Thanksgiving (to who?)

We went to the Thanksgiving Eve gathering at Christ Community Church tonight. The Pastor, speaking on thankfulness and ungratefulness said this (actually, it's paraphrased because I'm adding some words and thoughts):

Coveting (greed, and lust for anything) looks forward. Thankfulness and gratefulness look back.

Here's another quote that deals with the same idea from another person:

"Remembering" is the fence or boundary that keeps us from ungratefulness toward and disobedience to God.

Chapter 8 of Deuteronomy is entirely about remembering, being grateful, and what happens when we stop both of those. I'm pretty sure we, as a country, have stopped remembering where we came from, forgotten God, and determined to credit ourselves for our wealth and position in the world.

I say this as a member of the country and confess my materialism and greed, also. Thank God that He is a God of second chances. I pray that we, as a country, will ask God for a second chance and then take that second chance to obey Him and give credit where credit is due.

Oh no! There on to me...

Aaaaah, the Age Old Question

I got this at work the other day. Enjoy!

Why did the chicken cross the road?

SARAH PALIN: The chicken crossed the road because gosh-darnit, he's a maverick!

BARACK OBAMA : The chicken crossed the road because it was time for change! The chicken wanted change!

JOHN MC CAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road

HILLARY CLINTON : When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure right from Day One that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.

GEORGE W. BUSH : We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY : Where's my gun?

COLIN POWELL : Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

BILL CLINTON: ... inappropriate...

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY : Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross,and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

AL SHARPTON : Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

DR. PHIL : The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his current problems before adding new problems.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

NANCY GRACE : That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN : To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART : No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS : Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY : To die in the rain, alone.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS : Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish it's lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE : It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES : I have just released eChicken2008, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken2008. This new platform is much more stable and will never reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN : Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS : Did I miss one?

Mountain Out of a Mole Hill

It started out as a little drywall repair after getting our shower remodeled a few weeks ago...

Now this -

This one will take some electrical, plumbing, drywall, and framing. Should be fun. I'll keep you posted.

Won of the grates!

This is perhaps the best website out there. The creator is a genius.

Zombo com

the princess and the king

Nori and I went on a date yesterday morning. It was hiking and out to her favorite restaurant. We got out the door around 9am, jump on the iron horse and started up to Ventana Canyon. God reminded me, with 1 mile of gas left in the tank, that I forgot to fill up. There was a gas station 3/4 of a mile down the road. He's awesome! but I digress.

The weather is perfect for a hike right now. As it was her special time, I told her I would let her pick how far we would hike - as long as it was as least four miles. She picked 30 minutes out and 30 minutes back. As it had already been 40 minutes when I asked her, we settled on another 5 minutes and then turn around. Besides, how could we wait much longer for...

THE HOMETOWN BUFFET!

Once again the HB delivered on good times. The food was par for the course, but I was with my princess... what more could I ask for?

I had no idea Nori could eat that much corn-off-the-cob.

Vanilla ice cream over warm, fudge brownies is really good.

"You don't make sense to me, so you must not be real," said the Ant to the Elephant

This was emailed to me today.

This is really fascinating - it's rather dazzling to see it presented this way.

I certainly thought this was enlightening. Beyond our sun, there's a big universe.

Antares is the 15th brightest star in the sky. It is more than 1000 light years away.

How big are you?

…

The next pic is a Hubble telescope ultra-deep field, infrared view of countless ‘entire’ galaxies, billion of light-years away.

The last is a close-up of one of the darkest regions of the other photo. Humbling, isn't it?

And yet, someone knows how many hairs are on your head, and not even a single sparrow dies apart from His will (Mt. 10:29-31)!

So, now how big are you? And how big are the things that upset you today?

And how big is your God?! Keep life in perspective and remember who is in control. (Job 38).

Nobody Tosses a Dwarf!

Last weekend we spent some time with my Aunt and Uncle. Most of the day was spent at the Scottish Highland festival and games. There were tons of competitions - dancing, throwing a bag, bagpiping, throwing a rock, singing, throwing a ball and chain, throwing a tree trunk, throwing a pole with a metal ball on the end of it. I will say this for the Scottish, their culture clearly values big, burly men. You have to be one to be successful at any of those things... except the dancing.

The kids also got to participate in kids versions of all the big, burly people games. There were about 25 kids in the contest and Nori got second, Bubba got first. This was the first time Bubba has beaten Nori at any sports events. Clearly, Bubba is a big, burly man.

The last thing we took in was some live Celtic bands. We ended up seeing a rockin' band called the Killdares. I didn't know there was such a thing as electric bagpipes - there are.

Here are some pictures that my Uncle took.