It's the MOST wonderful day of the year!

That's right.

The day where we gain an hour. Oh joy. That's sixty whole more minutes to do whatever it is you want to do . I was once asked what my favorite holiday is (I'm sure it was by Casey at a South City diner nite) and my unequivical answer was this day. This is literally better than Christmas for me. AND THIS daylight savings day was better than most.





Today I defeated a fear. A long standing childhood fear.

Of the riding lawn mower.

When I was about 11 I jumped off of one and ran screaming into the house. I am startled very easily, and incredibly gun shy, so loud noises tend to set me off, and the whir of the giant rotating blades skeered the begeezus out of me. I was up and outta there faster than a long tailed cat in a roomful of rockin chairs. Now, in my adulthood, I see them putt along at all of 3 mph and this fear has seemed rather silly. But I had never overcome this, or needed to.

But today... I was victorious. After figuring out the mystery of operation, (Amy, I attribute ignition success to my "myst" honed skills. ) I rode around the yard about thirty times. It was liberating. I definitely called like three people, including my roomate who was inside the house. It was fist-pumping amazing. Wow. I'm now a completely self-sufficient homeowner, no need to hire a lawn boy.

ALSO (as if this day could hold any more joy) I hung my two person hammock today. My mom procured a perfectly good one from Goodwill for 13 bucks. Two trips to Lowe's, four s-hooks and three feet of chain later...I am in hog heaven. I think if I died today, I'd say I lived a full and rewarding life, chock full of the blessings of God.

I'm very proud of me for the riding mulching I did today. I'm very happy and the rain held off today long enough for me to take a legitimate nap in my hammock and for me to plop a second person in it and talk about life. I'm very happy that I got to share this day with some people I love, and very happy that I went to Church today. For the first time in awhile, I truly worshipped, and there was an illustration using Sea Monkeys.

Put a couch back in the kitchen. A couchen... rather. And resurrected the tree people in art form. All in all. A great day.

I beat the mower. Huzzah!

Culprit Found!!

I can rest in peace.

Okay I give..again.

After a really humorous day of accusing everyone in my office of the aforementioned prank, the mysterious anonymous comment mystery has been solved. But this ghoster poster didn't commit the crime. Only messing with my head. It's not that hard to do.

Anyway this still leaves me with an unanswered bit of questions. WHO did this? And now, the pool of potentials has now re-expanded to included just about anyone.

To further increase the irony (this is probably a story, like a lot of my stories, that are only funny to me, so bear with) This morning. The heinous yellow chair is out at the curb for the trash pickup, and my roomate wakes up and notices that the chair is gone, but the trash hasn't come yet. Nice. Now either the perp came back and took the chair for further tomfoolery, or someone random now has themselves a *new* piece of furniture.

I should check my roof and the backyard to make sure it is indeed gone. But I fear this is a mystery that will remain a mystery for the ages.

But if you are out there, tell me who you are so I can properly give you your kudos for making me crazy.

And speaking of kudos, dish a few to Willie! for the pic. And no this wasn't the actual chair. But close in it's yellow-ness.

And it's chair-ness.

Murl out.

The Best Part of Waking Up............................... Is Soldiers in Your Cup

Or rather, the best part of coming home from a long week is finding a spattering of green army men and a rat-nasty yellow chair in your front yard, a door mat with a weird birdhouse on it, tinsel and signs saying "This Thanksgiving, Eat Chicken... *Heart* Tom Turkey" Hmm. Who are these people? And why have they not come forward? I do not understand. I have covered the obvious bases. Willie! is innocent. Casey was sick. Deana told me about seeing the chair before I got home (maybe that's a cover.. but I doubt it). The first gut reaction was DeeDee and Becky, cause I missed her birthday party... but they seem clueless too. Whoever you are you have had me. I am had. And I salute you publicly. Good game. Tell me who you are.

Always something I wonder when I'm gone for a week is if I'm missed. It's a silly thing to wonder, but it is at the core of my curiousity. Did anyone even know I was gone? I'm gone alot. It's becoming more frequent.

People can convince themselves of anything when they are trying to stand in a Southwest line. "That? That's not the line. Obviously only people who are standing UP can hold a place in line." Total abandonment of any rational thought or any consideration for fellow man. This guy also happened to be decked out from head to toe in Harley-Davidson gear. I'm just sayin.

Seriously, he thought he was going to cut infront of 12 people because they were not standing up. Wow. I was really nice, but WOW. That guy was seriously delusional. And I think he got away with it somehow. He turned a perfectly orderly line into a funnel of frenzy. Felt like it was wartime Russia and everyone was biting, kicking and grabbing for the last potato.

But my cause was upheld and the sweet man in the very front of the line let me infront of him after the evil chaos creator busted my chops and the chops of 7 sweet ladies from Nebraska.

And Molnar, I met Gary from BRI in that very same line if you are reading this. We chatted about you for a bit. It was eerie.

Also eerie is that upon wandering the strip in Vegas on a nite that we weren't scheduled to be there, going the absolute wrong way from where we were going, we ran smack into the Sullivans. SO very random. Shared three years of intense life on the b-ball team with their daughter and my folks spent three years with them in the stands. It brought tears to my eyes to see them so randomly. Randomly. Ha. As if anything is really random.

As if me asking God to show himself to me in the worldliest of places, among the worldiest of people, in my skeptical heart would go unanswered. By random conversations. By people talking about Jesus on the tee box much to the chagrin of everyone in the stands. By the woman sitting next to me on the plane reading "Dinner with a Perfect Stranger." By the beauty of his creation. By the lack of him, actually. The emptiness that is there when he is not. I could feel it. And it's cold, lonely, hard and sad but it feels normal, you know.. not sacred. You know when you have been in sacred moments. When you are on the octobery front porch sipping tea laughing talking with your girl crush and your favorite brother. When you have tears streaming down your face at the car wash on the phone to your best friend because you aren't sure of anything except for the fact that you don't know shit and a hand wax is way too expensive when there are starving people around. When you see that there are quite a handful of folks who could have "lawn art-ed" your house when you were gone and you find out that you were indeed missed. When you realize that you are sorta stealing this line of thinking from a book called Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell, but keep writing it just the same because it just rings true and I don't think he'd mind. I like the sacred moments.

Someone found a Starbucks part 2.

Yes.. I just wanted to update the update on a few things.

First. Snuggles is dead. Okay, he wasn't actually dead, but he was really close, he had stopped swimming...just to clear my conscious. He was a good fish. He lasted a year. Which, in my care, is a year longer than anyone thought he would last. I flushed him Monday morning October 17 at 11:05 am. Death at sea. In his last days he was surrounded by friends and wide-eyed onlookers, and quizzical looks. "What is wrong with him?" Some say fin rot. Some say a broken spirit. Some say a mini-fish stroke left him paralyzed on one side so that, at the end, he would struggle up to the surface, miss the food that I sprinkled, and listlessly float back to the turquoise rock bottom.

He was a good pet, even though you could never snuggle with him. He will be missed...

Sorta.


Two. We are here in Mesquite, NV for the Remax World Long drive competition. Dusty is in Group 1. You can follow him here live if you care. Dusty fought the good fight *shanked* one 326 yards. Time expired on his last ball because he picked up a mis-manufactured tee and couldn't get the ball to stay on it. Very hard to watch. But there were definitely guys hitting their best balls 326 yards. So he'll be back. I know he will be. Felt better as the day went on and some other well known guys were hitting OB on all six tries. A sport of luck. I think I will also try to be there next year. Overall, fun times in Mesquite Nevada, home of more golf courses than stop lights, and of the ridiculously cheap prime rib buffet.

Three. Just so you know where I get that thing where something stupid makes me laugh non-stop uncontrollably. It's from my mom. Oh man. Never in my life had I seen her laugh so hard. She would slow down and say "oh back spasm" and then start right back up again. Later she tells me it was a response to cut the tension of me trying to navigate my directionally challenged dad through the streets of Las Vegas. He was driving full speed and we A-Teamed it over a speed barricade (bump just doesn't seem to do this thing justice).

Anyway. Cards lose. Dusty lost. Good thing the scenery here is beautiful..

Christianity is Foolish

It really is.. It's like Alice in the Looking Glass:

"Now, if you'll only attend, Kitty, and not talk so much, I'lltell you all my ideas about Looking-glass House. First, there's the room you can see through the glass -- that's just the same as our drawing room, only the things go the other way. I can see all of it when I get upon a chair -- all but the bit behind the fireplace. Oh! I do so wish I could see THAT bit! I want so much to know whether they've a fire in the winter: you never CAN tell, you know, unless our fire smokes, and then smoke comes up in that room too -- but that may be only pretence, just to make it look as if they had a fire. Well then, the books are something like our books, only the words go the wrong way; I know that, because I've held up one of our books to the glass, and then they hold up one in the other room. `How would you like to live in Looking-glass House, Kitty? I wonder if they'd give you milk in there? Perhaps Looking-glass milk isn't good to drink -- But oh, Kitty! now we come to the passage. You can just see a little PEEP of the passage in Looking-glass House, if you leave the door of our drawing-room wide open: and it's very like our passage as far as you can see, only you know it may be quite different on beyond. Oh, Kitty! How nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking-glass House! I'm sure it's got, oh! such beautiful things in it! Let's pretend there's a way of getting through into it, somehow, Kitty. Let's pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through. Why, it's turning into a sort of mist now, I declare! It'll be easy enough to get through -- ' She was up on the chimney-piece while she said this, though she hardly knew how she had got there. And certainly the glass WAS beginning to melt away, just like a bright silvery mist. In another moment Alice was through the glass, and had jumped lightly down into the Looking-glass room. The very first thing she did was to look whether there was a fire in the fireplace, and she was quite pleased to find that there was a real one, blazing away as brightly as the one she had left behind. `So I shall be as warm here as I was in the old room,' thought Alice: `warmer, in fact, because there'll be no one here to scold me away from the fire. Oh, what fun it'll be, when they see me through the glass in here, and can't get at me!' Then she began looking about, and noticed that what could be seen from the old room was quite common and uninteresting, but that all the rest was a different as possible... ...Here something began squeaking on the table behind Alice, and made her turn her head just in time to see one of the White Pawns roll over and begin kicking: she watched it with great curiosity to see what would happen next...."

It doesn't make any sense. The last shall be first and the first shall be last. The smartest people aren't the most righteous? The meek inherit the earth. The kingdom belongs to the persecuted, the poor in spirit, those who thirst and hunger.

Things really only make you happy when you share them or give them away.

And unless you come like a child. Like a child. Unless you trust like a child, you will not understand.

It's exactly backwards.

God...why did you set it up this way, why is your way so foreign to us? Why when I try to explain to someone who isn't a citizen of the kingdom they say something like "You can't stand in the way of a bull and expect him not to charge you just because you are a vegetarian?" Or something equally clever (thanks for that one Ziegler) that makes me think 'no... of course I can't argue with that.' I can't argue Jesus. I can't make belief of a baby in a manger and mere death on a cross of ONE man make sense. I don't understand how that distinguishes eternal life and eternal shame.

That is... apart from the fact that it's true.

I cannot make it make sense to you. But it makes sense to me.

I can, however tell you how many times I've doubted and had questions or struggled with something and a voice, a voice, a personal, unbelievably strong, loving voice answers and brings encouragement and wisdom. Sure maybe it's power of suggestion, maybe it's all in my head.

But it isn't.

17Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
20[Lindsey], guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, 21which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith. Grace be with you.

The kingdom of God makes no sense. But it is a better kingdom. I cannot prove it. But it's not my job to prove it. It's my job to live it. The best that I can. With help from God himself.

The most important button

That you ever push, is sometimes the one that turns your alarm clock ON.

Career suicide.

Bleck.

Thanks and Praises

This is my favorite painting of all time. I used to have it when I was in college, as just a poster carelessly tacked on the wall. I used to just stare at it all the time, but somewhere along the trail, I lost it. I haven't seen it anywhere in stores lately.
Thanks and praises to mister Bernard Hoyes. I like your roy-g-biv-ness.

Last Sunday was Deana's last at DR. It's weird to me. She was the reason I stuck around in the first place. I'd never met anyone who didn't care what you thought of her, she was going to tell you the truth no matter what it cost her. I'm glad that we got to try to honor her a little bit. I was very glad to be a part of a group of people who were honoring someone like her. In a day and age where I'm ashamed of people and our culture and myself a good deal of the time. I'm proud of her. Because more often than not she chooses to do the right thing versus the easy thing. Someone who dies to herself all the time. Someone who cares about the little guy because she was the little guy. Who instead of treating people the way she was treated, treats them the way she wishes she was treated. God showed me more of what he is like through her. Of course shes not perfect. But I'm better for knowing her. And that... is the gospel.

That's what we are supposed to be here.

God oh please, help me make people want to know you better. I admit. I stink at it.

International Big Deal..

Heh heh. He won in Jamaica, mon. He was there when I was in Europe and this is a list he sent me of the things HE learned while there:
1) Kingston is not a tourist town...old people...leave the reebok workout suits and cameras..the images there will burn memories in your retinas greater than any solar eclipse could do.

2) Dont lick the sidewalk no matter how good it looks

3) Dreadlocks thicker than firehoses do exist....

4)Jamaicans apparently like to blare american music..especially a nice rendition of "o'holy night" no matter what season it is

5) they use the word "mon" as a comma..mon

6) I know a great bathroom in the hilton where you can obtain a nice contact buzz

7) Americans are often referred to as the white devil

8) a 60 jamaican dollar tip will even piss the homeless off....apparently its like 12 cents american

9) Goats are like the american racoon or opossum

10) Jamaicans do not like David Hassselhoff

11) Apparently im like an international long drive champion...im kind of a big deal there

12) dont go there

Lists

Casey recently picked up this list that I left lying around my house. Even as I wrote it, I thought to myself, I better destroy this later, or atleast not leave it out, because this is an odd list of things to just leave lying around. He got a chuckle out of this:

-make-up
-Sunday School
-Beth W
-Bioeractors
-train stuff
-liz on Sunday.

I have to agree, it is rather random. I have to admit, I got only two of these accomplished.

That's why I don't make lists. The failure feeling is just too great. And for those of you wondering what a bioreactor is, I have posted a picture of one.


There you go, that's what I do. That's how I roll. Those are what I put on my lists of things to do...

I've been running around like crazy lately, not blogging. Company golf tournament, bunch of meetings and just returning to my normal self after jet lag has all precluded my terribly interesting website being updated. That and lack of terribly interesting things to write. I mean, how do you top Europe? I'll keep tryin...