Like A Kid Again

A few weeks ago I heard a noise outside. I peeked out of the kitchen window and saw one of the boys (7 years old) from next door on his front porch. I had to watch him for awhile because I couldn't figure out what he was doing. He would grab something, stick it into something that made a grinding noise, and then would neatly place it in a box next to other "somethings". After about a minute or so I made the connection that school was starting in a few days and he was excitedly and proudly preparing his school supplies (sharpening pencils) for the upcoming school year.

Tonight I felt like a kid again. I had forgotten how much fun it is to draw on cement. Although I didn't have any colored chalk, an old pencil and pencil sharpener did just fine. I happily sketched out my masterpiece, using half of a pencil in the process. It was also fun to manually sharpen a pencil once again and watch the shavings fall to the floor. Tomorrow I am going to proudly show the drawing to my Mom. I guess some things never change.

Google Trends

I thought some of you might find this interesting. A few months back I stubled upon "Google Trends". It's basically a page where Google tracks the most searched for words, people, or phrases each day. It's a surprisingly interesting way to keep up with what's going on in the news and/or popular culture.

For example, did you know that today (Sept 19th) is International Talk Like a Pirate Day? I didn't think so! Yarrrrr! Ye better learn t’ talk like a seafarin’ hearty today or else ye`ll look like a fool!

Day 12

Over the past few days a fair amount of progress has been made. The drywall was hung, the corners rounded, and after all the mud was completed it was textured to match the rest of the house.

At this point, we've moved past what I would call the construction phase and moved into the finishing phase. Matt and Chris did some trim work today and hung the bathroom door. Additionally, they trimmed and built/hung the window ledges. By the end of next week, the walls will be painted and the carpet/flooring laid. We're getting very close!

Samsung 50 Inch Plasma

Every good basement needs one. For the past few years I've had my "pulse" on the television market. I knew that at some point in the near future I'd have the opportunity to setup our family room...aka our own movie theater...aka O'Slicky's Sports Bar and Grill.

Sunday was that day. I checked out Best Buy and saw this television on sale, 25% off the listed price. A few days after we bought it Best Buy increased the price $300. Very nice. Anyway, it's full 1080p, and has an astonishing 1 million to 1 contrast ratio. After looking around for awhile it was very clear that you get much more size for the money with plasma versus a LCD. In my personal opinion, the picture on a plasma is just as good if not better then an LCD anyway. HD television and my Playstation 3 (games and Blu-Ray) look amazing...and that's an understatement.

I realize it may seem weird to pose for a picture with your television, but the reason was so that you could see the proper scale. I know all the guys will appreciate this post. Once we've got the basement finished we'll have to have everyone over for a movie night or for the Superbowl.

As a funny side note, check out the picture with the white Toyota truck in it. I've never seen another white Toyota pickup with the same Toyota emblem in the center of the tailgate. Considering I added mine 12 years ago, I think this guy copied me. Amazing coincidence it was on the television at the same time we were taking these pictures.

Thank You...

...Colorado DOT - but probably more appropriately, Wilson Co.

This evening I drove home on Powers - my usual route. As usual, they were doing construction on the the Powers Woodmen overpass. When I got home I realized that something had gone terribly wrong. The sides of my truck had been covered in a hard, thick layer of tar (or sealant). It looks like someone has taken black paint and sprayed it all over the side of my truck. For those of you who have ever tried to clean off even the smallest speck of tar, you know how hard and how messy this is. I'm about to figure out how hard it will be to clean an entire vehicle covered in it.

In case this happened to anyone else, I found the following web page on the DOT website:

www.dot.state.co.us/powerswoodmen

There are contact names, phone numbers and an email address listed. I sent Wilson Co. an email with these pictures. I don't expect to hear from them, but at the very least they need to know what happened. Obviously, something was not done correctly. At the very minimum I hope they will fix whatever happened so that it doesn't happen again. I wonder how many people will be spending this Saturday scrubbing tar? 100? 500?

Aston Villa 2 -1 Tottenham

Arrrrrrrgh...I'm getting so sick of watching Spurs play. It's getting so bad that I'm seriously thinking about canceling Directv and going back to the old rabbit ears. In case you're wondering, after 4 games this season we are the only team to not yet win a game. We're dead last in the standings too. I know this is going to be a rebuilding year, and it will take time for our recently overhauled squad to get used to playing with each other. But, that doesn't make it any easier to watch.

The other reason why it's no fun to watch anymore is because the games are blurry. A few weeks ago I didn't know the difference. Then, I discovered that the local stations are now broadcasting their signals in high definition...for free...over rabbit ears! Maybe I'm the only one who didn't know that. Anyway, I pulled out an old set of rabbit ears from Radio Shack and hooked it up to my digital tv (i.e. flat screen). I was blown away by some of the HD NFL and college football games that have been on. In a weird way I feel like I have discovered a previously untapped gold mine and extracting the gold is free. Actually, it feels like I'm stealing something since cable and satellite companies charge you extra for HD on top of their basic package.

Back to Spurs. Anyway, as I was saying, it was so bad tonight that during the game I seriously considered switching over to whatever cheesy, bad sitcom was on. At least in HD it would have been prettier to watch then the garbage I had subjected myself to. There's something wrong with that.

Little Punkin'

On Saturday we headed down to Happy Apple Farm. Although all of the happy apples had already been picked, there were still a few "punkin's" left.

Day 8

The drywall was hung in one day! The next day, Friday, they finished the corners and put on the first coat of mud. We now have walls.

Decisions, Decisions...

I had a quick conversation with a friend last night about something that I really struggle with when it comes to prayer requests, our faith, and the personal decisions we all make. For some reason I started thinking about this in the shower this morning and on the way to work, and felt like I should share my thoughts.

Have you ever been asked to pray for someone who struggling with a situation…but that from your perspective, they caused themselves because of a decision they made yet don’t realize it? For example, you’re at church and someone asks for prayer for all their health issues while in between words they are mowing down their third Twinkie of the morning? Or, someone you know is under a lot of pressure financially yet they never worked hard, never took school or work experience seriously, yet own a bigger house and a nicer car then you? The point is, I started thinking about how I should react to these situations when the challenges facing people are a direct result of the decisions they made…and, when I am inevitably faced with my own same challenges, how should I respond?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized the parallels between this situation and the gift of salvation. We consistently make decisions that separate us from fellowship with our Creator (i.e. sin). However, that’s what makes the wonderful gift of salvation so special. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. Even though we err all the time, Jesus still loved us enough to pay the ultimate price for our misgivings even though the “wages of sin is death”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that all bad decisions in life are sin. Many times they are though, or at least they born out of sinful nature (materialism, lust, laziness, selfishness, etc). My point is, if I’m trying to emulate the character of Christ, I should probably put my own pride and self-righteousness aside when encountering these prayer requests in the future. “Lest any man should boast”, who am I (from Christ’s perspective) to lift my nose when someone makes a decision that causes them and/or their family trials? My reaction should be more like Christ, even if my natural reaction is frustration.

That brings me to the other side of this issue. The Bible is very clear that men “reap what they sow”. Even though we may be saved, sin still has a consequence. Paralleling that with our earthly decisions, I believe that making decisions in day-to-day life also have consequences. The next time I ask for prayer, or pray myself, I am first going to stop and really think about what personal decisions I have made that may have contributed to my current situation. Looking at the bigger picture, how can I honestly ask for the problems I’m going through to be taken away by God when a decision of mine has caused the problem (or made it worse then it needed to be) in the first place? The point is, I believe we all neglect to look at our side many times. Just as we deserve eternal separation from God for our sin, we also deserve the consequences of the practical decisions we make here on Earth. A more fitting prayer would be, in humility, to come to the Lord knowing that we are reaping what we sowed…not from the perspective of “magic God”, please take these money, health, relationship, etc problems away despite me and my bad decisions (or lack of wisdom, shortcomings, etc). Of course, as seen with the gift of salvation, we have been given what we don’t deserve. God can work miracles in your situation and “save” you from the consequences your practical decisions warrant. However, like sin, the Lord may redeem us in the end but won’t necessarily take away all the consequences of our decisions (or sin) here on Earth.

In summary, my conclusion is when this happens to other people to approach it as Christ would His gift of our salvation (as much as possible). On the other hand, when I am facing my own challenges, I should consider my role in the problem first. It won’t take the struggles away, but understanding that I probably caused most of the problem will put my prayers and life in the proper perspective.

I Crawled For the First Time!

Julia was moving so much that it took about 40 pictures to produce the 4 good shots you see below. I guess that's a preview of things to come.

This afternoon she crawled for Stacey for the first time! Stacey used a drinking straw as bait, and apparently she really wanted it. Tonight before bed she crawled a good 10 feet down our entry way hall. Glad to see she gave an equal show for both mommy and daddy.

I guess she's just really patriotic. She waited until December 7th to be born and crawled for the first time on September 11th. I wonder what she'll do next July 4th...