If I were on Twitter...

Danny Kaye is the man.  Now trying my hand at making a Peanut Butter Pie!

If I was on Twitter...

eating Pineapple Fried Rice and watching The Court Jester.

Attention Runners!

Hey everybody!! I just found this wicked-cool website that allows you to map out a running route and it will calculate the mileage automatically! Click here.

Free Burritos

Next Thursday.

Details here.

Inspiration

I've been inspired by a movie I haven't seen yet.

A few posts ago, I mentioned some free screenings of the movie "Julie and Julia." The premise behind the movie includes a woman who decides to spend a year cooking recipes from Julia Child's cookbook.

And that has inspired me. I'm going to see the movie tonight, but I'm almost 100% positive that I'm going to start an experiment of my own.

My plan is to make one dish a week that I've never made before. I'm going to use different recipe sources and I'll try to document the fun here.

Stay tuned!

What'd you say?

A verse and a question for you to consider today.

First the verse:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4.29

Now the question:

Did you build people up with your words today?

Phil talked about taming the tongue this past Sunday and while he was speaking out of James, this is the verse that came to mind for me. I think it will be a verse that will always be relevant for me.

Free breakfast/snack at Starbucks

Tomorrow, to promote their new menu (featuring items sans high fructose corn syrup and artificial preservatives), Starbucks is giving away a free pastry with purchase of a beverage. Find your coupon here.

Dear Pittsburgh:

Dear Pittsburgh:

I like you. I've only been to visit you three times in my life, but you've grown on me something fierce. You have lots of water nearby and you have some cool things to check out like some of the shops in the strip district, the inclines, the bridges, a variety of theatre options and you have a Trader Joes! And the people I've met have been really nice.

But I haven't completely fallen for you yet. A couple things concern me. One of the things I noticed was that it seems like many of your residents smoke. What's up with that? Is it just what you do? I'm curious. Also, I have a problem with a few of your sports teams. I admire your fervent fan base, but I wish you would stop beating up on my teams. Finally, it seems like you have a substantial homeless problem, but you are not adequately addressing the issue. These people do not want to be homeless. But they need some help. Would you consider doing more for them?

I hope to see you again soon. You have a lot of potential. And it's only $36 to take the train to visit you. Take care.

MTG

From my oven to your computer

I made my first fruit pie. T'was a blueberry pie. Here is the photographic evidence..



And sliced...

Christy Nockels New Album - Cheap!!

Hey everybody! If you dig Christy Nockels, her new album is currently available as a download from Amazon.com for only $2.99!! I'm not sure how long it'll last, so move fast if you're interested......

The Great Unseen

As many of you know, I'm currently training to run a half-marathon in the fall.  While I'm not yet taking much joy in dragging myself out of bed every morning, I do find joy in my run.  You see, my runs take me down a rural road that at some points opens up for miles and I can see several miles to the mountains.  The sky is turning pink as the sun prepares to rise over the mountains.

I love this view.  I love it so much, that I actually took my camera out with me on a run last week to try to capture it and share it with you.  I actually tried to take some video too.  However, it turned out to be too dark for me to really capture the beauty of the moment.  So all I can do is describe it for you.

And that somehow got me to thinking about things that we can't see - namely the future (I've been doing a lot of metaphorical thinking lately).  We all have ideas on what our future will look like, but we don't really know.  Many of us have the assurance that heaven awaits, but we're unsure of the meantime.  We have our grand ideas, hopes and dreams, but they're not concrete.  But we can describe it.  Let me try to see if I can describe to you my future.

It will be a future built on faith.  I firmly believe that "greater things are yet to come."  So much so, that my personal motto is "The best is yet to come!"  You can feel free to use that quote, but make sure your use the exclamation point.  But I know that just because the best is yet to come, it doesn't mean that there won't be some hard times on the way.  In fact, the Bible says that we can count on them. 

This past winter was a little hard for me.  But it was made easier when I learned to lean on everlasting arms.  Foremost in my mind was the fact that God would see me through, no matter what.  And He has, and He will continue to.

I hope that as you think about the future, you don't focus on how good or bad it will be, but that you'll focus on Who will bring you through.

Freebie for the locals

The movie Julie & Julia is screening for free in Harrisburg on Tuesday, 07/21 and Tuesday 07/28. Tickets are free, but must be reserved at Film Metro.

From the garden to my stomach

As some of you know, I'm part of a community garden at my church. I went out on Thursday and picked a couple pounds worth of green beans. I was looking for some ideas on how to prepare them, so I called my culinary sibling. She suggested sauteeing the green beans in butter. I decided to add some garlic.


It turned out really good. Except for the big light-colored bean in the foreground (it needed some more cooking time). The beans were cooked really well and the garlic and butter added a nice accent. I'll be fixing this again later this week!

Idol much?

So a rather famous pop singer died last week and the world has been mourning his loss. As I was looking through some of the pictures, I wondered what it was about this particular person that caused people who didn't have any sort of personal relationship with him to react the way they did. And the first thing that popped into my head was "idol."

I'm pretty sure you won't have to look hard to find folks who considered this person an idol. And I began to wonder what sort of process it would take to get someone to the point where they would cry about someone who's not family or friend. It seems to me that someone would have to have a lot of time/emotion invested in someone to cause this sort of reaction. And I wonder how high the pedestal was that people put this person on.

Idolatry is a huge problem in the world. Not just the obvious practices either. What about our jobs? Look how far people are willing to go for their jobs. And relationships. People are always willing to put a boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife in a position above everything else. It's a big problem.

The best way to prevent idolatry is obviously to keep your eyes on Jesus. You do not need to idolize Him, but you do need to make Him the focus of your life. Everything that you do should be a reflection of Him. Everything. I have to be mindful of how I spend my time and what I think about. It's something that requires constant attention on my part. But I think it's worth the effort.

Timmy Morgan

Wait till you see where he's popped up now.....

My heart is warmed

Who doesn't love baby animals? Thanks to Googs, I found a website full of pictures of baby animals from various zoos. This is the picture that caught my eye first:



It's a baby otter!! To see more, click on over to ZooBorns.

Three words

Pineapple Fried Rice. It's fried rice with a touch of sweetness.


Mmmmmm Mmmmmm! That's what I'm talking about!