Not for Human Consumption!

On our coffee table we have the usual things.  There are a few large books that nobody every picks up let alone reads, an antique looking wooden box, a matching letter opener and magnifying glass with carved ivory handles, a large white bowl with a blue, Asian looking picture of a dragon, a stack of coasters, the television remote and a square, turquoise dish that is full of little red, dried, berry-looking things that smell like red-hots and are designed to make the room smell nice.  

As for the last coffee table item I mentioned, I don’t think I’ve ever mistaken potpourri for actual food.  Sure, I’ve joked around at friends’ houses and acted like I was either eating, or going to eat something odd from their potpourri bowl just to get a laugh, but what self-respecting teenage guy hasn’t done that at least a dozen times?  

However, last night Don, my father-in-law, came over just to hang out and spend time with the family.  He’s sitting on the sofa and we’re talking about the economy, President Obama’s first few days in office and other chitchat stuff when, in mid sentence, he reaches down and grabs about a half handful of the dried berry-looking things.  I don’t think I really understood what he was going to do, because before I can say anything he pops a few in his mouth! 

I’m sitting there in kind of a stunned disbelief as the chewing begins, and his face starts to distort.  Melissa comes back from the kitchen just in time to hear him say, “Man! These are really strong!”  

To which she replies, “They should be, it’s potpourri, but not supposed to be eaten.”  

At which point, I burst out laughing.  

So now, if you come to our house, our coffee table will have all of the above-mentioned items, PLUS, a tiny, strategically place sign that reads, 

“Not for Human Consumption!”

PS3 and Me

So I’ve got this PlayStation 3 (PS3).  It was a Christmas present a couple of years ago.  I don’t have all that many games, but the ones I do have are pretty addictive.  

Years ago a game called Wolfenstein got me hooked on first-person shooters.  However, I could only play against the computer, and once I beat that on the hardest level for the 500^th time the game would pretty much lose its appeal. 

My newest game is called Call of Duty – World at War.  This game not only has the play against the computer mode, but it also has an online mode that is much more interesting.  Now I can play against people all over the world, and it is far more difficult!  

I logged on earlier this morning and was informed that there were 122, 849 people playing.  That’s larger than the population of most towns in Texas!  And this is only one of he hundreds of games that are played online all over the world.  

Relatively speaking, I haven’t played online all that much, but I can see why the childhood obesity rate in the USA is so high.  I mean why go out and ride my bike or play baseball when I can simply stay at home, go online and magically become whoever or whatever I want to be.  

I’m not sure, but if these games had been around when I was a kid, I’d probably be as big as a house right now.  

A New Adventure

We’ve been members of Wilshire Baptist Church for 14 years.  Wilshire Baptist is a remarkable church.  We love the people, we love the staff, we love the fact that we agree so very completely with most everything the church stands for, but it’s okay if we don’t, and most of all we love George Mason, the pastor.  

We love Wilshire Baptist Church. 

However, the only issue we’ve ever had was the fact that all of my daughter’s friends from school were members at Park Cities Baptist Church, and that’s nothing we, or Wilshire Baptist Church, could control.  

About a year ago, my daughter spent the night with one of those friends and went to church at Park Cities with her family.  

She couldn’t stop talking about it.  

All her friends were there, and she felt connected and plugged in right from the start.  

For a little over a year we’ve been in somewhat of a “Church Membership Limbo.” 

Do we leave the church and a pastor we love?  This is the church that Macy was born in.  It’s the church were she was baptized.  This is the church that stood by us when my dad was fighting cancer. 

This is our church. 

Or do we put the spiritual needs of our daughter before our own?  This is a hard time of life.  It’s a time where we want her to want to be at church.  We want her surrounded with friends who are not only Christians, but they are friends with similar values.  This is our daughter and she’ll only be a teenager once. 

This is our daughter. 

We spent about a year thinking, praying and trying to figure out other possible solutions to our problem.   Do we drive back and forth between the churches every Sunday?  Do we stay at Wilshire and Macy joins Park Cities?  Do stay members at Wilshire, but just attend Park Cities for the next five years until Macy heads off to college?  Or do we take the plunge and simply join Park Cities? 

In the end, we made the decision to change churches.  It was a tough decision and one that didn’t come easy.  I mean, our lives were invested there, but this was a decision the family made for Macy. 

Melissa and I decided that we didn’t want to only half join the church.  Oh no, if we were going to make this move, we where jumping in head first…no "baby pool" membership for us!   

So, before we were even officially members we volunteered to teach eighth grade Sunday school.  We haven’t taught Jr. High Sunday school in over 10 years, but somehow it just felt right.  

The crazy thing is I teach with my chauffer from my volleyball stories, a guy named Keet Beastly.  He’s fun guy, a good teacher and a great new friend.  However, for some reason he reminds me of the strange mumbling guy from the volleyball games…I guess you never know.  

So there’s our new adventure.  

Funny how something that starts off as a problem can turn out so well.

 

Hmm??? It makes you wonder. 

I Learned a Valuable Lesson...

I dodged a bullet today and learned a valuable lesson at the same time.

I got to school this morning, plugged my laptop into my docking station, hit the switch and typed in my password. Exactly the same way I do it every morning.

However, today things didn’t go as planned.

I went about my business getting papers and things in order for the day, looking over my lesson and making sure I’ve got all my ducks in a row. After a couple of minutes I mosey back to the computer, open up Word and discover that all my files are gone.

Mild annoyance changes to panic, which in turn changes to disbelief, which in the end settles in on depression.

We’re talking about over eight years of documents, pictures and other irreplaceable files all gone without a trace.

I tried to continue with my day, but sitting there trying to recreate my morning assignment page, I found myself sinking deeper and deeper into depression. It seemed every file I thought of that would be almost impossible to remake, reminded me of yet another file.

So there I am, sitting motionless at my computer in stunned silence when Elizabeth, my teaching partner, walks in.

I somehow manage to blurt out what has happened and her jaw hits the floor. What I had forgotten was how many of the grade level’s files I had on my computer. I’m telling you this was rapidly becoming a major disaster.

Elizabeth suggested I call the district help line. I had thought of that, but really kind of figured it wouldn’t do any good. However, at her urging I made the call.

Let me tell you what, Ann at the RISD help desk, is my new best friend!

I told her what had happened and she didn’t even pause to think...she knew exactly what to do.

She told me my computer didn’t recognize me as an authorized user and so it opened up for a new user who couldn’t access my files. I simply shut it down, waited for about 30 seconds and rebooted. When it came back up everything was right were it was supposed to be. And I was elated!

As it turns out, the district has had this problem happening about 5 times a month with random computers throughout the district…of which there are hundreds.

They can’t figure out why and my guess is they really aren’t trying all that hard.

She said, “I think you should think about backing up your files, because you almost leaned that lesson the hard way!”

Like I said, I dodged a bullet and learned a valuable lesson

I hung up that phone and thought, “I bet this wouldn’t happen on my iMac!”