Awesomest Quote of the Day

There were quite a few good quotes I heard from people today that were worthy of further consideration.

Whether in construction mishaps, or stories of moving large dead bodies, humorous and unusual quotes were in great variety today.

My favorite, however, was just a part of our small group discussion.

As a response to "using moderation in all things," which was never said or referrenced that I remember clearly, Jim Olsen stated:

"I use moderation in moderation."

I found this too humorous to pass by, immediately wrote it down, and now am sharing it with you.

May you also be someone who can use moderation in moderation.

Less Sleeping In

I have found that I am given less freedom to sleep in now that I am done with classes, even though I haven't found a job yet.

If I had classes, I would be up early two days a week.

This week, I'll go 3 for 3 on being up before natural.

Picking friends up from airport and working on the attic are forcing me out of bed before I would naturally arise.  To be fair, I naturally would arise around 2:00 p.m. and don't have to get up as early as I would for class, but early nonetheless.

I only feel comfortable writing this because Jenny's schedule is the same this week (she's on vacation) so it might wear off by next week.

The View of Above (a guest blogger edition)

In the last few months there has been quite a bit of noise coming from our attic lately. With lots of hammers, saws and drills, it has all been very exciting.

We have been renovating the bare half story of our house into a master suite. So far we have: taken out an unused chimney including patching the roof, torn up the subfloor and laid a proper one, put in some duct work, framed the walls, had insulation sprayed, had plumbing roughed in, and run most of the electrical with minimal blood drawn.

The following are some shots of the work done so far:

Planning the layout:

Taking down the chimney:

Sometimes things happened without the parents present (yes, he is standing on the bricks he is trying to take out):

Part of the bathroom:
The shower:

The closet and bathroom walls from the bedroom area:

Ah, insulation...it made working in December so much better:

Yay for Christmas

It is only Christmas Eve technically, but one of our families is celebrating Christmas together tonight so it counts.

I truly hope each of you have as good of a Christmas as possible.  Enjoy everything you can about the holidays and try to ignore the rest.

Merry Christmas.

Seasons and Spirits

I've acknowledged for a while now that we are in the Christmas season.

I'm comfortable with that.

Today was the first time of the year I would say that part of me felt like I was in the Christmas Spirit.  I didn't really do anything different today to put me in that mood, but realized at somepoint that I'm excited for Christmas with family and friends and looking forward to the religious, emotional, material, and relational aspects of the Christmas Season.

I have Christmas Spirit...at least for a couple days.

And A Year Goes By

From the title you may think this post will somehow reflect on the year of 2008.  You would be mistaken.  If you don't want to read about the inner turmoil of one struggling for a fantasy football championship, you can stop now.  This post is about that.

1-4

Last Place.

This was the start of the fantasy football team "Two Headed Monsters" co-owned by me and my brother.  

The rest of the league was happy.  2 years ago, Jason had won the championship.  Last year, I won it.

This league despises when there is a repeat champion.  With some weird things that happened last year, I was without a spot this year, so Jason and I co-owned his team.  This proved to be valuable for both of us.

1-4 and last place.  The rest of the league was happy with where we were.  We were at piece.  We would talk on the phone between weeks about who to drop and pick-up and if we wanted to offer any trades.  We both were convinced we had a good team and were just getting unlucky.  We didn't want to make a major move out of deperation.

After two more weeks we were 3-4.  We would call in to drop a bench player and add in a replacement for someone on a bye week and we could hear the other league members talking...  

"Have you seen who is on the rise?"

Entire conversations as work focused around the "Two Headed Monster" rearing itself back into contention.  They didn't want us to start a streak.  We were peaceful, studying each week to find the right match-ups of sitting and starting.

A tight-end pulls his groin, we find the best replacement.  A kicker is on bye, we find the best replacement.  A wide receiver breaks his face, we find the best replacement.  Quarterbacks benched and sidelined from injury, we find the best replacement.

Two more weeks and we found ourselves at 5-4.  In the playoff hunt.  The others were not as happy.  We couldn't rest comfortable now.

We began to plan ahead.  Instead of looking only at our coming week, we began preparing for a deep run in the future.  No new injuries, lets plan our defensive pick-up two weeks in advance. 

Receivers fixed their broken faces, quarterbacks started to find the field again.  We continued to win.

6-4 - virtually guarunteed the playoffs.

7-4 - playoffs clinched.

8-4 - First round bye clinched.

Time to look ahead.  Looking at the schedule for the last three weeks of the season we primed ourselves to find the biggest improvement we could make.  We had the luxury of planning ahead.  Who has the hot hand?  Who has the easy schedule?  Who has the best combination of the two?  

Lets finalize our roster a week early.

9-4.

First Place.  Last to first with a streak of 8 straight wins.  No one else happy.  We are set for a bye week in the first round of the playoffs and guarunteed our money back.

Receivers shoot themselves in the leg, no worries we like our roster.  Quarterbacks benched, who cares we picked up a replacement primed for the playoffs.  We were confident.

The bye was necessary.

Week 14-first round of the playoffs.  "Two Headed Monster" has a bye, fortunate, because they would have lost to any other playoff team.  

Week 15 - semifinal match.  Congratulatory messages sent after the night game.  We had the lead with players still left.  Nothing to worry about.  Not very stressful.

Week 16 - championship match.  12:00 we only have two players active, opponent has 5.  Out to lunch after church.  1:30...driving home from lunch I get the updates, our quarterback tied with his, but he has points elsewhere.  2:00 - home and with the internet, we are down by 18.  I cheer for 5 minutes and we are only down by 7.  10 minutes later down by 2.

3:00 - The first set of games are done.  We are down by 14.  We have 6 players left and he has 3 remaining.  All 6 of ours are playing, 2 of his are.

6:00 - We are finished.  51-47 we have the lead.  He has 1 wide receiver left playing in the night game.

7:25 - The night game has played 10 minutes of real time, 4 minutes of football time.  He has made up a point already.

8:15 - His receiver catches a touchdown.  I send the obligatory "NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO" message to a friend over instant messenger and begin to open my phone to call Jason.  

8:16 - A red challenge flag is thrown by a coach.  The play is reviewed.  He was down a half yard short of the goal line.  We have new life.  A Christmas Miracle.  Dead and Alive Again.  The Resurection is real.

A year went by.  From 8:15 until roughly 10:35 I lost a year of my life.  My parents watched as I agonized, cheered, hoped, dreamed, anguished and toiled over almost every play of the game.  It was even cruel enough to go into overtime.  When all was said and done, we finished ahead 51-48.

51-48.

11-4 with a bye week on week 14.

10 straigh wins.  Last place....Champions.

Co-Owener:  Necessary.  There were games we always had the same instinct on who to start.  There were games we didn't.  There were games we won because of some of my insights, there were games we won because of some of Jason's.  There was a game I still believe either of us would have lost as an individual, but we won by combination.

There were pickups proved invaluable that Jason made the final call on (Kevin Walter over Lance Moore).  

There were pickups initiated by myself that fueled us to wins as well (Matt Cassel was our best foresight ever).

We didn't win because we got lucky.  We didn't win because we avoided the injury bug from our picks.  We didn't win because we managed to get perfect production out of the players we picked in rounds 1-4.  

We won from getting value from picks 5 and 6 (Thomas Jones and Anquan Boldin) who will go in the first two rounds next year.  We won because we picked up well off the bench.  We won because we rarely had people sitting on our bench that outperformed the people we played that week.  We won because we co-owned a team and covered all the angles.  We won by starting 5 of our 8 players in the championship game as people we picked up during the season. Undrafted.  

We won, because it was the best way to make everyone else mad, and the easiest ways to show our wives that our time was worth it.  (That doesn't mean they agree)

We made a profit.  

We smiled.

We went from last to first.

We made everyone else mad.

And even though I lost a year of my life watching a football game tonight, We Won.

Congratulations Jason... We Deserve It.  3 straight years with us 2 on top.

White Elephant Gift Exchange

Tonight was the Christmas Party for the staff and spouses of Jenny's work.  

Every year they do a white elephant gift exchange.  I have never been a big fan of these, but we play along every year. 

I wasn't excited about it this year either, though we did bring the best gift we have ever brought to one of these.

1,000 carpenter's pencils.  You read that right.  We brought 2 boxes of 500 carpenter's pencils wrapped together in a bigger box as one of our gifts tonight.

They guy who opened it gave away all that anybody wanted to those in attendence tonight.  He promises to creatively give the rest away as well.

We left with a game of pick-up sticks that has been at this same gift exchange for a couple of years (as had one of the fruit cake gifts someone opened) and a "pizza chopper" which is half scizzors half pizza slice remover.  

What are other's opinions of white elephant gift exchanges?

I'd probably actually enjoy them if everyone didn't just bring crappy stuff they want to get rid of.

Personal Shopper

I get to be Jenny's Personal Shopper this week.

We have a couple more things we still need to pick up before Christmas arrives and Jenny has given me a list of things to go find and purchase.

I wonder how she feels about having a personal shopper?

I wonder what we'll take as a second white elephant Christmas gift tomorrow.

I wonder if it will be to cold for me to find shopping motivation on Thursday and to postpone it until Friday.

Understanding Perspective

I had another experience today which forces me to evaluate the perspective many people have of my future vocation.

A complete stranger upon hearing that I have been a pastor in the past, am Seminary trained and plan on being a pastor again became more comfortable with the situation they were in, just because I was doing it too.

This wasn't new to me.  People justify their actions based on pastor's actions too often.  

These kind of experiences force me to evaluate the proper line of vulnerability of one's past with the adequate privacy and non-disclosure to remain healthy.

Mitch felt like he wasn't being "impure" today because I said I didn't have an ounce of guilt over what I was doing (playing cards).  We had a long an interesting discussion that went far beyond playing cards an into lots of interesting life areas, but this perspective is what I've reflected on the most.

Another Pet Peeve

Thanks to those of you who have gone out of your way to send me cheesy forwards about "The Reason for the Season."

Adding to the list of pet peeves that show up around this time of year, though not holiday related, comes the "best of" lists. 

I don't need to hear anyone's opinion on the best news stories, people, blogs, restaurants, or anything else that happened in 2008.  Chances are I don't share your opinion anyway.  I'm a particular on my favorites and understand that mine rarely match those of others.  

Profitable

The Fantasy Football Team that I co-own with my brother has made the championship game.

This is the only league I am in where money is involved.  We are guarunteed to profit regardless of how next week goes.

2 years running I'm making a profit from fantasy football.  Likely the best hourly wage ever :)

Important to Me

While many will find this meaningless... this weekend is an important manly weekend to me.

I have gaurunteed myself a top 4 finish in all 3 of my fantasy football leagues.  If I win all three this week, I could gauruntee a top 2 finish.  That would be awesome.

Specifically, the one team that I co-own with Jason is in a league where we can win some money by making it in the top 2.  That would be especially nice.

Tomorrow I'll build stuff.  Sunday (and Monday Night) I hope to finalize three football wins.

Gooooooooo Manly Weekend

Humor Me

We are headed to the Brian Regan show tonight.

If you don't know who he is, you should stop reading this and search for him on YouTube.

Easily my favorite comedian because he is one of the few who keeps his jokes clean.

Very excited to go to the show.

Networking and Such

I only have 1 Seminary class remaining.  It will be taken in the spring quarter.  Otherwise, I'm left with only the need to finish my statement of faith (Due in mid January) and fulfill all of my internship requirements (which can be met with hours served in a job).

That leaves me looking for a job now.  

Unfortunately, few of the jobs I'd be interested in make it into the public market.  Most associate pastor jobs are hired from within their own churches or denominations and few make it into job search engines and college placement forums.  With that said, my time right now is being spent networking.

I've been sending e-mails to my network of mentors/teachers/friends who may know of opportunities and to denomination offices to set up times to meet with them to find out about possible openings in the area.

So far, the responses I have gotten have all encouraged meetings, but not until the holidays have passed.  

I'm not worried yet, even though I haven't found anything even worth applying to.  If i haven't found any solid leads by the end of January, I'd start to get more nervous.  Until then, I'm hoping to hear of a pastoral position that will allow for consistent opportunities in teaching (not necessarily Sunday morning preaching, but definitely consistent teaching) aimed at young adults or older.  

If you know of anything, feel free to e-mail, call, or respond here.

Yay Inside Day

I figured I would start my first official weekday off from school with an inside day.

I read an entire book.  I got to choose it.  I read it for fun.  I don't have to right a paper about it.

I watched a movie, goofed around on the internet, talked with the plumber who was working in my house and did some limited research to tomorrow's night post.

Tomorrow I'll actually talk about what life is supposed to look like now that I'm pretty much done with Master's Classes.

But today was inside day.  A day off.  A day removed from obligation about answering such serious questions.

I'll leave the house tomorrow.

Start the Ticker

It's the time of year where I start to notice some of my pet peeves.  

Start the ticker now for people saying "Jesus is the reason for the season."

I'll cringe everytime I hear it.

Opposite Day

It was cold outside today. It snowed outside today.

Our attic is warmer today than yesterday. Our attic looks like it has snowed inside today (if gravity forced things up instead of down).

While I was at school and Jenny was at work the spray insulating people came to make our attic warm.

It will be much more comfortable to work up there now.

1 more paper for the quarter due at 5:00 p.m. central time tomorrow. 12 pages and i'm done with the quarter.

I Don't Get It

I have watched a lot of movies.

However, I had never seen "White Christmas" before tonight.

I don't understand how it became a classic movie.  It wasn't a bad movie, but I didn't think it was a great movie.

I will not be one of those people who watch it every year.  I don't have anything against the movie, but I also wouldn't complain if I never watched it again.

That being said, I hope we have a white Christmas this year.

Blogger's Block

Like writing block, but for blogging.

I can't think of anything to write about.

The only question I have been asked recently by someone who reads this is "what will life look like after classes end?"

I plan on answering that question after classes end.  Not because there is some neat surprise, or a great scheme, but because they end in 3 days and I can wait until then.

Are there any other thoughts of things I can write about or questions I can answer?

Football is Good To Me

I can't complain about fantasy football this year.  I may need to be reminded of that in two weeks.

I have 3 teams.  In 3 seperate leagues.  In all of those leagues, 6 teams make the playoffs.

All of my teams made the playoffs.

In each league, the playoffs start next week and the top two teams get byes.

All of my teams have a bye next week.

In two leagues, I have been in the top 2 all year.  I'm 2nd in both of those leagues.

In 1 league, my team was in last place after 5 weeks with a 1-4 record.  The next 8 weeks were one long win streak and we finished in first place at 9-4.  

Happy Birthday to me.

Sleepless Birthday

The holiday weekend was all I hoped for.  Great Thanksgiving food and company.  Great b-day dinner at Fogo de Chao.  An entire season of 24.  Some work done on the attic.

Likely fantasy football victories.

I didn't sleep much last night, with 4 papers due today, and don't get to sleep in tomorrow with the spray insulation people coming in the morning to work on our attic.

That makes me feel older today.  Lack of sleep always makes me feel older.  Maybe i'll get a nap later to rejuvinate my youthness.