Archive for May, 2006
Flying Home
I don’t mind air travel too much – it’s convenient – but the down side is the lack of photo opportunities. Can’t just pull off and snap a couple of pictures.
Yet, due to Frontier Airlines onloading system, I got a couple in. You actually walk on the tarmac.
This one is in San Jose – the Egret. The artwork on the wings are pretty impressive. 
Storm coming in on Denver International Airport.
Back home. Great to see kids and give and get gifts. Awoke this morning to Camber jumping on bed and giving big hug. “I missed you, Daddy” in her Deep South, hick accent. I love her anyway!! ha ha.
Random Funny Thoughts in San Jose
As Rowland and I drove across the country, we saw thousands of rabbits. Some the size of coyotes. They are everywhere in the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico and Nevada.
Could this be the solution? It probaly tastes like chicken, right? The biggest problem is transporting the rabbits to where there is hunger and the whole issue of preparation – roasted, fried, grilled, steamed?
Another thing – I’m in this coffee shop and there are about 5 women talking about Cub Scouts, Den Daddy’s, irresponsible children, and the merits of grocery stores in town. All stimulating conversations to be sure, but one of the women has this glass-shattering laugh that I’m not sure how much longer my glasses can take.
It’s painful. Besides that, the stuff she finds funny no one else does. Does she notice that? Does she realize that when she laughs, no one else is laughing?
They are now leaving but can’t get the door open. They are 5 of them standing and looking at the door trying to PULL it open all the while there is a PUSH sign on it. They do this for about 30 seconds. I’m debating on whether I should just say PUSH, keep quiet, or get up and actually open the door. All are risky moves.
If I say PUSH – it could be interpreted as I’m a sarcastic male that thinks females are inferior. Which is only partially true. I only think that about these particular females.
If I stay seated, I’m a apathetic self-centered male. Which is actually very true.
If I get up and just open the door, I’m a demeaning male who thinks that women can’t do anything for themselves. Again – partially true. I only think that about these women.
And after the last 2 hours of their conversation invading my brain, I have pretty good evidence to support that.
This pretty much says it all…
Great article/read from marko about 30 to 40 year-olds who act/dress/think like 20 year olds.
The Last Day
We drove to Muir National Park and the Wharf area of San Francisco.
There is something mystical and deep about standing next to a redwood. They are huge, their bark is over 12 inches thick, they stand over 200 feet tall. They can get to 22 feet in diameter. Most live to over 2,000 years old. Know how big the seed is that starts this beast out? The size of a sunflower kernel. Amazing, huh?
So in order to do that – we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and saw the north end of the bay in low tide.
After the woods, to the Wharf. Clam chowder to die for and if you need crabs, this is the place to go. (Go ahead Wayne and John….make your comments.)
MY MECCA….Mythbusters Headquarters. No Jamie sightings but that Mercedes is the one they did the vegetable oil test on. Anyone remember that?
Later last night we ended the evening with a meal at Buca di Bepa. Oh my. What a place. Then saw X-men. Good thing I got pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alacatraz earlier in the day.
And yes I stayed to the end. Interesting.
Santa Cruz
I thought San Fran was gorgeous. It’s a dump compared to Santa Cruz. High cliffs, the ocean, Boardwalk, more garlic fries, seafood, college town (home of the Banana Slugs) and a beach.
We took off after church and drove down – 33 miles from Rowland’s house.
Here are some of my favorite pics. For more, click on one and see the rest!
I had to get wet, Rowland chose to be a pansy. Water was very cold. No matter….still gorgeous.
I gotta talk about this ride. You go up and down on a pendulum, ridiculous fast WHILE you are spinning like a top. They ought to have vomit zones on this ride!
Tomorrow – Muir National Forest and hopefully Alcatraz…tickets are hard to get.
[tags]Santa Cruz[/tags]
Grant welcomed at AT&T Park
The people here are so nice. Check this out as we walked in the game!
Okay…photoshop helped a little.
San Francisco
The day didn’t go liked planned but that’s okay. We’re going to try to do Alcatraz and Muir National Park on Monday.
Here’s what we did do….
Drive to downtown San Fran. Holy Cow…..you could really get turned around – Chinatown, Japantown, Mission District, Wharf Area….crazy. This is City Hall where all the gays got married for about a month. We were talking – if you got married on that day, then a month later it’s outlawed….are you still married? Can you even get a divorce? If you get a divorce, who gets the dog and the plants? Crazy questions we are asking…
Along the Presido Park area – which if you have kids, just park somewhere down here and spend the day. AWESOME PARK with view of Golden Gate. Along the way in Fisherman’s Wharf, you’r going to see these statues. They are real people waiting for someone to tip them then they’ll move or make a sound or dance or whatever. It’s fun for about 2 minutes.
Right in between Pier 41 and 39 there are these seals. Hundreds of them. And they own that spot. They are loud and cute. Kinda like Harry Anderson.
This would be the 2nd Modern Wonder of the World we’ve seen on this trip. The first one was the Hoover Dam. This is awesome and beautiful.
Picked up a Giants game. This might be the most beautiful park in the Major Leagues. It also has the most names of any ballpark. We had 3 maps, each had a different name. AT&T Park/SBC Park/Pacific Bell Park. Need any more reasons why corporate sponsorships of stadiums are a bad idea?
Now the park is awesome. You’ve got a Little League Hitting Area where you can watch yourself go yard on Jumbo Tron. They have a “Build-A-Bear” inside the park. You can build your own Lou Seal, the Giant mascot. The Coke Bottle Slide is fun too. Although I’m basing that on 2nd hand reports as the Giant staff informed me that the toys were for the kids.
Our seats were awesome – 23 rows up from home plate. Barry’s first at bat, second pitch. (By the way, minor baseball rabbit trail. He’s is really an easy out right now. He’s swinging on the first and second pitch every time. Really pressing, really fidgety in the box. Which is fine with me….let ‘em be stuck at 714. But he’s too good of a hitter to stay there…steriods or not.) He yanked this ball to the Harbor…but foul.
Towards the 7th inning, I look up and see this add for a pizza parlor. I started laughing hard and the 5th grader sitting next to me who I’d been talking to all game asks me – what’s so funny?
I said, oh nothing. What a game, huh?
Food at the park….I’m still recovering and will have to go through detox when I get home. Garlic fries….brats….and a beer. All awesome.
Today – Santa Cruz and the Coast…..
Clearing Up The Code Language
Seems that the Buck post is generating a little heat!! hahaha…
Allow me to clear up the code language….
What Grace has been wrestling with is by and large what most churches are wrestling with right now in the Western culture. In leadership, do you want one guy who has ‘trump card’ final authority. We can call it Senior Pastor, Directional Leader, Grand Pooh-bah of All Things Holy – it really doesn’t matter. The bottom line is – do you want one guy/gal who has the last word (and the word after that) on all issues.
OR do you want a team approach, a pluralistic approach to decisions and ministries. That’s the argument/wrestling match.
Minor note – I know a lot of Senior Pastors who have the title but refuse to function as the trump slammer. They think team is the deal and they keep the hammer in the back pocket and choose to not use it. So the ‘title’ of the position or polity has very little to do with this discussion. It’s the function of the entity that is important.
Like Deacons in a SBC church…we called ‘em deacons but they were elders. Slam us for bad vocab, not function.
That was the context I was speaking of. When we establish and lead ministries, we are going to lean to one of those ways. I lean toward the team way…because I think it’s biblical and I’m always right. hahahahahahah.
Now – comment away.
Qualities of a great potential leader
I’ve been listening to this discussion without much comment. Before I dive back in the middle of it, I want to brag on 3 of guys that are commenting.
None of them are theorists, they are all practioners. Which is odd – because you’ve got 2 engineers and a psychologist. That’s just a recipe for OCD gone wrong. “Let’s figure out every possible angle then re-do the whole thing then maybe let’s draw a plan.”
Not Steve, Wayne, and ME. Over the last couple of years God’s just taken them on a wacky journey. Spiritual, mystical moments in the mountains, starting prayer groups at work, inviting foreigners to live in their house, discipling teenagers to enjoy and experience more of Jesus while they themselves do the same. Homeless, poor, outsiders, and pagans have all benefited from the ‘practice’ of these men.
Now believe it or not – all that relates to this dialogue – would you rather have a willing but ungifted/unskilled person OR a gifted/skilled but unwilling person leading?
Here’s the truth about all OF US who’ve done student ministry at Grace….we’ve refused (rejected) having to make that kind of decision when it comes to leadership. We are all a bunch of hypocrites!!! ha ha. Remember this word – RAFT? Yeah, dig in the archives for that one – but it is how we identify leaders and potential leaders. It is also how we celebrate leaders.
Responsive to Christ
Available for ministry
Faithful to the call
Teachable spirit
That’s it. That is what we look for. If one is missing, we’ll risk unless that one is teachability. We demand vulnerability by bluntly but lovingly pointing out holes and work areas as well as celebration places. We always practically ignored skill.
We assumed (and I would say, rightly assumed) that skills can be tought but if we don’t have these characteristics as a baseline, we are toast. We can’t move them from where they are.
So, I fall back to these 4 markers and I think they are good. But where exactly does that take us in our conversation?
[tags] church leadership, teachability [/tags]
Day 4, AM
A couple of observations about California. I know why people love to live out here in spite of the ridiculous housing market. The weather is obviously gorgeous. The time zone is incredible. This morning, I rolled over at 6.45 am and it was wonderful. A youth guy getting up that early? And liking it?? I know…miracles.
Here’s the other thing…everyone here is nice. You’ve got all these nationalities, all these religious and cultural differences and they smile alot. Everyone has been super nice and friendly…and real.
Of course, we go to San Francisco this afternoon and all of that can change. The joke around here is that all the crap and bad people are in Oakland. Which makes sense – the Raiders, the A’s, Al Davis – it’s all adding up.
This morning, we started in the hot tub. Amy – Happy Anniversary. This will be your 15th year present because you deserve it. I love you that much.
And a morning rose from the rain….more pics tomorrow.
Road Trip, Day 3…the home stretch to San Jose
Remember this conversation? Yeah, well, we roll into Bishop, California around 10 PM. It’s a small town of 15,000 but we are noticing tons of trucks and lots of no vacancy signs.
What the heck? It’s Mule Days. Some annual rite of passage that swells Bishop to the size of 25,000. That’s pretty ridiculous…especially if you don’t have reservations….which we didn’t.
So we stroll up to the Holiday Inn Express whose no vacancy sign is off. And for a mere $135…we get a room. She discounted it for us from $255. I was so stunned that even my quit sarcastic humor couldn’t kick in.
However, our view in the morning was worth it….I think….
This bakery is the best in the world…homemade bread smells pours into the street and you can smell it for blocks.
Next up – Yosemite National Park. We get to the entrance – slight problem. Highway 120 that will take us through the park and on to San Jose is closed due to snow. It’s 54 where we are and we’re wearing shorts…no worries, up to highway 108. Here are some of the pics.
Coming down the pass, Rowland smokes out his brakes. Literally…you know, those other gears are there for a reason. But we massage our way down the pass and see this – our next purchase.
And as we roll into San Jose – we see more of these….I think of Wayne for a split second then realize he’s behind a desk. Back to my happy life.
We make a pit stop into Arlen Ness’ shop. A custom motorcyle shop, he makes the Victory. What a cool place.
This is Rowland’s new church – their chapel. How awesome is that?
And his new office….check out the painting.
And the biggest pine cone I’ve ever seen from a redwood. If you like the pics, there are more at flickr, just click on any of the pics and you will magically be taken away there.
Tomorrow – Pac Bell stadium, Golden Gate Bridge, San Fran, perhaps Alcatraz…..
Ghosts and Area 51
So we eat dinner in Las Vegas and a guy comes up to Rowland and says “Hey – he looks like Taylor!”
To which Rowland says – “No, he looks like me.”
Quite funny. It’s questionable if the guy was sober enough to catch the humor.
Next begins the most bizarre part of the trip. We are leaving Las Vegas at rush hour. Good thing I’m driving. That way Rowland can explain in detail how to download a printer driver and install it to Carson, his son. He has a report due and needs to print it. So after 45 minutes, we’ve got a printer driver downloaded AND we are finally out of Las Vegas heading out to a military training site called Indian Springs on the map.
It’s really Area 51. For being a top secret military base – it’s got a lot of fans. At least that is what I think. In the meantime the Smith Report Crisis has escalated. Kitty takes the document to our house to print it. But we don’t have the same program they have and they are calling us on our cell phones asking for help from us.
During one of these exchanges I look at Rowland and comment – do you find any irony in the fact that our wives are in the city, with Kinkos, computers and wireless internet and they are calling us in the middle of the desert for help?
At that exact moment, Amy calls for a question and I answer her but I’m not really paying attention because I see this bird coming straight towards the truck. This is what happened next.
DIRECT HIT!! I yell in the phone. THAT WAS FREAKIN’ AWESOME!!! Amy, however does not grasp the importance of such moment and hangs up on me. Her loss.
So next we drive to Rhyolite, Nevada. It’s a ghost town with an open air art museum next to it. (Don’t ask, I have no idea….) There were 6,000 people in this town around 1906. This is what it looks like today.
And the art museum….
We called this one “Cinderblock Playmate.”
And right next to it – The Last Supper…
As we were leaving the Ghost Town, Rowland snapped this photo. It turned out awesome.
More later…
[tags]Ghost Towns, Rhyolite [/tags]
Road Trip, Day 2
Albuquerque, 6.28 AM – I’m up. Mountain Time Zone is awesome. Why the heck did they have to name the city this? It’s freakin’ hard to spell. Here was the view as we left town around 7.04 AM. (We’re men. We don’t need an hour to get pretty.)
Minor, insignificant conversation the night before with Rowland.
“Hey Grant, think we need to get a reservation somewhere near Yosemite for tomorrow night?”
“Nah. It’s Thursday and worse case scenario, we’ll find a local place around Big Pine or Bishop.” We’ll come back to this.
After endless hours of mesas and sagebrush, we hit Flagstaff. Honestly – it was a letdown. It’s a small town but we got good food at the base of the mountain. Del Taco.
Ran into some traffic due to this fiasco. Rolled his RV. That’s just gonna ruin your day, you know.
Next up was my second favorite thing we did today – Hoover Dam. “Welcome to the Dam Tour.” The pictures don’t do it justice. It just makes you feel small. At one point, we were in two states and two time zones at the same time. Counseling is helping.
Las Vegas and the Strip. I really don’t know how to describe it – Branson on Crack comes to mind. It’s a nicer New Orleans…and I’m not sure that’s a compliment. We saw a couple getting married at the chapel. No Elvis sightings.
Coming Next: Area 51 and Ghost Town
[tags]Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Albuquerque, Del Taco[/tags]
Road Trip, Day 1
We left Little Rock at 8.30….here are some pics…tomorrow is the big day – Vegas, Hoover Dam, a Ghost Town, Death Valley.
Today…Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico….whooo-hoooo.
Try to stay awake reading this post.
Windmills in Oklahoma. Just like MI-3 but without the helicopters and gunfire and excitement. They are huge. Who changes the little red light on top when it goes out?
Next up, Texas and the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere. It’s huge. You can see it for miles. In fact, Rowland and I are still in Oklahoma when we took this picture.
New Mexico is gorgeous once you get to the middle…in order to get to the middle, you have to drive through this…
And the Silver Moon Cafe, one of the oldest diner on Route 66. Authentic Mexican food. Food was okay. Price was way to high. Service was horrible. Santa Rosa’s Worst Place To Eat.
Those of us who are blessed/cursed with the gift of sarcasm, ever notice when you get tired AND you’re on the road AND you get rude service how quick your sarcasm gift is? It’s like you are in the zone, hitting on all cylinders.
Happened today at a Dairy Queen. A very large woman was behind the counter and I asked if it was possible to get a peanut buster blizzard. She curtly said “Anything is possible.”
I did NOT say out loud what I was thinking. I did tell Rowland and we about rolled the truck he was laughing so hard. Had something to do with buffets and self-discipline….Father, forgive me.
[tags] road trip, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Route 66, Texas, Dairy Queen[/tags]
The buck, part 2
Wayne asked this…
How many un-gifted, un-called, and un-qualified folks are in positions they shouldn’t be in but have gotten there? And to what degree (if any) does this worsen the condition?
Is there a way to truly redeem this worldwide? Or is the Body not really the Body? Are we too fragmented?
Let’s try to be fair here. We’ve got these qualifications in Timothy and Titus that I won’t bore you with all the details here. Most churches get this, understand it, and buy into it. So I don’t think there are an abundance of situations where the leadership is unqualified. Everyone ought to qualify.
Here’s the part that is almost always forgotten – giftedness. The Spirit gave gifts to be used for the edification of the Body. Guess what a couple of those gifts were? Any coincidence with the offices in a church? Teaching, shepherding, and leadership all seem to be integral to the elder/church leadership office. Most churches don’t even stop to ask this question. The thinking is if they are qualified, they are called. That, IMHO, is the kind of thinking that hamstrings a leadership team.
The last piece is calling. That mystical, God-touch. Does the person have it? Do others recognize it? Are they already incarnating the values and mission of the church? Have they been faithful serving in other areas? Are they reproducing leaders, making disciples?
If all three don’t line up – they are great people, great servants, great volunteers. But they shouldn’t be responsible for “leading” the church.
So the long answer to the first part is – I think the breakdown in most churches (and ministry teams) is two out of the three are out of whack.
Does this worsen the condition? Arguable. Some would say yes, an organization/organism will only rise to the level of its leadership. Therefore if you have a foot functioning as an eye (to steal a phrase from Paul), the rest of the body is going to be out of whack. Others would say that Jesus can work in spite of that and overcome that. To which I say…”Dogpile.” He “CAN” but He often “DOESN’T”. I’m guessing it’s the whole pearls before swine thing.
Is it redeemable? I think so but that’s where that whole community/repentance thing comes in. Will we choose to value community to the extent it changes how we make decisions and lead?
I’ll land the plane here but I’m open for more conversation if you think I’ve missed something.
Why I Am Up
Look very carefully at that picture.
It’s 1 AM.
Amy and I just got done spending the last hour cleaning up because of that thing.
Look back at the picture. She’s tiny. She might weigh 30 pounds soaking wet in clothes. Never underestimate the cargo hold of 3 year-old.
She walks into the bedroom, says something that neither one of understands. It’s around midnight. She starts running out of the room and right there in front of the television and door – it flys out. SPLAT. And it keeps coming.
Kirby Vaccuums are wonderful things. They’ve got this foam, carpet thing that takes 35 minutes to figure out how to use, then 3 minutes to actually use it.
Never boring.
Derek/Noel Invitational
I shot lights out today. I was Tiger-Tiger-Tiger Woods, ya’ll. Here are the rules – in case you want to play at home…
We divided into two teams – me and Aaron against Derek, Noel, and Garret. The first 9 we played best individual score on the hole. The back 9 we did best ball. For every hole we did Bingo, Bango, Bongo. Which is one point for longest drive, one point for first on the green, one point for closest to the pin, and one point for longest putt (no points for short, gimme putts).
Lost yet? It’s fun. What was more fun was how I played. I shot a 46 on my own on the front 9 – good enough to beat the ‘bad guys’ by 5 strokes. On the back – Aaron and I shot 41, tied the back 9 with Noel, Derek, and Garrett BUT won Bingo, Bango, Bongo by one point.
It was hoot – especially when Noel hit the screen on this pipe thing and the ball came bounding back to us. Other incredible shots – Derek about drove a green on a par 4 by cutting the corner through the trees. Then he missed his birdie AND par putt. We were laughing hard.
I bladed one ball and it 90 degrees from where I was standing. Fortunately, Noel has the reflexes of a cat and the speed of a mongoose. Otherwise, he’d be dead.
Val(erie)’s Suprise
So Val(erie) drives up to Little Rock and she just shows up on her best friend’s door step without calling her!! That’s Carrie Platner and they had a blast!
I thought this is a cool way to surprise a friend….or even a enemy.
Where the buck stops…
I had three conversations yesterday concerning church polity. Here’s how it started….
“We have to have somebody that stops the buck. We have to have a man (and it’s always a man) who can make the hard decisions.”
To that I say – what Bible did you pick that up in? My exact words in the conversation went something like this – “That has to be the most unhealthy, unbiblical view of church leadership I’ve ever heard.”
Community/plurality of leaders is the standard in scripture. That does not mean congregational voting either. Leaders – gifted, called, and qualified leaders who in unity make a decision. Don’t have unity? Hit the pause button. Every church Paul appointed elders, when John writes to the churches in Revelation, he writes to the whole church. James and the other elders make a decision concerning Gentile Christians in community. No one person in scripture is ever given the magical trump card.
“So who does the buck stop with?”
Us. Those of us that are gifted, called, and qualified leaders. Actually, it doesn’t stop with us. IF we are truly trying to follow Jesus and just do what He tells us to do – then it stops with Him. If we mess up and mis-read Him – that’s our fault. Let’s just repent and try something else. It’s not rocket-science.
And here’s the other thing – why in the world are we so consumed with figuring out who to blame when stuff goes wrong? Why not try to figure out how to fix it or redeem it? What’s with having a scapegoat mentality?
I find it ironic that the business world is implementing community/team based leadership before the Western Church is. A thoroughly biblical method of leadership being implemented and illustrated to the world by businesses.
[tags]church leadership, polity, team-based leadership [/tags]
The Rewards of Student Ministry
Tomorrow is the Derek/Noel Invitational Golf Tournament. It’s an Invitational, not an Open – so you know what that means?
That’s right – you gotta be invited to go. By Derek and Noel. I’ve posted on Noel before and Derek is a regular reader and commenter here. Took ‘em both to Brazil with me so that gives you an insight into how much I trust them and believe in them.
But here’s the cool part. You know how many hours I’ve spent with these two guys? Between movies, Halo, Xbox, Bible Studies, mission trips, lunches, showing up at my house – God only knows. During all that time – you know how much we talked about ‘deep, spiritual issues’? Probably not a lot.
You know how much we talk about them now? Every single time we hook up. They are older now and a LOT more maturer than what they were. And because of that – we can start our conversations at 900 mph. No real warm up necessary.
That to me is the huge reward of student ministry. No time invested in a student is ever wasted. It feels that way at time…but it isn’t.
Plus, I get to play golf with them.
To Kendall
I wrote this to our wonderful niece who just turned 13 yesterday. Here is her dad’s blog.
Happy Late Birthday – Amy just reminded me that you are already in bed. Just as well.
You’re 13 – that magical age when you’re no longer a kid. It’s awesome. The truth of the matter is that nothing really changes – it just FEELS like it does. But maybe that’s enough, you know?
You’re on your way to becoming a woman. And to tell you the truth – I don’t know a whole lot about that journey. In fact…you can put what I know in a thimble.
But I do know a lot about growing up. And making mistakes. I’m an expert on those things. As you enter your teen years – I want to give you some “unclely” advice for the next 5 years. Ready? I promise I’ll be quick.
1. Laugh a lot. Over the next few years you (and your parents) are going to be tempted to take things a bit more seriously than needed. So learn to laugh early and often. (You’re pretty good at this already. Keep it up.)
2. Make some mistakes….then own them. You are going to make some mistakes. When you do, don’t try to blame someone else. That’s a shortcut to immaturity. Just own it. Take your licks and pay attention to the lesson.
3. Force yourself to hug your parents every now and then. I’d explain why but I promised to be quick…just trust me on this.
4. Never pass up an opportunity to do something crazy with and for God. Even if mom and dad don’t get it. (In your case, I think they will. But just in case they don’t….keep chasing Jesus.
And last but not least….
There are going to be days when you think your parents are complete idiots. You’re going to be right. BUT remember a couple of things before you unload your best sarcastic retort. Number 1 – they weren’t always this way and quite frankly raising you and your siblings had more than a little to do with it.
Number 2 – they probably aren’t all that pleased with you either at the moment. Exercise some more maturity in that moment and instead of zinging with sarcasm, treat them with the same amount of grace that you’d want to be treated with. If you do that – I’m guessing that you’re going to get to see God do some pretty awesome stuff your life.
And don’t worry, I’m coming along for the ride so I’m never going to be that far away!!
I love you.
Grant
Junk Bonds
Barry Bonds tied Babe Ruth on the home run list this past weekend….and who really cares?
The whole thing is sad and disgusting. Major League Baseball is a joke, thanks to the steriods, HGH, the Player’s Association that protects the cheaters, the Owners who are to scared to do anything about it, and the fans who keep coming back to the ballpark.
As far as Bonds goes – he’ll never be legit. It’s one thing to cheat. It’s another to be a complete horse’s butt in the process. ESPN gets some of my wrath as well. A ‘documentary’ on Bonds as the victim?
Here’s what just blows my mind…remember when Jordan quit basketball to play baseball? Remember all the grief he got from magazines and tv shows? Why? Because we are selfish brats and we were robbed seeing Jordan put up ungodly numbers and win 8 titles in a row. And maybe we did get robbed that – but the man didn’t cheat and he treated the media and his fans well.
Contrast that with Bonds who from day one has acted like spoiled brat. And this isn’t over. He’ll try to get on an American League team as a DH next year, he’ll try to reach Hank Aaron and we’ll talk about it again.
Then when he retires we’ll talk should he be in the Hall of Fame. The answer is no – he shouldn’t. He shouldn’t be playing baseball right now. But he is. And he probably will. And it’s all a joke.
[tags] Barry Bonds, Major League Baseball, Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, ESPN[/tags]
Valerie….a Steve Winwood song
So we had a crazy fun day – went to a Travelers game. They lost in the 9th inning. They had a 7 run lead, 1 more out to get and then the wheels fell off the wagon. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a team meltdown like that. Pretty sad. 11-10 Springfield Cardinals took them down.
Now, on to the Val/Valerie issue. It is true that Val/Valerie has commented before that she prefers Valerie but is cool with me calling her Val. This is of course similiar to the issue that we discussed here about screen names versus real names.
It can get all confusing because – I don’t think I’ve ever called Val Valerie…however….everyone else does. What’s up with that? Am I intentionally rude or just lovingly close to her? It’s a toss up. She doesn’t mind me calling her that…but if you did – you’d be in deep weeds.
One of the other reasons I don’t call her Valerie is that every time I hear that name I bust into song. Ahhhh, the ’80′s.
[tags]Steve Winwood, Valerie, Travelers [/tags]
Val’s HERE!!!
My sister-in-law from Budapest is here!! She and Trent drove up from Abilene, Texas to stay a few days with us. We are pumped…we’ll take some pics tomorrow for the transplanted family!
It’s the Greek Food Festival this weekend…so plenty to do!