Faithful Fan

Da Bears lost yesterday. Again. No wild card play-off hopes for this year. Sigh . . .

Generally I'm an optimistic, enthusiastic fan, even in the dark days of having a team that just can't seem to get their act together. After yesterday's pummeling at the hands of the Vikings at the HHH Metrodome (rumor has it that they've renamed it the Mall of America Dome? Really? IDK), I'm feeling rather like Eyore and not very Pooh-ish or Piglet-ish. My sister summed it up very well in her text from Montana during the final, fateful quarter.

"Poop!"

Ditto on that sentiment!

And I refuse to even comment on the Favre Factor. That old fart can't even pronounce his name the way it's spelled and he comes waltzing across the boarder to brighten the dark days of all these Minnesota fair-weather fans. Oh, forgot. Said I wasn't going to comment about the QB who's having a career high season as the leader of his recent arch enemies.

Apparently there is no loyalty in football anymore.

Nor are the Bears having any fun playing their beloved game. I think that's more than half of their problem. The competition no longer has the playfulness of the game they love. It has become work. A contract. A speculation and exercise in strategy. No longer the game they love. I hope they learn to play again.

So I shall watch the rest of the season in anticipation of what the future might hold once Uhrlacher is back in action and Cutler makes some friends.

In the mean time, it is fun to watch the Skovmen, Minnesota born and Vikings loyal, enjoy a season of some excellent football.

Thank you Minnesota friends; Truaxes for allowing me in the door with my Bears Chair and other accessories, Flinns for their gentle jabs, Mrs. Wanamaker for simply ignoring the Bears. No thanks to Princess Kathy from Prescott, Wisconsin! Aren't you supposed to be rooting for the Packers these days?!?

Another Blog

I did Blog today . . . it just wasn't here.

Feel free to check out this other one http://www.episcoyouth.blogspot.com/.

That's where I hang out when I'm at work.

Sometimes work and life at home intersect. Funny, that actually happens more often than not.

Anyway, ministry is more than a job, or even a vocation. Ministry is a lifestyle. Thanks for being part of mine.

Happy new church year!

Love,
B

Black Friday

Dale and I have often prided ourselves on our counter-cultural moments; most have happened by default rather than decision. But we know to stick to our guns most of the time.

For instance, we have never seen Purple Rain or Titanic. And we're still married to our first spouse (college sweetheart) after more than 20 years. And we never get up to go shopping on Black Friday.

So this morning, I slept in to a luxurious 11:51 a.m. I can't claim noon in this time zone, but it was lovely to snooze in a sunny, warm room all morning long. (The consequence is that it's 3 a.m. and I'm still not sleepy! Hmph!)

So we spent the day on household projects - like window cleaning and transplanting pot-bound houseplants. Dismantling cheap old windows on a multi-year, non-commercial-built, farm dwelling is an interesting exercise in mechanics. We also determined that the organic window cleaning solution with vinegar didn't work worth crap. Even the Windex wasn't cutting the grime on some of the glass, so we resorted to Dawn dishwashing liquid in the shower for the first pass, and Windex as the finishing solution.

One of our plants was so pot-bound it took two of us to coax it out of it's ceramic housing! It looks so much more relaxed in its bigger, new receptacle. And now the sun light can actually filter through the window, unobstructed, to bathe the leafy plants in UV rays. And we can actually see enough feathers to identify the birds on the feeders now.

Will wonders never cease?

Shopping on Black Friday? Well, after 6 p.m. we did cave in and go to Target for a few items. We found the desired deviled egg platter but had no luck looking for a DVD stand.

But there's always tomorrow. Ya gotta love this long holiday weekend!

Contemplating Change

I wanted to change some stuff on the look of Blogwyn today and was completely disappointed to see that Blogger hasn't added or updated any templates since the last time I was feeling restless. I changed some of my photos and picked a different template anyway and am dissatisfied. I can't figure out how to make the header picture smaller, the event counter that I added wouldn't work, so I had to remove that Gadget. My entire experience left me feeling like I had to settle for less. Sigh. . . .

So bring it on, Bloggers who are Better than Me at this Blog scene. Please save me from these doldrums. Is it time to abandon Blogger and move to a different server? Or is there any easy way to jazz this baby up? (I emphasize the easy part of that question. The beauty of Blogger is the simplicity. I am totally in to USER EASY software.)

SO . . . .

I am delighted to have the costume season behind me. There is a part of me that really loves the whole costume shop scene. The two days of vacation I always take after Halloween end up being days that I get a ton of yard work and house work finished. Every now and then I imagine how much I could get done around here if I didn't enjoy employment. My house would be cleaner (I didn't say completely clean), I would sew and weave more, I would engage in more cooking and canning and gardening. It would be a very different existence. Yet I would get restless and we wouldn't have the luxury of taking vacations or enjoying a boat or being able to stop and drop in on the occasional wedding of a friend, because money would simply be too tight.

So I feel very blessed to have employment that is stimulating, challenging, meaningful, and calls me to a growing edge of creativity and collaboration.

I also feel very blessed to have the means to indulge in the playful side of life in ways that my parents did not enjoy when my sister and I were young. Don't misunderstand me - we got to see amazing places in the US as we drove and camped our way across the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Desert Southwest. But Dale and I have been able to do all of that and travel with our sons to Hawaii and Alaska. My sons don't remember a time before knowing the mountains of Montana. Thanks to my sister Wendy for making that happen! We've all been to Washington DC. Next family stop: Cozumel, Mexico.

We booked our family spring break vacation tonight. WOOOOOO HOOOOO!!!

Arthur our Oldest will turn 21 on March 21st. Yes, read "Golden Birthday." I trust Arthur, but I don't trust his friends. So we have lured him away from his peers to celebrate his Coming of Drinking Age on his Golden Birthday by booking an all-inclusive vacation in Cozumel. I'm not an idiot. He's been to college - a year in Missoula, Montana, yielded his first puking drunk episode without the benefit of parents to scream at him. I just don't want his pals to line up 21 shots on a bar somewhere in Minnesota and expect him to escape alcohol poisoning on March 21. So I took manipulative measures and booked a family vacation.

Cozumel is one of our favorite places in the world. Dale and I spent part of our honeymoon there and have been back twice since then. We can't wait to take the kids. It will be their first trip that requires a Passport - Canada didn't count when we camped our way around Lake Superior a few years back. I've also promised Scuba diving. I hope they like it.

And the frosting on the trip is that our friends Tom and Beth will be joining us. Tom will have just returned from his third tour of duty with the Army National Guard. Arthur wants to spend his 21st birthday drinking on a beach in Mexico with Tom. I can't argue with that! Now, to work on our Espanol.

Corona, Dos Equis, y Negro Modelo?

Tres Cervezas, por favor, mucha fria!

Donde esta el bano?