Not carless yet!

Well I didn't sell my car today. I went to the Saturn dealership and they offered me a price that would have covered what I still owe on the car but not what I think the car is worth. So I walked away. (By the way they clearly were not desperate for used cars as they lead me to believe in their advertising letter. Can it be that there isn't truth in advertising? Say it isn't so!) Now here is the thing--not have a car scared the crap out of me. I was really anxious as I drove to the car dealership. Then I was a little relieved when it was not the price I was looking for. I still thin I'll try and sell my car on my own. But it is going to be really hard. Now I don't know that it will be as hard as not having a tv, but it will be hard.
It will be a complete change of lifestyle. Worth doing, but a complete change. I think this is interesting to think about how accustomed to luxuries we become--how convenience becomes conflated with necessity. I don't need a car. People live without car, but my palms sweat at the thought of it. I really feel like it is important for me to do this because it scares me so much. Honestly, scares the crap out of me.
Also, I'm now completely caught up on Ugly Betty. A parisioner brought me a dvd copy of this past weeks' season premiere. I love this show.
Until tomorrow, peace out.

My day

Basically, I did three things today:

(1) I saw The Jane Austen Book Club, a movie. All of you folks who enjoy Jane Austen novels will enjoy this movie. i really loved it. But as I've pointed out in my blog before I am complete romatic and a total sap when it comes to Jane Austen. Everything is wrapped up in the end and the relationships work out that the audience wants to work out. Is it like real life? Probably not. But that is why I love it. It is not like real life, or at least, real life as I know and have experienced it.

(2) I watched episodes of Ugle Betty on DVD. I love this show. Very quirky. But some great lines. I've said that before in this blog also.

(3) Finally, I made dinner. I used a recipe that came in the Terra Firma newsletter. (See yesterday's blog to find out what this is.) I made Indian Summer Polenta with Pesto Green Beans. It was delicious but took a lot longer than polenta should take to cook. Don't know what happened. I think I added the tomatoes too soon and they add too much additional water. But it was really good, and I'll have enough for several meals this next week. And now the house smells great.

Not a very interesting blog, but that is because my life is not a Jane Austen novel. I didn't meat Mr. Darcey at a social gathering today and I'm not spending the day in sitting in a sun drenched window penning a letter. No this is as romatic as my life gets--a movie, Ugly Betty and a big ol' pot of polenta. Perhaps, tomorrow will be different--or not.

CSA

Here is a delicious video blog for all of you to enjoy.



Peace out

Who thought that was a good idea?

Okay today was the day of the oddly dressed. Now those of you who live in San Francisco or have been to SF probably are saying, "Isn't everyday the day of the oddly dressed in San Francisco?" To which I would say, "Yes." And, honestly, today wasn't all that odd. And the dress wasn't all that odd. I mean I didn't really see any costumes. But I did see this:
First, I went to the beach today. And while I didn't see a lot of dress at the beach, I was exposed for the first time to the micro bikini for men. Perhaps, I've seen these before but didn't notice. But today I did because one was laying right beside me. It was being worn by a parisioner who I ran into when I went to the beach. And he said some other person was talking to him about them before I walked up. I don't fully know how to describe them. But imagine a tiny hat that barely covers the male genitalia and a tiny triangle of fabric in the back connected by two cheap Walgreen scrunchies. Seriously, I don't care what your body looks like, you should not wear one of these things.
Then two: I went to choir practice tonight and there were two men in utilikilts. Two. I'm fairly certain I talked about this at one point in my blogging. Utilikilts are kilts made out of work fabric, normally reserved for Carhartt clothing. But not in San Francisco, here it is apparently worn as everyday wear. But it shouldn't be. Alright that is too judgemental. I just think they are weird. I like kilts. In Scotland!!! Not at choir practice. Although, it was hot today. So maybe on a hot day wearing a skirt would be would have been more comfortable. But, I'm justing thinking this might be the only choir in the country that had two men in kilts.

And finally, for those of you who know and care, I think Hung on Top Chef is an arse-hole!!

Peace out!

A Stellar Day

Good news! I have my tv back. It is repaired. i don't know what was wrong with it. On the invoice that I received it said f.b.t. I don't have a clue as to what that is. I know I should have asked, but the people who run the shop have very thick accents so there is a good chance that I would not have understood what they were saying. But I hae the tv back that is all that matters. I have it on right now. My hope is that I don't watch as much as I had been watching.

The other good news is that it is freakin' beautiful today. I went to the office but couldn't stand being inside. So I came back to my house changed into shorts and hung out in the back yard all afternoon, until I got the call to go pick up my tv. Yay!

All in all a great day.

Back to watching television.

Peace Out.

FW: Don't Send Me Any Forwards

So first things first. I still don't have a tv. I also don't have anything from netflix. I've been watching episodes of Ugle Betty which I like. My favorite line so far, Whilomena says to her assistant Marc "How many curly headed efite sychophants do you think are waiting in line for your job?" Anyway I sent back some and thought I woudl get another one today, but alas not such gift in my mailbox. So tonight I'm going to watch Steel Magnolia, a classic in my very gay house. I'm hoping to have my tv by mid-week. I'll keep you informed.

The other thing for today: I received a forwarded e-mail from my aunt today. At the point she is really the only person who sends me annoying forwards. Last week she sent me an article written by Tony Snow, former press secretary for President Bush. The essential gist of the article was how cancer has been such a gift to him. To which I say something that I'm not going to print in this blog. Well anyway today she sent an e-mail forward that was talking about how to send forwards. Seriously. It had all these rules for the proper way to send forwards so that other people can't steal the e-mail addresses off of the list, etc. My favorite was that you were supposed to remove "FW:" from the subject. Now here is why I loved this. She didn't remove "FW:" from her subject line. Hilarious!!!

We are entering our summer here in San Francisco. It was beautiful today. Very warm. So today I spent some time on the patio behind the house reading. It was fantastic. I was actually sweating. We dont get many of these days so I'm savoring it. I made a very summery dinner tonight too--sauteed squash and zuchini with pasta and a glass of wine. MMM good.

Peace out!

Not a fire truck, I said a fur truck.

Okay, I did something today that I try and never ever do. I went to Target on the weekend. I guess I didn't really have to go today, but I wanted to get out of the house and that seemed like a good place to go. I know I could have gone to the park or some other such beautiful place but I went to Target instead. However, I now feel as if it was Divine providence that took me to the overcrowded mega-strore today. What is that you might ask? Well had I not gone to the Target today I might have never seen the pick-up truck covered in leopard fur. Yes I said it, covered in fur. Now before all my peta loving fans begin writing in, I'm fairly certain it was fake fur. But seriously a truck covered in leopard fur, how much better can that get. I parked right beside it. I wished I'd had a camera so I could document the whole thing. Because some of you might be tempted to not believe that such a site truly exists. Oh, but it does and it was beautiful. Beautiful in the so tacky and disturbing that it is fantastic kind of way.
Outside of the fur truck, (As I write that I can't help but think that someone in the south, my home sweet home, might say fire truck and it would sound a lot like fur truck.) today was not all that spectacular. My sermon was good today, I was able to use three songs from three musicals. I sang two and played the third. That was fun. But the service outside that was just a little underwhelming. It was a combined service with the Methodist church, and I didn't plan the service. We take turns one month I preach and the other pastor plans the service and the next month we switch. Today also they had a praise band that doesn't consider itself a praise band but instead a folk band. But whatever you call it they chose some cheesy praise music. They at one point asked me what my sermon was going to focus on and I told them. They told me they had been working on one song, and I pointed out that song didn't fit with the sermon. They apparently decided to just stop asking. They at least didn't play the song that I said didn't fit. But it was just some music that I just don't like and some members of my congregation don't like either. The lyrics are just weak. They don't have much depth. One song liked but the way it was lead just sucked. It was supposed to be a round and it just didn't work. Had it been lead better it might have been really nice. Forget the fact that it was a reference to a completely different scripture text than the one we were using in the service. Normally, that wouldn't necessarily be bad if it fit with the service, but this was a direct quote from scripture. Then they were supposed to end with a Bob Dylan song, that didn't quite fit but I would have been alright with. However, they changed it to some train song, that I knew and had heard but again it didnt' fit. And I really didn't like it. I'd rather had Bob Dylan. So just a little disappointed. I'm giving this until the end of the year and if it hasn't gotten better then we will probalby stop worshipping together on the 4th Sundays. But do I really want to do that. Is it more important to worship together and put up with our different worship styles? Or is it more important to do worship that I feel good about every week? I don't know. I know I sure do like having that one Sunday off from preaching every other month.
Well at least I still have the fur truck.
Peace out!

She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, but Jodi Foster probably doesn't

Cagey-C said that by reading my blog it appears that I see a lot of movies, to which I responded what else am I going to do. I say this because since my last post I have seen two movies at the theater and two on netflix. I'm only going to talk about the movies that I saw in the theater. (The movies I saw on Netflix were Eighteen, gay flick not very good but I've seen worse, and a filming of the staged musical Sunday in the Park with George, starring Mandy Patinkin and Benadette Peters.)
This afternoon I saw Across the Universe. This is the film that is a musical with Beatles music. It was directed and written by Julie Taymor. She directed The Lion King on Broadway, that was and is fantastic. Well anyway the imagery in the movie was really spectacular. Some amazing cinematography. I thought it was a beautifully made movie. However, and here is a big however, I was bored. B-O-R-E-D!!! I was beginning to think we weren't getting out until they covered the entire Beatles songbook. (Perhaps this means that i-tunes will have the soundtrack available and one will finally be able to download some Beatles tunes.) It lasted probably about 2 hours but to me it felt like 4. It just dragged on and on and on. Best momemts: the end, a scene where the main character is pinning strawberries to a canvas with his friend in the background at war in Vietnam all while singing Strawberry Fields, and Bono making a cameo and singing I Am A Walrus. (That might not be the exact name of the Beatles song, forgive me if I get it wrong. Never been a huge fan of the Beatles.)
Now to the movie I saw yesterday, The Brave One. This is the movie where Jodi Foster plays a woman who wants revenge for the killing of her fiance so she goes on this vigilante killing spree. It was good. I saw an interview with her on The Daily Show where she talked about the fact that it can be taken on two levels. One is a Charles Bronson action pic with a woman instead of a man. The other is a social commentary on guns and violence. The premise is that anyone is capable of violent acts if their lover, spouse, child, etc. have been hurt or are in danger. Therefore, it is probably not a good idea for guns to be the hands of average citizens. I get that. And certainly understood her desire for revenge. But there were a few things that disturbed me, first Terrence Howard. i just find him a little weird. And his character does something in the end that was really disturbing, I won't give it a way. The other thing that disturbed me was people in the theatre cheering when she got revenge. Cheering?! She blew someone's head off. Wow it just made me really uncomfortable. It also made me hope that no one in the theater had a gun.
Oh, and I was glad I didn't have a gun. Because sitting behind me were two girls who talked in full voice during the movie. At one point one of the girls got up and left, making a lot of noise. Then what did I hear, but the girl still sitting behind me talking on her cell phone again in full voice. I shhssd her and she just looked at me like I was disturbing her conversation. Finally, the friend came back and they both left. Why even come to the movie if you are going to talk the whole time? I hate that. See good thing I didn't have a gun. Although, I probably wouldn't have shot them for just talking in a movie.
Alright, well I'm off to write my sermon.
Oh, and I got a call from the tv repair service it is only going to cost me $125.27 to fix the tv, which is still cheaper than a new tv. And it should be back in a few days. Yay!!!
All you need is love.

Video killed the radio star

I took my television to the shop today. This was my first day without anything really going on. Tuesday night I had folks over. Last night I went to chorus rehearsal. I'm not sure I realized how much I relied on television to fill my time. It's hard. There is definitely something for me to learn from this. It is hard for me to be in long extended periods of quiet. Right now I have on music. (Defying Gravity from Wicked.) But tv also keeps me company. I don't realize when I'm lonely because I'm watching television. Now sure there are times when I think I wish someone was around, but there is always someone on television. I've been going out of my way to get a friend to do something. And so far no one has taken me up on my invitation today. I get it they have lives, but seriously feeling a bit lonely. I'm a bit freaked out to be honest. Now, to be sure, I'll be getting a lot more done while I don't have a tv. But it is hard. I know I've already said that. Growing up we always had the tv on. My Dad would walk in the house and, if it wasn't on, would turn it on before he did anything else. He still does that. The tv is always on at their house.
I will say that I am getting better with not filling up every minute with noise. I had already started trying to do that in worship. And I do centering prayer that involves 20 minutes of silence. But that is intentional. I mean silence when I could be filling it up with noise. Over the past month or so there are times when I can't stand the sound of the radio in the car. So I'll ride in silence or I'll sing, typically a show tune. Surprised, right? But boy this was more of a test than I wanted so soon after just beginning to turn off the radio in the car.
Alright, well until tomorrow. I'm going to watch a movie on my computer. I do still have netflix, thank you Jesus.

Peace out.

How will I find out who gets kicked off of Top Chef

As I promised, today I'll tell you about my television. Tonights ago it was working fine. I turned if off and went to bed. Well yesterday during my lunch break I turned it on, but I got no picture and no sound. So I tried pushing buttons on the remote control, the television equipment of lifting the hood and taking a look even though you don't know what you are looking for. So I got out the manual because no button I pushed helped the situation. The manual said if the red light on the front was blinking for more than a few seconds I should unplug the television and plug it back in to reset it. So I did that and nothing happened. The next sentence said if this does not work I should contact my local Sony service center.
Well I know enough about technology to know that when something goes it is typically cheaper to get a new one. But I called the service center today and I'm going to take it in tomorrow to have it looked at. But if it costs more to repair it than to buy a new one then I'm faced with a dilemma. Do I buy a new tv or do I become one of those people who doesn't watch television? I would realy like to be one of those people. I have great admiration for them. But I really like television. I can't wait for the new tv season to start. I'll probably buy a new tv, but feel guilty about it afterwards.
So that is the story about my television. Not really all that interesting. But here is a good topic, give me the best thing you can think of that I can do to fill my time while my tv is being repaired or while I'm without one. And don't just say read, I know that would be good and healthy, yada, yada, yada.

Alright, I'm off to bed to read. Because what else am I going to do, my tv is broken.

Peace out.

The Menu

I'm really thinking my blog should just be titled something about food, because I write about food a lot. I love food.
I had friends over tonight for dinner, as I mentioned in yesterday's post. So I thought I'd let you know what was on the menu:

Caprese Salad with Heirloom Tomatoes (I'm not sure you get heirlooms in places other than CA. They are awesome.)
Roasted vegetables: sweet onion, zuchini, asparagus, and sweet potatoes
Risotto with black mission figs and prosciutto. (Again Black Mission Figs are a CA thing. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!)
A fresh loaf of Italian bread
For Dessert Pound Cake with a lemon sauce and fresh whipped cream (I was going to make gingerbread but you can't find gingerbread cake mix in the stores in the Summer. Clearly a fall thing.)

The pound cake was store bought. One of the folks here tonight said "I made it possible." Now normally I would bake. I enjoy baking, but I just didn't have it in me today and I didn't want to get the house all heated up before people came over. (Although, the vegetables still took longer than I expected because of the sweet potatoes. So the house was still hot.) But I was goign to bake a ginger bread cake but from a mix, but see above for reason that didn't happen. After going to a bakery, and two grocery stores I finally settled for the store bought pound cake. And it was fine, but I've made better. Anyway the lemon sauce I made and I whipped the cream. But here is the funny story. So I was chatting with my friend Copey last night about the menu, and he mentioned the lemon sauce and the gingerbread cake. I asked him for the recipe for the sauce and he gave it to me. On the e-mail which was from one of those recipe programs where you enter your recipes into the form and then you have them stored on your computer. They are nice but I don't have one. The source for the recipe was his mother. It called for corn starch. So I took down my box of corn starch--it was old so I ended up buying a new box. I looked at the back of the box and there was that recipe for the lemon sauce. So I hate inform Copey but his mother didn't come up with that recipe nor is it an old family recipe. Now for all I know his mother isn't passing it off as her own nor does he believe she developed the recipe, but I still thought it was funny.

Alright, well I'm off for now. It has been a long day.

Oh, also, I think my tv is broken. Big dilemma. I'll blog about that tomorrow.

Nighty, night.

The Emmy's and menu help

Hello all,

Below is a talky blog. I dish on the Emmy's. And speaking of dish, I get to this at the end, but I didn't spend much time on it. Tomorrow night I'm having folks over and I need some menu help. I've got black mission figs and heirloom tomatoes. I was thinking about a capresi salad with the tomatoes and a fig and prosciutto risotto and then something for dessert. My question is "is that enough?" Or should I have something else and if so what? Or should I abandon the risotto and do something else all together? Help.

Brian

Words, words, I'm so sick of words: Name that musical

Words, words, way too many words. I feel like all I've been doing the past few days is writing. I've been working on my sermon. (Glad to say that it was already done at 4:00 this afternoon. Not like last week, thank you Jesus.) Then I've been working on a grant for a sabbatical that I hope to take in Spring of 2008. I still have to write a 200 word synopsis, a 2 page paper on the context of my ministry and retool my resume. Plus, and here is what I'm finding the most difficult, I have to come up with a title. And I think it should have a colon in it. (All things written post graduate school have a colon in the title.) I've already written the biggest part which is the proposal, so I feel like I'm in the home stretch. This is good because I have to mail it all off on Monday. Argghh!!!

So I cannot even begin to think about writing anything more in this blog. My friend Alan is coming over in a bit and we are going to eat pizza and watch a movie. I was going to fix dinner, but had to call him this afternoon and say I'm not even going to be able to make it to the grocery store much less cook. So pizza it is.

Then tomorrow night is the Emmy's. This is a minor gay high holy day. If we were comparing it to the Jewish high holy days. The Oscars are Rosh Hoshannah, the Tony's are Yom Kippur, the Golden Globes are Passover, and the Emmy's are Hannukah. (Fun and important as to telling a good story, but missing them won't lead to eternal exclusion from the book of life.) But I only get to go after I finish my grant application. It all comes back to that doesn't it.

Oh well. For now I'll enjoy my pizza.

Post #69

First of all, sorry I didn't post anything yesterday. I ended up going to sing with the San Francisco City Chorus last night. I may sing with them this fall. We'll see.
Now for the post. I had a dream last night that I remembered and so I'm sharing it.
I was with my friend Don. And as I remember it he was responsible for cleaning his apartment's pool. Then it seems like he was convinced that someone else could do it. So we went to see a musical instead. He told me it was a really dark musical or disturbing--I can't remember which word he used. But we both agreed that it was a musical so it couldn't be bad. Well anyway the musical was about a woman who had mice as pets. They were puppets on her hands. But the mice came to life and were singing. Then the act or the show ended with puppets back on her fingers. There was doll hanging by its head on a wall, placed like a clock would be placed on a wall. The spot light decreases in size and focuses in on the head of the doll. The doll comes to life and says to me, it is now talking directly to me, "watch out, right behind you." This naturally wakes me up and I glance behind me and the way the comforter is placed it looks like a mouse or a rat is right at my head. I screamed and shook the comforter. Now I'm pretty sure there was not a mouse or rat on my bed because I didn't here anything thump on the floor or scurrying away. But it was frightening. And here is the thing I didn't scream like a little girl but instead it was a more gutteral scream. Go figure.

There you have it! Discuss.

An animal with a box on his head.

On my way home a few things happened.

(1) I was reminded of a pet peave. It is when the light changes and someone is in the crosswalk and instead of speeding up to get across the street they continue to just meander across, holding up traffic. For those of you who are not living in San Francisco, our cross walks don't just have a blinking red hand to tell you that the light is going to change soon. There is an actual count down so there is really no excuse. And even if there was an excuse once the hand is red, you should scurry. (And for those of you who might think I'm talking about someone who is physically unable to scurry, no. This was, I'm guessing, a college student, that I must, drawing from my friend Ranger's idiom, refer to as punk-ass.

(2) I witnessed something a bit odd. It was an animal in the middle of the road with a box stuck on it's head. It was either a oppossum or some other varminty type creature. It did not appear to be a cat. And it had just stopped in the middle of the road right in front of a bus. Now here is the odd part in the last couple of months 4 people have been hit by a MUNI bus. But this bus stopped and would not continue on until the animal moved. Now I'm not advocating for the bus to run over this animal. (I am advocating that the bus should have run down the punk-ass kid who wouldn't move out of the crosswalk.) But seriously at some point the bus should have gone around the animal. And why is it that it would stop for an animal but not for a human?

That's all I've got for today. And for the love of God get out of the crosswalk.

Three different languages in one day.

I had a brand new cultural experience today. My friend Liz and her mom were in town. (Liz is a member of my young clergy group and her mom showed up after our retreat. They then spent the last week in Northern California.) So they came into the city on their way out of town tomorrow. They are from Texas and one of Liz's requests was that we go somewhere that they couldn't go in Cameron, Texas. (Very easy request.) So we went to get dim sum. We went to a dim sum restaurant I had never been to, Koi Palace. The dim sum restaurants I have been to are relatively quiet places. However, that was not the case with Koi Palace. It was very noisy. The wait staff were definitely all at least Chinese American if not just plain Chinese. So when they would come to the table to offer us a dumpling I could not understand anything that they were saying. They could have been speaking Chinese or there accent was still just so think that it sounded like Chinese. So they would just come to the table and I would take a look and then usually say no thank you. I often would ask them to repeat it as if somehow repetition would make it better. It did not. Finally, what I think was our waiter came and suggested some things for us on a little selection menu. But his english wasn't much better so it was still a little bit of a surprise of what came to the table. He also didn't take the menu with him so I wasn't sure he was even going to remember. And for all I know he didn't, he just had stuff delivered to our table. It was all delicious. By the end of our meal I was at least able to understand one woman say tofu. They definitely couldn't find that in Cameron, Texas.

As I'm writing this I realize I had a similar experience tonight. On my way to get a massage I stopped at a local French bistro, L'ptit Laurent. My friend Laine asked me to pick up a gift certificate for a friend of theirs. They greeted me with bonjour and spoke a lot of french even in response to my questions in English. I understood bonjour and wui. Then he walked off for a moment and one of the waitresses began speaking to me. I'm guessing she said "can I help you?" And I'm hoping that is what she asked because I said no thanks I'm already being helped. My conversational French class I took 2 years ago didn't help me much with the speed with which she was speaking. But I was able to say merci when I left.

While the language barriers made me a little uncomfortable, still seriously, I love this city.

Au voir
(I'm guessing I spelled very little correctly)

Why oh why do I keep getting back together with Scarlett Johansson?

Alright, so I saw what might be the worst movie ever today. And that is coming from someone who saw Transformers. I mean I don't just want my money back I want the 2 hours of my life back. The best part of the movie was the hamburger I had after it was over.
What is this travesty of cinema you ask? Well it is The Nany Diary. Now some of you may suggest that I had what was coming to me by even showing up to begin with and that is probably true. But I read the book and enjoyed it. Sure it wont go down as a classic of American literature. But it was a fun summer read when I read it. It was funny. So I thought this could be worth my time and money. Plus it had Laura Linney in it. I love Laura Linney. Well I was wrong. And I've thought it through and I really only have one place to lay blame. I mean the plot was weak and the humor was lacking. But no in the end that is not the achiles heel of this movie, instead the fault lands right on Scarlett Johansen. She is an awful actress. I mean AWFUL!!! I've never seen anything that she has been in that I have enjoyed. She may be Woody Allen's new go-to girl. But seriously, she sucks!!! Her characters are always so flat. And this was no exception. So why do I keep submitting myself to the ScarJo torture, the cinematic water boarding if you will. Well I can't fully explain it. But my friend MS made I think what is the best comparison. ScarJo is my ex-boyfriend. You all probably have one of these too. He was not a bad person. He was not abusive. He was kind and generous. I thought to myself this guy can't be that bad. And maybe he'll surprise me. Maybe this one really will be the one. But in the end I realized thsi guy is never going to meet my needs. In the end he just doesn't do it for me. So what I'm saying is that I'm willing to accept that ScarJo does it for someone but just not for me. Although, that is a bit of stretch. And in the end I think even someone who is into her in that way would still find this movie a huge waste of time.
There were these three guys who came in right before the movie began. Big ol' butch guys who I thought were probably in the wrong movie. They joked all through the previews. (Which I hated because I love the previews.) Then when the lion roard during the MGM introduction they roared along with it. Your basic frat boy. And I was pissed off that they were sitting right behind me. And they left about 5 minutes into the movie. So I was then pissed off that they made such a comotion getting out. Why did they have to ruin the movie for everyone. Well now after having seen the movie, I think they are my heroes. Still annoying but at least they had the good sense to leave before the movie was over.
So there you have it. I'm gonna go shower now and see I can wash the movie stink off me. I'm guessing it is going to take a couple.

IF you are going to get into a fight please pull your car over.

It is seven o'clock on Saturday nght and I have not written a single word for my sermon. Not one word! And so what am I doing I'm blogging. Because there is nothing like procrastinating. I just really am not sure what I'm going to say. I think I'm going to talk about letting go of one's attachments and to let go of a church's attachments. But here is the thing, I think I have about 1 minute of somethign to say about this, whereas what I need is at least 10 minutes. This is my first Sunday back preaching after the summer off and I didn't get going on sermon preperation until Wednesday. So right now I'm feeling like I'll never be able to do this. Now I know this isn't really true, but it feels true right now. Honestly don't know what I'm going to say.

I just got back from dinner with my friend Laine. As I was pulling down to the light that is a couple of blocks away from my house there was some altercation going on. A woman (I say woman but more likely teenager girl.) stopped her car in the middle of my lane and threw open her door and got out and headed into the other lane where I don't really know what was happening. It appeared that a car was trying to parallel park and she walked behind the car. Then the car stopped and he got out of the car and they started fighting. It was very odd. I'm assuming they knew one another. Finally we all just drove around them.

Oh well, alright, I have to try and get to work. If you are reading this at 7:30 PM Pacific Time please add a post that gives me some sermon writing help.

Help!!!!

Flying poo?!?

So about a year and half or so ago I gave up sodas and caffeine for the most part. I would drink a glass of sweet tea when I was at my grandmothers, but for the most part just water and the occasional adult beverage. I found even that when I would occasionally crave a soda after about two sips I just wasn't all that interested. Well this weekend I had at least one soda every day probably more than one a day. So since Tuesday I have been coming back down off the caffeine high I was on. What this means is that I a tired a lot. At first I just thought I hadn't gotten enough sleep this weekend. But when today rolled around and I still was having a hard time keeping my eyes open in the middle of the day I realized that it had to be something else. (Okay really I realized it last night when I was driving my friend Lee home, but that doesn't make as good a story now does it?) So anyway I'm hoping that the dts stop soon. I feel like the prisoner who was coming down off heroine last night on OZ, the HBO show I'm watching with my gays. Okay coming down off heroine is probably more difficult than coming down off sodas, but for me it is the same.
Speaking of Oz, I was remember last night the sixth grade. I don't know if any of you had this experience, but when I was in the sixth grade it was the height of the Reagan era which meant it was the height of the Nancy Reagan era. And what that means is "Just Say No." Nancy Reagan on Different Strokes telling us to just say no. Well in my county we had a police officer come to our school fairly regularly to tell us to just say no. Now I don't really remember much about his visits. I remember a case that I think had different drugs for us to look at. But what I most remember is the end of year visit to the county jail. Ever since I have been incredibly afraid of prisons. The boys toured the mens wing and the girls toured the women's wing. Before we went on the tour we were told stories of how we should stay very close to the wall because the prisoners might reach through the bars and grad us or even worst throw feces on us. Yes we were told that!!! Well anyway as we were touring the prison we came to this narrow hallway, wall on one side prison cells on the other. And someond had I'm guessing a razor plugged into a wall socket and the cord stretched across in to the cell. This mean that we had to step over the cord and it was pretty high up for our little sixth grade legs. I was terrified that I was going to be grabbed or even worse have poo thrown on me. How f#*@d up is that? Seriously I think that borders on child abuse. Although, I haven't done drugs or committed some other crime, so maybe it did work. But still come on. I mean come on!!!!
Well the only other thing i wanted to share today is a fruit I just discovered last night. Okay, well I didn't personally discover a new fruit. Although, that would be exciting. My friend Clark exposed me to a fruit I had never had before--the pluot. The pluot is a combination of a plum and an apricot. It was delicious. i bought some today. If you can find them in season where you are you must buy them. Also in season right now, black mission figs. Yummmmmy!!!
Until tomorrow just say no.

I'm back

This is my first blog since my vacation ended on Tuesday. I had to make a video blog and you'll hear why on the blog. I hope to get back tomorrow on the writing wagon.



Until tomorrow folks