Don't think I've mentioned this yet, but Kandy's hubby (and Karlene's bro-in-law) Kip has his own blog as well. Check out the Hooded Lantern...new and improved with four scoops of raisins!

You know what they say about the family that blogs together?

On a side note, my afro/bouffant is currently measured at 1 1/2 inches deep.

*slowly rubbing hands together* Excellent...everything is going according to plan.

I recently recieved a search hit by someone looking for "dodger blog(s)".

After thinking about starting one for some time and then deciding not to, I feel I should take the time to explain:

I am a Dodger fan, born with blue flowing through my veins and nourished by the divine ambrosia known as the Dodger dog (foot-long grilled hot dogs, guaranteed to make all trendy grilled tuna taco salad-eating mallpark attendee green with envy). I touched the heavens as Kirk Gibson's homer landed in the right field bleachers in '88 and I have drank the bile of the 100 loss season of '96. I have searched out every square inch of Dodger Stadium and know shortcuts as well as the quickest routes out of the parking lot. Though I was just a gleam in my daddy's eye when the Dodgers were in Brooklyn, I have extensive lineup charts and records memorized from that golden era.

Yet there is no way in dark, dark Hades that this is a Dodger blog, nor will I ever do a Dodger blog.

The reason is simple: I just don't have the emotional and mental capacity nor sanctification that is necessary to pursue such an endeavor. Yes I am a Dodger fan, but first, I am a Christian. God commands me to live by a code of ethical standards laid out in the Bible. I am to be holy in word and in deed (Col. 3:17) and whatever I do, I am to do to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31).

You see, these ethical standards will most certainly be violated everytime Jim Tracy decides to put on a STEAL ATTEMPT EVERY @!#$%&#* TIME THAT WE GET A DYING QUAIL FROM CESAR "BATS? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' BATS" IZTURIS, BECAUSE DOESN'T HE KNOW THAT THE @$%&*@ STOLEN BASE IS ONLY EFFECTIVE IF THE @#$*&%$ PLAYER ACTUALLY KNOWS WHICH $#@^**&$#@ BASE TO RUN TO?

Ahem...*smoothes hair down*...so you see my dilemma.

I just don't have enough blood pressure medication in the house nor do I posess a surplus of monitors to replace those that I will possibly throw out the window as I break down the daily dose of incompetence that is the Dodgers' season so far. You who think I'm a pompous, self-righteous, know-it-all, gas-blowing windbag when it comes to my posts on the War with Iraq, will think I'm reciting Mary had a Little Lamb in comparison to the sheer vitriol I will spew when going over the minutia of the latest 3-1 loss to some Single-A pitcher that was recently called up by the Marlins.

My new motto: the less bile spilled, the better. Hopefully, I'll stay true to it. Being a libertarian and a Dodger fan, I doubt I will.

If you remember, please pray for Nehemiah Christian Academy. This is the school that three friends and I started about three years ago. Being a small, relatively new school we have been struggling financially for a while, yet because of a recent unexpected dropout of a student, we've reached somewhat of a crisis point. We're really not sure how much longer this ride can last and this is of no little concern to me because of one particular student there that bears my surname.

We have tried everything from fundraising dinners to donor letters and still we spin our wheels. The writing has been on the walls for some time: without sufficient enrollment, this school will simply not last. The guys and I have been beating ourselves silly trying to think of what we could do. We tried radio ads, calling and leaving school flyers at preschools. The one thing that seems to work is, of course, the historic proven method: word of mouth. Problem is, no one's talking.

The thing that makes it so disheartening is the fact that we thought we had something important to offer families that no one else was doing at the time in our area of So. Cal. A true Christ-centered education that didn't limit Christianity to a class at the end of the school day, but was holistically embedded in all of the curriculum. You can't throw a copy of Homer's Illiad in the southern states without hitting at least one classical, Christian school, not so in California. We were certain that if we carefully planned everything and promoted it well, people would come in by the groves.

Those sounds you just heard were the illusions shattering.

The other thing that makes it so difficult is that we have a great group of people involved, we relate to one another more like a familiy rather than in the normal roles of board members, teachers, students and parents. Everyone involved has given so much and sacrificed so mightily. Our headmaster (one of the most devoted men of God I've had the pleasure of knowing) picked up his wife & three kids and moved from Indiana to California to put his shoulder to the plow with us. We as a school have withstood storms that under normal circumstances would've broken us, being such a young school, yet for the unity of the board members and the devotion of the parents we kept afloat, becoming even stronger in purpose (1 Pet. 1:6-7).

Recently, a glimmer of light broke through the clouds in the guise of the Torrey Honors Institute, a Christian, liberal arts college. A teacher there attended one of our Open House nights in the interests of seeing what we were all about. Apparently, he was impressed enough to take our concerns to the faculty and see how Torrey and its influence could help the cause. A few days ago he wrote to us saying that he did address the faculty about us and that they wish to meet. Please pray that as we meet and discuss these issues with Torrey, that God will cause hearts there to share in our desire and help our school. Pray that we may see our student body grow in holiness, knowledge as well as number.

Man these things are uncannily accurate.

So which LOTR Villain are you? Hmm??
made by Michelle at EmptySpace.

But of course...


Hobbit


To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

from Davey

I think it was the all the answers regarding drinking, homebrewing, taverns and parties that brought me to the hallowed hole. That and the big, hairy feet.

"If any man thinks himself to be religious and does not bridle his tongue, he deceives himself and this man's religion is vain" (James 1:26).

I have decided that my new voyage in self-enrichment will be to memorize each and every guitar chord in my chordbook. Not sure if it will teach me to "play" the guitar, but it should give me some solid moorings from which to start moving from basics to techniques.

So what better way to celebrate this fresh endeavor than by purchasing some new guitar strings and re-stringing my guitar?

"Dude, you strung it the wrong way" the Took said as he tuned my guitar.

"What"?

"Look here, you should have twisted the strings around the tuning posts three or four times".

"Oh, ummm...well it's been a while".

"Oh looks like you also wound the strings the wrong way, but that's no big deal".

"Hmmm".

That's right! Watch out Stevie Ray Vaughn, here I come.

Sometimes answers to prayer aren't really answers, but new questions.

It's the way that God gets me to rely on His wisdom every second of every day. To keep me asking, seeking and knocking.