Everyday Life

Categories Everyday Life, Technology

I don’t know…You Choose…

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The problem with blogging is that sometimes you don’t have anything truly spectacular to write about–and sometimes you have lots of ideas but aren’t sure which one is the real “stand out” idea. Or you have lots of ideas from yesterday–or a week ago–that you didn’t write about then because something else came up. But now they’re too old–nobody’ll be interested anymore, will they?

Take for instance, today’s options:
–Have a Happy Pill
–Football Saturdays: Flashback (or Forward?) to Fall
–Every morning when I make my oatmeal…
–How does my garden grow?
–I can’t tell whether to be excited or scared
–Makeshift car repair: a do-it-yourself manual

So, what would you like to hear about? E-mail me at my webmaster account (or my normal address if you happen to know it) and let me know. I’ll write about it next time I don’t have anything to write about ;-)

Categories Everyday Life

Some days…

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Some days are just long.

Today was one of those days.

I was at work a little over 8 1/2 hours–but it felt like at least twice that. It was just long. I was exhausted by five–with four more hours to go. I was glad to be done.

It won’t kill me. Never has yet. But some days I wonder.

Categories Family & Friends

My Brother Tim

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Have you met my brother Tim?

Timothy
He’s a great kid. He drove me home from McDonalds a couple of hours ago and came in to chat for a bit.

We’ve been talking ever since. Topics of discussion? Fascism, Communism, and Christianity. The cause, or lack of cause, of World War I. The real reason the Berlin Wall fell. How Communism will fall in China. Economic Theory. Debt, minimum wage, and supply and demand. The record of nature and the Scriptures. Big Bang Theory and how God stretched out the heavens. Point of reference in Genesis 1. Bill Clinton and Kyoto treaty.

I love my brother Tim.

Categories Family & Friends

BUNCO PARTY!!!

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We had a Bunco Party last night for our ladies fellowship.

Ladies playing Bunco
Ladies playing Bunco
Ladies playing Bunco

Bunco is a great game for family gatherings, mixers, and the like. Have you ever played?

All you need is one bell, a pair of dice for every four people, and a pen and piece of paper for each person. Everyone sits down at a table of four with a pair of dice. Partners (sitting across from each other) acrue points together. To start play, the “head table” rolls until they get double. When they get a double, they ring the bell, announce the number they had rolled double (the “Bunco number”), and play begins.

Each table starts rolling to acrue points. A single die of the “Bunco number” is worth 1 point, a double of any number except 3 is worth 5 points, a double of the Bunco number is worth 25 points, and a double 3 drops the team’s points to zero. A player continues to roll until they cease to acrue points (that is until they get a roll that DOES NOT contain the Bunco number or a double.) Then play passes to the next player.

Play ends when a team at the head table acrues 50 points–and has completed rolling. In other words, if the head table reaches 50 points, the current player must continue to roll until he gets a roll that DOES NOT contain the Bunco number or a double. When this occurs, the head table rings the bell. Each table may finish the current play, but may not pass the dice to another player.

Teams now determine table “winners” and “losers.” The “winners” at each table advance to the next higher table. The “losers” stay at their current table and move so that they are sitting next to each other rather than across from each other. This means that you get a new partner for every round. The exception to this is the head table. The winners from the head table remain where they are at, while the losers go to the bottom table. The winners from table 2 remain in their present team when they advance to the head table.

Each player records his or her points at the end of each round. When the final round is played (generally as determined by a set number of rounds or a set time), all players tally up their points. The person with the most points is the winner!

You really should try it–it’s great fun for all–and even the youngest children can enjoy it if they’re paired with an adult who can help them with the math. Of course, it’s also good math practice for those early elementary students!

Categories Everyday Life

Library mixup

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About a week ago, I returned a DVD version of “Pocahontas” to the library. Later, I opened my DVD player to discover that the disc was still inside. I put the disc in a holder and attached a note to it, explaining what had happened. Then I added the disc to my pile of books to go back to the library.

Well, yesterday, a family friend, whose sister is employed by the library, mentioned that I had been the subject of a library e-mail. Apparently, I had returned a CD in a case that should have held a DVD. John thought the CD was Halvin and Cobb or something-which certainly didn’t seem familiar to me.

Curious, I checked all the CDs I’d also had from the library–and discovered that I was missing one disc of the two disc “Essential Simon and Garfunkel”. From there, it wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened.

CD and note

So I dropped by the library to clear it all up today. I explained that John had said there had been an e-mail about me. The librarian looks at me–“Oh, yeah, I remember that e-mail. But I didn’t connect it to you.” The joys of being known by face and not by name!

Categories Family & Friends

Spoke too soon

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We (just barely) fit ourselves into the Suburban for our trip to Hu-Hot for Timothy’s birthday (a month late).

Kids in back of Suburban
Kids in back of Suburban

I commented that people don’t count us anymore–we’re old enough that they just assume we’re a bunch of kids hanging out together. So after we’d been at the restaurant a while, our waitress comes up and asks us, “Are you all brothers and sisters?” And then turning to Mom she says, “So you had seven kids? Like in ‘Seventh Heaven’.”

I guess I spoke too soon.

Categories Everyday Life, Reflections

Four kinds of visitors

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There are four kinds of people who visit the Sawgrass Marriot–those who use luggage racks, those who use the bed, those who use the floor, and those who don’t use luggage.

Those who use luggage racks are the hardest to make out. They usually use only one bed and have no personal items out except for a closed laptop and an electric razor. These are the closed books–they cannot be read.

Those who use the bed are the busy business men. They have stacks of resumes, printouts of e-mails, and conference agendas strewn about. the unused bed is piled with luggage, pre-worn clothing, and business items. Several electronic device rechargers are still plugged into the sockets. The devices are with the owner.

Those who use the floor are the families who are splurging on this vacation. They sleep in both beds, sometimes with people even sharing beds. These are the people who are most likely to bring pillows from home. The dressers and desk are stacked with fresh fruit and cereal bars for breakfast, chips and pop for snack, and probably a package of Oreos. These people use No-AD sunscreen and wear drug-store flip-flops.

The final group of people are those who have no luggage. These are the stay-overs–those who live at the hotel for weeks at a time. Their clothes are neatly folded in the drawers or hung in the closets. They don’t leave personal items around the room, but the bathroom contains a large selection of shaving creams, hair supplies, lotions, and jewelry. These people use their ice buckets for wine and order shrimp or oysters from room service as appetizers.

Then there are the few that fit into none of these categories–these are the truly spectacular people. Like in one room I cleaned today. Both beds were used and an inflatable mattress was on the floor for yet another person. A small black suitcase sat neatly on the luggage rack with a neatly folded black bag beneath it. There was a neatly packed clear storage box of family videos underneath the desk. And on the desk? A collection of Usborne and Dorling Kindersley children’s books. A few pieces of paper with a young scrawl across them. A chair held a child’s blanket folded nicely and a couple of well-loved teddy bears. And on the nightstand, a note, written in newly learned cursive. “Dear, Maid Thank you for cleaning” (Here I turned the note over.) “our room” The note was accompanied by a tip, that for the time we had to spend cleaning their room was rather significant. That family, even though I never once saw them, made my day. Yes, these are the truly spectacular people.

Categories Everyday Life, Faith

Snippets of E-mail messages from today

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E-mail 1:

I was going to go in to fill out paperwork for doing laundry at Shands
hospital today, but they called back and said that the temp agency doesn’t actually do laundry and they need to run background checks on everybody–so it’ll be at least a week before they can start anyone. So I’m back to job search mode. Blah! And I already paid ten bucks to get a TB test done at a local clinic. What a bummer!

We had a “stick night” last night–which was basically just a time of
intense sharing, pouring out our hearts to one another. It was definitely amazing. I just can’t get over how God placed our group together in just the right way, so that we can all minister to one another and help each other through our struggles. God is totally awesome!

Email 2:

I found a job. Amazingly. I’ll be doing housekeeping at the Sawgrass
Marriot Resort. I think it should be pretty neat. If I understand right,
my wardrobe is a company issued black dress with a little white apron. I’ll feel like I’m wearing a costume the entire time. Our pay will be $8 per hour, which is fantastic as a starting wage for seasonal full time work. My orientation is at 3 pm. I’m borrowing Stacy Plouzek’s car right now and had my first experience with Jacksonville roads this morning going to apply and interview. The streets are definitely less scary when I’m in control of the vehicle. Riding with my team leader, Allie, can be somewhat, shall we say, harrowing.

We’re having problems with our AC–if the AC is turned to “cooler”
which tends to equal about 50 degrees, the room is frigid but fine. If
the AC is on anything more than “cooler” the room gets unbearably wet. Even at 65 degrees, the room was too humid to sleep in–our clothes and sheets were all wet. Yuck! But it doesn’t seem we have many options. Oh well.

Email 3:

My orientation was great! I had to sign about 50 different papers, but I managed to get it all done. Okay, but that’s not the truly exciting thing about the day. I settled down to a nap around 1:30 and was planning on about a half an hour. But then I got interrupted by first this and then that. Finally I fell asleep–only to be awakened from a now somewhat deep sleep to the sound of someone knocking on my door. It was Eric (who will be working at Sawgrass Marriott as well). He was wondering if we were going to leave for orientation soon. It was 2:40!!! And we had to be there at 3!!!! Yikes! Thankfully, we made it there on time.

Tonight we had a “rally.” Jerry Bridges was our speaker and he spoke
about how justification is by faith in Christ Jesus. He said something
kind of interesting. He said that after salvation, many Christians tend
to think that the rules have changed, that now we relate with God on the basis of our own performance. But that’s not true. Galatians 2:20 uses the present tense in reference to justification, saying “the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God.” Although justification is a past event, it is also a present reality. When God looks at me, He sees me as holy.

That was particularly powerful because I think I have a tendency to think that justification means that God stuck a piece of paper in my file saying that I’m holy. And at the judgment seat of Christ, He’ll look at me and say, “My what an awful person you are. Let me check your file.” Then after He checks my file, He’ll be like “Oops. This says you have Christ’s righteousness.” But that’s not how it is at all. When God sees me, He doesn’t see my sin or my old sinful nature. He sees Christ. Period. That’s it. I am righteous in His eyes. The end.

Categories Everyday Life, Faith

Kernan Boulevard Baptist Church

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Church was nice. We were at Kernan Blvd Baptist Church. The people seemed friendly, although somewhat old. I met a nice older couple named Gloria and Charles. They weren’t members of the church since they actually are just in Jacksonville for a while as Charles is awaiting a medical procedure. But they were quite nice. I got a hug from another older woman who seemed to be in her early seventies. She said she doesn’t believe in handshakes. I don’t think she gave me her name though.

Our group goes to church with Clint’s group–Bryce, Jared, and Patrick. They are the same group we had our date with on Friday night. It was kind of neat to spend a bit more time with them between the service and lunch afterward. One of the guys said that he shook the hand of the person next to him no less than 3 times. Wow! I was glad to have been sitting on the end, with only one person I knew beside me. That enabled me to get to know the people I didn’t know better. Hence meeting Gloria and Charles.

An interesting note about Kernan Boulevard Baptist Church is that their statement of faith proclaims that they “DO NOT BELIEVE THAT SPEAKING IN TONGUES IS SCRIPTURALLY ACCEPTABLE FOR OUR DAY AND DO NOT PRACTICE OR TEACH IT.” (Their emphasis.) I’ve seen a lot of churches and para-church organizations that “don’t talk about what they don’t talk about”, but I think this is the first time I’ve seen the fully ANTI position laid out in a statement of faith. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to stay a bit quiet to avoid getting kicked out! Just kidding. I’m sure they wouldn’t kick me out, but I don’t doubt they’d be praying hard for my salvation!

They have a orchestra concert for their Sunday night service tonight so Amy and I are going to check it out while Veronica attends mass. Perhaps some other week we can join her for mass–which is in English, you know, due to the decision of the second Vatican Council to affirm proclaiming the word in the vernacular.

Categories Everyday Life

More time in JAX

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Our date on the beach…was amazing. We weren’t told anything except that we were to wear beach clothing, but when we arrived, all the guys were wearing fanny packs. (Yep, you heard me right. Fanny packs. Like, bum bags!) They had candy and water to share and some even had headlights for when it got dark.

So at this point, you’re thinking…what on earth were they doing out there? We were playing in the sand. Talk about having a blast! We created a ginormous sand octopus with tentacles that writhed under and over one another. His name of Oscar–Oscar the octopus. Beautiful! We were about halfway done when the rain started pouring. After it had slowed down, we bailed him out and completed him. We then took tons of pictures, none on my camera. Hopefully, I can find a way to get some from Clint.

After that, the guys went to the supermarket to get some ice cream while the girls changed. We ate our raspberry sherbet and vanilla ice cream with or without dark chocolate topping or Reese’s crackle topping in one of the lounges and hung out a bit. It was fun. (Almost forgot–one of the guys had some homemade oatmeal cookies. We ate those too.)

Today all the Shands hospital people went to get our TB tests and then on to Evangelism training. It rained for a solid hour when we were about to go out onto the beaches, so we didn’t get out there until two. Veronica and I walked at least a mile along the beach without meeting anyone we could talk to. Mostly, it was just guys who were out in the choppy weather and off/on rain. So today’s beach evangelism was less than amazing.

After beach evangelism, we girls dressed up real purty and went out with another girl team to Copeland’s Famous New Orleans Bar and Restaurant. I had the Jambalaya which was expensive but good. I’ll have the leftovers for lunch or dinner tomorrow. Now, I’m taking it easy, catching up on my weblog and planning to spend some time in the word this evening. Blessings!