A break in the action

Well here is a post of randomness of things that I have wanted to get out but they either have not fit into other posts or there is not enough of a subject to make a post about...So..

I am leaving this afternoon for a Men's retreat and then when I get back tomorrow some friends from out of town who are going to be staying with us for a few days will be here. Sitting at a computer typing my thoughts is low on the totem pole when there are friends over so there probably will not be any new posts from me until Wednesday of next week. Actually blogging is low on the totem pole regardless if we have friends over. Yes I like it but I don't have to be online or on a computer all the time. If tomorrow every computer just died, I could go on living perfectly fine. People today are too in love with technology.... (I will stop at that, if I go further it is going to turn into a multiple paragraph rant!)

The Red Sox are in the World Series! Woo!

I think I am going to camp out in the woods for two weeks in November, I am just waiting for it to get cold.

Sarah and I were having an "after 10" conversation in the car talking about elections and she said she wants to be a "Political Lackey" So for the presidential election next year if you happen to be watching the news and see a wild lady holding a sign and yelling for a candidate, it could be my sister!

The final thing I want to add is something I read this week regarding finding a wife that I thought was really funny: "You run the race set before you and marry the one beside you who keeps up"

That is all...have a good weekend, go out and breathe the fall air!

People being Stupid News item of the Week

SILVER SPRINGS SHORES, Fla. (AP) — A suspected thief trying to help himself to convenience store goods instead wound up crying for help after becoming stuck in an air shaft for 10 hours.

Jeffery Mumani, 25, was rescued Tuesday. He removed an air conditioning cover at a CVS store Monday night and tried to enter the store via the shaft but became trapped, Marion County Sheriff's Capt. James Pogue said. He began calling for help about 8 a.m. Tuesday.

"I heard a cat in the thing. I was trying to chase the cat," Mumani told the Ocala Star-Banner. He denied attempting to steal prescription drugs. "No, sir, it's a feline cat — a little animal." It took firefighters an hour and a half to rescue Mumani, but he suffered only minor cuts and was in stable condition, Fire Rescue spokeswoman Heather Danenhower.

Mumani has been charged with commercial burglary, possession of burglary tools and felony criminal mischief, Pogue said. Online records with the Florida Department of Corrections indicate Mumani has previous convictions in South Florida for burglary and drug-related crimes.

Oh and one more just for my sister:

WAUKESHA, Wis., Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A 27-year-old man who indulged his shoe fetish by stealing more than 1,500 pairs of shoes in Waukesha, Wis., has been sentenced to four years of probation.

After being convicted of the unusual theft from four local schools, Erik Heinrich was also sentenced by Waukesha County Circuit Judge J. Mac Davis to two months in jail and 100 hours of community service, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Tuesday.

"The circumstances cry out that there is a mental health issue," the judge said after announcing Heinrich's sentence.

The unique incident came to light on May 21, when several local female high school students reported having had their lockers broken into and having their shoes stolen.

The newspaper said that the ensuing investigation eventually lead police to Heinrich, who said he regretted what he had done and hoped to overcome his affliction through counseling and hard work.

"I'm very ashamed of my past actions," Heinrich said during his trial. "I feel remorse for what I've done and now it's time to move on with my life."

Which Peanuts Character Are You?
	You are Charlie Brown. You are always optimistic and persistent, and everyone appreciates your simple sweetness. Sometimes, however, your anxieties get the best of you, and life's mysteries can confuse you.

Click the "Which Peanuts Character Are You?" to find out who you are :p

Newboys -Remixed!

In my never ending search for new and great music, I have come across several remix cds of albums that I liked. Not everyone likes remix albums, they take a song you might really like, remix it, and the result might be something you just totally hate. I personally like remix albums, I think it is really cool how people take a song and add or subtract from the tempo and/or rhythm and make it sound like a whole new song.

Toby mac is one artist who has done this with his albums, he will release the regular album then a year or so later release the remix. His "Momentum" remix was not that great, but "Diverse City's" "Renovating Diverse City" is great and one of my favorite remix albums. If you like Toby Mac and have not heard it you should check it out. Sorry for that tangent :p

The Newsboys latest album, "Go" is one of their better albums at least in my opinion. The have the right mix of slow and up-tempo songs and it is a great album, especially if you are out running. The Newsboys have done a remix album in the past, sort of a remix of their hits. It is an ok remix album but nothing special at least for me. Their "Go -Remix" album on the other hand is spectacular!

"Go" is a poppish (I don't even think that is a word :p) upbeat album. In contrast "Go-Remix" is still upbeat but the sound is grittier, darker...Hearing the original songs you would think there is no way they can take the "pop" out of the songs and they still be good, but the Newsboys do it and the resulting songs are terrific. I am not going to gush anymore about the album, and some people may not like it, the first time I heard it I did not really know what to think. But if you are like me and constantly searching for new music then I would give it a listen...And you can do that by clicking the sample links below!!

Samples provided by

Great prices on this and all other CDs! :D
Amazon link for Go Remix

Wherever we go Remix

Go Remix

Something Beautiful Remix

Your Love Is Better Than Life Remix

City To City Remix

The Mission Remix

Secret Kingdom Remix

I Am Free Remix

In Wonder Remix

Let It All Come Out Remix

Gonna Be Alright Remix

It happened to me again!

Last night I had a movie screening so I ate dinner at Burger King. I sit down with my whoppers and begin eating, all of a sudden out of the blue this old guy who was at a table next to me asks an open ended question about the drought we are in. Not wanting to be rude I answer him and we then proceeded to have a 10 minute conversation about rain, sprinklers, and grass!!! I think maybe I have an invisible "I will talk with you" sign on my head that strangers see or something.

Or maybe these people are just lonely, and when I respond back to them they see me as someone who will listen and talk to them. I have always tried to be a cheerful person when I come in contact with people in the world. Virgina, this old lady at one of the local post offices calls me "Smiley" because she said it could be pouring down rain outside but I always come in with a smile. That is how I want to be, someone who is always cheerful, a reflection of God's love in me. Sometimes though, when I am not coming in contact with everyday people in the world but rather people I know, especially my family, I have realized am not quite as cheerful as I could be.

My family will attest to this, sometimes I am moody. It is like I have a cloud over my head ok maybe I am not that bad. :p I don't sit and brood or mope around. Rather my communication with others becomes curt and irritated. I know there are people who I have offended in the past because I just ripped into them without cause. A lot of times what I may be saying is true, but because I am in a bad mood, I say it with the wrong spirit and something right said in the wrong spirit is still wrong. I used to think if what I am saying is right, people should just suck it up and not get in a tizzy about the way I say it.

I have come to realize though that growing up my parents might have known what they were talking about a little more than I wanted to believe. Being cheerful around the people who know you the best is probably one of the hardest things to do, at least for me, and it is something you can't do on your own. I know, because I have tried. ;) Only with God's help can we really be cheerful all the time (even when we don't feel like it) Inevitably we still are probably going to stumble and snap a head off now and again. But for the most part we will be a better reflection of God's love, and you never know, random strangers in Burger King might start up conversations with you!

You want apartment pictures?

I have apartment pictures! When you first walk into the apartment you are in the main living/dining room. If you shift clockwise slightly you will be looking down a hallway.

Before drywall:

Drywall almost done:Finished hallway:

The first right from the hallway is the kitchen:

The next right is a half bathroom:

The third and final right is the first bedroom :

You are now at the end of the hall and at another bathroom that is at the end of the hall:

Turning to your left you have another bedroom:Then if you turn around and start going back down the hallway on your right is the largest of the bedrooms, the master you could say. This is a bad picture as you can't really tell the size but I wanted to show you are almost directly across from the first bathroom:

Looking back down the hallway toward the front door:

I am not sure why it was designed the way it was, you have one good sized bedroom but the other two are pretty small, it would have been better I think if those two smaller bedrooms were combined. Also there are two small bathrooms which I think is silly for an apartment this size.... It would have been better if you just have one good sized bathroom. I guess maybe I could have done something about that since I had it all the way down to the studs but I honestly never thought about it until the drywall was up..... Anyway that is a tour of my apartment. :)

Oh and one more picture of Nick :p In the first bathroom, the half bath, there is this very narrow closet which Nick was very tempted to hide out in and then jump out at people when they came in....I figured it would not be good for business so we just have a picture of it:

The boredom of a Saturday

This past week my apartment was put up for sale. So far there have been a few people interested but not as many as I would like, to try to get some more interest yesterday I had an open house. It was rather boring, I just sat in my apartment with no furniture but the chair I was sitting on. Because Nick had basketball and I was his ride there, Nick also had to sit in my empty apartment. :p It actually was not as bad as it sounds as I was able to watch a movie when no one was looking at the apartment which unfortunately was most of the time....So besides having to sit around all day, I did not even get to talk to very many people about the house, well except for Ray.

Ray was this older gentleman who showed up about two hours into the open house. He is a mortgage broker and was just stopping by to look around the apartment. After he walked around and looked, I guess he had nothing better to do because he and I then proceeded to have a conversation that spanned everything from computers to shingles to bees....Yes bees! (I used to raise bees, well maybe raise is not the right word, take care of more like) Anyway, somehow the conversation just kept on going and going. After 30 or so minutes we went outside and walked around the apartment complex and talked some more! I am not sure how it happened, I mean here is a complete stranger and we talked for over an hour!

If it had been my dad in my shoes I could totally see this happening as my dad seems to have lengthy conversations with strangers all the time. Me on the other hand..... ok, I will admit I like to talk but unless it is with a friend, I am not one to just carry on a lengthy over an hour conversation with someone especially with a complete stranger. Or so I thought... :p I guess Ray had a good conversation as well since he said maybe we should get together for lunch sometime!!! :o Well sorry if this has been a bit of a boring post, to make up for it I have an interesting picture of what Nick did the whole time:

Also, I think it was Abigail who asked about the interior paint color of my apartment so here are two pictures of that:

Today we had co-op until 1:00. Since my grandparents live 5 minutes away from the church we have Co-op at we decided to stop by. For the first 45 minutes or so, we talked with out grandparents, well everyone that is but Matthew. Matthew was too busy running away from Jules, my grandparents' foot long Dachshund. Jules had decided that Matthew was just the right height to lick in the face....Matthew did not like this! After a little bit, Matthew, Sam and I all went outside to see what Molly was up to. She had been looking at horses next door and we wanted to make sure that she had not jumped the electric fence and ridden bareback into the sunset...did I mention it was 2:00 in the afternoon? We arrived outside to find Molly was riding something... luckily, it was just a tandem bike. Yes, she was trying to ride a tandem (a bike that is for two people) by herself. I decided to fix her problem, and offered to ride on the back seat. In this case , the pictures really tell the story better. Note** The picture that follow are based on actual events. >)

Here we are just getting on the bicycle. Sam graciously uses his incredible strength to keep us steady.

And we are OFF!!! Matthew and Sam are NOT holding us up. They just wanted to be in on the fun so they ran along behind us and pushed. It did not make us go THAT much faster but they felt included.

Oh no!! Apparently we are stuck in a ditch (ohhh...thats why we weren't moving!) and only succeeded in getting out with Matthew and Sam's help. It was around this time that we discovered that both tires were flat. Hopefully, that is why we could never really get going.

Smile!! Matthew and I really like it when I ride a bike and he sits on the handlebars. We didn't try that with the tandem, but maybe one day we will...when the tires are full of air....

People being stupid news item of the week

Seems lots of people wanted to be stupid this week so here are several stories:

LAFAYETTE, Colo. (AP) — A little goofing off during a break from work led to a time-consuming, embarrassing ordeal for a Wal-Mart employee. Authorities said the man got his right index finger stuck in an oval-shaped hole of a cast-iron picnic table outside the store.

Co-workers tried in vain to help the man get free before help was summoned. A half-dozen firefighters and emergency workers responded. They freed the man by cutting a square out of the tabletop, then slicing through the metal around his finger.

Lafayette Fire Department Assistant Chief David Friedel said the unidentified man was OK, except for being upset, shaking and embarrassed about the ordeal. Friedel says the man told him it was an act of "stupidity." The man's name was not released.

ATHENS, Ohio (AP) — A woman accused of digging up her ex-boyfriend's grave and stealing his ashes pleaded not guilty Wednesday to felony vandalism, prosecutors said.

Martha LaFollete, 48, lived with Roger Barber in Roseville for five years until his death last November, said Athens County sheriff's Lt. Darrell Cogar. Police speculate she may have stolen Barber's ashes because she wasn't invited to his funeral. The grave was dug up in June, but the theft wasn't discovered until about two weeks later, authorities said. Police found Barber's ashes several weeks ago at a home belonging to one of LaFollete's relatives, Athens County prosecutor David Warren said.

"I have a category of crimes that I like to refer to as 'aggravated stupid,'" Warren said. "I have been doing this for almost 30 years now and I have never had anyone steal someone's ashes."
A trial was scheduled for January, Warren said. If convicted, LaFollete faces a maximum of one year in prison and a $2,500 fine, he said. Myca Haynes, who represented LaFollete at Wednesday's arraignment, declined to comment.

Barber's teenage daughter, Sierra Barber, said she's planning to rebury her father's remains at the family plot in New Marshfield Cemetery once LaFollete's trial is over. "I have to bury my dad and go through it, all over again," she said. "My dad's in an evidence locker. They say 'rest in peace' for a reason."

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP)— A purse-snatcher demanded $185,000 in ransom money for returning his victim's cell phone, but agreed to settle for $200. When the woman went to retrieve the phone, police accompanied her and made an arrest. Randy-Jay Adolphos Jones, 29, was arrested near the campus of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster early Sunday morning.

Jones, of nearby Columbia, allegedly grabbed the victim, a 29-year-old Philadelphia woman, and started fondling her as she was exiting her car to visit a friend. He pulled her purse off her shoulder and fled as she started to run away from him, police said. When police arrived, they told the woman to call her cell phone. Jones answered and demanded $185,000 for the return of the phone, Officer Jeff Gerhart said.

The victim stalled for time by asking questions as police listened in on the call and tried to pinpoint his location. He eventually lowered his demand to $200 and told her to meet him at a walkway near the campus, police said.

Jones was being held on $100,000 bail on robbery and indecent assault charges. It wasn't clear if he had an attorney. Under police questioning, Jones did not explain why he asked for so much money for the phone, Gerhart said.

I think the dude getting his finger stuck at Walmart is the best :p

Music while kitchen cleaning should not be too loud

My sister Molly always seems to be finding cds that we have not listened to for a very long time and sticking them in the cd player. Last night, I somehow ended up in the kitchen cleaning by myself. As I am thinking about music, in waltzes Molly, she puts cd in the cd player and Christmas music comes blaring out of the speakers!! Christmas is after all, only 66 days away! She actually had picked one of the better Christmas cds we have because it had one of Toby Mac's Christmas songs which of course made us need to turn the volume up to get the full effect of a Toby Mac song. :)

So I clean the kitchen with a little bit of dancing and Molly dances around (I am not sure why she was not helping me in the kitchen) as we listen to Christmas music pounding from the speakers, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" never sounded so good. This continues for a few minutes and then abruptly the music disappears! "Hey who is messing with the music" I say turning away from the sink only to see my mother walking back from the cd player. "William" she says, "I can hear this music throughout the entire house! If you would like to listen to music you will have to do it in your room." :( So I had to finish the rest of the kitchen in silence which I was rather bummed about since I love listening to music while cleaning the kitchen. Anyway, the moral of this story is this: listening to music while cleaning is a good thing, but don't get too carried away and to remember to have the volume at a reasonable level. ;)

Another Concert

On Tuesday my sisters told me that my posts of late have been boring, I say sisters because there are several. (No one probably will get that joke) Anyway, yesterday I sat staring at the computer screen and I never really had anything to post about. This seems to happen a lot on Wednesdays, it is like somehow the whole day my brain is just off somewhere. So sorry for no post yesterday. :p

On Monday I once again embarked on a journey to the state fair for a concert, this time though it was not a Christian concert. It was a country music concert. I will let those words sink in a bit..... :p Yes I listen to country music, I can almost hear the collective groans from readers as I type. I think I have said this before, but I love music and that love is not just restricted to one genre of music, I like to listen to everything under the sun, well to a point. Anyway on Monday some friends and I had tickets to see Josh Turner, a country musician.

While I do listen to country, there are only a few artists who I really would go out and buy a cd of. Josh Turner happens to be one of these, so I was rather looking forward to see how he would be live. The arena's lights went down and the band came out and started strumming, everyone around me seemed to to think this was the coolest thing in the world and were on their feet cheering. Then Josh Turner comes out and the sheer volume of the crowd was actually hard on the ears! I have been to country music concerts before so I pretty much expected this, but the whole thing suddenly just seemed wrong to me.

The Mercy Me concert on Friday was probably one of the best concerts I have been to, the whole atmosphere, the spirit of the crowd, was one of worship. Not for the band up on the stage but rather to the Lord. The Josh Turner concert on the other hand was such a stark contrast to that, that I actually considered leaving the concert. The actions of the crowd just really made me wonder about the people there. Throughout the whole concert, you had women screaming "Josh" or just screaming for no clear reason. Several rows in front of us there were these girls, I have no idea of their ages since all I saw was the back of their heads, but for almost the entire concert they were on their feet screaming and waving every time Josh turned their way.

I know this will sound harsh and I don't mean to judge people I don't even know, but one thought in my head during the concert was how disgusting those peoples actions were. I like Josh Turner's music and I clapped after some of his songs that I really like, but a lot of the crowd seemed to just worship him. After the song it was not like they were screaming/cheering for a well played song, rather they were screaming/cheering for the singer himself. The performance of the music did not matter, rather it was all about the artist.

I have been to country music concerts as well as other "secular" concerts and going in you know the crowd is going to be different but this is the first one where the crowd atmosphere was just sickening to me. About a month ago I wrote a post on music, secular and Christian, how we as Christians should listen to it and how the lines between each are blurred. I never published it, but writing it really has made me change how I view music and listen to it. So maybe the country and rock concerts I have been to in the past have always had this atmosphere and I just have not been as in tuned with the Holy Spirit and what is edifying as I am now, I don't know. One thing I am sure of is, I will not be going to a Josh Turner concert again.

To the readership of this blog...

The action of reading a blog and not commenting is commonly referred to as "lurking" Now I don't really mind people not commenting and lurking about our blog, Sarah reads many more blogs than I do and she hardly ever comments. :p I know for most people unless they disagree with you they really are not going to comment often, if at all. How, you may ask, do I know we have people lurking? Well I have this dandy little counter on the right side of the page that gives me all this great information about the readers of the blog. Besides the number of readers a day, it also can tell me how long people spend reading and where their location is! Not that I need reader's locations, it just gives it to me for some weird reason....

So I know people are actually spending their time reading this blog and I think that is great. It means I am not just posting thoughts into the black hole that is the internet, never to be seen again. Nobody except for a few people are really commenting but that is fine with me, if you want to be a lurker be the best one you can be. :p But, while I don't mind lurkers, comments are helpful, they help us bloggers know if people are agreeing or disagreeing and also gives us warm fuzzies.... So there is now an incentive (at least for a while) in actively commenting, whoever has the 500th comment gets a new compact car! Yay! :D :fun: So what are you waiting for? Comment!

To comment, you click that little link at the bottom of a post that says "comment" ;)


Ok, ok, no new car for the 500th comment, sorry! Rather you get a free CD of your choice, which I will ship to you if you don't happen to live near me :)

Life Tip # 113

When working on the faucet for a bathroom sink, make sure the water is turned off before you start taking apart the knobs. If for some reason the water is not turned off when you start taking apart the knobs, quickly turn off the water and immediately use a towel to fix any spilled water. Watching the water drip all over the underneath of a bathroom sink can be hypnotizing but resist the urge to watch it! Also make sure you have the correct pieces before you start gluing parts together. If you do happen to glue parts together before it is time, using a flat head screwdriver is not a recommended tool to try to get them back apart! If you must use a flat head screwdriver to break apart two prematurely glued together pieces, breaking a $23.00 piece of plastic that goes inside an on/off knob is not a good idea.

Life Tip #61

While in a moving vehicle, taking off or putting on clothes is not a recommended activity. If you must take off or put on clothes while in a moving vehicle, it is recommended that you do so in a larger vehicle, aka a van or bus. (A four door mid-sized car is NOT a larger vehicle, hence the name mid-sized car!) If you absolutely MUST take off or put on some article of clothing while in a moving vehicle, in no way should you be operating said vehicle!!!!

Women drivers out to kill me - Episode 2

Here is the next episode on women drivers trying to kill me. Episode 1 can be read here.

Episode 2 - Crooked back up Lady

This episode is not so much about a woman driver trying to kill me so much as a woman driver trying to kill my poor truck. One day when I was still in school I had to mail a package, so I drove up to the post office. All the parking spaces were full, except one that was next to someone who had parked their van very crooked and over the line. Having nowhere else to park, I pulled my truck in. I was in the post office paying for my postage when somebody ran in and said "whoever owns this red truck better get out here" Being the owner of the red truck I ran out to see what the commotion was. Low and behold the lady driving the crooked parked van had just backed straight out, never looking to see if she might hit my truck. Since she had parked at an angle, when she backed straight out she backed right into the side of my truck!

Everyone knows Fords are built tough, they like to say it in all their truck ads and I can honestly say they are not lying. Even though the lady backed into my truck, figuring that if she could not get me, she might as well get my truck, there was no damage at all to my truck's side Unfortunately her van was not built "Ford tough" and she dented her driver side bumper as well as breaking her driver side tail light. At least she did not damage my truck, but then they are:

State Fair

Yesterday Sarah and I went to the State Fair. Rather than go into a lengthy post on everything we did, here are some pictures. :)

This being the south, you of course have to have tobacco bundling contests:

This old lady's group was fast, they did the whole thing in 1:09!

Here we have this strange dude who kept popping up wherever music was playing and doing interpretive dance:

Here is me trying to pitch a baseball...lets just say I am not going to have a "rookie" experience, the best I could do was a measly 55mph! :frown:

This is our good ol' buddy and pal Greg the weather man:
Here is another picture of Greg hanging out with some funny animal thing. Greg had to change his clothes because he got pie all over them in the pie eating contest.
Racing Pigs:
Racing Ducks!
So those are the highlights from the fair...Some other things to note: The weather was GREAT!!!!!!!! Did not get above 70 the whole day! :D We spent way too much on over priced fair food, the military really loves giving out tee-shirts, the animals were a smelly as ever and oh yeah we went to a concert in the evening.......

Concert at the state fair......

Ah yes, the best part of the fair yesterday and the main reason for our going....Mercy Me had a concert and we had second row seats!!

Sarah showing where our seats were.
Unknown to us, it was actually not just Mercy Me. First up was Monk and Neagle and then Aaron Shust:

Finally after a 15 minute intermission Mercy Me:

This picture was posted just because I thought it was funny how they were singing: :p

Bring the Rain!

So afterwards they had a meet 'n greet and we of course stood in line for that...Here is Sarah with them. Unfortunately because of the way things were set up we could not get behind them for a picture or hold up the line so this was the best picture, still I got to talk to them all which is all I really cared about...oh and check out Bart Millard's smile! :p

One last fair picture:

A little about the concert....First off, except for maybe Toby Mac/Newsboys, Mercy Me is the one Christian music group that, at least for me, has consistently put out albums that have really spoken to me and I have enjoyed. That is one reason we got tickets on the second row, I got them months in advance the day they came out because I wanted to have good seats. I have also found that for concerts at the fair when you sit so close to the stage it is actually not as hard on the ears because of the way the speakers are set up... While it is loud, as in your shirt is moving from the air loud; as in it is hard to hold a camera steady loud. You don't really hear the music from the speakers so much as you feel it. :p

Anyway the concert was terrific! For some concerts the group might play a song that might not be your favorite and leave out one you really love. Mercy Me has so many great songs they obviously can't sing them all but they did a very good job covering a range of their stuff in the amount of time they had.

The crowd was pretty amazing as well. From the very first song you could hear everyone singing along with the band, it actually seemed to surprise Bart Millard, the lead singer, at just how loud we were. On the third song, I think it was "Word of God Speak" he started singing the chorus and we were so loud he just stopped and held out the microphone to the crowd and let us have it. A few songs later he switched over to a mixture of hymns a cappella and it honestly was hard to tell if he was singing or not. Everyone was together in singing and there actually was some audible harmonizing going on! It made me miss being in a large church a little bit....No music, just 8,000 or so people singing their hearts out to the Lord. It was incredible.... :)

One funny thing, about 20 minute in, there was this loud engine revving type noise for about 15 seconds that was coming from the tractor pull that was about 300 yards away. This continued every 6-8 minutes for the rest of the concert. After about probably the 6th time this happened, Bart Millard, asked the crowd what on earth that crazy loud noise was that kept occurring. As one voice everyone yelled back at him "IT'S A TRACTOR!" he looked at the crowd and laughed, and said "Of course! It is a tractor, I forgot I am in the south" :D Anyway, that about sums up the concert, I guess you have probably figured out I thought it was wonderful.

People being stupid news item of the week

Thieves take more than they can carry

Two men told a reporter that they regretted stealing 5,647 coins from their restaurant because the loot was too heavy and they couldn't carry it at all, a Qingdao newspaper reported today.

Local residents felt suspicious when they saw the duo, both of whom are in their twenties, exhausted and sweating as they carried a 50-centimeter-long bag (20inchs) at a slow pace at the Qiandao Railway Station, so they called police, the report said. Police were curious about the jingling sound coming from the bag and ordered the duo to open it. The bag was filled with one yuan coins, the report said.

The two young men were migrant workers employed at a restaurant in Qingdao, Shandong Province. They allegedly decided to steal the coins when they saw their boss put 20,000 yuan worth of coins in a box, the report said. They planned to use the money to start their own businesses in south China, the report said.

They prepared two bags to collect the coins, but they each weighed 25 kilograms when filled, which were too heavy for them to carry. "The bags were too hefty to lift them up, even the belts were snapped. We could not think of any better ideas, so we took only some of the coins," Gao told the newspaper. "If we had to know how heavy it was, we would not consider doing it," one of the suspects said.

Point one, if you are going to rob something, don't go for the coins!! Cash is the way to go...If you must steal the coins, it might be a good idea to be in shape so you can actually carry them!!! 25kg is only about 60lbs...could neither of these guys carry a 60lb bag? :p

About my apartment....

In the comments of my last post about my magnificent new door, Sleepy Joy brought up an interesting question: "Are you going to move into your apartment now?" This is actually a topic I was going to post about but it has been in the "rough draft" stage and I have not had the time to finalize it. Since she did raise the question and a simple "yes" or "no" would need an explanation here it is:

No, I am not moving into my apartment now, or in all likelihood ever. I am going to sell it. I have seriously thought about living in it, it is in an excellent location and is only 5 minutes away from work. Gone would be the 2+ hours of driving I currently do everyday, and I would have practically 1,100sqft all to myself. Sure I would have a monthly power/water/phone bill to keep track of, but at least half that cost would be covered by me not needing hardly any gas for my car. So why don't I want to move into it? The answer is actually pretty simple, I love my family! :)

That is a pretty blanket statement, but probably the thing I would miss the most would be the conversation. That is easy to fix, just get room mates for your apartment you might say. Yes, I could do that, but it really would not be the same. The past probably year and a half, I have really enjoyed being at home and having our "after 10 discussions" with my family especially Sarah. I have jokingly told her there is no way she is getting married before me because I would lose a buffer (inside joke) and I also would have no one to act crazy with or sing with when I am doing the dishes.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problems moving out and living on my own. When I am married I will have no issue moving to Timbuktu or wherever else my wife and I feel God wants us to live. Until that happens though, I am content to live at home and spend time with my family. Besides, without me their life would be pretty dull and they would probably have to get rid of the computers since they most likely would start having issues as soon as I moved out!

A magnificent door!

Last week I bought a door! :D That's great, you might say, so what? Why are you posting about getting a door? Well besides the fact that I could not think of anything else to post, I am also pretty pumped about my door! To explain why I am so pumped up about a door requires some background:

I own a 1049sqft apartment. It has been completely remodeled inside, and when I say completely, I mean the only thing left from it's previous state are a few of the studs...Everything else was torn out. The reason everything got torn out had something to do with the floor to ceiling mold that was everywhere when I purchased it out of foreclosure. The first time I walked in I was actually a little depressed. Mold is not something you want to mess around with and my apartment seemed to have every type of mold there is growing everywhere. Eventually the apartment was gutted down to the cement floor, ( I am on the bottom floor) and the previously mentioned studs. Then it was time to rebuild the interior.

Because everything had to be replaced the remodeling took a little longer and cost much more than I had first thought it would. A brand new kitchen had to be built, shelves, counter tops, appliances and lots of other things add up over time. Everything finally was almost done except my door needed a new lock. On the door was this metal plate thing, that looked like it was there to reinforce the door lock portion of the door. Well that is what it looked like, it actually was the only thing holding the door together at the lock!!! Off comes the metal plate and the handle and lock pretty much fall out of the door... It seemed a new door was needed.

This did not make me happy! Doors really are not that expensive, the price for a good exterior door is just a drop in a bucket compared to what I have already spent. Still, I really did not want to spend at least another $150 or so just for a door!! I decided rather than buy a new door, I would check on craigslist to see if maybe a used door could be had for a good price... There were a few, but they were left hand doors and I needed a right.

The next morning resigning myself to the fact that I would have to buy a new door, I checked craigslist again and low and behold posted less than an hour before, was a listing for a right hand exterior door with a peep-hole, everything I was looking for!!! I immediately contacted the person and told her I would be there that afternoon with cash for the door. So my apartment now has a wonderful almost new door! :)

It is actually hard to express how thrilled I am over the door. I know this is going to sound crazy, but when I put the door in the back of the trunk to bring it to the apartment, I had this sense of, I don't know any other way to describe it other than, it was just complete and utter joy. :D I had lost all hope in getting a cheap door and then out of the blue a door practically drops out of heaven for me! Driving to the apartment, I would look in the rear mirror and see it in the bed of the truck and I just could not help but smile. Well, that is the story of my magnificent door, even now, days later, every time I think about it I am just amazed that I got it.

The weather!!

As I type this the weather is as follows:

92°F
Mostly Cloudy
Wind: S at 6 mph
Humidity: 38%

A little on the warm side but nothing you would not expect from a hot, muggy, summer day in the south.....But wait a just cotton pickin minute, summer is supposed to be long gone, we are a few days into the SECOND WEEK of October!!!!! Why on earth is it 90+ degrees outside???? We currently are the warmest place in the USA, warmer than Florida, warmer than Texas, California is down right chilly compared to us:

There is something rather off about having temperatures 20+ degrees higher than usual for this time of year.....Where has our cold weather gone??? :(

WOO HOO

William and I get to go to the Denver and the mile high orchestra concert!!!!! We thought it was the same day as my orchestra concert in December but it isn't !!!! Denver and the Mile High Orchestra is a Christian big band group that we heard when we went to Kingdom bound in August.
I am sooo excite. Of course we still have to work out the logistics because the concert is in NY. But we have plenty time for that. Can you tell I'm a sanguine ? ok you all have heard enough from me tonight...hopefully tomorrow I will write about my Sunday concert. Yes, I had 2 concerts in two days. It was exhausting! So, stay tuned. :)

Explanation Of the Crazy William Photos

I kept meaning to get on all week and post about the crazy photos of William and his sleeping bag. What happened was this: after dinner that night, William came up to me and said " Sarah, I want to show you something." Since I am naturally inquisitive, I immediately follow William up to his room...to find...William holding his camera. Since so many people had commented and said "I can't tell how big the sleeping bag is...William decided to remedy that by taking pictures of himself inside said sleeping bag. So I take a few pictures for the blog. Then I decided to have some fun. I started snapping away like the paparazzi. Those pictures are the result...(William finally got tired of me having fun and decided to end it. So, the moral of the story is: if you give Sarah a camera, she might use it to take funny/embarrassing/strange pictures of you... she could also take a nice picture but you never know what you will get. The thing to do, is to make sure you look at every picture she takes and then when she is not looking, you take her camera and delete all the ones you hate. hmm I just realized that I was referring to myself in the third person. I think I will end this post before I say anything else that I will regret tomorrow.
~Adios~
~La Sarita~

Concert Season Starts!!

First of all, I have to say Happy Birthday Abigail and many happy returns! I feel a special kinship with Abigail because her first name is my middle name.

Now what you have all been waiting for: a long and lengthy description of my weekend.
Saturday: DUSS Concert Day: Three dress rehearsals and three concerts!
I had to get up at 6:00 so I would be ready to leave at 7:15.
(There are three different orchestras and two beginner groups. The beginner groups and Intermediate 1 have their concert in the afternoon, while Intermediate 2 and the advanced orchestra have their concerts on Saturday night. Molly plays the cello and Sam plays the viola in intermediate 1. I play the violin in all three of the orchestra, and Matthew plays in beginner 2. Sam and Annabeth are in the first violin section of intermediate 2 and I am in the first violin section of the advanced orchestra. Hmmm I wonder if anyone will be able to remember all that?
I had been under the impression that we would come home after the afternoon concert, but my parents decided it would be less stressful to just stay in town. This meant that I had to take everything I would need all day!! Lets just say my truck was pretty loaded. Anyhoo, Molly, Sam and I got to the rehearsal hall on time. As soon as I walked into the building, I knew something was wrong.... it was HOT! At 8:00 in the morning...it was really hot.... the air condition was completely off and no one knew how to turn it back on. Now in some parts of the country, the temperature feels like fall. This is not the case in NC.... we are still having 80-85 degree weather with lots of humidity. At first it wasn't too bad, but about halfway through the dress rehearsal, I felt like I was going to pass out!! My legs felt weird, my stomach hurt, I was a little dizzy, I did not want to be there anymore. ( I think I was experiencing heat stroke) But I stayed and finished the rehearsal. As soon as the rehearsal ended, I started feeling better.
Thankfully, by the time the advanced orchestra got on the stage some one had figured out how to turn on the air conditioning. :)
So, I got through all three dress rehearsal and then it was time for the afternoon concert. Here are some pictures of the Afternoon Concert

You might have to click on the pictures for the full view to read the names....

The Beginner 2 Group Annabeth helps with this group

Intermediate 1 cello section

More of the Cello section and you can kinda see Sam in the viola section

After the concert my family had few hours to just lay around and do nothing. We all needed that break especially my dad. He had spent week in Canada on a job and drove 15 hours straight to be with us on Saturday. So we hung out at the hall, had dinner and then there was just enough time to get dressed for the night concert. The concert went smashing!
I realize this is a long post and I can just see your eyes glassing over and you saying "stop! stop! too many detail ahhhhhhh. William told me to tell every little thing that happened this weekend. I 'm just following directions. :) Here are a few pictures from the nighttime concert. For some reason, William did not get any pictures of my orchestra playing. Because he was listening to the music and he is not very good at multitasking. :)

Intermediate 2 tuning

In the middle of a song...I have no idea which one.
You can see three of us in this very nice picture... thanks William!

There is a story I need to tell...wait make that two,
but I thought that you should have time to digest this extremely long post :) btw...I have no idea why that captions will not stay centered unto the photos. But it seems William has fixed that!

~Sarah~

"in Your sea of forgetfulness"

In the absence of Sarah's post about our weekend, I might as well post something I was thinking about....Sometimes we tend to listen to music without really hearing the lyrics, there is a great beat or rhythm and we just get carried away by that and forget to hear what the song is actually saying. I know I have done that, which is why recently when I am listening to music I have really tried to listen to the lyrics and see just what the singer is saying. I was listening to the radio a few days ago and "East To West" by Casting Crowns came on. I really like Casting Crowns and I have heard this song I don't know how many times since it came out but for some reason, in the first lines of the song I heard something that got me thinking...

Here I am Lord,
and I'm drowning
in Your sea of forgetfulness

"in Your sea of forgetfulness" At first when I heard that I was like, what? The Lord does not forget those who call on His name, how can the singer be drowning in a "sea of forgetfulness"? But then I started thinking about it and I realized the song is not meant to say the Lord has forgotten about this guy. I think it is more to say he has been forgiven of his sins, the sins themselves have been cast into the "sea of forgetfulness". And yet the singer still feels like he is chained to them, therefore being with his sins in that "forgetfulness" he feels like he is drowning in his sins.....

Thinking along those lines, I thought how true that song really is! When we are forgiven our sins are thrown into that "sea of forgetfulness" they are gone, God has forgiven them and they are forgotten. Sometimes though we don't forget about them, we go fishing in that "forgetfulness sea" and fish them back up. That is what I feel Casting Crowns is saying with the song, we should not be dwelling on past sins, drowning in that "sea of forgetfulness" Rather, we should remember that what God has forgiven should not remain a burden, we should forget the things which are in the past and be pressing forward to those things which are ahead. Because our sins truly are as far as the east is from the west....

Our weekend!

This past weekend was the start of.........Wait, I was about to make a long post detailing our weekend but it seems Sarah would like to make the post regarding our weekend. So hopefully she will get to it and entertain you readers with mesmerizing stories of bravery and excitement! Stay tuned.....

Notice to readers

The blog will not be updated for a few days, we have a pretty hectic weekend coming up and I doubt I will even be able to get on the computer until Sunday afternoon or evening. Everyone have a good weekend! :D

People being stupid news item of the week

Toilet Paper Thief on the Loose

FOND DU LAC, Wis. (AP) — Someone is either too cheap to buy his own toilet paper or planning a big prank.

Fond du Lac County Executive Allen Buechel said someone has been repeatedly stealing toilet paper from the men's public bathrooms at the Fond du Lac City County Government Center since June.

Buechel suspects the person comes in once or twice a week around midday and gets about six rolls a week from dispensers. Some rolls weren't even full, he said.

The thefts haven't been a big loss.

"We don't buy the best toilet paper," Buechel said.

He expects the thief to get caught. "Someone is going to walk in on him when he's doing it and we'll catch him," he said.

Courthouse officials are on the lookout for suspicious activity.

County sheriff Capt. Dean Will didn't return a call for comment Friday.

So the courthouse officials have been on the lookout for suspicious activity since June and yet they still have not caught this guy??!!!! That does not give you very much faith in those officials observation skills. :p

Equivocation!

Every Wednesday night I take Sarah down to NC State for orchestra practice. Yesterday while riding around we created funny informal fallacies using syllogism :p (Just a word of warning these get a tad crazy!)

mine:
Sarah hates mayonnaise,
Mayonnaise is a good thing,
Sarah hates good things!

Will loves loud music,
Loud music makes you go deaf,
Will loves going deaf!

Only bats come out at night,
The moon comes out at night,
The moon is a bat!

Olivia loves adventures,
Adventures are dangerous,
Olivia loves danger!

All pirates have beards,
Abe Lincoln had a beard,
Abe Lincoln was a pirate!

Beauty is subjective,
Subjective is an adjective,
Beauty is an adjective!

Sarah's:
William loves cold weather,
cold weather is the bomb,
William loves the bomb.

People who comment are great!
Great people are geniuses,
People who comment are geniuses!

Cows eat grass,
our dogs eat grass.
Our dogs are cows!

Rebekah does not like opera,
Opera is beautiful,
Rebekah does not like beautiful things!

Everything in the ocean is fun to play with,
Jelly fish are in the ocean,
Jelly fish are fun to play with.

In the Shadow of the Moon

"If I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold."

Last night I fortunate enough to catch a screening of "In the Shadow of the Moon". A tremendous documentary about the United States' Apollo missions and the exploration of the moon.

Lately it seems most of the news that comes out of NASA is negative in terms of the space program. "In the Shadow of the Moon" takes you back to a time in our history when we as a nation, to quote Buzz Aldrin, "Did bold things" Director David Sington, a veteran of the space-faring PBS series "Nova," does a brilliant job conveying to the viewer what it it felt like to be participant in the launches and the excitement around the world from those who watched it.

This is feeling is portrayed through some excellent interviews with the crew members of every Apollo mission that flew to the moon. (minus Neil Armstrong) These men, the only living people to have actually seen our earth from the moon, speak of their experiences with a down-to-earth eloquence and candor, their words adding considerable feeling to the images on the screen. There is one scene where Jim Lovell talks about reading from Genesis while orbiting the Moon, and as he reads the moon pans by, to say the least it is inspiring!

While it does not focus on the subject, there are several scenes with the astronauts where they mention that being in space and looking back at the earth, gave them a feeling of awe and the knowledge that our universe was created, it did not just happen. One of the astronauts, I believe it was David Scott even says something in the context of "While I was on the moon for three days, I ending gaining a lifetime with God"

Besides the interviews, the actual footage in the film is visually stunning. The archival material from original NASA film has been re-mastered and except for the fact that it is 4:3 is simply gorgeous. The result of this staggering footage combined with the insightful commentary from the astronauts result in an intimate epic that vividly communicates the daring, the danger, the pride, and the promise of this extraordinary era in history when the whole world literally looked up at America. "In the Shadow of the Moon" is the best documentary to come out in the long time and is definitely a film to watch. :)

Requested Sleeping Bag pictures

So here is the sleeping bag..

These next pictures are a tad violent, young children should cover their eyes.

You might be wondering why normally calm William was jumping out of the sleeping bag and running at the picture taker....I leave that to Sarah to explain :p