Quote of the Year

Sorry to disappoint all the millions who have been dying for me to post again. I have been focusing most of my attention on my Meijer blog and quite frankly my life hasn't been all that interesting lately. However, I just stumbled upon a quote when reading a forum about the iphone. The users name is Yadmonkey, whatever that means.
He said,

Picking a cellular service feels like choosing a presidential candidate... you end up going with the choice which is slightly less nauseating.

I don't know that I have ever heard anything more true. I am actually pretty happy with my current cell phone carrier, but there are still far to many times that things don't work quiet right or the bill gets messed up and you have to spend hours on the phone with some guy in India, or your phone doesn't do half the stuff it should be able to.
It just seems that in the land of the free with both politics and markets driven by the consumer, we would have some better choices and better service. Do we just settle for mediocrity because we don't really get to choose, or is the majority of our citizenry made up of people who like junk?
Never mind, I just saw an ad for Wal-Mart.

Phew!

As you may be well aware by the lack of humor in you life, Julie and I have not been doing much blogging lately. Let me explain why.
First, we went on vacation in mid-January for a week. I know, not exactly the most stressful period of our lives and we probably could have written a blog or two, but we had no internet connection and frankly didn't really care to tell people that we were spending the week watching it snow and swimming in a huge indoor pool by ourselves.
Second, we get back from vacation and play catch-up at work and home. Then I took off for a winter retreat for the Jr./Sr. high students in Sunday school. I'm not really sure what Julie was doing all weekend that she wasn't able to write anything, but I'll assume it was really important.
Third, all of the water that dried up in Georgia this last summer landed on Fort Wayne. I think they stopped measuring it in inches. Of course everything flooded, including our basement. (Ironically, there was a boat show in Fort Wayne this past weekend. Initially I thought this was pretty retarded because first of all it's February and hardly a time to use a boat, and second there isn't a single decent lake within 50 miles. Turns out boats came in pretty handy during the flood and the Boat Show powers that be know what they're doing) Anyway, our basement flooded due to roots growing in our drain pipe and a river needing to pass through it. It wasn't a horrible mess but it did involve a plumber and a large check being written. Fortunately all we have to replace is our carpet, which we had planned on replacing anyway.

Please feel free to share any tales of water woe that you have experienced so we can commiserate together.

Hobby Lobby

I have a new co-worker, at work, obviously. I'll call him Marc G., because Marc is his name. His last name starts with G. but I don't know if he wants his identify to be fully know across cyber space and as there are about a million people who read this blog, I wanted to respect his privacy.

So, having said all of that, Marc and I recently took a trip to LaGrange, Indiana for a court hearing for one of my foster kids. On the way up Marc and I discovered that we both are very interested in model airplanes and radio controlled cars and the such. Marc then asked if I had been to Phil's Hobby Shop because it has some really cool stuff in it. I replied no, but that I really enjoy going to Hobby stores. I then recounted one of the saddest days of my life, the day I walked into Hobby Lobby expecting it to be full of really cool stuff and found that it was really full of...
"Junk!" blurts in Marc. He too had been fooled by the Hobbyish name of the store filled with nothing cool. Not even partially cool, just super boring lame stuff. Even the smell of it is boring. The sign however is somewhat cool. First of all it has the word Hobby in it. Second, it orange and kind of slanted, giving the impression of action. Completely misleading. If there is anyone who has not been duped by Hobby Lobby's signage, consider yourselves warned.


my wife loves Hobby Lobby...

Merry Chirstmas

I know we all hear this over and over about the true meaning of Christmas, but I found this quote to be kind of neat. I also thought my Catholic audience would appreciate it.

With Christmas fast approaching, Pope Benedict XVI is warning Catholics
about the temptations of materialism, saying children are being raised in a
consumeristic culture that trumpets "false models of happiness." The pontiff
laments that consumerism keeps youth from searching out real truth and meaning,
and that "adolescents, youth and even children are easy victims of the
corruption of love, deceived by unscrupulous adults who, lying to themselves and
to them, draw them into the dead-end streets of consumerism." [AP, 12/8/07]

I teach Sunday school to 9th and 10th grade students. Recently we have been talking about the five love languages. If you don't know what they are go here, then take a quiz here to find out what you are, then come back and finish reading.
I was very surprised to find that out of the five languages; gifts, quality time, acts of service, words of affirmation, and physical touch, not one kid had gifts in his/her top three love languages. In fact, almost all of them had quality time. Something to think about when trying to decide what to give those you love this season.

Julie and I have found ourselves especially busy this year with all the stuff that "has" to get done. I hope you are able to find some quiet time this year.

Puppy Chapter 2

Maggie continues to make herself at home with Julie and I. She has progressed from a shy meek tiny little creature to an antagonistic loppy attention seeking conniver. Just a few minutes ago we gave her a brand new rawhide bone because it appeared that she had eaten all of the previous one. Well after about 5 minutes of chewing on the new bone, she gets bored and starts playing with the skirt of the couch. Or so we thought. Turns out she was really trying to get the bone we thought she had finished. After reteiving that one, she goes back for another bone. Then she decides that she needs the bone that Sam is chewing on as well. We will be spending the better part of this Christmas teaching her about sharing and giving instead of taking and hording.

Meijer

Wanted to let everyone know that I started a new blog today. I realize I do a poor enough job keeping this one up, but I am much more passionate about my new one. It is all about Meijer stores. Pretty much the best store every invented. Check it out if you have a chance.

Puppy

So, anyone who has read Julie's blog is already aware that we have a new puppy. I don't know how many of you have had puppies before. Despite having had several dogs in my life, this is the first time I have really been responsible for a puppy. I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into. Below is a list of things I have learned about caring for a dog.
1. breeds with boxer in them are extremely stubborn.
2. puppies are extremely orally fixated. If it is living, it goes in her mouth, if it is dead, it goes in her mouth, anything else, goes in her mouth.
3. puppies need to pee every 2-3 hours, and lots of time in between.
4. there are two settings on puppies, sleeping and terrorizing.
5. there are two settings for responses for everything puppies do, awwwww, and NOOOO!!

More to follow I am sure. Please respond if you have any great dog advice.