Been AWOL

I'm back from an unexpected trip home and to Fayetteville, NC due to a death in the family. It was good seeing cousins I hadn't seen since we all were kids. I just wish the circumstances weren't so dour. Nevertheless, I appreciated the opportunity to re-establish contact with family.

For most of last night, the TV was on but not being watched by anyone. My cousin (the son of the deceased) suddenly remembered that the NCAA tourney was in progress and we caught the last 1:42 of the Duke/VCU game. The house was suddenly tense as we rooted for VCU, all the while afraid that Duke would find a way to pull out the victory. A huge collective roar went up when Paulus missed the potential game-winner and Duke was officially eliminated. For a couple of minutes there were smiles on every face in the house. UNC, Clemson, MD, and other miscellaneous fans rejoiced as one for a few minutes; all sorrow was temporarily set aside. I love this game.

Late-nite blues/R&B

Etta James is good for the soul. I highly recommend her double-disc anthology, The Essential Etta James.

Concubining?

I found this while surfing the web. All I can do is shake my head. I think the article's from the Cincinnati Enquirer...


Ricky Lackey has six children on the way.

Don't call them sextuplets - they're each with different women.

When Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Melba Marsh asked Lackey during sentencing Friday on a charge of attempted theft how many children he had, the 25-year-old said, "None, but I have six on the way."

A stunned Marsh tried to clarify. "Are you marrying a woman with six children?" she asked.

"No, I be concubining," he said.

Prosecutors said Lackey is the expectant father of six children with six different women. The women all are expected to deliver in August, September and October.

Lackey's lawyer, Stephen Wenke, stopped his client from saying more.

Marsh said she wasn't sure how to respond, so she let the issue drop since it wasn't relevant to the proceedings.

Lackey, a music producer who told Marsh he was on the cusp of a $2 million deal that would net him $300,000 upfront, was convicted Friday on a reduced charge of attempted theft.

Prosecutors say the Avondale man defrauded U.S. Bank out of $3,975 by depositing empty envelopes into ATM machines, claiming they contained cash, and depositing bad checks before withdrawing cash on the falsely inflated balances.

Lackey has repaid the money, according to court records.

Marsh ordered no other sentence, because restitution had been paid.

As Lackey left the courtroom, a group of teenage girls there for another case appeared to know Lackey.

"Oh, there's Ricky Lackey!" one swooned.

Lackey shrugged the attention off with one word and a wave of his hand.

"Fans," he said.

It was inside that I cried

Ah, it was far too easy to get re-accustomed to home internet access. Alas, all good things (except the kingdom) must come to an end. The systems admin needs to use the work laptop, so I brought her back today. *sigh* I guess always interact with those three people I keep seeing in my apartment.

All is not lost however; after all, Duke did lose last night.

Me & GMC (or is it GMC & Me?)

I bought a van. As much as I agonized over the official shift from “young couple with kids” to “soccer dad” status, it actually felt pretty good to be in a vehicle with sufficient room for the family (and then some). The transaction was carried out in an Asheboro, NC Golden Corral; the seller signed the title, and the buyer meekly affixed his John Hancock to the check. Then the aforementioned seller and buyer hit the trough as only Americans can, piling plates high with trans-fat and partially-hydrogenated-oil laden goodies. The boys love the novelty of the new vehicle, even though prior to the purchase Nick had been brainwashed by a certain someone to refuse anything less than a 2010 Honda Odyssey.



I don’t think I’m ever moving back to my hometown. First of all, there are no jobs – but even if there were, there’s no church close enough. There are 4 LCG congregations in the general vicinity, but the closest one (Asheboro) is exactly 100 miles from my parents’ home. Raleigh (actually Warsaw) is 110 miles away according to Expedia, Charlotte 120, and Walterboro, SC is 135-140. There is a UCG congregation 30 miles away near Florence, SC. My wife and I attempted to go there once, but I made a wrong turn. We got there just in time to hear 6 minutes of sermon, sing a song, hear a prayer, and that was that. The brethren there were nice though. Had I grown up in WCG I would’ve attended church with most of them.

Anyway, I’m at work now and the kids have been behaving themselves pretty well. It seems that many professors give tests the same week at the university; this must be one of those weeks because everyone is studying. Facebook and AOL IM are lonely tonight.

And as a further blessing, Duke girls AND boys lost this weekend. And it looks like the Tigers just might be in the Big Dance again after two straight wins to close out the season. I need to go through my Rolodex of friends with big-screen HD TVs.

Oh, my new niece is gorgeous.

This made me laugh

Spotted on a poster while having lunch:

Justin Timberlake for President in '08

He'll bring the troops and the sexy back!

Personally, if I was a voting man, I'd go with General Zod.

Enterprise

I talked to a very close cousin of mine Wednesday night for the first time in several months. We grew up playing together at Grandma's, went to school together (she was 1 grade ahead of me), and hung out together as teens/young adults, until things like college and marriage got in the way. The fam would stop by her home in Enterprise, AL (she married a guy from there) on our annual trek to Panama City for the Feast. That changed a few years ago, but we still try to keep in touch. Imagine my surprise when, after not talking for several months, the very next day Enterprise is all over the news thanks to a terrible tornado that struck town, including a school. I immediately called to see if they were OK (they have two school-age children), and to my relief they were. I must've called her about 2 hours after the storm, so she didn't know the full extent of the damage. The timing of the whole scenario was a little eerie. I have another younger relative there as well at Ft. Rucker. I think she's fine too. I really feel for the families of those who died in the storm. I probably shouldn't have let Nick watch so much of the news coverage - he's terrified of floods and hurricanes after seeing the Katrina damage, and the end of the movie Deep Impact has given him a healthy fear of tsunamis. I think I'll hold off on the Revelations prophecies until he's a little older. :-)

And the floodgates were opened...

We had rain all day yesterday (along with a couple of peals of thunder). I love a good summer thunderstorm, but I'm not a fan of cold, wintry days. One good thing about the rain(well, it might not be a good thing) was the creation of all the miniature class-5 rapids caused by the runoff. In this town we have plenty of hills and plenty of pavement, which leads to much runoff. I always want to get out of the car, put on some rubber boots, and put toy boats in the water and follow them as they go with the flow; each riverlet connecting with other riverlets, growing and picking up speed along the way. As a child we used to go out in my Grandmother's yard as soon as possible after a good summer rain, and we'd dig canals and connect mud puddles with one another, build mud dams, etc... I think I'd still have fun doing that with the boys - if we had some dirt.

I'm going home to see the folks and the new neice this weekend now that everyone's healthy on my end. I'm also going to look at a van one of the Asheboro brethren is trying to sell. I guess this is officially the beginning of middle age. *sigh* Of course, I'm not quite ready for the alternative.

Prayers would be welcome for a righteous resolution to the current visitation drama we find ourselves facing.

Not long enough for a title

Maybe it's best that I become a professor. I've already got the "absent-minded" part down pat.

Mr. Prickle's Pig

Once there was a man named Mr. Prickle. He had a pig named Fren. Fren was shy but she wasn’t shy to Mr. Prickle. When Mr. Prickle goes to sleep Fren gets into big trouble. When Mr. Prickle gets up he sees mud in the house. The next day he saw six pigs in his house. That was too many for him. So he sold all of them and everybody took one. So that was the end of Mr. Prickle.

The End.

Written by Nicholas P. 2/24/07

The week's almost over

Why is Facebook so addictive? My charges can't seem to stay off of it. They've blocked it (along with MySpace)in the computer lab in the building.

Update on Operation Get Fine: Starting weight - 231 lbs; 2/22 weight 220.5. I was stuck on 223 for a couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll exert some willpower tomorrow after services.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could lose all of the fat in ONE specific area? (Yes stomach, I'm looking at YOU.)

AI

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I hate American Idol.

Good Eats

I've actually enjoyed cooking breakfast and dinner the past few months. The smell of cooking food makes the M.R.S. sick, and it looks like that's going to be the case for until Nyla arrives. Tonight we're having T-Bone steaks with sauteed mushrooms, baked potatoes with broccoli & cheddar cheese for the M.R.S. and Nick, and a salad: romaine lettuce tossed in balsamic vinaigrette, diced cucumbers, diced apples, craisins, and slivered almonds. Yummmm... I'm not a great cook, but we get by. The M.R.S. can burn though. I try to fix something nice when the Sabbath rolls around. When I'm done with school I'd like to take some culinary courses.

I sometimes sneak off to the library at Southern Wesleyan U, my alma mater, in order to get some studying done. Whilst I was looking for something to distract myself with I came across a magazine called "Creation", which appeared to be affiliated with Answers in Genesis. There were some very interesting longer articles, though many of the shorter ones came across as "Ha! Take that, evolutionists!" It was quite refreshing reading articles from a creationist worldview, though I think they come up with some faulty conclusions based on their understanding of Scripture (for example, the age of the earth being 6,000 years and the dinosaurs were still alive at the time of Noah's flood). I tried to check a few of them out, but SWU's library doesn't allow you to check out periodicals. I'll definitely go back and read a few more.

The potatoes are calling. Join us!

PS: Anderson peeps: I ran into someone today who used to attend church with us in the 'A'. He was as stunned to see me as I was to see him. He's supposed to call me so we can get talk sometime. Nick was happy to hear that I ran into him, although I don't think he's watched "Ants" in quite some time.

Huh?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The South
The West
The Northeast
The Inland North
Philadelphia
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

A REAL day of rest

Yesterday was good. Desiree came home from CA, as did Ashley & Joe from Ohio. I got to get in some Ohio State-Florida jabs at poor Joe's expense, but he took 'em with a smile. I must dig a little deeper next time. Nick was excited about seeing Ray-ray (I couldn't resist) and Ash, though he pretended to be shy most of the day around them. Yesterday was a particularly relaxing Sabbath because I was Noah-less. It took a while to get used to not having to scan the room every thirty seconds to see what he was destroying getting into. People kept trying to make a correlation between the fact that I arrived earlier than usual and the fact that the M.R.S. wasn't with me. Hmmm.... (In case you're reading this honey, I defended you. Repeatedly. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!) Mr. & Mrs. Ames came down yesterday, and he gave a sermon on 7 commitments to make as we examine ourselves, a good pre-Passover sermon. We had visitors from TN and GA as well, giving us a pretty full house. The eldest Burdette girl and hubby even dropped by after services for a spell. Miss Expansion Joints looks so cute pregnant. Nick took a bunch of pictures, but they're on the computer at home; I may splice some of them into this post later.

There were a couple of interesting announcements made yesterday. The first was that our area pastor is no longer our area pastor. He's been given some churches in MS to pastor, so we're no longer going to be in his circuit. I don't know if that means we're going to fall under the HQ umbrella, but it might. The second announcement was the establishment of "Living University", an online set of courses that will initially offer three courses in the fall. Hopefully this will be a successful venture; I know I'm excited at this opportunity to learn more about various doctrinal/theological points.

We potlucked afterwards, and all was well until I spotted the blueberry pie. I tried to resist, but to no avail. Of course once I bit into a slice the floodgates were opened, and I found myself eating all sorts of goodies. I finished off the night by devouring most of a box of cereal as a late-night snack. It was sabotage, I say!!! I was unable (unwilling?) to get back on the wagon today, as I just finished off a box of lemon-glazed shortbread cookies (only 1200 calories!). Those Girl Scouts must have sensed my weakness as I walked past them with the intent of only buying a diet drink. Ah, the incongruity of seeing the 1.5 liter diet Lipton green tea juxtaposed with the empty box of cookies. I hang my head in shame at the memory. *sigh*

Oh welll, study hall is almost over so I guess I'll wrap this up. G'nite.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Sugar alcohols, while tast(e)y,are the devil.

What I had meant to say was...

Tim Hardaway is in a bit of hot water. The former Golden State Warrior and Miami Heat point guard was on a Miami radio station yesterday when he was asked about John Amaechi, the former NBA player who just came out of the closet and just penned a book. Hardaway said, among other things, that he “hates gay people”. Well, Mr. Hardaway is now the new poster boy for homophobes, bigots, idiots, and cavemen. Scanning the blogosphere and checking out the talking heads on the tube, poor Timmy is being eviscerated. I wonder if he’ll be going to rehab like Isaiah Washington, the “Grey’s Anatomy” co-star who uttered gay epithets against one of his fellow actors. I didn’t know there was a rehab for such things. Speaking of which, are Mel Gibson & Lindsay Lohan out yet?

I wonder what the fallout would be if the media were to stick a mic in front of Mr. Meredith or one of the other COG leaders and ask for their opinions on homosexuality. That just might put us on the radar screen, although I’m pretty sure no one would say that they “hate” anybody. Nowadays, disapproving of ay behavior is increasingly equated with hatred of the perpetrators. Yep, I think that would do it.

Quick update

I passed my written exams; now it's on to the grant proposal. Thanks for all the encouragement and prayers, friends and fam. The M.R.S. is sick, so I've been in the role of Mr. Mom since Monday. Nick had to miss school Monday and Tuesday as well, but he's much better today. We rented Superman, Superman Returns, Pirates of the Carribbean II, and XMen III and vegged out. I bought some popsicles as well, and he and Noah have been devouring those. oh, I'm an uncle again! My brother and his wife had little Nataleigh yesterday. We were originally going to try and drive down and come right back, but the illnesses killed that idea. I guess we'll see her sometime in the next month.

I hear Anna Nicole Smith died. I wonder if I can find any coverage of that on the news...

Daddy sang bass...

...Mama sang tenor... Is it 'mama' or 'momma'?

Three questions down, one to go. Any bioinformaticists out there wanna help me with the next one? I'm clueless about algorithms.

Oh yeah, I need an idea for a grant proposal as well. And help writing it up. And defending it.

I think I'm gonna go home and fry some croakers. The M.R.S.'s sensitive nose is in class now, so I can stink up the kitchen.

Oh Canada

An interesting article found on World Net Daily's website promoting the loss of tax-exempt status for churches that fail to Canadian "Charter Values". Most of the vitriol is directed towards the Roman Catholic Church, but it's easy to see how the Church of God could eventually become a target.

Not gonna happen...

I received my 2nd question today around lunchtime. I have 24 hours to finish. It is now 4:45 pm and I’m nowhere near being done. Something tells me my prof’s not gonna get this one back until tomorrow night sometime. Late.

An old college classmate wants me to talk to her biology (I assume) class this month. Whoa. I think I can fool the teenagers into believing I know what I'm doing. For one period, anyway.

Snow Day

Well, I finished the first set of questions. One set down, three to go. I didn't answer them as well as I would have liked, but hopefully I passed them. I know I'll be seeing them again when I have my orals. I have had such a hard time staying awake and focused lately. I'm haven't been narcoleptic, but incredibly drowsy. And then at 2 a.m. I'm wide awake. Go figure. I crashed this afternoon after emailing my answers back to the prof. Nothing like a nice 3 hour power nap snuggled up beside the boys and the M.R.S. We were able to do that because...

It snowed today! We appear to have missed much of the sleet/frozen rain that was predicted, but then again, I was asleep and now it's dark. Maybe outside my door is a landscape of ice and snow a la Narnia. Anyway, when I woke up from my nap this morning around 6:30, this is what I saw...



I woke Nick up because he's been wanting it to snow since December. Needless to say he was quite thrilled. Then the realization that school was cancelled hit him and a huge Cheshire-catlike grin filled his face... Around 5:15 Noah comes bouncing down the stairs. Nick grabs the camera, I pick Nick up and place him in the window and...





The boys break their necks trying to get dressed and rush outside to get their obligatory play in! Since I can't leave them unattended (thanks predators!) I stop working on my exam to supervise them for a while. I guess I can't complain - seeing their joy made it all worthwhile.




Afterwards, I returned to my test, and the boys warmed up with some hot chocolate topped with whipped cream.




And then the M.R.S. woke up. You missed out homie!

19 hours to go...

... and I'm still on the first question.

Comps continued...

I was supposed to start yesterday, but I didn't get my first question until today. It's from the lone classical plant breeder on my committee. I actually have four questions from him, but I get two days to answer. Hello, all-nighters (again). The 4th question had 8 parts and involves describing in specifics how I would go about establishing a breeding program with three specific objectives (improved yield, herbicide resistance, and insect resistance. The first two shouldn't be too bad. I just wish it hadn't been 4 1/2 years since I took a breeding course. Good-bye for a few days, world.

Even though I'm hating this, it is somewhat encouraging to be taking another concrete step towards finishing. Let's just see if I stay on the steps or if I slide off due to ice.

I guess I'll just ignore the MLK party controversy raging on campus around me.






No, that's not a black guy in the last picture.

Anyway, if you like FREE, LEGAL music downloads, Ruckus dot com is making its catalog available for download to anyone with a .edu email address.

School stuff

Next week I start my comprehensive exams. I'll receive written questions from my advisory committee members and be given 24-48 hours to answer. If I successfully complete those, I will have two weeks in which to put together an NSF-style grant proposal. Upon turning it in, the committee will take two weeks to read and critique the grant proposal. If they deem it acceptable, then I will have to defend said proposal as the oral portion of my comps. This next month is really, really going to be horrible. (M.R.S., stop reading right here.) If I fail... Hey, I've reached the point where a Master's wouldn't be so bad. Not bad at all...

If I pass, then I'm officially a PhD candidate, and all that'll be left will be to finish my research, write my dissertation, and "Ease on down, ease on down the road!"

Race Matters

A couple of years ago I read W.E.B. Du Bois' essay "Of Our Spiritual Strivings" in his classic The Souls of Black Folk and found in his theory of "double consciousness " an explanation for a feeling I've known since my teen years.

Du Bois wrote of double consciousness as a “sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity”, and of a two-ness, of being "an American, a Negro; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder..."

"...The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, -- this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He does not wish to Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa; he does not wish to bleach his Negro blood in a flood of white Americanism, for he believes -- foolishly, perhaps, but fervently -- that Negro blood has yet a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without losing the opportunity of self-development."

There is an internal conflict between being African-American and American simultaneously. Double consciousness is an awareness of one's self as well as an awareness of how others perceive that person. The danger of double consciousness resides in conforming and or changing one's identity to that of how others perceive the person. Looking back, I can see how I conducted myself in such a way as to be seen in a positive light by whites with whom I came into contact, and how I did likewise to "keep it real" and not be a "sell-out" to my own ethnic group. However, not only was it impossible to be all things to all people, the attempt to do kept me from knowing who Michael P really is. When the lights went down and I was alone, WHO EXACTLY WAS I? I think the desire to be true to the race and reject all things white is a serious problem in the Black community, particularly in poorer enclaves, as is the opposite extreme - shedding oneself of one's "Blackness" and forgetting that we are, after all, family. This is the reason Clarence Thomas is hated so much in the Black community, and what Condi & Colin are accused of (unfortunately so, considering their historic achievements). As an aside, Barack Obama's rising star has brought to light the question of what it means to be black. Does one have to have ancestors who were slaves to qualify? Does one have to be raised in "the hood" to be authentic? Do we all have to vote Democrat? Be able to dunk a basketball? Love hip-hop? Hate Country & Western?

As Black History Month approaches I hear the familiar refrain, "Why do we need a Black History Month? There's no such thing as a White History Month!" I think this question is asked because white people , if they look at themselves through the eyes of others at all, look at themselves through the eyes of other white people. The thought of being judged through another group's eyes, and perhaps being considered inferior, is foreign to them. I don't know how history is being taught now, but when I was learning US history, Crispus Attucks, Benjamin Banneker, Nat Turner, and Frederick Douglass pretty much summed up Black contributions to this great country of ours - the land of the free; the home of the brave. Of course, then, as now, most Black history is relegated to the mention of MLK, Malcom X, and occasionally Marcus Garvey. Black history is still thought of by many as a collection of "first-Black-to-do-this-or-that", as opposed to having our contributions woven into the fabric of the country. Other than being slaves, it's almost as though Black people existed outside of the country until the Civil Rights movement of the 50s & 60s. I think that it would be unnecessary to have Black History month if our contributions to society were woven into the historical fabric (I need to stop using 'woven') of this country, but until The Black Wall Street, Percy Julian, Charles R.Drew, Denmark Vesey, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Tuskegee Syphilis study, George Washington Carver, and Toussaint L'Ouverture are as well known as 50 Cent, Michael Jackson, and Michael Jordan I think the month is beneficial to ALL Americans.

* Rather than going back to find page numbers in the original essay collection, the Wikipedia entry on Double Consciousness served as the source of the included quotes.

True Life: I'm in an Interfaith Relationship

I was watching True Life on MTV a few days ago. The show is a documentary detailing true life experiences (allegedly) of people in various situations. The only other time I watched the show it dealt with 3 families coping with poverty. That was a good show - sad, but good. The episode I watched the other day followed two married couples of differing faiths. One couple was Jewish/Protestant (Ira & Sasha), and the other was Lutheran/contemplating-becoming-a-Jehovah's-Witness (Travis & Jasmin).

In both cases, the (Jewish & Lutheran) guys were clearly less religious than the ladies; Sasha was a pretty rock-solid in her beliefs, and Jasmin was really excited about the things she was learning about the Jehovah's Witnesses. Ira tried to compromise and gain more understanding about whatever denomination Sasha belonged to (I'm not sure which denomination she belonged to. It was clearly Protestant, but her church also observed fasted for Yom Kippur), but Travis was openly hostile to all things JW. He accused Jasmin of changing and of becoming a different person than the girl he married, but, to his credit, did indicate that he would love her regardless. He made it quite obvious that the kids would be celebrating Christmas and having birthday parties though - no matter what Jasmin had to say about it. At the end of the show, Jasmin was still studying to become a JW, but she was (unhappily) helping Travis decorate the house for Christmas.

Ira came across as being henpecked, but he and Sasha appeared to be finding a middle ground. They were determined to raise their upcoming child as a "Jewstian". Ole boy got himself in some trouble when he snuck out to eat on Yom Kippur and got busted, when they were supposed to be fasting together and breaking the fast together. Sasha was clearly ticked off. At the end of the show the couple had moved to New York city and were searching for a church that would accomodate the both of their beliefs. Good luck with that.

I'd like MTV to give an update on these two families in a year or so. By that time Ira & Sasha will have had their child, and Jasmin will have completed the studies required of her to become a JW. I wonder how their marriages will hold up. It seems to me that it's easier for an interfaith marriage to survive if neither of the spouses are really seriously religious, or if they're serious, then their beliefs have to make the allowance that spouses religion provides a valid path to salvation, whatever that is.

Oh yeah: Down to 223 this morning.

Indy 28 - NE 28

I am missing a great game.

edit: Indy 38, NE 34.

I made it home just in time to see the final 54 seconds. I'm not a huge Peyton Manning fan, but I'm glad to see him finally play well in a big game. Forget playing well - he played almost perfectly in the 2nd half, and led the game-winning drive. Look out Miami - it's Soul Bowl I in two weeks!!!

Old Virginny

So who's going to Winchester, VA during the days of UB? I'm strongly considering it... I've told several brethren from that area that we'd visit eventually, as I've got family in Va. Beach and Norfolk. Plus, Nick's future wife is up there as well... Annette, does your dad plan to be there?

The hitch is $$$, of course. We're planning on heading to KC a few weeks after that for a wedding. How do I pull off both? Hmmmm......

Go figure

As I contemplate (again) changing career paths, I took an online test to match my personality with a career, hoping it would steer me in a different direction than the one in which I'm headed. I click on the results and what are the strongest hits? Biologist, Real Estate Agent, Waiter. Crapola. I'm currently doing two of those jobs. I want a recount.

B-ball recap

Last night was fun. I had the pleasure of watching two of my boys play rec basketball - Nick in the 8-and-under league, and Jalen in the 14-and-under league. The games were about 30 miles apart, but c'est la vie. Luckily Jalen's game got underway about30 minutes later than it was supposed to, so we were able to see the entire game. Nick's team lost, but they had a great time doing so. I saw a couple of budding shooters on Nick's team last night who may be pretty good down the road.

Jalen's game was a bit more competitive, actually going into overtime. The behavior of the parents and one of the coaches was not as stellar. I don't know why people feel the need to verbally assault referees in a personal manner, even if they are screwing up the calls. The attitude trickles down to the kids, and nary a call is made that isn't vehemently protested by the offending player, my son included. We'll be working on that. A few years ago he brought out a "sack dance" while playing little league football. While the crowd loved it, that behavior got nipped in the bud pretty quick. He had an OK game last night, but he turned the ball over at the end of regulation as his team was trying to score the go-ahead basket. Luckily, he redeemed himself in OT by completing a crucial 3-point play with under a minute left and his team down by three. Jalen is quite Shaq-like when it comes to free throws, and the one he made touched the rim, backboard, and then every part of the rim again before finally falling. The outcome of the game was sealed when the opposing team received a technical foul for calling a timeout after they'd used them all. It'd be nice if they blew a team out once in a while. My heart can't take this pressure twice a week.

Well, we had the ultrasound today...

... and it looks like the little one is XX. Yay me!

Transformation

Gerald Ford has made a remarkable transformation. He became President when I was four, and lost to Jimmy Carter (the first President I really remember) when I was six. Over the course of the next 30 years, the mental image I had of Pres. Ford was of a well-meaning, clumsy, bumbling joke of a man. How did I come by this mental image? Via the media, of course. Comedians,sitcoms, and even serious journalists perpetuated this image. Now, with his death, I've heard and read tributes that lauded his dignity, his wise stewardship of the country through the difficult period following Nixon's resignation, and his willingness to do what was right for the country without regard to the damage inflicted upon his political future. I hope the recent media coverage is more indicative of the type of man he was rather than the tripe I was fed for the previous 30 years. Rest in peace, Mr. President.

Seattle 21, Dallas 20

Now THAT ending was a kick to the nether regions.

RIP playoff victory. At least the Clemson men's basketball team is the lone undefeated team in the country.

Yesterday we had almost 24 hours of rain. Am I the only one who likes to drive around the day after and look at the swollen creeks and ponds? I passed one near my home on the way to work, and I'll probably go driving around and check out a few more on my lunch break. Weird, I know, but hey - that's me.

Oh, I saw a wondrous thing today as I was walking to my building. A huge brown hawk swooped down and captured a squirrel about 30 feet from me. Seeing things like that on Animal Planet doesn't do them justice. The hawk almost seemed to be putting on a show just for me as it took it's time killing the squirrel and then lifted off in slow motion to its perch in a tree to devour its meal. Wow. Animals are soooo cool.

Alright techies...

My PC sends jobs to the printer, but they won't print. I reset the computer once and then was able to print, but that's not working now. Other people in my office are connected to the same printer, but they aren't having any problems. Any suggestions?

*Edit: I'm able to print Word docs now, but not PDFs.

Charlotte

The 2.5 hour ride to Charlotte for the Family Dance was uneventful, and the Crowne Plaza Hotel was pretty easy to find. Upon arrival, I was pleasantly surprised to see so many of the singles I knew from various places. I was expecting most of the singles to bypass Charlotte for KC’s dance. My thoughts were on the Family Dance, and I’d completely forgotten about L4T. The room in which services were held was packed and quite hot. I had to leave the room twice and towel off because of the sweat pouring down my face. They must’ve eventually gotten the AC squared away, because the temp was tolerable by the middle of the sermon. Mr. Lambert Greer gave the sermonette about the L4T program, and Mr. Meredith gave a sermon directed toward the young people in the church. After services I got the chance to catch up with some folks I hadn’t seen in a while, and the fellowship was great. I also got to chat with the Westons, who pastored in my area back before my time. He remembered pretty much everyone, and was pleased to get updates on his former charges.

The dinner was surprisingly good. The grilled chicken breasts with mushroom gravy, potatoes au gratin, and the dinner rolls were quite tasty. The sweet tea left a lot to be desired though. They must have been looking out for the Yankees and diabetics in the crowd. The Wells’ band from Baton Rouge did a good job at the dance. To my amazement, they even did a Soul Train line. If you don’t know what Soul Train is, then educate yourself. I also got to meet Karl of The Secret Life of Karl fame.

I actually got the chance to play a little 3-on-3 basketball before we left Sunday. I found out that Jason from Penn/NJ is tall, and that Jake (IA) is a deadly shot. The Lyons boys and Mase (Walterboro, SC) are chock full o' energy. Mr. Heykoop played well also, especially considering he was playing barefoot on asphalt. I think the other player’s name was Darren (Raleigh). We played a couple of games before I had to leave to meet my brother and parents to celebrate their 37th wedding anniversary. If anyone out there who reads this talks to Juan (NJ) or Jamal (MD), tell them I said “If you’re scared, say you’re scared!” I missed out on a game of Ultimate being put together by Miss Moluf due to my having to leave around noon Sunday. Sunday was the folks' 37th anniversary, so I met them, my brother, and my sister-in-law for a celebratory dinner. In short, the weekend was good. I'm tired of typing. Bye.

Operation Get Fine

I was down to 213 pounds before we headed off to the Feast in October. I got in some treadmill work early on before the hustle and bustle of the Feast put an end to that. I’ve been consciously averting my eyes from the scale in our bathroom for the past few months. Well, Monday night I gathered myself and finally stepped on. At first glance it looked like I was still at 213. I knew that couldn’t be right, as my pants (particularly my dress pants) no longer fit comfortably. I was about to die by the end of the dance in Charlotte last weekend as my pants struggled to keep my expanding gut in check. I think one more electric slide would’ve split my pants – and that’s not an impression I want to leave 250 people with. I looked down again and realized the scale read 231. Two hundred thirty-one and 0/100 pounds. Whoa. So today I began Operation “Get Fine”. I started dieting today, and plan to restart the Couch-to-5K plan. By the time it’s warm enough for me to run outside I hope to be up to running 5K nonstop. I was up to 2.5 – 2.75 miles when the Feast hit. I’ve got to go to New Orleans next week for a few days – now that’s gonna be a test. *Sigh*

The Fiesta Bowl

I just saw the college football game of the year. If it comes on ESPN Classic this week, watch it. Boise State came to play, and didn't buckle when it appeared they would lose to the Sooners. OK, they might've buckled, but they didn't get knocked out. The playcalling by the BSU coach in overtime and at the end of regulation was inspired. Great, great, great game.

None of the other Jan. 1 bowls held my interest... The ACC and SEC teams are not having a banner bowl season. At least FSU took care of business.

Getting ready for the Sabbath and the trip to Charlotte tomorrow. Have a good one yall!

A 20 degree drop overnight?

No one is here. I love this time of year (students being gone, not the holiday per se). I can park anywhere, go anywhere without worrying about lines. The only drawback is that a lot of places will close early until the students return.

I need help. The kids are spending the night with Grandma and Pa Pa, and the M.R.S. wants to go on a date. I'm fine with that, but I don't want to see the movie she's picked out: "The Pursuit of Happyness" with Will Smith. I know it's a feel-good movie, but it's not something I feel like dropping 15 bucks (plus popcorn) for. I'd much rather watch it on DVD. Any suggestions? I'd prefer one that doesn't involve me ending up in the hospital.

Here's an interesting (to me) discovery reported here by Reuters - I guess they've found the Komodo Madonna.

Edit: The movie was much better than I expected, primarily because it wasn't as sappy as I thought it would be. A little language in a couple of scenes is the only thing that detracts from the film.

Like San Diego, only cheaper

The weather here has been fantastic recently. I think the high today was 75-77 or so. I strongly considered walking to work just because it was so nice. Even better is that the traffic is negligible due to the end of the semester being upon us. It's amazing how a little sunshine and warm weather can perk up the soul. Don't have much time to post today as I've got a bus to catch. Later peeps.

Errata

I fell into a burning ring of fire... I fell down, down, down...

Nothing much going on here. I came downstairs Sunday to find Nick watching a NASCAR show. Thank you very much, Lightning McQueen. Noah's black eye is healing up nicely (thanks, Rocky Balboa). Jalen and our 14-year old neighbor met this weekend and appeared to hit it off pretty well. Our neighbor's a pretty nice kid, so I think that's a good thing.

I've been thinking of doing a little project next time I go home to visit the folks. I was thinking of going to the library and looking up old newspaper articles that I was in and saving them in a scrapbook for my kids. Those of you from small towns know it doesn't take much to make the paper. I've got a few spelling bee mentions, stories on my high school football and basketball teams (basketball, very good; football, not so much), etc. Would you like seeing stuff like that about your folks? It would prove that we really were young once - and that some of us had a full head of hair once upon a time. (I wonder if there's a correlation between those two things?)

New Link

I just added a link to a new blog called "Thoughts En Route" by Wallace Smith. He's an LCG pastor in eastern MO, and the new presenter on the Tomorrow's World telecasts.

Blah

I was all set to type up a cheery blog post, but I decided to see what was going on in the COG world first. All of a sudden I'm not in such a cheerful mood.

It's almost Monday already?

I made the mistake of leaving several journal article printouts on the arm of the couch when I went to bed last night. Whilst I was fixing breakfast gremlins came through the living room and trashed my papers... I must've fed them after midnight or something.

Anyway, HOW BOUT THEM COWBOYS? I thought they were gonna tank today and lose to the Giants, but they managed to pull it out by a field goal with 1 second left. It would've been nice to see 2nd half, but one must work. That's more than USC or Arkansas could do this weekend. I don't want Florida to meet Ohio State for the BCS championship, but it looks like that's what's going to happen. Clemson might be playing in the Music City Bowl in Nashville. That's only a 6-hour drive, but methinks it'll be a tad chilly for my tastes. I guess I'll just support the team from afar (i.e. my living room).

I think I'll start petitioning restaurants to have more round tables. It's hard to hear the convo when I'm always at the far end of the table... Watching/holding/wrestling with Noah. There appeared to be some spirited convo going on from where I was sitting. I'll have to ask the M.R.S.

I'm not complaining, but wasn't there supposed to be some Arctic-type weather hitting us or something? We were in the 60s again today. Gotta love the South.

Dude in the corner thinks I'm stupid... Like I don't know he's just surfing the web. At least open that textbook you've had beside you for the past hour.

Poop

Last night I spy this funny-colored popsicle stick on the living room floor and I picked it up to deposit it in la basura. The bottom half looked like a normal popsicle stick, but the upper half was rough; pink on one side, burgundy on the other. Turns out the "popsicle stick" was actually an emery board, and my dearest Noah had somehow eaten the coating off of half of the thing. That might explain what happened next...

The boys often bathe together. While they were in the tub we hear these frantic pleas from Nick: "Daddy! Daddy! OH NOOOOOOO!" The M.R.S. and I look at each other to see who's going to go upstairs to see what's happened this time (usually it's Noah getting out of the tub to run around naked, or one of the boys has soap in his eyes), and her look silently informs me that indeed, Daddy will be the responder to the SOS. I bound up the stairs in a couple of steps and burst into the bathroom. Lucky me! My boy Noah had indeed gotten out of the tub - but not to run around... Not at all. Apparently something he ate didn't agree with him (I wonder what that could be?) and he had to go. Right there on the floor. And in the tub. Nick's frantic yelling had frightened him, so now he's crying. My pleas for help fell on deaf ears ("They asked for you, Daddy!"), so I get the boys out of the tub, tidy Noah up, put on my Haz-Mat suit, and decontaminate the lavatory. I don't think I've ever seen two boys more happy to see Daddy break out the Dow with Scrubbing Bubbles. Ah, the joys of child-rearing. Maybe it's time to start the potty training.

Nick, of course, didn't recall doing the same exact thing to Jalen when they were in the tub together 5 years ago.

New Job

I just started a new job and so far it's working out nicely (other than the fact I'm fighting sleep). I'm working part-time in my University's Academic Success Center for student/athletes as a study hall monitor. Next semester I'll probably be a tutor here, so I can see what type of teacher I am and whether I like it enough to make a career out of it. Maybe I can help keep some future #1 pick in the NFL draft eligible, and he'll reward me with a phat check after he signs his contract. (A man can dream, right?) I'll still be working Sundays at the restaurant, and hopefully now we'll have more money than month, as opposed to the way it is now. The good thing about this job is that I can study while working, as Noah seems to resent my efforts to do so at home. Annette - it's a great job for a grad student if you have the time.

In the tradition of Banjo Ben I'm attempting to schedule my qualifying exams. I'd like to take them beginning in December, but it'll probably be January before I'm able to start due to Finals and Christmas. We'll see how things go. If I pass those, then it's just a matter of finishing my research project. Then all you mere mortals can kneel before me and Prayers are welcomed.

Decisions, decisions

I've been thinking about decisions. It's amazing how seemingly innocuous decisions have shaped my life. For example, I almost transferred to Francis Marion University in the midst of my 5.5 year hiatus from Clemson. I didn't transfer though, and my life is profoundly different because of that decision; for example, I never would've met the M.R.S. had I transferred. Also, my relationship with my then 2-year-old son would probably be in much worse shape. I wonder where I'd be if I'd taken my then-advisor's recommendation to get out of mechanical engineering because I didn't like it. I wonder where I'd be if I'd followed one of my teacher's suggestions to apply to faraway schools like MIT and Stanford. Where would I be if I'd never picked up that one Plain Truth magazine that I found somewhere at my Grandma's when I was a teen? How would I be different if I hadn't made the conscious decision to "dumb down" in high school & college? What if I hadn't taken the initiative to call up this little green-eyed beauty I'd spotted at my job? (So what if we hadn't met and I had to do some detective work and find out her name and do some more detective work to get her phone number and then had to distinguish myself from the other Joes at the job since she had no clue who I was?) What if I hadn't drank those beers at the Homecoming dance my Junior year at Clio High? Or what if I'd gotten sick after that first time? Hmmm... What decision did I make today that's still going to be reverberating in my life in 5-10 years? I guess I'll know in five years.

Watch your mouth, Kramer.

Kramer of "Seinfeld" fame has gotten himself into a little hot water. Apparently he let a couple of African-American hecklers get under his skin and let loose with a barrage of racial epithets. I wonder if he'll get the Mel Gibson treatment.

States I've Driven to/Through

I think that's 20.

How could I forget?

We saw the baby Tuesday! She's gonna have a big head -if it is a she. Then again, Nick KNOWS it's a she, so I guess that's settled.

Mutual of Omaha presents...

Here we find the normally rough-and-tumble alpha male lovingly teaching his offspring how to survive on its own. The proud poppa is instructing the youngling in the proper manner of picking a carcass clean...

Freefall

Ever feel like you're in a state of freefall and your parachute won't open? It's not a good feeling, I tell ya. Grad school - check that - my particular graduate experience has been horrible for the last two years. I'm REALLY almost at the point of just walking away and getting a job. I feel like a quitter of course, but I've almost convinced myself that being a quitter is something I can live with. Almost. I'm supposed to have so much more done by now. I'm supposed to have a deep understanding of the things I have done. So much for that.

Perhaps I'll pull myself back from the ledge if Michigan can beat OSU and Florida State can upset the mighty Gators next week.

I had to go to court yesterday to clear up a misunderstanding. In short, I had to show why I shouldn't be jailed for being in contempt of court for not paying child support. Good thing I actually was paying it all along. Turns out that the original CS order was issued in Pickens county, and didn't automatically switch to Oconee county when the new order was issued in September. I went in pretty confident, but then I saw the guy in front of me get sentenced to 6 months. The judge was a little brusque with me at first too, until he realized that I wasn't giving him a sob story about not having the money. When I whipped out my payment history printout I think the judge smiled. After that things went smoothly and quickly. I do plan to check with Pickens county to make sure that the transfer did indeed go through, and that I won't be hauled off from my job in handcuffs and disgrace.

Some sweet tea would be good right now. I think I'll go search the internet and find me a sermonette now. I'm sure someone has one posted. One that will fit in a 10-12 minute window. lol

Cheez!

Guess who's not afraid of the camera?

It's gonna be in the 70s again tomorrow!!!

Donald Rumsfeld just resigned. I must say I didn't see that coming. He struck me as being one to hold on to the bitter end; one from whose fingers power and position must be pried only after they were cold and dead. I wonder if maybe he didn't get a visit from some pipe-wielding brothas who strongly recommended he spend more time with his family post-haste. Those politicos - I'll never figure 'em out. These next two years promise to be interesting for the President.

I need a change of scenery. For some reason I've been thinking about Montana or Wyoming or South Dakota. Wait - it gets cold in those places, doesn't it? Perhaps Australia would be nice for a few years. They do have some cotton research programmes in place down there. Wait - they have like, nine of the ten most poisonous animals in the world, don't they?

I refuse to acknowledge that the Cowboys lost to the Redskins Sunday. Nope. Never happened. Oh, and please pray for my brother. Since Clemson lost their first conference game to Boston College, he's been waiting for Wake Forest to knock BC off and propel Clemson into first place in their division of the ACC. Well Wake held up their end of the bargain; Clemson, alas did not. Those two consecutive losses after being ranked in the top ten were definitely not included in his calculations. Goodbye BCS, hello lower-tier bowl game in December. Just when Coach Bowden had finally gotten off the hot seat...

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.