Thursday, January 31, 2008

LOST is Found

Tonight might be the most important night ever for the show LOST. All this unnecessary anticpation due to the writer’s strike has kept us on our toes. We watched the last two episodes of last season on ABC last night. They had a pop-up video type thing going on at the bottom of the screen that was helpful for getting back into the story line. We have waited so long for this show, and tonight our waiting will be over.

Why is this the most important night ever for the show? First of all, we’ll know if the fan-base has hung around after all this time. I’ve talked to a few friends who loved the show, but do not plan to get back into it. Second, we’ll find out if they can live up to their cliffhanger ending last season and continue with the momentum. Third, we’ll see if a show that doesn’t revolve around power-women (i.e. Desperate Housewives, Lipstick Jungle, Cashmere Mafia, Big Shots—haha) can still survive on TV. Fourth, they’ll find out if showing the premier trailor 50 times a day works.

If you are teetering on the edge of getting back into it or not getting back into it, you should get back into it. We need you to watch so the show will go on. We have purely selfish motives here.

In other news, Tom Petty is playing at the Super Bowl and is also going back on tour. We will see Tom and the band in August in St. Louis.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Ending the Wednesday Rebellion

Our one year streak of missing Wednesday night church ended last week when we attended a class that presents Gray Chapman’s latest video series, “A Growing Marriage.” Somebody once said to do at least one marriage enrichment type activity a year where you go to a class or a weekend or Marriage Mentoring: Twelve Conversations. We think it a good idea--good enough to end our rebellion against Wednesday night church. However, LOST, when it comes back on, will make it hard to go (especially after the incredible finale last season), but perhaps we can withstand the urge to stay home and give el diablo a foothold on our hearts.

As goofy as marriage videos usually are, this one is quite bearable. Gary Chapman is engaging and honest about marriage. He’s not preaching at you to have a perfect marriage, he just wants you to pursue the possibility of things being better. Anyway, we are excited to do this series and hopefully grow our marriage. Even though a child would probably make our marriage better, we are willing to try a video series! (Please read that in the context of sarcasm.) By the way, there is plenty of room in the class for more couples!

Friday, January 11, 2008

Does Your Dog Eat Fish Flakes?

Our’s does! Our neighbors told us last night that two separate times Cali ate an entire thing (about the size of a coke can) of fish flakes when they weren’t home. Their dog helped, of course, but Cali was the instigator. The second one wasn’t even opened yet, and they did not figure Cali would do it again. Somehow she got the flakes off the top of the aquarium and indulged herself. It is just hard for me to imagine dogs eating fish flakes.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Going Pro

Yeah, we go to our jobs as professionals and punch the time clock, but our real ambitions lie in going pro in Wii Sports. Last night Monica went pro in tennis and I went pro in bowling. Monica is now a pro in tennis and bowling, and so am I. Now, we have bowling balls with stars on them! It just feels good to give yourself to something larger than yourself. All the other Miis look up to us and want to have pro status like us. It can get to you if you’re not careful.

However, this is no reason to relax . . . You can lose your pro status if you don’t play up to your pro standard. You basically lose pro points if you do not bowl over a 180 or so. This is some serious pressure. In tennis you don’t get pro points for winning, you have to stomp the other team into the ground. It takes some real guts to go pro, but we’re up for it.

It’s amazing, this Wii thing (wink). We used to come home, order out, eat, watch TV, and go to bed. Now, we come home, eat, play Wii together, watch TV, and go to bed. I thought Memphis would have clean air before we played video games together. Not that it is saving our marriage or anything, but it does get us to interact more than just passing the salt across the coffee table. It forms a lovely triangle. We just tell Cali it’s too cold to walk (she can get jealous).

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Inspiration for Your Day

Today, I was reminded of a story I have heard, but am not sure the original source. If you know, let me know. The story goes like this:

A woman (could have just as easily been a man) searching for life's answers and wisdom traveled across the world to study under a certain wise man. When she arrived, the wise man told the woman to start reading day and night so she could have all the knowledge and wisdom of the ages. Every morning she would get up before dawn and read until after dark. On the first day, the wise man came in with a cane and asked her if she had all the knowledge and wisdom of the world. She said, "No, not yet,"? and then he gave her a hard hit on her head with the cane. This same thing went on for day after day, week after week, month after month. One day after 3 months of this, the woman decided she was tired of getting whacked on the head, so when the wise man asked her the same question, she gave the same answer. When he raised his cane to hit her, she grabbed his arm and looked him straight in the eye and said, "Stop it!"? He lowered the cane, looked at her, and said, "Your training is complete, you can leave now."? "Wait!"? she exclaimed, "I don't have all the knowledge and wisdom of the ages, I'm not finished."? He looked at her and said, "Oh, but you are! You were able to recognize something was hurting you, and you stopped it. That is all the wisdom you need."?

What a crock! No application whatsoever . . . sorry to waste your time.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Fw: fw: fw: re: re: re: reaD yoUr bIble

>don’t let this happen to you. i know a person who knows this person’s brother. very important!!!!!!!
>bob (bob@annoyingspam.com)
>——————————————————————————————
>——————————————————————————————
>>We made it another year! I feel like I should make some kind of list.
>>Top 10 Reasons I will not read my whole Bible in 2008:
>10. It’s too long and I don’t want to
> 9. The what to read what day list intimidates me
> 8. I’m already 2 days behind—I’ll never catch up now
> 7. It seems like something an old person would do, no offense old people
> 6. I’m not sure what to do with the Old Testament (help me Pemberton)
> 5. I may read something that will convict me to change the way I live
> 4. I always feel like there is something more I am not getting or open to getting
> 3. I am waiting for an LST team from a different country to use the Bible to teach me their language
> 2. LOST is kind of like the Bible . . . that has to count for something
> 1. There’s a good chance I will be struck by lightning after writing this bloggggggggggggggggg
>>Blog readers: Ben was struck by lightning as he finished typing this blog. Word on the d-vine is that he shall not enter the gates of heaven until 4 people reading this blog start reading their entire Bible and forward this blog entry to 4 other people, and so on. When 1 million people finish reading their Bibles this year, the gates will be open for Ben. This is very important: read your Bible or Ben goes to Hades. Also, kittens and puppies will all die until you read your Bible. Worst of all, they’ll continue to take the 10 Commandments out of courthouses unless you do this—they already got prayer out of schools. And, who knows who will be elected as our next president if you don’t do this.