Sadly, we didn't get to hear this sermon.

on March 18, 2013
"Gary asked me to preach this Sunday since he is currently sick. I sent him an email saying 'Two times ago you asked me to preach it was Veteran's Day. That was easy. Last time you asked me to preach it was Thanksgiving. So I checked the holidays. Today is national blueberry popover day. That is hard."
- Andy Pope

Always nice to see Clark Gregg again.

on March 10, 2013
Just in case some of you haven't seen it yet and are interested.... 

Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing Trailer

Random Collected Videos

on March 6, 2013
Not wanting to spend lots of time blogging tonight, but wanted to share a few videos.... 

So I heard this old song for the first time a few weeks ago and fell in love with it.  It's such a sweet, sweet love song. I know it's bluegrass and some people aren't crazy for that, but I think it's absolutely beautiful.


 "I Heard the Bluebirds Sing," by the Browns



This video is ADORABLE. (Thanks, Will!)


So freaking cute.


Speaking of thanks to Will, he's on a roll as he also shared this amazing find tonight....



The 1967 televised Tony's. The first televised Tony Awards.

I haven't watched it yet, I want to be able to sit down and devote time to it. But look at those names. Gower Champion. Zero Mostel. Carol Burnett. David Merrick.

This is AWESOME.

Vintage Stock Conversations

on March 5, 2013
This past Saturday Brad, Regina & I went up to Vintage Stock. They were looking for games and I was along for the ride. And when we entered the store Brad pointed out a top-loader Nintendo with SMB3 loaded up to play. Well, that made me content so I went to play while they mused over the games.

And after playing for about fifteen minutes I suddenly hear this voice behind me:
"Whoa....whoa.... that is... that is.... that is the ORIGINAL... the ORIGINAL MARIO BROTHERS. On the ORIGINAL SUPER NINTENDO."

I grinned. There was a boy, probably 11-13 behind me watching.

"No," I corrected, "this is on the Nintendo. This is before the Super."

"Wow. Wow."

His friend walked up and the first boy immediately pointed it out.
"Dude, LOOK. That is the ORIGINAL MARIO BROTHERS. On the NINTENDO. That's...that's.... that's so cool!"
(No. I didn't bother to correct the Original Mario Brothers issue. He was too overwhelmed with everything else. :) )
"Wow....that's the original? That's still so cool though!"
"I KNOW. Cause....cause...cause....it's the CLASSIC. This is the CLASSIC."


It was obvious that he had either actually never seen one before or at least never seen a working one before. 

I asked if he wanted to play. Immediately, "No! No." and he just stood there watching.
I asked his friend if he wanted to play. "Sure... I'll try." and as I grabbed the controller he stared at the World 2 Screen. "Where do I go?"
"Oh! Just push down to go to the level."
(After a few minutes of level play.)
"....this is SO different from Galaxy!"

No matter how many italics or caps I use, it will not quite capture his excitement and how enamored he was with the ORIGINAL. It was awesome. I loved every minute of it.

I dreamed last night, I got on a boat to heaven....

on February 11, 2013
Not....exactly.

So last night I had a dream that several of us were in a Mrs. Byland production (and I would add "in college" here, but I'm not entirely sure we were) and it was a children's version of Urinetown. (Not the place, of course, the musical.) But it was very shoddily put together and we were all in a regular clothes because our costumes weren't there for some reason. And we were in full performance mode with an audience. But even though it was Urinetown, in the middle of it there was "Friend Like Me" from Aladdin and a giant Genie puppet that looked awesome, especially in the midst of the fact that we had no scenery or costumes or anything.

And then in the middle of that song Andrea (yes, from OBU) slid onto the stage on her knees with her arms extended in victory because a prop had arrived just in the nick of time. It was a bracelet. I don't know why that was so important.

But then later the UPS guy that had brought it showed up in the balcony and announced "Hey! I'm the guy who got it here just in time. Also, I'm going to be 33 this week." And I clapped for his birthday, but I was the only one and so he left.

And then we had no idea how the show was supposed to end. We hadn't rehearsed it and I guess we hadn't even read the script? So suddenly - in a desperate attempt to figure out how to end the show - someone grabbed me by the wrist and said "Hey Joker, what do you think now?" or something and suddenly I'm supposed to be the Joker. And in the dream I know I have to at least carry out a little bit of time as the Joker or it would just be weird. So I'm running around pretending to be the Joker and after several minutes someone whispers with a sincere grin "Do you like it?" as in "Do you like the way this is wrapping up?" And I yell (as Joker) yell "Do I like it?! DO I LIKE IT?!"

And then the guy who was suddenly "Batman" (again, sans costumes since we have none) suddenly acted like he was putting a needle/shot in my face and I went to the ground screaming in acted agony. And since I was wanting to put us all out of our misery Joker died from it.

And in the dream I remember even thinking "This is just as weird as poison boot." 

And then I had to take some kid I didn't know home. Since it was a children's production and all.

--------

A few nights ago now I dreamed that Holly, Sam, Brad, Regina, Eric & I were all in a car.

And we drove up to this house.

Where, for some reason, our relatives & friends already were. But somehow we had relatives that looked like Godzilla-style monsters and some others which I thought - even in the dream - Wow, these guys look like they're from Ahhh! Real Monsters.

And then there was this Oogie Boogie look alike from Nightmare Before Christmas and he ate some of our relatives.

The monster creature feature looking ones, that is.

And that was okay, apparently, because all of us stayed and hung out.

But before we left we - I guess - suddenly realized we had to free our relatives.

So I started stashing scissors in my back pockets trying to hide them so I could use them as weapons. And somehow Will showed up and all of us were hacking at Oogie Boogie. And we could see the monsters. But Oogie told us that we'd never free them because he was.... too emotional?

And then in the midst of the hacking, I noticed King Ghirdoriah was in there because I saw his three heads. 

And when I woke up I was racing around chasing children and throwing them into the car for safety.
And I ran past someone who was sitting on a stump with an axe.

The end.


Humor me. :)

on January 31, 2013
I know I share these on here now and again, but really, most of you have never got to see many pictures of my parents. And since her birthday is now, technically speaking, today I just wanted to share a few. :)

This one is actually, in a strange way, one of my favorites. She's just washing her hair, but I think it shows how silly she liked to be and how laid back she was. She didn't really care if she was picture perfect. Look at that smile.
For Halloween one year. Okay, so I'm not sure how crazy she would be about me posting this one, despite her silliness, but I think its beautiful. :) Oh well. She'd still just laugh. I love it.
Another favorite.

And yes, that's me.