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Friday’s Feast #143

05/11/2007 / Blake

Feast Number One Hundred and Forty Three

Appetizer
Tell about a time when you had to be brave.
When I was in a wreck back in high school and had to call the parents of some girls that were in my car to tell them about the wreck.

Soup
Which upcoming movie are you excited about seeing?
Live Free or Die Hard

Salad
Name an item you try to always have on hand.
My cell phone or my wallet.

Main Course
Imagine the most relaxing room you can think of. Now describe it!
Either on the beach or in the mountains. But with lots of windows. Some fluffy cushions. Some cinnamon roles baking. Listening to Explosions In The Sky.

Dessert
On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being highest), how spiritual or religious are you?
8

Fridays’ Feast #142

05/04/2007 / Blake

Feast Number One Forty Two

Appetizer
Name something you would not want to own.
A chihuahua. I hate those dogs

Soup
Describe your hair (texture, color, length, etc.).
I’ve been cutting it myself lately w/ some clippers. So it’s short and dark.

Salad
Finish this sentence: I’ll never forget ___________.
The day I saw my 2nd daughter born in the passenger seat of our Ford Explorer.

Main Course
Which famous person would you like to be for one day? Why?
Steve Jobs. So I could go ahead and see if the iPhone is worth all the hype.

Dessert
Write one sentence about yourself that includes one thing that is true and another thing that is not.
I’m about to go to the gym because I love it so much!

Advent Conspiracy

05/04/2007 / Blake

The last few Christmases have been kinda weird. I guess it’s sorta the same as it’s always been. But the last minute rushing around trying to find a few presents for people that you hardly ever see. Presents that you know they probably won’t like, but you gotta check their name off the list. And you know there are people somewhere checking your name off a list getting something they don’t really think you’ll like (and you’re not expecting fireworks when you open that box either.)

But Rick McKinley and friends up at Imago Dei in Portland came up with Advent Conspiracy. Seems intriguing:

“What if this Christmas your family, your friends, your church entered the story of Christmas and celebrated the birth of Christ in a way that was accurate, prophetic and transformative personally and globally. Could this baby that was born over 2000 years ago lead to something that dramatic today? We think so.

What if Jesus came to earth today? Would it change the way we celebrated his birth? Would we still be overwhelmed by holiday consumerism? Would we continue to be content to just sing about him on Sunday and shop for ourselves throughout the week? Would it still be simply a nice story of the birth of God among us? Or would it radically change the way the church lived out the reign of God among us in a consumeristic culture?”

Very interested to see what comes of this.
(ht to Sikora)

Pizza, puke, and Prison Break

05/01/2007 / Blake

::Three down and hopefully none to go::

Saturday night the Fam went to eat at Mazzio’s Pizza. It’s a pretty good place to eat and you can get some food w/o feeling gouged when you leave. We ordered and took our number and cups to the table. I got everyone’s drink and went back to the table. So then The Wife went to make her salad. I got a text message and while I was looking at my phone I started getting wet. But where was there any water coming from?

It was just to my left as Addie was vomiting all across our table. She’d not complained or said she felt bad or anything. But it all came out in a few waves. But even between waves she said she felt okay.

So after cleaning her off, get a new shirt from the car, clean off the mini lake on the table, and all wash up, our food gets there. Addie says she’s feeling fine. But we only let her nibble at a piece. But afterwards she’s wanting to go play video games and such. All good, right? Right?

After a bath and pajamas on, she comes in the kitchen to Continue reading

Firefly Brickstreet Run

04/28/2007 / Blake

Wow, I’d not run in a while, but then I get caught up in the “everyone else is going to run it too” so I jump in there. I have to admit that I figured I would have done better than I actually did. Last year I did it around 27 and a half minutes. This year I was a bout five minutes slower.

But I’m glad I did it. There is always that inspiration to do it more and more and get quicker and drop a few lbs too. But that motivation always seems to ebb and flow. I was thinking about this as I was getting dressed today. I always have these “Now is the time to get __________ done.” Whether it’s to work out more, or run more, or eat better, or get this project done, or read this stack of books or whatever. But then my motivation…well, I don’t know if it drops for that, or just gets reallocated towards something else. And sometimes something else is sitting on the couch or eating a bag of cookies or whatever.

But I’ll say here and now, that I’m going to be healthier. Whether it’s a change in diet or activity habits…it will come!

A TV Meme

04/27/2007 / Blake

I got this from Christopher.

First, list your top six favorite TV shows currently on the air before looking at the questions.

I would love to, thanks for asking and in no particular order: (This list changes from hour to hour:)

LOST
Friday Night Lights
24
Prison Break
Survivor
October Road

Now answer the questions:

01. Who is your favorite character from #2?
Matt Saracen: He was the average kid who was destined to signal in plays for the season behind the #1 prep QB in the country. But an early injury shoves him to the forefront. His character, confidence, innocence, his care for his grandmother, and how he handles the pressures of QB1 all mature as the season goes along.
02. Who is your least favorite character from #4?
Right now probably T-Bag. He seems a bit scary, but if neither of us had any weapons, I think I could take him. But I’m only about a third of the way into Season One so far.

03. What would a crossover between #1 and #5 include?
Hmmm. Well, they’re both already on the island. But somehow the Losties would have to incorporate the Immunity Idol. So when Ben and his crew kidnap Jack or Sawyer, you’d see Sawyer pull out the immunity idol from his pocket and say, “I’ll play it as this time” and Ben would have to let him go. I think YauMan would be flying under the radar and infiltrating the Other’s camp. And Dreamz would make both Ben and Kate think he was on each of their teams. Kate would kick some but in the tribal challenges. But Rocky would have been shot really early, because no one would have liked him on LOST either. Either way, Probst runs the show.

04. Who is your favorite ship from #6?
I’m assuming this means relationship. I’ll have go with Physical Phil and Pizza Girl. She’s quirky and different…he’s plain weird (hasn’t left the house in nearly 6 years). But she inspired him to finally leave. (Bet you thought I was going to saw the triangle between Nick/Hannah/Audry.)

05. If you were to set one person from #3 and one person from #6 on a blind date, who would they be?
Wow…two totally different sort of shows. Maybe Eddie Letekka and Kim Bauer?

06. If you could meet one person from #4 and spend the day with them, who would it be, and what would you do?
Michael Scofield. He’s obviously a smart guy who thinks ahead. But realizes that each moment has its own flavor. So I’d try to get him to teach me his forward thinking methods. He’s not one that looks like he enjoys having a good time though. Plus, he’s got some pretty cool tattoos.

07. If you could change one thing about #2’s plot line, what would you change?
I’m not sure that I would change anything. Of course not everything happened like I wanted it, but that’s part of the uniqueness of it all.

08. Explain a relationship between two people (not necessarily romantic) from show #5, and why you like the relationship between them.
Yauman and Earl. Earl is a tall black guy, and Yau is a small, skinny Japaneese guy. You wouldn’t normally pair them together. But they have cooperated and schemed together enough to make a great team.

09. If the lead title characters (first name in the credits) from #1 and #3 were both drowning, and you could only save one, who would it be?
Lost goes in alphabetical order, so it’s Sayid. 24 is Jack Bauer. So if we’re thinking these are real guys, I’d save Bauer. Because he’s saved our country from some serious crap a few times in his life. So I guess I owe him that.

10. If you could change the title characters’ order in the credits for #4, what order would you choose?
Keept it the way it is.

11. If you were able to add a new character, any kind of character you wanted, to the storyline for #6, what would the character be like, and what would their role be?
Maybe a little variety. Seems like most of the people there are cut from the same mold (except for Pizza Girl).

12. What happens in your favorite episode of show #2?
Usually the comical disagreements by Coach Taylor and his wife.

13. If you could kill off one of the characters in #1, who would it be and how would you do it?
Charlie…and I’d let Claire get mad about something (again). So he’d go storm off. And the smoke monster would bash him around. He hasn’t really been that easy to get along with much lately. Seems to think he’s deserved or something.

14. If you got the chance to visit the set for either show #3 or show #5, which would you choose?
So I can either visit the set of 24 out in LA, or Fiji Island? I’d go with Fiji Island.

15. If you could date anyone from any of these shows, which show and which person?
I’m thinking my wife wouldn’t appreciate me dating anyone else.

Let me know if you work through this meme in the comments.

Carlos at RagamuffinSoul.com & My Dream

04/26/2007 / Blake

Meet Carlos…or Los.
He is a blogger that I think I first discovered either through Scott Hodge‘s blog or Anne Jackson. But he’s one that I check out pretty often. He’s got a unique outlook on stuff, usually humorous, really loves his family, and is a Mac guy too. He leads worship at his SoCal church with a passion and puts out a podcast once every few months.

But when I first started reading this guys stuff…he was in flight over to Korea to adopt his son. He posted daily video diaries of it and they were amazing! You have to check them out.

Anyway, on to my dream. A couple of weeks ago I had a dream w/ him in it. Nothing weird. But I went to his house to play ping-pong. Not sure if he’s ever mentioned ping-pong before on his blog. But that’s why I went. But he had some crappy paddles and a crappy table. So even though I beat him…I couldn’t dominate like I would have in real life…but still won.

I saw him on AIM and told him. He asked, “Did I kick your arse?” I replied, “Of course not!” So he said, “Then it was a dream…”

Wiped Out!

04/25/2007 / Blake

Last Friday night The Wife and I met my dad in Starkville. We at supper with him at The Wife’s favorite restaurant, and then he took our girls with him back to his house. Yup, they were staying with the grandparents for a while!

So what did we do? Well, we immediately went to a Mississippi State baseball game (the Dogs won!) and enjoyed Dudy Noble Field with friends we met up with from Florida. Then we went home and did pretty much whatever we wanted. There was a lot of freedom there. It relaxed our schedules and let us meet out for lunch. We got some stuff done around the house, and I even watched too much of 24 – Season 3 on Saturday.

But even though we enjoyed some time just for us (heck yes we did!) we missed them. And they’re back now. And after the initial rush of hugs and showing us new stuff they have and all that, they crashed. I laid Ella down and she went right to sleep. Addie went to read some books on the couch to have some “rest time” and now she’s snoozing. They are wiped out.

But they’re home.

Last soccer game

04/19/2007 / Blake

Tonight is the last soccer game of the season for Addie. This spring season was close to the same as the fall season: Addie started a touch timid and reserved, but then gathered steam and confidence at the same time.

It’s nice to see her really enjoy something. Is she good? She’s okay, maybe a little better than average. But not a superstar. But she gets pumped about it all day long. But I’m not sure if she’s as excited about the actual game tonight, or the end of the year party afterwards.

The Pact is back

04/16/2007 / Blake

For three summers of my life I worked at Camp Lake Stephens. In many, many ways it shaped a large part of my life. I think it was there that I was stretched and grew in my faith. CLS was where I began to take up more and more roles in leadership and ministry. It was at CLS that I made some really good friends that I still cherish today. And it was there that I met my wife … or the girl who would become my wife.

In the course of your average day as a camp counselor, we would have store time (usually after swim time.) And almost every day I would eat two Whatchamacallit candy bars. They were like eating two bars of heaven every afternoon. They were SO GOOD!

One day, a girl (who would later become my wife) said I couldn’t go a day w/o eating one. I told her (with a voice of male confidence) that I could go the WHOLE WEEK without eating one. I said I’d do it if she didn’t eat any desserts either. So the pact was born.

We couldn’t eat anything considered dessert or sweets during the week (the weekend was fair game.) And it ended up stretching through the summer and into the school year. And I think I was healthier because of that.

So the pact is back. No sweets/desserts at all except for on the weekends. We’ll see how this goes. Sad to say that last weekend we were in Target and bought a bag full of Easter candy at 75% off. So now I have some chocolate eggs calling my name.