Seems like if I complain about something in my blog, it gets taken care of. Therefore, I'd like to start off today with a couple complaints.

1) I STILL HAVE NOT RECEIVED THAT BOOK. And since the mail for the day is just now coming in, maybe I'll get it today.

2) I also still haven't gotten my check for $1 million. Must be an oversight on someone's part. :)

Just a half day at work today in honor of Good Friday. So I'll be heading home at noon to do laundry and clean the apartment. Later tonight, my parents arrive in town. And hopefully I'll be able to connect with my brother when he passes through town for dinner on his way to Mexico on a missions trip. Not sure if I'll have a chance to check in over the weekend, so if I don't, Happy Resurrection (Easter) Sunday. Hope everyone has a great day.

Want to comment on one of the Friday Five questions. It asked if any celebrity's death had affected you. I am often saddened by their deaths, but one really got to me. Charles Schultz. I've been a huge fan of Peanuts for years. And it helped that he lived in Santa Rosa since before I was born. I grew up ice skating at the ice rink he built. Peanuts may not be the consistantly funniest strip in the paper, but it often touched my heart. I can't imagine the world with Charlie Brown, Lucy, Sally, Linus, Snoopy, and the others. And it wouldn't be Christmas without A Charlie Brown Christmas.

What's so good about Good Friday?

Yes, that's an obvious answer. It wasn't a good day for Jesus. Illegally tried and murdered. But the result was good for us. The forgiveness of our sins and the opportunity to be called the Sons and Daughters of God. Maybe we should start calling it Stupedious Friday. It blows my mind when I think about what Jesus was willing to suffer for us. It's certainly not something I deserve. And the best part is, the story doesn't end there!

Guess what. It's time for the Thursday Threesome.

Onesome. Bed. You spend a few hours a night there, so tell us about your bed - size, favorite sheets, comforter...oh, and do you make it or leave it unmade?
My bed is a standard twin. Actually, it's part of a bunk bed set my parents bought years ago. The lower bed is still at their house, and it's what I sleep in when I'm visiting them. I used to make it every day faithfully, but for the last few years, I've gotten very lazy and don't make it at all.

Twosome. Bath. OK. How much time does it take you to get "ready" on the average day - from first step into the bathroom to stepping out fully dressed....
Do I really have to answer this one? It takes me an hour. I just don't move fast in the morning, espcially in the shower. I don't feel clean if I try to speed things up. And, standing under the hot water is my form of coffee, too. Of course, maybe I should point out that this in time from getting into the shower until I'm ready to walk out the door.

Threesome. Beyond. What is your favorite room / area of your home? Tell us all about it...
That's a tough one when you live in, basically, a two room apartment. I really can't think of one. I know, not the most impressive finish today, but that's the truth.

I notice my archives seem to only have my first week listed at the moment. Anyone know if I should be concerned?

Well, off to work.

I didn't say anything yesterday about how sore I was. Monday night, I couldn't use my arms for anything at all. And I bet you'd be surprised just how much you use them. They were doing better today, but I could still feel them. So I only did half of my normal workout in the fitness center at lunch time. Now, my arms don't feel sore at all. Which will help the guitar playing tonight. You'd think I hadn't done any weight machines for 6 months or something.

MY BOOK STILL ISN'T HERE. :(

I didn't fully explain the situation. I was trying to find an opportunity to ask this woman out this week so we could get tickets to the Spring Banquet the college puts on every year. But considering how incredibly busy she's been, I haven't had a chance. So, we'll just have to figure something else out for a good first date. Any suggestions. And yes, Shana, I really am serious this time. (You realize you know this story probably better then anyone else reading my blog, right? Unless you've filled Chris in on it.)

Another completely unproductive day at work. I have got to get something done in the next day and a half. Only a half day Friday in honor of Good Friday.

Hope YAACS is back up and running soon.

Off to jr. high Bible Study, then hosting groups for Enterprise and Amazing Race, both via tape delay. I don't know what I'd do without my VCR's. :)

Timing is everything.

I really was going to ask her out today, but she's been so busy, I haven't had a chance. Which is unfortunate, since I'm not starting to talk myself out of it again. But what else is new, right?

AND MY BOOK DIDN'T COME TODAY EITHER!!! I'd even finished the Trixie book last night. Such is life.

Off to Seth and Keirsten's again tonight. And then a new episode of 24. Finally, one of my favorites with a new episode.

Hey, everything seems to be working with blogger today. I can get in here and get to my site both! So, maybe I'll catch you up on the rest of my weekend.

Saturday - Greatly enjoyed the book signing. And Joanne knew who I was. :) It helped that I'd e-mailed her last week and I was the only guy who showed up. Got to talk with her for quite a while and find out a little about the next couple books in the series. She's almost done with Lemon Mirange Pie Murder, but it'll be a year before it's out yet. :( Don't these author's know they should write faster?
Then Saturday night, Donald and I hung out for a while, which we haven't done in a long time. We rented It Takes Two, which he'd never seen before. Still a funny family movie. Then we watched Larry Boy and the Angry Eyebrows. Fun, although some of the characters are hard to tell apart in the two-D format. Hope they fix that soon.

Sunday - you already heard about church, so I won't repeat that. After the service, I went up to talk to Fred about quitting handbells, but he was too busy. So I decided to show up for one last practice. That's when I found out he thought I'd quit three weeks ago! So I'm out. Feels strange and scary. And this is what I wanted. LOL. I'm just not satisfied, am I? But it'll be good. I had brought my book, so I went over to a part and finished it. Now, I need to write the review. And hope the Thoene's new book arrives today. Although I am reading the Trixie for the next discussion right now. Then we had a SNYF (Sunday Night Youth Fellowship) at the Dennison's. I was too busy for Dan to corner me on why I'm not going to the Thursday night Bible Study. Had a good time, although the kids have now added to the crazy I'm still in college story. I'm also a secret foot model by night. Obviously, a couple of them were watching Zoolander. Not that I've seen it.

Other thoughts: Gas needs to come down in price. I paid $1.53 yesterday, and it took over $20.00 to fill my tank. That never happens.
You know my thoughts on the Oscars already. (See Friday's post) I'm happy for A Beautiful Mind, however.
And, I'm trying to get up the nerve to ask a girl out this week. The irronic thing is, those I've known since Zap's board started already know who it is. Deep breathes. Deep breathes.

Off to the weight room here on campus at lunch for the first time in months. And I'm skipping the cafe for dinner. Fish (yuck!) and Almond Chicken. And since I'm allergic to nuts....

Have a good Monday, everyone.

Hm. I can't seem to get into my site to acutally read this once it posts. But it is posting, so I'm going to blindly move on blogging in faith that it will get seen eventually. :)

Going to start out today with the Sunday Op-Ed This week, I'm going to try to answer with the first thing that comes to my mind without reading anyone elses answers.

1) Chocolate
What is a food that I enjoy in small doses? It's true. There are times when I get a craving for chocolate and love eating it. But once I've had too much, I can go weeks without even thinking about it. And if it's right after I've had too much, I'll actually turn it down. And eating it gives me pimples, too.

2) The beach
Where do I wish I could visit more often? I've really fallen in love with hitting the beach down here in the last couple years. I don't spend that much time in the water, but I love wadding in the surf, throwing a frisbee around, etc. Maybe Matt will be up for some regular trips this summer since I seem to have lost track of Brad. Donald would certainly be up for more trips with his surf board, etc., but as we all know, he's moving in May. Maybe we can get one more trip in before he leaves.

3) My First Celebrity Crush
What's one "rite of passage" I can't recall? I never watched much tv or movies growing up, so I honestly can't remember ever getting a crush on a celebrity. Just another way I'm odd.

Passion Week

It's funny, because Christmas is my favorite holiday, but Easter (Resurrection Sunday) is quickly becoming the most meaningful. It hasn't been feeling like Easter time at all to me, but we had a very meaningful service today in church focusing on the seven sayings of Jesus on the cross. Between that and all the hymns we sang (and some wonderful classics, too) I'm now definately in the Passion week mood. Got to go home and pull out Cindy Morgan's The Loving Kind and Sigmund Brouwer's The Carpenter's Cloth to read and listen to this week. When I think about what Jesus did for us, it absolutely blows me away.

Well, it's time for lunch and then calling my parents. So I'll pretend this will post and sign off for now.

Looks like I'm finally getting in! I had the hardest time yesterday. I was going to come back in the afternoon and answer the Friday Five (they looked like fun), but I didn't quite make it. O well. Maybe next week.

Last night, Donald fixed dinner and we had Pete and his roommate Nate over. Quite fun. Then I headed over to the Durons for a "Just for Fun." Basically, just a time to hang out with the jr. highers. Of course, this time, when I got there, they were in the middle of a couple games, so I started working on the jigsaw puzzle that was laid out. Wound up finishing it with Beth's help. Not exactly interacting with the kids, but since I was the only staff there, I figure I kinda evened out.

But I should probably go now since I don't have that long on line right now. Got to get home, shower, and get ready to go to Joanne Fluke's book signing at Crime Time books in a couple hours. And I have some more places to go. Like check out my reviews at Amazon. Sure hope they've added my review of Ginny Owen's new CD. I'm not listening to it constantly anymore, but it's in my car, and I'm still loving it!

Last night was a blast. I went to see the Broadway Bound production of "Into the Woods" starring Vanessa Williams. I've been a fan of this musical for about 4 years, and I loved seeing it on the stage. Unfortunately, I didn't get my ticket until this week, so I wound up sitting in one of the boxes on the side. I couldn't quite see the very left hand side of the stage, and I had to lean over for three hours. But it was worth it. And the cow was a riot! Hope they do a revival cast recording once it hits Broadway so I can have something to remember it by. After all, I have cast recordings of the other Broadway shows I've seen. (Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. Can't tell I'm a Disney fan, can you?)

Over at the Trixie Debate Board, we're holding voting for the TB Oscars. Quite fun. So those of you who don't frequent Zap's site much anymore (and we miss you guys, too), feel free to stop on by and participate.

Speaking of the Oscars, you know there's one category I'll be watching with special interest this year. The first ever category for animated movie. I have seen all three nominees (something I can rarely if ever say about any category), so I thought I'd way in with my thoughts.

Jimmy Newtron - fun movie. Really glad I went to see it. But not worthy of an Oscar, and I don't really expect it to win.
Shrek - fun movie, but not worthy of the Oscar. It took too many swipes at Disney and the animosity really came out with the release of the DVD. Enjoyed it, bought it, but shouldn't win.
Monster's Inc. - the best of the lot and deserving to win. (No surprise since it's the final choice.) Wonderful movie from start to finish that kids and adults can enjoy side by side. One of my favorite films from last year, in fact. And I'd love to see Pixar win the first Oscar for this. It's funny, because Disney doesn't really have a film in the nominations. They distribute and get all the credit for M, I., but in reality, that is a Pixar film.

However, I'm afraid that Shrek will get it because Dreamworks seems to be able to do no wrong as far as the voters are concerned. But we'll just have to wait and see what happens Sunday night. But if they're going to pre-empt Alias, it had better be worth it. :)

And, lastly, I had to share a quote from Charlie Brown from my peanuts daily rip off calendar (also known as a page a day calendar.):
"The secret of happiness is having three things to look forward to and nothing to dread."
If only life were really that simple, huh?

Guess what I'm here to do. If you said post my answers to the Thursday Threesome, you'd be correct.

Onesome. See it. What is something so beautiful you have seen that the picture of it is etched into your mind, and soul, forever?
Hmm. Can't think of anything in particular off hand. I have seen lots of beautiful places that one doesn't stand out. One that does come to mind was swimming in the Sea of Galilee just after sun rise. Even though I was freezing cold, there was something about being out in the water where Jesus was 2000 years ago as a new day started that was special to me. I'm glad I did it because I know I would have regretted it had I just wadded in the shallows.

Twosome. Smell it. What one scent stands out in your mind as always making you feel happy and secure in your life?
There are a couple that spring to mind. A redwood forest. I grew up camping in one, and those trips hold many happy memories for me. Another is air the morning after a rain. It always smells so fresh and clean, I love to stand still and take a couple deep breaths.

Threesome. Taste it. When you think of tasting, what one thing comes to mind as bliss for your taste buds?
Vanilla Ice Cream. That was honestly the first thing that popped into my mind. Which is rather funny because I would have said mint chocolate chip was my favorite flavor.

So here are mine. If you haven't yet, go answer with yours.

Just a couple quick comments.

1) I was right, I was running a fever. My temp at lunch time was 97.0. Normal for me seems to be 96.8. Took an unexpected nap at lunch time, and I've been feeling better ever since.

2) As of this moment in time, my helpful votes at Amazon.com are twice as many as my reviews!!!! And I'm slowly approaching my goal of being in the top 1000 reviewers. We'll see how long it takes to make it.

Back tomorrow with my answers to the Thursday Threesome.

Guess I took the last two days off since I posted over the weekend. :) Let's see, where to begin.

I GOT IT!!!! Yesterday at lunch time, I went out and got the new Ginny Owens CD. I've listened to nothing else ever since. And I seldom do something like this. Really good. A bit more pop then the last one, but it's still Ginny with great lyrics. I'll be enjoying this one just as much as I enjoy the first one, I have a feeling.

I'm sitting here trying to decide if I'm sick or not. I almost feel like I'm running a fever. But I'm sure I'm not. I'll take my tempiture at lunch time, but it'll probably be below normal, like it always is. I really could use the down time, too.

Ben stopped by yesterday. Have I mentioned him before? He also shaved his head last week. He mentioned that I'd started growing it out again. When I mentioned that it was because my parents will be in town over Easter, he told me I should go ahead and keep it shaved anyway. If I keep this up, eventually, I will have to tell them about it. But I really don't want to face that right now. Beside, Mom doesn't like my hair as short as she sees it. I'm sure she'll flip. Then again, they didn't flip about Trixie convention and have been encouraging me to go the last two years....

Speaking of which, I need to talk to Phil and get the time off and buy a plane ticket. Being in June is throwing me off this year. I wonder if I'll get my pictures from Williamsburg back before the next convention.

And a quick TV recap:
Alias - A bit disappointed with the recap, but I'm sure Donald was right. It was designed to catch newer viewers up on the major plot lines of the show. And that was a great twist at the end. Now, if only we didn't have to wait three weeks for the next new episode.
Baby Bob - Ok, I'll admit I watched. It was a TV pilot. As with most shows, I'm going to give it a couple weeks before I decide one way or the other. Most of the time, the pilot sets things up and it takes a few shows before you really get a feel for it. But I did enjoy it.
24 - A bit of a contrived story line introduced last night in the middle of an explosive conclusion. I'm still looking forward to seeing where this goes next week, however. Looks like things are starting to get very interesting again.

Last up today is a test I found thanks to Chris.




Find out which LifeSaver you are.

Hm. Of course, I could have been several others. There were several questions that I liked about three answers for. Then there were the ones that I liked none of the answers for. So, is this really me?

I'd like to start out by answering today's first ever Sunday Op-ed

1. My best friend
Who is Donald? Or should that be Pete? I'm not sure, and seem to change best friends every couple of years. These two are definately in the running. Of course, with Donald moving in two months (the jerk!) I probably won't get to see him nearly as much any more.

2. George W. Bush
Who is the current President? And may I take this opportunity to say I think he's doing a great job? I have been very impressed with his leadership in the last 6 months. (And Shana, I loved your answer as well. I started pointing that out once we finally learned he would become out next President.)

3. The Superfriends
What is an old cartoon show? That's pretty much all I know about it.

Hey, Chris, will these always be so ramdom? :)

Well, the tournament's over. We lost in the semi-finals, after beating the team that beat us by the greatest margin yesterday. And it was very satisfing, especially since they started making some bogus calls. But we won anyway. And frankly, we would have been slaughtered in the finals. We were dead, several of our players were injured. It really was for the best. I stayed and watched the finals. Good game. But was it ever so cold!!!! It's about 45 here right now. And finally starting to rain. It's been treatening all day. But it held off until right after the game was over.

I think I'm off to grab dinner at Carl's Jr. (my after ultimate dinning choice.) and then watch some TV. I'm interested in seeing the movie on Wonderful World of Disney tonight. And after that, it's an all new Alias! Yeah! Then off to bed to sleep.

Just thought I'd pop in and say hi. I am so sore and tired. Played four games of ultimate today, and I get to go back and do it again tomorrow. :) We're 1-3 at the moment, but since I won't be there until the second game, anything's possible.

Right now, I'm heading home to pick out songs for tomorrow morning (gotta do Sunday School, you know), then take a nice long hot bath.

At least I finished book #18 today. I'd forgotten how fast the later ones read.

They fixed it! They fixed it! They fixed it!!!!!

I got home last night to discover they'd fixed the leak in my kitchen. Still not sure where it was coming from, but they have to patch the wall in the half bath downstairs right next to the kitchen still. But there's no water puddling on the floor. Now, to get that nasty damp smell out.

Didn't finish Blueberry until I got back from playing racketball. Great ending. Highly recommended. And I'm 6 chapters into Trixie #18 already. Just have 13 more to go.

Had a blast playing racketball with Stephen last night. Couldn't believe the hour was over already, even is he was beating me pretty badly. But I don't think I've lost any of my "skill" since I hadn't played in the last 9 months or so.

It's so stinking cold right now. And they're predicting rain or possibly snow again over the weekend. We'll see if we actually get it. When I signed up for that ultimate tournament this weekend, I never dreamed I'd have to figure out how to stay warm in 50 degree weather.

Being the Friday of Spring Break, it's very quiet around here today. Maybe I'll take off a little early and get started on the three loads of laundry I need to get done. And I need to unpack and clear off Donald's bed before he gets home Sunday.

One last thing. Thought I'd include a link to this article on St. Patrick since Sunday is St. Patrick's day.

If I'm not around over the weekend, have a good one, everyone.

Maybe it'll let me post if I take a poll? Let's find out, courtisy of a temporary neighbor on one of my web rings.


Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

Cool. Although some days I could answer this quiz and wind up as Eeyore. :)

And finally a few comments from me to close out the day.

They were supposed to have a plummer out today (finally) to look at the leak in my kitchen. Hope something happens soon. I'm running out of rag towels to soak up the water.

The lightbulb in the overhead burned out last night just before we started worship. Fortunately, 4 of the 5 songs we'd selected everyone knew. We just left out the one no one knew.

I have 90 pages left in Blueberry Muffin Murder. Hope to finish before I go play racketball tonight. I saw on the author's home page that she's signed a contract for 3 more! YEAH!!! She currently has the recipe for the Black and Whites up. But I know it gets changed every so often, so you might want to take a look. Many of the recipes from the books sound wonderful. Someday I'll actually try them.

I only ran 1 mile today. Didn't want to over do it with racketball tonight and the ultimate tournament this weekend. I sure hope the wind dies down before then. I don't enjoy playing in 30 mile an hour winds for some strange reason. :)

I found this article by Chuck Colsen to be very interesting. Thought I'd pass it along if anyone else might be interested in hearing his thoughts on the intelligent design controversy happening right now in Ohio.

Time for the Thursday Threesome

Onesome. Morning. What is typical first thing in the morning routine?
Go to the bathroom and hit the shower. By the time I'm out, I'm usually fairly wide awake. Just don't be cheery around me before my shower. :) I'm trying to add exercise back into my routine, so this morning I went running.

Twosome. Noon. Ok. Fess up. What do you typically do for lunch?
If it's up to me, I eat yogart and a sandwich, sometimes chips if I'm especially hungry. Again if I'm by myself, I'm either watching a taped tv program or reading. I meet some friends most Tuesdays (the other headshavers from last summer.). I'm going to try to start hitting the fitness center here at Master's a couple times a week again.

Threesome. Night. What are the last few things you do most nights before climbing into bed?
Brush teeth, change into my "pj's," and read at least a chapter in my book.

To start out today, here's one of my results from this quiz at Shana's.

I taste a bit like Almonds. Mmm, the taste of almonds - anathema to many with nut allergies, and a bad sign for many more, as my taste is not unlike that of cyanide. Am I good or am I poison? A risky thing to guess about. What Flavour Are You?

It's kinda funny since I'm allergic to nuts myself. I probably should have put coffee up there since I got that as a choice many of the times I took it. I also got Vanilla and Curry. So what does that say about me? :)

Have I mentioned recently how much I hate wind???? I definately have the sunny part right, but it's cool with a bitter cold wind. Please do keep in mind that I'm a CA wimp, and a Southern CA wimp for the last 6 and a half years. Plus the wind makes my allergies worse. And they're even saying it might rain on my ultimate frisbee tournament this weekend. If so, we'll still play, but at a beach. That would be interesting. Never played any serious ultimate at a beach before.

Got home last night to find out that the manager and maintenance guy had finally come to take a look at the water problem in my kitchen. They said it was coming from the neighbors or my bathroom upstairs. (Got both answers.) And there was nothing they could do until Friday morning. But it was a slow leak and the water shouldn't be a problem if I kept a towel in the hole they'd made. Well, when I went downstairs this morning, I wasn't thinking and slipped and almost fell in the water in my kitchen floor. Had to get rag towels from my car to mop it up. They're supposed to be working on it, so we'll see what I find when I get home.

Well, I spent most of my reading time last night on the computer here. Didn't get anything read in Blueberry Muffin Murder until I went to bed, even though I'm enjoying it greatly.

Went over the Seth and Keirsten's last night. We took forever getting a couple new songs figured out. Hopefully, things will go well. It'll pretty much be up to me. Maybe I should practice when I get home. Afterward, we sat around and talked for about an hour. It was great. Didn't get home in time to watch Buffy and 24, but friendship is more important then tv or books. I wonder if they'll be saying that at Zap's if I don't get the book read for the book discussion on Monday. :)

TV ramblings. Possible spoilers ahead.
Alias - Not too happy with the prophecy storyline. There's enough else going on that I'll keep tuning in. But I hope they drop it soon.
24 - Finally getting some answers. Not that that will help, necessarily. Really wondering how they'll finish this up by midnight.
Buffy - Great episode. But was that an alternate reality, or not? We'll just have to see if they choose to develope that more. But it was a very emotional episode.

I feel all out of whack having not worked on Monday. In a little while, I'm off to Bible study, then it's home to watch The Amazing Race. Probably save Survivor until lunch tomorrow.

Right now? I think I'll post this and see if I can find the rings I've been thinking about signing up for.

I have to add this since I did this really quickly. Found the link at Dana's.

BLUE You give your love and friendship unconditionaly. You enjoy long, thoughful conversations rich in philosophy and spirituality. You are very loyal and intuitive. Find out your color at Stvlive.com!

Blue is my second favorite color. I'll have to post results from some of the others I've found thanks to other people's blogs.

Need to make this quick.

Got back into town last night. I've had better times at home. Things were quite busy, but Grandma seemed to enjoy her party and it was good to see everyone. When I got back, I discovered that we'd sprung a leak in our kitchen floor over the weekend. Need to get home and see what's happening with that.

Busy day at work today. You should have seen the pile of mail waiting for me when I got in this morning.

Have the place all to myself this week since Donald is looking for an apartment for after grad. :( I keep hoping something will happen to change his mind. A guy can wish, can't he?

Shaved my head again. First of many times this summer, I have a feeling. I just love the look and feel.

Well, I should get going and see if they've figured anything out and maybe wash some towels before I head over the Seth and Keirsten's tonight. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to post more tomorrow.

Today, I'd like to start by wishing a Happy Birthday to my "Trixie Twin." Hope you have a great day with all your guests. Say hi to them for me.

I take back what I said about my friends yesterday. Donald, my roommate, wished me a happy birthday at 12 as we were waiting to fall asleep. Then I got into work today. My office has streamers taped to the ceiling and balloons all over the place. My friend Pete and his roommate came in last night and decorated it for me and gave me a nice card. The best part of it is, we had dinner together last night, and they didn't indicate at all they remembered it was my brithday. And my office did indeed move up the normal afternoon birthday party to mid-morning. I have a feeling they almost forgot I was leaving early. :)

As to my plans, I'm taking off at noon to head up to my parents. Tomorrow is my grandmother's 80th birthday, and we're having a party, so I'm going up for that. Should be lots of fun. Plus I haven't seen my family on my actual birthday for years. So I may not post again until after I get back into town. But if I have a chance, I'll blog once over the weekend.

Thanks again to Mountain Hawk for helping me get the comments section the way I want them and for giving me the link in the first place. Still have some things I need to take care of here (like getting the links at the end of my posts), but it's beginning to get there.

If I'm not around, have a great weekend, everyone.

I'm posting this to see what happens with the comments section I've just added.

Well, think I'll start out today by responding to the new Thursday Threesome

Onesome: Eat: What one food do you love so much that you could easily overeat (be specific here)? I'm going to have to go with Pizza. I'll easily eat a Medium by myself. I've been known to stuff down a large, but usually I save some of the large for lunch the next day. I love cold pizza for lunch. Hm. I'll have to try that next week since the cafe will be closed.

Twosome: Drink: What on beverage do you drink more than anything? Water. Just ask Seth and Kiersten. :) I do drink fruit juice as well. If I do happen to be drinking a soft drink, my first choice is A & W Root Beer. But I drink lots of water during the day everyday. The scary thing is, I still don't think I'm getting my daily requirement.

Threesome: Be Merry: When life has you down, what one thing can remind you to smile? Remind me to smile? A kind word or thought from a friend. A good book I'm reading. Someone or something I love.

Ok, on to other things.

Last night was interesting. I got to church about 6:20. Youth group is supposed to start at 6:30. The room was still dark (in fact, locked) and none of the desks were outside. I went looking for Dave Duron (jr. high pastor) and found out he was at the school's science camp. One of the high schoolers with a key showed up a couple minutes later, and we started getting the room ready. At 6:30, I was still the only adult. About 7 minutes later, some others showed up and we started the game time. At 7 we found out that Dave Beddoe (sr. high pastor) was in an accident on the way over and wouldn't be in. So fellow jh staffer Jon (who was planning to speak) spoke to all of us. Very good. But the entire evening never did feel like it was completely on track to me. But then again, I get out of whack pretty easily.

Dave's accident was the second one I knew of yesterday. Chips, my boss's son and sh staffer, was in one yesterday morning. Before the rain. Everyone in both seems fine, which is good, but their cars are in bad shape.

Then, at the end of the evening, Kiersten and Sara brought in a cake for Seth's birthday. Again, my birthday has been forgotten in favor of someone elses. It really hurts that every year my friends down here forget about my birthday while celebrating lots of others. I will get more happy birthday wishes from friends on the internet then I will from people in town. K took me aside last night and apologized profusely for not thinking about the fact that my birthday was the day after Seth's. And I believe her. But it gets hard when this has been going on for 7 years. I think I'm getting a cake next week since Sara and her mom asked me how old I was going to be as they drove off. But it will be hollow for me since they're doing it because they felt badly this week. Not that I'll refuse the cake. :)

Ok, done with the pity party.

I did get my book finished last night. Wonderful book, and just what I needed to make me smile since I was feeling down. Already written a review at Amazon. Hopefully it's up in the next day or two. And the interview with Jennifer Garner was interesting. Seems like a very nice woman.

The promised rain was more a sprinkle that did nothing but barely make things wet. And cause lots of other accidents. The sky's mostly blue again already even though there are a couple really mean looking clouds around. Don't think we'll get any more rain from this storm, however.

Well, I'm off to sign up for intermural ultimate frisbee before I forget. Then I'll come back and buckle down and see if I can get some work done to make Phil happy before I leave for the weekend. He's working on accounts since no one's pushing to get the statements out. Looks like reconciling accounts next week won't be soon enough. :( Late lunch today since I'll be getting my allergy shots.

Hm, Wednesday. What to blog about?

I know, I'll explain what I blogged about last week! I realized later that I really should have explained what and who I was talking about, but haven't had a chance to go back and do so.

Part of my "job" working with the jr. high at church is to lead worship. On Sunday mornings and our SNYFs (Sunday Night Youth Fellowship), I play my guitar. But on Wednesday nights, we have a combined time with the Senior High. And I don't lead it alone. Seth actually picks the songs and leads the singing and thoughts for the time. And he does an outstanding job with it. Much better then I ever could. Well, without lots of practice, anyway. His wife, Kiersten, plays the keyboard we have use of. It's not the best, but it gets the job done. Tuesday nights, I go over to their place and we practice what it is we're going to be doing. Then Wednesday night, we do it. And before you get any ideas about the age, they are my age. Seth is exactly 365 days younger then me. If it weren't for the fact that 1976 was a leap year, we'd have the same birthday.

Anyway, Seth used to direct the handbell choir, but he's given it up this year, and everything's falling apart there. They're both great people and I've enjoyed this chance to become good friend with them. After all, if you're going to spend as much time together as we do, you'll become friends.

I am going to finish The Chocolate Cat Caper tonight if it kills me. It would kill me not to. I'm loving the book. Fortunately, Enterprise is a rerun. But Jennifer Garner is on Downtown tonight, so of course I'll have to watch that. Hopefully, I can get the book finished before that comes on so I can get a good night's sleep tonight.

And, if I may, a brief TV recap of the first part of the week. Alias still rocks. One of their best episodes Sunday night. I'm mad at the WB on how they left 7th Heaven and Angel Monday night. How long before we get new episodes again???!!! Buffy was heart breaking last night. Xander was an idiot. Next week's looks interesting, but I'm going to want them to get back to the Xander/Anya storyline. We'll see if they really do next week or if we have to wait longer. 24 was good. Not one of the most intense episodes, but they had to get some of that stuff out of the way. Next week looks interesting. And I very much want to know for sure what's going on with the wife. I hope it's not going where I think it's going.

And for anyone keeping track of our weather, it's cloudy and dark right now. It's trying to start raining, which we despirately need. I think we're 11 inches below normal right now. And with all the wind we've had, everything's so dry. Hope we get some more rain soon.

Well, so much for starting out this blog by posting every day for a week. O well.

Had a fairly busy weekend. Saturday, tried to play ultimate frisbee, but it was just too darn windy. Have I mentioned how much I hate a strong wind? Well, we had a strong, bitter cold wind all weekend. Seems to have finally died down today. Anyway, got cleaned up from that, then went to Passadena to Crime Time Books. Unfortunately, the books I was going specifically to get, Linda didn't have yet because it was only the second of the month. But she did loan me the uncorrected proofs of one so I could have it read by the time the author is there for the signing in a couple weeks. Does she know how to foster customer loyalty or what? Anyway, stopped by Borders on the way home and they had all four of them. Only bought one however. I'm half way through, and I must say, Chocolate Cat Caper is alot of fun. Once I'm done with that, I'll start the proofs.

Saturday night, I played broom hockey with the youth groups from church. I was actually surprised at the number of kids there considering the next day was church.

Yesterday, I did my normal church/Sunday stuff. Found out that handbells won't be playing again until May. (Don't even get me started on that.) So I might quit now since I was planning to quit around May anyway.

I found that money I was out of balance by today! I really need to reconcile all the accounts this month. I'm so far behind.

But for now, I think I'll head off to review a book I finished over the weekend.

What a day. I really intended to post before this, but I spent the entire day trying to reconcile our main back account to the general ledger account. And I'm still out of balance. I've narrowed the problem down to two months, but have no idea how to go about finding it within those two months.

Yesterday, I mentioned my goal for the month. For the last year, I've been writing reviews at Amazon.com on a regular basis. Well, about the 10th, I realized I'd averaged one a day. So I decided to see if I could keep it up over the coarse of the month. And yesterday, I wrote my 28th review for the month of February! Only 27 are posted right now, but that last one should show up tomorrow or Tuesday. I'm happy, and now I can go back to writing 4 to 8 a month, at the most. Interested in seeing them? Here's a link for you: My About You Page

Well, it's about time for dinner. So I'll post this and go for the day. Have a great weekend.