First Snowboard of the Season

Didn't break anything, I think that means success right?

Only a couple of sore areas, largely because I only tried a couple stupid things instead of lots of stupid things.

Was nice to get out.  Was nice to get better.  Was nice to be out of the office.

Cars and Cameras

Spent the day at work, playing our new Wii, and fiddling with cars and cameras.

Headlight is fixed, new webcam is hooked up, though I haven't looked into all the uploading sides of things to do the first video blog yet, and helped a student jump her car.

Eventfully fun day.

Hope tomorrow is as fun.

Starts with a coffee meeting to answer the role of women in the church question to one of the volunteer leaders of our church who just found those scriptures for the first time.  Weeeee!

Video Blog Anticipation

At somepoint soon, I'm going to venture into trying to do a blog through video instead of just through writing.

I don't know how long it will take me to work all the kinks out for doing that, so no gaurantees as to when that will be, but I want to cross one part of it off of the list.

What should I talk about? 

While worrying about all the technical mumbo jumbo and uploading to the internet and such, i'd prefer not to have to think of the first topic on my own.

Any suggestions?

Yay for Gambling

On ESPN, they have a contest about extending streaks of random predictions.

One of the options to chose from this morning was if UK would beat Winthrop by 20 or more.  You had to pick either side.

A co-worker of mine and myself each picked.  I picked UK to cover the 20, he picked that Winthrop would keep it closer.

Now I get a free lunch.

Woohoo!

Tron 3D

The 3D part of Tron 3D was pretty cool.

The Tron part, is well, based on an ancient video game.  Not much is expected about a story of two lines that can't touch.

Not much of a plot can be made from that.

But the 3D part was cool.

And it makes you want a motorcycle more.

Cable Shows

In the last 5 years, Jenny and I haven't had cable. 

What I am looking for, now that I have Netflix, are the good series/shows that have been on cable that I've never seen.

I've been working my way through Dexter, and someday will at least give Mad Men a shot, but don't even know what else I should be looking for.  Any recommendations?

And...for any Survivor watchers, I'm glad Fabio won, and upset that Jane got voted the favorite player.

Holiday Workweek

I don't ever really know what to expect from a holiday workweek.  So many of the normal activities and plans are cancelled, yet we don't get time off.

I'm not complaining, it is just a different kind of productive.  The normal to-do list/tasks aren't a requirement this week, or the next, but there is still so much that needs to get done.

Hopefully it won't take too long to find a routine and start crossing off the things I haven't been able to get to the last couple weeks as I've been full-time.

8th Time's a Charm

I got pulled over today.  This is the 8th time in my life I got pulled over.  This one went just like the others, I found the sweet spot of my theory on how to get out of any kind of discipline and ended up with just a verbal warning.

Let me explain.

About 6 months ago, a headlight went out on the Corolla.  We replaced it within the week and moved on.  Yesterday, the other headlight went out.  We hadn't replaced it yet.

On my way home from Applebee's tonight, I got pulled over for having a headlight out as well as not signalling a turn.  I played my checklist of physical things to do through my head, turn on the flashers, roll down the window, change the radio station and turn it down, turn on an inside light and turn off the car, leaving both hands clearly visible on the wheel.

He approached, told me I had a headlight out and hadn't signaled my turn and asked for my driver's license and proof of insurance.

At this moment, I started the verbal checklist.  Don't lie, know you did something wrong but don't admit to doing it intentionally, while showing you were still fully in control of the car.

"Yeah, my wife yells at me for that all the time.  Can you settle something for me?  I always tell her that if I don't cross a traffic line that it isn't necessary to use your blinker.  When the road curves we curve with it.  If i'm using the solid right line as my guide of where the road is going, instead of the dashed center line, I actually didn't switch lanes and no signal is necessary.  Is that legal or illegal?"

This was all said sarcastically and comically enough to know he is helping me with a case against Jenny's "courtesy nagging" and he took it as such and smiled.   He asked me where I lived and where I was coming from.  I told him Applebee's and he asked me if I had anything to drink while I was there.

"Two cherry cokes" I responded.

"Anything else?"

"Not there, but earlier in the day I had a water, a Mountain Dew and a Reindeer."

"What's a Reindeer?"

"It is a steamed milk drink from Caribou."

At this point he was laughing at me, a great sign before he has even headed back to his car to run my license.

He returned with my license and said:

"You have a pretty busy weekend right?"

I paused.

"'Cause I could make you come and show us that the headlight is fixed within 72 hours, but if you have a busy weekend, I will just trust you to get it taken care of soon."

(Jenny and I had literally talked about getting that taken care of in the Applebee's parking lot on the way in, don't yell at me dad.)

He then told me to have a nice night and that he didn't feel the need to give me even the written warning to get it taken care of.

8 for 8.

Class 1 - Over

My journey through the Old Testament with those willing to suffer through me for 9 weeks has come to a close.

We ended our class tonight finally getting through all of the books and will get a couple of Wednesday evenings off before we start the New Testament in January.

Class 1 is done.  Learned some that should be useful in helping me teach it more effectively the next go around.

Nap Time

It isn't often that it feels right to take a nap in the evening on a weeknight.

Today it felt right.

It generally means I'll have trouble falling asleep and will only make me want to stay in bed in the morning even longer, but naps feel too good to pass up sometimes.

Fortunately, my morning meeting tomorrow doesn't require my brain, just helping cart someone around who is getting car repairs done and needs a ride. 

Confused

Today was Monday.  I now work on Mondays.  It had been a while.

The staff member who is in an office next to me got confused as to what day it was when he heard my voice in the hallway.

Nobody is used to me working on Mondays.

We'll all have to get used to it.

Snow Shoveling

We hadn't shoveled snow in some time.  With our house being part of an association, we don't find ourselves often with the need to mow our lawn or shovel snow from our driveway.

Then 16 inches or whatever came.  We had said we could babysit Saturday night. 

We didn't look at the driveway before we were ready to leave.  Opening the garage door, we found a drift up against it at heights around 3 feet.  Yay!

We shoveled just enough to get the 4x4 Escape out and headed out.  It was all clear by Sunday morning so getting to church was fine.

I'm not used to shoveling snow.  I'll just write my HOA check instead.

This One Is For Me

Some nights it is for me.  I've prepared a message and gotten ready for a service and a funk hits.  I get in a weird mood, or something gets me down shortly before the service.

Tonight was one of those nights.  One of those nights where my attitude is shifted to a place it need not be, and i'm fortunate to be reminded during worship, that I don't really matter anyway.

Tonight was one of those nights where worship allowed me to get my heart back into the right place before I delivered a message from God's word, a message that on this evening, was for me.

I needed to hear it.  I don't even really care anymore if anybody else had it apply to them, it applied to me, helped me see God more clearly and understand part of his love fore me more completely.

This one was for me.

The Groove

I'm 8 weeks through teaching a 9 week class on the Old Testament and just feel like I'm hitting the groove now.

Fortunately, I'll get to "re-teach" this class to new students starting in January, while also teaching a different class on the New Testament.

Hopefully I'll find the groove more quickly next go round.

Chapter 3

My employment has made its third chapter at Grace Fellowship Church.

I was initially hired part-time to do Young Adults stuff.

5 months ago, I was made 3/4 time to do All Young Adults stuff, and some other teaching stuff.

Today, I was made full-time to do all Young Adults stuff, and orchestrate and teach all the Adult Discipleship Classes.

Chapter 3 should be fun.  My to-do list is long, so I should stay busy.  Now I just hope I can stay as excited about it all as each of the tasks deserves.

Creative Juices

I'm supposed to be creative all day tomorrow.

Our staff creative team is heading out of the office for a full day creative meeting.

Here is to hoping that the tangents don't get too far off track and the brainstorming doesn't lead to too much boyish and/or inappropriate humor.

Also hoping we think of lots of good ideas that we remain excited about enough to implement well.

Question now, is what kind of creative brain food should I bring for a snack?

NetFlix

NetFlix subscription as a birthday gift.

Now should I start wasting time with a new t.v. series, or with a movie I haven't seen.

Sooooo many options to start narrowing out.

Survivor

Two quitters on day 28.

Ridiculous.

People who quit the show drive me nuts.  Too many people want to play for you to not try your best.

Good Riddance, I'm glad you didn't win, I wished you had been voted out early, or better, eliminated sometime in casting before the show started.

Facebook Changes Things

Facebook changes birthdays.

Lots of people like to leave happy b-day notes through facebook as it shows who's birthday it is.

Was interesting to check my e-mail this afternoon and have it flooded with facebook posts on my wall.  Some of those people I forgot had even become my friend on facebook. 

Don't really know what I think about that, just acknowledging that facebook has changed how people remember and react to birthdays.