Tired. So tired.

You'd think I'd have learned by now. Never come in to work the day after a youth retreat. I'm always next to useless.

See, this weekend was the winter retreat for the youth group at church. And what an adventure it was.

We left Friday afternoon (I got a couple hours off work), and headed to Kurt's family's cabin in Crestline. The girls stayed there and the boys stayed in another cabin we rented.

Now, the town is high enough that they get snow and ice. Which meant I had to drive on ice. On a hill. In a borrowed car. With people in the car. Naturally, that made me very nervous. Especially after the first night. On the way up, we got stopped. Naturally, any attempt to move forward was met by sliding back down the hill. Honestly, I don't know how I avoided hitting the cards behind me, but the brakes seemed to stop me. So I spent about half an hour with my foot jammed on the brake before another leader came, took over for me, and backed it down the hill. Meanwhile, someone trying to go down the hill slid and came within inches of hitting the van.

The other adventure of the weekend came Saturday. The main activity of the day was to be snowboard or skiing for those who wanted to go. We were going to have other activities for those who didn't want to pay the extra, but I was the only one who didn't want to go. So the plan was for me to go, sit in the lodge, and read. I'd be there to hang out with anyone who got tired. The plan worked for the most part in the morning, but just before lunch, one of the students got hurt. He went off a jump wrong, flipped, and landed on his upper back/neck. After being checked out by the medics, they decided he was ok. He spent the afternoon in a car, and I stayed with him. He wanted to sleep, but people kept coming by to check on him, so he didn't get any sleep and I didn't get much reading done.

Then there was coming back Sunday. There were six of us driving, and only two who knew the way. The plan was to carpool. Well, we got seperated leaving town. The two who knew the way went the right way and the rest of us went the wrong way. One of the cars had a GPS in it, so we got home, but we took a much longer way and ran into traffic. The upshot is we wound up getting home an hour and a half late.

On the whole, it was a great trip, however. Everyone seemed to have fun. The messages were good. No major injuries (although the one guy was going to go to a doctor to make sure he's as fine as he feels). And everyone got home.

But boy was it tiring. I "slept" on the floor Friday night. I don't think the fact that I didn't sleep had anything to do with that. Even though I didn't snowboard Saturday, it was an early morning followed by a late night. I don't know if I'll make it through 24 tonight. I'll get the VCR ready just in case.

Thursday Threesome for February 22

Bet you didn't expect it this late, did you? But how could I miss blogging on 2/22?

This week's edition brought to us by a painful experience and The Back Porch.

Onesome: Coffee--? ...or no? Black? Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce? Homeground beans (that you roasted)? Tea? Green? No? Water? What is your "sip of choice" right now?
I drink almost nothing but water. I have fruit juice in the morning with breakfast and occasionally at some other point during the day, but that's about it. I don't like coffee at all and I drink soda maybe once every week or two.

Twosome: "In my-- wildest dreams there's no way I would ever even consider _______!"
Snowboarding. Which explains why I will be staying at the lodge instead of snowboarding at the youth retreat this weekend. and I feel so much better about my choice after talking to our interum pastor tonight. Sounds like he'd do the same thing is he were in my shoes. He said he tried it once but took off the board after a couple minutes and walked down the slope.

Threesome: Lap--top or desktop? Which is your choice for hanging around on the net? ...or your choice if you had one?
Have I mentioned I bought myself a laptop for Christmas? And I absolutely love it. It's my choice for hanging out on the internet.

Another Week Come and Gone

Hm, been a week since I blogged. You'd think I'd have lots to talk about, right?

You'd be wrong.

This was mostly a quiet week. Worked during the day. Wrote reviews and watched TV at night. Nothing too exciting.

The most exciting parts of my week came on the weekend. Friday night the career group had a game night. I didn't leave until 12:30 AM, so I must have had a good time. In fact, on the way home, I found out that Food 4 Less is no longer a 24 hour store. I almost couldn't buy my food for breakfast because they close at 1.

Saturday, I went to two movies. Probably in the wrong order. First, I saw Music and Lyrics. (Whoa! IMDB has changed their layout. I like it.) It's a very cute romantic comedy with some good music in it. I laughed the entire way through it, in fact. Then I saw Bridge to Terabithia. See what I mean about the wrong order? It was very true to the book, which means all those expecting a fantasy movie will be upset. Frankly, considering how series the movie really is, I think those ads are horribly misleading. Anyway, the movie was as powerful and moving as the book although I felt the characters are far richer in the book. Not the movie's fault since there just wasn't time to develop them as such.

Want full reviews? Of course, I've reviewed them already. Music and Lyrics. Bridge to Terabithia.

Sunday was Pastor's last Sunday at church. Have I blogged about this before? The pastor of my church resigned to pursue other ministry possibilities at a slower pace. Translation, semi-retired. And no, this wasn't a bad or forced thing at all. In fact, it was probably the worse kept secret around as I've had people who don't attend that church ask me about him leaving as long ago as a year. Anyway, we had a fairwell lunch for him after the service, so I didn't get home until almost 1 PM. Very nice service. He's been there for 24 years, so it will be interesting to see what happens next. Our associate pastor will be the interum pastor, and I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes our full time pastor. At least I hope he does.

Meanwhile, I had to work today. I love getting that time off between Christmas and New Years every year, but I don't like working on days like today when everyone else has the day off. But such is life.

Word Association for February 18th

Welcome to this week's word association.

1. Threshold :: Door
2. Jason :: Cooper
3. Suspicion :: of Guilt
4. Tender :: Hurt
5. Tempted :: Sin
6. Crimson :: Red
7. Repulsive :: Yuck!
8. Bulldog :: Argh!
9. Garage :: Car
10. Racket :: Noise

Thursday Threesome for February 15th

Welcome to this week's edition brought to us by high tea and the Back Porch.

Onesome: Cups-- and quarts? Can you remember the conversions for cooking or do you have to look them up? ...or do you just use the old "this much plus a little" method?
Look them up? I can't remember the last time I needed to convert anything. In my cooking, I haven't found a reason to convert. I just follow the recipe.

Twosome: and-- how did Valentine's Day go? Do you have a chocolate hangover today ?
Nothing special unless you count the decorations at dinner last in the caferteria. Something about being single.

Threesome: Saucers-- of milk for the kittens? A pint of ice cream for you? Who gets the last snack of the night at your place?
My roommate. I don't tend to eat after dinner but he'll eat some nuts or cookies.

Relaxing Taxing

So, this weekend, I had nothing planned.

Wait, I'm not complaining. I'm bragging.

It was nice to come home Friday night and know I had nothing to do (except church) for the next two days.

Of course, that's not to say that I didn't have things I wanted to do. For example, I'm trying to get through several movies to prepare for the summer releases of the third in the series. So I watched Shrek this weekend. And, six months ago, I recorded Scooby-Doo: The Movie. I finally watched that as well. Plus, I reviewed them both. I had other reviews I wanted to write, two books and one movie to be exact, but that didn't happen.

See, I also did my taxes this weekend. The last several years, I've made it my goal to do my taxes early. Like as soon as I have everything. That finally happened this year. And I'm very happy with the refund I'm getting. Between the two, I'm paying for half my lap top. That makes me extremely happy.

Sunday also brought a sad announcement I've been expecting for a while. Next week will be the series finale of Reba. That's the only sit com I watch these days, and I'm really going to miss it. Even after six years, I still find it funny.

But I think my biggest disappointment is that I never made it to a taping. I tried about three years ago with Jeff, but we didn't make it in. I never have gotten around to trying again. Now, I'll never have the chance. Hopefully, I can find something else I like to watch that I can go to a taping of.

Actually, I might not be watching the CW much in the near future. Looks like Veronica Mars won't make it beyond this season either. Oh well, more time for other things.

Now, if I could just find a way to catch up on Smallville cheaply. I think I'd really enjoy that show.

Word Association for February 11th

I'm doing two of these in a row. What are the odds?

1. The best thing :: 's in life are free (Where did I get that?)
2. Hold :: On
3. Rapture :: Revelation
4. Cover :: Book
5. Restrictive :: Rule
6. Baker :: Me!
7. Author :: Autograph
8. Pill :: Medicine
9. Months :: Years
10. Valentine’s Day :: Hearts

Famous for Being Famous

Anna Nicole Smith died yesterday.

I first learned the news from an Epinions message board I'm on, but then saw it again at a Trixie site. My first response was shock. I thought she was younger then she was, but even so, 39 is very young. Just ask this 31 year old.

Personally, I was ambivolant about the woman. I don't read Playboy, thought the previews for her reality show looked dumb, and didn't care one way or the other about her court battles. Frankly, at times, I just wanted to go some place where I didn't have to hear about her any more.

Not that I wanted her to die. Let's make that perfectly clear. I just didn't want to hear about the parentage of her baby any more.

Then I got home last night, turned on the TV, and saw more coverage of her death. In fact, TV Guide channel was nothing but people talking about her and her legacy. That's when it hit me.

She was famous for being famous and nothing else.

This is a phrase they use all the time on Fox News Watch, a show I regularly watch on weekends that analyzes the news. And she's not the only "celebrity" that they've used it on. In fact, they use it on many a celebrity. But it certainly applies here.

Not that I'm saying she wasn't a very smart woman. She took an award for Playmate of the Year and turned it into a lifetime of fame. I bet many people wouldn't be able to name the other winners of the title, yet almost everyone knew who she was. That's saying something.

But now I'm going to sound like the panel on News Watch. There are lots of important events going on in the world today. Do we really need coverage on the nightly news of this woman's death? Was she that important? Does it effect our lives? No. There are a million more important things happening in our world today.

Not that I'm going to claim innocence here. I want to hear the results of the autopsy, too.

And I'm only going to let TV Guide partially off the hook. No, I don't expect them to cover serious news. But wall to wall coverage?

We've had a lot of celebrities dies in recent years. Most of the time, it's announced briefly and we move on. It's not the headline, however. And we don't get weeks of coverage from all news sources, something I expect this time around.

Yes, I was saddened to hear of Anna Nicole Smith's death. I feel for her family and especially her daughter.

But it also caused me to think. We as a culture are amusing ourselves to death. And this is just another sign of it. I hope in all the coverage we will get the next few days (or weeks or month) that it will make you stop and think as well.

Thursday Threesome for February 8th

Got do this quick.

Onesome: Pitch-- What is your singing range? ...and do you sing at all?
I'm really not sure what my range is, but I do sing all the time. Which is a very good thing on nights like this when I am leading worship.

Twosome: Yaw--'ll ken that one? Do you have any 'dialect words' that you use as a matter of course? "Ken", meaning "to understand" (Scottish and other derivations) in this case...
I sure don't think so. I'm a boring California American with no dialete and no accent, either.

Threesome: and Roll-- on down the road? Hey, if the roads were as icy as they've been in the Midwest and East would driving to work even be a consideration for you?
Probably not. I don't drive on icy roads normally, so I'm not used to it and won't way to try.

Pieing Friends

For the second Saturday in a row, I had friends over. This time, it turned out to be a bigger group. 10 of us in all, including Kurt and Kellie and several mutual friends. I hadn't seen many of them since before Christmas, so it was great to catch up. We played Taboo and Apples to Apples. And I made key lime pie.

Yes, after having the title recipe for Joanne Fluke's next book for several months, I finally got a chance to make it. And it turned out great. Not that that's any surprise given the great (and easy to follow) recipes that Joanne always creates. She was quite the topic of discussion for a while between the desserts (I also made a peach cobbler) and the posters I have in the living room. And I impressed everyone with my baking ability.

But boy, those key limes are tiny. I could easily fit 6 of them in my hand at once. And it took 19 of them to get the half a cup needed for the recipe.

Sunday, of course, Paul and I "watched" the super bowl. Or I should say he watched and I played around on the computer. I created one of my things for the Jixaversary next month. Now I need to get working and see if the other idea I want to persue will work or not. I did lots of other stuff as well. As a result, I missed most of the commercials and the play, usually looking up only when Paul indicated the game was going great.

And I forgot to mention a major disappointment Debbie and I discovered last weekend. Glendale Centre Theater was supposed to be doing Fiddler on the Roof this month. In stead, it's been changed at the last minute to My Fair Lady. Don't know if we're going to go see it or not since neither one of us are fans.

Paul is actually out of town most of this week at a conference for work. So what have I been doing with the place to myself? Nothing I wouldn't have been doing anyway. Watching a little of my Friends DVD set and working on reviews. I've let myself get behind again and am trying to catch up. Of course, catching up on reviews seems to only last for a day or two anyway. Not that I mind too much. Gives me a hobby to keep me busy at night.

However, I'm about to be busy with something else. Lost returns in 8 minutes, so I think I'm going to go.

Word Association for Super Bowl Sunday

Yes, I do have the game on. But I'm doing things like this as well.

1. Plaster :: Cast
2. Cabbage :: Yuck!
3. Jazz :: Sax
4. Darts :: Bullseye
5. Poke :: Stomach
6. Bribe :: Money
7. Whale :: Tale
8. Receipt :: Charge
9. Answer :: Question
10. Dentist :: Drill

I Feel Like I Should Blog

I'm just as a loss as to what to blog about.

Life has been rather quiet. Not much outside of work and youth group at the moment. I've been staying up too late for my own good, making it hard to get up in the morning.

In my last post, did I mention that they finished fixing the ceiling in my kitchen? A year and two months later, and it's all taken care of.

The news of excitement was a visit from Debbie last weekend. She came over and we hung out and watched Spider-man. It was absolutely fabulous to catch up with her.

In other blatant self-promotion news, I've posted my top 10 movies of 2006, so if you care, follow the link. As here's the review of Guilty Conscience I promised last time, too. And yes, I made 900 reviews at Amazon before January ended.

Everyone else is gone for the weekend, so I think I'm going to close down the credit card batch and hit the road myself. Have a good weekend all.

Thursday Threesome for February 1st

Can you believe one month of 2007 is gone already?

Anyway, this week's edition is brought to us by chopping sprees and The Back Porch.

Onesome: Slicing-- your way through the fairways of life? Terrible metaphor, -eh? Do you have metaphor or simile that just drives you bonkers when you hear it?
Not that I can think of off hand, but I'm sure I drive others crazy with cliches I use.

Twosome: and-- on and on and on. What's the duration of your 'long' phone calls? You know, the ones where you just chat and chat and chat? Guys, you may be able to pull an exemption on this one...
I usually spend an hour talking to my parents and my brother and sister in law on the phone on Sundays.

Threesome: dicing-- up anything for the game this weekend? ...or are you taking advantage of the sales? ...or is it a case of "what game?"
Nothing exciting for the game Sunday for me. I'll have it on, but who knows how much attention I'll pay it.