It has been a rough week. It has been a rough month.

Tonight I am looking forward to a Mute Math concert with my wife.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to sleeping in and 3:10 to Yuma with the guys.

People may I have your attention please. It is "a lot" not "alot" or "allot".

Really. It's not that hard. Right Chris. I know you know.

There is a lack of attention getting paid to the Los Angeles Angels of Anahiem. Hello! They are tied for the best record in the Majors. So here is a shout out to my team.

GO ANGELS!!!

I guess when your team is made up of hard working players who get the job done instead of overpaid, egotistical, dirt bags (a la the Yankees) it is easy to ignore you. Just wait 'til October people.

Arrr, hello Gar, Where can I find a bottle o'rum?

It is officially Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Give me your best pirate line.

It's a Special Day

Guess Who's Birthday it is Today???!!! No, No Besides Prince Harry's.

And Dan Marino's.

Come on people don't you know.

Maybe we can get her to stand up.


*****
(Enticing Applause Inserted Here)

*****


Oh come on Don't be shy. Will the Birthday Girl PLEASE stand up. Where is she?

Come on Cheer her on. Let's make some noise.

*****
(Thunderous Clapping)

*****

I think it's working...

There she is! Wahoo! Yipee!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LADY!

Here's to another year.

I LOVE YOU KATHI!

Today I took a little tumble at work. We were loading a couple sea containers with some equipment heading to China and I was helping secure the equipment in the container. As I went to climb out my left foot caught a rubber grommit as my right was swinging over for the jump. I lost my balance and fell about four feet to the ground... in front of five other people. I landed on my left hip and elbow. Ow! I quickly stood up and said that I was okay. As I said it I was taking a mental inventory on the possible injuries. It came up blank. I was okay. So I laughed it off. Once I laughed the guys all laughed too. It must have been quite the sight.

Now two hours later I am sitting in my office chair a little sore.

Always on the look out for the creative check this out. Junky Car Club.

Mike Foster, a founding member of X3Church has put this together. I love it because the concept is simple. Now all we need is the Junky Car Club Mechanics to help keep the cost of repairs to the junkers down. Come on wrench-heads out there, one of you will step up.

Abortion Kills

I will admit up front that I have not had a passion for the issue of abortion. I don't know much about it and have never felt called to be an activist fighting against it. Well I came across an organization that is fighting the good fight against abortion. They are Abort73. Their website is fascinating, disturbing, informative and heart wrenching. I will do my part, although an eansy-weansy part, to spread the word and to pray.

Father, forgive us for not acting on behalf of the helpless. Forgive me for turning away and not paying attention to this slaughter. Forgive them as they know not what they do.

I walked through two huge spider webs this morning while walking to my car. Gross. My neighbors were all probably watching me dance around trying to pull off the invisible intruders. What a sight I must have been.

My wife just brought me a Dutch Bros. latte at work

MMMM... it's the little things that matter.

Love you lady.

Our trip is coming to a close. Today we are in Rockford, IL and enjoyed a fun water park with the kids. Tomorrow we are off to Chicago. We'll visit Willow Creek for worship and then kill some time before our flight at 7:30.

Last night we had a nice dinner with some good friends of my in-laws. The dinner was interrupted by a phone call from my sister letting me know that my mom was in a bicycle accident and broke her hip. She is doing okay. She had surgery today and the reports are good. It is hard to be so far away and feeling a little useless. My sister hung with my dad during the surgery (thanks Mo) which helped my comfort my dad. My mom will get out of the hospital in a few days. Any and all prayers for her are appreciated.

Work starts back up Monday even though I feel like I'll need another week to recuperate from the trip we've had.

Here are some fun photos from the trip so far. The pictures from St. Louis were taken during a visit to my sisters house in Belleville, Il. Thanks Jen, Natalie and Nathaniel for a fun visit. We miss you guys already. And Jen, we will be practicing our Catan. Watch out next time.

The Gateway to the West.

Sweet hats courtesy of Natalie (my niece)

The kiddos at the Arch.

Me and my protege.

The kids at Grampa's playhouse.

At the St. Louis zoo.

Signs

We are still in Illinoise and enjoying our time. More later.

For now I am posting a couple of the very creative church signs we have seen on our travels.

Inspirational aren't they?

Vacaciones!

We are off. I am off... for a week. YES!!!

Heading to the flatlands of Illinois. If it wasn't for my in-laws and sisters family we'd never go there. Never. This to say I look forward to seeing family but I don't look forward to the state they live in. Flat. Hot. Humid. Flat. Sticky. Did I mention it is flat. We are spoiled in Oregon. If you ever get tired of living here just go to Illinois for a week and then you appreciate what we have here. God's country.

This is my first time going to the Land of Lincoln when it isn't the middle of winter. I am hoping to see some firefly's. I've never seen one.

I've got my relax on, my books packed, and it's time to go. Later friends.

Worth every 8:23's of your time to watch this. It has to be one of the coolest videos I've seen.

The press will need to make a big deal out of this because the only people that saw it happened were the 42 people at the game.

Simpsonized

So according to this website this is what I would look like as a Simpson character. Here I am walking on the waterfront in Portland. Nice!

Simpson Brian Downtown Portland

Best Movie of the Summer

Remember when Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear played conjoined twins? Me too. However, Bourne Ultimatum will help cleanse your Matt Damon palette of that horrible memory.
This summer has been filled with disappointments and surprises in the movie world. Transformers was way better than I thought it would be. Spiderman III was good but not as good as I'd hoped. Harry Potter... disappointed. Pirates III and Ocean's III I haven't seen.

The Bourne Ultimatum tops them all in my book as the best movie of the summer. The movie was full of action, the story line was good, and they finished off the trilogy well. One of the things that bugged me, which bugged me in other movies this summer, was that some of the action scenes used fast camera work instead of well choreographed fight scenes. This way of filming feels cheap. It seems like an easy way out for the filmmaker; they get in the action without really working for it. But I say that with forgiveness for all the other scenes that rocked. I give it two thumbs up, five stars, four boxes of popcorn or whatever rating system works for you. I just ask Matt to stick with movie genres that work for you. Stay away from the silly comedy buddy movies.

Not much makes me feel old. Today while I was getting my haircut, one question did... the stylist asked me if I wanted my eyebrows trimmed.

I don't like it when I get my hopes too high.

I hope it is God whispering, but I've been there before and had my hopes diminished.

Hello? Is that you God?

My hopes are rising. Please may it be your Spirit guiding.

At 2 o'clock today the song 2:00 Your Time by Ace Troubleshooter played on my iPod.

Weird coincidence or is my iPod playing with me?