Hall of Fame

We stopped at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It was great until a school showed up. They were loud and threatened to carry us away. Wait. Whining like this should not be allowed when talking about a collection of tough guys. So this school showed up and we scowled and growled and were tempted to eat their fingers off. There, that's better. The Hall hasn't changed much since the first time I went in 1993. They changed the room with the busts because they had too. It was too full. They've changed some exhibits some as rules have been broken. In 1993 we went to see Walter Payton inducted. Here's a picture of the class from that year. That class included, from top to bottom, Dan Fouts, Walter Payton, Larry Little, Bill Walsh, and Chuck Noll. I took some pictures of the Lions too for my Michigan friends.

And here's the jersey from one of the games that was the most fun to watch.

Peyton was 20 for 25 for 314 yards and 6 touchdowns. He threw more tds than ints. That was a fun game.
It was fun. I'd heard that they changed the gameday video thing to include the Super Bowl from the previous year so I was excited. But it was still the Steeler and Super Bowl XL. The Hall of Fame is worth visiting but it's probably going to need some renovations soon.

Christmas at the Beach

It's been almost two weeks since I've made a post. I know I know. I'll make it up to you by keeping you up to date on vacation. I'll have pictures of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I'll give you pictures of the golf course and beach. You think those will help while you suffer through the snow? It'll help me. I'm hoping to golf twice. I'm hoping to see the ocean a couple of times. I really like the ocean for some reason. I even like it when it's way too cold to get in. Well I'll try to keep you updated while we're there.

O Christmas Tree

I finally went out to buy a Christmas tree. I'm a little cheap and was dreading paying $30-50 for a tree. I saw a place where I could buy an already cut one for $25. I still don't like paying $25 for something I'm going to throw away in a month anyways but I went in hopes of having my family still love me. When I got there the old man was helping someone else so I walked through looking at his trees. When he got to me I told him I needed something this high and I raised my hand as far as I could. He led me over to those size trees and said something like "I've had this one here cut for a week and a half and nobody wants it. I'll sell it to you for $10." I didn't need to even look at the tree. He'd said the magic words. He showed it to me and it was pretty ugly. But I didn't care it was $10. I loaded it in the truck and headed home. We decorated that night and it really isn't that ugly anymore. So here's our tree. Merry Christmas.

National Debt

When it comes to voting some things are very important to me. The spiritual beliefs of a candidate are important to me. Abortion is an important issue to me. So this year I find myself with 2 candidates that really fit my criteria. Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. I could find myself voting for each of them. I find one big difference though. Paul wants to seriously cut spending and Huckabee talks a good game but spends. I believe that this will keep Paul from ever being a serious candidate. Cutting spending isn't a popular idea among politicians. But who cares if it's popular, it needs to be done. I went over to the Treasury Department home page. They have some cool features that no doubt cost tons of money to put together. But anyways you can look up the national debt and search by day to find out what it was. I looked at the month of November for 2007. November 1st the national debt, according to the Treasury Department, was $9,080,228,573,291.65. It's great they have it to the penny. November 30th the debt was $9,149,341,364,936.71. It's funny how the number doesn't look that different. But it's a growth of 69 billion 112 million 791 thousand 6 hundred 45 and 6 cents. In one month! Not how much we spent but how much farther we went in debt. If you break it down it's only 2 billion 303 million and some change a day. It's only $1,599,883 a minute. Now I'll admit I have no idea how much it costs to run a government. But anytime you are going that far in debt you have a problem. The best way to cut debt is to stop spending more than you are taking in. So our government has four choices. 1. Raise taxes (doesn't sound too appealing to me.) 2. Cut spending (I hate the waste.) 3. A mixture of both (this is probably the most logical but is definitely unelectable.) 4. Keep ignoring it and hoping it will go away. I'll quickly admit I know very little about this stuff. However, a guy who has a plan to fix it sounds appealing to me.

Geology

My favorite class at Cedarville was Geology taught by John Whitmore. This article in the New York Times talks about him and other young earth creation geologists. I enjoyed learning in the classroom but really enjoyed hunting for fossils and glacial erratics. He had a contest to see who could find the largest glacial erratic in the Cedarville area. I loved driving around with friends and running into peoples yards to measure and take pictures of big rocks. Big fun.

Check out this Spice store

I'm doing one of my first advertisements ever. My mom's new store is up and running. Check it out. If you buy spices maybe you'll be interested. Please check out the site even if you don't buy spices because it will get her hit count up and help her out. I took some of the pictures of spices. I'm no Burrill Strong that's for sure. The site looks pretty good. The Hawaiin Black Lava Salt is really good. I'm going to use some of the white peppercorn today to grind up fresh for Thanksgiving dinner. So check out Cherry Valley Spice Company.

Stephanie's first Notre Dame game

We got to go to Stephanie's first Notre Dame game last Saturday. Justin came through and picked up tickets for me again. We didn't do any James Bond stuff like last year but we met and he gave me a tour of the Law School. Watching his kids run through the courtroom was big fun. After that we went and got lunch. If you go to Notre Dame make sure you eat before you go in the stadium. Student groups have many booths set up selling food on campus and they have very good food. I went with the traditional brat but Steph got a steak sandwich that made me very jealous. She said it was great.After lunch we became a part of the human tunnel that greets the players as they go from mass to the stadium. Last year when I did this I got a high five from Brady Quinn. This year we just watched them go by. Steph was amazed by how many people were there to watch them walk by.

When you finish watching the players walk by you should head over to watch the band play. It's fun to watch and there's a good crowd for it. This week they were playing songs from the original Mario Bros. I made a little video of the band playing a portion of the 1812 overture.

Our seats were pretty good. We were in the 19th row on the north side of the stadium. The student section started on the other side of the aisle. Getting to see all of the traditions was cool. It even was cold and rainy just like the old days when we had season tickets.

I even took a picture of the big guy. I'm hoping he can turn it around next year. Maybe recruit someone who knows how to pick up a blitzer or something.

Notre Dame won. They were ahead by enough at the end that they put Zibby in at QB. This didn't make the Duke defenders happy. Putting a safety in at QB is seen by some as rubbing it in. I think Charlie learned that move from Bill.
I don't know if I've ever seen a team that excited to get their second win. We had a good time. Steph's first ND game was a success.

Happy Thanksgiving

We're celebrating with family at my parents. They have High Speed Internet so I'll do a couple of posts. I hope you have a good time watching football, eating, playing games, and spending time with your family.

Rank Claire Markwardt up there with Derek Redmond

Derek Redmond has been a favorite sports hero of mine for some time. I even have preached sermons and youth group lessons using him as an example. I came across this article and video on ESPN's site. Claire broke her leg and still finished the race. I won't ruin it for you with details but please read the article. It's a very good story. Oh and the video isn't as scary as they make it sound. It's worth watching.

Oh boy here we go...

I'm the last to know this I guess. Some of you are already putting odds on which way I will go on this one and I'm just finding out. Laura wants to get her ears pierced. Stink it all. I've decided that I'm really not a fan of my girls growing up. I tried to convince her that it will hurt. She doesn't care. Heh. Now I'm becoming my dad and trying to convince them that they don't really want the things they want. I'll keep thinking about and probably post the pictures when I finally give in.

Roethlisberger burger

On Monday nights we've been trying to eat something from the city that is hosting Monday Night Football. We've had buffalo wings, Coke floats, and stuff like that. Last week we had Roethliburgers. Pretty stinking good. We changed the recipe some and here's what we came up with. First a big burger patty. Melt provolone and sharp chedder on it. Put barbeque sauce under it. Put bacon and ranch over it. All of that inside of the bun. It was much better than I thought it would be. Try it.

The Great Turtle Race

No I'm not talking about myself. Sometimes I feel as slow as a turtle though. The name of the race on Mackinac Island is The Great Turtle Race. Apparently the island resembles a turtle. I've been training for this race for a while now and I just didn't feel myself getting faster so I was worried. My original goal was to finish in less than 50 minutes. As I trained I found myself thinking I could not come close to that. We went and met Dan and had a good time with the girls playing in the water park and eating at Mama Mia's. We got upgraded to a room with a private balcony overlooking the lake. But really what is there to look at? Ferries and a big hotel on an island. But it was nice anyways. The next morning we woke up and I had a light breakfast including a waffle and a piece of cinnamon toast. Then Dan and I went to catch a ferry. It was raining and chilly but the rain slowed down while we were on the ride over. It really turned out to be a good day for running. We met up with James over on the island and stretched a little. I get nervous before a race like this and end up going to the bathroom about 10 times before the race starts. When the race started we took off up the hill and I was going an ok pace. After the first mile I looked down at my ipod and noticed that I was on a 8:40 pace. That's kind of fast for me. It scared me and I slowed down. My second mile was 9:09 and I started thinking that I felt pretty ok. Maybe I should go faster. The third mile was 8:35. That was flying for me. So it scared me again. I slowed down. At that time a girl passed me. She was going the pace I wanted to go and since I'm not good at pacing myself I just followed her. She had a blondish pony tail so I told myself over and over to follow the blond ponytail. The fourth mile was 8:58. We came out of the woods there and ran along side the lake. Thankfully the wind was behind us. It would've been awful to finish into the wind. The fifth mile was 8:53. Blond ponytail started slowing just a tad after the completion of the fifth mile. I found out later that she had slipped in the mud earlier and fallen. I passed her when she slowed down. The last .7 mile was at a 8:34 pace. I finished 5th in my age group with a total of 50:03. 4 seconds off of my original goal. I'm happy since I didn't think I had a chance of being close. There were 16 guys in my age group and about 400 overall entered that race. I finished 106th overall. Here are the results. Stephanie and the girls made it about 5 minutes after I finished. Afterwards we showered, lunched, shopped, ate fudge and then left.

I'll post some pictures later.

Running update

Yesterday was 10 miles. I'm feeling good about the race next Saturday. I'm not sure if I'll get the time I want but I think I'll have fun. Since I got the Nike + thingy I've run most of my runs with it. I have a few runs that I didn't have it so those don't count towards my totals. I got the Nike + in January but only got to use it once. January and February were a combined 14 miles. My total for the year so far is 327 miles. That sure sounds like a long ways. That's like running from my house to Cleveland.

Bleacher butt!

For a few years now I've wanted to try and accomplish a college football double header. I've heard of guys attending two div. 1 games the same day before. But they always leave the one game early and arrive at the other game late. I wanted to be the first I know that attended all of 2 div. 1 games the same day. Dan was pumped about it as well and so we found a day that had Michigan playing at noon and Michigan State playing at 7. Interesting to probably only me was that Michigan was playing Purdue and State was playing Indiana. Friday night we had a Capture the Flag event at church and after that I headed down to meet Dan in Dexter. I got there about 1 in the morning and slept hard. We woke up and ran 3 miles and then headed to the stadium. The following pictures are proof that we were there before kickoff and stayed until the game was over. By the way, staying for the end of that game may have been the hardest part of the day. Michigan had the game well in hand but Purdue kept playing. Scoring a touchdown and even recovering an onside kick. I thought it would never end.

After the game we ran to the car and headed back to Dan's house to change into warmer clothes and get my car. We then headed up to Lansing thinking we had plenty of time. Steph and I have friends that live in Lansing so we met up with Lindy at a coffee shop. We didn't get to spend much time with her but it was neat to see her and to see her doing well. We headed towards the stadium after that. I inherited the lead and couldn't find a place to park. I was starting to get worried about time when we finally found a lot forever away that had shuttle buses. We got to our seats with 16 minutes to spare. Below is the proof.

I got home around 1 again so a nap Sunday was very important. It was very fun. As you can see from the pictures the onions and peppers were a great addition in Ann Arbor. East Lansing didn't have those but their buns were superior.

A Win!

Notre Dame won! The offense didn't do anything but it's still a win. I had to go old school for the game because it wasn't on t.v. here. When I was in high school I'd listen to some of the games on the radio with my headphones on in bed. Saturday I listened to the game on the radio with the headphones on in bed. It was great. The only bad thing was that the play by play guy kept interrupting the game to let me know that the greatest upset ever occurred when 44 point underdog Stanford beat USC. He even missed plays to tell me this. I seriously lost count of how many times he reminded me. I wonder if he's either a Stanford grad or if he had money on the game.

Migraine

My headache was so bad yesterday that I vomited twice and had to put my hands over my eyes because the light coming from around the blinds and through my eyelids was too bright. Excedrin migraine helped some and I'm feeling some better today but not 100% yet.

Cedarville's Mt. Rushmore

This year I celebrate 10 years from when I was supposed to graduate from Cedarville College. Some people will head down to Cedarville and have a reunion but I doubt I'll do that. Instead I'd like to acknowledge the guys who lived in my unit my freshman year. Almost all of us were freshmen and we didn't have an RA in our unit. So pretty much we had a great year. I want to thank each of these guys for the impact they had on my life. I'm convinced that my life has been influenced for the better by each of these men. So I've hunted down e-mail addresses for each of them and told them that this tribute is here.

Tom was a guy that loved God, his family, turkey hunting, and having fun with the rest of us. I remember Tom as participating in some of our better water fights in the bathroom and as being able to have serious talks as well. Tom goofs when it's time to goof and is serious at the right time as well. I'm still trying to learn that.

Here is where I found Tom

Dan and Tom were roommates. He invited me to his house during Christmas break of our freshman year and I fell in love with New York City at that time. I've been back a bunch of times since then and even got engaged in Central Park. I remember Dan as a guy who wanted to learn more about God and about how to teach others about Him. Dan also introduced me to the game of Canasta. He taught me the importance of taking time to spend with the guys even if it's only time enough for one hand.

Here is where I found Dan

Stew was my roommate freshman year. Matt was a guy who always knew he was going to succeed. He was a guy who was fit and made me want to be that way as well. Matt was a guy who loved friends and loved hanging out with them. I won't be surprised when Matt is governor of Indiana. I learned from Matt to set my sights high.

Here is where I found Stew



Mattman opened my eyes to many new forms of music. I actually listened to They Might Be Giants as I wrote this about Mattman. Really what Mattman taught me was the value of things that are different. People, music, art... things that are different aren't to be looked on with disdain but are to be appreciated and enjoyed.

Here is Mattman

Tobin and Mattman were roommates. Two guys that were totally different than anything I knew before then. They were a ton of fun. Tobin is a guy who helped me learn the value of traditions. Tobin is a fiercely loyal guy. He taught me the value of hanging on to family and friends. I haven't been the best with that lesson, but I'm trying. Tobin was the constant through college. He was always there for me and with me and I truly enjoyed every minute of it.

Here is Tobin

Here is where I found Josh

Josh is a guy I should've tried to get to know more. He had a love for music and especially worship music. I grow to appreciate worship music more each year and I really appreciate the people that can lead us into worship. Josh always seemed to want to lead people into worship.

Here is where I found Dave

Dave and Josh were roommates. Dave taught me a lot about trust. Dave trusted us and I took advantage of that far too many times. Sorry Dave. Dave was the only one of us that wasn't a freshman but he goofed with us all the same. He was a lot of fun.

Forget the echoes...Wake up the offense

I went to the Michigan Notre Dame game Saturday. I wore my jersey. I knew it was going to end up like that. Seriously, I was predicting an outcome that was close to what happened. At one point in the game Notre Dame had more than -50 yards rushing. They just cannot seem to block. A blitz absolutely confuses them. I don't see it getting any better soon. So I'll endure a rebuilding year. For some reason I'm not ready to give up on Charlie. I'm not ready to give up on Jimmy. I'll keep wearing my jersey and watching the games. I'm a fan. Maybe a dumb one, but I'm a fan.

Anticipation

I think you can find last Sunday's sermon here. I've been listening to Saddleback's Daily Drivetime and he had a great one on the rapture so this wasn't an original thought. I wonder if I've had an all the way original thought...

Football!

My running schedule has been messed up lately. I knew I was supposed to run 8 miles yesterday but I hadn't run in a while and I wasn't sure how that would go. But I did it. I was pretty sore last night but it felt good to get back on schedule. The iPod said I burnt 1200 calories. As I laid on the couch being sore I watched the first football games that meant anything. Preseason NFL doesn't count. But college football started last night. Two blowouts but I loved them anyways. Bring on the Notre Dame game Saturday!

Tornado

We had a tornado warning yesterday. It turns out that the tornado was about 15-20 miles away. I went running after the sun came out at our house and could hear the tornado sirens in the distance. That was a little weird. Oh and mom I ran East. Towards the storm.

Ron Paul?

I've not been interested in politics for years. I haven't had t.v. for the entire summer. So when I saw multiple bumper stickers promoting Ron Paul for president, I was confused. I'd never heard of the guy before. I then heard him on NPR's show "Wait wait...Don't tell me!". I was impressed immediately by his introduction. The guy turned down the congressional pension! So I got on the internet and read more. Here's what I've found from his site. www.ronpaul2008.com

He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket.
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
He voted against the Patriot Act.
He voted against regulating the Internet.
He voted against the Iraq war.
He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.

Plus he's Pro-Life.

Talk me out of it. What's not to like about this guy? I'll give you a week to talk me out of it and if you don't I'll probably buy one of his t-shirts.

Back from Iowa

We just got back from our mission trip to Iowa. It was hot. We did a lot of work. But it was a good trip. The kids enjoyed it and learned. I'm glad to have my bed back. And...Directv is turned back on! I watched the Colts last night.

I'm getting closer

Last night was a pretty good run for me. I was supposed to do a warmup mile a cooldown mile and 4 miles in between at a 9:50 pace. I ran with James. We started out a little fast and James started to slow down. Usually I would slow down with him but I pushed harder when he slowed down. So the first faster mile that I ran with James was 9:33. The second mile when I left him was 9:25. The third mile was 9:16. The fourth mile there was a big hill that killed me and I did it in 9:30. I felt pretty good. I cramped up a couple of times last night in bed but I'm getting faster. Now if only I can get through the fall without an injury. I could be doing decent come October. Man it still seems so slow compared to real athletes.

Huge news

This news may affect me more than anyone else in the world. It affects me more than President Bush. I'm affected more than Putin, Bin Laden, and Martha Stewart(or however you spell her name. I haven't been conquered by her kingdom yet.) Here's the big news.

Notre Dame and Michigan have extended their contract through 2031.

I think this even affects me more than the athletic directors that signed the contract. I am a Notre Dame fan surrounded by Michigan fans. All of Steph's family loves Michigan. All of my friends up here love Michigan. The whole stinking Strong family loves Michigan. I love the rivalry. This is one of those college football games that should be played every year. Number 1 and Number 2 in wins and winning percentage must play. So kudos to a couple of ADs that did something right. And quit whining about Notre Dame joining the Big Ten.

Laura is allergic to you

Laura went to the allergist yesterday. They did the scratch test on her again. She is still violently allergic to peanuts. She was upgraded to a regular epipen. They decided she was also allergic to ragweed, grass, cats, and anything else. The good news is she is allergic to cats! Woohoooo! Another reason to avoid pets.

Ahhh Crudola

Word on the street is that the FBI is about to arrest a NBA referee for fixing games. Apparently the ref had a gambling problem and ended up owing some mobsters more money than he could pay and this was his way out. 10 bucks says he ends up swimming with the fishes. The problem will be figuring if it was Stern's guys that did it or the mobsters. People are ruining the game that I loved. Sheesh I feel like a hockey fan.

A double full rainbow

Oh and Burrill, I'm not cool enough to use photoshop. These are all natural! Well, if digital can be called natural.

"I do have a day job"

I'm not a huge baseball fan. But I'm a huge sports fan. So sometimes it's spills over into baseball. I've not been a fan of Bud Selig, MLB commissioner, for a while. I think he's made some bonehead decisions. This quote is one of his more boneheaded quotes. He was asked if he would be there to see Barry Bonds break the record for home runs hit in a career and he said, "All of this will have to be played by ear. I do have a day job". What? This is the guy that's supposed to be talking me into watching baseball and he's too busy to do it? You know what Bud? I have a day job too. Thanks for reminding me that watching baseball isn't that important and that I need to have my priorities straight. I'll skip the game too.

Thank you may I have another?

Oh man. I hurt still today. Last night one of my youth group kids called me up and talked me into trying to make the wall at Pixie. Pixie is a little restaurant in Mt. Pleasant that serves burgers, coney dogs, fries, shakes, that sort of thing. They put your name on the wall if you eat 10 burgers or 6 coneys. The burgers are smaller than your normal burger. But 10 is a lot. And the problem is that I'm already on the wall. I did it a few years ago with other youth group kids. I went. I ate. I ate. I felt sick. I gave up after 7. In my defense I ate a couple of pieces of pizza right before the kid called. And there's not as much motivation if you're already on the wall. So yes, I wimped out.

nangi namaj perez

Oh man I finally found a cd that I've been looking for forever. The 77s cds are pretty rare for some reason. I found this one used for about $20 with shipping on Amazon. That's the best price I've seen it for on there before. The only one that Amazon has that's new costs $50. One of the 77s cds listed on Amazon is listed at $219.99. It's outrageous. I wish they'd either reprint these cds or sell through itunes. But I'm loving it as I listen to it. The cd is commonly known as Pray Naked. But when the album came out in 1992 they wouldn't let them name the album that. In fact that song's title is blanked out on the back of the cd! Good stuff though. I'll be spin doctoring it in the near future.

A rolling stone gathers no moss

Sorry it's been a while since I posted but it's been busy. This last weekend I was sick. A nice fever. I missed a wedding and an open house. But I've made up for it. I don't work an hourly thing but I've put in 25 hours in the last two days. Yesterday supper was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the church van. So I may be right back in the sick house. I get a couple of days off in a row though because of the holiday. I did get to stop and watch a bald eagle chase a hawk for about 5 minutes. The hawk had a fish or small animal in it's talons. The eagle wanted whatever the hawk had. For as long as I was able to watch the hawk evaded the eagle. I love creation.

Big Ticket Festival

Free tickets are always good. I hadn't planned on attending this festival but free is good. So I grabbed a youth group kid and drove 2 hours north. We saw Superchic[k], Kutless, Chris Tomlin, and the Newsboys. I'm not too proud to admit that at times I'd wished I'd had ear plugs. It was way loud. Here's some pictures.

The Newsboys were really good. I really appreciated their testimony and talks between songs.

The picture below is Kutless. It was great to watch the old people throw their fist up.

Chris Tomlin did a good job at leading some worship during his concert. I wasn't into it at first but I warmed up to it as he got to some songs that I knew.

A few pictures

I just happened onto these pictures. I thought they were good enough to share. Plus I know what you really want to see and it isn't pictures of fish.

I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night

I read an article Monday that was pretty good. The author quoted C.S. Lewis. “Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home”. Yesterday I enjoyed a pleasant inn. I wasn't in a great mood. I'm tired and things at church had me a little down. The neighbor brought over a slip and slide and the girls played on it. I even went down it a few times. We had a bunch of fun. Earlier Steph took Colleen to the store so it was just me and Laura. We were sitting outside in the shade talking. I've found that I have to ask a lot of questions to keep Laura talking. She may be a little too much like me. But anyways she asked me "Why are you asking so many questions?" I told her that I wanted to know more about her. She replied, "Cool". It was a good night that totally changed my mood. Thanks for the "pleasant inn" God.

Michael Jackson and Bill Gates

What do you get when you combine the two? This guy. Steph saw some Jim Carrey there too.

LBALACUSNAIBA

Take that Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles. A team from Long Beach has changed their name, this is no joke, to "Long Beach Armada of Los Angeles of California of the United States of North America Including Barrow, Alaska". I think that pretty much includes everyone. Count me in as an Armada fan. If you don't believe me here's the site.

Say ya to da UP eh

I'm back from a week of fishing in the Upper Peninsula. Our church does a mens fishing trip every year. I go most of the time. This year was a good year. I had a good time and only got burnt once. Unfortunately that time really toasted my lips. They are very sore. I caught four 20 inch walleye, a 19 inch, some walleye that were too small, a small mouth bass, a bunch of perch, a carp, and a sheeps head. I also went running, golfing, and made a trip to the lighthouse. Here's some pictures.

Some sports thoughts

I love sports traditions. I can really get sucked into them. So I get excited every come Memorial Day Weekend. I love the traditions of the Indy 500. The row of bricks, the drink of milk, the singing of Jim Nabors... Wait a minute! Jim is sick and won't make the trip this year. For the first time since 1986 or as long as I can remember the race, Jim Nabors will not be singing "Back Home Again in Indiana". That was my favorite part of the prerace activities. Instead they are going to encourage the crowd to sing it. All I can say is get well soon Mr. Nabors I look forward to when you are back home again. You can hear Jim sing here.

The Pacers don't have a draft pick this year. They traded them all away. They also don't have a coach. I think it's the lowest they've been since I've been a fan. I don't really see things changing anytime soon either.

Nick Saban is showing his true colors at Alabama already. Looks like he's committed a recruiting violation already. It sounds like he was trying to talk a kid out of an early commitment to another university as well. That bugs me when coaches do that. Here is the story.

Problem

Our school has a new problem that I've never dealt with before. Some of the kids are video taping themselves doing stupid things. They are selling the video tapes. One of the stores in a local town is even renting it out. The kids seem to be doing things that are very dangerous. And other kids from the area are doing copycat stunts. Some of the kids from our youth group have admitted to stapling themselves, lighting themselves on fire, and branding themselves. The kids on the video have gone as far as nailing their elbows to blocks of wood. Somebody is going to get seriously hurt.

Dairy Queen

Yesterday I took one of our Jr. High boys out of school for lunch. We ended up stopping at Dairy Queen on the way home. They now have a chocolate dipped strawberries Blizzard that was really good. But anyways as I'm at the counter to order I notice a syringe on the counter. Talk about making me uncomfortable. I do not like syringes. Much less someone else's syringe. I poked at it with my dollar. It said something about insulin. I pointed it out to the girl working behind the counter. She was as uncomfortable as I was. She went to make a phone call but didn't touch it. Can't say that I blame her. It did have the point covered but I still wasn't touching it.

It's here and it's not as expensive as you think.

The technology for cleaning up cars is right under our noses. It shouldn't be about the price of oil but we should be finding an alternative fuel now for our environment. Unfortunately, if we change it will cost too many influential people too much money. I'm not much of a conspiracy guy but this is something that boggles my mind. If the capabilities are there why not change? This link has the story.

It's fun to stay at the...

Far left Brady Quinn. Second to left A.J. Hawk. I'm guessing the guy up front is Ryan Hawk(EDIT: Apparently that's Bobby Carpenter of the Dallas Cowboys). And the bride is Laura Quinn. I don't know on the rest.

Makes me glad there aren't any incriminating pictures in my history.

Worms

I'm going on this men's fishing trip that our church does the end of the month. It's a week of fishing in the UP. We've been picking worms so that we don't have to buy them. I'd rather buy them. It hurts my back to pick worms. I was out there an hour and a half last night and picked just over 100. We're supposed to take up 10 dozen per person. That's a lot of worms.

Happy Mother's Day

Thanks for coming up and going golfing with me mom. It was good to spend some time with you.

By the way for the rest of you. I beat my dad for the first time when we golfed Saturday.

I'm a nerd

Yesterday we went to see Spiderman 3. I'd heard that it was dark and stuff like that. So I was a little worried. It wasn't dark. Nothing compared to Batman Begins. That is a dark movie. Spiderman was long though. I'm not such a fan of long movies. I don't know if it's my attention span or that I hate sitting that long. So anyways the nerd thing. I was the only one in our little group that went to see it that recognized Stan Lee. The creator of Spiderman. If only I could remember something useful.

I also played golf yesterday. I had one of my worst rounds in a long time.

Race Results

They are finally online. Click on the 5k button at the bottom. I finished 39th overall.

Arena football

We took the sr. highers to an arena football game Saturday night. I was interested in seeing how many players I would recognize from their days in college. I really only noticed one. Michael Bishop. Remember him? He played quarterback for Kansas State. I felt a little sad when I found out that he wasn't the starter. In fact he didn't play the whole night. Anyways the game was more fun than I thought Arena Football would be. It didn't hurt that they gave stuff away like crazy. I left with two little footballs, two sports water bottles, a towel, and a t-shirt. So I guess I'd go again.

It's a Beautiful Day

Yesterday was great. I slept good. First time all week I have. Then I went golfing. I shot a 97. That's ok for me. Then I played soccer with the girls. After soccer I grilled chicken on the free gas grill we were given. After dinner we played more soccer. I ended the evening going out with some former youth group kids and we saw a little porcupine while we were out exploring and offroading through a friends woods. It was a really good day. The only negative was the pretty good sunburn I'm suffering through today.

Laura's first soccer game

I missed Laura's first game because of the race but I still enjoyed these pictures. I can't wait until next Saturday so I can watch her then! Go number 7!

Rat Race

I ran the Rat Race for the second year in a row. I was able to better my time. I think I could have run a little faster but I forgot to eat breakfast and spent 14 hours in the car the day before. I only took a minute off my time from last year. I can't find the results online yet but I will post a link when I do. This run did earn me an award from Nike+.

The Avocet

I got to play the Avocet at Wild Wing Plantation today. Steph's uncle gave me a coupon for free greens fees so all we had to pay for was the cart. I would rather walk but they don't give you the option at the Avocet. So I played 18 holes there for $24. It was nice and they gave me all the free bottled water I could drink and a granola bar. I shot a 98. A 50 on the front nine and a 48 on the back nine. The last two holes felt really good. I figured out why I was mishitting a bunch of shots. I had to finish my follow thru higher. I was rounding off my swing. Anyways here's a couple of pictures. One is their picture and one I took.

Pictures of the beach

Ok so here's some pictures of the beach. Laura enjoyed playing in the waves. And both the girls enjoyed jumping me when I was buried.

Vacation

I need to retire. I love this vacation stuff. I'm sitting in the backyard in Myrtle Beach right now. It's 70. There isn't a cloud in the sky. It's great. I'll take some pictures today and try to get some posted for you. We've done mini golf, par 3 golf, gone to the beach a couple of times and we went shopping once. It's been fun so far. I did have a lot of trouble getting caught up on sleep. But I feel good now. I'll post more soon.

Michigan is a mess

I don't know about other states. I live in Michigan. I don't know as much as I could about Michigan or maybe even as much as I should. But what I do know is that Michigan is a mess. Money isn't the problem. It's a lack of wisdom on how to spend money that is the problem. Lawmakers waste money and don't give as much as they should to schools. They are even misleading about how much goes to schools. Recently they came up with a plan to buy an iPod for each Michigan public school student. That would've cost 36 million dollars. It was shot down. Schools waste the money they get and end up in debt. They build buildings they don't need. They host dinners that are much too expensive. School boards go on all expense paid trips. Personally our school system eliminated busing in the mornings last year. This year they are laying off tons of teachers (cuts just in staff that would equal $982,000.), thinking about closing one of the schools (the one Laura goes to), planning on cuts for sports, and just cutting any where that they can. It's frustrating.

Va Tech

You all know about the shootings yesterday at Virginia Tech. I've watched some of the news and people are asking all kinds of questions. Why did the police and campus wait so long to warn students? Why do we allow guns? Why did we let the ban on assault weapons and clips that large expire? How can we protect against this in the future? Who was this shooter and why did he do it? All legitimate questions. But wouldn't it be better to ask these questions later? At this moment none of these questions are important. Right now it seems to me as if the survivors are important. People that lost loved ones need to mourn. Professors will have to learn to trust students again. Students will have to learn to sit in class again. There will be time for questions later. I almost wish they had closed the campus and not let the news crews on.

Weaveswrites censored!

Thanks to Burrill for leading me to this site. He isn't censored by the way. I'm furious! How dare they censor my boring running talk! I'm tempted to take down the Chinese government over this. Good thing for them that I'm lazy.

Running

Ok I've had a running update request. I'm still running. I still feel like I'm not losing any weight doing it. But I keep doing it. I'm not ready to change my diet at all. So as for the goals that I stated earlier. I have run 71.3 miles which is .7 ahead of my target pace and I've run 20 times which is one behind. I have 35 days left to get my 48.7 miles in and 65 days to get my remaining 30 runs.

Nothing says Spring like baseball

Or something like that. I went to the home opener for the Whitecaps yesterday. It was cold. It snowed. You can tell from the pictures that there weren't many people there. Unfortunately, the people that gave me the tickets wanted to be there an hour and a half early to make sure they got one of the free baseball caps. I'm not sure they ever ran out. The smartest thing I did was get a couple of programs to sit on. Metal bleachers require insulation.

The sad song of the bad son

I am the bad son
It's not something I did
If only I had done some
Then I wouldn't be that kid
That wrote a bad poem.

I know I don't rhyme
Or do any of that other cool writing stuff
I should leave that to my sister
She's good at that fluff
If only I'd taken the time.

Just call your mom it's not hard
Wish her a happy birthday
You big retard
But no I forgot
So I write this poem today
For forgiveness I plea.
And so does everyone else
So the poetry will go away.

Happy late birthday mom.
Sorry

The Day After

Steph and I have this vacation planned to Myrtle Beach coming up. We decided just to forget the little vacation thing and go all out. So we're heading down there later this month. There's a race in Mt. Pleasant the 28th that I need to be back for. Unfortunately that's the day after we get back. That day will be one that lives in infamy. That morning is the race. At 10 in the morning there's a financial planning thing that I'm kindof expected to attend at church. That evening there's a young adults activity that somehow I still qualify for. I'm going to need another vacation right after I get back.

Snow

I'm ready for this to be over with. I'm tired of snow. It's snowing right now. It's even collecting in a few spots.

I'm working on another sermon. This one is about redemption. I thought that might go good on Easter Sunday night. Got any good redemption stories?

College Basketball

I lost the big church bracket thing last night. I went into the game with a 29 point lead over the only guy who had a chance. He beat me by 3. Stinking Florida. I picked 44 of the 63 correct but it was the last one that got me. I couldn't sleep because of the sausage and cheese I guess. So I watched One Shining Moment. This is the first time in a long time that I didn't have my eyes start watering during it. I then watched the post game press conference. As impressive as Florida looked on the basketball court, they looked equally unimpressive in the conference. I was very disappointed.

Another disappointment came when I heard that Iowa was hiring Coach Lickliter. He's done great at Butler and I would have loved to see him stay there. He coached our high school team. I'd loved to see him stay in the Indy area. I hope Butler gets someone good to replace him.

Running goals

I finally caught up with my running goals. I'm actually one run behind and one mile ahead of the pace I need. I've run 17 times since I started and put in 60.2 miles. I've got 43 days to get 59.8 miles and 73 days to run 33 times.

Hunger

I'm not sure why but ever since I've started running again this spring I'm always hungry. I usually run in the afternoon like around 4. Afterwards I eat a little and I usually want a second supper around 9. I can't seem to eat enough. This can't be good. I'm glad McDonalds is so far away.

One less Enzo

You may remember the last Ferrari Enzo that was crashed mysteriously by a guy who says he was in the passenger seat and the driver ran into the woods. Well this one was caught on tape. A 1.5 million dollar Enzo was ruined. So that makes like 398 of them left? How sick would you feel after doing that to someone else's car? Video

The bloody sock

Curt Schilling has nothing on me. This injury happened early in my 5 mile run yesterday. It's a wound that I reopen often by accidently kicking my ankle while running. Schilling sent his bloody sock to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I think I'll just have Steph wash mine.

Oh say can you see...

Yesterday in the middle of my run I had a scary feeling come over me. We parked a car at the end of the distance so we had to finish the whole thing. After 4 miles it occurred to me that I still could not see the end. After 5 miles I started getting tired and still couldn't see the end. After 6 miles the hamstring that I pulled last fall started tightening up and because of a hill I still could not see the end. The goal was 7 miles. I felt like dying when I finished at, according to the Nike+ iPod, 7.33 miles. I then came home, showered, sat down to watch the games, and consumed what felt like enough calories to negate a 7 mile run.

Sound system

Sorry I haven't posed anything this week. I've been rewiring our church's sound system. It has been a big time pain. I'll post more when I'm done.

Sermon idea

Hey I'm preaching this Sunday and I'm working on a sermon. T.J. has helped me some. If you have any great ideas I'll listen to them too.

I'm looking at the promises and charges given to Joshua in Joshua chapter 1. I've got 3 of each. Promises:
Joshua: I will give you every place Us: Ephesians 1:3; II Peter 1:3
Joshua: no one will stand against you Us: Romans 8:31
Joshua: I will always be with you. Us: Matt. 1:23; 28:20

Charges:
Joshua: Be strong and courageous 3 times. Us: I Cor. 16:13, Eph 6:10, II Tim 1:7, 2:1
Joshua: Obey. Us: I John 3:23-24
Joshua: Meditate day and night Us: Col. 3:16

We are like soldiers like Joshua. 2 of the promises are conditional and 1 is unconditional. I'll add more but I got to get back to the wiring of the sound system.

Big fun

Yesterday was great fun. We ate a ton. Papa Johns ended up being supper. The only problems yesterday were a blister towards the end of the run and monstrous gas after the very sausagy pizza and the onion rings (I think Colleen ate more onion rings than I did). I only missed a little basketball for the bathroom a couple of times. Other than that I watched all day. I plan on doing the same today after I leave church this afternoon.

Tonight, Tonight

I'm planning tomorrow out. I love opening day of the NCAA tournament. Tomorrow morning I will listen to Tonight, Tonight and Today by the Smashing Pumpkins. I will run 6 miles. We will have cheeseburgers and onion rings for lunch. In the afternoon there will be cheese, sausage, and crackers. I'm still working on supper plans but I think I will work a milk shake in there somewhere. I haven't been able to decide what I want for supper. Any ideas?

Saturday with the Strongs

Saturday we met Tobin, Kara, Zeke, and Ollie Strong down at the kids museum in Lansing. I'm not a good enough dad to enjoy places like childrens museums and places like Chuck E. Cheese. I just really dislike other peoples kids that run around places like that unsupervised. There was a birthday party there that day which meant crazy kids running around. It really wasn't that bad though. Nothing like Chuck's place. The girls had fun and it was good to see Tobin and Kara. I'm loving Laura's pose in the picture with Stephanie.

Another running update

I ran 3 miles yesterday. The first two were way slow but the third was a little quicker. But only 30 seconds quicker. I'm 1 run and 10 miles behind on my goals. It was a cold and snowy week last week.

Here's a book for you

Well here's a book for some of you. I met Marla when we were at Cedarville and got to know her and her future husband while we worked together at camp. I consider them friends even though I'm really lousy at keeping up with my old friends. Recently I ordered a couple of her books from Amazon. I've read the newest one. It had a warning in the front that I completely ignored and jumped right into the book(It's not that this book is inappropriate at all, it's just meant for women). After all if you know the author you must read it. I also figured that if I was going to recommend the book as a pastor I should read it. Well I recommend it. It's easy to read and fun. It's informative. It's a good look at how to understand your husband. The book is really good at showing how God intends sex to be. But it's meant for wives. I'm not a wife. Guys buy this book for your wife. She'll read it for the title alone.

You choose

Which picture of the top of our steeple do you like more?
Edit: Apparently these pictures need some explanation. That's the moon behind the cross on the top of our steeple.

Snowshoeing

I went snowshoeing a couple of times this last weekend. Actually most of the time I let youth group kids use the snowshoes and I struggled along behind them. It was fun and there's plenty of room out behind our house where you can feel miles away from everything. Here are some pictures.