I've been re-reading The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis. It's about a fictional bus ride from Hell to Heaven, where the passengers are allowed to walk freely around the outskirts of Heaven for a day and decide whether they'd like to "stay on" permanently.

There's a great part of the story that deals with our choices and our addictions. Here's an synopsis of it:

One of the passengers, an oily man who has decided to leave and is headed back to the bus. Sitting on his shoulder is a little red lizard, twitching its tail like a whip and whispering things in his ear. The man turns his head to the reptile and snarls, "Shut up, I tell you!"

Just then one of Heaven's radiant angels sees the man. "Off so soon?" he calls.

"Well, yes," says the man. "I'd stay, you know, if it weren't for him," indicating the lizard. "I told him he'd have to be quiet if he came. His kind of stuff won't do here. But he won't stop. So I'll just have to go home."

"Would you like me to make him quiet?" asks the angel.

"Of course I would", says the man.

"Then I will kill him," says the angel, stepping forward.

The man panics at the thought of permanently losing the lizard and the sweet fantasies the creature whispers in his ear. But he is tired of carrying him around. He dithers back and forth between the two choices. Solemnly, the angel reminds him he cannot kill the lizard without his consent. And yes, it will be painful for the man; the angel refuses to soften the truth. Finally, in anguish, the man gives his consent, then screams in agony as the angel's burning hands close around the lizard and crush it.

"Ow! That's done for me," gasps the man, reeling back.

But then, gradually but unmistakably, the man begins to be transformed. Bright and strong he grows, into the shape of an immense man, not much smaller than the angel. And even more surprisingly, something is happening to the lizard, too. He grows, rippling with swells of flesh and muscle, until standing beside the man is a great white stallion with mane and tail of gold.

The new man turns from the horse, flings himself at the feet of the Burning One, and embraces them. When he rises, his face shines with tears. Then in joyous haste the young man leaps upon the horse's back. Turning in his seat he waves a farewell. And then they are off across the green plain, and soon among the foothills of the mountains. Like a star, they wind up, scaling what seem to be impossible steeps, till near the dim brow of the landscape, they vanish, bright themselves, into the rose brightness of that everlasting morning.

I can think of a lot of areas of my life that follow this story. I've got things that I choose to allow to remain in my life, because I don't really believe I can get along without them. Sometimes I have the strength to choose, other times I don't. A lot for me boils down to how much I believe that that God REALLY wants whats best for me. I believe it in my head, but my actions show a different set of beliefs in my heart.

Jason shared this with me. I couldn't make something this dumb up.....
The Prayer of Jabez; A Contemporary Musical
Makes you wonder why Jason was searching for this....

I'm flying out to Kansas City this afternoon. Cathie's flying in to Kansas City Friday afternoon and I'm going to take her on a tour of Park University where I've been doing a lot of work over the past year and a half. Friday night we've got a black tie banquet to go to and then we're flying home Saturday morning. Should be fun. The customer's that I work with are looking forward to meeting Cathie, and I'm looking forward to giving her a chance to see where I've been spending my time and giving her a chance to put faces to the names. They're really great people out at Park and I've developed some friendships there that go beyond the work side of things.

Probably should strike this from your list of memorization verses
Ezekiel 23:20
There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.

I'm learning just how expensive daughters can be - Madeline's got a dance recital for her dance class coming up:
* Dance Costume - $75
* Tickets to recital - $10/person
* Copy of video of recital $30 (No video taping allowed)

This in addition to the cost of the dance class. Ok, I'm done whining.

My company (Xerox Global Service,s Inc.) has a commercial.

Apparently, I'm much healthier than I thought. According to this article , picking your nose and eating it is one of the best ways to stay healthy, says a top Austrian doctor.

Innsbruck-based lung specialist Dr Friedrich Bischinger said people who pick their noses with their fingers are healthy, happier and probably better in tune with their bodies. He says society should adopt a new approach to nose-picking and encourage children to take it up. 'With the finger you can get to places you just can't reach with a handkerchief, keeping your nose far cleaner. And eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body's immune system.'"

Jason sent me the preview for the new movie Dodgeball. "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball".

The weather's been great. Nate and I went out today and picked up a hockey net so we could start playing some street hockey. The girls and I went for a long walk outside. Will took Nate up to the Tennis courts to play tennis before he starts his lessons on Monday. They played for over and hour and a half, after which Will took him for slurpees. Just one more reason the kids call him Uncle Will.

I'm back to journaling again in the mornings... It's the quietest time of my day, probably the only time where I don't have some kind of music, phone, television or children coming at me. I'd done it for months on end and all of the sudden stopped, I think when I started blogging more. Blogging's great, but I don't go to a soul level in my blog. I was doing an online private blog for myself, but found that I need to distance myself from technology for a few moments in my day to quiet my soul enough to think and listen to God.

Religious vision that awakens basic values can enable us to transcend narrow self-interest and embrace the common good rather than reducing things to their lowest common denominator and negotiating factional interests.
Jim Wallis, from THE SOUL OF POLITICS http://sojo.net/

Good article:
Jesus loves adulterous people. Jesus also loves His radiant, holy, and blameless bride. We are one and the same.

Sara sent me this list of quality consultant speak:
BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.
SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.
ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.
SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.
CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.
PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.
MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.
SITCOMS: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.
STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiney.
SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.
XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.
IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The O.J. trials and Michael Jackson's affairs are examples.
PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.
ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested document could not be located.
GENERICA: Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, etc.
OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake.
CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously passing gas while passing thru a cube farm, then enjoying the sounds of dismay and disgust.

Jess and I were talking last night about a couple verses (Genesis 6:4, Numbers 13:33 ) in the bible that I'd just skipped over in the past. The verses reference fallen angels (called Nephilim, which means fallen ones) and humans getting it on, and creating a giant race of people. I started looking around and found this article on Giants in the Bible. This is some crazy stuff, I'd of thought someone was nuts if they tried to convince me this was there... Jess brought up the idea that this idea gives credence to the City of Angels movie premise that an angel would leave heaven to be with a woman.

KRT Wire | 03/17/2004 | Stamford, Conn.-Based Xerox Kicks off Office Makeover Contest: "Spaces,' 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy' and 'Extreme Makeover.' Now, Stamford-based Xerox is clamoring to join the makeover frenzy.
Xerox, together with Entrepreneur Magazine, kicked off the nationwide 'Help! My Office is Obsolete!' makeover contest yesterday.
You don't have to live in an unstylish home or want a quick botox fix to qualify for this makeover. One only needs to work in an outdated office. The contest winner will receive a complete office makeover, including state-of-the-art technology and a sleek new look, courtesy of Xerox"

Things are starting to smooth out a little in my new job. I'm getting a better handle on the upper and lower boundries of the job and the people I'm working with. It's interesting overseeing engagements and people from the west coast. I ended up on conference calls on Monday evening until 8PM. I was able to turn around and schedule a call at 5:30 AM the following morning with the same team, which evens things out a bit. I've doubled the amount of time I spend on conference calls each day, but I still wake up each morning looking forward to my job and working with the people I work with.

I ended up buying the Plantronics Wireless Headset for $129 on eBay.

Cathie and I had dinner last night with Jeb McGruder. Jeb was part of Nixon's electrion campaign and the "George Stephanopoulos" of the Nixon administration. He went to prison as a part of the Watergate scandal. It was an interesting conversation, talking him about the personalities of the Nixon administratin (especially G. Gordon Liddy), Nixon himself and the current presidential campaigns. Jeb's been in the news recently with his claim that Nixon himself had actually ordered the Watergate break-in.

I stole this from Noel's blog, taken from Protestants for the Common Good:

The Presidential Prayer Team is currently urging us to: "Pray for
the President as he seeks wisdom on how to legally codify the
definition of marriage. Pray that it will be according to Biblical
principles. With any forces insisting on variant definitions of
marriage, pray that God's Word and His standards will be honored by
our government." This is true.

Any good religious person believes prayer should be balanced by
action. So here, in support of the Prayer Team's admirable goals,
is a proposed Constitutional Amendment codifying marriage entirely
on biblical principles:

A. Marriage in the United States shall consist of a union between
one man and one or more women. (Gen 29:17-28; II Sam 3:2-5)

B. Marriage shall not impede a man's right to take concubines in
addition to his wife or wives. (II Sam 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron
11:21)

C. A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a
virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed. (Deut
22:13-21)

D. Marriage of a believer and a non-believer shall be
forbidden. (Gen 24:3; Num 25:1-9; Ezra 9:12; Neh 10:30)

E. Since marriage is for life, neither this Constitution nor the
constitution of any State, nor any state or federal law, shall be
construed to permit divorce. (Deut 22:19; Mark 10:9)

F. If a married man dies without children, his brother shall marry
the widow. If he refuses to marry his brother's widow or
deliberately does not give her children, he shall pay a fine of one
shoe and be otherwise punished in a manner to be determined by law.
(Gen. 38:6-10; Deut 25:5-10)

G. In lieu of marriage, if there are no acceptable men in your
town, it is required that you get your dad drunk and have sex with
him (even if he had previously offered you up as a sex toy to men
young and old), tag-teaming with any sisters you may have. Of
course, this rule applies only if you are female. (Gen 19:31-36)

Small World. With my new job, I now have an assistant who works out of Los Angeles. The amazing thing is that she grew up about two blocks from me as a kid and went to the same elementary school and junior high school, a year ahead of me. She's doing a great job teaching me how to have an assistant and be more productive because of it. I can now say "Have your people call my people".

I'm checking out thsi very cool Plantronics Wireless Headset system. It's a wireless system that would interface in with my office phone so I could answer the phone anywhere in the house, and even remotely lift the handset with the "automatic handset lifter". Since I've taken my new position, I've been on the phone at least 7 hours a day, when I'm in the office. Technology always makes it less painful. I found the handset along with the lifter on eBay for around $150.