So here's the downsides to owning an iPod (or any device that allows you to put 40GB/10,000 songs) in one place:
1. You have to keep the MP3's meticulously tagged and organized.
2. There's so much music there that it's tough to figure out what to listen to or what you have out there.

I love my church. I love that I could teach our congregation a portion of the lyrics to Ice, Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice:

To the extreme, I rock the mic like a vandal
Light up the stage and wax a chump like a candle

Before you brand me heritical, let me explain. I was talking about what we want our church to be known as in our community, and one suggestion I had was that we be known as a church that knows all of the lyrics to a great rap song. I proceeded to teach the song and had everyone recite it. I contrasted this with how much cooler it would be to be known as a church that loves really well and have learned how to really live life, based on what Jesus has taught us about living. The latter seems a little more compelling. But I still think my church is cool - because it loves well.

I just heard something that thrilled me from two people who don't go to my church. Both commented on how many people within our community had heard about all the crap (Pastor infidelity) that happened at Crossroads in the past however many months its been. Both people also commented on how we've been handling it as a church - one that we've handled it differently than any church he'd seen, the other that we handled it so well, he started coming to Crossroads.

When we started going down this road, one of our goals was that we be known for exactly these things - a church that loves well, even in the face of turmoil. We haven't done it perfectly, but I think we've done just that, handled it differently and loved well. This really offsets the angst I get from all of the giant crap-weasels who left as a result of this instead of sticking it out. (I even love giant crap-weasels).

As I walked up to the check-out at Circuit City yesterday, one cashier said to the other, "Our new UPS guy must be retarded." Not missing the chance, I told him that I was the new UPS guy. He replied that "I wasn't wearing my brown uniform". I told him that even though my mother used to tell me that I was retarded, I'd always thought that was because she didn't like me. It created a nice akward moment that I decided we both needed to stay in. He looked at me, not quite sure if I was serious or not. As I left, I told him I'd try and do a better job from now on.

Last night while watching Survivor, the topic of Jamie Lee Curtis came up and the rumor of her being born a hermaphrodite (odd conversation, I know). Like all good urban legends, we had all heard this one as fact. Turns out, it may not be true, per this.

I took the day off today and let Cathie sleep in while I got the kids ready for school. Cathie was telling me that as she lay in bed she overheard Madeline complaining about not being able to do her hair (because she knows I don't have a clue). Nathan came in and volunteered that he could do her hair. She asked him if he knew how, and he said he did.

Emily and I hung out the rest of the morning watching Dora and an animal show on the Discovery Channel-HD. She just digs animals in all shapes and sizes. Cathie, Emily and I are getting ready to head out to lunch in a little bit.

We had a big group of people over last night to watch Survivor. We ended up hanging out aftewards watching The Daily Show, which just kills me. If you haven't seen John Stewart on CNN's crossfire yet, you have to check this out, particularly the part where he calls one of the hosts a dick. (Thanks to Noel for the link)

A number of people have asked me my opinions on our church and one of the people we're looking at as a candidate. Here are my random thoughts on a what Crossroads needs in a pastor. I’ve spent the past six weeks really seeking God on this stuff and trying to really listen to what he has to say. This is a combination of what God’s been telling me and my own opinion, but I’m not sure how to differentiate the two. Disclaimer: This are my opinions in part, I don't know much and I could very well be completely wrong. There's nothing here that I haven't shared with people who've asked. My opinion is a work in progress, open to what God's telling me, open to feedback and this is my first pass at putting it all in one place. This isn't well written and probably not even well thought out.

To understand what I’m thinking about a pastor, I think I first need to understand who we’re called to reach and THEN how we plan on reaching them. If Crossroads is going to be like every other church in the community, I believe we might as well close up shop. It’s going to be too hard of a road ahead for us to be just another church that targets the 40 to 60 year olds of South Lyon in the same old way everyone else does it. I want to be a part of a church that understands the world around it and leverages that to create disciples of Jesus. I want to be a part of a church that focuses on young people (15 – 35) yet has an older generation with a mission mindset for the youth and as a church body is known for loving people well. If there’s an older generation that enjoys that, they are welcome to the community, but I believe too much of the Church as a whole focuses on the old and not the young. I don’t believe that we as a church can just focus on people as a whole and be extremely effective. It doesn’t work in business and it doesn’t work in churches. You have to pick a focus and do it well. I’ve always loved the fact that I could invite my neighbors and know that they wouldn’t feel awkward, but that they would see that the church is different than the stuffy, irrelevant church they may have experienced in the past.

In a pastor, I want someone with mindset for outreach, who values deep, authentic community and who can communicate with the target audience that I’ve referenced above. That’s way more than just speaking biblical messages. They need to understand how people with modern and post-modern mindsets process information, process their faith, and process Truth. They need to be a student of the culture and a student of the word – and have the ability to relate one to the other. We need to have someone who loves others well – no matter what they look like, what kind of sin they bring to the table or where they’re at in their spiritual journey. Beyond that, of course they need to fit into all of the biblical guidelines laid out for a pastor – that’s a given. Ideally, I’d like to see someone with a Youth Pastor background and all that brings to the table in terms of understanding the world, communicating that to our focal point, relating to tough to love people and possessing a relevance - all while not taking themselves too seriously.

I think the current candidate is a great person with a passion, a heart for the unlovable and the lost and an understanding of the world around him. He seems like he’d be a good traditional Shepard for this church and where it’s at, because of who's left. His teachings don’t seem relevant or effective at communicating in a way that post-moderns can hear them. I’ve talked to a number of people who’ve actually been offended at some of HOW he presents his perspectives and HOW he’s shared them; things about women, paraplegics and children. I’ve talked to probably 20 different people about their opinions of him and their seems to be a dividing line after age 40 or so on who connects with him and who doesn’t. When I hear a teaching, I like it to stick with me for the following week as I gnaw on it and process it. His’s teachings haven’t done that.

The gaps: To be fair to him, I haven't heard all of his teaching and I've only spent about 90 minutes with the guy.I haven't seen him in a leadership capacity or a sheparding capacity, I really have very little to go on in all of this.

Again, I could be way off base. These thoughts are a work in progress.

Nate and I stacked two face cords of firewood together. We had a great time doing it and had a great conversation about everything from how tall it would go if we stacked the wood one on top of the other to how much many pieces we could carry at a time.

The message from Mars Hill on Mastering the Art of living that I referenced earlier continues to be stirring inside of me in a way that things haven't in a while. It's causing me to look at how I talk to people in person and on the phone, how I spend time with my wife and kids and how I enjoy what I have and where I'm at today and in the moment. Probably not a big deal for other people, but I seem to be so focused on what's coming next or where i'm going that I have a tough time time just existing in the present moment - no matter what it is.

It really hit me yesterday when I tried a practical application. I was meeting with Mark, one of the guys on my team at a local coffee shop. Typically when I show up I'm armed with my cell phone and laptop delivering instant message conversations, e-mails and phone calls as we talk. This time, I sat there with my notebook and pen and talked and listened. I was amazed at how I processed where we were at and what we were talking about and was in that moment instead of de-focused on everything. Same thing when I travel, typically when I call home and talk to Cathie I've got the TV on in my hotel room and my laptop in front of me - checking e-mail, IMing all while talking to my wife. I've started just shutting down and listening and focusing.

I went to the prayer meeting last night. We prayed individually for about 30 minutes and then the five of us prayed together for a half hour. It was an amazing time that refreshed and reconnected me to God in a way that my quiet time in the morning hasn't.

I thought this was funny. Cathie went to the store today to go grocery shopping. It turns out today was Old People Flu Shot day (pobably not the official name for it). Cathie explained to me that old people were everywhere in the store, camped out in lawn chairs and office chairs that they'd brought. You couldn't get to the groceries on the shelves, because there were old people in chairs lining the aisles in front of the stuff. Maybe it's just me, but I laughed my head off when Cathie told me about this.

Apparently bad-mouthing the Apple comunity is the equivalent to bad-mouthing Pat Robertson - you're going to get lots of e-mail after Pat (Noel) sics them on you . I made some observations about Apple users, iPod people specifically to which Noel responded. As you'll see, I've received a number of responses, per Pat's - I mean Noel's request. Apparently, Apple users are very succeptible to suggestion.

Let me clarify my position. I believe the Mac OS is far superior to Windows XP. The Mach kernel that OS X uses has been around for a long time (I worked on it on the NeXT OS 15 years ago in college) and the interface that it uses is phenomenal. Their software integrates in very tightly and being tied to Unix, there are minimal security issues. The chipset that the Mac is designed around is better and the cases look cooler. I don't disagree with any of that.

I do believe that Mac users have a certain arrogance and self-righeousness about them. Kinda like University of Michigan grads. You don't have to ask them if they're one because they'll tell you. Over and over. Is there such a need to be counter cultural about something that they jump on to the Mac bandwagon? I'm okay if people want to use Mac's - just don't try and hold it over people's heads that it somehow defines who you are and makes you better than everyone else, or that you know more than everyone else (except for Noel, who really does know more than everyone else. <--Noel, that was put out there to appease your followers.)

Dodgeball was great last night, until about 9:15 PM. I was actually playing half-way decent, until about 9:15 PM. Part way through the first match my back started huritng a little bit, but i figured I play through it. During one of the games, I chucked a ball and had a nasty spasm go through my back that hurt really, really badly, to the point that I couldn't really stand up, sit down or move without a lot of pain. I called Kirk Vickers, he told me to ice it and come in in the morning.

Kirk is a good friend of mine who owns Triad Health and Fitness, a performance training center in Novi. He works with pro-athletes and guys like me. Kirk knew what the problem was (something to do with having twisted my spine weird and having my hips out of whack). He put me in some strange positions that I'm not sure they even do in prison, stretching and pushing my thighs in a way that hurt worse than the original back pain. I stood up and amazingly enough, most of the pain was gone.

I guess this means I'm getting old. I don't remember having back problems in 5th grade when I played dodge ball.

I'm now officially in last place in BOTH of my fantasy football leagues!

"The press has bravely and nobly eroded the public trust. What I'm advocating is the media come back and work for us again. ... The bias of the media is not liberal. It's lazy and sensationalist."

-- comedian JON STEWART, star Comedy Central's late-night sendup of television news, criticizing the mainstream media's coverage of politics.

Television Sends Out Distress Signal

This is a really interesting article from Howstuffworks.com on How Hangovers Work

I've been listening to messages from Rob Bell, the pastor of Mars Hills church in Grand Rapids, MI where my brother Jon goes to church. Rob and I both went to Okemos High School, he grew up right down the street from me. I saw him teach a couple of years ago at the Youth Specialties National Youth Workers Conference and was blown away by him. I've been listening to his stuff in my car and while exercising. I started listening to a series called Mastering the Art of Living. The first message deals with living in the present moment and I've come to realize how baldy I'm setup to do that. Between my treo with it's IM and E-Mail capabilities, my iPod, my car stereo, my TiVo, my cell phone I have a tough time taking 5 minutes of quiet in my day. Each morning, I take 15 - 30 minutes of quiet time, but even that, I have a tough time being in that moment and not thinking about the day before, the next day, or even my day that's going to start in another 30 minutes.

You can download mp3's of the last 12 weeks of messages here.

You can browse and download my personal collection of sermon MP3's from Mars Hill, Crossroads and Riverview here.

At the top of the list of blog's I will never read:
1. Barbara Streisand

I finally did it. I bought an iPod. In case you've been living in a cave, an iPod is a portable MP3 music player. Aside from playing music, it's also a social statement. Best I can tell, people who own iPod's are better than EVERYONE else in the world. The white headphones apparently are a statement in and of themselves that you are smarter, better, richer and have know more than the rest of the world. All very typical characteristics of an apple owner. I'm waiting to learn the secret handshake - and I've started giving the knowing head-nod to other iPod owners as I pass them in the airport. My Mac friend Noel believes that Jesus would own a Mac because they are both counter-cultural. On that note, so is smoking crack.

I was dancing with Emily (my 3-year old) this evening when she wrapped her arms around my legs and said, "Daddy, I want to dance like this." I got down on my knees and we danced around the family room. Her response with a giant smile: "Daddy, I'm dancing just like a princess." Made my night.

We had a pretty laid back weekend. On Friday night, we had a family night. We hung out in our hot tub for a while and then came in and played a few rounds of the game Caboodle.

On Saturday, I went to the MSU vs. Minnesota football game. Will, Brad, Jim (Brad's son) and I went to the game. The football was amazing (MSU scored 51 points) but the weather blew. 20mph winds coupled with rain and 39 degree weather make for great football weather - if you're in a dome. We ended up taking off before the half and heading over to watch the rest of the game in a nice warm bar.

Saturday evening we went out with the Niemi's and Girard's for dinner and to a comedy club. We went to Pronto! in Royal Oak for dinner - which was great, but had to many freaking options to feel like you're making the right choice. We went to the Comedy Castle (which Cathie's uncle used to own) where I laughed for 90 minutes straight, all while inhaling the same amount of second-hand smoke that you'd get over a 3 year period. We went back to Pronto! for dessert and then headed home.

Today after church, we did a whole lot of nothing. I laid on the couch and in moments of conciousness (napping) I watched the Lions game. For dinner, Madeline made up menus for everyone and we had a "Fancy Dinner". The menu consisted of appetizers (bacon), a main course (5 different types of pancakes), and beverages. Madeline dressed up in her holloween costume, which is a 50's soda-clerk outfit (that incidentally can easily be mistaken for a french maid outfit). She went around and took orders from everyone while I was the short-order cook. She served the orders and loved every minute of it

Nate continues to sell popcorn for his cub-scout pack. I'm not a big fan of the whole "sell crap for your organization" thing, unless it supports the boy scouts or girl scouts (and sometimes a youth group). I figure I pay tax dollars, so why supplement schools with my money for cheap crap? The best part is listening to him go through his sales pitch - as he describes the goremet (gourmet) popcorn with pek-ins (pecans).

Cathie and I watched the movie Saved tonight. It's a satire about Christians and it was painful to watch. It was a well done movie, but it hit close to home. It made painfull clear how we as Christians try and make our faith overly cool and shove it down others throats. I watched it from the inside out, but I wonder how someone who isn't a Christian would see this movie. I'm not sure I know. Some hilarious stuff in this movie, if you can step back far enough and watch it.

My little sister Susan is pregnant with her third baby! Congratulations Boom!

Dwight L. Moody said, "Of one hundred men, one will read the Bible; the ninety-nine will read the Christian."
Brennan Manning said, "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."
Dave Burchett said, "Christians, like physicians, should vow to do no harm. But forgive us, Lord. Because we do."

Good article entitled I am a Christian, and I suck:

Let's face it—to paraphrase Relevant author Matthew P. Turner, we all suck. No way around it—we are all messed up in one way or another when it comes to our relationships with others and how we deal with them. We've all at one time said something utterly stupid, done something hurtful or thought something we know we shouldn't have about a fellow brother or sister in Christ

As I've said before, Kevin Smith is a genius! Click here to download and watch his latest Jay Leno Roadside Attraction. This one involves him going to a Vegas impersonator's convention. Click here to see more about them.

Cool site on building potato guns. This guy is nuts.

Humerous web-site full of found notes.

Emily, Madeline and I went to build-a-bear last week and she built a stuffed dog. Emily's either really good at naming things, or really bad - not quite sure which. Everytime I ask her what the dog's name is, she comes up with a really strange one - She-ri, Ki-da, Say-de, etc. Her latest name for the dog - so-gay.

Our meeting in D.C. finished early, so we had some time to kill walking around the the city. It's a cool place to sight see, but there's a LOT of walking invovled. Technology has fixed that. You can now take Segway tours of the Washington D.C. Segways are those motorized two-wheel stand up things. Look at me, using my legs like a sucker!

Some random observations about D.C.:
1. The squirrels there have no fear. They will gang up on you and beat you down if they get you alone. No kidding.
2. It's a dull palce to people watch. The people are very plain and dull looking.
3. The E section of the yellow pages is about an inch thick. (hint: Escort services is under E)
4. Lots of people wear suits and ties there. Almost no one in the rest of the world still wear suits and ties
5. They have monuments there built for EVERYTHING imaginable.
6. Washington Dulles airport security is horribly slow and inefficient.
7. You can get great shell-fish in D.C. Especially at Ebbit's Grill during happy hour (4 - 6, 11pm-1am)
8. You can no longer tour the white house.



I drove past the CIA today,which was a big thrill for me for some reason.

I ran across this verse in 1 Timothy 1 this morning, which speaks to the contrasting views of of what outreach looks like in churches today:

The whole point of what we're urging is simply love - love uncontaminated by self-interest and counterfeit faith, a life open to God. ....Those who fail to keep to this point soon wander off into cul-de-sacs of gossip. They set themselves up as experts on religious issues, but haven't the remotest idea of what they're holding forth with such imposing eloquence. It's true that moral guidance and counsel need to be given, but the way you say it and to whom you say it are as important as what you say.

I've been trying to figure out my own outreach philosophy. Here's what I've come up with so far:
1. I need to be understand what God's done in my life - what does my salvation really mean to me?
2. I need to pray hard and listen often to what God's telling me.
2. I need to be willing to build authentic, loving relationships irregardless of where the other person is at spiritually and is not dependant on whether they ever move from that spot.
3. I need to be humble with my beliefs - understanding where God's truth and my perspective intersect, but keeping in mind that I only see a part of God's Truth (1 Cor 13:12)
4. I need to be able to ask good questions
5. I need to be willing to listen well

I got into Washington D.C. last night around 8:30. The hotel conciegre pointed us to a great bar across from the treasury building. After getting lost a few times (it looked really easy to find on the map), we found the place. Happy hours starts again at 11:00 and includes 1 lb lobsters for $10. It made for a great dinner.

When I got off the plane, my phone's instant messenger blasted a bunch of messages that had come through while I was in the air, including this one from my son Nate:
Hi Dad it is nathan. Dad love you. You are the best dad. You shud have been there at basketball with me. Why did you have to leave dad?

My hotel is nice (staying at the Capital Hilton) but it has the oldest alarm clock known to man. It's called the Ameriphone Alertmaster with Bed Shaker AM-3000. I couldn't figure out to set it, let alone how to use the bed-shaker. What is a bed-shaker, anyways?

I went running this morning and I'm in all day meetings downtown with a customer. I fly back tonight out of Dulles.

The whole family (including Will) went to the Pumpkin Patch this afternoon to pick pumpkins and run the corn maze. We went to the one on Six Mile and Curtis. Don't bother. The pumpkins were nice, but it was expensive. They charged you $5 just to get out to the pumpkin patch and the corn maze, let alone $5 a head for the Corn Maze itself.

Every year we go to pick pumpkins and the kids want the biggest pumpkins possible and I get stuck trying to carry them. This year, I had the genius idea of telling the kids they could get the biggest pumpkin out there, as long as they could carry it back to the tractor. After about 30 minutes of searching, they finally found their pumpkins. Nate could of cared less about the quality of the pumpkin, just the size. He must of tried lifting 30 different pumpkins. He finally found a huge one and somehow carried it out on his own. He wanted it badly.


You can see the rest of the pictures here.

Afterwards, we hung around checking out the gords and the goats and then went for Ice Cream. Nate and I later went up to sell pop corn for his Cub Scout Den. Imagine 8 kids out in front of a video store and everytime someone comes through the doors, they're mobbed by all of the kids, kinda like little Hare Krishnas. I tried to teach them the art of the negative reversal, a great sales technique, by having them stand there looking dejected, saying "There's probably no way you could buy any popcorn from us, is there?". It was genius.

We finished the evening off by watching the movie Second Hand Lions, which was phenomenal. It stars Robert Duvall, Michael Caine and Haley Joel Osment. It was a fantastic movie about a boy growing up with his two uncles, their understanding of their identities and the larger story they live in. It's worth buying. I want to watch it with Nate.

When I got home last night, we hung out together for a while, and then Cathie and I went on a date together to try and catch up. We had such a crazy week and weekend last week, that this was the first chance for us to be together in a while and have some quality time. We went out for coffee, went out to a movie and came home. We went to see The Forgotten. Good movie, pretty suspensful, mediocre ending.

Here's Me, Mark, Newton and Chris on our final night at the Peter's farm. I posted the pictures here, but they're probably only interesting to the four of us. Except for the picture of the bull and the really, really big spider, and the picture of me using the tractor for barn demolition... ok, maybe not that one.

So one last story about Newton. It turns out that back in '91, Newton was one of the few white rappers in the world, going by the name Rooster Hayes. He had a billboard top 10 song called Country is Cool, which you can download here. He toured and opened up for bands like Run D.M.C. Ya gotta listen to the song.

Noel put this online, and it's dead-on talking about the accent of someone from Michigan. Probably not worth reading unless you're from Michigan, but it's amazing how accurate it is.

We hung out last with Newton's family, who by their own admission are Southern Folks. One of the guys I met was Newton's brother-in-law, Jimmy, who's was exactly what you'd expect. I thought Newton had a thick southern accent but Jimmy would talk sometimes and I we'd just look at each other to see if anyone else understood it. Kinda like Hank's buddy in the show King of the Hill. He brought over some moonshine which he explained was "The kind that makes you slap yo momma". It was good, pretty smooth, direct from their neighbor's still. We also checked out one of his cotton fields and went and picked some cotton. Pretty cool for us city boys. We stopped into the local country store where we talked and joked with the locals for a while about us Yankees.

Newton, who's last name is Peters was telling us about his High School football career, which is a religion down here. The paper got wind that he wasn't going to play and had a headline "Wildcats to play with out peters" (which beats the headline "Wildcats to play with Peters out".

So more interesting stories on Newton. Newton is a tall, white, lanky southern fella who grew up in L.A. (Lower Alabama). Back in '91 he recorded a rap song called Country is Cool that actually got significant national airplay. You can download it here. He toured with the song, opening for groups like Run D.M.C. back in their heyday. He's a great guy with a great perspective on life and people. He can talk to absoloutely anyone and find some kind of common ground with them. He's got a million great stories and showed us amazing hospitality down South.

I'm in Florala, AL - the Crystal Meth capital of the world. I flew in to Fort Walton, FL last night and we stopped at the resturant Fudpuckers. Their big claim to fame is that you can feed live aligators. We walked in and were looking at all of these alligators, not sure if they were real. What's the logical thing to do? Throw pennies at them. Turns out, they were all real. We looked a couple feet away and there of course was a big sign that said "Reward for the arrest of people throwing foriegn objects or food at the alligators" with a suveillence camera right next to it. Oops.

I began this morning putting on make-up. Ok, I wasn't putting it on myself. I had a make-up artist caking on make-up before I was supposed to shoot my part of our commercial at a customer site here in Kansas City. After they did my make-up, they put my in front of lights and cameras for the taping. I had people constantly adjusting my clothes, my posture and make-up as we taped. I was interviewed and I would answer the question, kinda like the AT&T commecials with the talking heads. They're going to take my 30 minutes of video and probably use one minute out of it. It was horribly akward. I'm rarely at a loss for words, but this thing really threw me off. I felt like I had to come up with really meaningful, smart things to say, neither of which I normally have anyways, and even less so when I'm on camera.

I know I'm biased, but I think these pictures of the girls at the wedding are about as cute as it gets.

I'm heading out to Kansas City this morning. We're shooting a commercial for a customer today and tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm off to Florida, back friday evening. Our dodgeball team sucked last night, no thanks to me. I've learned that I'm not very good. Throwing the ball hard doesn't equate to accuracy, so just about everything I throw it I either miss, or have it get caught. I'm getting old. My arm was killing me by the end last night.

There was frost on my car this morning when I went to the gym at 5 freaking 30 this morning.

"You see this thing now where like Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi -- like I love all these guys as musicians -- they're gonna raise money for John Kerry. God bless 'em. But, before you go and do that, why don't these motherf**kers go over there and play for our soldiers in Iraq? I'm not vocal about my views on the war. I'm just vocal about my views on the troops...I do not believe that artists or actors and people should be out there like voicing their full-blown opinions on politics because, let's face it, at the end of the day, I'm not that smart of a guy. I play rock 'n' roll, that's what I do. Who would you trust to make your decisions, (Secretary of Defense) Donald Rumsfeld or the Dixie Chicks?" --Kid Rock

"You see this thing now where like Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi -- like
I love all these guys as musicians -- they're gonna raise money for John Kerry.
God bless 'em. But, before you go and do that, why don't these motherf**kers go
over there and play for our soldiers in Iraq? I'm not vocal about my views on
the war. I'm just vocal about my views on the troops...I do not believe that
artists or actors and people should be out there like voicing their full-blown
opinions on politics because, let's face it, at the end of the day, I'm not that
smart of a guy. I play rock 'n' roll, that's what I do. Who would you trust to
make your decisions, (Secretary of Defense) Donald Rumsfeld or the Dixie
Chicks?"

-- Kid Rock

I hate it when this happens.

Cathie, Will and I just got done watching Jersey Girl, a Kevin Smith movie. I liked the movie. Pretty non-Kevin Smith, but a nice, funny, warm movie. Kevin is my all-time favorite director/writer out there. If you watch the DVD, be sure and check out the special features section which has a great 30 minute conversation about almost nothing, between Ben Affleck and Kevin Smith. It also has all of Kevin's road-side attractions on the DVD that he does for Leno. You can download all of them on the View Askew site here.

We went to the much heralded Pumpkinfest in town (yes, only in South Lyon). It starts on Saturday with a big parade that everyone in town is in. Nate, Madeline and Emily were all supposed to be there at 8am for the parade (as it poured down rain), but as luck would have it, we had to be at the wedding. Darn.

Today was a beautiful day, so we went to the event. They had lots of inflatable games for the kids, including this cool Euro-Bunjee jumping thing. On a funnier note, they had a dog show, where people got to dress up both themselves and their dog in a costume. Some hilarious stuff to see, but it was just Emily and I checking it out, and a three year old wouldn't of gotten why it was so funny. Take this ninja boy and ninja dog for example:

What kind of fair is complete without cotton candy. Emily downed hers in a matter of minutes and acted like it was heroin ("ooooh, mom, this is soooo good."). The face tells the story (well, part of the story. It doesn't show the sugar-crash that happened 60 minutes later):

The big event finally happened! Jason and Jess got married (and we got our basement back and Will got his back)

The rehersal dinner was Thursday night. Emily and Madeline were the flower girls and I was an usher. We had dinner over at the Shinn's house afterwards. Jason's parents are two of the coolest parents you'll ever meet. They both radiate such an inner joy and kindness to them, they just seem thrilled to talk to you and care deeply about the people around them. Kinda like I imagine Jesus being when he talked to people. They seem to be thrilled with adding Jess to their family. Jess inherited a great set of in-laws.


On Friday, we had Jason's bachelor party. We kidnapped him Old School style. All of the guys piled into a van with panty hose on our heads, pulled up to Jason's house, grabbed him, duct-taped him, and threw him in the back. We headed over to Brad's cottage where we went tubing, jet-skiing, grilled out and played some cards. Brad Reid bought the food from GFS, so we ended up the following ingredients:

• 15 Pounds of Frozen Hamburger
• A 5 Lb bag of shredded lettuce
• 15 Full tomatos
• Buns
• A 5 lb block of cheese.

We all kicked in and got Jason a whole set of manly tools - every too you could need as a newlywed. We watched old school twice and laughed just as hard the second time around.

The next morning was the wedding. Madeline and Emily were so cute as flower girls, and Buck, Will and I looked pretty snazzy as ushers. There were a couple things of interest as I walked around the church. One was a picture on the "Wall of Fame" of old pastors:

The other was the fact that Lisa Whelchel, Blair, of facts of life is coming to their church, and I'm all set to get an autographed picture.

Lastly, I got my picture taken with Kenny Rogers:

It was a great wedding, especially for being thrown together in seven weeks (no, they're not pregnant, they just didn't want to wait any longer to have sex). Jess looked beauitful and feminine, Jason was able to work Dave Matthews into the whole deal. They're on their way to Cancun this morning, there for an entire week.

Here are more pictures from the event.

I'm constantly reminded by what a long term deal evangelism really is. There's a single mom in our neighborhood who we've gotten to know over time and invited to church a while back. She didn't really seem interested. Yesterday when Cathie was talking to her, she shared with Cathie that she and her daughter are interested in coming to church with us.

"I'm drinking to get a hangover so I'll have something to do during my day off tomorrow." Fred L. 44, drinking for the future at the Lion's Lair."
Just some of the wisdom quoted at Modern Drunkard Magazine Online

One of the guys I work with takes a lot of heat on having an outdated cell phone. He claims he had to upgrade it's version of DOS and sent me a copy of this picture.

Jason turned me on to these videos callled Red vs. Blue. It's hilarious. The author took clips from the video game Halo and dubbed audio to make these videos.

I just heard the Def Lepard song Photograph redone as a country song. I'm all for covers. Just not this one.

I've added this Logitech Harmony remote to my wish-list of cool things to get someday. I know that $249 is a lot for a remote control, but my system has gotten so complex that it's a little painful for most. I've got 4 separate inputs going into my TV (S-Video, , Component, DVI and Line Input) not to mention changing settings at a receiver level. This remote hooks into your computer via a USB cable and can be programmed to perform a set of functions at a task level (i.e. Watch TV) that will take you through changing the settings for every component in your system, as opposed to having to manually go through the steps involved in that event (i.e. Switch to DVI input, Change Receiver Audio output, turn on TiVo, turn on TV, turn on receiver, etc.).

I've been messing around with two software packages lately that are both pretty cool. One is called Pluck and the other called GIMP. Both are free, both are pretty cool.

Pluck is an RSS news reader that lets you easily read all of the blogs you keep up with on a regular basis in one easy place. That's fairly standard though. The nice thing is, it integrates right into Internet Explorer and gives you a nice interface that lets you move between computers without having to reset up your feeds. It also has a concept called Perches, that let you have reoccuring searches across news services, ebay, etc on a given product, company or topic. It pre-fetches all of these things and gives you one place to go. I like it so far. Downside is that it doesn't work with Firefox yet, which is my browser of choice.

The second product is called GIMP and is basically an open-source photo-shop type image editor. I haven't used it to it's fullest extent, but so far it's got a good interface, good functionality and is fairly easy to use.

I also got a cool ASUS pocket wireless router that's about the size of a pack of cigarettes that I can plug into any hotel room or conference room and have an instant wireless network without those painful cables.

I just put some of the pictures from Phoenix online.

Cathie and I got at 6 this morning to get out to Sedona to sight-see. My breath was literally taken away when we rounded the corner and saw all of the beautiful red-rock formations. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. We walked around Sedona for a while, picked up some souvenirs and then headed out on the Pink Jeep Tour. The tour was amazing. You're riding in this huge 4x4 jeep going through ridiculous terrain that a jeep just shouldn't be able to do. You're going up 60 degree angles, down 45 degree angles - crazy stuff. Our driver was a really interesting guy who shared all sorts of interesting facts about the terrain, the history, the water and the rock formations. The guy really knew his stuff - seemed like he'd be a neat guy to buy a beer and hear some great stories. He's been a guide in the rocky mountains various capacities for 14 years - grand canyon river guide, hunting guide and jeep guide.

Cathie and I got back to the Biltmore, hung out by the pool and had our "treatments". Cathie had a hot stone massage and I had a treatment that I'm not going to mention (no, it wasn't a high calonic) for fear of being mocked.

We fly out tomorrow on the 6:05AM flight to Detroit, which means we're going to have to get up around 4. Great. At least we'll be home in time for the Lions football game.

Last night we had an awards banquet at the Wrigley mansion (as in Wrigley's chewing gum fame). It was located up on a hill with the mountains surrounding it. We saw one of the most beautiful sunsets ever.


It's a great group of people on this team, and after working on this project for two years, a number of them have become great friends.



Matt, Ross (pictured above) are I have just started a competition that involves points for working out each day and for taking time praying and reading the bible each day. Pretty simple, but it just speaks to the friendship that we've developed that we're doing something like this together.

Cathie and I are heading to Sedona this morning to go on a Pink Jeep Tour which are supposed to be amazing.

I got up this morning about 6AM and hung out on my balcony watching the sun rise, drinking coffee and enjoying the weather. I had meetings from 8:30 - 12 and then hung out at the pool for a while. Cathie was at the pool and then had a facial and a pedicure. I had a stone massage this afternoon, which was great. It's like a normal massage, but with hot rocks stuck all over your body - but not in a bad way. I think I feel asleep at one point I was so relaxed. This has been a great getaway so far.

My Dad can't figure out why I keep a blog, and I started thinking about why I do it. Part of it is that I'm a person who loves stories, and I love to use this as a medium to share them. It keeps me from having to share the same story 400 times. On the downside, I don't know who reads it and when I share the stories, I'm either quickly interrupted and informed that they read it, or they placate me and nod their head, knowing the end of the story. To that note, I talked to a friend of mine, Mike Thompson, the other day. He told me "I know you, but you don't know me." I had no clue what this meant, and he explained that he'd been reading my blog and knew what was going on in my life. I told Mike to get a blog.

Cathie and I arrived in Phoenix yesterday. Cathie did her usual gig where she stays up until 5AM getting everything ready to leave - lists, itinerarys, backpacks, clothes - everything. We then got up at six and headed to the airport. Cathie rode in First Class while I was waaaaay back in coach. I had an exit row seat, which is normally good, excpet for this seat, which had the door protruding out in front of it and a small leak of very cold air. I was wrapped in blankets and my toes were numb by the end. I'd forgotten how much nice the first class flight attendants are to you. A friend of mine, Marge, upgraded both of us for our return flight. Thanks Marge!

This place is amazing. Our room is about 1000 square feet - huge! With a giant wrap-around private balcony that over-looks the pool, actually 7 different pools a a giant water slide and water fall. Everything about this place is beautiful. I took the above picture last night on our way to dinner, as the sun was setting. All of the grass here is manicured like a putting green. It's an entire campus, lots of pools, fountains, golf courses, etc.


I was in meetings from 12:30 - 5:00 yesterday while Cathie hung out by the pool. We had drinks and dinner with the team and then went swimming and hit the hot tub. I took this picture last night:

Hopefully today, we're done by noon today. We've got a big dinner tonight at the Wrigley mansion.

I just started watching the show Scrubs. I don't watch sitcoms. This is one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. I'm laughing non-stop throughout the whole show. I need to check out season one when and if it comes out on DVD.

Cool new technology I'm trying out that I got from Erik. It's been a super-top-secret search technology from Amazon that was just put out there to compete with Google. The theory is that Amazon will drive Google and Yahoo crazy enough with this stuff until their stock price falls enough for Amazon to buy them up. Check out the toolbar and search engine at A9.

I just got back from Washington D.C. I'm not sure what's going on there, but it was nuts. All of the rental cars were taken at every rental car place, and when I tried to get on an earlier flight, there were over 1,000 people in line to go through security. I hate that airport. Plus they have these goofy terminal shuttles that must have been designed in comittee. I flew out at 7AM and back at 10PM. Back at the airport tomorrow at 8AM.

My ticket was upgraded, but Cathie's isn't. She gets my seat, I get hers. Hopefully I'm sitting next to crying children while she's in the lap of luxury.

Cathie and I are leaving for Phoenix tomorrow. We're staying at the Biltmore, which is an amzing spa/resort out there. While I'm entertaining a customer, Cathie will be getting spa treatments. My mom is coming tomorrow to stay with the kids through Friday, Jess is staying with the kids Friday night and my brother-in-law Ed and his wife Stacy are with the kids Saturday and Sunday, when we get back. Things almost fell through with the arrangements, but Ed & Stacy bailed us out at the last minute.

Remeber that whole I found some of your life site I mentioned earlier? Hope you had a chance to check it out, because it's now GONE. Not sure why, but all that's left is an apology note. Bummer. It was damn funny.

The InformationWeek 500 report is out....Xerox came in at #9 (up from #220 last year). We are top of the Consulting and Business Services Industry sector (see table below). This year's criteria include "crisp and efficient tech strategies that cut costs and optimize productivity...with a focus on corporate governance ...and ROI."

Here lies the Florabama Lounge and Package Store . I was down in Mobile Alambama last year and had a chance to visit the legend, which is often mistaken as a shanty. It's been made famous by lots of artisits, particularly Jimmy Buffett's lyrics. Buffett is a regular, playing there all the time.

When I first walked in, I thought it was a liquor store, and a dive at that. I knew I'd heard of the place before, but couldn't place it until I walked through the place and saw famous artist's all over the place, including autographed lyrics sheets from different artists that talk about the bar. The owners have comitted to opening it back up.

Ever lost your digital camera? If so, what pictures were on it? One guy who found it has decided to provide the world with 227 days of entertainment. I Found Some Of Your Life will post a photo a day and accompanying fictional narrative for the next 227 days using the photos found on a digital media card left in a cab.

I laughed hard at this. Emily was watching Dragon Tales and came up to Cathie and said:
Emily: "Mom, I can't watch this show. It has a bad word in it."
Cathie: "What word is that, Emily?"
Emily: "Fart. It says "I wish, I wish with all my heart, to fly in dragons with a land of farts."
Cathie: Hiding laughter. "Sweetie, it says "Land Apart, not land of farts'.

Jess had a bachelorhood party on Saturday night. Cathie, Dana, Sherry, Sue, Jen & Lori bought Jess an outfit, did a makeover (complete with fishnet stockings and a shirt that read "I'm so Hot"). They took her out for a night on the town that involved a limo ride, dancing and gifts for use on her honeymoon.

We had a crazy week last week and an equally crazy weekend. Actually, Cathie had the crazy weekend, I pretty much sat home and watched a lot of sports on TV. We decided to sit home on Friday night, kick back and watcha movie. Saturday Cathie was out running errands to get ready for Jess's bachlorette party and wedding shower. I had some guys over to watch the disappointing MSU vs. Notre DAme game. On Sunday, Cathie put on Jess's wedding shower. I'm amazed at how much it takes to do such a simple thing. All-up, all-in, I'd guess that it took about fourty hours to coordinate and throw the shower. That seems like a ridiculous amount of planning. Guess that's why guy's don't have them. Sunday night, Cathie and I went on a date and reaquainted ourselves with each other.

For what it's worth, my fantasy football team toasted Matt Gielow's team - even though I had Roy Williams on the bench.

Cathie and I watched the movie Man on Fire with Denzel Washington. I haven't gotten into a movie like that in a while. Not to give too much away, but the movie is about an ex-special forces counter-insurgency guy who has hit bottom and ends up as a body guard for a young girl. Things go bad and he tries to make things right. The last half of the movie is about him pursuing justice and vengance. I don't think I've ever rooted so much for a movie character and wanted so badly for the bad guys to get what was coming to them. There's an amazing scene at the end of the movie that was such a great picture of what Jesus did on the cross for us. At the end, Denzel willingly walks across a bridge into the hands of the enemy in exchange for a hostage, knowing full well what's coming to him. The core message in this movie really struck me - a guy who believes he' s destined for hell, but it doing his best to reconcile himself for all the evil he's done in his life. In the end, he finds something bigger than himself and his alcoholism to live for and redeems himself through sacrifice.

Cathie and I watched the movie Man on Fire last night with Denzel Washington. It was one of the best movies I've seen in a while. (Spoiler Alert) The movie is about an ex-special forces assassin who becomes a body guard for a little girl. Things go south and he goes on the rampage. The best part of the movie for me was a scene at the very end where Denzel's character makes this amazing exchange of himself for a hostage. It's such a great picture of how Christ gave himself up for us, hands raised in the air, not resisting, knowing his fate in the end. It's a pretty violent flick, but I can remeber a movie where I was rooting aginst the bad guy more. It was a fine line between vengance and justice. I was rooting for both, probably leaning on the side of vengance.

Every now and then my kids come up with some great words that stick with me. Take for example:

• Baby Fighter - Great generic word that can be used as an insult, a complement or an explicative. Nate came up with this one.
• Stink Rat - A pillow fighting game that Nate and I play. It involves getting points for either sneaking up on and wacking someone with a pillow or launching a pillow from across the room.

The latest one comes from Emily:

• Ching Bonk - She and I were out on a bike ride last week and saw a squirrel. She came back and started talking about the Squirrel (Ching Bonk). It's a great word. You've gotta try saying it.
  

Here's the latest from my sister-in-law Beth's mission trip to Honduras:

We saw about 1300 patients today, probably about 150 to 200 per doctor. Needless to say, it was a busy day at the office. My office is on the bacony loft over looking the Enlaces Youth center. It consists of a table and chairs to talk, my instruments, and an air hockey table covered with a sheet for an exam table. (And there are no walls.) The weather is muy caliente. I am sticky all the time, but thank goodness for a warm shower. The people are so grateful even though they wait many hours in the hot sun to see us. It's really a great feeling.

My brothers, Dad and I went shooting sport clays at the Island Lake shooting range. I didn't win - I came in somewhere around the middle of the pack, pretty tight with everyone else, except for Kevin and my Dad, who did fairly well. If you've never shot sport clays, you stand in a blind and multiple clay pigeons (discs) are launched (by the same machine you see aimed at Will) in different patterns in the air for you to shoot. The person at the end with the most pigeon's shot, wins.

Great article from RELEVANT magazine :: I Don't Like Church Anymore: "I've come to expect the church to forge my spiritual development. Instead of working on my own prayer and devotional life, I want the church to do it for me. Please tell me I'm not the only one in the Body of Christ who has this problem. Please tell me there are other lazy people, who come to church on Sunday and expect to be filled up for the week ahead."

I just added a great, free blog stat counter called StatCounter.com, which gives me all sorts of info on the usage patterns from my blog, including where people are visiting from. I have no idea who actually reads this. Not sure if I want to know, really. Leave a comment or drop me a note if you're one of those people that I have no idea read this.

Here's a strange story about a man being sentenced to probation Monday for snatching the hairpiece off the head of another man at a restaurant. The story's really not all that interesting, but the timing is ironic. A friend of mine was sharing with me an interesting story from the Bible that shows one way to deal with this situation: 2 Kings 2:23-25

23Elisha was on his way to Bethel and some little kids came out from the town
and taunted him, "What's up, old baldhead! Out of our way, skinhead!" 24 Elisha turned, took one look at them, and cursed them in the name of GOD. Two bears charged out of the underbrush and knocked them about, ripping them limb from limb--forty-two children in all!

I found the story pretty wild and obscure. I had no idea it was in there. Bible lesson for today - if you make fun of someone, you may get eaten by a bear.

This is my sister-in-law Beth (Jon's wife) holding a peas. Apparently in Korea, dried peas are a snack worth of being called airline food. Beth's over in Hondorus on a missions trip right now. She's a doctor, and went over there with a group of doctor's to help the poor and hurting. She's got her own interpreter. Pray for her. (Beth, not the interpreter. Well, okay, the interpreter too.)

My friend Will has The Gout. Will's the second person I've known with this disease. If he's going to go and get an odd-ball disease, he should have gone with some more like scurvy. I'm not saying it's the case here, but apparently large quantities of beer is one of the causes of Gaut.

I was a self-righteous weenie todya. My internet connection went down today and I was pissed. The speed on my connection was slow, at about .5% of what it should be - 3k/sec, which is slower than dial-up. I was on the phone all morning with SBC trying to get it resolved. Since I'm a computer guy, I obviously know more than them (or so I was thinking) as I explained to them that I'd changed nothing at home, therefore it must be their fault. They eventually sent a guy out who did all the line analysis and tracked it to an internal problem. Impsosible, I've done nothing. I've only got one phone plugged in, so it can't be my problem. As I went to unplug that one phone, I noticed that I have three TiVo systems hooked up. I disconnected my new TiVo system and lo-and-behold, it worked. I learned about the importance of putting filters on your line with a DSL connection and that I don't know everything in the world. Probably be a good one to write down somewhere where I can see it on a regular basis.

My brother jon turned me on to this ridiculos paintball gun being sold on ebay.

Good article about two technologies I love dearly: Why Netflix Can't Save Tivo.

This is a blog I read periodically. It belongs to Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and lead on his own reality show. He loves himself, but he's pretty honest in his writing.

Did you know that you can get a Harley Davison Sporster for only $6,495 . None of us believed my brother Jon when he told us this, so he sent out proof.

On a side note, all of my brothers (Kevin, Dan, Dad, Jon, Will) are going shooting this weekend. We're shooting sport clays at the local Island Lake Gun range nearby. It's got a great course. I'm either shooting really well, or really badly. I can usually tell within the first few shots.

I just got my HDTV Tivo hooked up and after seeing the picture quality of HDTV, I'm seriously considering quitting my job so that I can focus more on television (Oh wait, that's what Will and Jason do). I feel like a kid whose been playing in mud puddles and was all of the sudden shown the beach at the ocean. I was watching football tonight and The Tonight Show, both in HDTV. I'm giddy as a school girl. Tomorrow, the guys come to put the new DirecTV dish on my roof so I can pull down the HDTV satellite images. The nice thing with HDTV is that it's digital and you actually get a higher definition picture over the airwaves than you do over the sattelite or cable. The DirecTV Tivo unit is very cool, integrating the local broadcast and satellite channels together nicely, so I can record from either.

This article challanged me to look at my own worship: LeadershipJournal.net - It's All About Who, Jesus?:

When we're not affirming God for how well we're nurtured, our songs often
congratulate ourselves on how well we respond to God's grace. Have you noticed
how much we sing about how loud or passionately we sing? We talk a lot about
what we're going to do usually in the singular: I will worship, I will praise
you, I will bow down, etc., etc. One beautiful and well-intentioned song even
tells us that God thinks of 'me above all.' As my professor friend says,
'Begging your pardon: the only person who thinks of Me above all is Me.

Check out Jimmy Buffett's concert rider. Each concert involves 30 cases of Corona, distributed to every bus, van, car, room and stage. Amazing.

Check out the Smokinggun.com's collection of documents. These are complaints from people who've had interactions on the New Jersey turnpike with the toll-takers.

My brother Jon turned me on to this Bible review on Amazon (It's the third one from the top if you don't believe me):

At first, I was not sure if I was Extreme enough to understand this Extreme Teen Bible. I questioned my Extremeness and wondered if Jesus would accept someone as un-Extreme as myself. However, after reading the Extreme Bible I can say that only through Jesus can true Extreme-ness be reached, and that through Jesus even the least Extreme can find the true light of Extremeness and truly excellent righteousness! Now, I kick it with God all the time Forget, Snoop Dogg; Jesus (or Master J as I call him, we tight) truly is the most Extreme of them all, amen!
Don't you wish you could be Extreme too?
Read the Extreme Teen Bible and kick it with Jesus!JESUS CHRIST!
CAN I GET A "WHOOP WHOOP"?

This site is a collection of really, really bad senior high school pictures.

I was getting my shoe's shined today at the airport while sitting next to Rick Mahorn. Rick was a part of the Detroit Piston's bad boy era. He's a little heavier than the 255 he was at when he played for Detroit. I could think of absoloutely nothing worthwhile to say to the guy.

I finally pulled the trigger and bought an HDTV DirecTV TiVo system. It's got two tuners and allows me to simultaneously record HD programming over the air and off the dish. The picture quality of HDTV is mind-blowing. I can record 200 hours of normal television or 30 hours of HDTV. I'd been waiting for a long time to buy either an ATSC tuner, but I wanted the TiVo capabilities. This is the first unit like this I'm aware of. DirecTv has to come out and put a new dish on my house to support the unit, since it requires three LNBs on the dish.

We were at my parents house today with the whole family, except for Will. His IB syndrome was acting up on him. We celebrated Cathie, Kris and Dan's birthdays. Per the picture, Jon thought he should be the one to blow out the candles. We had our normal water-fight, we hung out and ate a lot. The guys made their ususal best-buy run while the kids all played together and were spoiled by Grandma. My brother Dan had just gotten back from China and brought lots of stuff for the kids, including Yu-Gi-Oh cards, which they loved. As a gift, he received this giant box of Moon Cakes. It was huge, done in ornate gold-leaf packaging, and turned out to be nothing but a glorified fruitcake (the moon pie, not Dan). It had something that resembled a worm in it, but Kris was the only one bold enough to eat it.


Shortly after we cut the cake, Jon thought he should be the first to get a piece. My sister in-law Kris proceeded to grind the cake into his face, leaving a large chunk up his nose. You can see the rest of the pictures here.

The kids start school tomorrow and I'm off to Kansas City for a couple of days. Yeehah!

My bother Dan just got back from China. He took a picture of this Starbucks there, and a pay toilet immediately behind it. They can't make the toilet free when they're charging $4.00 for a Latte?

We've had a really busy labor-day weekend so far. I flew back from Rochester on Friday afternoon, and was able to get on standby for an earlier flight through Detroit. Problem was, I couldn't get all the way back to Lansing where I'd flown out of (don't ask me why). The only thing I really needed there was my car. Instead of sitting in the Detroit airport for 6 hours, Will came and picked Bill and I up, getting me home about 6 hours earlier than planned. I was beat. I came home and crashed, while Cathie and the kids were swimming at her parents.

On Saturday, Cathie and I met one of the interim-pastor candidates for Crossroads, named Shan. I really dug the guy. When we first started the whole pastoral search thing, my criteria was that I wanted someone who'd come out of a youth ministry background that had the wisdom that goes with being an experienced pastor. This guy's got both, plus he kinda reminds me of Mike Yaconelli when he talks about what the church should be. He's got his finger on the culture around him, likes to have fun and seems to have a great grasp on what the kingdom of good and the church are all about. He's the kind of guy you'd enjoy sitting down and having a beer with and hanging out. My only concern was that he was very evasive when I asked him what super power he'd choose, if he could choose from any of them. He wanted to have the super powers of the shadow, but Jason explained to me that the Shadow had crazy tibetan mind control powers.


From there, we went to Brad's Cottage to enjoy the end of summer. Brad, Will, Ted and I tried tubing at first, but the boat just couldn't pull that much weight. We ended up going about 5 mph. We eventually got the big four-man tube going where Brad, Eli, Ted and I beat the crap out of each other, throwing each other off at high speeds. The lake was pretty busy, and we were constantly being thrown off and picked up as boats dodged us. At one point, I was floating in the water waiting for the boat and a pontoon boat filled with a big group came by. They asked if I wanted a lift, and proceed to throw me a beer and a jello shot while I waited to get picked up.


On Sunday, Crossroads had a huge picnic - complete with big bouncy things. They had this bunjee rope course that hooked you into a harness while you ran forward as far and fast as you could. When you reached the end of the line, you snapped back - hard. Hard enought to flip you if you did it right. We set money at the end, and if you could go far enough to reach it - it was yours to keep. They finished the picnic off with some fun family games, but we had to head out early to go to Cathie's parents.


Cathie's grandparents were in town, and we hung out with a bunch of family at their pool. It was a perfect day for it - hot and humid, and the pool felt great. The kids were in the water pretty much the whole time. I was amazed that my daughter Madeline (age 6) can do a flip off the diving board (that's her mid-air, above). I was messing around with my camera, taking some pretty cool pictures of Cathie's brother, dad and the kids jumping off the diving board (Those are my father-in-law and brother-in-law in mid-air). We hung out there until about 8, picked my car up from the airport and headed home.


We got home and watched the movie The Big Bounce. It blew.

Bill was so kind to share the story of my airport incident, so here's a story that I found pretty funny. On Thursday, our group from work had a team building activity near Lake Ontario in Rochester, NY. We were at a park hanging out and a group of us started kicking a soccer ball around. Bill happened to be on his cell phone on a conference call while this was going on, kicking the soccer ball as he talked. About 10 minutes in, someone lobs the soccer ball in the air and bill tries to stop it with his chest. He misjudged the distance. The ball hit him square in the junk as everyone looked on and he doubled over and tried to continue his conference call. I find this kind of thing funny. Is it just me?

I'm in Rochester until Tomorrow in planning meetings, meeting some of the other senior team from around the organization. Bill was able to tell the "Airport" story to just about everyone there. As he told it each time, it got better and better. By the end, it was a 96oz. tube of KY Jelly and I got a full body cavity search.