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