If You Missed The Highlight...

This is how you defend the pass in the NFL:



(from Jeff Gordon's "Tipsheet" blog on Stltoday.com)

This is how the Rams' season has gone, pretty much.

Must Be Monday...

...walked into my building today without my usual backpack slung over my shoulder. Realized about halfway through my commute that I left it sitting at home in the kitchen with a fully-packed lunchbox inside. I will have to trash a perfectly good turkey sandwich tonight.

Must Be Monday.

oh well, this will allow me to check out the new food service company that's servicing our cafeteria as of today.

Re-tooning The Nativity

This video was shown in church today. Some of our beloved Christmas carols don't exactly jive with what's actually in the Bible! : )

Sunday Night...

- Felt the Canadian love this morning...all 12 or so degrees of it. Deliciously ironic is bright sunshine and blue skies coupled wtih HARRRRSH cold. Was part of the Frozen Chosen at church today!

- I am excited that Christmas week is finally upon us. My last two Christmas packages will be arriving tomorrow and I will head over to the mall to have a charitable organization's gift wrapper wrap everything up nicely.

- good deed of the Christmas season: my singles group at church adopted this family for Christmas. Their finances are better directed elsewhere this Christmas so we chipped in and bought their kids' Christmas presents. We all delivered the gifts and ate lunch with the family today after church. It really warmed this blogger's heart.

- sorry, but Chili, I just couldn't walk you today, it was just too cold. I feared you'd turn into a Chili-sicle and that just wouldn't be cool.

- What was Joe Biden's price to be Obama's veep? A seat at the table, according to JB. gotta love an honest man.

- had a nice time babysitting niece Lydia on Friday night. I was shocked to discover that she's gone bi-ped on us! She's toddling around with (mostly) the greatest of ease. Bedtime was a bit stressful for the both of us...she didn't go to sleep as easily as I was promised she would. Eventually she got tired out and went down. I did get to brush her few teeth with a little slip-on finger brush...

- Chili and I jogged down to Festus last night for a first look at the parents' new kitchen. It looks fantastic and will be ready for Christmas Day dinner, I am happy to report. All appliances are installed and in good working order. A few loose ends will be tied up in the next few days. I munched on chocolate chip cookies while I was there and was sent home with some pot roast and vegetables. I'd say it was a fruitful trip.

- Got a preview of my church's Christmas Eve services today in our worship service. We're not going to just be about candlelight and carols....it's all about being real about reaching people...skeptical? inquiring? already convinced? wherever you are, you're welcome and safe at my church.

Why I'm Glad It's Friday...

in no particular order:

- Christmas is only 6 days away!
- All my Christmas shopping was finished last night!
- Holiday potluck at the office today! (I prepared a pork tenderloin as my contribution)
- I get to sit for niece Lydia tonight for a couple of hours
- A balmy sun filtered through the clouds this morning after days of clouds and cold.
- Did I mention it's Friday?

The Christmas Card Picture...

Merry Christmas 2008!!!

Sunday Night...

- was too tired and too late last Sunday night to post anything so this is two weeks' worth...might be something, might be nothing but here goes...

- Ol' Mizzou goes to the Alamo Bowl, as I predicted. The way they played against KU and OU, the punch bowl would be a struggle for 'em. At least they can claim they played against a Heisman Trophy wnner in the Oklahoma game. Sam Bradford looks barely old enough to shave, much less steer his team to a national championship game. He's just a sophomore, folks. Big 12 teams get to face him for at least another year! YAY!

- speaking of Big 12 football, how the heck does Gene Chizik get hired on at Auburn? Sure, he was once an assistant coach there, but he was 5-19 as a head coach at Iowa State...talent level wasn't great there but still...makes me wonder if they did it just to see Kirk Herbstreit's head explode.

- have participated in numerous white elephant gift exchanges in my life but never have I seen an actual white elephant in any of them.

- "Snowfall" by Manhattan Transfer is a great winter song. love love it.

- have started Christmas shopping, finally. One of Chili's gifts came in yesterday's mail. I ordered something for Lydia Joy yesterday. I am really looking forward to this Christmas, more so than any in recent years. This will be Lydia Joy's first Christmas and she'll be with us, and we'll have a dinner cooked in my Mom's brand new kitchen. I'm praying for good health for everyone...a nice snowfall would be nice, as well.

- Mother Nature turned on her wind machine and pointed it squarely at the Midwest this weekend... the wind has blown hard literally ALL weekend. A frigid Arctic blast is said to be descending upon us as I write this.

- as long as I have been in the on-call tech rotation at work (almost 2 years), I'd never gotten paged on a Sunday until today. I was parking my car at church when the pager went off. Fortunately, the user was able to wait until I got done with church.

- Sermon today was from Jonah. His heart was hard and he almost missed what God wanted to do for the Ninevites through him. In the same way, we can miss the true meaning of Christmas if our heart is hard, even a little bit. The answer is at the end of Psalm 139: "search me, O God, and see if there be any wicked way within me..." (slightly paraphrased.)

Ticket Tracker: Ambassadors Of Harmony @ Touhill Performing Arts Center

Last evening I took in the Saturday evening performance of AOH's annual Christmas shows at the TouPAC on the campus of UM-St. Louis. AOH director extraordinaire Jim Henry took a nasty fall after the afternoon show and was out of commission but his two assistant directors filled in more than ably. The show's first half featured several comedic skits interspersed with Christmas carols. Several bits were very funny. To wit: How about a fill-in Santa errantly shimmying down the chimney of a Jewish household and being sent on his way with a GPS unit? (I'll let you, dear readers, sniff out the delicious joke in there.) Oh, and yes, they did include Sarah Palin and Rod Blagojevich jokes in the merriment. They even managed to pull off a parody of the famous "Copper Clappers" skit!

The show's second half was traditional and religious, telling the Christmas story through song. Particularly nice was a Nigerian traditional carol that featured intricate choreography and harmonies. As usual, AOH's singing was up to their usual championship standards and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Say WHAT??...

I recently had need to get a root canal in one of my teeth re-treated (read: re-done) because some bacteria got in there somehow and started causing trouble. I previously blogged about my positive experience about that but one last little detail had to be taken care of. A temporary filling was left in place until I could go back to my regular dentist and get a permanent one to match the previously-existing crown.

So I say all that to say this: I went to get that done today. And my dentist did the filling without the numbing shot! Not that it mattered, since there was no nerve and therefore, I would feel nothing. But when he said I would not be getting the shot, I just about freaked out! Wow...when that drill fired up and I wasn't numb, it was a really weird sensation! But I felt nothing and was out of there in about 10 minutes.

I decided to drop in on the parents since I was already halfway there and had the whole day off. Their remodeling project is going very well and is on schedule. The new wood floor looks great and their kitchen is going to be very nice as well. I helped my dad build wreaths for the outside of their house and helped him hang them.

Just The Three Of Us...

Imagine that...me, Chili-dog, and niece Lydia together in one picture! My dad snapped this on Thanksgiving Day. I guess he caught me off-guard, otherwise I'd have made more of an effort to smile... : )

Happy 3rd Birthday...

to this little blog. Life As I Know It debuted in this space on December 2, 2005. This is how it started:

So here I am....

Everyone's doing it so why can't I? :) My cousin Kevin and his wife finally got their blog on from the great state of Kansas so I've decided to join the revolution. Probably will update this infrequently as I become more comfortable with journaling.

Alas, my Kansas cousin Kevin (YAY alliteration!) didn't keep up with his blog but I keep up with him and his fun family via Facebook. My blog has continually evolved and slowly but surely added many regular readers.

I thank all who read this little blog for, well, reading this little blog!

To commemorate the occasion, I have revised and updated one of my earliest posts, a rundown of my Christmas CD collection. I just published it to my other blog, which is where it would have gone had that blog existed in 2005.

Sunday Night...

- rock chalk jayhawk. there, I said it. See ya in the Alamo Bowl, Mizzou Tigers. This is the price you pay for messing around and letting KU win yesterday. Now lick your wounds and prepare to take another whuppin' in KC next Saturday. If ya cain't beat KU, ya ain't gonna beat OU. (BTW, I'm not rippin' on the Alamo Bowl, which is really where Mizzou should be, given the strength of the Big 12 South, but they had BCS dreams to start the season. I always thought that was unrealistic. They had a shot at the Gator Bowl or Holiday Bowl but this just wasn't their year.)

- 13 more bags o' leaves done yesterday. Total for the season now stands at 33, with ending goal of 40 well in sight. Now if I can just remember to get my weekly limit of 10 bags out to the curb on Tuesday night. That's the hard part, apparently. Yesterday's leaf bagging was not made easier by listening to the aforementioned football game on the radio. double urgh!

- just paid some bills. man, am I laying out some cash between now and January 1. am just now receiving bills for my recently-troubled tooth. first from my regular dentist who examined but didn't do any work, second from the oral surgeon who examined but didn't do any work. personal property tax, mortgage escrow shortage, christmas shopping...makes me glad I am gainfully employed.

- picked up a book at my local Hallmark store yesterday. "On A Personal Note" helps one write notes for any occasion. I had a need to do so and it helped me word it perfectly.

- helped decorate my church for Christmas after services today. got a delicious free meal out of it (thanks, RS!) and lots of yummy cookies. the weather outside was appropriately frightful, with pretty snow falling intermittently but not sticking to much of anything.

- Christmas-music-listening season officially starts tomorrow for me. It's been in the stores for weeks but I count that as ambient noise! : )

- no, I don't know what I want for Christmas, yet. check back later!

The Inevitable Thanksgiving Day Report...

So yeah, today was a good day. traveled to Columbia, MO, enjoyed dinner with 15 people plus Chili-dog, enjoyed one slice each of pumpkin and apple pie for dessert. Weather was delightful. Baby Lydia was in a sunny mood for most of the day. She got lots of lovin' from both sets of grandparents all day long. Christmas card pictures were taken for my brother and his little family and me and my doggie. I had been disappointed that I forgot about having one made for this year so I'm glad we got it done. This year's will top last year's, folks, guaranteed. If you didn't receive one last year and would like one this year, e-mail me your address and I'll put you on the list. I snapped this picture while my Dad was taking family pictures of my brother, sis-in-law, and Lydia.

Chili was a great doggie guest today, by the way. No other dogs came to dinner but she did have a run-in with the family cat, who crept out of the basement shadows for a moment. She and Chili stared each other down for a few seconds and when Chili made her move, the cat swiped her face with a de-clawed front paw. Chili jumped back in surprise and I jumped in to, um, save her. Otherwise, she stayed out of the way and generally behaved herself. Her tail wagged constantly so it may be sore for a few days!

Mad props to my brother for successfully smoking the Thanksgiving turkey this year.

I cranked up my iPod to pass the travel time. Pat Metheny Group's "(Cross The) Heartland" seemed immensely appropriate so that got a listen. Menahan Street Band's "Make The Road By Walking" positively pulsed through my earbuds. The groove grabs hold and just does not let go.)

Heading West...

The dog and I have an early wake-up call tomorrow morning. We're traveling with the parents to Columbia, MO to enjoy Thanksgiving Day with my sis-in-law's family. The parents are in the midst of a kitchen remodel and it's not quite done yet so we were invited to Columbia. My mom will have to whip up her famous dressing after we get there. Consequently, they're picking us up at 7:30 a.m. sharp.

Yes, Chili was invited. These folks are dog lovers and they are OK with visiting dogs. So, I gave Chili a bath/shower tonight so she'll smell nice and clean. I'm praying she does well with all the unfamiliar people and *other dogs* that will be there.

A Thanksgiving Song...

I love these lyrics:

Thankful Boys And Girls

Let us be thankful boys and girls;

For eyes and ears and toes,

And puppies with wet noses.

Let us be thankful boys and girls;

For lessons we have learned,

And love we have not earned;

Follow the beat of amazing grace;

Oh let us be thankful boys and girls.

Let us be thankful boys and girls;

For kisses on the mouth,

Teenage heartbeats pounding.

Let us be thankful boys and girls;

For lightning in the sky,

Laughter in the eye;

Follow the beat of amazing grace;

Oh let us be thankful boys and girls.

For all that brought us here,

And all that will bring us through.

The passages of life that lead to You,

Lead us to You.

Let us be thankful boys and girls;

For a little common sense;

And painted picket fences.

Let us be thankful boys and girls;

For packing all the plans;

in rented motor vans;

Follow the beat of amazing grace;

Oh let us be thankful boys and girls.

Let us be thankful boys and girls;

For Mendelssohn and Brahms

Shadows growing longer.

Let us be thankful boys and girls;

For grandkids we can hold;

Years that slowly go;

Memories to keep; sorrow running deep.

Follow the beat of amazing grace;

Oh let us be thankful boys and girls.

For all that brought us here,

And all that will bring us through.

The passages of life that lead to You,

Lead us to You.

Let us be thankful boys and girls;

When hope is not enough;

That death won’t bury love.

For wine and bread and hymns;

Remembering again;

We follow the beat of amazing grace;

Oh let us be thankful boys and girls;

I want to be a thankful boy;

Oh let us be thankful boys and girls.

"Thankful Boys and Girls" by Billy Crockett and Milton Brasher-Cunningham ©1994 Radar Days Music

It's Thanksgiving Eve...

Today's "Mutts" comic - it reminded me that I am always thankful for my doggie friend Chili.

My Kind Of Humor...

"In The Bleachers" by Steve Moore - 11/25/08

One Way To Feel Good About Yourself...

Break your own NFL record for longest interception return!

To Start Off Your Thanksgiving Week...

What kind of music did the Pilgrims like?

Plymouth Rock!


Why did the Indian chief wear so many feathers?

To keep his wigwam!

No, This Won't Save The Big 3...

Check out what I saw as I was leaving the church parking lot today. It is what it appears to be.