My not-so-evil twin Jacob and his wife Kristin are parents! (most of you probably know this already by now, but if not, links are provided). Congratulations to the whole family. Like many first births (and parenting itself, come to think of it) not much went according to plan and yet it all turned out in the end. Hopefully little Gabriel will be coming home very soon. Many blessings to the newly-enlarged family!
Recently in Friends Category
Dones tagged me with the following bleme:
The Rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog. Donald, shame on you! I didn't get a comment. . .
Okay, here goes:
(1) Fact: I hate memes. Well, I don't really hate them. But I don't like them, either (don't worry Donald, we can still be good friends).
(2) Fact: I rarely pass along memes.
(3) Habit: I snap my toes (like snapping your fingers, except with toes).
(4) Habit: I always play with the pages of the book I'm reading. This is one reason why books are better than computers: you can't stroke a monitor, and if you do, it doesn't make a nice ruffle noise.
(5) Fact: I don't have a car payment (I must be a communist or something!)
(6) Habit: I read Dilbert every morning at work. I also usually read the New York Times op-ed columns daily. Recently Todd Grotenhuis noted with amusement that I read the New York Times. My reasoning is simple: there isn't another national news source that I trust. Fox and CNN are both entertainment-focused (their headline stories are always about either sensational crime, sensational disasters, sensational scandals, or a some combination of those) and when I want to know what's going on I'd rather be informed, not entertained.
(7) Fact: NPR is the only radio station I listen to. Ever.
(8) Fact: Since I got my Gigabeat, I don't listen to NPR as much anymore. I really like my Gigabeat. I'm going to see how it does with a movie when I fly out to Philly this week.
I realize that something awful is going to happen to me, but I'm not tagging anyone. If you like this meme, have fun with it. But don't blame me. . . :)
My blog countdown to Gamefest hit a little snag when our host server denied us access for about 5 days. Something about wanting to get paid or some such nonsense. . . :) Thanks for getting things straightened out, Dave!
So we're back online now. Gamefest was an absolute success. Thanks so much to Elizabeth and Jerry for hosting (again), and especially for letting me and my crew crash at the 'Fest central. It was a lot of fun having my family there (for me, at least) and seeing so many good friends from Rose there, some with their own growing families. I think I spent more time conversing than I did gaming this year, which all in all is a good thing.
I am already looking forward to next year, and hope to see even more people there (Jer, Jacob, nudge nudge wink wink!). May God bless us all throughout the year and bring us all safely back the second weekend in June next year!
I know that things are slow over on the 004um, and that people (other than me) are having babies and getting married and all that, but let's get back to reality here: we are more than halfway through March and I haven't heard a peep about Gamefest 2007 yet. I've posted on the 004um (a rarity, I'll admit) and now I've written this. The next step will be annoying emails to key parties. You've been warned.
Seven years isn't long enough for an event like Gamefest to last, if for no other reason than it is an excuse to get together from all over and enjoy sweet fellowship (and talk smack, of course -- but only in a loving truthful way). Gamefest VIII must take place!
On Saturday we took a day trip to somewhere in the middle of Missouri to visit a family we mostly know from cyberspace. We drove through a blizzard to get there after experiencing 70F weather 4 days earlier. By the time we left their house, after a splendid afternoon of conversation, pool, visiting their chickens, and lunch, the snow was pretty much gone. That's March in the Midwest in a nutshell.
So, our hostess made some yummy beef stew as the staple for the adults at lunch (there were 4 adults, 2 young adults, 6 children aged 2-7, and 1 infant present -- the children ate a homemade chicken noodle soup that looked equally tasty) along with homemade whole wheat bread (yeah, they are that kind of people). They set out some hot sauce for the adventurous soul to try out on the stew, if a soul was so inclined. Well, being an adventurous sort when it comes to eating, I decided to try the Insanity sauce. Except, of the three kinds they had out, it appeared to be the least hot, so I put 6 big drops in my little bowl of stew.
WOW! Now I'm no spicy hot connoisseur and I'm definitely not a hothead, but I've been trying out spicy dishes recently so I thought I was up to it. I did finish my stew, but my face was beat red, my nose was gushing, I was sweating, and my tongue was pretty well numb by the end of the experience. Needless to say, I won't be rushing out to buy my own bottle. However, I can recommend the Insanity sauce if you like hot sauce. This is way, way, way beyond Tabasco. Good stuff. :)
Yeah, so maybe I'm not going to be streaking much anymore. I thought I had a good thing going for a few days there but now we're more back to normal. Although, I do hope it will be more like two-years-ago normal than the past-18- months-type normal. That is to say, 2-3 posts per week instead of 2-3 posts per month.
We meet regularly (almost weekly) with two other families to fellowship and read through Scripture, and most weeks (lately) it has been on Thursday nights. We really enjoy our time with all of them and it is nice to learn from couples who are farther down the road we're on (lots of kids). Tonight our crew was a bit unruly, unfortunately. Somehow (I don't know how -- I was busy cleaning up a 3yo who had what we like to call a "potty training setback" and I missed the start of the conversation) the after-study-time topic became Monty Python sketches (I think it may have started with someone singing about Spam, but how that came up I really don't know). And someone (I won't name names) mentioned that the Argument Clinic sketch is available on YouTube. So, there it is. Enjoy!
My (not-so) evil twin made a visit to my home last night and we had a rip-roaring good time. Much belly-laughter was heard throughout the evening, and the up-catching on goings-on and happenings was quite enjoyable. We imbibed a small quantity of the Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat beer (1 bottle each, scout's honor!) in honor of all the alcohol we never consumed when we would have been expected to back in the day.
There is little in life more satisfying than spending 2+ hours chatting with a friend and brother one hasn't seen in way-too-many months. It is especially gratifying when the conversation comes as easily as if it had only been days since we last saw each other. God is good!
