Celebration Successful

The paper is turned in, the Hebrew quiz is over and the celebration was successful.

I haven't slept in the last 40 hours or so, since i never made it to bed last night. Instead of longing for rest after class was over today, I celebrated by heading to the parent's house to watch the NFL game on the NFL network.

The celebration could only be deemed successful if Terrell Owens caught a touchdown as he was the only fantasy football implication I had in the game. Fortunately for me, the celebration was successful.

Now I do need sleep.

My New Paper Standard

I decided tonight (this morning) that I have a new standard for judging the length of papers. If a paper takes long enough to print that your computer gets to its screensaver just because of the printing process, you have written too long of a paper.

I kinda had to cheat on my paper tonight. This instructor told us that our paper needed to be 2650 words. Fortunately for me, he did not say if this counted footnotes or not. As word counts can be done either way, I would get to pick which one suited me. Usually my instructors are clear on if footnotes count or not.

If I don't count the footnotes, my paper is 2667 words. Adding the footnotes to my word count would put me beyond the 5% of grace that is given for being either short or long of the word count.

Go Jephthah go.

Pizza Pizza

There has been an uprising of Little Ceasars Pizzas around the twin cities recently. I was excited about this because of their breadsticks.

Their breadsticks still taste wonderful, though they are cooked well before you order them.

The biggest downfall, they are no longer the owners of a uniquely square pizza. They have instead gone the way of a fast food chain and offer their pizzas more reasonably priced than the other pizza changes, but also cook them before you get there. They simply keep large pizzas in stocks of the normal one topping favorites.

The price is right, and they give a decent product for what they charge, but they aren't quite the original.

Morning Paper-Boy

I'm usually a late night enthusiast when it comes to homework. But tonight, I'm feeling sleepy.

I did my research, found the quotes I needed and placed those books on the couch. Soon, I'll actually go to bed.

Then, as I wake up in the morning, I'll write my paper. Not the long one due Thursday, but the shorter one that is due at 1:00 tomorrow afternoon.

Sounds like fun.

A Different Kind of Christmas

It was June I think. I know it was in the summer. I was listening to sermons I had downloaded, while I was up late one night. The series I was listening to was from late fall or early winter 2006. They were just beginning their Christmas kick.

It ended with a challenge to their congregation on what Christmas would look like. It challenged my views of what Christmas should look like.

Jenny and I began discussing Christmas that week. We are that weird. I wouldn't shop until Christmas Eve, but I'll talk about it in June.

Tonight, we finished our "Christmas List." If you can call it that. It is titled "Re-Claiming Christmas While Empowering Giving."

That's right, our list has a title. That's when you know you are in for trouble. Here is the first half as a tease.

Re-Claiming Christmas While Empowering Giving

Jenny and I have a different desire for our Christmas celebration this year. We are hoping that this helps us to reclaim for ourselves what we envision Christmas to be about, while also allowing people to give in the fashion they desire.

Our belief is that the greatest gift we could ever have been given was given in Christ himself, his birth being the reason for Christmas. We also believe that God gives us gifts (blessings) so that we can give gifts (blessings) to other people. Our desire is that our celebration of Christmas reflects these truths in our context today.

We want our Christmas to be about us being a blessing to other people. Therefore, instead of a list of things that we want for ourselves, Jenny and I have each chosen an organization that we feel blesses others in a way that moves our hearts. A little bit about these organizations and how to give to them can be found below. It is our hope, that you will consider giving to these organizations instead of searching for some material possession to give Jenny or myself.

At the same time, Jenny and I have experienced the joy of finding a gift that you know is meant for someone you care about. Because of this, we hope no one feels obligated to give to an organization if you would rather give us the gift you found or thought of for us. The experience of giving is a powerful one and we don’t want to take that away from anyone. We just hope that any gifts we receive come from that notion, and not the notion of obligation. Trust that we will be extremely excited about donations made to these organizations.

Who Reads Novels?

At some point in my life, I'm hoping to broaden my reading horizons back into the novel world.

I don't have a lot of insight when it comes to entering this world though. Outside of some of the classics that I've wanted to read for a long time (I'll buy and read The Brothers Karamazov eventually) I don't have ideas of who or what to start reading.

What would you recommend and why? You can freely assume I haven't read many of the classics themselves.

Thanksgiving Day Question

MDK asked:

What are pimentos? Are they a food product of themselves or are they a by product of something else such as red peppers? Where are they grown?

"Pimentos" most often spelled pimientos are a by product of themselves. Pimientos are actually there own kind of pepper. They are mainly grown in Spain, but can aslo be found in a few South American countries. They are a very sweet pepper, which is why they have been combined often with olives, to counteract the acidic nature brought to olives.

They are also the pepper that is responsible for paprika, as that is the result of a ground pimiento pepper.

This was something that was too difficult for me to research on my own, so I found myself a companion to help.

Jenny and I (read: Jenny did any diaper changing, though I did do some feeding) babysat our nephew Luke today while his mommy had to work.

My War With Tryptophan

I won the day battle, as I never felt the need to take a nap this afternoon.

But as I sit down at 11:15 tonight, I feel abnormally tired. Maybe Trypto (the fighting name of tryptophan) will win the night battle.

We'll have to wait and see.

Mmmm, Mmmm Good

I'm thankful for turkey, for noodles, for stuffing, for broccoli casserole, for homemade rolls, for jello, for mashed potatoes, for red velvet cake, and for anything else that my grace the dinner table tomorrow evening.

Fun with Academics

Maybe you all will find this as amusing as I will. I get to write a 10 page paper on this passage, due in a week and a half. Curious as to anyone's impressions.

Judges 11:29-40 (NIV)

29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD : "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."

32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.

34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break."

36 "My father," she replied, "you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request," she said. "Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry."

38 "You may go," he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. 39 After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.

From this comes the Israelite custom 40 that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

Interesting things to Note

2 interesting things today, 1 a phrase origin, and 1 statistics.

The first: Where did the phrase "skin of my teeth" come from?

Answer, the book of Job in the Old Testament. (Job 19:20)
Meaning: The expression derives from the fact that there is no skin on the teeth (one of the few parts of the body) (Fingernails and toe nails being the others)and so to IN THE FULL EXPRESSION 'Escape by the skin of ones teeth' means to avoid a catastrophy by the very smallest margin.

And now the statistics:

Detroit, Michigan found its new rank atop the countries most dangerous cities (leaping over St. Louis) this year and Mission Viejo, California was found the countries safest city.

I was hoping to find out where Minneapolis might land on the list, but it was excluded from the list because of incomplete data.

Oh well.

You can find more fun city facts here:

UsaToday Article

Don't Touch The Stove

I keep burning my hand on the stove. Not literally, but spiritually.

No matter how many times someone tells me, or how many times I repeat in my head that my worth comes from God alone, I continue to find myself depressed. I find my worth limited, not because I believe that to be true, but because that is the impression I get from people, or at least the message I hear from them, regardless of their intent.

Someday I hope to be able to trust in my worth and where it truly comes from, but until that day is realized, I imagine that the burn will continue to hurt.

I'm desperately hurting now.

Sunglasses and Sideviews

It's all about CSI Miami. More specifically, Horatio Caine.

What is it with Sunglasses and Sideviews. Add in repeating himself and promising someone he'll always be there for them and you've covered every scene he has ever been in.

He is easily my least liked character on Television, and the sole reason I never care if I miss an episode. It's too bad too. Some of the supporting cast in the Miami version are my favorite supporting cast members of the CSI trilogy.

I hope he gets shot in the eye.

Strange Request

I got a phone call today with a strange request.

I was actually asked what someone else wants for Christmas. That isn't necessarily the unusual part, as people will likely ask me for suggestions as to what they might get Jenny.

The odd part was, the person calling asked me for suggestions on what they wanted for Christmas. How am I supposed to know what they want for Christmas any better than they do?

Twas a puzzling situation. I hope I helped.

Marathon Memories, The Poetry Version

It doesn’t take long, until you feel all alone
Thousands with you on the road, but you want to be home

You are tired of the cameras, documenting your run
You are tired of running, its no longer fun

You find yourself doubting, at the end of your rope
You don’t think you’ll finish, you abandon all hope

Your legs feel too weary, to continue this race
You’d gladly walk away, with a towel over your face

You no longer care, about the finish you desired
Not just your body, but your spirits are tired

If it was just about you, you would quit this race
But at the next mile, you recognize a face

Three people have come, with clapping and cheers
Statements they’ve forgotten, that you’ll remember for years

“You’ve got just enough left, we know you can make it”
Says your mother in the group, so you decide you can fake it

Those words of belief, ring loud in your head
You won’t let her down now, you’ll fight through instead

You notice your surroundings, dejected women and men
But you turn the next corner, and see them again

“Come on, you can make it.” says father to son
You feel if you finish, he’ll believe he has won

You run for father, who supports from the sides
You continue moving forward, with the monotonous strides

Again all alone, no finish in sight
You debate giving up, but it wouldn’t feel right

Not because you care, but because they do
They’ve been here for hours, they're invested in you

Your body has slowed down, your legs tight with pain
A finishing medal, seems like little to gain

But your wife says "I love you, and will be at the end”
She decides not to hug you, but a kiss she does send

The last three miles, you must do on your own
No friendly faces, beckoning you home

They’ll be at the finish, cheering you on
They’ve been there all day, their support never gone

You see them again, they’ve awaited this time
They are there to watch you, cross that finish line

As you do so with pride, you know one thing that’s true
Three people came out, and made the day about you

You hobble through the finish, adorned with medal to chest
You think I need three more, they made me my best

You couldn’t have made it, you were at the end of your rope
You wouldn’t have finished, but they gave you hope

Faith and Politics, Where to Start?

As the next year plays out, I'm sure I will end up having lots of political discussions. What an opinionated topic.

It will be interesting to see how many of these political discussions also involve religion. Possibly the two most argued upon subjects in America, and we'll combine them for a year. Yay.

The relation of the two topics is always an interesting one to me. I make my political decisions different than many traditional Evangelical Christians think I should, but also make them differently than many "controversial" teachers on the subject of faith and politics (i.e. Greg Boyd) thinks I should.

But my thoughts jumped forward today as I read the news. On UsaToday's website I found an article in which the discussion of the nation's Catholic Bishops was concluded with their statements on how people should vote during the elections.

They didn't go as far to endorse a specific candidate or party, but made many other bold statements, three of which I'll list below:

The article starts with a statement that aims to "remind" Catholic "voters that their choices in the 2008 elections 'also may affect' their salvation."

WOW.

It moves on saying "life issues such as abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, artificial contraception and racism are 'evils' that can never be supported."

While I agree that evils shouldn't ever be supported, I feel this has little to do with the Presidential elections as I evaluate them.

The last statement claims that "there's also room for a prudential voter, seeing no candidate in line with Catholic teachings, to weigh other critical moral issues such as poverty, peace, or social justice."

Really? We should only way issues like poverty, peace and social justice if we find no candidate in line with the issues on abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, artificial contraception and racism?

I struggle to find any rhyme or reason to their ordering of these topics.

I look forward to many discussions on the topics in the future.

Scripture: Infalliblity vs. Inerrancy

Jeremy stated:

I would be curious to hearing about your conclusion and finding on your scripture paper. I would love for you to illustrate the infallibility vs. inerrancy debate. Just a thought.......

Here Goes:

Lucky for me, the paper was about what I believe (it was a credo paper, not an academic process), so the scholarly language and background was assumed on many topics. In that specific paper, we were asked to pick any topic from the doctrine of scripture (examples: how the canon was formed, infallibility vs. innerancy, modes on inspiration) and write what we believed to be true about the subject.

I chose infallibility vs. innerancy. I was granted the luxury of being able to assume that the Bible was seen both as inspired and authoritative, so i'll speak little of either of those issues here. Instead, I'll briefly explain (as Jeremy asked) the infallibility vs. innerancy debate and give my brief opinion and conclusion.

Both "infalliblity" and "innerancy" are traditional theological terms to describe the level of "truth" that scripture contained. Both are terms I'll start by defining in the traditional sense.

"Innerancy" is the belief that the original autographs written by the writers of the Bible contained no errors. The premise is that God is perfect, cannot lie, and inspired the Bible, thus the Bible is perfect and cannot lie. It holds this view to the original autographs only as translating and updating and editing may have altered the validity of some claims the Bible makes.

The major critique of inerrancy comes with things that appear to be invalid or contradictory. Generally, issues of science and history that today are proven to have happened, or be different than the Bible says are hard for some to validate as true. It is because of this critique that the "infallibility" view has also become well known.

"Infallibility" is the belief that the original autographs written by the writers of the Bible contain no errors as it comes to faith, life and practice. It allows for the Bible to be wrong in areas of science and/or history because, generally, scientific and historical motivations were not on the mind of the authors. Instead, the author's intent was to communicate on issues of faith, life and practice. It defines lying differently that the "inerrantist" view would.

The "inerrantist" would say that God cannot lie, therefore, all he inspired must be true, while the "infallibist" would define truth as willful deceit and thus say that God did not try to willfuly deceive us in any matters of faith, life or practice and thus has not lied in the Bible, regardless of what the original authors thought to be true of science or not.

In my paper, and here both, I easily proclaim that based on the traditional definitions, I fall on the "infalliblity" side of the argument.

I however, would also claim that the "infalliblity" side of the argument believes that the Bible was "without error."

As all true "inerrantist" would say, genre and context matter. For example, "inerrantists" would not argue that all things said in poetry happened as stated. They give the liberty to the author to use a specific genre to accomplish a specific purpose. Thus, the imaginative language used to describe God, or us, does not have to accurately reflect (in a literal way) God or us.

Because "innerantist" themselves have decided to include this criteria for defining "errors of fact" I would argue that no scientific misconceptions be seen as errors in the Bible.

The Bible was not a science manual. The scientific knowledge available at the time the Bible was written is limited compared to today, which is limited compared to the future. Fortunately, the authors were not concerned with giving its listeners a correct scientific understanding of the world (or even the creation of it) but were concerned with teaching people what it looks like to be the people of God.

The Bible does this without error. It is INERRANT to that effect. That however is not the typical view of inerrancy.

I am unashamedly "infalliblitstic." I just wish the terms could be re-defined.

I believe the closing statement in my paper was something like:

I believe that someone can affirm that scripture is both inspired and authoritative without having to hold that it is inerrant.



I'm positive this might be clear as mud, so feel free to ask questions or state opinions.

Questions, Queries, and Requests

I again have hit a dry spell for blog topics.

If you have any questions, queries or requests, feel free to leave a comment for me on under this post and i'll get to them as I can.

Otherwise, lets hope something eventful happens, or my brain turns on again.

No Disappointment

The "showdown" between Jason and I was not one of disappointment.

Between the two of us, we accounted for the 1st and 2nd highest point totals of the week. Unfortunately for Jason, that means he played against the only person who could beat him this week (and maybe this whole season).

Jason's undefeated season is now ruined as his 9-0 team fell to my 5-4 team because I finally decided to lead the league in scoring for a week, and he happened to be playing me. I always find the motivation to pull it out against him.

It looks like we should both make the playoffs this year, so if we meet again, money will actually be on the line.

I wish him the best for the future, that is, unless I face him again.

The Showdown

Tomorrow, Jason and I face off in our most important Fantasy Football League.

He is currently sitting well ahead in first place in the league, undefeated in every match he has played.

The hope is that I can change that tomorrow. We are in different divisions, so we only play each other once in the season, and only again, if we happen to meet in the playoffs. But tomorrow, none of that matters. All that matters is that I score one more point than he does.

How To Draw

I have gotten bored with my own doodles. I have/had four objects that I would draw as doodles. None of them required a curved line.

I was disappointed in my own doodling ability to the point that I asked Jenny to show me how to draw some stuff. That same night, after Jenny went to bed, I scoured the Internet for directions on how to draw some cartoon characters.

Now, I'm a proud Homer Simpson doodler. He might be the easiest cartoon to draw ever.

That is good, because when it comes to art, I need either straight and logical, or easy.

Supreme Short Term Memory

Our memorized verse recordings were due in Hebrew today.

We all valiantly walked in with different types of media to hand them to our instructor. I had chosen the miniature, journalist size, cassette tape for my preferred canvas.

The funny thing to me, was hearing when people decided to do this assignment. We had three weeks. I did it Tuesday night, many did it this morning, one did it two and a half weeks ago.

We then decided it would be fun to see if any of us could still remember it, and I got crowned, "Supreme Short Term Memory Man" as I was the only person who could make it all the way through.

I was astonished that the person who recorded theirs at 10:00 this morning had forgotten it by 1:00, but my pride was thankful as it enabled me gloating ability for the day in class.

Don't worry, I know I have issues.

Learning My Lesson

Jenny told me this evening that she was "glad I had learned my lesson." I didn't know if she was being sarcastic or not.

I'm a messy eater sometimes. Specifically, if i get a bowl of salsa and bag of chips to eat on the couch while watching television. It isn't that I spill on the couch, just on myself. Frequently.

After this weeks laundry loads, I pulled out a long sleeve white T-Shirt of mine that now has a salsa stain on it forever. I wasn't excited about this and didn't want to repeat this in the future.

Therefore, tonight, I sat down to eat salsa, and thought beforehand, "am I wearing anything i don't want stained?"

I had on a zip-up, hooded sweatshirt displaying the Kentucky Wildcats name and logo. I didn't want to stain it, so I unzipped it, still wearing it for warmth, but proudly putting my undershirt in harms way. After about 5 minutes, when I finally spilt salsa, I exclaimed "YES!"

Jenny was initially confused until I told here how wise I had been to unzip my sweatshirt and that I was excited that I had thought of it in advance. My actions were now justified in my opinion.

I told her, "I didn't want to get my sweatshirt stained, but don't care if I get a salsa stain on this undershirt."

Her only response was, "I'm glad you finally learned your lesson."

Was she being sarcastic? That is for you to decide, or for her to tell us.

Helping through the Unknown

Maybe you are better than me. Maybe, when you have to memorize something, you can do so without cheating. I cannot. If i'm holding the piece of paper, or the flash cards, or looking at the screen of what I need to memorize, I almost always find myself cheating. It is because of this that I often need Jenny's help when I'm required to memorize.

With Vocab words for Hebrew last year, she often had to hold and flip them for me so that I couldn't just cheat and convince myself I would remember it.

Tonight, Jenny had to help through the unknown. I had to memorize 6 verses of Hebrew text for the Old Testament so that I could record myself saying them to hand in on Thursday. As I was doing so, I would constantly find myself looking at the paper to "remind" me. I had convinced myself that I would remember it all. I needed to let go of the paper though, and needed to do so in a way where there was still accountability to what I was saying. The hard part was, the Hebrew symbols meant nothing to Jenny. There was no bit of pronunciation to be found in them, so she wouldn't have been able to tell me if I skipped a word, or mispronounced it.

So I got to "transliterate" it for her. Fun words like "lka" or "vsamu" and such. It worked wonderfully though. She asked informative questions to me, and gave a critical opinion on the precision of my regurgitation of the text even though she could probably only translate 5 of the words (God, Moses, Aaron, Israel, and Shalom).

She did a wonderful job of helping through the unknown.

P.S. My spellchecker doesn't like the words "lka" or "vsamu."

Conviction is not Fun

I haven't been doing well. After waking up on the wrong side of the bed yesterday (see previous blog) I proceeded to go to bed on the wrong side as well (read: my night didn't end well so I quit what I was working on and went to sleep). That didn't put me in a frame to wake up doing well this morning so the trend continued today.

Except, that one thing was added.

Conviction.

About a week ago, I talked about being someone worth watching. I want to show that spirituality is in all of life, not a separate facet of it. Today, that hit me over the head. I had encouraged people to be comfortable asking me how I was spending my time.

I have not been spending it well. I hadn't been nearly as focused over my two week break as I needed to be on my schoolwork. That lead directly to last night's downfall. It didn't take me long to make the connection. I really do need to get my act together.

Not, I need to get my act together so I can pass a class, or get my act together, because students need to have their acts together. This reaches much deeper. I need to be the kind of person who will do the hard work, even when it isn't exciting to them.

Time for some more vomiting on you all:

There are recurring trends in my life. One of which particularly, is against the trend that the Bible says our life should look like. I'll unfold.

When it comes to doing something well, I excel if two things are true: 1) I'm naturally gifted at doing what is required, and 2) I enjoy the process or outcome of the actions. What is unfortunate, is the rarity in which both of these things are true.

Soccer has been one of those examples in my life. I never really minded doing the training for soccer that wasn't fun, I even allowed myself to be convinced to play positions that I didn't prefer, because both of these things were true. Basketball is the counterpart. I played organized basketball for one season. I wasn't good. This gave me no desire to put in the effort to become better. I wasn't naturally gifted, therefore, I quit.

The second aspect is easier to see in some leadership positions I have held. In college, I served in the same role for two different years, the first of which, I served very successfully, the second of which I mailed in. I didn't put in the effort to be as good of a leader the second year, not because I wasn't gifted to (quite the opposite actually), but because I no longer found excitement in the process. It was old. It had worn off on me. The magic had left.

Well before I resigned from my Youth Pastoring job, I knew this was happening again. I had worked for the first year the way I had been trained to: don't change much the first year. Form relationships and positions yourself to adequately assess where the situation is and how you might make changes during the second year. I could do this. The excitement even carried into the second year, because...I got to make changes. I had talked to my mentors during this process and mentioned my fear that the third year would become one of boredom for me. The excitement of making new changes might wear off, and because of the influx of new students over the two year period, I would now be re-teaching things I had taught two years ago. I was concerned, but never had to face the issue. For very different reasons, I resigned before the third year started.

I find myself in the situation again. Seminary was great last year. I never regretted being there, I rarely decided not to pay full attention in class. Only church history bored me enough to browse the internet or play Free Cell instead of listening intently. This year seems different. School feels like something I have to do again this year, not something I love to do. Part of we wonders if it is just a cycle I go through, or if some of it has to do with the fact that I have no preaching class this quarter. This is my first quarter without one and I desperately miss the act of crafting sermons, even if they are sermons I will never preach.

Regardless of the reason, I know that the second premise (me being excited about the process or outcome of my action) is not true right now. I'm highly gifted to be in Seminary, but my motivation isn't so keen right now.

God has been challenging me in this because His Word seems to consistently affirm that perseverance is a key trait to the Christian life. As I've reflected on my life, perseverance is something that I haven't always portrayed.

My prayer tonight, is that I would decrease and God would increase. Through this, and this only do I actually have hope that perseverance will become a characteristic of my identity.

With all that said, I now get to write a paper on my belief on inerrancy vs. infallibility of the Scriptures. I know, you're jealous.

One of Those Days

Some days, things just go South from the get go. Today was one of those days.

I don't know when it started, but I was in a bad (read: depressed) mood for most of the day today. That is understandable as I type now, as little that I was hoping to have happen today actually happened, but I felt depressed long before the football games ever started.

I don't like the cliche of waking up on the wrong side of the bed, but today, I must have done it.

Around 6:00 this evening all I could think was, I'd like to lose that hour I gained. Most of the day, I just wanted it to be an hour later that it was. There was so little I enjoyed. I just want it to end.

I hope, that as I wake up tomorrow, this mood has left me. I have a paper due Tuesday that I'll be writing during the afternoon and late evening tomorrow, so it'd be nice to be in a normal mood and go down because of the paper, but if I start depressed, tomorrow will be another long day.

Saved by the Internet News

I was glancing over the top news stories before deciding what I should blog about.

In doing so, I saw the story to remind people to set their clocks back an hour. I was glad I did.

Both Jenny and I would have forgotten and been to church an hour early tomorrow morning. Now we can be excited about staying up later than we should.

Woohoo for the internet news.

Un-Recognizeable

Part of me wonders if I can ever become "un-recognizeable."

I read a news story today of a cat and a dog that were given awards today for their actions. Both of them life saving actions. We recognize pets for their life-saving efforts. We recognize people for their bravery, courage, good deeds.

We recognize people for living the way we are all supposed to live. We recognize people for being the things we are all supposed to be.

What puzzles me is that it is the recognition that drives many people. There are lots of things I'm supposed to do, that I do with hopes I'll get recognized for doing them. This isn't the way it is supposed to be. I need to stop worrying about "who is the greatest" and start becoming "un-recognizeable."

What Advice Stuck?

I've been on a finances kick recently. It started when I heard a person being used as the financial expert to give advice to those who were in the studio audience of Oprah (that's right, I watched Oprah this week).

The advisor didn't say anything I hadn't heard before. She even used many cliche's while giving her opinion in response to people's questions.

So when it comes to advice like, "a penny saved is a penny earned" or "pay yourself first," I find that many lines are quoted without being practiced.

Now I'm curious. What financial advice, and from whom have you found to be a staple, or at least helpful in your life?

What recommendations do people have for saving and investing on a tight limited budget?

Give me your best, and good luck, I've heard and read a lot, so I'm fairly savvy, just undisciplined.

Who's Halloween For?

Yesterday, while driving in our car, Jenny mentioned that we didn't have any Halloween candy to hand out and asked if we should just go to Olive Garden (gift certificates are fun) and not be home. We decided this would be a good idea, and to spend more time away from the house, we also decided to stop by and see our nephew Luke.

Luke's father is a fireman, so his costume was very cute:



However, seeing Luke was not the main reason we went to Kristi and Tony's house. In fact, that isn't how our car conversation ended. I replied to Jenny, "are we going to dress up?"

She responded that I could wear a suit if I wanted to, but that she had no intentions of putting on a costume. Afraid I would spill pasta on my suit, I decided against that being a good idea, but for some reason postulated the idea that we could both dress in our wedding day attire.

Jenny's eyes lit up. She likes wearing her wedding dress. It gives here a high, like a drug. She loves an opportunity to put it on, and wouldn't drop the idea I had given as a joke. So, the real reason we went to Kristi and Tony's was because Jenny wanted to put on her dress and thought it would be funny to show her sister.

I find it amusing that we now have pictures of Luke, as if he was at our wedding, even though he was not alive.

We also had to get the picture that watching the show "Friends" makes obligatory, so here is Jenny, washing dishes in her wedding dress:

I managed to stay behind the camera, but was wearing the suit I wore at our wedding.

I don't know who Halloween is for anymore. Jenny seemed so happy getting dressed up. It wasn't about little kids or candy for her.