Category: Stuff (Page 48 of 65)

I walk outside this morning to a really wet and cold day. I’m going after the newspaper. I didn’t get one yesterday to read the previews of the big MSU vs. LSUx game. But after a nice win, I figure I’ll get a good story and read some quotes. As I wrestle with a little bundle of energy at the end of a thin green leash, I see that there’s no Sunday paper today either. No sports news. No coupons for The Wife. Dang!

But it was a good game yesterday anyway. Mississippi State, after losing on a last second shot to Kentucky last Thursday, invaded the Deaf Dome in Baton Rouge to jump out to a big lead (19 points), then let is slowly slip away, then end up winning by five. Tim Brando said we’re a Sweet Sixteen team at the minimum. I hope Tim’s right, but I’m not counting any chickens. But this team has potential. But they have to keep improving.

But we’re 3-1 in the SEC right now, 14-1 overall. The new rankings come out tomorrow night. How sweet would 15-0, 4-0 be right now? Man, don’t get me thinking about it. But the next best thing this season is that UMiss is terrible.

A 55-year-old man is suing a local church because it won’t give back a $126,000 donation he gave during a deep depression five years ago.

Moral of the story….don’t give away money when you’re in a depressive state.

A 22-year-old says he was ordered by voices from God to break into a lion cage at the zoo and taunt the lions. Needless to say, the lions pounced on him, knocked him to the ground and bit him repeatedly …

Moral of the story…. Daniel was thrown in the lion’s den, not sent in there to taunt the creatures.

I have a ski trip planned to Colorado in March. 40 of us going. Mostly students from our church. They’ve paid a few hundred dollars for this trip. We’re taking a charter bus there. We think we got a pretty good deal on the bus ride too.

But then I get a phone call today from them. They didn’t sound good at first. I say, “How are you doing?” They tell me, “Not so good…There’s a problem with your trip.” “Oh really?” I say. Then she proceeds to tell me that due to the economy they are having to downsize and there will be no bus available for my trip.

Surprisingly I’m pretty calm here. “Wow,” I say waiting for what she’ll say next. She ends up telling me that the two options we have are for her to refund my the money we’ve paid in so far, or that she’s gotten another bus company who can carry us BUT….BUT they were not able to comp the price so it will be $1005 more than the price on my contract. Wow!

I don’t say anything again and then she asks if there’s one or the other I’d like to do or if I needed to talk to someone first about it. Uh, yeah! I’ve taken my contract to someone in my church who’s a lawyer (who’s going on the trip to, ironicly) to check it out. But I think they’d be responsible for getting me up there at the price we’ve contracted. How frustrating!

In no way do I want to sue for this stuff, but I have a bunch of people expecting to go to Colorado for a price that’s originally been quoted (and contracted).

What would you do?

The Kid got plenty for Christmas. I could spend a few paragraphs here listing stuff that relatives got her. The Wife and I really didn’t get her much. We knew she’d get more than enough from everyone else. There were the toys that look so nice when you first pull them out of the box, but don’t really get a lot of “re-play” out of.

The little plastic castle with Snow White, Cinderella, and Belle that they can sit on and it will play music and spin around. After a few days, that’s all played out. Then there’s the barn/ranch house with the girl and her best friend (who happens to be a horse that can talk) live and they will talk to each other if you stand them in the right place. But there’s the many, many books that she loves to read. There’s a baby or two. Her new kitchen with she spends a lot of time cooking me something in the oven, bringing it too me, then telling me to be careful I don’t burn my hands on the hot cake.

But she’s invested some time in another game she got. We tried to play it a time or two, but the “taking turns” hasn’t fully clicked in her mind yet. But she loves to play with her cards from her MEMORY game. You know the game. All those different cards with the pictures on them and you have to find a match.

She wanted to play Sunday night after I got home from church. The Big Game was on, but I figured I’d play a little where her and The Wife. Well, all I can say is that I want to blame it on the Big Game. I was watching LSU beat Oklahoma. That’s why my two year old daughter completely schooled me in a game of Memory. It would be my turn, I’d turn over a monkey or a train or something, and I’d know I’d seen one earlier, and that it was on one side of the arrangement of cards. And as I’d be looking, she’d show me where it was. Nearly ever time. I’m nearly thirty. She only two. She’s smarter than me. I like football more than she does.

That’s my excuse.

What one thing are you most looking forward to . . .

1. …today?

2. …over the next week?
…getting rid of this stuffy head. I’m not sick, but not well either.
3. …this year?
* Spend more time w/ my Lord and Savior
* Go on more dates w/ my wife.
* Play more games w/ my daughter
* Play for and win the National Championship on NCAA Football 2004 (XBox) w/o ever restarting a game because I’m about to lose.
* Be very intentional about learning web design.
* Reapportion my body weight around my body to other places.
* Rip Copper Mountain apart in March.
* Expand MST to something more than a message board. (don’t know if that should be here or in the next one.
* Run regularly.

4. …over the next five years?
* Be near completion of some sort of grad degree.
* Get rid of my 88 Honda Accord.
* Go on a kick-butt vacation.
* Learn to snowboard.

5. …for the rest of your life?
* Develop consistant spiritual disciplines.
* Become wise.
* Be a man my wife is honored to share her live with.
* Be a man my kids are proud of.
* Be illuminated by Christ.
* Do some long term missions.
* Never get tired of video games.
* Read a whole, whole lot.
* Go camping.
* Have a ‘home office’.

Well, the sickness is still hanging on to The Kid…but I think she’s about to shake it. She got pretty bad for a bit. And The Wife and I actually left town while she was her sickest. We went on a trip to Branson with the youth group. While we were gone my mom had to go get her some antibiotics and all.

While we were gone, The Wife also got sick herself. Chills, snot, acid reflux, stomache issues, the whole nine yards. But she’s all good now too.

So the holidays are nearly beyond us. Only one more day. And then things will be back to normal, huh? I’m going to do a retro Friday Five I think later today. But I’ve got some catching up to do on other blogging issues as well too. So look forward to that.

…well, the weather outside really isn’t that bad. A touch windy, but not really that cold. It’s the inside that’s a little frightful. Not scary necessarily, but it seems there’s now sickness in our midst. It has been all around us, so it finally hit home.

Yesterday morning at work The Wife called me. She wanted to know how The Kid was acting yesterday morning before went to work. The Wife had gone to the local gym to teach an exercise class, and as she got home I left home to head to work. I told her that The Kid had been fine, why? She told me that The Kid was acting really tired and spacy with a stuffy nose like she could be sick or something. The Kid was in the bath at the time, but The Wife was going to call me back with a temperature reading on her.

She called back with a reading of 102.5 degrees. Time to get a Dr. appointment. Flu has been rocking and rolling around many Christmas Trees in our town lately. And we were hoping it hadn’t hit our little one. I came home after lunch and she was acting fine. Runny nose, but in great spirits w/ just a touch of fever. But we went to the Dr. anyways to make sure.

Having a family connection at the clinic makes for a short wait in the waiting room. Actually, only I went in. I left The Wife and Kid in the car. No need in them sitting in a waiting room full of flu. But the flu test came back negatory. But we got some meds anyway (not flu meds, but other stuff I’ve never heard of). But as evening crept along, The Kid felt worse. Fever got higher. Sleep was deprived from all last night.

So here we are, Christmas Eve, she feels like doo doo and I’m not going to my grandmothers on Christmas Eve for the first time in my entire life. Feels kinda weird. Even my wife of 4.5 years says it feels really weird not to be going over there tonight. But the kid is half awake/asleep in my lap against my chest right now as I type. She’s trying to “feel good” but just not making it. We’ll have a few gifts tonight, read some books, and try to have a good dinner (just the three of us). But if anyone happens to read this in the next day or so, please offer up a prayer of health for The Kid.

Merry Christmas!

Well, this was an issue even before today. This just really hasn’t felt a lot like Christmas lately. Lately meaning the last few years. And this one even less. Not sure why that is. But when you have a kid it’s supposed to be new and fresh all over again, right? And don’t get me wrong, I enjoy seeing her joy with the tree, and the lights around town, and her presents. And like I said, she’s getting into getting gifts for other people too. But the old “Christmas feeling” has passed.

Maybe it started with not being in school anymore. So not really gearing up for semester tests/exams and then the big holiday break. Or maybe it was getting older and not getting “playful” gifts anymore but “useful” gifts. Gifts like chairs or microwaves or cookware. And the decorations around town don’t seem as plentiful. People don’t seem as excited about it. Heck, it’s December 22 and it’s 64 degrees outside!

But when I really think about it…what it all boils down to…is that I seem to be looking for a “Christmas feeling” from things that have nothing to do with Christmas. Sad, huh? I seem to be harkening back to the old “holiday feelings” that I remember from childhood. But I’m a big boy now. I should be able to look beyond all that and settle and meditate on the heart of it all.

So I ask your prayers during the next few days/weeks. That I am able to looke beyond the worldly expressions of Christmas to the heart of God and his fleshly encouter with our world.

Yes! I think I got it working. Now you can subscribe to comments thanks to Chad’s really cool plugin. I may have to tweak something or another down the road. But for now it seems to work fairly well.

What this means is that when leaving a comment, you can click “Subscribe To These Comments” or something like that and you’ll get a notification anytime someone replies with another comment to that same entry.

Maybe not really a big deal, but I think it’s pretty cool.

Last year this was my most un-favorite weekend of the year. Why you ask? Because it was too full. Way too full. It seemed like the whole holiday season was too full last year. Working at a church, there’s always something going on. And it seems that you have to be at everything whether it’s even remotely close to being on your job description or not (“Yes, I’d love to drive the bus for the senior adult trip so they can go look at a miniture Christmas Village and sit in the freezing cold.”) Turns out I didn’t have to do the afore mentioned task, but I was almost “on call” for it.

But last year this was the weekend where it seemed like there were 3 different church things going on and two family get together things. And The Wife wanted some “us” time too. There were some disagreements regarding my stewardship of my time related to inside/outside demands on it. And I felt like I had about 37 hours worth of demands each day. And it really frustrated me. I mean, it’s the holidays. Supposed to be fun. Relaxing. Enjoyable.

This year isnt’ so bad. Still busy. Still hectic, but only semi. There looks like it’s going to be much more enjoyable. I think that it’s going to be funner too. My daughter is really getting into the “getting a present for Mom, Grannie, etc.” I think she’s going to be into the getting of presents too. All she’s said she wanted was a hat. “A hat? What kind of hat?” She said she wants a Cat In The Hat hat. I’ll have to look around for that one.