Monday, July 07, 2003

I had a good day off. Usually I get really restless by the end of a long weekend. I had my restless day at the beginning, so it’s been a good few days off of work.

The tea was lovely, as usual. It’s funny, these are ladies that aren’t that much older than I, but they’re more my mother’s friends than mine. And yet I have a friendship with them as well, not only because of being my mother’s daughter, but in my own right. Three of them have known me since I was a teenager - they are the ones that I’m enjoying getting to know as peers now. And it’s funny because as a youth leader in my church, I now have mentor-friendships with their teenage kids.

I ran errands on the way to the tea. Let me say that stay at home moms have it made - I breezed my way through Wal-Mart. It was crowded, but nothing like it is on Saturdays. Wow.

It’s days like today that I think it would be nice to win the lottery, quit my job, and do what I want to do during the day. But then I think of the restlessness I feel after a few days off and I know that I would be bored out of my mind. So I would still work and I would probably volunteer more. Of course, I need to play the lottery to win the lottery, but that’s another issue.

First off, my computer is s-l-o-w. ARGH!

Second, I’m taking today off from work for a nice long weekend.

Third, I have errands to run that I postponed from Saturday when I went car shopping with my parents instead. To update that, they did not buy the Outback yesterday as there was not one available at Carmax. So I don’t know what they’re going to do now. I know you’re all on tenderhooks for the latest news.

Fourth, my mother invited me to a birthday tea for her best friend. Actually, there’s a group of ladies who started this tea thing years ago. They get together about four times a year to celebrate the members’ birthdays. So her best friend’s birthday is July 4th and the tea is this afternoon and since I’m not at work I was invited. Since I love these ladies, I’m excited to go.

Sunday, July 06, 2003

Bill Whittle of Eject!³ posted his latest on July 4th. It’s lengthy, but good, as usual. A snippet:

Where you stand on the political spectrum, what you think of rich and poor people, and what you think about rich and poor nations and how they should act in the world, comes down, in my mind, to one single issue, and one only: Can wealth be created, or can it only be redistributed?

If you believe, as I do, that wealth can be manufactured out of thin air, then there is no limit to the amount of wealth you can amass. And since you are creating it out of thin air, there is no moral onus on making money – you work hard to create it and have stolen from no one. There is an expression for this: you earned it.

Indeed, since charity depends on excess wealth, excess capacity, the more you make for yourself the better off everyone else is. You can even throw charity out the window if you are so hard-hearted; the fact remains that you will spend that money to get the things you want, and the more you have the more you can spend. That money goes to other people. This interchange is called “the economy,” and rich societies are rich because they understand in their bones the centerpiece of Capitalist thinking: Wealth can be created from thin air by human ingenuity and hard work.

Now people on the left have, in their guts, a revulsion towards the rich and the wealthy, because when ever they see wealth they naturally assume that it was stolen from people without any – the poor. That rich man in the private jet has taken the wealth from all the poor people and is therefore a criminal.

Click on this link. You will chuckle. It’s guaranteed.

[via chewie]

There’s a great show on the Food Network called $40 a Day - the “host” (who also does 30 Minute Meals, which I love as well) goes to a location and has $40 for her meals in one day.

So for the episode on right now, she’s in Vermont and just went from Manchester where she had breakfast to Woodstock. But someone recommended a place in Quechee, so that’s where she went instead (for lunch).

Here’s why I mention this at all - when I lived in New Hampshire, I had a friend in Quechee (he’s still there). It’s a great little town on the border of Vermont and New Hampshire. It’s famous for the Quechee Gorge, which is HUGE and amazing. You drive on this little bridge over the gorge to actually get into the main town. It’s fantastic.

And my friend has this great authentic saltbox house not far from the Gorge. It’s so New England-y. Just thinking about it makes me miss it.

After church, I went to lunch with Mom and Dad (as always) and I asked if they had narrowed down the car decision. Mom said she was going to defer to Dad, let him decide. And then he chimed in with an alternative.

Why not get both?

Here’s how it’s going to work:

1. They are currently at Carmax buying a used Subaru Outback (which will make Dad happy).

2. They will then trade in their Toyota Avalon for the Toyota Highlander (which will make Mom happy) later this week.

Everyone wins. And I’m happy too, because both cars are cool in their own ways. And I’ll have access to the cargo hauling space if I need it. Woot!

Saturday, July 05, 2003

We in my family hold in our heads a massive collection of useless trivia. As my Dad said today, I could win a lot of bar bets with some of the information I’ve managed to remember. And today, Dad added a new tidbit.

Did you know that Chernobyl means wormwood in Russian?

And you’re thinking, who cares? Well, wormwood is mentioned in Revelation (8:11), so I’m interested.

Here’s the thing...I’m not saying that the accident at Chernobyl in the 80s was the result of third angel’s trumpet (read Revelation 8 to understand what I’m talking about). But it is pretty interesting.

Here’s some information about the Chernobyl incident.

Is it bad when your computer reboots itself?

I was refreshing my page when I got a series of errors and then the screen went black. A couple of seconds later it started booting up. Weird.

LATER (9:30pm): It happened again, I clicked on a link and the screen went black, and I’ve spent the past 30 minutes rebooting the machine twice and dialing in twice. What is going on?

I finally got a picture of Harry and Spanky from my Dad. It’s a favorite as it shows the two of them laying on a rug together. Harry is looking up at the camera with this look that says, “Please don’t tell the other dogs that I’m doing this.”

Truth is that Harry adored that cat and would protect her from my Annie, who loved to torment Spanks at any opportunity. Occasionally, we’d hear a loud meow from Spanks who was tearing around a corner followed by Annie who was followed by a barking Harry.

Oh, and David, this is an example of how cute that cat is. I know I mentioned it months ago at your blog.

My mom just called to ask if I want to go car shopping with them. They are still with only one car since they gave the Explorer to the Cooties back in April. It hasn’t been an issue with Dad in California with his contract. But I think that’s getting ready to end and he’ll need to have a car.

They’re looking at the Subaru Outback and the Toyota Highlander.

So I’ll be gone for a big chunk of the day.

LATER:  When my mother called she said the goal was to get out before it got hot. She then called me a bit later to say she was running late. When I got to their house, the thermometer in my car was reading 91 degrees (at 10:45am). So we were out in the hottest part of the day. Yay!

We went test driving both cars. This is going to be my mother’s car, so she drove them. Both are nice, have their pluses and minuses. I freely gave my two cents. What’s interesting is that one of them wants one and the other wants the other, I think. So since they’re not planning to buy until next week, they have a week to hash it out. Basically it comes down to whether or not they want an SUV or a car--both have 4-wheel drive, they both have about the same cargo space. I’ll be interested to see which one they decide on.

I was channel surfing last night and happened upon Made on MTV. I missed the first 10 minutes or so, but I was pretty much hooked from the first few seconds (and the blurb on the info screen my cable offers).

This episode was about Katie, a high school junior from Vermont who is a tomboy that wanted to enter a beauty pageant. I’m not sure what her motivation was since I missed that explanation, but I’m sure it had something to do with a particular boy and a posse of girls she calls The Armani Girls™ (one of which happens to be Miss Teen Vermont).

Anyway, MTV provided her with a coach in the form of a former beauty pageant participant (winner?). I can’t remember her name, but it started with a K - Katie called her Coach K. She is a lovely gal with the requisite blonde hair, tanned (freckled), poised, yadda yadda yadda. She took one look at Katie and I think she wanted to run.

Katie is a true tomboy, she dresses in baggy clothes, no makeup, hair in a ponytail all the time, sometimes a baseball cap. She slouches and has a swagger. She’s really outspoken and says pretty much whatever is on her mind. She seems a little anti-girly stuff - she reminds me of me a little bit, although I wasn’t completely anti-girly stuff.

So, Coach K had a lot of work to do to get this girl ready for the pageant in one month. Yikes.

Last night’s Special Report with Brit Hume was various interviews including one iwht Justice O’Connor (she has a new book out), one of the Oak Ridge Boys (he has a book out), a journalist who talked about Presidential golf (he has a book out), and a guy who’s an expert on the history of Air Force One™ (he has a book out).

Hmmm...I thought this was a news and analysis show.

Anyway, it was repeated this morning and one thing stuck out to me that I missed last night. Apparently GWB used to love to play Risk (the interviewee used the past tense, I immediately had the thought that W’s Presidency turned into a real-life version of the game somewhat, so maybe that took some of the fun out of the game). It seems that W would encourage his aides to play and “annihilate each other.” Heh. Then the guy mentioned that Bill Clinton loved to play Hearts while on AFO™.

Interesting.

Friday, July 04, 2003

This post will remain at the top of the page for the entire day. I hope you all have a safe and happy July 4th.

Remember the men and women, who for the past 227 years, have given their lives in sacrifice to keep this nation free.

[Flag graphic courtesy of Brownielocks.com]

I’ve been lazing at home today. I have no plans to go out for fireworks (crowds, heat). I’ll watch them on TV in the comfort of my nicely air conditioned apartment.

I was online for a while early this morning. You may have noticed the tweak of the background. I updated my reading and listening lists. And I tried to figure out why my text boxes aren’t working still. That is a mystery, because I haven’t changed anything that should affect them.

I watched Spartacus and Spider-Man on DVD. I had never seen Spartacus before and borrowed it from my mom. I liked it but thought it was a little too long, I did doze off a couple of times, and it was very dated. No doubt it’s a classic story and I’m sure it was excellent in 1960, but it was hard to watch at times because of little things like the cheesy woods/forest set that was used three times for three completely different (unrelated) scenes. I know I’m speaking heresy to classic movie buffs. Remember, I said the story was good, ‘kay?

So now I’m online again while trying to decide between pasta and eggs for dinner (I need to go to the grocery store) and if I can handle another movie before flipping between the various channels that will have festivities coverage. Sounds sad, huh?

Actually, my parents are on their way home from a vacation at Niagra Falls - we plan to celebrate the 4th tomorrow with the requisite b-b-q (I think). And our church postponed the usual July 4th picnic to next weekend to make it a “Welcome to Your New Church Home” picnic for our new pastor, who just moved up this week.

Jared over at Thinklings has a great explanation of the difference between fundamentists and evangelicals. Those two terms are often interchanged, but they really mean different things, especially to the Christian you may be describing.

For instance, I would say that in my teens and early twenties I would have fallen firmly in the fundamentalist category. But as I’ve gotten older, wiser, and grown in my faith and understanding of grace I’ve moved more into the evangelical category. For example:

1. Human thought. Fundamentalists in general distrust scholarship and can be very anti-intellectual. Evangelicals on the other hand, believe all truth is God’s truth, that our minds are God-given, and that we insult God when we fail to think and use logic (or science when it is appropriate).

2. The nature of the Bible. Fundamentalists adhere to a literalism so broad, even they are doomed to violate it. (Stott points out: “Not even the most extreme fundamentalist believes God has feathers” (Ps.91:4).") Evangelicals, however, while believing that whatever the Bible affirms is true, add that some of what it affirms is figuratively or poetically (rather than always literally) true and is meant to be interpreted thus.)