ManUtd17

National Blog Posting Month (i.e., NaBloPoMo) has a theme for January regarding "Friends." Friends have played an important role in my life over the years. Admittedly, I do not make new friends easily. Generally, people don't become more than acquaintances until there is some shared experience. My closest friends remain my closest friends from high school and college. I shared many experiences with the friends I hold from those times. I even count some from those periods as "friends" having... Read Full Story

Today ends another year of National Blog Posting Month. For me, these have been the only posts of 2010 -- not just November. As is the case every year that I've done this, I've enjoyed the exercise. It's not easy writing something every day. And as you can attest, it's even harder to write something well every day. Thanks, I'll be here all week! Try the veal. And tip your waitress. While I've been writing these relatively short posts for the last 30 days, there's been another segment of... Read Full Story

Our church is celebrating the advent season this month. With that comes a four-part series each week. Yesterday's message centered around Waiting for God. ( Not the British comedy series. ) There were several points that struck me in this first message. But one stuck out more than the others. That point is one that shouldn't really shock me or you. Waiting for God can be frustrating. I don't think anyone's ever yelled out " WELL, DUH!! " in church, but it felt really appropriate yesterday... Read Full Story

Growing up in the '70s, there are certain comedy classics that are a part of my DNA. That is, quotes from a handful of iconic comedies are indelibly fixed in my head. One of those quotes is " ... and don't call me Shirley " whenever I hear someone say something like "Surely, that isn't how it happened" or "Surely, you can't be serious," I can't help but think: I am serious, and don't call me Shirley. That quote is one of many legendary lines uttered by Leslie Nielsen in the movie Airplane... Read Full Story

We got a call this morning out of the blue. A real estate agent that Jen met a few weeks ago called because he had a couple that was interested in buying a home in our part of the city. He asked if he could bring them by. As many know, when you're selling your home, you have to be on alert in case you get such a call from an agent. That also requires that you keep your home in a perpetually clean state. We were not selling our home. So we were not on alert. And our house was far from clean... Read Full Story

Today was a weird one. It started last night. After a long Thanksgiving Day filled with a gluttonous amount of food and drink, we came home a little after 8:00 pm. I probably should've gone to bed then. Instead, I fell asleep downstairs for a couple of hours. Then, of course, I couldn't fall asleep. I watched most of the movie Radio . I'd never seen it. Decent flick. Eventually, I went to bed in the wee hours of the night/morning. K-Man was up a little after 7:00 this morning. Jen leaned over... Read Full Story

It's been a good day. We celebrated the day at my parents' house with a truckload of family! K-Man loved running around all day playing with "the cousins." He and his cousin, Jonathan, ran around playing with their nerf guns until they were sweaty messes. He should sleep incredibly soundly tonight! When you have a blog, you are almost obligated to write a post today about the things for which you are thankful. Far be it from me to ignore that responsibility. I am thankful for much. Much more... Read Full Story

I'm working on my oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies tonight. The first batch is in the oven as I start this post. So far so good. Here's what they look like in the bowl: Here's what they look like cooling on the cookie rack. ( Yes, I have a cookie rack for cooling my cookies. Shut up. ) Based on the required precautionary taste test, I think this batch will be well-accepted tomorrow at my parents' house. Jen is a fan of oatmeal raisin cookies, but she hasn't asked me, until tonight, to set aside... Read Full Story

Life is full of turning points. Some we enjoy. Some we don't. Some might say that the best turning points are those that lead to productive or positive changes and require the least blood, sweat and tears. I'm not sure that I fall in that camp. For me, it takes the adversity for the lessons that come at the turning points to make the appropriate impression on me. I can be thick like that. Jen and I have been praying for something the last few years and that intensified over the last few weeks... Read Full Story

It's Thanksgiving week. That means at some point I have to make my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to bring to dinner on Thursday. My family might disown me if I failed to bring them. But to make them, I have to go to the store to buy the ingredients. And I can't be trusted at the store. Just ask Jen. I'll explain. So I made the list, which included some generic groceries that we just needed around the house. For example, I bought some Lysol spray to disinfect the kitchen garbage can... Read Full Story