Guess what I did with my evening last night? That’s right! I finally went through and organized my barf bag collection. We’re in another “simplifying life” stage, and I thought maybe I could get some money for this collection on e-bay. I’ve been collecting them since some time in the late 80’s when I was living in Brasil. So now I have 90 yak sacks from 48 different airlines and I started looking up collectors. If you’ve got time to kill, these are some award winning sites that you need to check out:
And trust me, there’s plenty more collectors out there. Ironically, a fair number of these collectors are named Steve. Speaking of Steve, he runs the first website which is among, if not THE, best. If you’re on his site, also read his story of entering the Baywatch Competition. It’s something everyone should experience.
At any rate, I’ve been offered a fair sum of money for my collection, so now I must do a little research to find fair market value for these little works of art that cost me nothing.
The procedure that the bags were designed to participate in has probably one of the most colorful repertoire of euphemisms in the English languge. Here’s a short list that will make my Mom moan, and give most men the chuckles.
Blowing chowder/chunks Hork Ralph Playing the whale Praying to the porcelain gods Fertilizing the porcelain Tossing your cookies Rerun brunch Shooting gut rockets Technicolor Yawn File the bile The liquid laugh Shouting "EUROPE" at the sink "I'm about to... - blow chunks in Technicolor. - spew forth with great purpose. - create a new addition to the Great Lakes - only cleaner. - add some frogmen to the porcelain ocean. - sing the spews. - visit cousin Rolf at the lake of aqua blue water - talk with Ralph on the Big White Phone.
I like that last one. Now for the opportunity to use it in conversation....
We found Jack, our cat, this morning. He’d been missing since Monday afternoon. Jessica and the boys even visited the Humane Society yesterday to see if he had turned up there. This morning Jess and I were discussing his probable fate when I remembered that he had been playing around in our second garage that has the church’s riding mower and van. I had been working in there and the van door was open for a while. So that’s exactly where Jess found him this morning…in the church van. I can only imagine what he did in there for two days, and I don’t really want to go and inspect. But I’m glad we found him. Most likely our van driver would have found him on Sunday rotting under a seat somewhere.
posted by Steve 11:01 AM
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
On the lighter side [below this post is a much more somber post which I posted earlier in the day]. Here's a couple of my favorites from 300 Reasons Why We Love the Simpsons.
Here's a couple of Bart's best blackboard lines. There's plenty more! Fire is not the cleanser. Fish do not like coffee. Pork is not a verb. The hamster did not have "a full life." No one wants to hear about my sciatica. I am not my long-lost twin. The nurse is not dealing. I will not surprise the incontinent.
Simpson's on religion: 122 Springfield and religion, and some simple truths, such as country singer Rachel Jordan explaining what happened to her band . 'They switched from Christian music to regular pop. All you do is change "Jesus" to "baby".
123 Or Ned Flanders, telling a bedtime story. 'And Harry Potter and all his wizard friends... went straight to hell for practising witchcraft.'
124 The fact, incidentally, that Ned's first name is actually Nedward.
125 Jesus. Many fans' favourite segment...
Homer [to Rev Lovejoy, as he is being forced into a plane to the South Pacific]: 'Wait, I'm no missionary! I don't even believe in Jesus! Let me out!' [Homer runs to the door and pounds on it. Cut to outside, looking in the window] Homer: 'Oh, save me Jesus!'
126 Homer [to God]: 'You're everywhere. You're omnivorous.'
Simpson's on geography: 145 Brazil threatened to sue after the line: 'Rio is a city where all men are bisexual, fearsome monkeys roam the streets and tourists are kidnapped by taxi drivers.'
Simpson's on sex: 174 Bart: 'What a day, eh, Milhouse? The sun is out, birds are singing, bees are trying to have sex with them... as is my understanding.'
The Best Show Ever: 141 In 1999, in its century's end edition, Time magazine called it 'the best show in the history of television'.
posted by Steve 3:27 PM
Trent Dilfer always seems to be the perennial butt of jokes as a quarter back. But he has also always been well respected and admired by anyone who has been a teammate or knows him personally. Having a son who's almost four, my heart goes out this family.
Trevin Dilfer, the 5-year-old son of Seattle Seahawks quarterback Trent Dilfer, died Sunday in California after a 40-day battle with heart disease. The boy's parents and three sisters were at his bedside at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University. "Trevin was a very brave young boy and we are comforted in knowing that as a child of God he has returned to his maker," the family said in a statement. "We grieve, but not as those without hope."
posted by Steve 3:06 PM
Monday, April 28, 2003
WEEKEND RUNDOWN: Friday night we went over to New Baltimore and spent the evening with Chris and Jan Steinle. They're starting a church from scratch. They're also awesome people who are a lot of fun. He's loud and scary, but he's got a HUGE heart and full of life. The reason why he's loud is because he's pretty much deaf in one ear thanks to a "friend" who squeezed off a couple of rounds from a handgun right over Chris' shoulder. I think they were both toasted. That was before his life was completely turned upside down by Jesus. But I don't have the space or time to get into their stories. We had a lot of fun talking and the boys were watching Fantasia on their big screen. They say it's a movie best seen while on drugs. Probably. Or if you're 5 and 3, it's closing in on midnight, you haven't had naps, you're hopped up on chocolate and there's a man talking loud in the kitchen, that might work too.
Saturday night we went to Sarnia to visit another friend who started a church two years ago. They were some of the friendliest people I've ever met, despite talking kind of funny. (The church was called Lighthouse, pronounced lite-hoose.) Which reminds me of a church in Canada that Michael Slaughter previews in his book. They have a talk back session after the teaching whenever their worship services are. It's called "Q & Eh?" At any rate, the evening was without incident or SARS contamination -- although the border police were probably skeptical of us going to Canada for church on a Saturday night.
Here's your UnLearning Church installment for the day. These are a couple of thoughts excerpted from the last two pages of chapter eight.
"Too many Christians today are dull and sleepy because we have made Jesus, the Lion of Judah, safe, predictable, and logical. Lions aren't tame.... You can't pin Jesus down. He's not predictable. Nor will churches be predictable as they follow Jesus."
"Jesus is calling your church and my church not to religious belief but to an affair of the heart. Jesus invites us into an intimate, passionate relationship. This world doesn't need another institutional religion that goes out and tells people what to do. What Jesus is building and putting together is a culture of reckless love."
Here's a couple of sentences that directly to me at this point and time in my life:
"What determines the action in your life? Your passions. Passions are tied to your ultimate love, not your intellectual beliefs.... Passion has everything to do with joy."
Speaking of passions (on a trivial level), the Lions drafted Charles Rogers!!! That's pretty sweet. Every April rolls around and there's so much excitement in the motor city. Draft day is the Lions' Super Bowl. Hope springs eternal every year and they always give us a reason to think we should watch them and contribute our hard earned dollars towards their modest organization. And every off-season my mantra begins: "THEY'RE GOING ALL THE WAY, BABY!!"
posted by Steve 11:16 PM
Friday, April 25, 2003
Yesterday afternoon/evening we went up to some friends in Oxford. They're on staff at an FM church there, and we to got share all our pastoral garbage. But we ordered Little Seizure's pizza and it was the best any of us have had in a long time. It seems like for the past decade Caesar's has been skimping on toppings and generally making not so good pizza. But this was loaded with stuff and the crust was nice and thick. I can't tell you how impressed we all were. Obviously, it was blog worthy. We even called the store to thank them. I don't think they've ever gotten a call like that before.
It is, however, a bad idea to eat four slices, a bunch of Doritos and two Mountain Dews before a soccer game. Maybe not the Mountain Dew -- nectar of the gods -- but the other stuff.... We had a great game last night. My brother called me earlier in the day because our team was severely short handed, so I brought a handful of guys that I play with on Saturdays. But it's co-ed and we still didn't have any females, so we asked some girls who had just finished playing for their team in the game before ours. One of the girls was about six feet tall and she was really solid on defense. Then she took over and played in goal for the second half. As it turns out, she's the keeper for the University of Detroit and she was awesome. Needless to say, we won, beating the second place team. It was just a fun game all around. I guess last week, my nephew Bryce (16) scored 9 goals in a 14-2 spanking. I would have liked to have been there to see that. Last night was like 7-5.
Here's your daily thought from Michael Slaughter taken out of chapter three.
"The emerging church celebrates mystery more than explanation. Here are some of the 'both-ands' that the emerging church is unLearning." Here are the section headings: Both ancient and future Both high tech and high touch Both leader and teams Both local and global Both conservative and liberal (politically) Both Catholic and Evangelical Both contemporary and cross-generational Both sinners and saints
That's a list of values if I ever saw one.
posted by Steve 9:24 AM
Thursday, April 24, 2003
We met with Steve and Vickie Deur yesterday in Lansing. We were supposed to meet them at noon, but neither of us got there until close to 1:00. That's the last time I look up a McDonald's on their website looking for one close to the highway with a playland. The one I had directions to was neither close to a highway nor had a playland.
The Deurs are planting a church in Grand Haven. You'll no doubt be hearing more about that down the road.
I started reading yet another book. I'm in the middle of three others, but this one hooked me after I read the introduction. It's unLearning Church by Michael Slaughter, who, for those who've never heard of the guy, is the lead pastor of a really big church (Ginghamsburg) in the middle of nowhere Ohio, just north of Dayton off from I-75. I've already got a bunch of stuff underlined in this book, but the following is a quote where he, with the help of Bob Buford, is describing the third wave churches (the next generation of churches). After defining the first two waves which culminate in the church growth movement at its apex with megachurches, he goes on...
"The third wave, representing the new thing God is doing, is demonstration. These are churches of contagious faith living out authentic biblical community expressed through compassionate service and social justice. 'Christianity in this context is more pastoral and more more hands-on,' says Buford. 'It's an anywhere and anytime connection.' The emphasis is not so much on gathering of crowds as speaking to individuals. Like the internet, it's higly personal and interactive. Because relationship is highly personal, the emphasis is not so much on broadcast to the masses as on narrowcast to the individual. The high level of personalization compels the church to become indigenous to its community."
I'd really like to know why everything that's been growing inside of me, my dreams and ideals of what the church can and should be, are now part of a movement. Is this God's hand in plain view? Or is this yet another pendulum swing in reaction to the abuses or failures of what came before that can be easily quantified and possibly even predicted by an alert sociologist? And in perfect postmodern response, I'll say "both/and." I'll have to let my need to be original die, and get pumped that I'm not the only one out there thinking this way. And even to know I'm a little late in playing a part of making it happen. I know I'm a child of this generation, but I also feel a very real sense that God put me in this place and time with my particular peronsality and style and that I get to play a part in the story He's telling. That's more satisfying and fulfilling then you could ever know. Actually, I hope you do know it.
Here's another description that's just dead nuts:
"If the emerging church is recognized and valued for anything, it's for a highly effective, indigenous carrying out of the mission of Jesus Christ. This next generation of churches goes far beyond a simple name change from 'Methodist' or 'Baptist' to 'Community Church' or 'Neighborhood Church.' That trend was perhaps the first sign of the more indigenous focus evident today. UnLearning churches resist the usual categories. They blow off such identitites as traditional or contemporary; evangelical or liberal; large or small; suburban, urban, or rural; and even Catholic or Protestant. They dont' fit neatly into categorized boxes. Each of their hearts is to uniquely demonstrate the presence of God in their own native settings."
Yep. I love the concept of an indigenous church...ever since I had Anthropology with Darrell Whiteman that idea of being indigenous has just made my world a little bit bigger, a lot harder to define and control, and a lot more beautiful.
posted by Steve 12:42 PM
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
For all of you Red Wings fans out there, you HAVE to check out this article from HockeyPundits on Detroit's new PR guy. I think he was definitely the best guy available for this situation.
posted by Steve 11:02 AM
Monday, April 21, 2003
This is an article that appeared in the Oakland Press yesterday and I found it today on Drudge. If you'll recall, The Fellowship is the group that's largely responsible for the National Prayer Breakfast as well as the weekly prayer breakfasts held in the House and Senate. But I commented on all of that back in February. It's just interesting to see an article related to it.
We had a great time at our seder last Friday. Saturday I took the snow plow off the tractor and put on the mower deck. I think we're safe enough to do that now in late April. Had another good turn out for soccer with 12 guys. The majority this week were Peruvians and Mexicans. You never know who's going to have the majority from week to week. Yesterday was a really good Easter Sunday. It was the perfect temperature all day and we got to hang out with my family all afternoon.
My brother Brian and his family have just become livestock owners. They bought two hives and two queens and are hoping to get some good honey production this summer. Bees are pretty fascinating actually. And of course we had a good time noting similaritites between the worker bees (females) who live up to their monicre and the drones (males) who serve no other purpose than to perform their singular duty in the propigation of their species. The drones live for four months doing not one lick of work including to feed themselves. They evenually get kicked out of the hive by the workers and either starve to death or die after intercourse.
There's a lesson to be learned here. And I'm not sure we learned the right one.
posted by Steve 2:26 PM
Friday, April 18, 2003
Here's another good article by Eric Keck that I can totally relate to. You might want to read it before reading my comments below. Or, maybe not.
Again, my heart resonates with this. I KNOW that the organized/organizational church -- McChurch -- is resource intensive. And Keck makes a great case for it being poor stewardship of God-given resources and a poor lesson in the extravent kind of Kingdom giving that characterizes Jesus followers. But I'd love to see research on the impact differential between McChurch and simple church. Impact I'm defining in terms of lives changed by entering new life through Jesus, not by people served in Jesus' name. There could be an argument on the validity of justifying "how church is done" based solely on "conversions." But noting that the vast majority of the Evangelical Christian community functions the way it does based on the "conversion" number, at least in theory, it would be helpful to know if it's even the most effective way. Wolfgang Simson and others would note the multiplication potential inherent in simple church vs. the addition principle at work in McChurch. But is that what is happening? Or is that simply theoretical? I'm honestly curious.
Also, along the lines of cultural sensitivity and relevance, don't Americans expect church to be "packaged" as an organization? While the "unchurched" are disgruntled with it in general, are they not more likely to return to an institutional "name brand" versus something comletely "new and untested" from their perspective that might be a freaked out cult for all they know? I'm just asking questions here and using way more quotes than anyone should use in any kind of writing. I feel like Chris Farley in whatever sketch he did where the character incessently made the quotation gesture with his fingers.
On a completely different note, a guy just walked into our church to pray for a little while. That's not very common (sadly). But even less common is a Swedish Indian whose been to Bible school in Finland, does not follow Jesus but is no longer a Hindu. Now that's an interesting combination. Great guy. I hope I see him again soon.
posted by Steve 11:30 AM
"My husband doesn't take anything at face value," she says. "When I met him, he was totally into Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. He made me question my values as a Christian."
So did a survey of history. Around 320, she recounts, Constantine gained control of the entire Roman Empire, populated by Jews, pagans and early Christian sects, and appropriated Christianity as the only permitted religion.
"It was considered a capital offense if you did not convert. That is the beginning of the religion I was raised in. There's something wrong with that picture. I don't think there's anything wrong with the teachings of Jesus, but I am suspicious of organized religion. Kabbalah has nothing to do with organized religion. It's not judgmental. It's a manual for living."
Madonna speaks for American culture on a lot of levels. I wouldn't say she's the trend setter for this kind of thought. She's just a reflection on a scale that everyone can see. Her entire life has in fact mirrored the changes in our culture.
Of course, I agree with her description of the Christian religion at the turn of the 4th century. And of course she has to take an honest look at Jesus. Please referrence my discussion of separating the Christian religion from Jesus in my February archives. But she has embraced the lifestyle of the Kabbalah instead of taking a deeper look at Jesus and following Him. So she's put her finger on a lot of truth and is learning some of the crucial principles of the universe. But she's walked right past the Creator of said universe and God's fullest Self revelation in the person of Jesus. I wouldn't be surprised if she encounters Jesus, the living Jesus, on her journey though. Not at all surprised.
We took the fam to the Royal Hennford Circus today. It was at the Palace of Auburn Hills. It's great entertainment for kids. It's got to be a pretty strange way to make a living though. The contortionists were just sick and wrong. They're going to just snap in two walking down the street some day.
Jessica had a ladies craft night last night -- they did Easter eggs. So we're awakened this morning at 6:00 by two ecstatic little boys who have just discovered that the Easter Bunny has been to our house! They had evidently gotten into the fridge and seen 5 eggs, one for each person of the family. So they wanted to eat their eggs and I told them to wait for Daddy to get up and fix them for them. Carter chanting something about chocolate and candy now vaguely runs through my head. So we get to the fridge and I have them pick out the one's with their names on them. Carter gets lucky with a 1 in 5 chance at the one with his name on it, and Spencer knows how to spell his name. But before I have a chace to put the crate back in the fridge Carter takes a huge bite off the top of his! It's a hard boiled egg! He was a little disappointed, you could see his face with this fading exuberance into a "I've been betrayed by the Easter Bunny," but he crunched hopefully and semicheerfully and swallowed his bite. I was laughing so hard I had a hard time sympathetically telling him that it wasn't supposed to be eaten that way. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. But they definitely enjoyed them a lot more sliced up and warmed up with butter and salt and pepper.
Tomorrow night we're having a Pesach Seder with our church on Shabat. I'm looking forward to it.
posted by Steve 5:30 PM
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
This is a re-edited version. My first post got half cut off, so I had to retype it. Sorry for those of you who might have been left hanging.
My brother did a really good job as Judas in their Easter musical on Sunday. I didn't even recognize him for a while with his fake beard and stuff on. But it got me thinking....
Dr. Mulholland, previously mentioned as one of my all time favorite seminary profs, got this conspiracy theory brewing in my mind that makes sense of a lot of data. Are you ready for this?
First of all, a great many New Testament scholars believe that it's quite possible that up to half of Yeshua's talmudim consisted of zealots. (The rest of this information is going to be off the top of my head, so I can no longer be held liable for not going and referencing everything.) Most of us have long believed that Judas' last name was Iscariot. But it's very likely that it was more like a designation. The Sicari were an even more radical group of Zealots than most, carrying around knives after which their group was named. Evidently they were prone to using terrorist type tactics by plunging their blades into the rib cages of Roman soldiers in crowded market places slipping into the crowds unnoticed. So, what if Iscariot were actually indicating a group to which Judas belonged. We all know he was more than likely trying to stir Yeshua into his definitive Messianic role, instigating action by selling him into the hands of the religious leaders and roman soldiers. That way Yeshua would surely usher in his Kingdom by the power he had already revealed. But it's highly likely that the manuscripts we have contain a Latin suffix "oth" meaning "of" or "of the." Iscari is not a known place now or in the Near East of that time. But it is so similar to Sicari.
OK, so you're granting me this possibility that Judas was not just a Zealot, but a hard core Zealot ready to lead the rebellion whenever the next great Jewish leader or especially the Meshiach came along to liberate their people. So the timing is ripe for all of this. The talmudim (disciples) are picking up on Yeshua’s anxiety as they move toward Jerusalem. And there are even some strange occurrences among them. They're celebrating the Pesach Seder (Passover meal for all you goyim) and Yeshua tells them that one of them would betray him. Now either they’re all blissfully ignorant except Judas who acts innocent or they all had guilty consciences. Because all four Gospels have them asking the same basic question, “who, me?” In the three of the books they say “surely not I, Rabbi?” And in Luke they just argue over who it might be. Also in Luke, Yeshua is trying to indicate how hard things are going to get, and these fishermen and other working stiffs produce a couple of swords saying basically, “no problem, we’re ready for it.” Swords? Why were they packing? Of course, Yeshua puts an end to the discussion because they didn’t get it.
For Peter and his part, he has been told that he will deny the Son of God three times, to which he replies that it will never happen since he’s ready to be thrown in prison and even die for the cause. And following through on that bravado, he brandishes a sword when they arrest Yeshua and promptly cuts off the ear of the high priest’s servant. Yeshua again tells them to put away the weapons, he doesn’t need their help, and heals the man’s ear instantly. So you could possibly imagine that Peter believes he’s held up his end of the deal, he was ready to die fighting right then and there. Yet the prophetic words of the Rabbi only ring in his ears after the rooster crows and he realizes that he has in fact denied all knowledge of this man from Nazareth three times in circumstances he completely failed to imagine.
So what’s the point? I don’t think the other 11 are as innocent as we like them to be. I think they were not only just as prepared to usher in the Kingdom by force, but were possibly plotting as well to force the issue...taking matters into their own hands. They still didn’t get it even after Jesus reappeared and asked, “are you at this time going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?” The difference was in how they dealt with their failure.
So what about Judas? Am I saying he is somehow innocent? No. He condemns himself by saying, “I have sinned…for I have betrayed innocent blood.” (Matthew 27:4) And then he takes his own life, unaware of the grace available to him.
Anyway, I won’t drag that into a sermon somehow. I just have been thinking this week about that whole scene and what might have been going on. Like I said, interesting conspiracy theory.
posted by Steve 5:33 PM
Friday, April 11, 2003
I just read a great blog that you need to check out. I'm easily convicted by things like this. War may be a necessary evil. Or it may be a human dynamic diametrically opposed the Kingdom, and peace -- true shalom -- may be closer than we realize if we could truly live the Kingdom life. Either way, I have no control over the war and whether it happens or not. What I do have control over is what I'm doing with today. What if my today were spent touching people in Iraq in the name of Jesus -- giving the cold drink of water... assisting in emergencies... being there to grieve with those who grieve. I suppose that tends to be my spiritual fantasy life. I could do the same thing just a couple of miles from my house. But my daily routine doesn't involve that kind of activity.
And of course, there's always the balance. I am a husband and father and have the wonderful privilege and responsibility of providing and taking care of them. If I haven't been what I need to be for them, and I go off and try to save the whole world, it's all been in vain, useless. I have a ton more thoughts on this, but I don't have time to sit down and write about it or even think about it for now.
How will I allow my Heavenly Father to use me today? How will I surrender to His continuing process of transformation in me today? Those are my choices.
posted by Steve 10:16 AM
Thursday, April 10, 2003
The reign of terror is over. We have been liberated from the oppressive regime of powerlessness!! Yes, our electricity came on yesterday at some undisclosed time in the afternoon. One eyewitness, interviewed on the condition of anonymity, asked while thumping the mike, "is this thing on?"
We're moving back home today. Of course, I left Jessica, the pregnant one with two little boys, to do all the cleaning, packing and heavy lifting. I came back to work to blog. Actually I'm between meetings. I met Mark Knuth for breakfast this morning and will be headed to Kensington for a church planters forum in a couple of minutes. Speaking of Kensington, I met with Steve Andrews yesterday and we had a great time talking and sharing. He was really encouraging to me and it was good to hear more of his story and get his take on some things.
I also almost finished up burning my Revelation sermon series onto CD. I'm extremely bummed that I've only got half of them on tape. I don't know what happened to the other tapes, whether the recordings just never came out, or whether something happened to them in the two years that they just sat in a warm dark place. Even the recordings I have are for the most part pretty miserable. I guess I'm gonna have to re-preach the entire 20 part series and make sure they're better recordings. I can hear the people lining up already to hear me preach. Oops... nope... that was just the UPS guy at the door with a package for the school downstairs.
We finished our best of 7, Rook Power Outage World Series last night. It was Mom and I vs. Dad and Jess. The games were spread out over three nights. It came down to game seven. And yes, believe it, I'm about to give you a recap of this game. Mom and I started the game off by going into the hole 165 points and giving the bad guys, I mean our opponents 135 points. I had no business taking that bid. But we battled back with a couple of heroic, almost miraculous 200 point hands. The tension mounted. The joking stopped. The game is now tied at 485 a piece and the first one to get 500 wins. The pop, Pringles, nuts, ice cream, pie, cookies, candy, milk and coffee were all pushed aside. (You think I'm kidding.) All that could be heard was Carter snoring from the hide-a-bed. Mom bid 100, Dad 105. I pass. Jessica passes. Now for all of you non-Rook players, especially those who have never played with my family, this is extraordinarily funny. The only time Mom bids over 115 is when she gets a golden hand poised to take all 200 points. Needless to say, she hadn't taken the bid this entire game. And now I have left her dangling at the most crucial point of the series, a full count with two outs and the bases loaded, and she's standing at the plate with no bat in her hands trying to convince Dad that she's got one when she's already communicated quite clearly that she doesn't. She bids 165 hoping that Dad'll go to 170. It's a challenge to his ego. Dad doesn't like to just slide into a win when he's got a good hand. I'm proud of Mom at this point. She's not the type to bid anybody up. As a matter of fact she wanted to quit the game after game 6 because then we'd be tied and we could all go to bed happy. But no, something deep and primal, a competitive spirit, the gut instinct to go down fighting took hold of Mom and I smiled with great pride. It was a profound satisfaction that all of the snacks had not yet filled inside. Then my Dad, with considerable dramatics, pushed the kitty to my Mom, indicating his pass. We played the hand out, but it was already over. Mom and I had squat in our hands. They crushed us mercilessly. It was a beautiful series, the likes of which the Tigers will never see again.
That narrative was about as satisfying as the pound of sugar and half a tank of Brazilian caffeine, I mean coffee, I ingested last night. May it keep you warm, hyper, and going to the bathroom all day!
posted by Steve 9:48 AM
Monday, April 07, 2003
MMmmmm springtime in Michigan. Our power's still not back on so we've been homeless for a couple of days. It's been dropping down in the low teens for the past several nights, so staying home without heat hasn't been an option. Sunday after church we were headed over to Mom and Dad Baughn's anyway to celebrate Dad's birthday. So we just packed some essentials and spent the night. While there we also got to watch the Fellowship of the Ring special edition DVD on their new home theater set up. That was very cool.
Today we came home. Thankfully most of the ice had melted off the trees, especially since we had a fresh 6 inches of snow. I would have gone sledding if there had been any warmth to come home to. Instead I got my Escort wagon stuck in the driveway. I'm currently mad at that car. I'm punishing it by leaving it right where it's at until all the snow melts. And even then I might leave it out there for a while. I talked loudly of getting another new nice car, but it knows we won't do it. So I stay in this disfunctional relationship while it takes advantage of me.
Soooooo we loaded up the minivan and headed up to Mom and Dad Thompson's. We just got done playing a couple hands of Rook. That's a pretty standard event in the Thompson household.
I actually like storms, especially snow storms -- any weather that causes a semi-crisis event, but nothing cataclysmic. Something that disrupts your life just enough. Life slows down. You're either really late for work or you don't make it at all. And if you do make it half the people are gone and there's a much more laid back atmosphere. Life gets a little more quiet, simple, different. It's a nice change of pace to shake up the routine. Yeah, it'll be nice to get back home and get in my comfortable rut, but I'm enjoying this too while it lasts. And, of course, I was getting on the boys pretty hard after unsuccessfully trying to move the Escort...anywhere. But on the whole everything's real good. I like Michigan.
posted by Steve 11:02 PM
Saturday, April 05, 2003
Ever since yesterday morning we've been having rain and freezing rain that has been sticking to absolutely everything. It reminded me of Kentucky. But when I called down there, it was in the 70's. Today has been more of the same only with even more tree branches falling under the weight of the ice. I didn't think anyone would show up to soccer and even I wasn't all that enthused about playing on icey grass, so I took the boys with me to play hockey. Jessica went to Ann Arbor with Tammy Bruhn to look at (which always assumes purchasing) books that the Ann Arbor library is selling. But there was no hockey because there was no electricity. So I took the boys to the gym and let them watch me work out. Do you have any idea how flattering it is to have your sons ask to feel your muscles...again? Of course, I indulge them with a full display of my best Mr. Universe poses. And the only one not impressed at my house is my wife. Anyway, we're at the gym and there's only like four other people in there, so I asked if I could put a video tape on the TV for my boys and of course no one objects. So we all worked out to Veggie Tales -- a best of Silly Songs tape. It was pretty awesome. Pumping iron to Veggie Tunes.
Long story short, we lost our power around 3:00 and it's still not back on. So we've spent the evening at the Bruhns playing Cranium, eating their food, and now sleeping on their beds. I'm at the church cuz there's still power here (but not right next door at our house!), and I shouldn't be here because we're losing an entire stinking hour tonight! I love the idea of daylight savings, but this one night is the only downside. Do you think anyone will care if I show up an hour late to church tomorrow?
posted by Steve 10:44 PM
Friday, April 04, 2003
Here's a couple of pics from Carter's birthday party in Ann Arbor. Carter's the one in the orange shirt who just turned three. Spencer's the one with the cheesy grin reading Pregnancy magazine. I have another awesome picture of Carter with the cheesiest of grins holding his new Play Doh playland thingy. But you also get a clear shot up his nose. Maybe once I touch up the pic to edit out the contents of his nose I'll publish it. Of course, I'll keep the original for an embarrasing wedding video later in life.
On the right is Einstein (Uncle Dan's dog) wearing the requisite Buzz Lightyear birthday hat. It's too good not to publish even though all of you with dial-ups are probably hating me. Special props to Alan again for helping me through getting these stinking pictures on the web. I'll get good at this soon.
posted by Steve 2:18 PM
Thursday, April 03, 2003
STORY OF THE DAY: Our cat, Jack, has been dealing with some kind of eye infection for over a week. We were hoping it would just go away. But it was getting worse so Jess and Carter took him to the vet. And there, of course, they gave us two pills and a little thing of eye drops to administer. He had some kind of scratch on his cornea and a little infection that needed medication. Now, this is the first cat I've ever owned and it wasn't my idea to get him, although I have grown kind of fond of him because he's about as close to being a dog as a cat is going to get. But for various reason, there were no remaining options of fooling him into voluntarily swallowing a pill so we were left with the unenviable task of pinning him down, prying open his mouth, throwing the pill as far back down his throat as possible and then clamping his mouth shut and stroking his neck. Yeah, right! We were smart enough to wrap him in a towel so as not to obtain multiple scratches that don't stop bleeding. But the cruel and inhumane treatment stopped with our cat snapping and hissing at as while foaming at the mouth, saliva dangling all over his body and fur everywhere. The scene was not pretty and I was ready to snap his neck. I told my wife to take that cat back to the vet and have THEM administer the pill AT NO CHARGE or we were leaving the cat there with them. Then I went back to the church because I had a prayer group I had to be at. Needless to say they were grumpy prayers akin to some of David the Psalmist's whining, only for much less of a reason. We've somehow managed to sneak up on him and accurately strike with laser guided eye drops [sign of too much war coverage]. But I don't have any idea what happened to the pills and quite frankly, I don't care.
posted by Steve 2:46 PM
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
I read this article by Nat Hentoff from Drudge today. It's called Why I Didn't March This Time. Yet another reasonable voice that makes it increasingly clear that not only are the political motivations for this or any war extremely complex and muddy, but even the morality of war, just or otherwise, is complex, muddy and not at all clear. Or is it? Maybe it's just too radical for enough people to embrace.
posted by Steve 9:38 AM
Tuesday, April 01, 2003
Rob Graham has a great prayer on his website. I can resonate with it.
We had dinner with my parents last night. They just got back from taking a team to Brazil where they're continuing work on building a school. It’s actually a really cool long story that I won’t get into. But when we first moved to Brazil in the mid-80’s, there was a Brazilian couple who felt like God wanted them to move up to this back woods place called Monte Santo. There was nothing there – including the woods! But they planted a church, and slowly the Kingdom has been growing so that now they’re building this school and having an impact on the city, its education, its ecology, its sanitation, etc., etc. That’s what the Kingdom does, right? It affects absolutely every area of life.
I started up soccer again on Saturday. It was in the low 70’s on Friday. When we were playing Saturday it was in the 30’s. So we only had six guys playing. But for the Brits and Yuriy from the Ukraine, that would be run of the mill “football” weather. Erasto and Javier from Mexico and Spain weren’t as keen on the weather. I love getting to know these guys from all over the place!
Here's a couple of pics from Carter's birthday party in Ann Arbor. Carter's the one in the orange shirt who just turned three. Spencer's the one with the cheesy grin reading Pregnancy magazine. I have another awesome picture of Carter with the cheesiest of grins holding his new Play Doh playland thingy. But you also get a clear shot up his nose. Maybe once I touch up the pic to edit out the contents of his nose I'll publish it. Of course, I'll keep the original for an embarrasing wedding video later in life.
