December 28, 2010

Chinese food

Elizabeth and I have a favorite local Chinese restaurant right down the street. For Christmas, Elizabeth all but demanded a gift card to this restaurant, so I obliged. Why? Not to enjoy a night out having a good Chinese meal, but because Elizabeth wanted $20-worth of egg rolls. Today she bought four egg rolls, and I don't know if much has made her happier in the last month than eating those four egg rolls.

She's kind of a weirdo.

December 27, 2010

Wanna know about our Christmas festivities?

Pam does.

On Thursday, December 16, less than an hour after I finished my last class of the semester at Denver Seminary, Elizabeth and I hit the road for a weekend trip to Iowa to celebrate a friend's wedding (Elizabeth was the bride's personal attendant), and an all-too brief family Christmas with my in-laws.

We did a short leg of our trip on Thursday evening, and then drove the rest of the way to Fort Dodge, IA on Friday. Friday evening we had the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. It was fun to see some friends from college we hadn't seen in a long time.

Saturday morning Elizabeth got to spend some one-on-one time with the bride-to-be over coffee. Then we got ready and headed to the church for photos. After the wedding was the reception -- some more fun with old friends and lots of laughter (and LOTS of COOKIES). We said our goodbyes and headed back to the home in which we were staying (the bride had hooked us up with some family friends who were incredibly hospitable and made our stay in Fort Dodge very comfortable).

Sunday morning we grabbed some breakfast and then headed a couple of hours south where we met up with Elizabeth's parents and brother in Des Moines. We went out to lunch and then headed to the Des Moines Civic Center where we took in a production of The Nutcracker. It was fun! After the show we all went back to the hotel where we hung out for a bit and ate some more REALLY good cookies, baked and brought by Elizabeth's folks (cookies were a big part of the weekend -- and probably much of the reason Elizabeth's been sick for the last week!).

On Monday we drove all the way back home here to Denver (along the way, I swear to you we saw Santa Claus driving a semi truck through Grand Island, Nebraska).

Last week was spent with me working more than usual (the other admin assistant in the church office was out of town for the holidays), and Elizabeth working more than usual (working retail around the holidays is typically not a lot of fun), and both of us trying to purchase a few presents for the other. Elizabeth had to work on Christmas Eve and so was not able to join me at our church's candlelight service, but she didn't have to work too late.

Christmas morning we slept in (until, as Cliff Huxtable would put it, our eyes just POPPED open!). We opened presents. We watched a little bit of A Christmas Story (because I'd never seen it -- verdict? I agree with my wife: it's one of the more obnoxious movies I've ever watched, and I only watched about the first 35 minutes). We made a huge brunch (biscuits, sausage, eggs, hashbrowns, etc.) which tasted delicious. We watched White Christmas (our annual movie tradition, inherited from Elizabeth's family). We pretty much hung out and relaxed. In the evening, we watched the Cowboys game. Then we went to bed.

Any questions?

December 11, 2010

A sentence

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

That's not just nonsense. It is a grammatically valid sentence.

December 8, 2010

iBand

There's probably something to be said about rampant consumerism in this video, but this video is really nifty. A church's "iBand" plays some Christmas songs using only iPads and iPhones.

December 2, 2010

Playoff Machine

This is football-related, so my apologies to anyone who's not an NFL follower.

THIS is ESPN's "NFL Playoff Machine." It'll give you playoff scenarios for every possible outcome of every game for the rest of the season. It's all up to you. It's totally rad.

Yes, I said rad (that's how cool it is).

November 30, 2010

a little silliness

This is the epitome of seminary nerdiness, but I find New Testament Scholar Mike Bird to be very funny, and this is a funny little nerd-themed rip-off of the Old Spice commercials. Enjoy.

November 26, 2010

Black Friday

Before this morning I hadn't seen a goose in six months. All day today huge flocks of geese have been flying overhead and honking like crazy.

Do geese have a "black Friday" too?

November 21, 2010

weird

This commercial makes me think of Jase. Don't know why.

October 25, 2010

Funny guy

One of the many reasons I love Bill Cosby...

October 23, 2010

Josh Hamilton, outfielder for the American League Champion Texas Rangers, was named the ALCS MVP last night. Hamilton's an incredibly talented player who's an outspoken Christian. After being a top draft pick more than ten years ago, Hamilton became a drug addict and an alcoholic, and ended up being completely banned from baseball for a couple of years in the mid-2000s.

Anyway, if you're interested in good stories about good people, HERE'S one from Sports Illustrated written in the spring of 2008.

October 22, 2010

Really?

A woman in Michigan is being sued because she posted an ad (in a church) seeking a "Christian roommate." Apparently it's somehow illegal to want to have a say in who you LIVE WITH.

I have the hardest time figuring out how people get elevated to positions of authority in this country when they're this stupid. How are we so offended at everything? What a rotten bunch of people we are.

For simply putting up with us, Lord, you are most merciful.

October 21, 2010

Call me a geek...

But THIS is super awesome. Apparently, Israel and Google are teaming up to put the entire collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls online. They'll be viewable in their original form. They'll include English translations of the text. They'll be searchable. And they'll be FREE.

October 19, 2010

A whole lotta dough

There's an Oroweat (bakery) outlet store nearby that we just discovered about a month ago. It's super cheap. Today we went back for just the second time. They have a "punch card" where when you spend $25 you basically get three items for free. On Tuesdays, apparently, it's "double-punch day," so for spending $12.50, this is what we got...


Also, since we used Elizabeth's Old Navy credit card for something other than Old Navy, we also get a $20 Old Navy giftcard... so for twelve and a half bucks we got TONS of bread, buns and bagels, and twenty bucks to Old Navy. Not a bad shopping trip.

How underdogs can win

I find stories like THIS to be extremely fascinating. Warning: It's LONG.

Funny

So, Emily put this on her blog, so you've all (probably) seen it already. But, it made me laugh my head off (almost literally... now I'm like Nearly Headless Nick of Hogwarts fame), so you get to see it here too.

October 11, 2010

Unreal

In the fall of 1992 I was 8 years old. I was in Mrs. Levenhagen's 3rd-grade class. I was learning multiplication tables and how to write in cursive. I was earning the nickname "Fingers" because when we played "Around the World" with multiplication flashcards, I had a habit of throwing up (not vomiting) a random number of fingers as I shouted the answer to the problem. Bill Clinton hadn't been elected yet. My family lived one block away from the elementary school I attended with my brothers in the only house I'd ever known at the time. My mom didn't work outside the home, except to be a "room mother" at every single school party and field trip I ever had. Computers weren't even a remote part of daily life, and the only cell phone I'd ever seen was used by Zack Morris in new (yes, NEW) episodes of Saved By The Bell. OJ Simpson was still a good guy. No one had ever heard of Monica Lewinsky. Family members could accompany you right up to the gate when they dropped you off at the airport. Thurgood Marshall was still alive. Computer-animated movies were still a distant speck on the horizon, and the Chicago Cubs were awful (okay, some things never change) - but their roster included names like Joe Girardi, Mark Grace, Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson and Greg Maddux.

Why am I bringing any of this up?

Since September 20th, 1992, Brett Favre has not missed ONE start in the NFL. Not one.

The stat you'll hear on TV is that tonight is his 289th consecutive start, but that stat counts only regular season starts (which I think is completely stupid). He's also never missed a postseason start, and his teams play in the postseason nearly every year, so the real number is something like 313 consecutive starts. For an NFL quarterback. If you're not impressed, let me know and I'll roll a 300-pound shopping cart over your body 15-20 times per week, 17-18 weeks per year, for the next two decades (and you'll have to set nearly every NFL quarterback record, and run some wind-sprints while we're at it). Even then we're probably not coming that close to re-creating the environment that guy faces.

P.S. As I finished up writing this post, Favre set another record: Most fumbles in a career.

October 9, 2010

Ware

My wife bought a DeMarcus Ware jersey the other day. We got it for her because a) she's wanted a Cowboys jersey for awhile now, and b) every Friday for her job at Dick's Sporting Goods employees are encouraged to wear an NFL jersey.


Today she was telling her dad about it on the phone and I overheard her say the following...

"It's a DeMarcus Ware jersey. He's a really good player on the defense. He sacks the quarterback. Often. He's really cute too. I like it when he takes his football helmet off."


For the record, I think he's kinda cute too. And my wife knows quite a bit about football. Just thought you should know.

October 1, 2010

Rocktober

Around here, Rocktober is the term that refers to the Colorado Rockies when they're in the playoffs and everyone's getting excited about it.

Since the Rockies aren't anywhere near being postseason contenders, I'm hijacking the term for my own uses. I'm going to use it in reference to the fact that the month of October absolutely ROCKS.

For someone who LOVES two sports -- Major League Baseball and NFL football -- no time of year is better. The baseball playoffs start on Wednesday. The NFL season is really getting into the regular season grind.

The weather is perfect in October. Temperatures are usually between about 50 and 70 degrees. Cool and damp is how I like it. October usually brings a good chunk of clouds and some rain (but not too much). The leaves on the trees are turning. Scenery is beautiful, and almost every day feels like you can put on a sweatshirt and either go outside to play some football, or sit by a window and read while it rains outside. It's just gorgeous.

The sports.
The scenery.
The weather.

ROCKtober is the greatest month ever.

September 20, 2010

Humpty Dumpty... sorta

The more nerd-like of you might really enjoy THIS.

(Pam, you're the one I have most in mind.)

I'm a winner!

I just received an e-mail from The Bathroom Reader's Institute (creators of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader) that said I won a random drawing to receive a copy of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Sports Spectacular.

All I did was comment on one of their blog posts.

I never win stuff like this (Jase does, even when he has absolutely no interest in the items he's trying to win). Therefore, I'm very excited.

Maybe I'll post a review of the Sports Spectacular when it arrives!

September 14, 2010

The Swagger Wagon

Pastor Mark Driscoll tweeted that his wife, Grace, thinks this video is hilarious (the Driscolls have, like, 38 kids or something [ok, I think the true number is 5]). I agree. It kinda makes me want a Toyota Sienna, or as I might call it on my more ghetto days, a "Swagger Wagon."

Lots o' cars

I drive down Broadway every day to work at church. In a roughly 3.5-mile stretch of Broadway that I travel daily, I've counted 42 car dealerships. That's six car dealerships every half-mile.

In addition (not included in the 42), there's an RV sales lot, a place that sells hitches and trailers, a moped/scooter dealer, a couple different car rental locations, at least one "power sports" dealer (motorcycles, ATVs, etc.) and probably at least two dozen auto parts and automotive service locations.

I know this means nothing to pretty much all of you. I guess I've just discovered that this particular stretch of road can take care of pretty much all of your automobile needs.

That's all.

September 9, 2010

Alright, Iowa!

This is the obligatory post-Iowa trip post. I had hoped to blog fairly frequently during our trip, but I was unable to, so now you have to suffer one long all-inclusive post. To see pictures (and there are only a few) you'll have to read this whole thing (or scroll to the bottom!).


  • Left home just before 4 pm last Thursday. I essentially walked out of my Thursday afternoon class, drove home, loaded the car, and left. After we accidentally missed our exit and took what I like to call "the scenic route" to find our way back to the right road, we made fairly decent time to Lincoln.
  • Stayed in Lincoln on Thursday night... slept in a KING SIZE bed (which is always a highlight for me). We were able to sleep in a little bit on Friday since the next leg of our trip was shorter and we didn't have a real pressing time we needed to be in the Quad Cities. Our hotel offered a fantastic hot breakfast, so I took full advantage.
  • Rolled into the Quad Cities at a little after 3 on Friday. We stopped off at Joel and Pam's. We greeted Joel and Micah (Pam was gone and Gabriel was sleeping) and checked out the in-progress Cornhole set Joel was working on for us.
  • Headed to Elizabeth's parents house, where we'd be staying for the duration of the trip. Visited briefly with her whole family. Her parents had an obligation Friday night, so we went out with Clay (Elizabeth's super fun brother). We had dinner at Bennigan's and then went to the cheap movie theater and saw Salt (really good movie).
  • Saturday Elizabeth and I were joined by her dad on our 9-mile run on a beautiful path through Davenport. The weather, by the way, was aMAZing for our trip. Highs were between 65-75, and no humidity the whole time. Reminded me of Denver weather with Iowa scenery. Kinda weird, but incredibly great.
  • Saturday afternoon we attended the wedding of one of Elizabeth's best friends. It was a really great wedding, with a fun reception, great food, and we got to spend (all-too little) time with a couple of other friends of Elizabeth's from high school.
  • Sunday we went to Northridge for church, where we met up with Jase and Rachel, Joel and Pam (obviously), and Jaron and the friend he brought with him from Texas. My grandparents and aunt cousins were there too. It was SUPER great to see everyone! I sat in between Jaron and Jase during the service, which turned out to be a not-so-good idea. We're all too big to fit comfortably on normal-sized seats, so we were quite friendly with each other. At one point, Pastor Doug made a comment that made Jase and I giggle, and we eventually both just lost it. I could not contain my laughter. Every time I giggled my body shook a little, so even though I wasn't making any sound, Jase would feel my laughter and that would get him going too. It was a cycle that could not be defeated.
  • After church we all went to Joel and Pam's and hung out all afternoon. We played a little catch outside, had a really fantastic lunch and dessert (thanks, Pam!), and sat around chatting. Then we got Tropical Sno and then went disc-golfing in Long Grove. Turns out I'm awful at disc-golfing. I'm pretty sure I hit every tree on the course at least once... including one throw where the only tree anywhere near the path toward the hole was about a foot and a half tall and it was about 50 yards away. I hit it. It was actually an incredible shot.
  • Sunday night Elizabeth and I had dinner with some of her extended family. We had brats and chatted with everyone.
  • After dinner we headed back to Joel and Pam's where we all played Loaded Questions and laughed our heads off... almost literally.
  • Monday morning was the "Run with Carl." Elizabeth and I were supposed to run 3 miles for our marathon training on Monday, so we had signed up, along with her dad, to run the 5k "Run with Carl." Joel drove into Bettendorf and ran it with me, which was incredibly nice of him to do. I really enjoyed it -- this was the first real "race" I've ever been in. I was more or less satisfied with my time, and I felt really good all during the run, even though it poured on us for about 10 minutes of it.
  • After the race we showered and then went back to Joel and Pam's. We all decided to have lunch and dessert, but in reverse order. We drove to Whitey's for ice cream, then ordered some Casey's pizza, which we ate while watching Wipeout on the computer.
  • Shortly after lunch, Jaron and his friend took off back to Texas, and then Jase and Rachel had to get going back to Ames. I was in desperate need of a tough-to-find journal article for one of my classes, and the nearest library that had it was in Dubuque, so Joel and I dropped Elizabeth off at her parents' and drove north. I had a really great time hanging out with Joel on our mini road-trip... but then we got to Dubuque and they didn't have the article (even though all signs indicated that they did). The student worker at the desk didn't seem to have much of a clue, either. We went to two other higher-education libraries in Dubuque where we struck out twice more on the article. So we headed back to the Quad Cities, having failed our quest -- but enjoying our time nonetheless.
  • Monday night Elizabeth and I had a redbox night with her family. Turns out The Backup Plan is an awful movie (Joel and Pam warned me).
  • Tuesday we took a 5-mile run in the morning. After lunch Elizabeth went shopping with her mom while I did some homework. In the afternoon Elizabeth and her mom and I had chiropractor appointments in Clinton. After the chiro we stopped at a few more stores to do some shopping. We went back to her parents' house for dinner, then we headed to Joel and Pam's one more time to pick up our finished Cornhole boards and say good-byes (thought I had a picture of the Cornhole boards Joel built us, but I don't -- I know for sure he has a picture of us with them, so he'll have to post 'em for you. They're impressive!).
  • Wednesday morning we were on the road at 7:00 (Central Time), and we got to our place in Denver before 6:30 pm (Mountain Time) for a total of less than 12.5 hours on the road.


Some other tidbits:

  • Elizabeth counted and determined that in 4 full days in Iowa I ate 11 desserts and drank 6 soda (for you Californians)-pops (for you Iowans). So I'd say my marathon-training diet is looking pretty great. But I'll have you know that it was worth it. My 11 desserts included TWO Tropical Snos (fabulous), and multiple different kinds of ice cream including home-made (YUM!!) and Whitey's (YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).
  • We really got to know our new Camry on this trip. We put almost 2,200 miles on that thing in less than a week.
  • Came pretty close to hitting two possums, a couple of deer, and a cat (just missed it) while in Iowa.
  • While on our way back through Nebraska on Wednesday, we had to call 911 to report a drunk driver. When we called we weren't sure if he was drunk or falling asleep, but he kept drifting out of his lane really badly. Nearly hitting a couple of other cars, and almost driving completely off the road. Right after Elizabeth hung up with the 911 dispatcher, the guy DID drive completely off the road and down into the median. Rather than it jolting him awake and scaring him and making him reconsider driving while impaired, he drove right back up onto the road and kept going. That's when I got especially nervous -- and pissed off -- about the guy. Oddest part? He was in a company truck. Elizabeth has called the company to not-so-kindly ask them to get their deadly drunk drivers off the road so that my life can continue to be lived.
  • At the Run with Carl on Monday we ran into a couple of college friends we hadn't seen in awhile. That was fun.
  • Funny moment: At one point Joel looked out the window of his house and noticed that a little boy and his teenage sister were approaching his door to try to sell him something. He began to groan about it, but then in an instant his eyes lit up and he raised his finger in an I-have-a-great-idea kind of way. He exclaimed, "Quick! There's a gorilla suit in the closet!" Both he and Jase sprung off the couch and flew down the stairs. In just a matter of moments Joel was dressed like a gorilla... and that's how he answered the door. It made me laugh pretty hard. We're a weird family.




August 31, 2010

"...let all you loyal Iowans sing..."

"We have so much time and so little to do! Wait... strike that... reverse it."

Elizabeth and I (Lord willing) will be hittin' the road sometime Thursday afternoon to make our way to the eastern end of the great state of Iowa. We've got a friend's wedding on Saturday, and some hanging out with family for a few days after that.

We are REALLY excited about our trip. It's far too rare that we get to hang out with family, and we're really looking forward to it. (Another reason I'm excited is to drive our new Camry for an extended period of time. Go ahead, call me a nerd -- I love to drive.)

Unfortunately, we each have about ten gazillion (give or take a few) things we have to take care of before we leave, both job-related and home/life-related.

Here's to hoping we get everything done in time!

August 29, 2010

A (Toy) Story of Jealousy

So, I've been a fan of Toy Story since I was 11 years old. I love the movie. I love the sequel. And I love the third installment which was recently released in theaters.

Elizabeth and I went to see Toy Story 3 a few weeks ago with a movie theater gift card we had been given. We shared the theater with about a hundred elementary school kids. It was still summer, and it was a matinee, so I wasn't at all surprised. But I couldn't help thinking about the fact that most of these kids have no idea how great the original Toy Story was (is). They weren't even alive when it was made. They don't have a 15-year connection with Woody and Buzz. They've probably never even played with a Mr. Spell, or a Mr. Potato Head.

Now, I walk through the store and see some of the coolest Toy Story-related toys ever! Stuff that's way cooler than what they made when the original film came out. Of course, as much as I'd LOVE to have Toy Story-themed toys, it'd be kind of weird for a 26-year old with no kids to buy the Buzz Lightyear pillow cases and comforter.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that all these little kids today don't know the half of why Toy Story is a fantastic story (from the first film all the way through the end of the third), but they have access to all the greatest Toy Story toys, and I'm jealous.

(Elizabeth did let me buy a Buzz and Woody kite at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago. We haven't had a chance to take it out for a spin yet.)

August 25, 2010

To tint or not to tint?

So, as I said in yesterday's post, I was supposed to take our new (used) car in to have the window tinting removed this morning, but after some people questioned that decision (and had good reasons to do so), Elizabeth and I started to wonder if that was the right decision. We held off on removing the tinting this morning. We're going to consider it for a couple more days.

I NEED YOU to read the rest of this post, which includes the pros and cons of tinted windows, and then VOTE in the poll to the left on my blog. Please leave comments on this post if you need to explain your opinion. We really need your input! (Clicking on the photos should make them bigger.)




First, let me point out that we don't know how much window tinting is legal.
Second, you may not be able to tell from the pictures, but the front two windows have one layer of tinting, and the back seat windows and the rear window have at least two layers -- they're very dark.

Arguments for Keeping the Tint
Keeping tinting on the windows helps guard against bright sun (of which there is a LOT in Colorado) which can cause the interior leather to fade.
It also keeps the interior of the car cooler in the summer so you don't burn your but when you sit on the hot leather.
As my brother pointed out, little kids in car seats in the back seat are protected from the heat and the brightness of the sun if the tint stays.
Others???

Arguments for getting rid of the tint
Tinted windows lower driver and passenger visibility. I think this is especially true in terms of looking in the rear-view mirror out the rear window. It's quite a bit harder to see, especially at night (all you can see are headlights of cars behind you... nothing else).
We're not crazy about how it looks.
It's not uncommon, in heavy traffic places like Denver, for it to be convenient if not necessary for other drivers to be able to see me when I'm driving (motioning to let a driver merge in ahead of you, or other similar instances). Having tint on the driver and front passenger windows makes it hard for other drivers to see me.
Others???

Other things to consider:
Our Camry has a nifty little feature. It has a black mesh screen that can be pulled up like a curtain from the inside on the rear window. It's somewhat transparent (so you can have it up while driving), but it would also provide some of the benefits of having the rear window tinted: It would shade the back seat some and keep it cooler.
Also, we could easily get one of those shades that you can buy that stretch across the car's front windshield in order to keep the car shaded and cooler inside. Those two items contribute a little bit to the "arguments for removing the tint," I guess.
This is our only shot to have anything done with the tint at no cost to us. When we bought the car we made the dealer promise to pay to have the tint removed. We need to get this done in the next few days (so please respond by Friday morning). If we decide NOT to have it removed, and then we later decide we want it removed, we'd have to pay for it. If we decide to remove it now, and then change our minds later, we'd have to pay for it. Anywho...

Our first step, then, is to make sure that the current tinting is legal. If it is, here are our options:

1. Remove all the tinting.
2. Remove tinting from the two front windows, but leave it on the back two and the rear window (this would look especially silly, in my opinion -- which is why this isn't an option in the poll to the left).
3. We're told that it should be possible to remove one of the layers of tinting in the back windows so that they're not quite so dark and so they match the front windows, so that's an option.
4. Leave all the tinting exactly how it is.
5. Other options we haven't thought of?

PLEASE VOTE IN THE POLL AND EXPLAIN/SHARE YOUR OPINIONS IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!!!! Thank you for your help in our decision-making.

August 24, 2010

New addition

That's right, we have a new member in our family! He doesn't have a name yet, but he arrived just this afternoon. Don't have his specific length or weight either.

This is our new (used) 2002 Toyota Camry. (We're having the tint on the windows removed in the morning.)







August 18, 2010

A lovely mountain trip

On Sunday we were able to take a drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park. This park has become one of my favorite places on the planet over the last couple of years. It's just gorgeous. It was a picture perfect day for the trip, too. It was about 80 degrees in Denver, 76 in Estes Park, and as you drove up Trail Ridge Road further into the park, the temp dropped quickly to about 62. Just beautiful.

We packed a picnic supper. Stopped at a lakeside picnic area to eat and enjoy the beauty.


This was the lake we were beside. How awesome is this?


We pulled over at about the highest point in elevation that the road hits (the road can be seen in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture). Then we hiked up the mountain a few hundred more feet. I think being above the treeline in a place like this really does make you feel like your on top of the world.


All in all, we had a very leisurely road-trip up to the park (we were still driving our very nice new-model Chevy Impala rental car at the time, and that's a comfy ride). Then we poked around the park for a little bit, mostly making our way through it on Trail Ridge Road. As I said before, the weather was perfect. The scenery was breathtaking. Our picnic supper was tasty. At one point we pulled over and saw a huge elk with antlers the size of most mini vans about 25 yards away, which was beautiful. Then, a little bit further down the road, we pulled over because we saw... a MOOSE!!! First time either of us had seen one of those. It was awesome. Those things are stinkin' HUGE. He was probably about 40 yards away, but then he made his way toward the road until he was about 15 yards away. He seemed a little nervous about the people looking at him, so he decided not to cross the road right there (good thing for drivers -- if you hit a moose, your car and possibly your life are in real trouble!) and meandered back into the woods.

If you continue on Trail Ridge Road it'll lead you out of the park on the opposite side, so then we had a longer road-trip home, but it was a path through the mountains we'd never gone before, and as the sun fell low in the sky and the shadows lengthened we were able to take in even more mountain beauty! This was pretty much a last-minute trip idea because my wonderful baby brother let me know about free National Park weekend, but it was so relaxed and beautiful that it really refreshed us both. We felt like we'd taken a whole vacation, even though it was only about an 8-hour trip from start to finish!

August 6, 2010

crash

Elizabeth got into a car accident yesterday. She's okay, but she has a lot of bumps and bruises, and she suffered a concussion. The car got pretty mangled too. In fact, today we said an emotional good-bye to the Grand Am. We'll probably never see it again. It was very sad. That car has served us quite well over our three years together, and it served Elizabeth for more than four years before that! Sad.

Turns out my wife is hilarious in her post-concussion hours (as many people are). She couldn't remember anything, so she asked me the same questions over and over and over and over and over again while we were at the hospital. She really focused in on a few things that got her really excited:

1. She was very upset that she had taken an ambulance ride and not been able to "witness" it (as she put it).
2. There was a hospital employee who called me to tell me Elizabeth was in the ER, and Elizabeth was just dying to know if the person who called me had used the ICE (In Case of Emergency) feature in her phone. She has me set up as an ICE contact in her phone's contacts list, and she asked me probably 15-20 times if that's how they'd tracked me down. I, of course, didn't know, but later we found that employee and she said that Elizabeth had given her my name, so she just found me in the "recent calls" list. Poor Elizabeth was quite disappointed. The care pastor at the church where we attend (and where I work) came to see her while she was in the ER, and before he left he prayed with and for us. As soon as he said, "Amen," Elizabeth excitedly questioned (again), "Did they use the ICE feature to call you!??!!?"
3. She was desperate to find out whether the accident was her fault (short answer for those wondering is, we don't really know).

Anyway, it's been a crazy 28+ hours. We're pretty sure we've lost the Grand Am for good, so we're in the market for a car! Our insurance company has been really great (at least so far). They've even hooked us up with a rental until we replace the Grand Am... so for probably at least a couple of weeks we're riding in style (it's a Chevy Impala... not sure what year but it's pretty new). I really wanted to take the Suburu Outback Sport that they were going to give us, but it turns out the plates on that car were expired so they couldn't let us take it. (Sad.)

She's doing pretty well now. Still doesn't remember much about yesterday, and she doesn't remember anything about the accident at all, but she's got some Percoset in her (I've been sneaking some of those too, SSSHHH!) so she's feeling okay.

Thanks for your prayers!

August 5, 2010

What does the Bible say about Social Justice?

I recently began to write a post on social justice and young evangelicals. Instead I'll summarize my point and save you some time. I think it's great that Christians of my generation have taken huge steps toward helping and caring for the poor and the oppressed in our world. On the other hand, it seems to me that too many of these Christians have turned helping the poor into the gospel itself. Many have come to believe (though they may not say it this way) that alleviating suffering by feeding the hungry is the end goal of Christianity, and I think that's a huge mistake.

Rather than writing a long post on this topic (which, as I said, I originally began to do), I've decided that it will be much more worth your while to read a much better writer and thinker than me. Kevin DeYoung recently finished up an 8-part series on poverty and social justice. In each post he focused on a single passage of Scripture that is commonly used in the social justice discussion (except the last post, which is a summary/wrap-up/conclusion).

I've linked to all 8 posts below and would strongly encourage you to check them out if you're at all interested in this topic (none of them is too long).

If you don't want to check them out, I'll give you my own SUPER brief summary of his 2 main conclusions in the final post:
1. Don't undersell what the Bible says about the poor and social justice (In other words, helping the poor is a very important thing for Christians to do).
2. Don't oversell what the Bible says about the poor and social justice (In other words, "the alleviation of poverty is simply not the main storyline of Scripture").

Passage #1 (Isaiah 1)
Passage #2 (Isaiah 58)
Passage #3 (Jeremiah 22)
Passage #4 (Matthew 25:31-46)
Passage #5 (Amos 5)
Passage #6 (Micah 6:8)
Passage #7 (Luke 4:16-21)
A Brief Wrap-up

(For those who just can't get enough, below are four more related posts that Kevin had written earlier and are not part of this series but deal with the same theme.)

Moral Proximity
Leviticus 19
Leviticus 25
The term "social justice"

August 3, 2010

Stolen cars

Here's a list of the 5 most frequently stolen vehicles on the road (according to some official agency that apparently has the authority to make these claims).

Since a "1996 Jetta with lots of cracks in the windshield and a sunroof that you have to manually roll open with an allen wrench" isn't on the list, I probably don't have to worry about my car being stolen.

In case you're wondering, Elizabeth, they also don't list "'99 Grand Am with a weird sporadic clicking noise," so your car should be fine too.

Off my chest

I know some people who feel terrible anytime they even consider ignoring a friend request on facebook.

I'm not one of those people.

If you ask to be my friend and I can't figure out who you are from your name, our mutual friends, your profile photo (or other photos you don't have "protected" from non-friends), or any of your networks, then we are NOT FRIENDS. I'm happy to become your friend, but we'll have to establish a relationship via some other medium.

I might feel bad about ignoring friend requests if it didn't really mean anything, but my facebook settings are set up so that pretty much everything on my profile is visible only if you are my friend. There'd be no sense in trying to protect some semblance of privacy by this measure if complete strangers were routinely added to my friend list.

That is all.

July 28, 2010

"May God speed the day of reckoning." - Justin Taylor

Perhaps I should be embarrassed about this, but I had never heard of Andrew Peterson until yesterday morning. All of a sudden his music and information about his brand new album, Counting Stars, started showing up on a number of blogs I read and Twitter feeds I follow. Since a few of the songs from this album were available to stream on a couple of the blogs, I gave him a listen. After listening to three songs I decided I'm a big fan of Peterson (it really only took one song). He's making a rapid climb up my "favorites" ladder, and if I had the money to buy a music album right now it would be his for sure.

I've embedded two of his songs below. The first one is a music video for Dancing in the Minefields, which is a close second-favorite for me. The second "video" just plays the song The Reckoning as well as its lyrics. The Reckoning might be my new favorite song. Out of, you know, ALL the songs. That exist (even ahead of the amazing song that Emily posted last night). Anyway,  listen to these songs and then let me know if you'd like to join me in becoming an Andrew Peterson fan (or if you already are one!).



July 26, 2010

The streak continues

We won our game tonight 22-5. Four of the five runs the other team scored came in the last inning when we let a kid pitch who pitched a few times earlier in the season and was awful. He kept asking our head coach if he could have another chance, so with a 22-1 lead we put him in tonight. He said he'd been practicing and that he wouldn't walk a bunch of kids.

He faced seven batters. Walked six of them. Threw 24 balls and five strikes. The only batter that didn't walk was a kid who has no athletic ability or baseball know-how who stood at the plate and half-swung at three straight bad pitches... so the numbers are actually skewed in favor of our pitcher. If that batter had any sense, the numbers would have been 7 batters, 7 walks, 28 balls and two strikes.

Anyway, having entered the inning ahead by 21 runs, we still managed to eke out the win.

Saturday is the last game of our season. We are facing the Grizzlies -- the best team in the league who we beat to begin our win streak. They'll be out for revenge.

I'll be done posting about the baseball team soon (for those of you who hate them).

July 25, 2010

a streak

Last night the baseball team I'm assistant-coaching won its second game... in a row. Last Monday we finally got the monkey off our backs. We began the season 0-6. Last Monday we played against the undefeated Grizzlies. They certainly seem to be the most talented team in our 4-team league.

But we beat 'em! We got some great pitching from a couple of our kids (one of whom had never pitched before in a game), we hit the ball well, and we even made a few decent defensive plays.

It got kind of crazy at the end. We had a 1-run lead as the Grizzlies came up to bat in the bottom of the last inning. Due up were their three best hitters. The first kid poked one hard to left field, but he had hit a long one there earlier in the game, so our left fielder was playing deep and he made the catch. The second batter hit a shot right back at the pitcher, but our pitcher knocked it down, picked it up, and threw him out. The third kid hammered one to right. Not good. Probably 7 out of the 12 kids on our team are NOT what I could call "good athletes," and if I were ranking those 7, our right fielder would have been at the bottom. He was playing right field because that's where the ball usually does NOT go. But he ran over... and caught the ball. I couldn't believe it. We won the game.

Then, last night we played the league's second-best team. Our starting pitcher threw a fantastic game (he only walked two batters in 4 innings... and our average walks-per-inning this season is probably around 3 or 4!!!). We hit the ball really well again (one kid hit an inside-the-park home run). We made some really great defensive plays, and we won 16-7.

I seriously can't figure out many of our players. We had a kid in right field yesterday who watched a ball get past our first baseman and then roll to almost a complete stop before he started jogging after it, and then lazily throwing it in to the infield. C'mon, you have to put some effort in. Next inning that same kid was running the bases, and on his way to third he slowed to almost a walk. He got almost all the way to third before he realized that the coach was telling him to run home, so he did. There was a close play at the plate, so he slid and he was safe. I yelled at him that the run would have been a lot easier if he hadn't been WALKING to third base. He didn't have a response. THEN, we had him playing second base on defense, and he made a play I never imagined he could have made. The ball was hit up the middle and our guy ran a long way to his right, reached out to nab the grounder, then stopped and threw a zinger to first to get the batter out. Couldn't believe it. Sometimes I think they're just messin' with me.

Anyway, if 2 wins in a row counts as a "streak," we're on one.

July 16, 2010

A few recent photos

We're Rockies fans... but they're our second-favorite team. The only time we're not rooting for the Rockies is when they're playing the Cardinals. The Cards were in town last week and we were fortunate enough to find some really cheap tickets to one of the games. The Rockies swept the Cards in the three-game series, which was kind of a bummer, but it was great to get to go to the game. Even more great was the fact that the day we had tickets, both teams were throwing their aces. We got to see Ubaldo Jimenez pitch for the Rockies, and Chris Carpenter was the Cardinals hurler.

Here's a Jimenez-to-Albert Pujols pitch, taken from our right field upper deck front-row seats (really great seats, actually):


Jimenez ended up having the better pitching day. Even though our preferred team didn't win, it was nice to see Jimenez pitch so well, because even though he's having an unbelievable year, his previous 4 or 5 outings hadn't been all that great. Here's us at the game. The guy sitting next to Elizabeth was kind enough to offer to take our picture, even though we were in "enemy red."


The rest of these pictures are from our anniversary night stay at the Hotel Teatro in downtown Denver. Neither of us had ever really stayed in a "luxury" hotel before. It was extremely nice. I was reading through the notebook of services and amenities they offer while I was sitting in the room, and I came across one paragraph that said if you desire a running companion on your daily jog they have a majordomo (or "Zazu," as I like to call it) who's willing to run with you. What? Crazy. Anyway, the service was really really great (as you should probably expect from a high-end hotel). We booked our room through a website called Perfect Escapes, and when you book through that company, they put a complimentary bottle of wine in your room for when you arrive. So this was waiting for us on the coffee table in the room:


When one of the hotel managers found out we were celebrating an anniversary he also sent us up a complimentary bottle of champagne (don't worry, we didn't even open them both)! At one point I came out of the bathroom to find my wife curled up in the hotel's bathrobe on our king-size bed (most comfortable I've ever slept in, I think) with a package of Twizzlers on her lap (one of her favorite indulgences -- I bought them for her as a gift, though I've probably eaten as many of them as she has), and a glass of champagne in her hand. I laughed and told her I had to get a picture. She's really sitting in the "lap of luxury."

We had a really great time. Even though it was only about an 18-hour getaway, we were able to really relax and de-stress a little. We had a nice dinner out, we got to sleep in the next day and then go out for coffee and breakfast. And since our hotel was right in the heart of downtown, we were only a few blocks from everywhere we wanted to go. We were about a block off of Larimer Square, which is one of the more happenin' areas of the city. Really fun!

July 14, 2010

Three Years

Three years ago today I married the most wonderful woman in the world.


When I think of my life with Elizabeth, a few songs come to my mind. You can listen to them below, but I'll give you a brief description here:

Then by Brad Paisley: Goes through a couple of milestones in the life of the singer and his wife, and how during each one he thought he couldn't possibly ever love her any more deeply, but looking back he can see how much his love for her continues to grow.

Little Moments by Brad Paisley: About the "little moments" of imperfection in life that are shared between the singer and his wife. My favorite part is the bridge because it hits very close to home: "When she's laying on my shoulder on the sofa in the dark, and about the time she falls asleep so does my right arm, and I want so bad to move it, cuz it's tingling and it's numb, but she looks so much like an angel that I don't want to wake her up -- yeah, I live for little moments like that."

The Good Stuff by Kenny Chesney: After the "first big fight" between the singer and his gal he heads to a bar where, instead of alcohol, he gets some wise advice from the bartender. The "good stuff" includes, once again, all of the shared moments with the woman you love.

I know this list makes me sound like some gun-totin' redneck backwoods hick, but the truth is I grew up on country music, and it still happens to be my genre of choice most of the time... and these songs have really great lyrics (from what I know of my audience, I'm sure Emily will appreciate my song choices the most!). Don't judge me. Listen to the songs.

Anyway, all of this is basically to say, Elizabeth, I love you, and my favorite part of being married to you is all of the little moments we share together that no one else will ever know about (like this one: "What? He played racquetball in his room with a tornado?"). :)

*If you're viewing this in a reader you might have to click through to be able to listen to the songs in the widget below.



July 11, 2010

I'll admit it: I have a fetish.

Last month I asked the West Wing lovers who read my blog if they'd be interested in reading a WW blog. I got enough "yeah"s and no real "nay"s, so I've started to do it! I'm going to blog through the whole series (or at least that's the current plan).

I've got an introductory post and a post on the Pilot episode. CLICK HERE to check out the blog. The Pilot post is pretty long. I will try to make a better effort at brevity in the future. Please leave comments and interact. Otherwise it'll be boring for me.

weird woman

I have the World Cup championship game on the TV, not because I really care, but because I like to say "Go Dutch!"

Anyway, my wife just said to me, "Whenever I hear 'FIFA' all I can think is Fee-fa Fi-fa Fo-fa Fum-fa."

July 8, 2010

Unanswered questions

I watched this when my sister-in-law first posted it on my facebook wall shortly after the LOST series finale. I just watched it again this morning and remembered how incredibly hilarious and fantastic it is.

(If you've never watched LOST it won't make any sense to you.)



July 6, 2010

Futbol

I tried to enjoy soccer last month. I really did.

To be honest, it was the ESPN commercials advertising for the FIFA World Cup throughout the spring that really got me interested. I decided to really give it a shot and try to get into the World Cup a little bit. So a few weeks ago when the US team played their tournament opener against England, I settled in to watch it. Over the next couple of hours I learned exactly why soccer is not and will never be as big in the US as the NFL, NBA, or MLB.

1. The game ends whenever the official decides it ends. Soccer is comprised of two 45-minute halves, but at the end of each half the game continues after those 45 minutes have ended. Why? Because during the 45-minute half the clock never stops, so when a goal is scored or a penalty is called a few seconds or even a minute ticks away on the clock while the teams aren't really playing. At the end of each half it is up to the official to rectify the problem, so he approximates how much of the 45 minutes was spent NOT playing and adds that much time to the end. But if he adds 4 minutes at the end, then a portion of that 4 minutes is also spent NOT playing, so after those 4 minutes the official might add another 1 (if he feels like it). It's not an exact science, so the players just have to keep running around until the official has finally had enough and blows his whistle.

This method apparently works just fine throughout most of the world, but Americans need finality. In our sports we have a clock that counts down, and when it hits zero a very loud buzzer sounds. The game is over. It's not arbitrary, and it's not up to one official's whims. Or, in the case of baseball, there's a 9th inning, and when the defense gets its third out, the game is over. The home plate umpire can't just decide to the give the offense another batter or two. It's over. Americans have to have the build-up and the suspense, and the finality of the end of the game. If you score a goal in soccer in the 89th minute, that's awesome... but it's not exactly last-minute (probably). There are probably still a few minutes left (though no one knows for sure except the official). But when Kobe Bryant throws up a 3-pointer with 1 second left, it's a buzzer-beater. It would lose all its pizzazz if he sank a 3 at the buzzer and then the refs said, "Let's play for a couple more minutes... see if Boston can come back and win or not." It's ridiculous.

2. Games end in ties?!?!?!? This one is even more ridiculous. Even though the World Cup is the biggest possible global sporting event, its games (in the early rounds) ended in a tie (or "draw") as often as not! What?!?! The whole foundation of sports is that there are winners and there are losers -- except, apparently, in soccer where there are tie-ers. I'd be even more miffed if I was a player (and not just someone who almost never watches the sport). Imagine running around on a huge field for more than an hour and a half, spilling blood and sweat all over the place and practically killing yourself with effort... and then having the game end in a tie. It feels like the effort shouldn't have even been spent.

When I was watching the end of the US/England game a few weeks ago I didn't know that it was okay to just end a game at a tie, so when the game drew to a close and the score was tied, I began to get excited. Here comes overtime! I was curious as to what overtime looked like in soccer. Is it just sudden death? Do they have a shootout? Who gets the ball first? Overtime nailbiters can be some of the most exciting times in sports. So imagine my surprise when the official blew his whistle to end the game (at whatever arbitrary point he had decided to do so), and that's exactly what happened. The game ended. Tied. No overtime. No sudden death. No shootout. No winner, no loser. Just a tie. And a waste of my Friday morning.

A brief comparison for effect: I could spend $35 for a pretty good seat at a Rockies game. I know that at the end of the night, my team will have either won or lost. It's also possible, though not probable, that I'll get to see significantly more baseball than the 9 innings I paid for. I attended a Rockies game last season that went 14 innings. That's more than 50% more baseball for free. Not only is it fun and exciting, but at the end of the night, it felt like it was worth being there (win OR lose, it's fun to be among the fans at the stadium that have stuck around this long and cheered on their team). Now, the soccer tickets we had for the other night were about that same price: $35. We had pretty good seats, but there's no way I'm getting any more soccer than what I paid for (90 minutes plus a few minutes of Arbitrary Time or whatever the stuff at the end is called). But what's worse than that is that when the game ended, it felt like the entire effort was for nothing. Everyone who paid for a ticket got gipped. Everyone who had to work at a concession stand on a holiday got gipped. Every police officer who directed traffic before and after the game got gipped. All the money spent on flying the New York Red Bulls to Denver was absolutely worthless. Because nothing was determined.

3. The last thing I'll mention is how the low-scoring nature of the game probably doesn't do the game any favors in trying to attract more American fans. Now, I'm not against low scores in sports just on principle. I think a defensive battle in the NFL can be a thing of beauty. A game in the NFL that ends 10-7 is considered very low-scoring, but I can appreciate watching the game anyway. A pitcher's duel in a Major League Baseball game can be the most suspenseful kind of sport. Every pitch is important; a struggle for both hitter and hurler to out-perform the other.

But in soccer it doesn't seem like anything special has to happen at all for it to be low-scoring. There doesn't necessarily have to be fabulous defense, and the goalie doesn't have to make 10 or 15 saves to keep the other team from scoring. It seems to me that the vast majority of the time in soccer, no one's even coming close to being in a good position to score a goal. It also seems that for every goal I see scored, I see another one called off for some penalty or other (and in the case of the World Cup, we don't even always get to know what the penalty was).

So there you have it. Three (of the probably hundreds of) reasons why soccer isn't and will never be a huge sport in this country. Anybody have more?

July 5, 2010

Happy 4th (kinda long... sorry)

We think we kind of have a little tradition-type thingy on Independence Day. For two years in a row now we've hung out with our friend Alisa to celebrate the 4th (and also, for two years in a row now we've had plans in the evening that make it impossible for us to watch 4th of July fireworks with her... so our hanging out tradition is apparently limited to the daylight). So yesterday, the 4th of July, we drove up to Alisa and Alex (her husband)'s place. We basically just hung out and chatted with them and with Leah (who, as you know because you read my last post, was visiting from Chicago) and had a fabulous time. Alisa and Alex have a dog named Asher who's just wonderful. He's fun to play with and he's oh-so cute.

We were having so much fun with our friends that we truly didn't want to leave, but we sorta had to for a really weird reason.

We had tickets to a Major League Soccer game.

Neither Elizabeth nor I know anything about soccer, but a month ago we were given free tickets to a Colorado Rapids soccer game for the 4th of July. The main reason we were going was because we had heard that the fireworks show following the game was one of the best in the state. So, we reluctantly left our wonderful friends and headed home to get ready for our night at the soccer stadium. It was supposed to rain, so we tried to dress for it. Elizabeth did a better job. She wore a coat. I put on a sweatshirt. I figured that it might rain, but it's been 90+ degrees here for over three weeks, so I wasn't terribly worried about the temperature.

We pulled into the stadium parking lot, which isn't a lot so much as a grass and dirt field that appears to stretch for at least 50 miles in every direction (the stadium is seriously in the middle of nowhere). We brought our little umbrella in with us, just in case.

We got to our seats (really good seats!) about 15 minutes into the game. It didn't take us long to realize that watching soccer live at the stadium is about 1000% better than trying to watch it on tv. We had only been there a couple of minutes when the home team scored a goal right in front of our seats. It was pretty exciting for a few minutes.

At halftime Elizabeth and I were chatting, and realizing that we were enjoying the game more than we had anticipated, and then I looked up and saw it. The Big Black Cloud of Certain Death. The cloud that was rolling in (very quickly, by the way) overhead was not dark blue or dark gray. It didn't look like any actual cloud I'd ever seen before. It looked like a cross between the Smoke Monster from Lost and The Nothing from The Never Ending Story. It was big, it was black, and it looked like it was carrying certain death (hence its name).

A few minutes before the game was set to resume that cloud placed itself right over the stadium and blew itself open. It poured on us. We headed up to the concourse, which was roofed, to get ourselves out of the rain a little bit (our cheap little umbrella did what it could, but it couldn't do much). Everyone else at the game had the same idea we did. We watched the first 15 minutes of the second half jam-packed in a huge crowd of people huddled under the only roof at the stadium.

Soon the rain started to die down a little. It kept raining, but it wasn't pouring anymore. At some point when the Big Black Cloud of Certain Death descended on us, the temperature had apparently gone from the 75-80 range to the 35-40 range. It was COLD.

We made it through the rest of the game, but we were very wet. I was soaked to the bone, pretty much. Elizabeth was probably doing a little better, because her coat was better than my sweatshirt, but her jeans were soaked, so it wasn't comfortable at all. After the game ended the announcer reassured everyone that the fireworks would go on as planned despite the rain. They opened up the field to spectators because there are a lot of seats in the stadium where you can't see the fireworks very well. Ours, we were told, were some of them. So we headed down to the field. It was still raining, and our umbrella was still not great at its job, so we figured we could probably find some empty seats high enough that they were under part of the overhang, but where the fireworks could still be seen. We asked one of the stadium workers where the fireworks would be launched from. She told us, and we headed up and found some great seats that weren't being rained on because they were under the stadium's overhang.

We sat there, feeling good about our choice... but then the wind shifted and we were being rained on again. Shortly thereafter the fireworks began, but they weren't being launched from where we were told they would be. So the roof was in our way and we couldn't see. So we got up and headed down to the field so we could see them. The wind was apparently blowing directly from the fireworks to our faces, because there was no possible way to position the umbrella to stop the rain AND for us to see the fireworks. The rain was coming straight out of the fireworks. So we watched most of the show before we realized that we were kind of miserable. We headed out of the stadium and toward the car, keeping an eye on the fireworks show. As we were walking to the car we stopped for the fireworks finale. The smoke was so thick from so many fireworks that you couldn't even see some of the big ones exploding. It was crazy. It would have been an awesome show if we weren't freezing and wet.

Then we remembered that the parking lot, which used to be grass and dirt, was now a swamp of mud. Getting back to our car was an adventure in itself, and trying not to get stuck in the mud as we drove out of the parking lot was another one.

In the end we decided three things:
1. The game would have been really fun if it hadn't rained.
2. The fireworks would have been really fun if it hadn't rained.
3. We should have blown off the game and hung out with our friends all night long.

A great house guest, and Independence Day Eve

Our friend Matt came to visit the other day. He arrived really late (like, a little after 1 a.m.) on Thursday night and left around lunch time on Saturday. On Friday we hung out in the morning and grilled some brats. Saturday we went for our run -- and he did too. Matt's training for the Air Force marathon (which takes place the day before our race) and he's on a crazy training program. He ran 18 miles on Saturday.

Matt's a great guest to host. We loved having him around. I was especially interested in having him stay with us because I got to hear about what he's doing. He's an Air Force lawyer, and when he talks about his job he makes me think he's a character straight out of A Few Good Men.

Saturday night we went to watch fireworks. We met up with our friend Alisa and her husband, and another friend, Leah, was visiting from Chicago! We had a really great time with them... but the fireworks were kinda weird. After a while they just stopped (no obligatory "finale" at all). We weren't sure whether or not they were over. We waited a solid five minutes. Many of the people sitting around us had packed up and started to head out... but then the finale started. But then the finale stopped. It lasted 10 or 15 seconds. It was weird. We didn't know if it was over again. But we waited a good 10 minutes this time, and no more fireworks were seen. The show was a little disappointing, but the friendship was certainly worth the time spent.

June 30, 2010

Recipe

THIS is a recipe for "chili beans and turkey sausage" that Elizabeth and I have had twice. We love it. It's really good. And really easy. We don't do the tomato and cucumber salad that it mentions at the end. Also, it has you prepare rice, but it doesn't instruct you on how to serve the rice (I assume it means to pour the chili over the rice on your plate), but we've actually found that eating the chili out of a bowl works best (it's thinner than a real "chili" -- more like a soup), and we add the cooked rice to the bowl. The rice thickens it up and adds some flavor.

Good stuff!

That's all.

June 28, 2010

Nothing at all

I'm laying in bed, nursing a minor skin irritation and playing games on my iPod Touch (or as some people call it, to my utter frustration, "iTouch"). I'm blogging from my iPod just to see if it can be done at all efficiently. The answer, in case you're wondering, is sorta. :)

June 25, 2010

Explaining things.

I like to explain things too much.

For example, I often find myself wanting to add pages to this blog, so I'll start creating an "About Me" page or something like that. I begin typing and before I know it I've provided so much detail, and so many disclaimers about my blog that any reader would just think I was insane.

Or, how about another example: Not long ago I ventured the idea of starting a West Wing blog (from where I would blog my way through the television series, episode by episode). Since then, I've been working on setting one up. I keep adding pages to it so that I can describe the exact process I will be using, or writing disclaimers about my lack of political expertise, or explaining how at first I was going to write one type of blog, but now I've decided to do it a different way... All kinds of information that is simply evident to anyone who reads the blog itself.

It's as if I don't believe in the phrase "it goes without saying." I just want to say everything by way of explanation.

(I mean, look at this post, for crying out loud! I'm even explaining details about how I explain too many details!)

June 23, 2010

Chandler on homosexuality

The videos below are from a seminar that pastor Matt Chandler gave at his church, The Village Church in Dallas, on the topic of homosexuality. The first 1.5 hours is Chandler's teaching, and the last video (a little over 35 minutes) is Chandler taking questions from his audience via text message. I've referenced this pastor before because I think he's one of the best speakers/preachers I've ever heard, and he's engaging and entertaining, and more full of grace and love than just about anyone else as well.

Even though it's about two hours' worth of videos, I would strongly encourage you to take the time some evening (instead of watching a movie?). His teaching goes far deeper than just addressing the issue of homosexuality. It left me more convicted of my own sin and my need for repentance than any sermon I've heard in a while.


Culture and Theology: Homosexuality - Part 1 from The Village Church on Vimeo.


Culture and Theology: Homosexuality - Part 2 from The Village Church on Vimeo.


Culture and Theology: Homosexuality - Q&A from The Village Church on Vimeo.

Art

I believe that there is actual truth in the world, and that some things are good and some things are bad regardless of what an individual might think about them. But when it comes to art I'm completely in the dark.

I have no idea what makes some art "good" and some "bad." A year or two ago I saw a couple of news stories about some 9-year old "prodigy" who completed these "brilliant" and "beautiful" paintings that sold for thousands of dollars. To me it looked like the kid had used paint to scribble on a canvas. If I had painted the exact same things, mine wouldn't have sold for 10 cents at a garage sale.

I remember almost none of the stuff I learned in elementary school art classes. What I remember the best was when we learned how to draw a person's face. We learned that a person's head is more of an oval in shape than a circle. I also remember learning that the eyes sit roughly in the middle of a person's head -- about even with the ears (as opposed to way up at the top of the face, which is where my stick-figures' eyes always had been). After I learned these things in elementary school, my drawings of peoples' faces got a lot better. But Pablo Picasso probably would have failed elementary school art, because he never really seemed to care where facial features were supposed to go. Yet he's a famous artist whose works still sell for crazy amounts of money all over the world. Why?

My ignorance of "good" art is not restricted to paintings or visual arts either. It extends to music. I like to consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about music, but at times I feel like a complete moron. I watched Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" music video the other day. Whereas most people apparently see a revolutionary and artistic video performed to a groundbreaking song and musical style, I see a complete whack-job wearing the most non-sensical costumes that seem to be designed around two objectives: 1) making Lady Gaga as naked as possible without being censored on television, and 2) ugliness (and I'm talking about the costumes, not the woman wearing them).

Let's not limit ourselves to music and paintings. What about audio-visual arts like movies? I can be just as stupid about those! When the movie Sin City first came out I went and saw it in the theater with a group of my friends from college. If I hadn't been dependent on my friends for a ride home, I probably would have walked out of it. It was awful. In my opinion it had less of a plot than if I had shot home video of a drunk guy stumbling down the sidewalk. As far as I could tell, it was mostly about sex and violence. I didn't understand it, and I regretted spending money on a ticket. But on the way home, my friends and I were discussing it. One of my more intelligent, more cultured friends tried to explain to me how artistic and creative the movie had been. I told him that I could throw mud on the wall and draw a monkey out of it and you could call it "artistic and creative," or you could just be upset that I had thrown mud all over an otherwise clean wall. I guess I don't understand who decides where the line is between a stupid waste of time and a priceless masterpiece.

Part of what's frustrating is that oftentimes I do see rather subtle things in a song's lyrics or a movie's cinematography that make me think I have at least a slight eye for artistic things. One example is the final, climactic, dramatic scene in one of my all-time favorite movies, A Few Good Men. Colonel Jessep (Jack Nicholson) enters the courtroom to take the witness stand, and the camera angle is from below, looking up at him, and through some kind of lens that makes him look almost larger than life; proud, extremely powerful, and intimidating. By the end of the scene, after Jessep has exploded on the witness stand and gotten himself into all kinds of trouble, the camera angle looks slightly down on him, making him appear weak, and almost inconsequential. In the last 20 minutes of the movie he goes from a big, bullying, tough-guy, almost super-hero to a weakened criminal who's under arrest. It's one of the things I LOVE about movies. A filmmaker can rouse emotions and responses from the audience that would not come from just the dialogue or the action. I consider it very "artistic." I can usually tell what makes one photograph better than another. I can go to an art museum and really enjoy myself, but I'll probably linger at only 5-6 different exhibits that seem to attract me. The vast majority will probably not make much sense to me, so I'll glance quickly and move on.

But surely an artistic work's "goodness" or "badness" is not simply a matter of subjective opinion, right? Is Lady Gaga a great artist only because a lot of people happen to enjoy her music and videos? I find that hard to believe. Somebody educate me.

June 16, 2010

Coaching

I love baseball. I love watching it, I love playing it, and I'm sure with a little more time and experience, I'll love coaching it.

Right now the "coaching it" part is kind of frustrating. I'm an assistant coach of a 15-16 year old rec league team. Most of the kids on our team do NOT seem like they've played much baseball before. Some of them don't have a clue about the most basic rules (didn't realize I needed to teach some of them what it means to "tag up"). Also, we were allotted about 4 1-hour practices prior to the start of the season. And now that games have started, we no longer practice at all (so even though we see more things to work on each game, we have no time to actually work on them). Evidently, rec league baseball isn't a very serious affair around here.

It would also be easier if I were the head coach. My head coach is great (he's an assistant pastor at the church where I work). We get along fabulously, and I think he's doing a good job of trying to impart some baseball knowledge while not taking the thing too seriously. But being an assistant coach means I feel uncomfortable being very assertive about things. It would just be easier to be in a position where I could command the team a little more (and I'm not at all suggesting that I would make us any better... I'm just saying that for myself I would probably feel better about the job I'm doing if I were in charge).

My dad was the only baseball coach I had until high school, and he was very good at it. He also had a slight advantage though, in my opinion: He started coaching us at 5 years old and continued with pretty much the same group of kids for about ten years. He helped us from the ground up. When we were 15-16 we knew baseball because we'd grown up with it and had been coached well. Now I'm trying to coach 15-16 year olds who have the baseball experience and knowledge of probably 7-8 year olds (with a few exceptions, of course).

Anyway, my points here, to sum up, are: I love baseball. My current coaching gig is a little frustrating. My dad's a great coach, and I want to coach like him someday.

P.S. We've played one game. We lost 10-7. Found out that this level of ball is determined solely by the quality of the pitchers. We had a great pitcher for 4 innings, and we were winning. Then we put in a not-so-great pitcher, and we were suddenly down 10-2. Fortunately, they put in a not-so-great pitcher in the 7th inning and we scored five runs to make it moderately close. Interesting.

June 10, 2010

Question for my West Wing-ers

A significant percentage of the people who read my blog are also big fans of The West Wing (I think). So if you belong to that group, I have a question for you: Would you read a WW-themed blog?

My wife and I continue to watch The West Wing on DVD somewhat regularly, and we are nearing the end of the 7th (and final) season. When that happens, we usually just start right over at 1 again and work our way back through the series. I thought it might be fun THIS time to blog through the series, with general thoughts/observations/funny quotes/favorite parts of each episode. Would that interest any of you? Of course, my hope would be to hear YOUR thoughts/observations/favorite parts of each episode too through comments and stuff. Like a little community of WW lovers who can discuss it and argue about it.

Now, before you freak out, here are a few disclaimers: First, what I am talking about would be an entirely separate blog from this one (so those of you who couldn't care less wouldn't be bothered). Second, though this idea might imply that we watch 2-3 episodes of the show per night, that's actually not true (it was at one time in my life, and in our marriage, but it's not anymore). We actually kind of tend to go in spurts. Sometimes (on rare occasions) we might watch 5 episodes in a week, but other times (more common), we might go three weeks without watching one. The blog posts would come about as frequently as the episode-watching.

(I might end up doing this even if nobody says they're interested... because I would personally enjoy such an outlet.)

What do you think?