The Beauty Of The GMAC Bowl...

From Jeff Gordon's Tipsheet blog on STLtoday.com:

Count Texas coach Mack Brown among those wondering if America needs so many bowl games.

“It is an exciting time,” Brown told The Dallas Morning News. “I see 7-5 teams throwing Gatorade on their coach.

“At Texas if we were 7-5 they would be throwing something on me, but it wouldn’t be Gatorade, I will tell you that.”

The Part Where You Let Go...

- I really like these lyrics. They're likely a conversation between two people (lovers?) but it could easily be a conversation between God and mortal man...

(as performed by Hem on "Home Again, Home Again")

When the rain breaks the road
Are you holding on
Are you holding on
To your last good day?

When the stone breaks the wheel
Are you holding on
Are you holding on
Til the stone rolls away?

And I don't know
Is this the part where you let go?
And tumbling out of a window
Is this the part where you find out
I'm there for you?

When the sun leaves the field
Are you holding on
Are you holding on
To the last sweet light?

When the flame leaves your eyes
I still see you there
I still see you there
On your darkest night.

And I don't know
Is this the part where you let go?
And sinking under a shadow
Is this the part where you find out
I'm there for you now?

As your hand's breaking free
I am holding on
I am holding on
As you've held on to me

And I don't know
Is this the part where we let go?
Tumbling out of a window
Is this the part you're there for me?

And I don't know
Is this the part where you let go?
And sinking under a shadow
Is this the part where you find out
I'm there for you?
You find out I'm there for you
You find out I'm there for you

"The Part Where You Let Go" ©2007 Dan Messé/Universal Polygram International

Defense? What Defense?

Local NCAA D-III school Fontbonne University played a home basketball game against Grinnell College (of Grinnell, Iowa) last evening. The game sort of got out of hand, as this quote from the Des Moines Register story attests:

"Grinnell set a school record with 163 points on Monday night, beating the previous best of 160 established against Martin Luther College in 2002. The Pioneers beat Fontbonne 163-145."

Yeah!

In A Year's Time...

One year ago tonight in this space, I introduced my new niece Lydia Joy Matlock

Here she is, one year later:

...safe in Granddad's arms


my birthday card and gifts to her

about to dig into her birthday cake!

January Sunset

Chili-dog and I explored Buder Park, near Valley Park, MO late this afternoon. The sky was especially delicious against the setting sun as we were leaving.

Happy 2009...

This blog took a little post-Christmas vacation because, well, I didn't have much to say.

Quick-hitters:

- Randall Goodgame is giving away his new six-song EP (a short CD) until January 5. Randall's a way cool Nashvile singer-songwriter whom you might know from his association with Caedmon's Call. The new songs deal with struggle, redemption, and hope. Get it here.

- Come see Dan Hartke at Cicero's tomorrow at 1:15. It's his first-ever solo show. He leads worship for my worship service at church and is a really neat guy.

[EDIT: DUH! The show isn't until NEXT WEEK, the 10th. Sorry for the confusion!]

- You can say Big 12 North football was weak this year, but the only Big 12 teams to win bowl games thus far have been from, you guessed it, the NORTH. Go MU, NU, KU!

- am enjoying a little vacation from work. did some shopping yesterday; found NOTHING to wear but did avail myself of a CD and DVD from Borders.

- will hike today; where to go?

- yo, Snuggie makers! I would buy your wear-able blanket, but I really don't want to go around looking like Obi-Wan Kenobi...

Immensely Satisfying...

...was my Christmas Day 2008. There were 17 people for dinner at my parents' house. Dinner was very delicious. I got to catch up with some of my Matlock relatives, most happily my uncle and aunt from Florida who don't get up this way too often. They are dog people and had a blast meeting and greeting Chili. It was a joy to have niece Lydia in the house for her very first Christmas. She was very busy, toddling around and jabbering at whoever would listen.

The haul was decent this year. I got a pair of jeans from Banana Republic and an iTunes gift card from my parents. Chili-dog got a gift card to Petco from my parents, as well. My bro and sis-in-law gave me a gift card to Banana Republic. I gave Chili a new collar from Earthdog and a new chew toy, plus a few slices of Braunschweiger with her kibble this morning.

I took lots of pictures...will sort through them tomorrow and post the highlights.

Of course, the reason for all this celebrating was the celebration of the birth of our hope. our Wonderful Counselor, our Prince Of Peace, our King of Kings, our Lord of Lords. The one who was sent with a redemptive purpose, that being to satisfy the need of a desperate humanity: the need for a Savior.

Christmas Day 2008...

"Hymn For Christmas Day"
The Innocence Mission

She's Ready For Christmas...

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.