Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween



OMG! My inner Republican is coming out!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Daily Life Lately


Its been a long couple of days.

Today, I had to be to work at 5:30 am. So, of course, I set my alarm. The alarm rang and I turned it off. At 4:53, Nick said, "Ben, shouldn't you be getting up?" I ran to the bathroom, shaved, showered, threw on clothes and then realized I could not find my wallet. So Nick was up looking and I ran out into the COLD to see if it was there. NOPE! So into the apartment to search. We found the wallet and I was off to work.

At work, not much has changed. I did manage to earn us a FIVE STAR RATING!! This is not just my self-perception. I secured our Five-Star Rating during a recent visit from a mystery shopper. What is funny, I think shopper was a shopper who really pissed me off. Oh well, I must have impressed her.

Tomorrow, it is again work @ 5:30 am, but hopefully this time I will be up on time.
And again on Friday morning. I hate having to get up that early in the morning. Unfortunately, then I will be waking up at 4 am for the next few days.

Nick and I will be going to Halloween Dance at his church on Saturday night. We are planning on going as the economy. We will have pictures later. Stay Tuned!

(ed. note: Why the picture? A cute guy in front of a Chinese Starbucks? What's not to like!)

Jesus Was A Socialist


Ok, I am going to probably be more than a bit politically incorrect here. So before I go any farther, I would like to apologize. If I offend anyone, deal with it.

I heard an interview on NPR today. In it, a person whom I can only think of as a redneck was complaining about Obama wanting to "spreading the wealth." He was so upset about Obama being a socialist and not wanting to have anything to do with socialists.

Now, what wouldn't surprise me is if this redneck also claimed to be a Christian. T claim to be a Christian and also claim to want to have nothing to do with socialists is sheer stupidity. Excuse me but, uh, JESUS WAS A SOCIALIST! JESUS WANTED TO SPREAD AROUND THE WEALTH!!!

So, how can you be for Jesus and against socialism?

Sunday, October 26, 2008

I Am Getting Embarrassed To Be An American



I cannot believe the amount of vitriol that is being spewed during this election. The amount of taunting and name calling by people whom I would guess would consider themselves Christian is disgusting. I understand differences of opinion, but this is getting to the point where it is frightening.

Weekend Update

Another weekend has come and gone. Actually, it has been quite a busy weekend. It was the weekend of the Diocesan Convention. Yes, in general these are about as interesting as they sound. Lots of resolutions and a few debates.

One of the things that made the convention nice was the fact that Nick was able to go along. It was not really planned, I asked for the days off and Nick was given the same days off. So we were able to schmooze a bit, talk to some of my colleagues and, in general, just be “Us” around the Episcopalians. It was quite nice to be able to just be a couple, like any other couple in this group.

The next day, Nick went to see his family and then went shopping. I got to stick around and listen to endless debates about the budget. With the whole economy tanking, even the church is having a problem. It got to be a bit over the top when someone presented a five-page amendment to a proposition. How are we supposed to read over and properly consider a five-page amendment?

The other thing that was annoying was the discussion involving the full inclusion of GLBT people in the life of the church. I couldn’t believe that someone actually had to audacity to call homosexuality a perversion during the discussion of the proposition. He can believe what he wants, but to use such hateful language during a church convention just angered me.

And then, of course, we had the obligatory pairing of homosexual = pedophile. That one just drives me nuts!

Oh, and there was the man who asked, “Why does it seem that all the church can talk about now days is sexuality? We never needed to talk about sexuality in the past.” To which I replied, “The church has always been interested in sexuality, if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be in the marriage business.”

This morning went well. The sermon actually went better than I had anticipated. People seemed to be involved and following the points.

I was able to work on some stained glass. I am trying to decide what to make for Christmas presents this year. I hoped to get an earlier start this year than last when I ended up making ornaments on Christmas Eve.

You all can help me, which would you prefer to receive as a Christmas present?


Saturday, October 25, 2008

Not What You Think

While looking for a picture for the Christmas Countdown post, I ran across this picture. It is truly intriguing. I like to keep this blog safe for work and even though the picture IS safe for work, it pushes the envelope. So click the like if you dare!

Be A Radical

Sermon for this Sunday can be found here.

Better Watch Out!


Only two months left!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Those Evil Liberals



A Day in the Life of Joe Sixpack

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised. All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer’s medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance—now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe’s employer pays these standards because Joe’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he’ll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn’t think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that his in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the tax-payer funded roads.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers’ Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans.

The house didn’t have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are evil and conservatives are good.

He doesn’t mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoyed throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don’t need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I’m a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

A. N. Onymous

(h/t Bailey's Buddy)

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Recap

Well, another weekend fades into the past.



It again was another beautiful Sunday. The sun was out and there was a light breeze. The worship service was a little chaotic, my assistant did not get there until about 5 minutes before the service and the bulletin was messed up. (If you were a secretary and you were told to put the same reading in the bulletin twice, wouldn't you call to varify?) The preaching was not all too great either.

I took this picture at a park that I will probably never be able to find again. (Although I do love GPS systems!) The sun was filtered through the yellow leaves and there was the smell of burning leaves in the air.

I had found an old cemetery while out geocaching. What was so sad is it looked like someone had just recently toppled the tomb stone. I think there should be a separate level of Hell (of which I don't believe in) for people who do things like this.

Right now, Nick is at work and I am at homo alone watching The Santa Clause 3.


But does anyone know why these things are on power cords? This one is on the GPS and it seems to do nothing but make the cord shorter. Or is that its purpose?

Saturday, October 18, 2008

People Are Watching!

Sunday's sermon can be found here.

Friday, October 17, 2008

This is way too cool!



There is something about this that just appeals to my aesthetic sense. I don't know why, but I think this is just too cool!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

You Know It Is Going To Be A Bad Day When...

Your boss tells you that the building you work in is on fire and you MAY need to evacuate.

So John, Tell us how you really feel...

(h/t to Joe.My.God)

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Pre-Rant


Ok folks, what is up with all of the Pre-whatever?

If I hear "Pre-order" one more time, I am going to kill! "Pre-order" is that time when you are pulling out the credit card and deciding to call the 800 number. When you give the credit card number, you have ORDERED! I don't care if the product is in stock or not, you have ORDERED the product. You have not pre-ordered the product, the product is ordered and will arrive when the warehouse gets the product. PERIOD!

And while we are ranting talking about all of this; Pre-boarding is the time that you are standing in line about to show the airline employee your ticket. When you are walking toward the plane, you are BOARDING! I don't care if you are first class and boarding before anyone else or if you have small children and are boarding before anyone else. When you get on the plane, you are BOARDING! Pre-boarding is that time when you are sitting in the terminal wondering if you really want to fly across the country just to have the family ask when you are going to meet the right girl and settle down.

I hope we have cleared this up.

Give It To Me Baby!


Oh my!
(h/t to Failblog)

Monday, October 13, 2008

Sunday, October 12, 2008

A Banquet Kind of Day


It was a beautiful day today. One of those days that we wait all year for and then most people end up missing. Well, I was bound and determined that I wasn't going to miss this one. So I went out geochaching again, but this time I didn't bring the dog.

I ended up near the U of Michigan radio telescope. It is one of those things that if you did not know it was there, you would never find it.

But the sun through the yellow leaves made a magical feeling about everything. Then on the way home, there were two hot air balloons floating through the sky.

I mentioned Banquet in reference to my sermon for this Sunday. I just had to enjoy the timelessness of the beauty of an Autumn day.

Hope you all were able to get out and enjoy the wonders of the world we have!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Friday, October 10, 2008

Aaahhhh! This is too cool!!


Some of you may know, but most of you probably don't: Both Nick and I collect Nativity Scenes. We have ones for Mexico. We have a Cowboy Nativity. And there is even the Beartivity. Then I saw this in the catalog for Oriental Trading. Yes, a rubber duckie nativity. Can you believe it? And Yes, I do want it!

Other things:

I guess we now are full fledged "Family" members. We bought something from Ikea. I was moving my rather rotund rear on the futon when the frame broke. Now, sitting on the futon on the floor was just not working. So we went to the Ikea store and found a frame that is nice and was not expensive at all. It was cheaper than those ugly utilitarian black metal things that they make for $10 and sell for $140. So now we can sit in Swedish luxury.


Nick bought me a dozen roses for my birthday. I had never received a dozen roses so I was totally shocked. They are beautiful! [gooy]Beautiful roses from my beautiful man![/gooy] ;-)

Nick also bought three pieces of male athletic lingerie (that some of you know I have a thing for) in yellow, orange, and blue. I would post pictures but I would have to refer you to the reason we needed a new futon frame! Sorry, those pics are not making it out onto the internet.

Not much else to report for the big 44. I had to get up this morning at 4:15 am to be to work by 5:30 so it was an early evening for the Dr. Quest.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Stupidity Should Be Painful!

After seeing all the various "stuff" out there about the elections and what some people think, I have come to the conclusion that stupidity should hurt the person who is stupid! Why should we have to deal with their total idiocy?

Don't people think anymore?

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Rainbow-Barfing Pandas and Other Things



I won't even pretend to understand what this is about. It seems Flickr has this new way of viewing photos that are being up loaded to Flickr. There is something kind of mesmerizing about watching a Panda barfing rainbow framed pictures. Why pandas? Why rainbows? How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?

The world may never know.
(h/t to Joe.My.God)




When will the world learn how to use quotation marks? Don't we teach this is school? Quotation marks without an attribution indicate[s] the unusual or dubious status of a word. So in this case, the question is: "Is it really sodium free water; or not?" Then the other question: "What genius got paid more money than I will ever see in my life to make this public grammatical blunder?"




Things said at Starbucks that sound dirty but aren't:
  • I'll wipe off your wand.
  • My finger is still in it.
  • Could you cream this?

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Geocaching Part 2



Well, Amber and I decided to go geocaching this evening while Nick was at work. After doing a conversion on the coordinates, we were actually able to find two caches! It was cool. We also met some other people who were geocaching, they were searching for the same cache as Amber and I. That was interesting.

The picture is the latest project. Nick said he wanted something a little smaller so this is about four or five inches high. We have various seasonal things hanging on the bathroom mirror and that is the location of this one.

The Wicked Tenants

This Sunday's sermon can be found here.

Geocaching


Nick and I decided to take our new toy/birthday present out for a test run. Granted, the GPS is to be used in a car, but I hoped we could use it for Geocaching. If you never tried geocaching, it is kind of like a high-tech game of hide-and-seek. It is a fun way to be out and about in the woods, enjoying the sunshine and enjoying each others company. (NOT in that way!)

We were not able to find the cache because of some mix-ups in the form of coordinates we were using. We could get close to the cache, but we were still not able to find the thing.

We did manage to find a dead mouse though.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Biblical Thought of the Day

1 Corinthians 13 - The "Love" Chapter



Link