God Is Not a Minimalist

When I say God is not a minimalist, I'm not referring to the style of art known as minimalism. Instead I'm referring to the fact that God does not do things that just barely get the job done, that just meet the minimum requirements. He is a God of generosity and abundance. The God of more-than-sufficiency. Here are two passages (NIV) that demonstrate this:

Romans 8:32 "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"

Malachi 3:10-12 "¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. ¹¹ I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. ¹² "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty."

These two are but a tiny portion of the passages in the Bible that support this conclusion. The specific area that I would like to focus the first part of this post on is creation. It is close in topic to one I did previously. The second part of the post will focus on God's grace.

I was thinking about this a few days ago, about how God didn't just do the minimal needed for creation. He didn't just create the earth, the sun, the moon and a handful of stars in a single solar system. That would have been enough. Life, as He designed it, would happen the way it does now. We would have our days and nights, with the sun to govern the day and the moon to govern the night (see Genesis 1:14-19). Psalm 19:1 would still be true, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." Instead, God chose to create innumerable stars, planets, moons, solar systems, galaxies, comets and meteors. He created big planets, little planets, planets with thick atmospheres, planets with thin atmospheres, planets with rings, planets with no rings, planets with lots of moons, planets with no moons and planets with one moon. He created dwarf stars, black holes and supernovas. He created solar winds, solar flares and asteroid belts. It boggles the mind (at least it does mine).

Let's move on to other aspects of creation. How about the vast number and variety of life forms - fish, birds, bugs, mammals, plants and a whole slew of others. According to the birding.com web site, there are over 10,000 species of birds in this world! Think of the varieties you know - parrots, penguins, ostriches, robins, blue jays, cardinals, crowned cranes, bald eagles, sparrows, mocking birds, vultures, and the list goes on and on. And think how unique and different each one is. The same goes for all the species in the world. All so unique, different and totally creative. Just think, God could have given us omnivores just one source of meat - the humble chicken. Then everything really would taste like chicken :-). Think of the great variety of fruit there is for us to enjoy, both in kinds (like oranges and bananas) and within kinds (like granny smith and mackintosh apples).

How about geography? God could have created a big ironing-board flat island surrounded by a still, calm fresh water sea. That would have been enough. It would have met our needs for a place to live and grow plants and for water to drink. But not God. Instead he gave us oceans that roll, and mountains and valleys to break up the land. Streams, rivers and waterfalls to distribute fresh water. He gave us deserts, tropical rain forests, savannas, prairies, and polar ice caps.

The list of examples of God's extravagance in creation could go on and on. Isn't it wonderful that God isn't a minimalist? He does things super-abundantly, extravagantly!! Nowhere is this more precious than in regards to His grace to us and supplying Jesus Christ as the more-than-sufficient atoning sacrifice for our sins. Romans 5:12-21, below, says this very well. While you are reading it, look for all the words and phrases that show God's super-abundant grace.

¹²Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— ¹³for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. ¹⁴Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

¹⁵But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! ¹⁶Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. ¹⁷For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

¹⁸Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. ¹⁹For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

²⁰The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, ²¹so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Batcave Home Theater

To add to the two other cool home theater setups I posted about previously is this Batcave themed one.

December 30, 2007 Update

I'm still busy doing other, "non-blog" activities in the evenings, which is why I've posted a lot less in the last couple of months. Here are some updates.

First update - I found and purchased a new wireless router (reference this post). After doing research, reading reviews and doing price comparisons, I purchased a Linksys WRT54GL wireless router from newegg.com (which is one of my favorite places to buy electronics; they have a warehouse in New Jersey so I usually get my order the next day, depending on when I place the order). I ordered it this past Wednesday and received it Thursday. Based on comments in many of the reviews I read, I flashed the new router with DD-WRT firmware - it is supposed to have more features and be more stable. It definitely has more features. Only time will tell about the stability. There are a number of other 3-rd party firmwares out there that can be tried and of course there's always reverting back to the Linksys firmware if this one does not prove stable.

Second update - back in October I posted about God speaking to both my wife and I but did not reveal the subject. Well, now I can. She and I will be hosting a marriage Bible Study for couples in our church starting in January. The study is a HomeBuilders study by Family Life - Building Your Marriage. Stephanie and I did this, and others in the series, several years ago. This series and the Weekend to Remember marriage conferences that Family Life gives, have made a big, positive and lasting impact on our own marriage. I'm spending time on some evenings preparing for the study.

Third update - Christmas. We've decided to start a new family tradition - opening Christmas presents on Christmas Eve day (we started in the morning to give plenty of time for kids to play with the new gifts). That way Christmas Day we can focus more easily upon Christ, the real reason we celebrate. So we did that. A great time was had, especially by the kids who received an abundance of presents from family. On Christmas we hosted eleven people from our church. The day was good, though it did not go as intended and was tiring (just think two sick boys puking - enough said). Go over to my wife's post to read more about this.

Fourth update - I'm currently in the process of listening to a series of messages by Chip Ingram titled "Good to Great in God's Eyes". I first heard Chip Ingram give a message at an Iron Sharpens Iron (Christian men's) conference several years ago. I really enjoyed his speaking and the straight forward, yet engaging, manner he deals with Biblical truth. I started listening to his radio program on oneplace.com this past year. That's when I came across this series. On the Living on the Edge website, the message notes are available to be downloaded for free. I have downloaded and printed them off so that I can take notes as I listen. About half way through the series I decided that it was so good that I wanted to own the series and so I have purchased the CD set and the book. The series is about ten practices that great Christians have in common. I would recommend it to anyone.

Closing thoughts - 2007 is almost over and has been full. As the closing act for 2007, I'm going to have oral surgery tomorrow. I wonder what God has in store for us in 2008?

Merry Christmas 2007

Rejoice O Christians, for a Savior was born and now lives and reigns eternally - Redeemer and Lord!

Thank you dear Father God for sending Your One and Only Son Jesus Christ into our fallen world as a baby, born in a stable. Without Christmas there would have been no Easter.

Luke 2:1-20 (NIV)

The Birth of Jesus

¹In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ²(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³And everyone went to his own town to register.

⁴So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

⁸And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.[*] ¹²This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

¹³Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

¹⁶So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!**

* The use of bold and red font color to highlight the text was my addition.
** Hmm, that sounds familiar for some reason?

Christians in China

I found this article by BBC America on Christians in China to be interesting and convicting. It is easy for me to forget how fortunate we are in America to be able to worship freely.

The Long-Awaited Picture

For those handful of people who read my blog but don't read my wife's blog, the picture of my hair cut is posted there. Go over there to take a look.

Oral Surgery

Last Thursday, I went to the dentist for my first cleaning and exam in over a year. You would think I would know better than to wait so long with the amount of dental work I have had during my life, but life happened. The last time I went was during the summer of last year when I had a bad tooth ache. The dentist determined I had an infection and prescribe me antibiotics. Around the time of the tooth ache, maybe a short time before, I developed a bump on the gum beside the lower molar that started to hurt. I assumed that the dentist would have said something about the bump if it was a concern since it was adjacent to the tooth that was infected.

The antibiotics seem to work as the pain went away after a while, but the bump never did. In fact it grew a little bit over time. When I went to the dentist everything else was fine but he did notice the bump, which he called a fistula. He was concerned about it, took some x-rays and referred me to an oral surgeon.

I went to the oral surgeon yesterday to have him do an exam. Based on the x-ray and looking in my mouth, he determined that he needed to do surgery. This tooth is one I had a root canal and crown put on while I was in college. Apparently my body is reabsorbing my tooth. He showed my on the x-ray where about 1/3 of one of the roots was already gone. Since this was done about 12 years ago, he thinks this might be due to an infection. If this had happened soon after the root canal, then it could have been attributed to the fact that sometimes the body will reject the packing material as foreign matter.

He also thinks that it was not the antibiotics that made the pain go away but that the liquid in the fistula, which had built up pressure, thus causing the pain, had broken through some of the tissue and were now draining. Thus the pain went and stayed away.

I'm scheduled for outpatient surgery on New Year's Eve, at 10:00 a.m. Yeah! Not. Since I had almost all of my benefits for the year on my dental plan available, he wanted to schedule me so that I could use them this year, and not lose them, and so that I would have all of my benefits next year. I was given a choice of Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve. My first choice was Christmas Eve since I already had that off but after a phone call to my wife, it was changed to New Year's Eve.

During the surgery he will remove the fistula, peel back the gum around the tooth, clean out any infection in there and check the tooth to see if the root is cracked. If it is, the tooth will have to come out immediately. If not, I may be able to keep it. He tapped on the tooth and decided it felt solid, so it would be worth saving if possible. I agreed.

He said I did not have to be knocked out for the operation but recommended that I be. I agreed again. So Stephanie will have to be along to drive me home and care for me. After the surgery, he will have me on antibiotics for two weeks. About a week after surgery I will go back in to have him remove any remaining stitches. After the two weeks on antibiotics he will have me go two more without before coming in to see him again. He will then take some x-rays and examine the area to see if any infection has returned. If not, I should be good to go. If it has gotten re-infected then the tooth will have to be removed.

I asked what the options were if I had the tooth removed. He said my dentist could talk to me about the specifics but in general I could, because the two teeth on either side of the infected tooth were in good shape, get a fixed bridge, or I could get a removable bridge (which he did not think I wanted at my age, again I agreed with him) or I could, once the bone had healed, get an implant with a crown on top, which is the one he would recommend. Once again, I had to agree with him.

The recovery after having my wisdom teeth removed was not a fun experience and I don't imagine that the recovery from this will be much better, except that it will be only one area and not four. If you remember this on New Year's Eve, I would appreciate any prayers made on my behalf.

Router Hunt

My current wireless router, D-Link DI-524, is starting to become unreliable. It keeps dropping my connection. When we first got it a couple of years ago I never had this issue with it. It seems to be degrading. Yesterday afternoon I worked from home and it dropped me three times, which meant I lost my VPN connection and had to re-connect and re-authenticate.

So I'm on a router hunt for a new one. Do any of you have any recommendations?

"I Cannot Believe You Did That"

When was the last time your spouse said those words to you? After ten years of marriage, I don't often cause Stephanie to say them anymore. But I did today.

Now I have your curiosity piqued, don't I? "What could he have done to cause her to say that? It must have been something pretty bad." Well, that depends on your point of view.

I gave myself a hair cut. It was not planned but was a spontaneous action on my part. Stephanie has been cutting the boys and my hair for over a year now. She uses some cheap buzzers/clippers purchased at Wal-Mart and just gives me a buzz cut. Straight forward and simple, and it saves us a lot of money.

I've kept it fairly short even during the winter so that I can wear my knit hat without worrying about getting hat hair. Well, its been a few weeks since the last hair cut. I had even mentioned to Stephanie this past week that it was getting long and due for a cut.

Today, church was canceled due to weather and I knew I would be shoveling snow (see this post about it), so I had not shaved or showered in the morning. Once I was done with the shoveling this afternoon, I came in to shave and shower. Prior to shaving, I was trimming my beard with my trimmer and just decided to go ahead and use it on my whole head. I put the guard up one notch above the level I trimmed my beard at and started to go at it.

Stephanie was not aware of this until she overheard Will ask me what I was doing and me replying that I was giving myself a hair cut. I heard "What?!" coming from another part of the house, followed by Stephanie's appearance in the bathroom. That's when the, "I cannot believe you did that." came.

I do have to admit that the length I chose turned out to be shorter that I thought. Apparently beard hair looks longer at a shorter length than does head hair. It looked fine when I was doing the sides but once I started on the top, I realized, "Gee, that's shorter than I thought it would be." Stephanie told me to make sure that I told people that this was self-inflicted and not wife-inflicted. So now you've been told. She was kind enough to trim up around the back and my ears.

Thanks honey for loving a cue ball like me.

Winter Weather And Shoveling

Winter weather has struck with a vengeance. On Thursday we got around six inches of snow. This caused some aggravation because we had to be out in it for an eye doctor's appointments. See my wife's blog for general details on the day.

The part I want to draw your attention to is the shoveling of the snow. After supper, I had to go out and shovel the driveway and the walk ways. If I didn't do it then, I would have to do it all before going to work and that was not happening. The boys came out with me and played while I labored. I'm looking forward to when they are seven and up and can actually help me shovel.

The snow was very dry and so it was light, there just was quite a bit of it. The boys and I tried to make a snowman but the snow was so dry that it did not stick together. I could not make a snowball to save my life. It was still snowing after I finished or rather completed the first wave of shoveling of each area. The next wave would be in the morning.

Sort of a side note, I wonder if the guys plowing take any delight in filling up the end of people's driveways with walls of snow? I had literally just finished shoveling out the end of my driveway when a plow came along. I had to step back so that I would not be covered in the wave of snow coming off of the plow blade. And I got to shovel the end of the driveway out once again.

On Friday morning there was about an inch and a half that had fallen since I finished up the night before. I hurried to clear the walk way, the driveway and clean of the van before heading off to work. Which meant I arrived at work tired and ready for a nap.

For those who don't live where there is a lot of snow you may be thinking, "Why bother when there's only one and a half inches?" I thought the same when we first moved up here. The reasons are:

• If the walk way is not shoveled, the mail man could decide not to deliver the mail. With Christmas approaching we've been getting a lot of packages so I could not let that happen.
• If you drive over the snow in your driveway, it compacts it and those strips (where the wheels drove over) will turn to ice and become a pain in the neck.
• If you can get down to the pavement, even if it is only in spots, that lets the sun heat it up, which assists in the melting the snow and ice around it.

It's also a good idea to clean off the hood and roof of your vehicle, especially if you will be going very fast at all. If the snow stays snow, then it just blows off of your vehicle, which does not do much harm other than possible obscuring the view of someone behind you and making them use their windshield wipers. However, if the snow has hardened and turned to ice, it can be come a deadly weapon. Once you are going fast enough, the wind can cause the ice to come off in a big sheet and fly up into the air, possibly landing on a vehicle behind you. Not good.

Another tip - always keep your windshield wiper fluid topped off, especially if you live where they salt the roads. Salt and dirt in the spray caused by the tires of the vehicles in front of you can fast dry out on your windshield, making an opaque screen. If you don't have the wiper fluid to wash it off with, you will be forced to pull over and remove it some other way.

Sorry, I didn't mean for this post to turn in to one about winter driving tips. Back to the weather and the shoveling. To recap, I shoveled Thursday evening and I shoveled Friday morning.

On Saturday, I made a couple of trips to Lowes to buy a new snow shovel (the one I had came with the house and had seen better days; Thursday and Friday convinced me that it needed to be retired) and some more ice melt. I had to make two trips because on the first one, they did not have any snow shovels. When I could not find any I asked one of the employees where they were. His reply, "On I-95." I was puzzled by this response (I had visions of them having fallen off a truck and being scatter on the interstate), which he read on my face. So he explained that they had run out of them on Thursday evening and were awaiting an emergency shipment via UPS that was due to arrive at any time. Not knowing how long this time would be, I opted to go home for breakfast and return afterwards. On the second trip I was able to purchase one of those ergonomic snow shovels, the ones with the bent handle to minimize the amount of bending over you have to do.

After the boys' nap time I tried out my new shovel, this time to free up our trash and recycle bins. I also worked on some ice still sticking to the driveway, a result of coming home Thursday evening (see bullet point number two above.) Once that was done, I decided that was enough.

Stephanie was gone, Ellie was napping and I had taken the boys out with me to do the shoveling. So I took the boys into the backyard in order to pull them around in the toboggan. That did not last long. On the second circuit around the yard, I decided to try to get up enough speed that I could release the boys and they would go sliding off on their own. It had worked great last year with Will. Something went wrong in the transition from dad-guided to free-sliding, resulting in a capsized toboggan and two crying boys, one with a bleeding lip and one with a bleeding cheek. Boy, did I feel bad, especially as the boys were wailing and asking why I made them crash.

I took them inside, cleaned them up and fixed hot cocoa, with miniature marshmallows. That soothed them.

Sunday morning, we awoke to more snow (2-4 inches) along with sleet and rain. It rained most of the day. Our church service was canceled, so I was not forced to go out and shovel during the worst of it. After lunch the sleet had stopped and the rain had slowed down. I was not looking forward to this but knew I could not put it off any longer. I suited up and headed out for my fourth day in a row of shoveling. This time add in a slow rain to change things up. I was impressed at the difference have a good, ergonomic snow shovel made on my lower back. It did not do anything for my arms or upper back. And even though this snow fall was less than the one on Thursday night, this one was wet, heavy snow.

I'm now plenty sore and tired. I've had enough snow for the winter, thank you very much. I checked the forecast and at least there does not appear to be anymore snow for the next five days.

Four Bank Robbers, None With Cents (Sense)

I found this story amusing. Four men (it would have to be men, wouldn't it!?) tried to rob a bank and might have been successful expect for three critical errors:

1. The bank had already closed for the day.
2. They timed it during the police shift change, which meant that twice the normal number of police responded.
3. Their escape route was a major commuter road in gridlock.
   

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A Scripture Connection

I have found that the more I read the Bible, and thus the more I know of it, the more I am able to make connections between passages and truths. I made one today during my quiet time. The passage below was part of my Scripture reading.

2 Chronicles 15:12-15
"12 They entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul. 13 All who would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, were to be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman. 14 They took an oath to the LORD with loud acclamation, with shouting and with trumpets and horns. 15 All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and he was found by them. So the LORD gave them rest on every side."

The emphasis is mine. The context of this passage is that Judah and Benjamin, under the leadership of King Asa, had just returned from a battle that the LORD had won for them. The connection I made was with a well known passage in Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 29:11-14
"11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

Again, the emphasis is mine, to show the connection between the two. In the Jeremiah passage, God gives the promise that if we seek him with all our hearts, we will find Him. The 2 Chronicles passage is a real-life example of this promise fulfilled. In this case the people of Judah and Benjamin sought God with all their hearts and, as promised, they found God. I think that's pretty cool.

Some of you may point out that the Jeremiah 29 promise was given quite a while after the 2 Chronicles event happened. True, but this is not the first time that this promise has been given. It's just the passage that I made the connection with. Here's another instance of this promise. I'm sure there are more of them too. I included some verse before and after the promise to give it context; the emphasis is mine to highlight it for you. Moses is the one speaking.

Deuteronomy 4:25-31
"25 After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God and provoking him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. 27 The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you. 28 There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. 29 But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him. 31 For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath."

I also think that the promise is not only a promise, but it is also a principle of spiritual life that has always been true. So, go and seek the One and Only with all your heart and you will find Him.

Five Less Two

Today we were blessed by being able to drop our two oldest off at the birthday party for one of their friends and leave them. In fact, parents were specifically excluded from the party, which was fine with us. These were friends we trust, so we had no issue there. That gave my wife and I three and a half hours with only one child. It was quite an unusual feeling, almost like going back in time to when we only had one.

We used the time to go out to lunch and do some Christmas shopping. We went to a Chinese food restaurant because the boys don't really care for that kind of cuisine. Lunch was done first so that we did not have to hurry through it. It was nice to only have to deal with one child and to spend a little more one-on-one time with Stephanie. And not to have to hear two children complain how they don't like the food.

After that, we went to Lowes in order to buy some tools for the boys. Will is getting a set of three adjustable crescent wrenches. Ben is getting a hammer. I wanted to get a 16 oz. claw hammer, the kind that has the metal handle (with grip), not the wood or fiberglass handle. After looking over the hammer section several times trying to find this hammer, I saw the label on empty support hanger identifying the location of the elusive hammer. I also noticed why it was elusive - it was marked down on sale for $1.99! That's right, $1.99. For that price, I could use another hammer :-).

After Lowes, we popped over to the K-Mart across the street so that I could purchase a tail light bulb for the van. One had gone out earlier in the week. Nothing like doing car maintenance in the parking lot of a store.

We then proceeded back through the time warp to pick up our other two children and return home in the present day. The kids were put down for a nap and Stephanie left to do some more Christmas shopping and supplies shopping. Will, being the oldest, has a shorter nap time than the rest of the children. We put him down on our bed so that he will not disturb his younger brother. After his nap was done, I went in and laid down next to him. We read some from "The Dangerous Book for Boys" by Gonn and Hal Iggualden.

Nap time done, we (the kids and I) proceeded with a little play time and then I fixed a gourmet supper for the kids - hot dogs, crackers and slices of oranges, all washed down by a very good glass of milk. I had left over Chinese.

Stephanie returned and the kids enjoyed some more play time. Then it was time for Saturday evening showers and bed time. Now I'm catching up on some of my radio program listening while blogging. I have listened to an episode of Focus on the Family (the last part of three with David Ring) and now I'm listening to John Piper (Our Hope: The Glory of God).

Bad Ideas in the News

• Learn from this guy's mistake and don't question the toughness of gang members.
• If your caught breaking into someone's house (who you know has a gun), count your blessings if you get away and don't come back to show him who's the boss.
• Building a nuclear power plant near an active fault.
• Applying for a Canadian passport unless you want your personal information stolen.
• As an extension of don't talk on a cell phone while driving, don't talk on the cell phone while walking across train tracks (despite the fact the the barriers were lowered).
• Smoking toad venom!?
• Leaving your vehicle unlocked when visiting a prison camp.
• Using tirades and rudeness to try to get out of jury duty.
• Getting your wife this for Christmas.
• Taking a date to this club while a certain patron is there.
  

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First Snow

Tonight we are getting our first real snow of the winter.  It's not much, just a thin layer over the grass, but it gives everything a nice white look.  One evening this weekend we had a few flakes come down but they did not stick and the snow sprinkle did not last long.

Almost 800!

I just need two more visitors to make my visitor count 800. Come on visitors! Nothing like my wife's visitor count of course. She's blown me away. It's not even close.

December 5, 2007 Update

I know, the titles of my posts recently have not been very creative. I just have not been up to thinking creatively. It takes too much energy and time. I recently moved my wake up time so that I'm getting up an hour earlier, which means I'm going to bed earlier, which means I have less time to do things in the evening. I'm either going to have to try to get a little bit of blogging in at work (like this one), perhaps during lunch, or I'm going to have to designate one evening a week to be my blogging night.

At work I've been learning Perl in order to try to use it to provide a solution to a problem we have. It's been fun learning it but has taken a lot of prolonged, intense reading, thinking and experimenting (which is the fun part). There's also been a lot of intense, stress inducing activity, which I cannot go into detail about.

At home, I've been doing a lot of reading. On Sunday we saw our first meager flakes of snow. By the time we got the kids bundled up and out to catch snow flakes, they were done. They were disappointed. Hopefully we'll have some by Christmas.

For those guys who read this blog, check out this list of 25 skills every man should know and this Christmas wish list.

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