Loving Well

My church is putting on a women's retreat in January. I was asked to serve on the committee as a worship coordinator. We decided it would be good for all of the people on the committee to preview the DVD that we are using for our teaching. The teacher is Beth Moore. She is rather well-known in Christian circles and so I was kind of excited to do one of her studies. I started the DVD, out came the southern drawl and the staged intro materials.

UGH! I thought! This is going to be a loooong weekend.

Then it cut to the part that was recorded in an arena in front of 19,000 women. Let me tell you this woman can speak! I watched four hours of teaching and it was moving!

I am really excited about the retreat. I think God is going to change some lives!

My saucy day.

Today I spent my daytime with my home girl Cheryl. We swore we were not going to spend the entire day together errand-running and shopping, but there we were, minutes before the school bus was to arrive to deposit our precious children, still chatting. (At this point I must mention that when I came inside and looked at my clock instead of Cheryl's minivan clock I realized we weren't cutting it as close as I thought.)

Cheryl and I have a history of solving the world's problems- if only they would take our advice.

There was, in fact, one problem that was not solved today, and that is the problem of my iPod.

My iPod has been misbehaving and I just kept hoping it would go away. Today I found out that it probably won't. Last time I looked in to this I was at the Mall of America with them. We visited an Apple store. No luck. Today I visited an Apple store in my home town. I tried the recommended fixes, no luck. I need to schedule an appointment with a "Genius". I hope this will prove fruitful. (Apple=fruit=fruitful, get it?)

Applesauce, anyone?

Games kids play

Photo courtesy of John Manuel

Tonight is seems as though the evil monsters neighborhood children discovered the age-old “game” of ding-dong-ditch it. I got hit four times in two hours.

I. Was. Not. Amused!

Google street view

Have you noticed that Google Maps has this interesting feature called street view? Perhaps this has been around a while and I haven't really taken notice. Tonight Spencer and I were poking around looking for directions. We found some interesting items.

This reader is quite frightened because you can actually see their cat sitting on a perch in the window.

This website actually collected cool things that were found in Google street view.

Some people are concerned for child safety over Google street view.

These people even made a funny video about Google street view.

Enjoy! (but you may want to keep your curtains closed, just in case!)

Fear sucks.

I came to the realization recently that I am living with some fear. Fear of the yard. Since I fell and injured my knee after cutting the grass 1½ years ago I have been avoiding the yard. Like the plague. My yard looks terrible because of it. I have always LOVED to be outside and playing around in the dirt. Now, not so much. I thought it was just because the mess that had become my landscape was overwhelming to me. I finally figured out that deep down I am afraid. Afraid of getting hurt again.

I knew I just needed to get back out there. We were planning on doing yard work tomorrow, but now they are calling for snow.

Undaunted, I headed outside and grabbed a rake. The city confirmed that the vacuum truck will be by later today.

Unfortunately, it has been so long that I forgot you are supposed to wear gloves while raking! Ouch!

I wish I could get the city to use that vacuum truck on my house!

Friends, more than just a TV show.

Sometimes I go days at a time without having contact with a girlfriend. I am not a real "girlie girlfriend" type. I'm ok with that. But sometimes, unexpectedly, all of the stars shine brightly and I am truly blessed with spending lots of time with my girlie girlfriends. It's been one of those fabulous times. I have had weekends, breakfasts, dinners, long chatty phone calls, crazy 20-in-one-day email chains… It has been wonderful! To all my girls…thanks for being in my life.

iPod sync

I got a new computer...almost a year ago. I have been gradually moving all of my files from my old computer to the new one. In the past, when I have purchased a new computer and had to move files, it has been an emergency because the old one blew up or something. This time is different. This was a straight upgrade.

Most of the file transfers have gone quite smoothly.

Today I hit a wall.

I needed to sync up my iPod.

iPods are temperamental.

iTunes sucks.

I have, on more than one occasion, unintentionally erased ALL of the music off from my iPod.

Today, I did it intentionally. Because that is what you have to do. In order to move your iPod from one computer to another, you have to erase and then reinstall all of your music. All 3180 songs worth. Hopefully it will be finished some time today. :-(

Happy New Era

No matter how excited or dismayed you are about who won the presidential election, I think we can all agree that it is time for a change. Here's the deal, though. We can't expect the change to come from The White House. The change needs to come from the American people. As long as we are counting on the government to "make it all better", it is only going to get worse. We can't rely on the government to help everyone in need. We need to start putting more effort into caring for each other. This means getting to know your neighbor better, even if you don't really like them all that much. This means taking care of each other when they need a helping hand. This means, if you are in business, treating your employees and customers fairly.

For too long now, the American Dream has become the American get rich scheme where we have no conscience for anyone but ourselves. Evangelicals say they want a Christian president to uphold their values when they aren't even holding those values up themselves. Consumers want high pay checks and rock bottom pricing at the megastores. Corporations want tax cuts and bailouts without taking the fiscal responsibility.

When we begin to treat each other with respect and kindness, putting others before ourselves, change will really happen. Eventually, that change will get to The White House too.

Vote today.

Whatever your political preference, vote. It's our freedom. It's our right.

Aliens have invaded my body.

I am not quite sure what is going on, but yesterday I decided I needed to clean out my pantry. Yes, I know. Cleaning again! I don't know where this is coming from, but I hope the aliens stick around a while because I have lots of things that could use some cleaning around here.

Quite a few years ago, I "decided" to completely convert my pantry contents into Tupperware containers. This weekend I figured out that some of those items had been in the Tupperware containers since I started this quest.

YUCK!

When I was finished, my pantry looked like this:

...and my counter looked like this.

Some of the containers will be repurposed, but the good news is that everything that went back into the pantry is fresh, healthy and a product that I will be using in the near future. (Emphasis on NEAR!)