Cooking with me

Check it out! I made macaroni and cheese today using a combination of american, cheddar, monterey jack and.........ricotta cheese. I thought it turned out pretty well. It's pretty mild from a taste perspective, but it gives me something to work on (I almost added a can of Rotel - maybe next time).

On Small Groups...

I read a portion of a message by John Piper that I thought might be useful for others. John was talking about small groups and important keys to a fruitful small group. Take a peek at the link below and consider them in light of your current small group (provided that your in one....if not, why not?).

A Call to Small Togetherness

A food related note.....

Chick-fil-A is giving away free chicken strips on Monday (09/01/08) to celebrate the start of football season. All you have to do is wear some apparel from your favorite football team. That's pretty much it. More details here.

What's a fanatic?

I'm currently not-quite-glued to the opening evening of the Democratic
Convention. I've been lured here by the promise of the senior
Kennedy.

What is it that makes grown adults act like teenage girls at a Jonas
Brothers concert? I feel like I may have discussed this before, but I
think it's worth mentioning again, especially in the light of a
presidental election. What is it that evokes the passion in people to
scream and dance and wave their arms about? For a mere mortal?

I'll be the first to admit that I've been caught up in a frenzy
before. I was a big fan of DC Talk back in the day. Some of my
behavior during their shows was probably questionable. It's very easy
to see how we can make idols out of some of our favorite things. What
is it that we devote our resources to? Where do we spend our time?
Where do we spend our money? And more importantly, how do we avoid
falling into this trap?

It's very easy to get caught up in the madness, but it all comes down
to this: We have to guard our hearts. We have to be vigilant about
who/what is the focus of our attention. If it's not Godly, we need to
recalibrate. It's not always easy and we'll fail more than once. But
we need to keep striving. Because we know what's right and we know
the truth.

PS I love C-Span for political coverage. I'm watching Jerry Kellman
(who?) talk on C-Span, while all the other cable networks are
re-hashing Sen. Kennedy's speech and prepping for Mrs. Obama's speech.
And C-Span doesn't have anybody to offer any commentary of any sort.
And I find that perfectly wonderful.

PPS Sen. Harkin (IA) has mad ASL skills!

My So-Called Weekend (in short story form)

Friday was a very welcome day for me. The end of another week. As I
had traveled on Thursday and returned home at around 0030 Friday
morning, I was looking forward to a little rest. I worked a half day
on Friday and headed home. On the way home, I stopped by the farmer's
market for a sugary lunch and then headed home. After resting for a
few hours by watching "Monk," I headed out to the gym for a bit.
After the gym, I ate some dinner somewhere and came home and watched
TV and the internet for the rest of the night.

Saturday I woke up early (BOO!) and headed out to church where I was
running in a 5k race. I ran the race slower than I would have liked,
but I still got the t-shirt. After the race, I headed out to snag
some breakfast at another farmer's market, and then went home. I had
steak for lunch and took a shower. Then I went back to church to
volunteer with the refilling of the water coolers (there was a big
festival going on). After my volunteering, I wandered around, placed
a bid on an iTunes gift card at the silent auction and did some
reading. I didn't leave the property because my band was playing at
1715. The band played and it went mostly well. Sound issues made
things a little tough as did the fan not working in my enclosed box.
Nothing like a good sweat while playing! After the gig, I went to
meet my friend. During the lull, he had called and was interested in
seeing the movie "Hancock." The movie was not what I expected (6/10),
but it did have Charlize Theron in it. Then I went home and went to
bed.

Sunday, my alarm went off at 830, but I didin't get up until 1000. I
did not go to church. I did however, after eating breakfast, put in
the One Day Passion dvd and watched a bit of that. It was really neat
to hear Louie and Shelley talk about their dreams and to see how far
they've come since that day. Then I headed out to Wegmans for some
lunch and some free wi-fi. I'm trying to plan a trip somewhere this
weekend, but I haven't had any luck so far. Not much space available.
I'm not sure why people are still traveling. So after a few hours
eating and surfing, I decided to head out to Leo's ice cream in
Carlisle for some of their Corn Bread ice cream. It may sound
disgusting, but if you like corn bread, you'd love it. Then I went
home for a little bit. Then I went to my folks house for dinner and
to another friend's for a church history study which ended up being a
study on Herbert Hoover (he worked in China and Austrailia for a
mining company, he proposed to his wife by telegram, and his wife's
name was Lou Henry). Sometimes, that's how our studies go. Then I
came home, made my lunch for work today and went to bed.

The end.

pictures..

I got my camera back. Here's some pics I took from the movie. Not, the greatest, but it's somethin'. They're mostly for my German readers. Tchuss!!

Hershey Theatre Classic Film Series

The Hershey Theatre has announced the films and dates in their 2008-2009 classic film series. All tickets are $7.00(unless noted otherwise) and the show starts at 7:30p. Here's the sched:

Sunday, September 7, 2008 - 42nd Street* (free event)
1933, 89 minutes, black and white
Genre: Musical, Romance, Drama
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast Includes: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Ruby Keeler, Ginger Rogers, Dick Powell
Nominated for Academy Awards for: Best Picture and Best Sound
Hans Gartner, Organist

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, October 7, 2008 - The Maltese Falcon
1941, 101 minutes, black and white
Genre: Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
Director: John Huston
Cast Includes: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Ward Bond
Nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Sydney Greenstreet), Best Writing Screenplay
Jack Goodman, organist

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday, October 31, 2008 @ 7:30 PM – Phantom of the Opera*
1943, 92 minutes, color
Genre: Drama, Horror, Music, Thriller
Director: Arthur Lubin
Cast: Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster, Claude Rains, Hume Cronyn
Jack Goodman, organist

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, November 16, 2008 – A Christmas Story
1983, 94 minutes, color
Genre: Comedy, Family
Director: Bob Clark
Cast: Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Peter Billingsley

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday, December 6, 2008 – White Christmas*
1954, 120 minutes, color
Genre: Comedy, Musical
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, Dean Jagger, Mary Wickes
Nominated: Irving Berlin nominated for Best Song
Hans Gartner, organist

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, January 11, 2009 – The Road to Singapore*
1940, 85 minutes, black and white
Genre: Comedy, Musical, Romance
Director: Victor Schertzinger
Cast: Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Bob Hope, Charles Coburn, Anthony Quinn, Jerry Colonna
Hans Gartner, organist

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday, February 14, 2009 – The Princess Bride
1987, 98 minutes, color
Genre: Action/Adventure/Family Comedy/ Fantasy / Romance
Director: Rob Reiner
Cast: Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, Andre the Giant, Fred Savage, Robin Wright Penn, Peter Falk, Peter Cook, Carol Kane, Billy Crystal
Nominated for Best Music, Original Song
Jack Goodman, organist

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, March 15, 2009 – Rear Window
1954, 112 minutes, color
Genre: Crime/Drama/Mystery/Romance/Thriller
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr
Hans Gartner, organist

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday, April 4, 2009 – Dr. No*
1962, 110 minutes, color
Genre: Action / Adventure / Thriller
Director: Terence Young; Written by Ian Fleming (novel) and Richard Maibaum (screenplay)
Cast: Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Jack Lord, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Peter Burton
Jack Goodman, organist

*movies I hope to see are noted with the afore-mentioned *

It's back!!

I used to visit the Olive Garden many times a year. Used to get the Tour of Italy or the chicken alfredo.

Now I only go once or twice a year. But that "once or twice a year" is centered around their never-ending bowl of pasta. $8.95 for all the pasta you can eat plus soup or salad and breadsticks. Hello!! Check out the website for the sauces and pastas offered this year. I think this promotion runs through the end of September.

The Digital Remedy

Went to go see the David Crowder Band starring in "Remedy" tonight in historic Gettysburg, PA.  It was very cool.  It was basically a 90 minute show spliced together from live sets in Atlanta and NYC.  What made it super-cool was that it was digitally-projected and the picture was super-sharp.  There were only about 12 or so of us in theater two (which was a pretty huge theatre) which was kinda disappointing.  But it was good to see band on the big screen and to be able to sing along and raise my hands in worship while they played.  Good stuff.

I took some pictures, but you can't see them.  I left my camera in theater two.  So now I have to make the trip back down to the theater to pick it up....hopefully this weekend.  I'll try to post some pictures when I have the camera again.....

I cut my finger with a plastic knife...

It's true.  I did it last night while making a sandwich.  Other random things of note...

.

*I enjoy rooting for countries who are playing against the United States.  Nothing against my homeland, but I would rather see people from other countries do well.

 

*In other Olympic news, did you know that US Olympians received a free wardrobe courtesy of Nike and Ralph Lauren?

 

*I'm going to see WALL-E at the West Shore Theatre tonight.

 

*I got my hair cut last night.

 

*I think I'm going to make some macaroni and cheese this weekend.  Or maybe some banana bread.

One of those frustrating moments

Today after work, I headed to the gym. After the gym, I headed up to
the "gourmet" grocery store. I had wanted to pick up some turkey from
the deli for a few lunches this week. They happen to make a very good
turkey called Just Turkey. It's like Thanksgiving. It's that good.
So I got to the deli counter and saw a small crowd. They were serving
#59 and I pulled #65 from the Magical Deli Dispenser of Order. There
were two girls filling orders and it was close to ten minutes before
they called my number. "A half-pound of Just Turkey please. Sliced
medium." She filled my order and handed me a bag of Just
Turkey.....that was .62 pounds. That was 20% more than what I had
requested. I had thought about saying something to the girl, but
decided against it. I should have been more vigilant (sp?) and
reinterated the amount I was asking for. But I didn't.

And I spent the ride home complaining about they way other people were
driving and about how the deli girl wasn't good with numbers. And I
realized what I was doing and that I was complaining. And I said a
quiet prayer, asking forgiveness for my attitude.

It's terrible how if you let something (like a thought) sit unattended
in your mind, it grows exponentialy and becomes detrimental to your
spiritual welfare. Ya always have to be on-guard.

In other news, it's so much more enjoyable watching the Olympics on
the internet than on the TV. There is absolutely no play-by-play to
mar your enjoyment of the games (unless you enjoy that kind of thing).
I'm currently watching Argentina vs. Great Britain in women's field
hockey.

Remedy for the Big Screen

Hey locals! It's coming to Gettysburg!!

Relevant for today?

My friend and I are studying the Mennonite Church at the moment and we got to talking about pacifism and how it's defined (or not defined) in the Bible. There appears to be somewhat of a difference in the number of battles fought for God/at God's bidding in the OT, but not so much in the NT. So I was doing a little reading in II Kings trying to gain some insight into the background and I stumbled upon this somewhat humorous passage:

From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.

So yeah....what do you do with that?

From the Phone

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