Jon, Dan and I headed down to the infamous Beale St. Downtown to hear the Blues. As the movie goes, 'No one gets out of here without singing the blues', but since we were with Dan, thankfully we did (Today is Dan's b-day, so we took the appropriate care of him).
Dan has been helping Jon with projects around the house and I've been working on Jon and Beth's computers. According to Kris, Dan isn't very good at screwing or hammering, but he's very good at sawing.
We came downtown to The Peabody to see the famous march of the ducks at 5:00. The ducks march from the fountain, through the lobby and up the elevator to their palace on the roof.
Jon and Beth have two weiner dogs that have finally been socialized enough not to bite the kids, much to Emily's delight. The girls have been playing with the dogs like their own personal puppies. The girls haven't put them down yet.
Memphis has these giant Circadia bugs, about two inches long that chirp very loudly all night. They're creepy looking things, but over time I trained this one to sit on my shoulder and do tricks.
We went downtown to the Mississippi Riverwalk, a to-scale replica of the old lady, complete with bridges and towns. It's about 100 degrees out and the kids can walk in the mock river the whole way down.
We left at 5am and we're almost into Tennessee, stopping in Kentucky for lunch. We've passed Big Bone Lick State Park which is next to the ctown of Beaverlick and south of Rabbit Hash.
I've been telling my friend Ted that he needs to do something worthwhile to make my blog and he's finally done it. Through back channel connections Ted was able to score tickets to see the taping of the Daily Show Spin-Off 'The Colbert Report' with Stephen Colbert. It's showing tonight on Comedy Central, so set your Tivos to tape.
We were very disappointed to learn from the latest CT scan that some new spots were apparent on the liver. In March, spots on the liver were found, but they were infection and near as could be determined, not malignant. We were hoping for the same this time, thinking infection is easier to treat. However, we learned that the spots on the liver are malignant.
We have spent the last two weeks waiting for our oncologists (one at Sparrow Regional Cancer Center in Lansing and the other at U of M Regional Cancer Clinic in Ann Arbor) to determine the best course of action. We learned today that Lynn will begin receiving two chemo treatments simultaneously- one by pill twice daily and the other by infusion once every three weeks. A port will be surgically implanted later this week for this infusion.
This will not be easy for Lynn as they both have serious side affects; nausea, loss of appetite, hair loss, loss of taste, etc. Lynn has been such an inspiration to all of us for her determination to beat this cancer. We pray that this is the treatment that will put this cancer in remission.
Lynn started physical therapy at home a couple weeks ago. She does some stretching and muscle building exercises. She is very dedicated to doing this on a daily basis even though she becomes very sore from doing them.
There's an ongoing joke at work that one of my friends and co-workers, Greg Kandra looks just like Kevin Covais from American Idol. I got this e-mail today, picturing Greg and his son. The resemblance is striking.
I get home tonight around 2AM from Seattle and then leave tomorrow on
vacation. I've got my e-mail box cleaned out and I'm ready to take a
break. My internal clock is already off by three hours, so I'll be
golden for vacation. I'll be blogging from my phone if the cell
coverage works on the west side of the state. We're staying at Will's
Mom's cottage out in the Whitehall area. We're going to spend 5 days
hanging out at the lake, going to the dunes and spending time as a
family. On Tuesday we're heading to Michigan Adventure Amusement Park
for the day. It's the best option for $20/person. You get
roller-coasters and a water park, all in the same day.
The church exists primarily for the well being of everyone who is not a part of her.There's this scary opinion out there of people that say, "In order to really be a Christian, you must hold the same political beliefs as I do, because I care more about this area than you do, and that makes me more of a christian."
-Rob Bell
What if we could be the kind of church where in a broken, fractured culture where there are all of these debates, opinions and television networks devoted to people ripping each other's head's off, What if we could be the kind of church where the protestor and the solider came together at the cross saying, "We have a bunch of things that we disagree on, but between us we have the resurrected Jesus and that's bigger and that's better. " What if the church could be the kind of place these people socially, economically, educationally, politically are all over the spectrum but they have this unity that can't be explained and it's so powerful."
Nate's spending the night at a friend's house tonight as a part of a birthday party. I just got this picture via e-mail from the parent hosting the event. Thanks Jen! This kind of picture makes a parent proud.
9-10Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.
11-13Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.
14-16Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.
17-19Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. 'I'll do the judging,' says God. 'I'll take care of it.'
20-21Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.
I got up early and met up with John, my co-worker who came in from Hawaii at 5am. We hoofed it around town to get some coffee (there is a coffee shop every ten feet) and I was hoping to see some fish tossing at the market, but it was too early. It's overcast and cold, but it's a cool downtown.
The Kurt family (My fam, Will & Dan)showed up today to help Cathie's brother Ed and wife Stacy move. They had most of the stuff in 'boxes', except for the stuff that wasn't. There was a mix-up with the moving truck, so we started moving stuff to the front of the house to be ahead of the game when it arrived. Dan and Will decided that it would be easier to lounge around and give each other rub-downs instead of pitching in. The truck never showed, so they felt justified in their slothfulness.
Ever seen one of those waterfall murals in the mall kiosks that are backlit and kind of look like they're moving? Dan's holding one of those. It happens to be cracked, but Ed didn't want to let go of it in the move, because he's holding out hope that he'll eventually get a new piece of glass for it. The rest of the lawn is covered in boxes. After we found out we weren't getting a truck today, we loaded the rest of the stuff in the garage so they could finish clearing out the house. If Dan and Will had their way, we would have just sat around and done nothing. It's sad that my father never raised them better.While waiting to board my flight, I won a game of solitaire on my phone. This is probably the third time ever, and the first time in at least 10 years. My family must be so proud.
Maddie lost her first tooth today, with a little help from her big brother. Nate tied a string to her tooth, the other end to the door - and slammed it. The tooth went flying and was lost temporarily until Cathie found it in a shoe. I talked to Nate today and he explained to me that if this didn't work, he was going to tie the string to the fan and turn it on.
"The philosophy dominating the business today is 'relational' ministry, which means not so much using teen lingo or dressing cool but spending quality time with young people and understanding the morally nuanced, complex world in which they live. "
"In June, an authoritative study in the American Sociological Review found that the average American had only two close friends in whom they would confide on important matters, down from an average of three in 1985. The number of people who said they had no such confidant soared from 10 percent in 1985 to nearly 25 percent in 2004; an additional 19 percent said they had only one confidant -- often their spouse."
I heard a commercial on the radio in topeka, KS that made me laugh:
97.3, The Laser.. The Choice for cool moms everywhere.
Storms in Texas delayed my flight to Oaklahoma via Houston so that I wouldn't of made my meeting tomorrow. It took an four very helpful Continental reps to figure out that I should fly out how to get me there on time via Southwest. I now leave 3 hours later, have a direct flight and get in an hour sooner, just not in first class. I can live with that.
Lately, I've been
Livin' in my head
The rest of me is dead,
I've (I'm) dying for truth.
Make me, believe,
No more left and right,
Come on take my side,
I'm fightin' for you,
I'm fightin' for you.
My Dad, Dan, Kevin, Will, myself and all nine of the kids met up in Brighton and my Dad took us all to see the movie Barnyard. We then came back to our house for pizza and to hang out. My nephew Drew is spending the night. Will hung out afterwards and we hung out talking. Emily took full advantage of Uncle Will being there and conned him into playing a few games with her and reading her a bedtime story.
The megapixel myth was started by camera makers and swallowed hook, line and sinker by camera measurebators. Camera makers use the number of megapixels a camera has to hoodwink you into thinking it has something to do with camera quality. They use it because even a tiny linear resolution increase results in a huge total pixel increase, since the total pixel count varies as the total area of the image, which varies as the square of the linear resolution. In other words, an almost invisible 40% increase in the number of pixels in any one direction results in a doubling of the total number of pixels in the image. Therefore camera makers can always brag about how much better this week's camera is, with even negligible improvements.
On a side note, the people in the class loved the dollar-store toys, including the porcelain orange.
I'm in Columbus today to conduct training for a new offering my team is rolling out across the country. I was on the phone with Ken Buck when he mentioned that Mike Dicurci lives in Columbus. I gave him a call, and we got together for a beer and to catch up. Mike just got his masters in Tuba and his wife is getting her PhD in English from Ohio State. We had a good time catching up, talking about church stuff, camp and youth group stuff. I got to know Mike through Buck at camp Velocity over the years and Mike and I get together on average once a year when either of us is in town.
