What I know

Last night, I had some terrific poblano corn chowder. Thank you Atlanta Bread Company.

I also picked up some new kicks. They look like this:And I got 'em for a steal. If you need shoes, ya gotta check out Kohl's. Kohl's: "If it's not on sale this week, it will be on sale next week!"

My Redskins play their last pre-season game tonight. If history is any indicator, they will lose to the Ravens. Then we have eleven days to talk about the 0-4 pre-season before we open against the Vikings. The word on the internet is that the boys haven't even begun to use the new schemes that Saunders has put in place. We shall see.

And I'm hoping to have some time to see The Illusionist this weekend.

It's ba-aack!

Excellent Idea

While surfing the web today, I found out about a project called the St. John's Bible. I would encourage you to check out the link, but in a nutshell, they're doing a handwritten version of the Bible. The originals are going to be expensive, but I still think it's a cool concept and I would definitely buy a reproduction (which they are planning for down the road).

Fall Movie Line-up

The following is the fall movie line-up at Messiah College.

Contemporary Film Series - Fall 2006

Mission: Impossible III (free film outside of Larsen – 9:30PM)
August 28

Brick
September 1-2

United 93
September 8-9

Superman Returns (second showing at 10PM)
September 15-16

An Inconvenient Truth
September 22-23

Cars
September 29-30

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (second showing at 10PM)
October 6-7

A Prairie Home Companion
October 20-21

A Scanner Darkly
October 27-28

The Devil Wears Prada
November 3-4

Little Miss Sunshine
November 10-11

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
November 17-18

Half Nelson
December 1-2

Scoop
December 8-9

All films are shown at 7PM and 9:30PM, except where noted, and cost $1.

Free Sugar

I had some good steak

On Saturday, my mum and I drove from Des Moines to Kansas City to catch a flight back east. I'm here to tell you that I really like Kansas City. And obviously, the best way to check out a new city is on a full stomach. So we stopped at Sonic to put some food in our stomachs. I was happy to be able to introduce my mum and my brother-in-law to Sonic. Then we headed down to the International House of Prayer, or IHOP. Some of you may have heard of IHOP. If not, it's a center of 24-7 prayer which has grown to include a school of ministry, a reacord label, a business consulting firm, a bookstore, cafe and a realtor. It was a pretty cool place. I was expecting a solemn type of place with lots of older folks. What I found was a very vibrant, youthful place of ministry. Lots of folks praying, worshiping, studying and socializing.

After IHOP, we headed back north. If you're a sports fan, I got to see Kauffman (Royals) and Arrowhead (Chiefs) stadiums up close. Then we went to get some dinner. We hit up a shopping complex called the Zona Rosa. It's an open-air type of shopping center with a bunch of different stores (there are some photos in the flickr link below). We had lunch at the Hereford House. One of those classy places with leather menu covers. It was the best steak I ever had, accompanied by a caesar salad and a baked potato.

Then we headed to the airport and headed home. I did take some more cloud photos on the way back, but I decided not to post them. Next time..

Photos

Here's some photos from my trip. The majority of the photos are of the fair, so consider yourself warned. I tried to put them in some sort of chronological order, but that didn't work out so well.

Photographic Evidence

Des Moines, Iowa, 08/18/06

Family Reunions

This past week I headed out to a family reunion. It was the first time my dad's side has gotten together in over fifteen years. I think the last reunion was actually back in 1987, but I'm not sure.

So my family from out here in Pennsylvania headed west, and my dad's sister and her family headed east from Colorado. And my dad's brother just kinda stayed put with his family since we were headed to his place. And then we all got together.

I'll be honest. It was kinda awkward. I saw my uncle about five years ago, but I hadn't seen anybody else since my grandmother passed away 11 years ago. So I didn't know anything about anyone except for what they had sent in their Christmas letters. And I think that kinda hurt me. I'm not the most social person as it is, but it just seemed like the rest of the family was like familiar strangers. I knew their faces, but didn't know much about their lives. And I'm obviously not the kind of person who's going to go up to somebody and just start chatting them up. So we ended up keeping our friendly distances.

But I do want to make it clear that I like the family. They're good people. But they're different. They live different lives and they do things differently. They have a different sense of time as well as a different set of priorities. And I think that they may have played a role in the awkwardness.

I suppose that if I had spent more time with them, that I would have opened up a bit more. But I spent 32 hours in Des Moines, and I only saw the family for perhaps four or five hours. Perhaps next time, we'll have some more time and better opportunities.

So that's what I'm thinking on that.

Crazy stuff

Just a quick note. I'm sitting in my uncle's living room in Des Moines, Iowa. I'm working on a post about family and the reunions they have.

Found some great oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies made with whole-wheat flour at Hy-vee. Hopefully I'll be able to snag some of those to take back home. And I'm hoping to snag some steak in Kansas City tomorrow.

Pictures to come in a bit..

Trailers

It's been a while since I posted some movie trailers. So I thought I would post links to three upcoming releases that have caught my eye. And now that our foreign correspondent has quicktime, he can actually see them.

The Pursuit of Happyness (Will Smith)

The Santa Clause 3 (Tim Allen, Martin Short)

A Night at the Museum (Ben Stiller)

I had a dream

If you've ever exchanged emails with me on a daily basis for a period of no less than one year, you will know that I am a dreamer. Not just figuratively, but literally as well.

Every once in a while, a dream will come along that is just awesome. You wake up smiling and you want to tell somebody. Last night I had one of those dreams. It was a horrible night as far as quality of sleep goes, as I was up quite often. Yet despite the rough night of sleep, I woke up feeling refreshed and invigorated. It was the dream. And it was great!

One day perhaps, I'll be able to share about my dream. But for the time being, I'm going to keep it under wraps.

It is well

On Sunday we sang the first two verses of this hymn. I wish we could have sang the whole hymn. I think I could sing it every week.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!
Blessèd hope, blessèd rest of my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

-Horatio Spatford

Show of Hands

Anybody interested in some fantasy football this year?

Complicated

It seems as if I learn every week, and sometimes more frequently, that I'm not always an effective communicator.

This weekend, I had some information to relay to a person that should have been cut and dry. And I thought it was. But I left some things open-ended. And now a simple piece of what was supposed to be good news, has now turned into a complicated mess. And worse, the good news has been eclipsed by the mess. So even if things turn out how I intended, there will still be an asterisk attached.

But I'm learning. Learning to be more direct and more complete. Learning to ask people to clarify statements if I don't understand them completely (which sometimes I feel a dork doing, because people don't understand why I didn't get it the first time).

If this all sounds familiar, I may have posted about my mad communications skills in the past. Thankfully, I'm still a work in progress And the best is yet to come.

What's the deal?

Some of you may recall that this past weekend, a story broke about a doctored Reuters photo taken in Lebanon. You can read about that here.

Well, now some more interesting stuff along the same lines has come to light. Check out the scoop here.

Kinda makes you stop and wonder what's real and what's make-believe.

Updated Carry-on Restrictions

For those flying in the near future, the following was implemented this morning:

Due to the nature of the threat revealed by this investigation, we are prohibiting any liquids, including beverages, hair gels, and lotions from being carried on the airplane. This determination will be constantly evaluated and updated when circumstances warrant. These changes will take effect at 4:00 AM local time across the country. Travelers should also anticipate additional security measures within the airport and at screening checkpoints.

It should be noted that at this time the ban includes toothpaste and contact-lens solutions. You can read more here and here.

Updated 02:08PM EST The following is information I just received. Of special interest is what they're doing to passengers whose flights originate in the UK.

At the Airport – All Flights

Customers and non-revs should know that no liquids or gels of any kind will be permitted in carry-on baggage on domestic or international flights. These items must be in checked baggage, and include all beverages, shampoo, suntan lotion, creams, tooth paste, hair gel, and other items of similar consistency.

Exceptions are: Baby formula, breast milk, or juice if a baby or small child is traveling; prescription medicine with a name that matches the passenger’s ticket; and insulin and essential other non-prescription medicines.

TSA also advises that:

* Beverages purchased in the sterile area must be consumed before boarding because they will not be permitted onboard the aircraft.
* Passengers traveling from the U.K. to the U.S. will be subject to a more extensive screening process.

Flights originating in the UK

For flights originating in the UK or in the US to the UK: Effective immediately all cabin baggage must be processed as checked baggage and carried in the hold of all passenger aircraft departing from or connecting through airports in the UK. This policy also applies to any aircraft departing the United States traveling to the UK.

The following measures apply to all passengers starting their journey at a UK airport and to those transferring between flights at a UK airport and from anywhere connecting in the US to the UK.

Nothing may be carried in passengers' pockets. Passengers may only take the following items through the airport security checkpoint, in a single (ideally transparent) plastic carrier bag:



* Pocket size wallets and pocket size purses plus contents (money, credit cards, identity cards, etc. but not handbags)
* Travel documents essential for the journey (passports and travel tickets)
* Prescription medicines and medical items sufficient and essential for the flight (a diabetic kit for example), except in liquid form unless verified as authentic.
* Eyeglasses and sunglasses, without cases
* Contact lens holders, without bottles of solution
* Female sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight, if unboxed
* Tissues (unboxed) and/or handkerchiefs
* Keys (but no electrical key fobs) That's going to make things crazy at a place like Heathrow...

Thanks.

I just want to thank God for this beautiful morning. It's about 65 degrees with a slight breeze and the sun is shining. I cannot wait for fall!

More cooking adventures

So tonight, I decided to try my hand at making some tomato sauce. I've never tried this fun task, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I figured that tomato paste would be a pretty good thing to put in tomato sauce. So I opened the can of paste and the first thing I noticed was that the paste was not going to come out on it's own accord. So I grabbed the nearest spatula (thank you Spatula City) and proceeded to scoop out the paste into the pot. Turned on the heat and waited for the paste to start to thin out. Didn't happen. So I decided to add a cup of water. That seemed to do the trick. So I was going to add some cayenne pepper (because I didn't have enough crushed red pepper). And then I tasted the sauce. Hot and tart is what it tasted like. Well, the hot part was good, but not so much the tartness. So I thought maybe some brown sugar might be good. Unfortunately, my roommate's brown sugar was a solid brick. So I went with cane sugar. That definitely took off the tart edge. And so I decided to just stick with that.

I think next time I might try and throw in some oregano and maybe some garlic. But if anybody's looking for a slightly sweet sauce with a hot peppery bite, the leftovers are in the fridge.

A chink in the armor

I have a problem. Not so much a problem, but maybe a deficiency.

I'm not real good at talking to women. Especially good-looking women. I saw somebody I knew tonight. She happened to be a woman, of the good-looking variety. And I could not bring myself to say "hi." I've talked to her a few times briefly, but not all the often.

Bleh. I just deleted the rest of this post. I didn't like where it was going and I couldn't figure out how to wrap it up. So you'll just have to go on thinking that I can't talk to good-looking women (which isn't true - I can, it just takes some doing). But you can think what you want.

More sterling posts to come...

Trusting God

I was just listening to a sermon about the above topic yesterday. Specifically, he was talking about the Israelites journey out of Egypt. He questioned what Israelite in his right mind would have believed that God would have parted the Red Sea. And I thought about that. Did Moses even believe that God would do it? If there was ever anyone with a history that might cause him to doubt, it would be Moses.

And I started trying to apply that to myself today. I complain a lot about my job. I trust that God knows what's best for me and has a plan for me. But I don't really act like I trust Him. And I start to wonder if I trust Him completely. It is much easier to trust someone a little bit, you know. But trusting with your whole being.....that can be tough. You'd think it would be easy with all that God has already given us.

So who's got your trust?

Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson made a mistake. There, I said it. He was driving after having a little too much to drink and after he was pulled over by the police, expressed his anger and frustration in the form of profanities and anti-semitic remarks.

He has since apologized twice. But is that enough? It is for me. I understand people make mistakes. I myself have made a few. I can't speak to the effects of alcohol, but I know that sometimes when I'm sober and frustrated, I say things that I later regret. He has apologized and I accept that. But will Hollywood accept that? Will fans of "The Passion of the Christ" accept that? Will Danny Glover and Joe Pesci accept that?

I wish that I could say that all of them will. But I can't. There are already people who are publicly calling him out. ABC has pulled plans to air a mini-series his production company was working on. The repercussions have begun.

If we could only learn to forgive...

Cooking with me

I thought I would go all domestic on my readers this morning by posting the recipe for blueberry sauce I came up with last week.

Ingredients:
1 pint of blueberries, fresh
2/3 Cup of sugar
2 Teaspoons of corn starch
1/3 Cup of water

Bring sugar, corn starch and water to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionaly. Stir in blueberries and bring to a full boil for two minutes, stirring constantly. Serve warm or refrigerate. Makes approx. 2 Cups.