OOOOOklahoma

I know it's been over a month, but it my defense I have been way busy. At the beginning of July we took our youth group to Kings Fest for 4 days and it really was a blast. Not enough of a blast to make me actually enjoy tent camping but I can at least tolerate it for the chance to ride rides, hang with some of the coolest teens on the planet and see some really good bands.

Muffin and I just got back from spending 10 days in Oklahoma and we had a great time. We got to celebrate her great-grandma Leecy's 95th b-day (that's her in the pic with Muffin and I) and to attend her family's reunion. I really had a great time and am sooo thankful to have married into such a great family. They have always been very accepting of me and even gone out of their way to make me feel like part of the family.

A blogging we will go...

I am such a slackah. Haven't really had time over the past couple weeks to blog but I figured I'd put a quick one up. Sp how bout that World Cup? Yeah I'm about as excited about it as I was about the World Baseball Classic and the Olympics. I know, I know, it's the most popular sport in the world and the rest of the world stops every 4 years to watch it. Ok, great, good for them my question is...What channel are the Yankees on? Baseball and Football (American) are my national past times and judging from the US teams (apparently they are, or were, the 5th ranked team in the world) game against the Czech Republic (yes I did watch) all those of years of AYSO, youth leagues, and all the money and time spent to graft soccer into the American culture, we still seem to be a step behind the rest of the world. And they get to play Italy today, so there's a real good chance they'll be 0-2 and won't make it to the round of 16.

Currently
Reading:
Shadowmancer - G.P. Taylor
Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller
In the CD/MP3 Player:
Pettidee - Thug Love
Sanctus Real - The Face of Love
Day Of Fire - Cut & Move

10-A-C

There are 9 reasons I love to visit Tennessee. The first 6 are Dana, Sherry, Kyle, Kullin, Cassie and Cody. For those that don't know that would be my brother, his wife and my nephews and niece who I love to death and don't get to see nearly enough . Well Muffin, Mom and I drove to visit them over the weekend and had a great time. I got to see and hold Cody for the first time since he was born. I got to see Kullin play T-ball and I got to see Kyle get his first extra base hit and pitch the last 3 innings to close out the first win of the past 2 seasons for his new 9-12 year old little league team. Now the other 3 things I love about the visiting Tennessee are Cheerwine, Sonic and Sundrop. Cheerwine is a absolutely the best tasting cherry cola type soda that there is. Sundrop is a citrus flavored soda that is similar to Mountain Dew but I think it tasts a bit better and tend to load up on it when I visit anywhere that actually sells. The problem is both of these sodas are unique to south and are independently owned, which means Coke or Pepsi don't own them so they can't get national distribution like Coke and Pepsi products. Sonic is like fast food heaven. Most Sonics (the ones I've been to anyway) are the drive up type where you order your food through a loud speaker and a carhop brings it to you. Some of them even do this on roller skaters. If you're an American Idol fan, Sonic is where Kellie Pickler worked before she was on the show. Anyway, anyplace where you can order a large order of tater tots with chili, cheese and onions on them and then wash them down with a chocolate coke can't be wrong. I know, I know, 'but I thought you were on Weight Watchers Dwayne???' I am and for the most part I kept up with my points and I've lost 29 lbs so far. So :-P

Take Me Home...

Well as you may or may not know I am a native West Virginian, and I really do love my home state. The problem is I live in the far eastern part of the state and culturally it really is quite a bit different from the rest of the state. The area I live tends to pull alot of it's cultural from the east coast, whereas the rest of the start tends to be more like the south or midwest. I got the chance this past weekend to do some camping with Muffin, Pete, Bec and my godson Paulie and I had a great time. It had been a long time since I had ventured into the "hills" of West Virginia and I was reminded was an incredible scenic wonder my home state is. The pic on the right was taken at Blackwaters Falls and I would encourage any one, native West Virginian or not, to take a day or two and explore some of the beauty that West Virginia offers. Wonder if I can score an endorsement deal from Governor Manchin???

Reading:
Shadowmancer - G.P. Taylor
In the CD/MP3 Player:
Flyleaf - Flyleaf
The Prayer Chain - Shawl

David and Goliath

Well it's been an interesting few days. I told you in a previous post that I was going to Philadelphia with some youth from my church for the Acquire The Fire Battle Cry conference. Well we went this past weekend and it was absolutely spectacular. Great Bands, Great Speakers and a fantastic time of worship and growth for not only the teens but also myself and I'm sure a lot of the other youth leaders that were there. Now you're probably asking yourself 'what does the have to do with the topic, D??' Chill, I'm getting there. On Friday after we had checked in at our hotel in Mt. Laurel, NJ we decided to get something to eat and drove to the Mandarin Buffet. I got salad for my first plate and went back for a second. I got some steamed veggie dumplings (among other things) from the steam table. Well I guess it was 5 mins after I started eating the dumplings that my throat began to tingle. Here's the point where I explain that I have a shellfish allergy and the throat tingling is the first sign that I've had some type of exposure. Usually I can get some air and worst case scenario I have to take a couple of Benadryl and it clears up in a bit. Well I went outside and it was getting worse, I checked the car for Benadryl and there was none. My friend Carey came out and asked me if I was ok and I told him no, my throat and chest were tight and I probably needed to get that Benadryl. So we got in the car and by the time we got out of the parking lot I knew Benadryl wasn't gonna help. I told him we either needed to find a hospital or call and ambulance. He pulled back into the shopping center and we went into a store next to the restaurant and got directions to the hospital. By the Grace of God the hospital was maybe 10 mins away, although it seemed much further and in all honesty my throat was getting tighter and I was beginning to think about dying and never seeing my wife again. With the hospital in site I called her and told her what was happening and that Carey would call when he had more information. After we found the emergency room; we had to fill out this form, drop it into a slot and wait in the reception area. By this time, I could feel swelling in my mouth, my throat was very tight, and I noticed that there was a lot of saliva in my mouth. Carey asked how I was and I told him how tight my throat felt. He walked out and came back with the triage nurse who took me back put a blood pressure cuff on and started asking me some questions. She looked up and asked someone behind me if there was a bed available for an allergic reaction. Right after this a woman (I would later find out this was Dr. Angelo) came around my side and said "sir, can you swallow your own spit?" And since my mouth was now full of spit I told her no. They immediately took me back and had no sooner gotten me on the bed than there were at least 6 different people surrounding the bed, hooking me up to different devices, checking pulses, breathing, starting an IV. If I had any doubts as to how serious this was, at that point they disappeared. Carey would later tell me that my head and neck were red and swollen (you can see some of this in the picture above, keep in my mind that Carey took this picture well after they had stabilized me and I was out of any danger) by the time they took me out of reception and I know it had him extremely worried. Well they gave me epinephrine through the IV and Dr. Angelo told me 'when it kicks in you're heart will race like it never has before and it will scare you, but that's exactly what it's supposed to do and you're fine.' She was not incorrect, when this stuff kicked in it was like riding every roller coaster I've ever ridden all at the same time. At about the same time, some of the swelling in my throat loosened and I began to cough and wretch and expectorated what most have been a quart of saliva. After that things began to get better little by little. Now since about our third date, Muffin has been telling me to get my doctor to prescribe an EpiPen and I haven't done it. Well once I was stable Dr. Angelo said I'm gonna give you a prescription for an EpiPen and told me that I need to keep it with me at all times. Once things calmed down and I was out of danger I has Carey call Muffin and tell her that I was ok and the doctor has prescribed the EpiPen. And when I think that he could have been calling her to tell her that I had died, having to admit that she was right and eat a little humble pie is really not such a bad trade off. So I am extremely grateful to be home on this Mother's Day to spend the day with Mother and my wife and I thank God for just being able to breath.

Frequently Infrequent

I told ya that I wouldn't post with any kind of regularity and I'm proud to say that I'm living up to that promise. Well a lot's gone on, so let's catch up :D

I play softball with my church team and at practice 2 weeks ago, I decided to be cute and slide into second. Which is not normally a big deal unless you are wearing shorts and the soil on the base paths happens to be roughly the same consistency as damp sand. So that peeled a good chunk of skin off my left calf and the resultant abrasion got very sore and infected. Well 3 days later I ended up at Urgent Care where the doctor prescribed Cephalexin (the generic version of Keflex). Ohhh this a wonderful little drug that certainly helped with the infection but left me with symptoms akin to a nasty bout of hay fever and nice little rash on my right arm. Thank God that I just took the last dose. This whole incident has taught me a couple of things; 1. Wear long pants to softball. 2. At my size there's really no need to slide, if the fielder's still holding onto the ball after the collision then I should be out. 3. If the doctor says Keflex, beg for amoxicillin, penicillin, anything but Keflex.

I know I talk a lot about my wife but I gotta give her props again. We bought a new grill this weekend and while I know my way around computers and software I'm a bit of wimp when it comes to nuts and bolts type stuff. Well we had made plans to grill for some friends on Sunday and since the old grill was effectively dead we needed a new one. So on Saturday we found one we liked at Wally World but they said it would take 3 days to assemble. The sales guys says it's simple enough and takes 30-45 mins. Shasta says "you can do it babe" so we take the grill home and I get to work. Well my brother Martin had stopped by and he helped with some of the harder parts but we made really good progress. It was getting dark and I was getting frustrated (small screw, extra small screw, who could tell????!!!) and Muffin says ya know what, you're almost done so finish it tomorrow. After a bit of grumbling I went in and watched the race. So we got home from church and after about 20 mins I had the thing finished and working with NO EXPLOSIONS!!!! But it really is amazing how much confidence she has in me, even when I don't. I truly thank God everyday for giving me the perfect partner and helpmate. Ohh and she caught me when I fell off the roof today too. That's another posting though :D

Currently-
Reading:
House - Ted Dekker/Frank Peretti.
In the CD/MP3 Player:
Mat Kearney - Nothing Left to Lose
Family Force 5 - Business Up Front, Party In The Back

Here we go again

Well I been slacking, so you guys can feel free to chew me out.

Muffin and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary this past Sunday. We spent the weekend at a Bed and Breakfast in New Jersey and went into NYC on Saturday. We caught and Yankees game. Seriously guys how many wives would suggest going to Yankees game on your first anniversary weekend??? Can y'all even begin to fathom how much I love this woman!!!! Feel free to throw up now :D

If you're like me you're fed up with gas prices that are rising with no end in sight. The most frustrating thing is that since I was in school they've been talking about ethanol as the fuel of the future but that's all it's been is talk. Seriously why are we still dragging out butts on that. Ethanol would give us control of our own energy source and it would also go along toward revitalizing the farming industry. We really need to stop kissing Saudi butt and do something to more money back in the average Americans pocket.

Don't hate the playa....

Well, well, well it seems my affection for my co-workers struck a nerve with a few of you. Say what you will but I stand by what I said. I feel the same way about my family and friends in that I don't get to see them nearly as often as I'd like. As for reading Oprah, c'mon it took me 3 months to get through the last Dekker novel, what makes you think I had time to read Oprah???!!! hehehe And to be honest you guys can say or think what you want. Because I can still get up at 8:55, log into work by 9, put in my 8 hours, log out at 6 and I'm already home. All I'll say is don't hate the playa, hate the game cause my management is more than happy with me working from home.

Now for something completely unrelated. I found Sugar Free Full Throttle at Weis today!!!! I dunno why but this stuff is extremely difficult to find. Before today I had found it at exactly 2 locations. Well I bought 5 of them today and 4 of them are chilling in my fridge. The other one was quite tasty. Of the overpriced sugar free energy drinks Full Throttle is my fave. It tastes way better than the others and definitely packs a punch.

Dana, tell Kyle to hang in there and it'll come to him. Make sure he knows Uncle D, Aunt Shasta and Grandma are pulling for him all the way up in here in WV!!!!

Bands/Artists I Miss:
The Prayer Chain
Seven Day Jesus
Rich Mullins
Burlap to Cashmere
Julie Miller

Strictly for my peeps

Alright, well time to check in with y'all. Feeling really good today. Went into the office for the day and got to hang out with some of my co-workers that I don't get to see nearly often enough. For those of you who don't know I am blessed in that I am a full time telecommuter. I got my annual performance review and I was very pleased with it. We're also doing a biggest loser type of competition at the office so I got to go work out over lunch with a couple of my co-workers and I surprised myself with how well I did running the mile on the treadmill and the elliptical and I totally sucked at crunches, push-ups and dips. But those things will all be better the next time we do them I can promise you that. Weight Watchers has been going well, at last weigh in I had lost 19.5 lbs. I skipped last weeks weigh in cause I just couldn't focus so I've re-doubled my efforts and am feeling much more confident about this week.

Buster and I went to see V for Vendetta the other night and as a movie it's good. It had the typical "The US war on terror and conservative values are to blame for the worlds ills" subplot, but if you can get past that it actually is a decent story with good acting. It is a bit violent so parents you have been warned.

So my church's youth group is going to the Philadelphia Acquire the Fire Battle Cry event in May. Yes this is the same event that was held in San Francisco and condemned as being "fascist" by the the city leadership. Their reasoning went something like 'We're condemning this because we're tolerant.' Yeah, I bet they didn't condemn, the extra tax revenue, profits, etc. that 25,000 teenagers brought to the city over that weekend. It's amazing how bigoted and intolerant those on the politically correct side of the aisle can be when it comes to Christians.

Muffin and I are gonna check out Ice Age 2: The Meltdown tonight and I am so looking forward to it. I'm in the mood to laugh and Skrat always makes me chuckle

Currently -
Reading:
House - Ted Dekker/Frank Peretti. I actually finished Showdown, great book you should definitely check it out
In the CD/MP3 Player:
Plumb - Choatic Resolve
DJ Maj - BoogiRoot
Movies:
V for Vendetta

Spring is here

You know it's spring when:
You can get Peeps at the grocery store.
You can get Italian Ice at Rita's.
You can watch the Yankees play.

Huh???

So Muffin and I went shopping tonite and both of the stores we went to have those nice, convenient self checkout lines. Only they weren't so nice and convenient tonite. I fail to understand why most stores close these lanes down late at night. It seems to me that these lanes would be the most handy when you have less staff available, because you can have one staff member monitoring all the self checkout lanes instead of having one cashier per checkout lane. But for some reason both the grocery store we went to and Wal-Mart shut them down after about 9pm and instead you get to wait in a nice long line and have your purchases rung up by an extrafriendly cashier who is more than happy to do so. Now if you happen to work retail and can provide a legitimate reason as to why stores do this, please post a comment and enlighten me.

And I also just found outXM is moving The Torch off their channel line up and make it an internet, AOL and DirecTV only option, which sucks cause the main reason I choose XM over Sirius was because they offered a better selection of Christian programming in general and The Torch specifically. Well I guess I can be thankful that I have Dish Network and can listen to Sirius Revolution there.

Currently -
Reading:
Showdown by Ted Dekker (only about 100 pages left). It really is a great book, I've just having trouble making time to read it
In the CD/MP3 Player:
Shannon Brown - Corn Fed
Creed - Greatest Hits
Plumb - Choatic Resolve
Movies:
Inside Man - good movie, language is a bit rough though

Another one of us for y'all to deal wit

Well my newest nephew arrived on Monday March 27 at 1:44 pm (CST) and here he is. Cody Lee Douglas weighed 9 lbs and he brings my total number of nieces and nephews to 6. The funny thing that number has tripled in the past 16 months. Before that Kyle and Kullen were it, then Cody's sister Cassie arrived in November 2004 and I got married last April and became an uncle to Shasta's nephews so I should be getting pretty good at this whole uncle deal. Welcome to the family Cody!!!

Don't hate cuz it's dangerous

Buster, c'mon now I have all the respect in the world for Joe Gibbs but don't come to me saying he "refused to entertain" thoughts of signing T.O. This IS the man who hired and still has that paragon of class and sportsmanship Tony Stewart driving for his NASCAR team. I suspect it had more to do with the Redskins not having enough cap room to afford T.O. than Gibbs taking any kind of moral stance.

Kameron, Although it would have been fun to see T.O. on a Cowher coached ; my brother's right abiyt the fact that the Steelers just don't spend money on free agents. Which is fine cause they seem to do well season in and season out with what they have so more power to 'em.

And Dana my heart does break for WVU, but honestly they played their hearts out and that's the way it goes some times.

Now let's talk politics. I make no secret about the fact that I'm a conservative and yes I voted for Bush both times. And I've sat back and listened to his detractors whine about how there were no weapons of mass destruction and that we attacked based on faulty intelligence. Well now it seems that a tapes of Saddam, Tariq Azeez and other members of Hussein's cabinet pretty much laughing about their weapons of mass destruction and the fact that they are able to conceal them from UN inspectors. So the maybe that intelligence wasn't so faulty after all.

T.O. in Big D

Well, well, well my boy Jerry Jones went and did it. He signed the biggest ego in the league to a contract. As a Cowboys fan I'd have to say I'm cautiously optimistic about having T.O. on the team. For one thing the great Cowboy teams have always had someone who helped bring some attitude and swagger to the team. From Duane Thomas and Hollywood Henderson in the 70's to Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders in the 90's they always had a guy that you loved if you were a Cowboys fan and absolutely hated if you weren't. So we'll see how it goes. Either way I bleed silver and blue.

:-P~~~~

Long time, No Post eh?

I apologize to my tens of loyal readers out there for the delay between posts but hopefully this will make up for it.

Well my stupid plumbing decided to act up again and Tav saved the day again. So it looks like I'm gonna have to complain to the sewer department because the blockage seems to be occuring in pipes the are on the other side of my property line. That's gonna be real fun I think (note the sarcasm).

So WW is actually going well. I've lost 11.5 have pounds in just over 4 weeks and I'm getting to the gym at least 5 days a week. So YAY D!!!

Not much to say about American Idol this week other than Chris Daughtry is the absolute class of the field, he's almost to a point where he'll have to try and lose.

So baseball season is right around and for those who don't know I am fan of the "Evil Empire" New York Yankees. I watched a bit of the world baseball classic and well I'm just not sold on it, and that I think makes me pretty much the average American. This thing is a big deal in Mexico, the Dominican, Cuba, Korea, etc. But I think most Americans rate it just a slightly higher than soccer's World Cup. Major League Baseball I think really wanted this to be there version of the world cup, but to be honest they should probably concentrate more on keeping their place as this nations past time. Right now you could make the argument that football has passed them as the most popular sport in the states and NASCAR's not too far behind either. And then there's whole steroid thing that they keep sticking their collective head in the sand to ignore. C'mon how much more proof do you guys need that Bonds, Giambi, McGwire, etc. are or were using? And don't give me the "well it wasn't against MLB policy at the time they did it" argument. That's a cop out if I've ever heard one. Right now the integrity of the game is taking a standing 8 count on very wobbly legs and you idiots are "waiting for all the facts to come in." Whatever.

Anyway that's it for tonight, I hope to get by again this weekend. Got a few other things brewin in my noggin that I wanna throw out here.

Gone, gone, gone

Ok so the 4 folks I thought would get booted from Idol did. No losses there. The guys really brought it this week, but I still think Chris Daughtry is the class of the entire field. Was nice to see Carrie Underwood back. Of all the winners I think she may prove the most marketable. But then I am partial to those Oklahoma girls :D The more interesting thing was Paula's behavior; she appeared to be high or intoxicated or something. And she apparently got her little butt in trouble with Homeland Security at the Las Vegas airport. http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Mar-03-Fri-2006/news/6147377.html. I can only hope the producers will get fed and send her perky, airheaded, never give a bad critique self packing.

Feeling a bit on edge today for some reason. The week seemed to drag on and I didn't think Friday would ever get here, but for some reason I feel like I'm on pins and needles and I'm not sure why. The verse for my devotion yesterday (For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline 2 timothy 1:7) actually comes to mind and I probably need to heed it a bit more. Not just today but every day. I tend to let what might happen, what someone might say or think, etc govern my actions rather than worrying about whether it's God's will for my life.

Oh I lost a pound this week, which makes a total of 8 down since I started. And the gym is going well; I missed about a week because of some physical things that we shan't discuss here but I've been back and feeling good about it.

Currently:
Reading:
Still working on Showdown

In the CD/MP3 Player:
The Violet Burning - drop-dead
The Violet Burning - I Am A Stranger In This Place

Good stuff

Well The Violet Burning absolutely rocked. The show consisted of a lot of stuff from the new album "drop dead" but the also threw in two of my favorite older tunes "As I Am" and "Low." The thing that never ceases to amaze about Michael Pritzl's song writing is his ability to take the feelings that myself and alot of other believers have and so beautifully articulate them in a musical and lyrical way.

Also got the chance to turn some new folks on to The Violets. Buster went with me but he has seen and heard them before so he knows. But we also took his daughter Jesse, my friend Tav, his kids Tayva and Kameron (sp?) and my friend Justin. It's always nice when you can let folks in on a secret that definitely needs to be shared.

Now you may remember my friend Tav from a previous post. He's the one who came and snaked out my clogged sewer pipe a few weeks ago. Well I got the chance to repay the favor over the past couple of days by helping him get the website for his business up and running. If you're in West Virginia and you need an electrical contractor give him a shout. Check out http://www.alphaelectric.biz if you need more information. It's always nice when you get the chance to repay a kindness and I don't care what Tav says, this was wayyyyy easier than cleaning out that sewer pipe.

That's it, no rants or whining this week.

I wanna run, I wanna fall into your arms.
So, lay my head down, I wanna wake, there in your arms.
I long to view forever through the twinkling of an eye.
I long to find a song of hope and lay down by your side.
A song for all the weeping, a song for all the tears.
I'll sing for you to carry me, I'll sing One Thousand Years, I wanna run.
I wanna run, I wanna fall into your arms.
So, lay my head down, I wanna wake there, in your arms.
Yeah, you're my heart, you're my home
From "One Thousand Years" by The Violet Burning

Catching Up

Well I hope you have some time cause it's been a week since I posted and I got lots to fill y'all in on.

My first week of Weight Watchers went well, I lost 7 lbs. This weeks goal is to get myself back on a regular workout schedule and stick to it. So far, so good and I have every intention of keeping it good.

I also have to give props to my Sunday School class. I taught for the first time following my little tirade on the Thursday night class and I have to say it went really well. The kids were very attentive and got into the lesson and it was just a real blessing for me to be there with them this past Sunday. Now this is not the actual class I laid into but it contains alot of the same kids, just in case you care or are keeping real track of this thing.

How about those Winter Olympics???!!!! (insert chirping crickets sound here) Ummmm yeah my thoughts exactly. I've watched about 4 minutes of Ice Hockey and about 15 minutes of some type of free style motocross downhill skiing or some such thing that only gets network TV time every 4 years. I'm quite proud to say that not a minute of figure skating, ice dancing or anything else involving music, ice and skates has crossed my TV screen. Don't get me wrong, I think those folks are incredibly talented athletic performers who can do things that I could never dream about doing. But I have a real hard time accepting any sport where someone else has so much more sway over the outcome than the actual participants. And after the whole judge bribing fiasco in Salt Lake City at the last Winter Olympics it amazes that anyone still considers it a legitimate "sport" worthy of Olympic consideration. But I guess if curling get's a nod then why not???

So I watched most of the Daytona 500 this weekend and NASCAR continues to amaze me, their subjective interpretation of the rule book and thinly veiled favoritism toward certain drivers has moved them to the outskirts of territory that right now is only occupied by pro wrestling and roller derby. Part of me really hopes this will be Mark Martin's last season so I can find something else to do with my Sunday afternoons.

Well American Idol is back for it's 5th season. Yes I'm a fan, never missed an episode. This years group of contestants is very strong and maybe the best yet. We just got done watching the 12 male finalists perform and tomorrow night they'll announce which 2 males and which 2 females have been eliminated. Right now I'd say that Stevie Smith, Ayla Brown and Brenna Gathers (hope I'm right about this one) will make up the bottom 3 females and Bobby Bennett, Bucky Covington (hope I'm wrong about this one) and Will Makar will be the bottom 3 guys. On another Idol note, it never ceases to amaze me how many times Simon is called rude by other fans, judges or contestants. Simon is crass, blunt, direct and a smarta$$ but rarely is he rude. I say this because most of the time he allows other people to express their opinions and say what they have to say before offering his take. For doing this is he is usually shouted down and rudely interrupted by the other 2 judges when the time to offer his opinion arrives. Now just because I have a very strong opinion that doesn't agree with yours doesn't mean I'm rude. If I shout over top of you because your opinion is different from mine then I'm rude. Ohhh and will they please for the love of all that is holy fire Paula now!!! If I see her standing on her chair dancing for another mediocre performance I'm gonna throw my remote through the TV.

Tomorrow night is The Violet Burning and I am so stoked. If you're in the DC area and have 12 bucks and a few hours to spare head on over to Jammin Java in Vienna and check out the best band you've probably never heard.

Currently:
Reading:
If you said Showdown by Ted Dekker you'd be right :D
In the CD/MP3 Player:
P.O.D. - Testify
Day of Fire - Day of Fire

Luv and such

Well yesterday was Valentines day. My first as a married man and it was quite nice. My wife (refered to as Muffin in the future) is an absolute wonder and I wake up everyday wondering what in world possessed her to marry me??!!! Well we got each other nice presents and I made a nice candle light dinner and we cuddled on the couch for most of the evening. To this point married life is just awesome.

So I started back to Weight Watchers on Monday. Some of you know that I did WW for several years and was able to lose over 100 lbs. Well I've gained a good bit of that back and am not real happy with the way I feel or look right now so I have to do something for me. Well my valentines present from Muffin was a huge plastic storage bin full of low fat & low cal snacks and such. Oh and bedroom slippers too (Maybe I'll tell that story later :D). Now maybe you can being to understand why I LOVE THIS WOMAN TO DEATH!!!

Let It Snow

Just got done shoveling snow and I must say it's actually pretty. We probably got about 10 inches and that's enough to make everybody stop and take notice but not enough to completely bring everything to a halt. I think Shasta is gonna make snow ice cream *yum* and you guys are invited to come over for some if you can get over before I eat it all LOL.

Currently:
Reading:
Showdown by Ted Dekker (I'll finish it one day)
In the CD/MP3 Player:
Flyleaf - Flyleaf
Michael J. Pritzl - Kissing The Sky (live acoustic)

Grrrrr

If it hasn't been one thing it's been the other this week. First the plumbing problems, then the flu and tonight I end up laying into the kids I teach at church. Not that they're bad kids necessarily it's just that they don't seem to understand that it's impolite to talk when others are talking (especially when those people are trying to teach you something) and that when an adult asks you and then tells you stop doing something you should do it. Well I had both those situations tonight and ended up sending one kid out of the class and ended up giving another heated lecture on disrespect to the entire class. The whole talking over people and general lack of respect for their teachers and each other has been an issue for some time now and they got a speech from me several weeks ago about it and they got it again tonight, both barrels. But to be honest nothing seems to be getting through. I've been teaching youth for ~15 years now and before these 2 incidents I had never had to raise my voice for anything more that to tell a group to be quiet, but that doesn't get the job done with this group. Anyway, right now I'm wondering if I'm even supposed to be teaching them at this point. We'll see.

So it's a Violet Burning evening. If you never heard of the the Violet Burning. It's a band who's driving force is a guy named Michael Pritzl. With an ever changing group of supporting players he has written and recorded some of the most beautiful, sad, uplifting and worshipful songs you'll ever hear. I listen to them a lot but it's especially fitting for the stressed out, melo-funky mood I'm in right now. I would highly recommend checking them to anybody. They are one my favorite bands ever. You can find more information at http://thevioletburning.com. If you're in the DC area they'll be at Jammin Java in Vienna on 2/23 and you know I'll be there.

My God has rescued me
Taken my rags and made me clean
Opened my eyes so I could see
My God has rescued me
From "Clean (My God Has Rescued Me)" by The Violet Burning

Blah!

Not a lot to post today. First of all a quick shout out to my friend Tav for taking time out of his extremely busy schedule to come by and snake out my sewer line. It's so nice to be able to take a shower and go poo without worrying about things backing up. Tav you are the man and I love you!!!

Started coming down with the flu Monday night and am finally starting to feel better, if you're catching it or have it I recommend lots of sleep and fluids. Seems to have helped me a lot.

And to those of you who have made comments, thank you for you kind and civil input. Gonna go drink some OJ and wait for my favorite red head to come home.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

So Shasta and I go to see Underworld: Evolution last night; yes the movie is rated R and it's about vampires and lychens (werewolves). But as an adult I can make an informed decision about my viewing choices. A decision that a 2-3 year old child can't and shouldn't be making. So you guessed it, a couple of candidates for parents of the year showed up with their 2-3 y/o child at this movie!!! What were they thinking? I mean watching it yourself is fine, your adults. But to force your child to watch it is, well stupid. I can only hope that child kept them up all night (and for the next several) screaming about vampires and lychens.

How about that Super Bowl??!!! Props to the Steelers and if you're a Steelers fan enjoy your 5th ring. But what a lousy game, other than Willie Parkers run there was really nothing "Super" about it. The officiating was terrible to the point where you could make a strong argument that it actually determined the outcome of the game and that should never happen. Really can't even say much for the commercials and as for the halftime show, not even gonna start on that.

Went out to get gas after we get home from the Super Bowl party and this minivan pulls in behind me and a guy gets out and walks up to me. Mind you it's 10 o'clock at night. So this guy (Jason if memory serves) approaches me and tells me they are 250 miles from home, dead on E, haven't eaten all day and asks if I could help out. With plumbing problems and some other things I haven't had the best day so I really just wanted to get in the car and go home. Well God tends to smack me on the neck at times and this was one of those. So I helped him out with gas, got him some cash for food, told him Jesus loved him, prayed with him and away he went. I always think of Hebrews 13:2 in those situations and wonder.

i couldn’t tell you why good people suffer
i couldn’t tell you why the bad ones run free
God showers blessings
on the righteous and the wicked
i only know that that covers me
From "Why Good People Suffer" by Stavesacre

Let's get this party started

Well let's start with a bit about me. I'm 36 from West Virginia and recently married the most beautiful woman on the planet. I'm a big fan of music although I can't play or sing a note. Ocassionally I may even post song lyrics that fit my mood. I also dig video games, movies and just hanging with my friends.

I teach senior high youth at my church and for the most part they're a really great bunch of kids and sometimes they teach me as much as I teach them. And yes I am a christian, that doesn't mean I'm gonna preach at you but I can't guarantee you that you won't see the occassional rant about how messed up this world is. My world view is my world view and I don't apologize for it.

Ok, so why am I blogging? Maybe it's an outlet for the occassional soul purging or maybe because it seems to be the cool geek thing to do right now. I'm not really even sure other than I thought I'd give it a try.

Currently:
Reading:
Showdown by Ted Dekker
In the CD/MP3 player:
Grits - Dichotomy B
Holy Hip Hop 3
Carrie Underwood - Some Hearts
Movies (recently seen):
Narnia - TLTW&TW
End of The Spear
Underworld: Evolution