Striker's Win

Em's soccer team won 7 to 3 tonight. The team consists of Kindergarten and First graders, many of whom it's there first time playing soccer. Throughout the game there were these two woman next to us complaining non-stop about how the coaches weren't calling fouls. I jokingly said, 'They're letting these kids playing as if they're kindergarteners!' The women responded 'Yeah! That's what we're talking about'. After a pause, I reminded them that they ARE actually kindergarteners. I laughed. They didn't.

Mother's Day

Cathie was working in Em's Kindergarten class, helping the kids with their Mother's Day cards. She said that it was pretty funny watching the kids spell their cards out phonetically. she said the best one was: "Mom, I love you. you're the Beast."

E-Mail

So far this year I've sent 3,268 work related e-mails and I've received 7,455. Seems out of whack.

Life Lesson

My friend and co-worker Bill was on-site working with The Limited today, which happens to be the parent company of Victoria's Secret. He learned the hard way not to use his company credit card to pay for lunch in the cafeteria. The charge goes through without a problem, but the hard part is getting reimbursed for the expense. It ends up in the expense system showing that you made a purchase at Victoria's Secret, which can be a tough one to explain away.

Em's Soccer Pic

It doesn't get much cuter than kindergarten soccer.

It's a Beautiful Day

I love my job. No commute and the freedom to work where ever. I got home from the gym, grabbed my coffee, my laptop and my wireless headset and I've been working on my deck in my back yard all morning - listening to the birds chirp and savoring the perfect weather with my dog at my side.

Vegas Montage

I compiled some of the pictures and videos that we took in Vegas into this video montage. I only watch these things if I'm in 'em, so it's probably not worth your time unless you want to see pictures of neked statues or pictures of Eli in a bathing suit (Jon), don't bother watching.

Girls for Sale - $.25

Will's Surprise Party

On Saturday afternoon Brad, Bob, Monaca threw a surprise party for Will to celebrate his graduation. We had a huge turn-out and it went on until the wee hours of the night. One of the highlights was the food. Bob brought enough food from Mexican Fiesta in Canton to feed the whole group (for $10 more than Eli's previous order for the 6 of us at one of our previous poker games).

The party would have been a surprise, had Brad not parked his truck right on the route that Will took to my house. Brad did not feel it was his responsibility to hide his truck. In Brad's defense, Will said that one truck by itself wouldn't of given it away, but seeing Bob's, Brad's and Jen's trucks all parked next to each other was a dead give away.


That wasn't the only debacle. We have a giant tractor tire swing in our back yard. Fully loaded with kids, getting hit with this thing feels like being laid out by a linebacker. Especially if you're 1. While pushing the kids on the swing, Makenna came running over and took a shot from the swing right above her left eye. I saw it all in slow motion as it threw her a couple feet up and a few feet back. I blame Brad for this.

We finished the night out rocking to Guitar Hero on the Xbox 360. As Dan put it, it's like Dance-Dance-Revolution for men. We played this first at the Kohne's and got hooked on it from there. I pretty much justified buying my 360 based solely on my love for this game.

You can see the rest of the pictures from Will's Graduation and Party here.

Will's Graduation

Bill, Brad and I attended Will's graduation on Friday morning. It was long and dull, but worth it to see Will's big moment in his life. There were a couple of fun moments, including the VP of Diversity's speech capstone's call of "Go White". Apparently this was not a call to white-power, but a response to the previous speaker's "Go Green" call to action. At another point, one of the PhD candidates thanked Jesus for what He's done in her life. You could have heard a pin drop as the Social Worker students sat around angry at the mention of the name. Even Will did not clap as he said he would be black-balled from all social-work circles.

Spideman 3

Nate and I went to see Spideman 3 at the IMAX. Everyone I'd talked to had so-so things to say about it relative to the first two. Nate and I both dug it. As good as the first two, maybe even better action. A little too much drama, but the visuals on the IMAX screen more than made up for it. I agree with Nate, who thought the action scenes would have been ever better in IMAX-3D.

How Many Guys Does it take to Hang a set of Lights?

We had load-up/take-down this morning at church. Brad and I had fun watching Matt, Mark and Eli try and setup this light tree. We recruited Tony Muzzi at Will's party to join the load team. Bob Rays ditched us to atttend bed-side chapel this morning, which means he buys breakfast next time.

Brad pays up

The graduation lasted 2 HOURS AND 15 MINUTES, but was enough to win me $10 from Brad and Bill with my time of 1 hr 37 minutes. This is one of the first time Brad has actually paid up on a bet.

Will's Graduation Ceremony

Bill, Brad, Cathie, my Dad and I are at Will's graduation this morning. We each threw $5 in a pot and picked an end time - winner take all. Gambling makes everything go quicker. I lost two other bets when Brad showed up sober and Will wore pants under his gown.

Homeward Bound

Only three days gone, but it feels like a week. I haven't seen Nate and Maddie in a week. I miss them like crazy.

Ken Buck is a Wise Sage

My siblings and I have a tradition on the birthdays of our family and close friends. We often share fun facts - some made up, but mostly loving comments. My friend Ken (a great man of God, a youth pastor, seminarian, philosopher and lover of the poor and hurting) took exception to my Jon and Susan's birthday facts about me. Ken is a man who follows God's directive to "do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God" and I think that's he's pursuing here:

My Persecuted Friend Dave..

If you were to look up the word persecuted on Wikipedia it just might read Dave Kurt after what I am about to tell you gets out. Now Dave has been a friend of mine for over 7 years now and I feel that I have had a pretty good chance to see his true colors come out. I have to say that Dave is one of the most giving, loyal, kind and encouraging friends that I have had. Now I know that Dave is a kidder, a jokester if you will.... but deep down... no... not deep down, but right under the surface, Dave Kurt is a decent and kind man who is always looking out to bless those around him!!!

Now let me give you a few examples:

• He took time out of his busy work schedule to come to my wedding via a stop in Atlantic City.
  
• Year after year he spends a whole week of his personal vacation time to be at camp with a bunch of Middle School kids that the rest of the world has thrown aside.
  
• He has twice used frequent flier miles and hotel points to hook me up with a weekend getaway with my wife and a flight to Costa Rica!!
• He gave me his Motorcycle.
• We have shared our love of kids and youth ministry.
• He taught me the difference between the snobbish jerks at fancy Martini bars and the good folk at a common pub.
• He taught me how to play blackjack and has introduced me to great people Chauncey Billups, Will, Brad, Eli and Noel.
• He took in a homeless girl from Xenia, Ohio.
• And Dave has taken time to honor people on their birthdays to make sure that they truly know that God loves them and that they are indeed special. You can read these here, and here, and here.

Now the reason why I took the time to share a little about St. Dave Kurt is the just the other day was his birthday. And was he written about on such a day? Yes he was, but not with the grace, nor the beauty, nor the kindness that he gives to others... No he was maligned and mocked and defamed over the World Wide Web!!! You might think that is is Old Ingrid again, but no, this I must say is even more underhanded than she... the attacks that I am about to share with you about the persecution of Dave Kurt is from his own brother and sister!!! Read these words and weep for Dave pray that he can with stand such attacks with grace....

Viva las Vegas

What a trip to Vegas! It was by far one of the best times I've had in a long, long time. Part of it was the location, part of it was the long build up and surprise to our wives and part of it was the company. Going on a trip with another couple can be a tricky deal. Just because you like going to a movie with them won't necessarily mean you'll want to spend every minute with them for 3 days straight. Dana and Eli were the perfect couple to go on the trip with. We had the same agenda - relax and have fun with no expectations. We went with the flow and didn't really have an agenda as to what we needed to do. We spent a lot of time just hanging out at the pool relaxing, talking and laughing. We stayed out late (the first day we were up 24 hours straight and the second we got back in after they'd laid out the newspapers). I really don't know how the trip could have been more fun than we had. We ate like kings, we won at the tables and walked away with some of the best stories imaginable. We took cabs everywhere and with that came even more great stories - those told by the cabbies (one involved a lawyer, a crack pipe and a transvestite) and an experience with a cabbie doing a power slide at 80mph on the expressway as we took the wrong exit, missing construction barrels by 6 inches.

I also should mention that I'm married to the greatest woman in the world. Seriously. Hands down. I had such a blast with her. Not only did she look stunning the whole time we were there, but she had her giant smile and laugh going the whole time, which makes her 10x sexier. She relaxed with, gambled with me and had fun with me. My soul is intimately linked to this woman. No matter where I travel, unless she's with me, it's tough for me to really experience the place or the event. Having her there along side me, having all the fun with me, made this one of the best trips of my life.

You can see most of the pictures from the trip here.

Walking in Memphis

I'm stuck in Memphis. My sister-in-law Beth was kind enough to offer a room at their house, but I didn't want to put her out, plus Jon wanted to charge me $100 for the room. Northwest was kind enough to put me up downtown near the pyramid at the Wyndham. I fly out early tomorrow.

Flight Delayed

We got home from Vegas at two this morning and I'm back on a plane headed for Tulsa via Memphis. I've been on the plane for 2 hours and we haven't taken off yet. I've already missed my connecting flight to Tulsa, the last one of the evening, so it looks like I might be staying over in Memphis tonight and flying out in the morning.

God hates Eli

Lots of people don't know that Eli grew up Mormon (and is now a Christian). Check out the caption right over Eli's head. We were amused to find out how much God used to hate Eli, according to this fella.

Cathie and Eli love Celine

Separated at Birth

I ran into my twin while having dinner at the Wynn. Though you can't tell it from his expression, the guy was equally amused. I look like I'd just had some Hor Fun.

Dancing Fools of Fremont Street

These guys reminded me of my brothers Dan and Jon dancing:

Happy Birthday?

My sister Sooze started this whole thing with posting fun facts for birthdays, and it's since caught on. On a given family member's birthday you'll see a very amusing picture along with the little gems of knowledge. These are some of my favorite posts to read. Here are 10 things about me you might not know from Jon, man of them even true.

1. As much as Dave loves going to the gym to work out, he enjoys complaining about it even more.
2. Dave always has connections to get things done. Whether it is paying to much for a new car or getting a deal on a TV, there is always "someone from church" who he can call to take care of business.
3. Dave likes to wear his clothes on the small side. His pants are a size 30 and his tee-shirts are girls medium.
4. Nobody in our family has any idea what he does for work. We know it involves travelling and watching lots of videos on you-tube.
5. Dave can't sit still for even 5 minutes. He always has to either be doing something or getting all his ducks in a row to be doing something soon.
6. Never eat ice cream while over at his house. He will occasionally dip his junk in the ice cream so other people won't eat it.
7. He is a huge "cat person". If you read his blog, you will read entry after entry about how great his cat is, but you would never even know he has three wonderful children.
8. One time on a trip out to Iowa, Dave pushed me off the slide and I broke my arm. I had to start nursery school with a cast on.
9. Dave was the Best Man at my wedding, as I was at his. Our older brother Dan had some other guy.
10. When Dave was younger, he perfected the art of taking my money. One thing he would do is convince me to put all my money underneath a brick out in the yard and he would do the same. Then together we could save up to buy Star War figures. The next day when I went to check on the money, it was all gone and I still have yet to see the figurines.

10 from Susan.

1. He is what my parents liked to call, the bad son
2. He is hypoglycemic. That may mean nothing to you, but it meant beatings for me when I was growing up. When he would get hungry and needed to eat NOW, and if he didn't he would just hurt me
3. Him and Cathie's favorite past time when they were dating was to make out in the back seat of my parents car. The odd part was, my mom, dad and I were all sitting in the front seat
4. He learned that you would have to be an idiot to light fireworks off in your room. And an even bigger idiot to try and hide a hole the carpet in the middle of the room and curtains with burn marks from your mom and dad
5. Because of him one year, I had to spend Christmas Day ALL BY MYSELF when I was 12 years old because he couldn't find his way to my aunt's house. The rest of the family was there already so Dave and Cathie dropped me off at my parent's house and took off to spend Christmas with her family
6. If it wasn't for Kevin, nothing would get fixed around his house
7. He is the best arguer in the whole entire world. Growing up, if I ever needed to convince my parents of something, I would present all the facts to Dave and let him tell them. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't

Apparently Dan doesn't even know it's my birthday. Sigh.

Georgina

This is Georgina. She spoke almost no english but helped Cathie and I win $400 Dana and Eli $300. The table was smoking hot for 2 hours. Dana hit more blackjacks than I've ever seen. I was in a funk after my video blackjack debacle, but now I'm all about the game.

The Venetian in the moonlight

We were full, so we walked and gambled. Video black jack is not my friend. You can win and lose waaaay to quickly. I'm no longer up $130, or any money for that matter. At least I got a free beer out of it.

Eli loves "Hor Fun"

Eli found a new favorite dish in Vegas. He never knew how much he loved Hor Fun until now.

Taste of Heaven at the Wynn

I have a better understanding of what heaven will be like agter dinner tonight at the Wynn's buffett. Eli and I ate our weight in sushi, giant alaskan king crab legs and everything else in the world. The dinner was as good, or better than the Bellagio's buffett. The dessert was a little lacking. The creme brule was so-so, which brought the overall score down.

Fremont Street

Apparently Jesus is angry that we're $130 up after our first gambling stint

Fountain show at the Bellagio

Bright Light City Gonna Set my Soul on Fire

We made it!

We found an agent who booked us on a connecting flight that arrived as our flight to Vegas was taking off. We were the last passengers on the plane, but we made it. Phew. Long morning. Vegas here we come.

Things Got Schultz'd up

After spending an hour on the phone with Northwest airlines and talking to four of the most useless agents I've ever seen (I maintained a smile throughout), we finally found a person who had a clue. My friend Marge works for NWA knows everything and would of had it fixed in 2 seconds. We're on a later flight, hopefully.

Dana and Eli

Dana and Eli got a late start and got to the airport 20 minutes before our flight was scheduled to depart, too late to check their luggage. They weren't quite clear on the policy on liquids as the security guy went through every item in their bag. We got to the gate and the door had closed. Oops.

Bob's new hat

BW3's

Dan, Bob, Jon, Brad, Mark, Eli, Will, Jeff, Eli and I met up at BW3s in Brighton to celebrate my birthday coming up on Sunday. 36. Middle Aged? Just not as old as my brother Dan who will be 40 soon.

We leave tomorrow morning on our trip. Dana and Cathie have no idea where we're going. We've kept it a secret for 6 months, telling almost no one - except my Dad and my Grandma and not letting it slip once. The girls will find out where we're headed once we hit our connecting flight in Indy - but we'll probably mess with them a little first. Should be fun to try and convince them that West Virginia is our final detination.

The place we're going is forecast to be 96 today. Nice!

Jon has arrived

My brother Jon got in today at noon with my niece Libby. Emily quickly tired him out so in the Kurt tradition, he took a nap.

Happy Birthday to Me?

My birthday is coming up on Sunday. Wouldn't this make a heck of a gift.

Typing Test

How fast can you type the alphabet? Try it here. Can you beat 3.139 sec?

Great Picture

Viral Video

3 Minutes of just about every video you've ever received via e-mail:

Dave/Drew/Emily's Birthday Party

We had another beautiful day yesterday and we had the family over to celebrate three birthdays. We hung out outside and enjoyed the great day.

My Dad pulled this "Hey Big Guy!" card for Andrew out of my Mom's "card-box" and found the above card. For those of you who know Will, you know that he periodically tries out new-head gear, but I'm just not sure this works for him.

Anyone have a good caption for this picture?

Small Animal Day

On Saturday we headed out to MSU for small animal day. We've been going to this the past 5 or 6 years as a family and this year this year we met up with Susan and her kids and Eli and the girls. It was a beautiful day and the place was packed. The kids loved seeing the animals and had a blast hanging out together, riding the bus from stop-to-stop.

Kid's Cafe

Em, Maddie, Olivia and Erica manned the Kid's café this morning at church, selling baked goods (all store bought by Cathie and Dana) for our building campaign. We're having family over for Em's birthday today and the weather is looking perfect. Should be fun.

Greatest Dollar Store Ever

I'm a dollar store connisour, and I think the Dollar Tree is the best of breed, hands down. In a small town with 7 pizza places and 5 coney islands, the grand opening was a big deal here. The kids and I went and perused the wares, ending up in the candy aisle, of course. People were running around excited about their finds like it was dollar days at Nordstroms.

Happy Birthday Dana!

Dana is getting really old. She turned 31 yesterday. A few things about Dana:

• Dana just got her nose pierced for her birthday in an effort to not look 31. It actually looks good on her. She wanted to get a tramp-stamp on her lower back instead, but Cathie talked her out of it.
  
• Dana hate' surprises. Dana's husband Eli and I are taking our wives on a surprise trip. Dana is desperate to know where and we've been feeding her bad information including tips like: The inventor of the electron microscope is from this state, The state is shaped like Ireland, The state is the largest cotton producing state in North America and the Appalachian trail runs through this state. (I made these all up on the spot, but she took them seriously and researched all of them)
• Did I mention Dana is gullible?
  
• Dana works at Jeffrey Animal hospital. She loves expunging anal glands more than anything and now she wants to move on to giving rectal exams, as she's studying to become a nurse.
• Dana's parents wanted a boy and hoped to name him Dan. They were stuck with a girl and named her Dana instead.
• Dana was the trainer for the monkey Clyde in the movie Every Which Way But Loose. She trained him to flip people the bird and punch people in the face.
  
• Dana has a huge heart, is one of my wife's closest friends and my girls are crazy about her. Nate tolerates her, but I think he secretly likes the attention from Dana.
• Dana was the only female wrestler on her high school wrestling team.
  

Happy Birthday Emily!

My little Emily is growing up and turns 6 today. Here are a few things you might not know about Emily:

• She loves animals more than anything. She wants to be a zoo keeper or a dolphin trainer when she grows up. She originally wanted to be a veterinarian, but my friend Brad was able to squash that dream quickly for her.
• Emily is in kindergarten and reads everything she can find, including chapter books. She loves writing as well and will occasionally write us long notes when we've hurt her feelings, made her mad or when she really wants something.
• After breaking off a branch that was whacking them everything I'd push Emily on the tire swing, she explained to me, "Dad, when you broke that branch, you broke my heart."
• She has two imaginary friends that occasionally show up - Shana and Shawna. I wonder if they know my nephew Matthew's imaginary friend Lelelelele?
• Emily's favorite color is pink and her favorite kind of food is Ramen Noodle Soup, the meal of champions.
• Emily is one of the laziest children I know.
• We all think Emily is going to be in sales someday as she is a master negotiator. If I offer her one piece of candy, she will try and negotiate up to 5, starting at 7 and working her way down. Even knowing this, it's amazing what she gets away with and the deals she tries to cut.
• Emily's soccer league starts this week.

Chaos Meeting

I love working with junior high kids. Tonight's Chaos meeting was especially amazing. We were talking about power and love and how they go together. We started off by looking at Superman's powers, arch-enemies and then looked at Jesus' power. We dug deeper and looked at how power can do everything but force someone to love you. In our small groups we talked about the story of The King and the Maiden by Søren Kierkegaard:

Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden. The king was like no other king. Every statesman trembled before his power. No one dared breathe a word against him, for he had strength to crush all opponents. And yet, this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden. How could he declare his love for her? If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her body in royal robes, she would surely not resist -- no one dared resist him. But would she love him?

She would say she loved him, of course, but would she truly? Or would she live with him in fear, nursing a private grief for the life she had left behind? Would she be happy at this side? How could he know? If he rode to her forest cottage in his royal carriage, with an armed escort waving bright banners, that too would overwhelm her. He did not want a cringing subject. He wanted a lover, an equal. He wanted her to forget that he was a king and she a humble maiden and to let shared love cross the gulf between them. For it is only in love that an unequal can be made equal.

The amazing thing is that THE KIDS GOT IT. Now if the girls got it, you could probably understand that. Junior High girls are a little more mature than guys and sometimes connect the dots a little easier. I had a small group of nine junior high boys - grades 6th - 8th grade, and THEY GOT IT. At the end of the group, they guys were explaining to me how God created us with the ability to choose to love him or reject him, because otherwise it's not love. They explained to me that the one thing you can't do is force someone to love you - no matter what your super-powers are. Amazing! They got it, and they understand a Danish Philosopher's story to get them there...and maybe some of the Superman stuff helped.

I love working with junior high kids. They're my people and it's worth it for moments like this.

One Armed Monkey

Lincoln Zoo must be the greatest zoo in the world. They had a one-armed wrestling monkey and a baboon who respond to people waving at him and talking to him by sticking his butt on the glass at them and pointing at it. These two things were the highlight of the zoo experience for Nate and I.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Yesterday was Andrew's birthday! Happy Birthday Andrew! Here are a few fun facts about Drew:

1. Andrew is a fellow middle child. With that honor comes all of the amazing intellect, compassion, looks and passion that go with the familial position.
2. Drew's Mom wanted him to be called Andrew and for a while insisted that he be known as Andrew. I persevered with the nick-name Drew and Kris is now comfortable with us calling him "Drew"
3. Because of his Uncle Jon's absence and lack of spiritual direction in his life, Drew has named me his honorary God-father.
4. Drew is smart. I'm constantly amazed at how his brain processes very deep questions about life and his faith.
5. Drew reads like a fiend.
6. Drew's favorite french-fry topping is Katchsup.
7. If Drew could be any kind of vegetable, he would be asparagus.
8. Drew plays soccer.
   
9. I've been promising Drew that he and I are going on a middle-child outing for a long time. I still haven't not done it yet. I am a bad uncle, but will always be viewed as a better uncle than Drew's Uncle Jon.
   

Stephen Lynch

We got up early this morning and headed to Willow World in South Barrington, home of Willow Creek Church. We got to hear Bill Hybels say the phrase 'that sucks' on stage and also got to see Jason Raitz with his sidekicks, Zach and The James (Jason is one of the leaders of Willow's Jr High Ministry, James is their janitor and Zach is their resident heart-throb).

We made it back to Lansing just in time to drop the kids off at my Dad's and meet Monaca and Will at PF Chang's for dinner. We then headed to see Stephen Lynch on campus at MSU. Stephen Lynch is a comedian who sings some of the funniest songs about the most inappropriate subjects one could imagine. I'd heard his material before, but he was twice as funny live. Lynch had just gotten off Broadway, playing the lead in the musical The Wedding Singer.

We got back late tonight and it's back to school tomorrow for the kids.

Eat at Ed's

After hitting the Shedd Aquarium and The Museum of Science and Industry, we waited in line for 15 minutes for Garrett's popcorn. We had dinner at Ed Debevic's and the kids got a kick out of the service. If you've never been there before, Ed Debevic's boasts the worst customer service around. The wait-staff is purposely rude and the periodically jumps up on the counters and do purposefully lame dance routines.

Nate and I at ESPN Zone

Per Sarah's advice, after dinner the girls went to The American Girl Doll store while Nate and I were in heaven at the ESPN Zone.

Ginos East

We had dinner tonight at Ginos East downtown. The kids liked the pizza, but loved the fact that they could write on the walls. This is their first time staying downtown in a big city and they're loving the huge buildings, walking around and taking the subway places.

Lincoln Zoo

We got into Chicago about noon and hit the Lincoln Zoo. Great zoo, great weather. We spent about three hours there before heading to our hotel on the magnificent mile downtown.

Closed Head Injuries are Funny

Emily tripped over her blanket (quilty) tonight and hit her head on the vacuum cleaner. She proceeded to pretend (at least we're pretty sure she was pretending) to have amnesia. Em explained to Cathie that she couldn't remember anything that had ever happened to her. She kept asking Cathie questions about what she'd done today, like "Mom, did we go swimming today?" Wouldn't the joke be on us if she had permanent brain damage and memory loss?

Dead On

From Zach Braff's blog, on cell phone etiquette. I couldn't have said it better myself:

I hate ringtones. I think they are uber obnoxious. I am of the school that if you’re out of your house or your car, your phone should be on vibrate. Oh, and for the love of Yaweh, DON’T LEAVE YOUR WIRELESS EARPIECE IN YOUR EAR!!!! Look, I am by no means a purveyor of “cool”. I am very dorky. But one thing I know for certain, is that if you’re wearing your wireless earpiece around and you are not on the phone, but merely waiting for a call- you should pull it out. When you do, you will probably be able to hear your brain telling you you look like Levar Burton. (Not in Roots, on Next Generation.) You were probably the same person who had a pacifier around your neck during that fad and something tells me there’s a “Dachshund Lover on Board” sign in your garage next to the albums that contain your extensive “Garbage Pail Kid” collection.