spontaneous applause

Well, we're back from vacation. The place we went to was actually called Panorama, it's near Invermere. It was a super nice resort. We had a luxury 3 bedroom condo (with 9 adults and 2 kids). My youngest bro-in-law had to sleep on the balcony! It was a great place, great weather, great time. Our son got some water wings and now he actually likes the pool. Just the warm pool mind you, but he never really was much into swimming before the water wings. He looks super cute with his mouth floating just above the water line.
Our sons has learned to take his own shirt off. Sort of. You have to help him get his arms out, but then he can do the rest. One of the evenings we were getting him ready for bed, and he was struggling to get his shirt off. It was in the living room, and everyone started to cheer him on. After a minute of struggling, off came the shirt to a round of spontaneous applause from everyone in the room. It was quite entertaining.

Inver-where?

No, Invermere. That's where we're going this weekend. More specifically, we are going here. Come to think of it, I'm not entirely sure how to get there myself, but I'm sure I'll find out by tomorrow when we go to leave. We are meeting up with my wife's family for the weekend. Should be fun.

On a different note, we had been missing a little meeple from the game Carcassonne, a blue one. I was painting our son's crib this week and filling holes with this stuff called Plastic Wood. It got me to thinking that maybe I could make a new meeple out of the Plastic Wood stuff. Then I realized that all along I've have the perfect sized piece of wood to carve a new meeple, so last night I made myself a new meeple. Looks pretty close to the original, but our paint doesn't match. Still blue though. It feels good to have the missing piece back, especially because everyone always wants to be blue for some reason.

This is a meeple, in case you were wondering.

Odd foods

Currently, I am eating pumpkin seeds. I love pumpkin seeds, but there are an odd food. Seeds in general I guess are. They are seeds. They are supposed to grow food. But we eat them. I like sunflower seeds too, but they upset my stomach. Sesame seeds are good on buns and stir-fry. Poppy seeds in that yummy spinach strawberry salad. I guess there are all sorts of seeds that we eat. I never really thought of it before.

On a different note, we watched The Bourne Identity the other day. I really liked it. For some reason it really hooked me. I would say it's one of my favourite movies that I've seen it a while. Matt Damon was really likeable, and both he and the girl were quite believable. It's interesting though how we can cheer for selectively moral people. Jason Bourne is a little less ambiguous than most action heroes I think though. He's trying really hard to leave all the violence before him, but it keeps turning up on his doorstep. I love how he's constantly surprising himself with what he knows and what he can do. Anyway, good movie... two thumbs up!

I think in half-size

When I was in University and college, I used to use these half-sized spiral notebooks to take notes in. I also used them for my creative diary kind of things. I hadn't used them for a long time since I graduated. The other day I decided I would buy one in an attempt to help my productivity/creativity. So far it's working. So maybe me ideas really are half-baked. Of course the real test for me isn't always getting ideas, it's making them happen. Hopefully, the power of the half-sized spiral notebook will help me to achieve my dreams!

Theology

This quiz figrues out where you fall in your theology. Apparently, I'm this:

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 86% Neo orthodox 71% Emergent/Postmodern 68% Charismatic/Pentecostal 64% Reformed Evangelical 64% Fundamentalist 43% Classical Liberal 36% Modern Liberal 18% Roman Catholic 18% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

The Dragon Comes in the Night

We have a game called Carcassonne. It's a tile laying game, and it's very fun. We recently got an expansion for the game the includes a Dragon who eats your little people that you play the game with. It is not fun to have your people eaten. I've noticed the the Dragon does not bring out the best in people. If you are the one who's being eaten, it is customary to get all upset and whiny. If you are the one doing to eating, then it seems customary to overly enjoy it. It is a very emotional part of the game, more so than I would have expected. It's fun to watch, and interesting to be a part of when those "game-playing tensions" flare up between the eater and the eaten.

We went to a wedding yesterday. Actually, I played music for the ceremony. And, the guy doing the ceremony can't legally sign the certificate, so I finally got to exercise my marrying authority! Cool. It was a nice wedding, but weddings are almost always nice. Our son spent the day with another family while we were out at the wedding and reception, and he did great. He hardly even noticed we were not there, or at least it didn't bother him. They grow up so fast... sigh...

Same great family, now 33% more!

That's right, if you didn't know it already, we're having another baby. It's pretty exciting, but not as urgent as the first time we had a baby. Now that we've been through it once, I think the novelty has worn off. We are excited, we just don't feel as pressured to read all sorts of books and get baby things (we have mostly everything), and such. Come February 24th I suspect we'll at least have some names picked out...

Undecided I am

Well, I did get to see Ep. III yesterday. It was entertaining, and overall I did enjoy it, but I felt a little disappointed at the end. I'll write my comments in white so that if you haven't seen the movie yet, then I won't ruin it for you. If you wanna see them, just highlight the text.
comments start here. I didn't find Anakins fall very convincing. Well, actually it wasn't that the fall wasn't convincing, rather it was how quickly he decides to side with Palpatine. After he chops off Mace's arm, it still looks like there is a struggle in him, but he pretty much immediately bows before palpy and pledges his undying allegiance (which was a little overboard maybe). But, after being an accomplice to killing Mace, he couldn't really go back to the Jedi now could he.
Last thing, I did like how Padme's death was a self-fulfilling prophecy on Anakin's part, but I always assumed that Padme would live for a while because of Leia's mentioning that she somehow had memories of her mom.
I also found the story line was pretty shallow. I think there was too much packed in there and it ended up being a lot of "oh, by the way's". BTW, I'm not the jedi I should be... BTW, I'm a sith lord who can help you save padme... BTW, qui-gon is immortal, wanna talk to him?
Anyway, enough said for one post.
It was nice to go out on a date with my wife. Our son did really well with the stranger we left him with. I hear he only cried when she made it impossible for him to climb up on the table. He gets whiny when you don't let him do what he wants (but don't we all).

I've got a wedding this weekend. I'm playing some music, and I'm singing the registry thing. The person doing the wedding can't legally sign the thing, so I get to exercise my powers of marryingness. Cool!

Sith Happens... Today!

That's right folks, I'm finally going to see Episode III. We got ourselves a babysitter and are hitting to matinee. I'm pretty excited, seeing as how it's been out for 3 months. I'll let you know what I think.

As far as the red light on my dash goes, my mechanic assured me it was probably nothing. I brought it down and they plugged some computer thing in it that said some EGsomething sensor was giving trouble. Something to do with rough idling, although I never noticed anything. He cleaned out some tiny filter and sent me home, no charge. If you live on the North Shore, then I recommend Derosa on Fell, they treat you right!

Last thing. I stumbled upon this, as I often do, by checking out random people's blogs and seeing what they link to. It is soooooo addicting (at least for me).

Little Red Light, how you taunt me...

I felt this overwhelming moment of panic and foreboding as I peered down at my dash to see the service engine soon light staring back up at me. What do I do? How soon is soon? When it's convenient soon, or ASAP soon? And what is that supposed to mean? That's a pretty vague description of something that's wrong. They should have a triage light. Maybe with different colours. Service Engine Soon in green could mean, "Don't worry, just get it looked at when you have the time." Yellow could mean, "Maybe you should call your mechanice at your earliest convenient time". And REd could mean, "Um, pull over before your engine explodes and call a tow truck". There, then I would have a better idea of the severity and time sensitiveness of the warning on my dash.
Each time I turn on the car, I hope against hope that the light will not stay on. But alas, it does. Glowing like an ember that refuses to die. And so, in half an hour or so I will see if my mechanic has any spots open today, or if it can wait till Monday...

Do I think too highly of myself?

I was just lamenting yesterday about how I haven't found many people who play guitar as good as I do. Not in a "I'm better than everyone else" kind of sense, mind you, but rather "I wish I had someone I could jam with that was at my level". Playing with Lance was always fun, because we could solo over top of each other's stuff. Brian's good too. But neither of them are anywhere near me. It just would be nice to be able to sit and play and challenge and create with someone who could both learn from me and teach me. Ah well. I've always enjoyed being in bands, like NATS and NICO. But's that's a different environment. Playing with other instruments is fun, but it's different. You learn different things in a band than you do with another of the same intrument.
Anyway, I just like playing music, and maybe I need to look a little harder for people around to play with...

Ahh, Monday

I had a good weekend. My son and I got to spend most of Saturday together because my wife went off Blueberry picking. I guess it was slim pickin's, because it took a long time. Anywho, we went to the park and played in his kiddie pool. It was nice. It's not often that I we spend time together, just me and him. At first I was at a loss for what to do, that's why we went to the park. Naptime and lunch always give you something to do too!

Yesterday I got to speak at the Chinese Church's english service. I always love speaking there. They're a great bunch.

If you're interested, I read a great book called Sutter's Cross last week. I really enjoyed it, and it was an easy read.

The Other Side of Vacation

So, we are now back at home. A whole month away makes you feel like you're retired or something. We had a really great time with all of our friends and family while we were gone. I must admit though that there were two highlights for me.
1) I got to jam and record with my old bandmates from North and the Sea. That was super fun.
2) I got to play mini-baseball with Patch. Just like the old days.
It's funny how time flies. It's been a looooooong time since I've gotten to do either of those things, but I must say that was the most fun I've had in a long time.
Thanks guys.

Being back at work, I don't get much chance to lounge around. I've got a sermon for Sunday, and Youth stuff needs to get rockin again. Luckily I don't have to lead worship this week because we are having some special guests doing the music. Things will ramp up by degrees, but I see September's headlights peaking around the corner, so I must stay on top of things.

Being back is a little bittersweet. You may know why.
It's always nice being away, and it's always nice getting to sleep in your own bed again.

I'll try to blog more often now that I'm back in the office.

Laters.