William Shatner does Rocketman interpertation

What kind of accent do you have?

When I saw this survey I just had to take it. I have always been one of those people with no accent. Well, that is what I have been told. I remember once I was asked by someone from Ontario, CA if I was from Ontario. The odd thing is that I grew up in Louisiana. I grew up in an area called the North Shore, which is about 30 miles north of New Orleans. It finally dawned on me a few years ago why I had no accent. It was because in the late 70's and early 80's the vast majority of people that settled on the North Shore where those that came South for the oil boom. That influx of people created a real mix of people from all over the country.

I just want to add that if you visit the North Shore now you will hear a distinctly New Orleans accent. In the 90's there was a large influx of people from Orleans and Jefferson parish, which really change the accent. Then when Katrina hit the accent was changed for good.

Hat Tip: 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera

another Chinese toy has been recalled

Handwriting Tips

Frederick Douglass Quote

It might be easier, but it does not make it easy!

Woman Know your limits!

Remember: "education leads to ugliness and beard growth"

breastfeeding humor

Someone just found my site searching for:

Someone should really make a bumper sticker out of that statement. The landing page for the statement above was this breastfeeding post.

International Food Swap

Sorry it has taken so long for me to get back to my blog. I have another web project that in under development and it is taking any of the free time I have right now. I will post more about it in the future.

As always, there is so much I want to write about, but being that it is late I will just do a quick post on my first ever international food swap. Daniel (In the Lion's Den from the U.K.) and I both agreed to do a little International food swap. I sent him some hot chocolate, which he use to get when he attended Ravencrest and he sent me some Flake. I liked it, but Leslie did not care for it much.

Cadbury Flake

Flake is hard to describe. It tasted exactly like the chocolate that is inside of robin eggs though the chocolate comes the size of a candy bar and it looks like it was extruded through a very find meat grinder. It also flakes apart as you eat it. I keep meaning to let the boys try it, but will all the other treats around the house due to Christmas I just keep forgetting.

Oh yeah, I finally got my comments back up and running. The issue stemmed from some SEO experimentation I have been doing with my site. I have to admit that SEO has become an addiction over the last few years. It literally has become something I dream about. No don't worry I don't need an intervention. Well, you might want to double check with Leslie to make sure. :-)

I also want to thank my host for tracking down the issue for me.

quick picture

I have so many other web projects on my plate right now that I have really been neglecting my blog. I did want to post a picture of Konrad and Elliot being that Konrad is now sporting a nice beard. The picture was taken this past Saturday at Red Clay State Park.

quote for the day

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Today is international talk like a pirate day. Ahoy, if you need help learnin' how t' talk like a pirate, then 'isit har. Aye, me parrot concurs. Ahoy, then click har Ye'll ne'er get me buried booty(then click here)!

hat tip ben

stumbleupon.com stuff

serendipity and the frequency of her visits

Here lately I have grown so comfortable in my skin that I need to frequently look down to make sure I have cloths on. To be honest about the situation I have always looked down to make sure I was dressed. The whole checking to see if I was dressed thing would happen to me like clockwork. I would get out of my car and start making the long trek from my car to the office and somewhere around the halfway mark I would realize that in my extreme ability to filter out details that I might have walked out of the house without the proper work attire or worse. What has changed now is that I no longer have that panicky feeling. I just step out of my thoughts realizing that I should take a moment to check and make sure I am wearing shoes, that my zipper is up, and that I am not drooling on myself. When all that checks out I just drift back into my world of mostly repetitive thoughts and insignificant highlights realizing that serendipity will be sending her little kisses my way at any moment. These past 8 months have been life changing for me and one day I might even blog more seriously about them.

ultrasounds could possibly be unsafe

I can't tell you how many times Leslie and I have felt that we were being snickered at because we felt that ultrasounds could possibly be unsafe. From the reading we had done we felt that the research was still out on the safety of ultrasounds, so we tried to limit them with John David and Elliot. And, in the case of her current pregnancy we are not planning on having one at all unless there is a good reason for one. And no, you will never be able to convince me that finding out the sex is a good reason for having an ultrasound. I'm really starting to think that the primary reason ultrasounds are so prevalent is because they make the doctors more money.

From the research I have done, which has not been a whole lot, I don't see any real benefit of having an ultrasound. What I have read says there is no reason to have an ultrasound unless the baby seems small towards the end of the pregnancy or for a few other very rare circumstances which are not treatable until after birth.

Well, read the article for yourselves. I would be interested in your thoughts.

What is your Blues Name?

I had a free lunch coupon for Sticky Fingers, so Ben and I headed there for lunch today. They had this nifty Blues name finder, so I had to pull out the ole' camera and snapped a photo. You can call me Boney Legs Jones, but I think I do prefer Ugly Lips Dupree. What's Your Blues Name?

What's your Blues Name?

I'm back and it says I'm reckless, selfish and cocky.

Han Solo 65% Chewbacca 65% Qui-Gon Jinn 63% Obi-Wan Kenobi 59% Lando Calrissian 59% Luke Skywalker 58% Anakin Skywalker 54% C-3PO 53% Mace Windu 53% Jar Jar Binks 51%

Even though you've been described as reckless, selfish and cocky, you're the type of person others love to be around. People like you because you're a scoundrel.

We don't need no stinking stoplights!

Is this an example of the utopia which would exist if the libertarians were in charge?

Hat tip Ranting to /dev/null

What. The. Heck. Was. He. Thinking.

So I've been thinking of a new moniker. How does Dookie Butt sound?

I guess my question was: Did he stab the guy because he called him a dookie butt? I wonder if he will introduce himself as dookie butt when he gets to jail. I just can?t help but thinking it might be a good idea to come up with a new nickname if he wants to seem credible while in prison.

my name is earl and the office

Earl

My two favorite shows are The Office and My Name is Earl. They are the only thing on network t.v. that I am watching these days. Leslie and I missed the first season of the office and we just got through watching in through Netflix. It was very funny. If have not seen it yet then make sure you put it in your queue.

Here are some funny April Fool clips from some of the characters in the office.

What was the number 1 song when you were born?

What was yours?

hat-tip Beck

the new blog

Okay so I have started another blog, with some design help from Jason. One of the odd benefits of being a blogger is that people forward me a lot of their funny e-mail spam that they get throughout the day. I must get four or so spam e-mails from people every day. I think most people would mind those spam e-mails but I normally find them somewhat entertaining. From time to time I have posted the content of those spam e-mails on my site, but I realize I have credibility issues so I try my hardest to keep the wacky stuff off my blog. :-) Well, with no further ado here is the new blog.

Okay so I had another very odd dream a few days ago.

In my dream I found out that we have had an Olympian speed skater from the UK living in our house the last year and we never knew it. Come to find out she was the hinge pin door stop on our front door. We just kept commenting on how quiet she was and that we never knew she was there.

I guess I should state for the record that I had the flu the last four days and was not quite all there.

being informed

the new pair of shoes

Well I have been tired of my blogs style for over a year now, so I finally decided to do something about it. I am not totally crazy about it, but have gotten some good feedback from a few people. Leslie is not crazy about having links on the left and right. I kind of like them though.

I know I have a lot of people who read this blog who don't comment, so if you would please oblige me with a comment and let me know what you think. After all you might me looking at this layout for the next year and a half.

So what do you think? Here is the before and after if you need a refresher.

bored?

This is pretty neat.

hat tip Jon

optical illusion

A friend at work forwarded this to me. I wish I knew who originally created it so I could give them credit.

To make the optical illusion work you need to first look at it up close, notice the mean guy on the left. Now move at lest 8 feet away from your monitor. The mean guy will switch to the right.

the cashew

your friendly cashew

So I got to talking with a coworker this week and he mentioned that cashews came from an apple. So I put the cashew on the list of things I needed to google. Well, here you have it -- the cashew apple. Evidently the shell at the bottom of the apple is toxic so they have to take special care not to get any of the resin on the cashew itself. I don't have too much more to say about the cashew apple besides who would have thunk it?

Here are a few links if you want to know more:
living foods
killer plants
tropi lab
kraft

Y'all got anything else that you think I would be interested in googling? If so, leave a comment.

childhood amnesia and helping your child remember

I have always been surprised when talking to people how little of their very early childhood they remember. I'm one of those people who have an inordinate amount of memories of those very early years. My first memories start somewhere around 2.5 years of age. It is possible that I have memories stretching back before the age of 2.5 but I am not able to tie all my memories to a dated event. Though, I just have too many memories for some of them not to be much closer to 2 than 2.5.

Well, a month or so ago I started doing some research on early childhood memory and why I seemed to be the only person that I knew who had very early memories. Evidently Freud called the phenomenon childhood amnesia and of course he had some off the wall reason for it occurring. He theorized that childhood amnesia occurs when a young mind blocks out unsuitable impressions or emotional trauma, which he considered a universal human experience. It is funny to think that if I used his reasoning then I had the most normal childhood of anyone I know. I did have a pretty good early childhood thought, but I don't think it was that good. The vast majority of my memories are of time spent in groups of three or less. I guess I have a dozen or more memories when my whole family was together in the same room. On the other hand I have at least a hundred memories of time spent with just one or two other people.

That said, I ended up tracking down this article from the American Psychological Association's Monitor on psychology. I have been kind of excited about it ever since I found it. I guess it just answered a lot of questions that I have had floating around in my head for years. What surprised me the most is that a child's ability to remember his\her early childhood has more to do with the culture the child was reared than anything else. For example:

Researchers have found that depending on your culture there can be a two year span between early memories. What helps someone remember or not remember their early childhood is the way parents and other adults discuss--or don't discuss--the events in children's lives.

I'm not really sure if there is any benefit in having early childhood memories, but for some reason Leslie and I want to promote it in our children's lives. Before John David could really communicate we started talking to him about places we just went or activities we had just finished. For instance if we went to a lake and saw boats on the water we would talk to him about the boats on the way home and ask him if he remembered them or we would ask him if he liked the boats. It wasn't too long after he could somewhat communicate that he started saying "member" "member" when we were talking about something.

I think along the same line as John David's "member" "member" I don't remember to much conversation. I just see the events as I would see a movie with the sound off, but I still have some kind of running commentary in the background. For the most part I think this is due to the fact that I was very young and my speech was probably quite limited.

In the article they have a section on "high-elaborative" versus "low-elaborative" mothering.

One of my favorite things to do is after the bedtime books have been read and the lights are off and things have gotten quiet I will ask him if he remembered either something about the story we just read or about something we did that day. It must be working because a few days ago it had gotten too late to crack open a book so I just put him in bed without reading anything. He really was not going to take me not reading him a book, so I decided to compromise by trying to tell him a story. Within a few seconds he got real quite as I told him the are you my mother story. After telling him a story or two I asked him to tell me a story, and to my surprise he busted out into a song. He was singing a song about his Grandpa Losch and some of the events that transpired during the visit during Christmas. He was even singing about Lindsey and her stuffed animal puppy. It really surprised me because he is just 34 months and he was singing a song about an event that had happened more than a week earlier.

Again, I am not sure that having early childhood memories is an important thing, but if two years is the spread then it seems like an awful long time not to remember anything. I look back on those early childhood memories quite fondly, so I want to foster that in our children. So I guess the word is, if you want to foster early memories in your child's life then get started with some good open ended questions.

So, when were you first memories?

Blonde Joke ;-)

This one is a really bad blonde joke. Please don't be hate'en.

hat tip TulipGirl

I'm Looking for a Joseph

So, I am having this recurring dream. Well I have had the dream a half dozen or so times over the last year. But every time I have it I wake up all stressed out and I can't go back to sleep. The dream is not the same exact dream every time it just follows the same story line.

The dream:

For some reason I end up back at our old house at 214 Signal View Street. In the dream it is not our house anymore and the new owners are on their way home. Leslie just keeps trying to wrap up some odds and ends before we leave. The problem is it is not our stuff and I am trying not to freak out while waiting on her. I get so nervous that the new owners are going to come home before we get out of there. What was particularly odd about today's dream was that it took place at night and my parents showed up. I tried to explain to them that we no longer lived there and that we had to leave, but my dad started to get ready for bed and my mom would not get out of the bathroom. Leslie was doing something in the kitchen and I did not know what to do. I just ended up waking up with a knot in my stomach.

So what does it mean?

chatter

For the "holiday" team outing at work yesterday we did lunch and a movie. The movie was Kong and it did not disappoint. No really, it was a very good movie. I don't want to ruin it or anything but the monkey dies at the end.

This was the first movie I have seen in a theater in about three years. I was not ready for the amount of commercials and trailers that were shown before the movie started. There must have been a half hours worth of them. Is it not enough that you pay to get into the movie? I mean come on why do people take this from the man! We need to start a popular uprising.

What seemingly useless thoughts are floating around in your head?

Though I have not heard anyone say it yet, it seems that during this time of year people start saying "See you next year" when they know they will not see you until after the first of the year.

I started thinking about the "See you next year" comment a few weeks ago and it just seems a little silly, so this year I am going to try my hardest not to utter those words to anyone. The thing is that since I've made a conscious effort to not tell anyone "See you next year" I have almost let is slip a few times. It is kind of like when someone says white elephant and then tells you not to think about one.

Yea folks this is as deep as I get. :-) If you are looking to read something that will make you think then head over to the Dawn Treader's latest pigfest post. Or if you didn't think that John Calvin was a Theologian and Lactivist then head over to TulipGirl's John Calvin: Theologian and Lactivist post.

happy thanksgiving

the outdoor bible

Okay, if you have a second then humor me. This guy will not spam you, so feel free to go sign up. Just head on over by clicking on the image, and please be sure to use my number as a referral. My referral ID is:110657

playbook for the reformed

Here's a play straight out of the Calvinistic playbook for lovers: here

I used it on Leslie this morning. She swooned. Okay not exactly swooned, but I did get a good smile out of her.

pink ball of shame

not my ball
of shame ;-)

brandon living with
the ball of shame

eric playing
in the mud

sunrise over covington

I took this picture early one morning while we were down in the New Orleans area. Enjoy...

a must see movie clip

we should get a pig fest together

John David and the pig at rib and loin

I'm so jealous. I would love to participate in a group like this. After reading his post my heart was beating a 100 miles a minute. I would love to jump in on the arranged marriage debate. I might need to try to get something like this going in Chattanooga. That reminds me. I need to get the remodeling of my dining room finished so I can host one.

Is there anyone in ole chatt who would be interested in participating?

And I agree with the Dawn Treader, this kind of moral discussion group would be a great way find out about and to get engaged with the ideas of the day.

It must be an omen. I just so happened that I had a pig picture in my camera from this weekend. We went to the Rib and Loin on 153 and I snapped a few of John David and the pig.

utah state fair: Napoleon

Google fun

The way you play:
1. Go to google.com
2. Type: "(your name) needs"
3. Pick the 5 funniest ones
4. Leave a comment with your five

Check mine out:
1. David is in serious need of a bath.
2. David needs to roar with pride.
3. David needs dusting often
4. David needs to be able to do this work independently.
5. In short, David needs to listen, take notes, and repeat-slowly in his own words-what was just stated.

(hat tip gravits)

Altoids on the move

Altoids on the move

This news is a bit old but it still affects my everyday life. The news is that Altoids are coming to ole Chattanooga. It looks like it will add 150 new jobs here. From what I have read it looks like they are closing the Welsh factory and moving production state side. You know our British friends have to be happy about that. I'm glad Chattanooga is getting the new job in spite of the fact that I don't think manufacturing jobs are the ones we should be trying to attract. Data is where it is at, but I know no one is asking. To be honest there is something I like about the fact that Altoids are made over sees. Every time I eat them it sends me on a tinny vacation, which helps to get me through the day.

I was thinking about how they might change the Altoids tin when production moves to ole Chattanooga. What do you think?

new old blog

Jason this one is for you :-)

funny

vegeterian Pardon My Planet

Pardon My Planet by: Vic Lee

I'm a vegetarian, so I can't tell you much about today's specials other than they were really, really cute.

Don't Lie to Your Mother

John invited his mother over for dinner. During the meal, his mother couldn't help noticing how beautiful John's roommate was. She had long been suspicious of a relationship between John and his roommate, and this only made her more curious.

Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between John and the roommate than met the eye. Reading his mom's thoughts, John volunteered, "I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you, Julie and I are just roommates."

About a week later, Julie came to John and said, "Ever since your mother came to dinner, I've been unable to find the beautiful silver gravy ladle. You don't suppose she took it, do you?" John said, "Well, I doubt it, but I'll write her a letter just to be sure."

So he sat down and wrote "Dear Mother, I'm not saying you did take a gravy ladle from my house, and I'm not saying you did not take a gravy ladle. But the fact remains that one has been missing ever since you were here for dinner."

Several days later, John received a letter from his mother which read: "Dear Son, I'm not saying that you do sleep with Julie, and I'm not saying that you do not sleep with Julie. But the fact remains that if she was sleeping in her own bed, she would have found the gravy ladle by now.

Love, Mom."

Lesson of the day... Don't Lie To Your Mother.

Note to self:

the dangers of appeasement

If you have not read this yet then take a moment and have a read. It is very good. It was written by Matthias Dapfner, Chief Executive of the huge German publisher Axel Springer AG. In his editorial he is highlighting the dangers of appeasement.

Are his conclusions fair? Maybe so. What do you think?

Here is an excerpt from Europe, Thy Name Is Cowardice:

i buy eggs for a living

Yesterday while on the phone with Leslie she told me that John David thought I was buying groceries. The way it came up was she was talking to him about me being at work and he started saying something like cereal, strawberries, blueberries,…

We think his understanding of what working was occurred when I told him that I had to go to work so we could eat.

Well, this morning as I was heading out of the house I yelled up the stairs to tell Leslie that I was leaving for work. She yelled back to me from one of the rooms to have a good day. I then heard her tell John David to go tell daddy good bye.

This was John David's response once he got to the gate and peered down at me from the top of the stairs. Mind you he was yelling at me from the top of his lungs.

John David: Bye Bye.
Me: Bye Bye booger. Daddy is going to work.
John David: Work Eggs. Get Eggs work.
Me: Daddy works on computers at the work office (vs our home office)
John David: Eggs Work Eggs.
Me: Daddy is going to the work office not the grocery store.
John David: Eggs

Realizing that it will probably take several months to clear up the confusion I headed to work laughing.

weird

If you are at all squeamish you might just want to bypass this post.

This is just plain weird: On one level it makes me cringe and on the other is seems to be an odd study of the human body. Oh by the way, you can move her when she gets stuck.

MIT Survey

Calling all Bloggers.

(Via TulipGirl.)

Cardinal Sin

Cardinal Sin died yesterday link

As a Cardinal I'm sure he was never picked on. Oh what, I think I might just have. Oops...

Steve Jobs commencement address

one more Napoleon Dynamite post

If you did not catch the Napoleon Dynamite top 10 on Dave Letterman then here it is.

Top Ten Signs You're Not The Most Popular Guy In Your High School presented by Napoleon Dynamite
10. Your yearbook photo caption reads, "Unidentified Sophomore."
9. Your only friend is the one you built in shop class.
8. School song includes phrase about how much you suck.
7. Every time you talk to a girl, the conversation inevitably drifts to your frequent nosebleeds.
6. The stupid kid who gets his tater tots stolen every day? He steals your tater tots.
5. Everyone's jealous of your tetherball skills.
4. Not only did you take your mom to the prom, you had to pay her 20 bucks.
3. You can't dance like this.
2. "Lord of the Rings" figurines-50, friends-0.
1. How would I know? I'm like the coolest kid in school.

It is much funnier with Nopoleon doing the top ten. Here is the only link I could find link(please don't visit any other link on this site).

Senate to Atone for Lynching Ban Delays

I hope that my children live to see the day when the senate apologizes and expresses deep remorse over the years in which abortion was allowed to rob millions of lives.

To be honest this bill seems odd to me and I guess I would need some clear thinking individual to explain to me why the senate would ever need to pass a law outlawing a particular type of murder.

I think it might just go to show how far we've come from being able to call a sin, sin and a murder, murder.

amazon delights

Lamb Kidneys

I just found this for sale on Amazon. Talk about them selling more than books. Check out the ad.

Drawing connections where there are none

the teletubbies in my house

Leslie and I have both been baffled over John David's interest in Teletubbies. Yes, Teletubbies. After watching just part of an episode before Leslie turned the station, he began running around the house saying: "Tuby tuby". "Tuby tuby". "Tuby tuby". It took Leslie a few days to figure out what he was saying. I think it was not until John David noticed a commercial on PBS with the Teletubbies in it before she figured out what he was saying. Since then she has let him watch them a few times and he has become their biggest fan.

That being the case, I decided to sit down with John David this past weekend to see what the hullabaloo was all about. I tell you the Teletubbies are just strange! In short they are little baby creatures that run around with TV's in their bellies and have antennas on their heads.

According to Jerry Falwell Tinky Winky (the purple tubbie) is gay because he carries a red handbag. In the episode I saw Tinky Winky was not sporting the red handbag, but I guess he does at times.

The more I hear from Jerry Springer I mean Falwell the more I think he might be a dingbat. Talk about someone always looking for a conspiracy! I think every 2 year old has gone into their mother's closet and put on the first pair of shoes they find. Does that make them gay? I think Falwell might be off his rocker.

Well here are a few Teletubbie links if you are interested:

• Teletubbies BBC
• Teletubbies PBS-Kids

what did you have for breakfast

I bet you did not get to dine on a radiopaque agent. I bet you had to suffer through many cups of coffee didn't you. You poor thing.

Well I'm trying to kill 45 minutes before I head in for the cat scan. Everyone in the house is still asleep, so I'm entertaining my breakfastless body with this Cyclops sitting on my desk.

he called me a fundie

Talk about little things that can make your day.

I'm the head of "one of those Bush-loving Christian fundie families:"

to thank thee for the things I miss

I really hesitate to share a poem on my blog because I always skip over blog posts that contain poems. Though, this one spoke to me a bit. Being thankful to God for those things I don't have is something I need to consciously do more often.

An easy thing, O power Divine,
To thank Thee for these gifts of Thine!
For summer's sunshine, winter's snow,
For hearts that kindle, thoughts that glow;
But when shall I attain to this:
To thank Thee for the things I miss?

For all young fancy's early gleams,
The dreamed-of joys that still are dreams,
Hopes unfulfilled, and pleasures known
Through others' fortunes, not my own,
And blessings seen that are not given,
And ne'er will be—this side of heaven.

Had I, too, shared the joys I see,
Would there have been a heaven for me?
Could I have felt Thy presence near
Had I possessed what I held dear?
My deepest fortune, highest bliss,
Have grown, perchance, from things I miss.

Sometimes there comes an hour of calm;
Grief turns to blessing, pain to balm;
A Power that works above my will
Still leads me onward, upward still;
And then my heart attains to this:
To thank Thee for the things I miss.
-Thomas Wentworth Higginson

citizen soldiers for the atomic bomb

citizen soldiers for the atomic bomb

On the way to lunch today I saw this broken down truck with a guy in camouflage sitting in the back of it. When I first saw the mushroom cloud on the side of the truck I though I must have been seeing things, on a second glance I realized that it was indeed a mushroom cloud, so we stopped to take a look and a picture.

I am going to do some more research on the “Citizen Soldiers for the Atomic Bomb”, but what I have seen so far is that they are some wacos from up in Ben's stompen ground.

If I remember correctly this June Griffin is the Lady the was harassing Zack Wamp's office. At lest I think that is the same person.

Here are a few links of what I have found out so far.
Stop The Bombs
Serve
The People News

If you know anything else about this group, then please let me know.

Hugo's Christian Business idea

pilot fun

Napolean Dynamite and Good Bye Lenin!

I was thinking about this post this morning and what it was that I liked about Good Bye Lenin. I think it has to do with the character development that took place in the movie. There was just more to the movie than what appeared on the surface. I don't want to ruin the movie for you if you have not seen it but it was interesting how the son grew up to be a liar and an activist just like his mother. Even though no one knew she was living a lie. I think what it is that I like about foreign films is that compared to the vast majority of American films they are more akin to reading a book. There is just a depth to the movies that leaves me thinking when the movie is over.

While doing this post I realize that I should have taken a few more of those liberal arts classes in college. Does anyone know what the term is that describes the relationship between characters in a story that goes beyond just the plot? I guess I'm talking about the one that describes the second meaning in a story or reading between the lines.

It had been a while since Leslie and I took the time to rent any movies and since our schedule had cleared up a bit Leslie sent me on a mission to pick up some movies from Blockbuster. The two movies I picked out, I picked out after reading about them on a blogs.

The first one I got was Napolean Dynamite. I could have sworn I read about it on Michael's blog, but after searching his past posts I could not find it. It seems rare these days to have a movie that is rated PG. In my opinion they try to throw in nudity and language just to get the R rating. I think they figure that a PG movie just does not have the draw that an R rating does. Napolean Dynamite was a funny movie and worth renting.

The second movie we rented was Good Bye Lenin. It was a really good film. I decided to rent it after reading this post on the D'oh's and Woo Hoo's of Life. There was one brief nudity scene in the movie and a few choice words that could have been easily left out but over all it was a good movie. I would recommend it. I guess I could give a bit of explanation of the movie but I would just be repeating what was said on D'oh's and Woo Hoo's of Life so you can just go read it there.

I'm not sure what it is but Leslie and I just love European films. I'm not sure we've ever seen a European film where at the end we did not have to stop talk about it. They just seem either intelligent or thoughtful. I'm not sure I could put it into words exactly what it is, but there is something different about them.

I was talking to Ben at lunch today and he thinks it's because the only foreign films we see here in the states are the films that were good enough to make it here. I'm not so sure he's right. Though, he might be. I think it might have more to do with the fact that they are not trying to create the next big block buster with every film they make. I think when you are not focusing on throwing millions of bucks at special effects you can take the time to have a good story. I don't know. Does anybody else have an opinion?

playing catchup

It has been 17 days since my last post. I think I've just set a new gid record, hopefully not to be broken again. Being that it has been so long let me do some catching up with this post.

We went to North Caroline for the mini family reunion. Here is a page with some pictures of the highlights.

Once we got back John David and I got really sick. I think he ran a temperature of 102 or better for about 4 days. John David and I had some good bonding time as we snuggled up together sick in bed. I took a picture of him right before we went to bed one evening. He just looked pitiful. Here is a picture to prove it. Poor kid!

sick in bed

Last weekend the River Chase subdivision had a garage sale and we decided to sell a few things. At midnight on Friday while Leslie and I were setting out the things we did have to sell, we broke out into laughter when we realized that our garage sale was so pitiful that it looked like we had already had the garage sale and all that was left was the junk. It was very funny. Though, it might have been that it was midnight and we were delirious. Either way, I think we made about 40 bucks. It was totally not worth the effort especially with taxes being due. I think I spent about 3 nights in the garage trying to clean it up, which was not a total waste of time considering it needed to be done.

After the garage sale we went on one of our embarrassingly under funded, under planned, so lame that it was fun family dates. Here are some highlight pictures: Leslie and I , John David, and Elliot. That reminds me; did I ever put up any pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner at Shoney's? Our trip to Shoney's for thanksgiving dinner is probably the preeminent example of “it was so lame it was fun” family times. Someone remind me to post those pictures if I haven't already.

Well, because of the lame mini date the night before Leslie and I decided to grill some hamburgers on the back porch since the weather was nice. We had such a nice evening that we decided to eat out there again on Monday night. We were both feeling very thankful to the Lord for a home with a screened in porch that we could have a relaxing meal on. Picture Here

Oh yea, on Monday of last week Jason and I met his brother (one of the ministers at First Centenarian) for lunch at the University Deli. We had a good time. We even ventured into a little bit of discussion about theology, which was interesting. Here is a picture of Jason and his brother.

you need to click to see him up close

On the way back from lunch I happen to spot a treed opossum in the middle of downtown Chattanooga it was a very nasty creature, but worth the picture. That reminds me, when I was a kid I had a baby opossum as a pet for a few months. It used to wrap its tail around my finger and hang out. I remember being really sad about it when it died, but I don't guess I will ramble on about that.

my history

I intended to do this post a few weeks ago when it was still cool but I think I might have missed the boat. Oh well, here?s my history: Thanks Sozo and TulipGirl.

bubble wrap

i'm back

Gondola at the Venetian

I?m back. I was in Las Vegas last Tuesday through Friday observing some enroller training. The whole time was very informative. I was hoping to do some posts while there but I either had no computer or when I did have a computer there was no free internet connection. Vegas is a very interesting city and I wouldn?t mind going back with Leslie some time. I ended up with 60 bucks more than I went with, so that all worked out well. I did end up with a cold though. I think I must have gotten it from one of those black arm bandits. ;-)

John David was glad that I was back. Leslie, John David, and Elliot met me at the air port, and John David just about freaked out when he saw me. He was so excited. He caught a glance of me at about 75 feet. He stuck his little two year old finger up in the air and with and excited squeal let out a big daaadieeeee. It was very nice to hear. I?m glad I was missed.

View from hotel window

As much as I hated to be gone I really enjoyed myself. I was able to get to know a team member that before the trip I had not really gotten a chance to know, and I also had a chance to do some reading. I read Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S. Lewis. It was not at all what I expected. I either completely missed his point in the book or it had absolutely nothing to do with enriching my walk with Christ. If anything I am trying to remind myself that there is only one God, and that no plethora of gods exist before which I can argue my case because of their unjust acts. It was a good book but totally unlike Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Where we Stayed

Well, I need to get to it so I?ll just share a picture or two from the trip. I might get around to putting up some other latter on.

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