Weekend Weather

It stayed nice on Saturday while we worked inside. It stayed nice on Sunday while we did some landscaping at family's house.

I go to play soccer and it rains and gets more windy.

This is the reverse of the way things are supposed to go when it comes to the weekend weather.

SYTYCD

Another night of "So You Think You Can Dance" on television.

Opposite a show like American Idol, the audition portion is my least favorite portion of this competition. While those clueless to their skills, or those without control of their appendages are occasionally entertaining, they spend little time showing dancing that blows me away.

However, the audition portion is done, and the choreography portion and dancing for their life solos are about to begin.

Summer is here.

Think Quick

A had been referred to meet with a pastor that is hiring a student ministries position for a church in the area.

I e-mailed him last week and we set up a time to get together for this afternoon. When he confirmed yesterday and asked me to bring a copy of my resume I thought it might be more formal than just a coffee meeting, but still expected to just be casually meeting a guy, and possibly talking extensively about my past experiences.

What I didn't expect is that it would be a three person firing squad of a formal interview like it turned out to be. Fortunately, I'm quick on my feet with responses to many questions. There is probably only one I wish I would have phrased differently as I look back on it, otherwise, I felt at least a sense of accomplishment for having what I think were good answers to questions I wasn't expecting to have to answer today.

Not much would have changed in the student ministries answers had I known I was going to be facing a firing squad of questions from multiple different pastors, but some of my theology answers would have been better as I reviewed more what their denomination (Christian Missionary Alliance) and individual church have listed as their statement of faith. It was one of those theology answers I wish I had phrased differently.

Too Hard

I really was going to go weed the yard this afternoon.

In fact, I was in the bedroom changing into shorts and a work shirt when I heard it happen.

They started mowing our lawn (we are part of a home-owners association).

That meant the next 45 minutes were off limits and after that the weeds would be harder to spot, not hard, but harder.

Too hard to be worth it for me apparently, as I never ended up weeding, just changing back into my normal clothes and going shopping instead.

Memorial Day Weekend

It had all you would want.

Date night Friday with Jenny to the drive-in for a double feature.

Some work done on the house both Saturday and Sunday.

Time with family and on the golf course on the actual holiday.

Don't know what else there would be to ask for. Couple in food from the grill and I had a great weekend. Hope yours was fabulous as well.

New Playlist

It's 11:30. I feel like playing Tetris, though I'm all caught up on the sermon podcasts I listen to regularly.

Time to cue up a new one.

10 sermons being downloaded, and a Throwback Pepsi with real sugar. Should beat Tetris a couple of times before I head to bed tonight.

Season Wrap-Ups

I watch a lot of t.v.

Probably more than I should.

Anyway, season finale season is almost over. I've caught most of those that I'll watch now (i always wait on 24 and Lost to watch the whole season later).

So far, House had the best season finale.

I'm excited for some of the summer reality schedule, and hope that they end in my favor the way Survivor and American Idol did, as I liked both of those winners the best and had hoped they would win for a while.

Maybe now I'll find some more productive things to do with my time.

Texas Carrots

While we were in Texas, we stayed with our good friends the Hurckmans. They have two children now, one of them an infant.

Friday morning, around 11:00, Paul fed their son 6 oz. of milk, a jar of Gerber Babyfood Carrots and some cereal. He then played with him for 10 minutes or so. Eventually, he began to eye Jenny seated on the couch, so Paul passed him along to Jenny.

After just a minute or so, he began coughing. Jenny started to ask him what was wrong and he spit up a small bit of his carrots.

As Jenny began to lean in and wipe his chin with his bib, she started to say comforting words.

At precisely the funniest moment, with Jenny in mid-word, the projectile began. It covered Jenny. I began laughing as hard as possible and started applauding what I was seeing as I watched 4 strings of projectile carrot puke land on my wife's face, shirt, and pants.

Jenny was calm, finding it funny herself... and demanded I get the camera before she wiped herself off and proceeded to take her second shower before lunch.

This picture shows the scope of puke from her thigh to her face:


While this closer shot may allow you to see it clearer on her face, her right cheek and chin, covered in carrots, which didn't miss her mouth. She tasted them.


I had a great time preaching in Texas and seeing Paul and Candace, even eating Chick-Fil-A, but this is easily the most memorable and funny thing that happened.

Fabulous Feats

I was going to share the great Texas story tonight, with pictures, but got caught up doing other technology things instead.

While downloading programs, ripping a dvd, re-enconding said video for playback in numerous other ways and downloading other programs necessary to do so, I got technologied out for the night.

Fortunately, while waiting for some of those things, I listened to a sermon and played Tetris on my original Nintendo, accomplishing the lone task with the game I had remaining for myself.

Beating the game starting on level 19. I finally did it. The only level I hadn't ever beaten it on that you can start on (0-19) and I finally did it.

Good night.

Week Away

The trip to Dallas was refreshing. I haven't uploaded any pictures to the computer yet, so our favorite story will have to wait for later this week.

Preaching went well, friends are great, and we ate at Chick-Fil-A so all was good.

Soccer went well tonight. We started the game with only 7 people, but managed to hold a 0-0 tie until 30 minutes in when 3 more showed up. At 38 or so, the 11th showed up and we scored to go up 1-0 into half.

We got another goal in the second half to escape with a 2-0 victory in a game we should have lost 6-0, but they never capitalized on their four person advantage. We had some great luck, and stayed well organized to fend them off.

Now its bed time.

Congrats to J.T. for winning Survivor. He deserved it.

How much bigger?

They say everything is bigger in Texas.

Jenny and I are going to find out. We fly out tomorrow (wed.) morning to spend a couple days down in the Lone Star State.

We'll be staying with friends and I'll be preaching at a Young Adults Service on Thursday night.

Won't be around to blog for a while.

Gender Issues

After a day spent reading about, writing about, and discussing gender issues and the church, i'm ready for something different.

Lots of talk about how the North American Christian Church has a vastly male majority in its preaching and leadership and a vastly female majority in its attendance makes my mind turn.

Lots of reasons for all sides of the coin in this one, and people who thought the answer would somehow be simple.

Time to relax with a television show for half an hour, then off to do more work on a sermon i'm preparing.

Homework Again

I've got a book and a half to read, and a three page paper to write for class tomorrow night.

Fortunately, my legs are sore from soccer, so not even gorgeous weather tomorrow could drag my butt off of the couch. Hopefully the books are good.

Catching Up

I am getting ready to watch the three part finale to LOST, season 4. After that I am caught up to the current season, which I won't begin to watch until it is completed.

I like that many shows are free on the internet these days legally.

Grocery Wizard

I desired something to drink tonight besides the water or grape juice that was available, so I headed to the grocery.

I walked there, with orders to also see if there were any meals Jenny had requested for her work lunches.

After finding those meals, on sale, and picking a drink that was on sale, I left.

$11.07 on the bill, with a savings of $9.64

I felt like a grocery wizard.

A Day In My Life

Jenny's alarm clock went off at 3:50 a.m.. We needed to leave the house at 4:30 to be at the course at 5:00. She had to help set things up.

The schedule had asked the golfers to show up at 5:30, to get ready for a 6:00 tee time. I was excited for breakfast as I hadn't eaten dinner before my soccer game the night before and tried sleeping afterwards.

Because of some frost on the greens at the course, the greenskeeper pushed our start time back until 6:45 to keep the course in better shape. 6:45 is early in the morning.

Without warming up at all, 3 of us (there were 11 golfers) headed to the first tee while the other twosomes drove to their starting holes. I was hoping to play better than bogey golf (90 per round) for the day, and figured this round would be a good indicator at that possibility. I shot an 89 over the first 18, but was getting more awake, and knew the course better now, so hoped I might improve for at least one of the rounds, but was ecstatic with being under bogey golf at that point.

Finishing 18, I drove to hole 12, to meet up with my next pairing. We changed each round to play with different people. I played the next 18 holes with a score of 87 and was hoping to fend off soreness to finish the day under my goal.

The third round wasn't as kind, and I shot a 91, again playing in a threesome, but with all new people. Not many highlights from that round, though I had my worst score of the day (my only 8) during that 18.

The fourth round was my favorite. Holes 55-72 were my best 18 of the day for numerous reasons. I shot the best round for me of the day that 18, and 85, in large part to my first eagle ever. I'll describe that hole after this summary. It was also my favorite for one other shot, to be shown in picture below as we play a hole together.

Round 5 is when the fatigue started to show in the body and it was getting harder to keep the hands in speed with the turn of the body. I lost a lot of shots to the right, but putted a lot better and shot a 91 again.

The last 9 holes, I played in 1 over bogey golf, totaling my individual talley at 99 holes in 6 under bogey golf. The last hole of the day had all 11 of us teeing off on the same hole at the same time. We played a best ball scramble with each other to finish. I was happy that my drive was the best of the 11 as I wasn't close to the best golfer there, but found a good shot this late in the evening. We ended up birdying that hole, gratifying as a group, but not to me, as that hole (hole 18) was the hole that I had eagled when I played it as my 66th hole of the day.

So, here is that hole. A 490 yard par 5 that is a dog leg to the right. The fairway runs straight from the tee about 290 yards before turning right for the last 200. If you miss the fairway to the right you find 20 yards worth of pine trees and then the driving ranged marked out of bounds. To the left is just rough, but lengthens the hole considerably.

Both the time we played the scramble and the time I eagled the hole I hit similar drives. 275 yards down the right center of the fairway. Leaving myslef about 215 to the center of the green. The pin was on the left side of the green at about the center yardage. I hit my 3 hybrid iron and found myself on the right side of the green. I had about 16 feet left for the putt and new it would break towards the front of the green (to my left).

I had told the people with me at that time (one golfer and his wife) that eagle putts are few and far between, so I would rather be passed the pin and off the green after my first putt than end up missing 2 inches short. I just couldn't leave it short. It was the only putt of the day I took the time to line up, as we were playing at a fast pace and just got general break ideas for most putts. I was full of joy when it found the center of the cup, and happy to receive fist bumps all around.

5 holes later came my second most memorable hole of the day, even though it was a bogey.

We'll play it together now.

The hole is a 370 yard par 4. Any miss to the right off the tee is in water. Any miss longer than 250 to the left is water and short is in rough. We don't have a picture of my tee shot this hole, but the result of it was interesting enought that the rest of the hole was caught by Jenny who was riding along with me for 3 or 4 holes.

You may not be able to see it, but there is a ball in this picture. Between the tree and the water, there is a ball in the "marsh" level of the grass. A distinct ring of grass found completely in water, with no ability to stand where we needed to. We pulled our tee shot left, and had about 120 yards left to the pin, with all of that water in the way.


We couldn't stand to hit it right handed without being in the water, and not knowing how far it would come out of the water I decided taking off my left shoe to attempt the green just wasn't worth it. Instead, we did the fun, turn a club upside down and swing left handed hoping we could put the ball back in the fairway.

After perhaps the most entertaining shot of the day for others to watch, mud had flown on my arms and pants enough that I toweled of my wet arm, but we found ourselves having done as well as we could have managed. The ball flew in tha air over a chunk of the water and towards the hole about 50 yards landing in the fairway. We had 70 yards left to chip. (This fairway shot is my favorite picture from the day)

Our chip found the green and we had a long putt left for par. We didn't make it or get it into gimme range so we had about 5 feet left for our bogey. (Dale in the background was my playing partner for my favorite round that included the eagle and this fun backwards shot.)


Making the putt, we walked off with our bogey, but will always just remember this hole for the left handed upside-down club shot actually working. I was glad Jenny got to see this hole live with me.

This was a day of my life.

Sleepy and Stuff

Of the 5 hours I tried to sleep last night (11:00-4:00), I probably only slept somewhere between 1 and 2 hours.

That means I am sleepy.

I'll right up a more detailed report tomorrow, with some pictures and stuff, but here are a couple of highlights...

I made my first eagle ever on the 66th hole of the day.

I shot better than bogey golf, which was my goal.

I guess that is a couple of highlights as promised above. I'll give more details on both of those, as well as some other fun parts of the day in a tomorrow's post.

Good Night.

Break Time

Between sporting events in the 24 hour soreness marathon.

Game ended in a 1 to 1 tie. We only had 2 subs, so I didn't get to rest much.

Time for a few hours of sleep and then off to the course.

The schedule has us teeing off at 6:00 a.m. and finishing around 7:30 p.m.

Looks like the weather should be great for it. Hopefully my body will co-operate.