Sweet Fancy Moses

Chad rebuts.

Classic Scene Friday

My friend Chad has been quoted as saying he wishes he could dance. I wonder if this is what he meant.

Wild Kingdom (aka Wingate)

So, I'm up here at school working on an article that was due like 2 weeks ago (someone please teach me to say NO!). I decided I needed some calories to thrust my brain back into work mode - so out of the office I go toward the only food within walking distance....Mickey D's. (ironically my article is about diabetes....hmmm) As I bound down the stairs I plant both hands firmly on the horizontal bar that opens the door only to feel an odd sensation under my right hand....

...as I feel this thing under my hand, my brain immediately begins to assess the situation and hypothesize what it might be. Before my eyes can slash down to see what it actually is, I think to myself - someone has played a practical joke on me and put some substance on the door handle - ketchup? (catsup for you weirdos), glue maybe? I immediately surmise that it is not now nor was this thing ever any type of liquid. Then I postulate that maybe it was just a piece of tape that found its way to the door handle. Finally my eyes catch up with my brain and I look down to find this guy resting on the door handle right under my hand...

Wingate Door Monster

...how he got there, I have no idea. But he successfully scared the .....well, lets just say I jumped back and insulted his heritage a few times before regaining my composure. I then escorted my friend back outside where he belongs and continued on my mission.

I need to interject here and add that I have been up here alone all day...not a soul in sight due to the holiday - so I'm a little more "jumpy" than I otherwise would be. Also, I'm a little on edge after reading this post from the Creative Pastor at Elevation.

Sweet Tunes

This guy leads worship at a sister church down in Anderson, SC. Our worship team has rocked a few of his songs the past few weeks. I downloaded his CD from iTunes about a week ago. I can't turn it off! Dig it.

Classic Scene Friday

Trip to DC

Just returned from a conference just outside of DC in Lansdowne, VA. I flew into Dulles where they have these odd-looking shuttles or "mobile lounges" that you can ride from one part of the airport to another.

I experienced quite a number of other firsts on this trip. It was my first visit to DC...although I shouldn't really count it b/c I didn't get to do many of the typical DC things secondary to being "locked" in this nuclear fall-out shelter type building. It was the most bizarre building I've ever been in. It is solid concrete and most of it is underground. I got lost inside the building 3 times the first day I was there. My colleagues and I did finally escape Wednesday evening. We took a cab to the... (I have to digress here and ask if anyone has ever had a cab ride that didn't make them car sick and/or wonder if they'd make it to their destination alive. You'd think people who drive for a living would be competent at driving.) We took a cab to the metro station and orange-and-green-lined over to Nationals Park for a Washington Nationals game.

The metro was my first experience on a real subway system. The ride in wasn't too bad...other than prolonging the nausea I developed in the cab. The ride out of DC lived up to all of my preconceived notions about riding a subway. It was PACKED! Many, many people invading my personal space. It was also my first baseball game at Nationals Park. The Nationals are terrible - reminded me of the hundreds of Rangers games I went to back in the day.

Things that were not firsts on this trip: horrible cab rides (see above), difficulty sleeping away from home - especially without the wife and kids, and the ability of every airport in the world to make people who are probably otherwise sane and rational to become ridiculously impatient and irrational. It is astounding to watch people transistion to Mr. Hyde over the smallest inconvenience. I'm glad to be home!

Jedi Master Indeed!

Greatness! I couldn't wait until Friday to post this...thanks Phillip

Baby Names

We're struggling with names...so I'm reaching out to the blogosphere for help. I'll list a few that we've warmed up to, but we're open to suggestions.

Lauren Ruth
Avery Elise
Avery Grace
Erin ...
Claire ...

Classic Scene Friday

The Greatest Fashion Faux Pas in History

I stopped off at a department store to grab a couple new dress shirts on the way home from work tonight. I don't normally become enraged over clothing for sale in a store, but tonight...that changed. Maybe the day I had today set me up for my internal tirade this afternoon, not sure. What I encountered is something that I have long found distasteful, but normally would just shake my head in disapproval and move on. Today, it just set me off. Who actually buys these things? Personally, I would equilibrate the item I observed today to things like the male unitard...it just shouldn't happen! I submit for your disapproval - the short sleeve dress shirt/tie combo.

Classic Scene Friday

Weekend "Away"

We hit the Wachovia over the weekend. We had a great time! Tonya's parents flew in last Thursday to watch the boys. So, on Friday afternoon, we took off for our weekend away...a whole twenty miles away. Friday evening we had dinner reservations at The Palm. Neither of us had been there before, but we had heard great things about it. The rumors were true...the food was delicious! (although I still think their steak is better!) After dinner we attempted to walk off a bit of our dinner before grabbing some desert to go. We both joked about how weird it was to hold each other's hand while walking around. I had the Dutch Apple Caramel Streusel. Tonya had the Which Chocoloate Raspberry Truffle.

Saturday we slept until 9:00 AM! Neither of us could remember the last time we slept that late. We barely made it down to breakfast in time. We then caught our shuttle over to Quail Hollow. We decided to follow Vijay Singh and Geoff Ogilvy the first day. I had a great time further introducing Tonya to the world of golf and, of course, just getting to spend time with her. No Treo, no laptop, no kids, no insanely jealous dog...just us. And about 350,000 of our closest friends and golf professionals. Saturday night we were beat from walking the entire course. So we headed out for a casual evening at CPK. We sat outside on the patio - the weather was perfect! We enjoyed some good food and spent a lot of time talking...without being interrupted. It was glorious!

Sunday we met the Peeks and the boys at church. Furtick tore it up, again! After church we grabbed some souffles at Panera and then it was back to golf for us. Sunday we decided to park on a hole and watch a few groups come by and then migrate to another hole. We hung out at # 1 and watched all the big names go by. It was really neat to see Couples, Furyk, Mickelson and the like come strolling past. After the lead group finished, we made our way to a few other holes to watch for a while. We eventually found some bleacher seats at # 17 tee and watched a few groups come through. Finally, we found some seats at #18 green and watched everyone, including Kim, finish their rounds.

Special thanks to Dudley and Sherree for braving the skies to take care of the boys. I'll have to write later in the week about all the... "stuff" they bought for the boys and developing girl.

Extra special thanks to my smokin' hot wife for submitting to my self-indulgent definition of a romantic weekend away. I enjoyed every second and I am looking forward to the next time we'll get to do something like this...in 2011.