. I must look like a plump tasty food source or an exterminator to most bugs, because to date I have been stung by 14 bees (alas I am allergic), bitten by a wolf spider or two, most recently kamikazed by hoards of falling hairy caterpillars, attacked by nests of fire, safari and countless other ants, been stung by wasps, slept with hobo spiders, been eaten alive by mosquitoes while others in the same tent received not a sting, attached by a soul sucking gargantuan flying devil while sleeping in Moab, Utah, and wake up now and again to notice a new giant blistering bug bite. For example the following is an excerpt from an email I sent to my friends and family while living in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh, 5 April 2005

Well Monday was buggy; when I woke up I had to kill a few 5″ roaches in my bathroom. They must have had a lot of practice because it took me a while get them all. Later while interviewing three farmers I had just moved my chair into the shade when I started to feel loads of pain on my right foot. I looked down to see my foot covered in red bitty ants. The Bengalis thought this was hilarious and the driver, Tazu, told me, “it is because these ants have never tasted the white flesh before and they just had to try it.” “These ants,” he said, “do not bite Bengali, they have already tasted us and do not like.” That evening while using my roach mausoleum of a bathroom, I encountered a 6″ spider. They are harmless, I was told, and so I left it to its exploring.

Even so, I love insects, they are great little creatures that move our planet along. Many insects are nature’s most powerful pollinators, others are wonderful decomposers, and still others are beautiful beyond compare. Without pollinating insects, plants would have never evolved the beautiful flowers to attract them. Most beetles help decompose dead matter, recycling elements back into the ecosystem. Let us no forget the honey, silk, and waxes we use from insects. While staying among the Masi on a school trip in Kenya, we learned how the Masi used safari ants in place of stitches for deep cuts. The ants would bite the two pieces of skin together, tightly sealing the cut, and when the body segment was removed the jaws remained tightly shut until removed.

I am always amazed by the diversity and abilities of insects, and I dedicate this entry to them. May you live long and prosper (except for the mosquito, flee, and tick of course).

Another article about bugs on my old blog.
Wikipedia article about insects.
Funny insect find on Google Earth.

For Sunday dinner we invited our church missionaries and the Hoovers (the other family living in the compound) for lasagna, garbanzo bean salad, and brownies. Except for Kate’s garbanzo bean salad, which was great, turned out o.k. We tried those no-need-to-precook lasagna noodles that always turn out to be crunchy-tasteless-wafer-crackers. Actually that was the only thing wrong with the lasagna, that and we ran out of spinach filling for the second one and had to substitute with whatever we could find in our fridge. Everyone seemed to like it, although our previous attempt with the local starch´o glue slab noodles turned out much better. Dessert was about the same, with only three of the guests putting their brownies in napkins and throwing them away (good by my standards). We had a lot of fun; even I (Neil) who can understand about 25% of all conversations.