Bye bye October

Is it supposed to be 75 degrees entering November?

This past weekend went well. I picked up Jalen for his first weekend visit to our home since June 2005. Noah responded to him surprising well, even giving him the nickname "JJ". Nick felt he had to compete with everyone else for his big brother's attention and finally ended up working himself into a spanking. Although I've seen him sporadically during this past year and some change, I hadn't fully realized just how much he's grown. While Nick is probably going to be tall and slender, Jalen is probably going to have an offensive/defensive lineman's body. He's at least 5'8", outweighs me, has hands that are equal in size to mine, and can wear my shoes. My shoes range from a 13 to a 14, depending on the manufacturer, but he can fit them all. Whoa. And he hasn't hit his growth spurt yet. I think my grocery bill is about to double. Luckily his waist size hasn't changed since we last had him, so the pants we had for him still fit. It was funny seeing him tower over people at church who haven't seen him in a while (like Summer). He got to hear two timely messages from Mr. B. and Mr. Meredith to boot. We spent Sat. nite on the couch munching popcorn, watching my Seminoles lose to Maryland again. At least his Miami Hurricanes had already lost to Ga. Tech. At least my Cowboys won Sunday night, keeping me from leaping from the 3rd floor of my lab.

I found out that the hot dogs at Fuddrucker's are really good. More expensive than an entire pack of Hebrew Nationals or Ball Park's, but good - as are the onion rings. (And the oatmeal raisin cookies).

I dreamt last night that the baby is going to be a boy.

I wasted several hours last nite watching VH-1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 80s". I'm a sucker for those type of shows. I remember watching like 8 episodes of "I Love the 80s" (or was it the 70s) in one sitting. Yeah, that was a really productive day.

More emigration

Buckblog over at It's a Paul World has an interesting take on the latest South African LCG-to-RCG defection. Dr. Bob Thiel talks about it as well. I guess there must be something in the water down there.

I needed that

Thanks Moni.

A labmate called me in the lab to chat because she hasn't seen me since before the Feast (I've been coming in at night to accomodate the M.R.S.'s school schedule). We had quite a good talk. She feels just as despondent and adrift as I do when it comes to school matters. The two of us share many concerns and frustrations about our degree progress. It is comforting to know that I'm not the only one here feeling inadequate, unprepared, and at times like quitting. I think I'm more to blame for my situation than she is for hers, but finding a kindred spirit is always nice. I found out from her that another mutual acquaintance just had his December graduation pushed back to May, so the three of us are planning to drown our sorrows in a couple of adult beverages one day this week. (OK, so I won't exactly drown my sorrows, but you get the idea...) Yep, I like doing science less and less by the day.

Desiree, if I don't get the van, the M.R.S. will kill me. I'd much rather have an Escalade or Navigator. Quick question - could the Jetta hold 6?

Firefox is trippin'

Firefox just removed all of my bookmarks. And required me to create a profile when I opened it. What gives? I don't recall updating Firefox recently. My PC has been doing some strange things lately. Firefox has been freezing up; Windows MediaPlayer won't play - troubleshooting led me to believe I had a bad sound card. That was validated in my mind when iTunes wouldn't play either. Today iTunes decided to play - but MediaPlayer still refuses. The computer is also refusing to recognize the CD/DVD rom, meaning I can't burn files to CD to work on at home.

PS: Anyone out there trying to give away a van? I could feel my testerone levels dip as I typed that line.

The best-laid plans and whatnot...

Genesis 4:1 - Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived...

Genesis 29:35 - And she conceived again...

The shock is slowly wearing off. Guess I need to step up the search for a *gasp* minivan.

Stunning news

I just received some stunning news tonight. I need to see how things turn out over the next few days before I say more. Don't worry - the news wasn't bad, just shocking.

Daytona Beach mini-recap

Back from the Feast. For 10 days I didn't go near a computer and I didn't die. I got deathly ill, but didn't die. I think I'm on the road to internet recovery.

The Feast was exceptional. On the way down I scored major brownie points by taking the M.R.S. to Paula Deen's joint.

Our trip down was fairly smooth, and once we got checked in we found our temporary dwelling to be quite nice. I didn't get to hear very many complete sermons (thanks, Noah), but the portions I did hear were exceptional. It's always encouraging to me to hear about the kingdom and the wonderful meaning of the Last Great Day. It's always nice touching base with old friends, and we made some new ones as well. It's also funny how relationships develop amongst parents due to seeing each other in the lobby after taking the young ones out of services. I got to know a couple of people from Minnesota that way, as well as MD and TN residents. Of course Nick made quite a few new friends, and did a better job of dividing his time between the old and the new than I did.


The M.R.S. and I (as well as a few other Anderson members) got the opportunity to be a part of the Festival Chorale this year, which was an exilerating experience... Mr. Thomas directed us and his excitement and zeal were contagious. We sang the hymns "God is our Refuge" and "Be not Afraid" a capella (Summer, you were absolutely correct about that song), and on the Last Great Day we sang "With the Sound of Trumpets" with piano, sax, and trumpet accompaniment. The music as a whole was excellent. The kids sang "Won't it be Great in the World Tomorrow" with piano, electric bass, and flute accompaniment; the hymns during services were accompanied by M. Thomas on cello and Mary D. (13 years old!) on flute. Mrs. Winnail sang a POWERFUL, inspiring version of "The Holy City", accompanied by a Mr. McCarty on piano, and he also played a classical piece for offertory music on the LGD. Mrs. Thomas sang a soprano solo as well from Handel's Messiah... Which one was it now... Oh yeah - "How Beautiful are the Feet of Them"...

I think 13 babies were blessed this year on Family Day. The Anderson congregation helped out with the Scavenger Hunt for everyone and the Treasure Hunt for the kids. We were all pretty nervous about how things were going to turn out, but all I heard afterwards was positive feedback. The winning teams were rewarded, although one young member of the Village People would've appreciated a more material reward. You had to be there to understand. :-D

The most memorable sermons for me were Mr. Whitaker's sermon (ah, what was the title???) and Mr. Frank's Last Great Day sermon. Wonderful sermonettes were given by Mr. Ponder (GA/SC/AL), Mr. Poole (Anderson, SC), Mr. Beyersdorfer (Joplin, MO), Mr. Kobernat, Mr. Ames, and Mr. Brown (Tallahassee). I know I'm leaving some people out, but I'm at work and my notes are at home. I think you guys get the picture though - it was a rewarding Feast. I'm also looking forward to checking out Feast sermons from our library. Maybe then I'll get to finish watching the "Behind the Work" video (thanks again, Noah).

Oh yeah - Noah's deathly afraid of the ocean. And he was quite probably the most well-known young man at the Feast. Let's just say that he wasn't afraid of being heard during services. Or shy about singing. Or songleading, for that matter.




PS: Annette, I think your parents think I'm strange.

Hell hath no fury...

Yada yada yada. Just got off the phone with Jalen and then his mom; apparently she's not going to be receptive to the conciliatory approach. Maybe she'd like it better if I called the cops and have them enforce our new court order.

LCG to RCG

First Mark Mendiola, now Syd Hull. I wonder how the South African brethren will be affected, as well as the brethren in Mr. Mendiola's area.

Small World

I just found out that I know one of the contestants on this season's Survivor.



Her name is Stephannie Favor now, but she was Stephannie Howell back in the day. Her bio can be found here.

I still don't plan to watch though. OK, I might sneak a peek to see how she's comporting herself.

Lunch on the Feast of Trumpets

A group of us were at a local eatery on the patio with one other lady who wasn't a part of our group. She was sitting by herself near the entrance to the restaurant, smoking a cigarette and doing a crossword puzzle. This is part of our conversation as I passed her on my way to use the facilities...

Lady: "So, what's the special occasion?"

Me: "We're a church group."

Lady (henceforth, 'L'): "Which one?"

Me (henceforth, 'HBS'): "The Living Church of God."

L: "Where's that?"

HBS: "We meet in a dance studio on McGee Road. (Incredulous look by L.) Today's a special day, so we're meeting in the library."

L: "So what are you? What denomination?"

HBS: "Uhhh... We aren't a denomination. We're just Christian." *At this point I thought of going the "continuation of the Jerusalem church of God" or the "Apostolic Christianity" route, but decided against it* "We're not Catholic or Protestant though, as we have some different doctrines."

L: "What doctrines are those?"

HBS: "Well, there are several, but probably the one that makes us stick out the most is our observance of the OT, or what most people would call Jewish, Holy Days. For example, today we're observing Rosh Hashanah."

L: "You mean the Old Testament?" (Looks at me with pity) "You need to be freed by Jesus." (Pause) "You need to read the New Testament."

HBS: "Well, we do that too ma'am."

L: "I just don't understand." (Turns back to her crossword puzzle.)

At this point I pat her on the shoulder and excuse myself to go to the loo. One sharp-eyed person in our party noticed our exchange and asked me about it. She really got a kick out of the "You need to be freed by Jesus" line.

I bypassed the part of the discussion about whether I was the pastor, and where our founders (she meant Mr. Poole & Mr. Ehman) were from.

The next Wensday (according to my clock)

The Feast is almost here.

Question about uncleanness: Would you feel comfortable using animal parts from animals that are unclean to eat? For example, would you use a brush with bristles made from hog hair? I've got to look into that further, but as far as I can tell right there doesn't appear to be wrong. I'm interested in hearing what you think. And no, I'm not contemplating starting a hog farm. :-)

We had a close friend visit us for the first time in 5 years this past weekend. She is probably the person most responsible for me meeting the M.R.S. I also dated her sister for 4 years, but that's a story for another day. She was coming into town for a baby shower for another friend. It was quite different trying to get into a "Trumpets mindset" Friday evening with a houseguest who doesn't believe what we believe; in actuality, I don't think she's very religious at all. We did enjoy her company, and we caught up on each other's lives. She comes from a pretty impressive family: She has a Master's in Public Health, and just graduated from the Georgia State School of Law; her older sister, whom I used to date, is an M.D.; and her baby sister has a PhD in Biochemistry - no, biomedical engineering from Duke. Their mom has a PhD in Entomology from Michigan State. One of my old college roommates came over Sat. night as well, and we spent the evening reminiscing and watching Michigan State and Boston College play the stupidest 4th quarters in human history.

The rest of Trumpets was absolutely amazing. Noah caused me to miss most of our local elder's morning sermon, but I got to hear the afternoon sermon - it was stellar! Mr. Ehman is always encouraging, and his explanations of the nuances of the Greek and Hebrew meanings of words is always enlightening.

Sunday morning, bright and early, it was off to the Barrel - Cracker Barrel, that is. Work was absolutely horrible. We recently switched to a Micros system (computerized tickets as opposed to handwritten ones), and the grill line was having all sorts of problems getting the orders correct. In addition, one of the cooks didn't show. Ticket times were in the 30-35 minute range for most of the day, and we stayed on an hour wait as a result. Everyone was stressing even more than usual; good thing I'd prayed about watching my attitude before going in to work. I was so busy that I took my coffee cup in to drink a cup before starting work at 9. It was 2:30 before I had the time to actually pour the cup of coffee. I missed out on the cleaning party because of work; I'm interested to see how it went. I guess it would help your understanding if I told you that we're moving to a new location for services. From what I understand, it has a full kitchen. I'm as excited as Emeril to use that thing. Yep, we might be having some fresh-outta-the-oven hashbrown casserole next potluck.

Wensday

The Feast is getting close now! I set up an appointment for Friday to get our vehicle serviced. I took her to the mechanic’s yesterday to get a couple of estimates and the mechanic fixed one of the problems in about 2 minutes while I was giving my contact information. Apparently the air-flow meter was giving false readings due to the air horn being partially disconnected. The truck had been sputtering whenever we pressed the gas, sometimes to the point of cutting off. Next we’re going to get some bushings replaced on the front passenger side, which shall finally end the annoying loud squeaking that manifests itself every time I turn the wheel or hit a bump. It doesn’t look like I’ll get the A/C fixed, but hopefully we won’t be needing it in sunny Fla. We’ll get an oil change next week and we’ll be ready to go. Sixteen days and we’re OUTTA HERE!!!

Couch-to-5K took a hit last week. In other words, I didn’t run at all. I went out to the park yesterday to start at the 2.5 mark again and it was brutal. I had this incredible hitch in my side and in my chest. It’s not possible to lose that much ground in one week, is it? (All of a sudden I’m getting bad feelings about running post-Feast.) I had to stop at the 1.5 mile mark, walk a lap, and then struggle to finish the last mile. I did finish, but it was murder. Today I have a sore right calf to show for my efforts – as well as a small feeling of accomplishment.

We’ve been running to the mailbox every day looking for the letter from our attorney, but so far there’s been nothing. I think I’ll give them a call and see where they are in the process of finalizing things. I’d like to have everything finalized by the Feast. I think Daytona would be a good time to start making up for lost time.

The M.R.S. is almost halfway through the first semester of her final year of nursing school. I’m quite proud of the way she’s immersed herself in her studies. I think she’s going to do quite well this year, but I know she can’t wait until July when she’s done. She’s already tossing out ideas about us having a big blowout to celebrate both of our graduations – assuming I hold up my end of the bargain.

Hey Joe & Ashley – look out for the dreaded post-marriage weight gain!

The Emperor is Naked

Yes, the Emperor has been exposed. I've felt all season that Florida State was good enough, if they could get past Miami, to be in the hunt for a BCS bowl game because of their favorable schedule. I also thought they had the potential to lose to teams they had more talent than, as that's been their modis operandi since Jeff Bowden became offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach (or whatever his title is) a few years ago. I rationalized the performance against Troy (in which they had to come from behind late in the 4th quarter) as a fluke. I see now that they are clearly not a top-10 team. While the defense is good, and extremely fast, the offense is still sputtering. You cannot be a top-10 team and still not have scored an offensive touchdown in the first half of a game all season. Yes, Mr. B, the M.R.S. is preparing a nice dish of roasted crow for our dinner tomorrow. At least my Cowboys won tonight. The beatdowns delivered to Miami and Notre Dame were nice too. Of course, the Miami beatdown further diminishes FSU's luster, as they had to struggle mightily to beat the Hurricanes. Looks like this is gonna be a long season. At least I can always fall back on my alma mater and jump on the bandwagon. Go Tigers!!!

Ladies, I could hear your eyes glazing over with boredom as you read this. Then again, most of you probably didn't even make it this far. That was probably sexist.

And I screwed up that Ross Jutsum song again!!! For the record, placing a hymnal in front of your face Summer while laughing hysterically doesn't keep the song leader from knowing that you're laughing hysterically. At him.

Uh-oh...

It looks like trip to the conference in Brazil Sep. 18-20 is a no-go... By the time I finished dotting all my i's and crossing all my tees, the earliest I could receive my expedited visa is Tues/Wed, the 19th or 20th. I don't see the point in spending $2000 to miss a conference. I guess I can do some more data analysis and present my results at another conference in January (New Orleans!). My advisor is really gonna be ticked though. It's my own fault for waiting until the last minute to try to secure everything. I wasn't aware of all the requirements I needed to fulfill in order to travel abroad as a representative of the university. My boss is really gonna be ticked. I may as well send him an email now so he won't be waiting for me in the conference room tomorrow to check out my presentation. Did I mention he's gonna be ticked? Oh yeah, I was supposed to be giving another presentation there for someone else in the lab b/c she just had a baby. It looks like I'm gonna be real popular around here the next few weeks.

Maybe I can just take a vacation the next few days and let everyone just assume I'm at the conference.

I am so gonna get kicked out of grad school.

At least I'll get a 24-hour respite in about 17.5 hours.

Incidentally, I recently "upgraded" to Blogger Beta, which means that for the time being I can't comment on any non-Beta blogs, and at some point this will probably become a private blog requiring permission to read (I assume). I think I'll need to add the email addresses of those who want to read this. I'll keep ya posted.

Court

The court date has come and gone. It appears that I will now receive standard unsupervised visitation every other weekend, from 6 pm. Friday to 6 pm Sunday. Our attorneys got together before court and tried to work out a resolution before we were called in to see the judge. The defendant accused me of not taking advantage of the time Jalen was present, so we agreed that if I will not be present for a period of > 1 hour, then I must take Jalen back to his mom. Problem solved, right? Wrong! Then my attorney comes back and asks about us not allowing him to watch TV, particularly sporting events? What? I explain to him about not watching games on Friday nights or Saturday afternoons, but other than that there weren’t many restrictions on sporting events. If anything, I watch too many! So we agreed to allow him to watch a reasonable amount of television. Everything’s hunky-dory now, right? Wrong again! The lawyers huddle again, and then come back to talk to us. By this point even her attorney looked exasperated. She wanted Christmas and Easter (OK), and we agreed to split the Thanksgiving weekend each year. She was steadfastly opposed to Jalen attending the Feast with us, so I don’t know where we stand in that regard right now. I’ll definitely invite him anyway and see what happens. I found out that she thinks I’m a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses. My attorney is drawing up the visitation order, and will forward it to her attorney. Upon his approval, the judge will sign the order and everything will become official. Thank you all for your prayers and words of encouragement!

Although I’m glad to have something official to go by, I’m still upset that we had to end up in court. I hate that we couldn’t work things out and not get the state involved in our family affairs. Hopefully this has brought an end to the tug-of-war with Jalen in the middle.

As an aside, it was interesting watching the other people there for court. One lady before us came out of the courtroom in hysterics and had to escorted out of the building. Apparently, the Department of Social Services was sending someone to check out her home, and a child or children were temporarily in the custody of their father. The case immediately before us involved two couples: one middle-aged, well-dressed, probably middle to upper-middle class; the other, young (early twenties), dressed in jeans and t-shirts, probably lower class (in the economic sense). The young guy, I noted, had marijuana leaf designs all over his jeans. I wonder how that case turned out. Another young man showed up to court with his mom; I guess his case was after ours. He had on saggy jeans, a jersey, and a baseball cap cocked to the side. I see now why my attorney stressed to us the importance of dressing up for court. Even if jeans are the best one has, jeans with an illegal substance on them??? C’mon now.

Recap

Paul over at It's a Paul World has an interesting post today about a European military buildup in the Middle East. Speaking of the Columbus, OH based blog, our very own Prodigal daughter returned from C-bus and appears to be none the worse for wear... Well, except for that hideous OSU Buckeyes T-shirt she now owns.

The weekend was swell. Family came to visit and kept me up half the night Friday, and it was quite enjoyable. Services went well as usual, and the after-services meal was refreshing. We hadn't stuck around lately due to advice from our financial advisor (my oh-so-small bank account), but I'm glad we did. I splurged on some delicious beef/mushroom pizza on a hand-tossed whole wheat crust from a local pizzeria. It was absolutely fantastic - almost as good as that single ice-cold draft Bud Light I had at "Celebrate Anderson" yesterday.

Yesterday started well. I went to bed early Sat. night for a change (around midnight), and got up @ 6 to watch the Tomorrow's World telecast. After it went off, I stretched and did some crunches and push-ups (not very many of the latter), and drove off to the track to finish up week 6 of c25K. After nearly dying completing the first mile, the second mile and a quarter weren't as bed. I'm cautiously optimistic about making the jump to 2.5 miles today at Sertoma Field. Anyway, I came home, showered, and prepared to go to work when I noticed that my watch was dying. It wasn't 8:15 after all; it was more like 8:30. I leave home at 8:40 to make it on time. Needless to say, I did not shower, shave, iron, and dress in 10 minutes. I still made it to work only a few minutes late. You might've noticed that there was no mention of breakfast above. As you can imagine, I got pretty hungry during my shift... Eventually it died down though, and I made it through the day. The M.R.S. picked my up, we briefly swung by the Brooks' for a shower and change of clothes, and then we headed back over to the Anderson Civic Center's Amphitheater for a "Celebrate Anderson" concert. I really just went for the fellowship and fireworks, but the orchestra ended up being really good! They played a lot of patriotic tunes, but the song of the night for me was "Orange Blossom Special" as arranged by Robert Wendel. I was going to try to describe it, but you can give it a listen yourself.




After their performance, I got another treat - Dionne Warwick! While I wouldn't say I'm her biggest fan, I definitely like her big hits. She started with "Walk on By", and "Anyone who had a Heart", sang a couple more I didn't know, and finished with "That's what Friends are for". Even though she was quite congested, she acquitted herself well.



After that, the evening drew to a close with a 21-minute fireworks display that wowed the boys, accompanied by more tunes like Stars & Stripes Forever. They played other songs that I've heard a million times, but I don't know the title - one was that Thus Sprach Zoroaster or something like that. The theme to "2001: A Space Odyssey" - I think. I can't be sure as I've never seen that movie. Anyway, it was a great ending to a pleasant evening! I'm glad Patti, Country Girl, and the Brooks talked me into coming out.

I was going to post more pix, but blogger is trippin'. Later!

Finis

Here I am @ 3 a.m., back on campus to use a printer. Normally I would just wait until tomorrow, but tomorrow's the first football game and I'd never be able to get in here. They already have my building's parking lot blocked off.

Sometime around 11 pm, Thursday, Aug. 31…

Hot Buttered Soul: “What’re you checking out?”

The M.R.S. : “I’m checking out the church speaking schedule.”

HBS: “So do I have any responsibilities this week”

M.R.S.: “Yep; sermonette.”

HBS: “What???”

Potpourri

The weekend was a mixed bag, mostly good though. I got to see a lot of cousins I hadn’t seen in ages. All my grandmother’s living siblings were present at the family dinner, and I was reminded that my Grandma’s kids/grandkids are the runts of the Cabbagestalk clan. (Thanks for being 5’8”, Grandpa.) It was weird seeing cousins who were little kids the last time I saw them all of a sudden towering over me (and I’m not a short guy at 6’2”). One of my little cousins is now a professional comedian, having been seen in bit roles on Saturday Night Live, BET’s Comicview, and Comedy Central’s premium blend. Another of my cousins there is a former major league baseball player, having played for the Mets, Angels, and Mariners. Unfortunately he played about 15-20 years too early, before average players could command multiple millions of dollars per year. Some of my relatives have not had it so well, and it showed in their faces. We actually missed the dinner portion of the dinner, having been to Sabbath services in Asheboro that afternoon. Services were good as usual, though Noah was a little whiny. I assume he was that way because services were two hours early, and his schedule was thrown off. Then again, maybe he was just having one of those days. It turns out Asheboro is the closest congregation to my parents’ home at 90 miles exactly. Charlotte is right at 100 miles, Raleigh (Warsaw, NC) is 116 according to Google Maps, and Walterboro is ~140-150 (though it’s only 103 miles from my brother’s crib).

My mom and I got into our semi-annual argument Friday night because I was taking the time to go to services Saturday. (Is it still an argument if only one party is speaking?) She doesn’t understand why I won’t forsake church to spend the entire day with the family. I’ve pretty much given up explaining why, and just let her vent. That ended what had been a great dinner put together by my brother and his wife. I guess it’s our turn to be hosts this week, as Clemson’s football season kicks off and my brother is a season-ticket holder. So I went to bed Friday night in a less-than-stellar mood; we overslept Sat. morning, and we ended up making it to services about 15 minutes late. We drove my Pop’s F-150 because my A/C is shot in my truck, and that bad boy drinks gas like a baby drinks milk. I slapped $30 bucks in and the truck laughed at me. So after the family get-together, we stopped by my brother’s house and ended up not going to my parent’s until midnight. Then I got the evil eye from the folks because they’d been waiting up to spend more time with the kids. Dad usually goes to the local convenience store for breakfast before going to work around 10, so I assumed that was going to be the case this time. Therefore, I left the carseats in his truck (assuming he would want to take the boys to breakfast like he did the last time I was home), and I was also planning to gas up his truck then as well. Guess what? This particular Sunday he leaves home around 8 without waking anyone up for breakfast, and he decides to drive his truck. Needless to say, he was not too thrilled about having to get our stuff out of his truck before he could leave; he was even less pleased at not having as much gas in his truck as he was anticipating. Eventually we all get up as mom is preparing to go to church. I tell her we’re leaving early that afternoon so that we’ll get back fairly early. I also tell her we’ll be at her mother’s house saying our good-byes when she gets out of church. I assumed she knew we’d be leaving directly from Grandma’s, but apparently she didn’t. She was already there when we got there (yes, we were behind schedule again), but she left without us saying our goodbyes. After we’d been on the road for a while, Mom calls and is a little peeved b/c we didn’t stop back by the house on our way out. My bad. More guilt.
Anyway, we’re back safe and sound. I think Noah and I are going to go to campus and begin the wife-selection process. If he’s going to put in his 7 years of hard labor to win some lady’s hand, he should probably start now. And why is he calling me Mike?

Whether he killed JonBenet Ramsey or not, John Mark Karr is one sick puppy.

Week six, day 1 of couch-to-5K. What a time to figure out I’ve been doing the program wrong.