Where is the love people?!

I'm taking a beating in the poll.  Go ahead, kick me when I'm down, I can take it (Mommy!!  I want my Mommy!!....no, wait, she is the one who wants me to take that nasty Noni juice.....Bolt!!  Here Bolt!!)

Not much better

I'm still battling a nasty cold.  I've tried Alka Seltzer cold tablets (night and day varieties), Generic sinus/cold tablets, tea with honey, cough syrup....etc.  I don't feel like I'm gaining much ground, in fact at times I feel worse. 

Some have suggested rubbing Vicks vapor rub on the bottoms of my feet....sorry, anyone who knows me well knows that I'll never do that - there are many other torturous things that I'd do long before that.

Other suggestions welcome.

Remedies requested

I've got a major headcold/chestcold happening right now.  Let me know what over the counter product you use, secondly what "mom" remedy has been passed down in your family.

Cough....cough......sniffle.....(groan)......Cough

Head and chest cold.......going to go vegetate on the couch......watch another movie.......

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

I chose to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs because it was a "new release" and had to be returned before the other ones.

It was a cute, entertaining movie.  A good one to watch with your children if you have any.  I really enjoy animated movies, so even though I'm no longer a kid physically, I enjoy being a kid mentally.  This movie doesn't rate nearly as well as Bolt or Ratatouille, but it is better than many. 

Tonight I think I will watch Harry Potter, for the main reason that Sharon isn't home and I don't think she really wants to see it.

While we are on the subjects of movies - I need to pick a movie for the clients to watch on Friday afternoon.  I can pick pretty much any movie, but the trend is to pick something treatment related or of someone overcoming something.  Hmmmm, The Soloist isn't due back until Saturday....that might be an idea.  Otherwise I was trying to think of older movies - ones that are good, yet haven't been seen for awhile.  I set aside the following:

A Fish Called Wanda
The Professional
Bedazzled
The Great Escape
Grosse Pointe Blank
Secondhand Lions

What do you think of these?

Movie night

I rented seven movies last Saturday night, today is Tuesday, and I've only watched one of them so far.  The movie I watched was 9.  Ummm, the animation was excellent, the story.....let's just say, I don't ever plan to watch anything associated with Tim Burton again. 

The other movies left to watch are:

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
500 Days of Summer
The Soloist
Angels and Demons
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Bedtime Stories

Which one should I watch tonight?

Anyone have some reviews for me?  Which ones are good and which ones are duds?

Last Supper

Sharon, Nick and I had our "last supper......for a while" with Zach and Jess before they head off on their new adventure together. At the end of the week they will be moving to Colorado (Denver area).  Zach graduated from North Central University (with a degree in Youth Developement), Jess quit her job as a massage therapist and they decided to start fresh - of course it helps that Jess' parents live in Colorado - so they'll have good support once they get there.

Sharon and I are sad to see them go, but now we know where our summer vacation is going to be.  I'm very proud of Zach, he has always had an independent spirit and a confidence in himself that will serve him well. 

It is a good thing that Alex has a girlfriend or he would be totally lost when Zach and Jess move.

We love them very much and know that God has great things in store for them as a family.

God Bless you Zach and Jess - our prayers will follow you to Colorado.

One hit wonders

I have my share of albums, cassettes and CD's that are from "one hit wonder" bands/artists.  Just off the top of my head I can list the following:

World Party - Ship of Fools
Saga - Worlds Apart
Martin Briley - Salt in My Tears
Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me
GTR - When the Heart Rules the Mind
Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby (that was tough to admit to)
Big Country - In a Big Country
Devo - Whip It
Lipps Inc. - Funky Town
The Vapors - Turning Japanese
Soft Cell - Tainted Love
4 Non Blondes - What's Up
Nena - 99 Luftballoons
Triumph - Never Surrender
Sheriff - When I'm With You (this was "our song" when Sharon and I were dating)

I could go on and on.

Dig through your old LP, cassette, CD collection and share with me (and others) some of the one hit wonders you hold near and dear to your heart....or at least bought on a crazy - why the heck did I do that - impulse.

Movie you are afraid to admit you like

Come on, admit it - you really like this movie.  Okay, maybe not this one, but some of the ones below you do.  Enjoy the trip through memory lane - or once you've recovered from wretching because you really do hate all of these movies, let me know what movies you secretly like, but have been afraid to admit it to your friends.  I'll admit it - I enjoy all of these movies and would stop and watch them anytime I'm flipping through the channels.

This is your life

If you haven't listened to Switchfoot before I encourage you to look them up on YouTube or another video sight.  The lyrics below are from one of their songs.  Read it, listen to it, think about it (and post a comment).

"This Is Your Life"
(Switchfoot)

Yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead
Yesterday is a promise that you've broken
Don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes
This is your life and today is all you've got now
Yeah, and today is all you'll ever have

Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be?
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

Yesterday is a kid in the corner
Yesterday is dead and over

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be?
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes

This is your life are you who you want to be?
This is your life are you who you want to be?
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed it would be
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

And you had everything to lose

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArmeNkB-u74&feature=PlayList&p=1C806BA0A39D065E&index=6

Are you who you want to be?

popped

My pip popped and my cheerios are soggy.

Any suggestions?

downer

Sorry, not feeling it today.  Been having a tough week and events brought me down tonight.  If you even remotely human I'm sure you can relate to having an off day.  Good news is,  I'm confident tomorrow will be better.  Pip pip cheerio and all that rot.

Pooh

Who is your favorite Winnie the Pooh character?

My boys loved to watch the Winnie the Pooh videos when they were younger.  I lost count how many times I've watched Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree or Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.  Just as the video would end the chant would start....AGAIN!  I'm sure there are other parents out there that can relate to this.  Funny thing is, after being forced to watch them time after time day after day....I still enjoy them.  Which is your favorite Pooh story or video?  Who is your favorite character?  Be honest, did the Tigger song go through your head while you were reading this?

How to be thankful in tough times

I'm cheating slightly....okay cheating entirely....

I received the following via email and thought, it is very late, I'm very tired and this message is very good.....and besides, if you noticed on my Facebook page it uses my life verses.

Monday, January 18, 2010

How to be thankful in tough times

by Rick Warren

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Philippians 4:6 (NLT)

Don't worry about anything.

Worrying doesn't change anything. It's stewing without doing. There's no such thing as born worriers; worry is a learned response. You learned it from your parents. You learned it from your peers. You learned it from experience. That's good news. The fact that worry is learned means it can also be unlearned. Jesus says, "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." (Matthew 6:34, NLT)

Pray about everything.

Next use the time you've been worrying for praying. If you prayed as much as you worried, you'd have a whole lot less to worry about. Some people think God only cares about religious things, such as how many people I invite to church or my tithing. Is God interested in car payments? Yes. He's interested in every detail of your life. That means you can take any problem you face to God.

Thank God in all things.

Whenever you pray, you should always pray with thanksgiving. The healthiest human emotion is not love -- but gratitude. It actually increases your immunities; it makes you more resistant to stress and less susceptible to illness. People who are grateful are happy. But people who are ungrateful are miserable because nothing makes them happy. They're never satisfied; it's never good enough. So if you cultivate the attitude of gratitude, of being thankful in everything, it reduces stress in your life.

Think about the right things.

If you want to reduce the level of stress in your life, you must change the way you think; the way you think determines how you feel. And the way you feel determines how you act. So if you want to change your life, you need to change what you're thinking about.

This involves a deliberate conscious choice where you change the channels. You choose to think about the right things: focus on the positive and on God's word.

Why? Because the root cause of stress is the way I choose to think.

When we no longer worry, when we pray about everything, when we give thanks, when we focus on the right things, the Apostle Paul tells us the result is, "The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

What a guarantee! He is guaranteeing peace of mind.

NFL Final Four

Down to the final four in the NFL!  Many experts were saying at least one road team would win this weekend, however, most of them were picking Dallas over Minnesota, not the NY Jets over San Diego.

Of the four teams left who do you want to see in the Superbowl?

If I did my research correctly the following is a brief history of how each team has done since 1965 in conference championship games.

New Orleans Saints (0-1).  This will only be the second time they have played in the conference championship game.  They lost back in 2006 to Chicago (Chicago lost the Superbowl to the Indianapolis Colts).  New Orleans is one of the few teams that have never played in a Superbowl.  The others include Cleveland, Houston, Jacksonville and Detroit.

New York Jets (1-2).  This will be thier fourth trip to the conference championship game.  They were last there in 1998 losing to the Denver Broncos (Denver went on to win the Superbowl over the Atlanta Falcons).  The only time the NY Jets have made it to the Superbowl they beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts.

Indianapolis Colts (2-3).  Their 2-3 record includes both the Baltimore Colts and the Indianapolis Colts.They last played for the conference Championship in 2006, they won and went on to win the Superbowl. 

Minnesota Vikings (4-3).  This will be the eighth time the Vikings have played for the right to go to the Superbowl (winning the first four and losing the last three).  The last time they played for the conference championship was in 2000 when they lost to the New York Giants (NY went on to lose the Superbowl to the Baltimore Ravens).  The last time the Vikings won the conference championship was 1976.

Please vote in the poll (look to the right side of page) for who you want to play in this years Superbowl.

Listening to books

Thanks to my parents, my Mother in particular (sorry Dad, I never saw you read other than magazines in the "library"), I have been and still am an avid reader.  So much so, that my wife complains about how many books I have (well over 300 and I'm currently reading The Ragamuffin Gospel, Uncommon, Undaunted Courage and One Month To Live - the books are each in a different room so I pick them up and read them whenever I get time).  I read quite a variety of genres (except for the romance/love genre - no Nicolas Sparks for me thank you).  Early after getting married and having children my reading dropped significantly because I need quiet or at the very least no one interrupting me.  I missed reading, but didn't know what to do - I couldn't stop being a Dad.  Several years later I was complaining, er, calmly expressing my opinion, regarding my frustration with the radio stations I was listening to during my 30+ minutes  of commuting each morning and night.  Sharon, my lovely, gorgeous and very intelligent wife (no, I'm not buttering up, she doesn't read this) suggested that I listen to books on CD.  "Pish Posh", I responded.  "You can't LISTEN to books, you have to READ them!".  Sharon, not being much of a reader, had for quite some time been listening to books and enjoying them.  While I thought it was quite silly, I didn't discourage her.  Well after some time, and more agony listening to commercial after commercial or the same song multiple time a day I decided to give her wacky suggestion a try.  You know what....I quite enjoyed the experience!!  I'm hooked now.  I get withdrawals if I don't have a book on CD or tape in the vehicle when I'm driving.  I've listened to so many books I've lost count.  Many of them I probably would have never read the conventional way, but listening to them it was easy.  Here are a few of the books I've listened to:

Do you listen to books on CD or tape?

You need to vote

Which Star Trek show do you like the best?

Sobering

I recently was told that someone I knew as a teenager and is just a few years older than I am, had a stroke caused by a brain tumor and besides the devastating effects of the stroke was told that he only has a short time to live.

Ooof - kind of sucks the air right out of me.  Makes me wonder how I would react.  While I'm not afraid of death, because I believe in and trust what Jesus Christ did on the cross and that I'm saved by Grace and not by anthing I could possibly do to earn it, but I think I'd be terrified about how it would hurt my family. 

What are your thoughts about this?

I'll get right on that.....in a little while

Someday I'm planning on sending out invitations to my procrastinators club.

There are so many things to blog about that I feel like I can't sort through them in the amount of time I have.....

Check back later....really, I promise one of these days my blog will be very entertaining.....soon.....

tough some days

Wow, this blogging everyday can get difficult.  It is time for bed and I just got home not long ago.  With that in mind, I'll keep the streak alive, but not by much.

I'll pose a question.  Who was your favorite Minnesota Vikings player and why?

When I was young and impressionable I remember a game against San Francisco that Tommy Kramer replaced the starting quarterback (might have been Bob Lee, don't remember that) in the fourth quarter and we were down by 24.  If my memory serves me correctly Touchdown Tommy threw four touchdown passes and we won.  Yes, Tommy has some issues later in life, but he will always be one of my favorite Vikings.

it's all starting to make sense now....

Quisp was my favorite cereal when I was a kid.  Hmmm, does that explain anything?

Comfort food

Anyone who knows me knows that I enjoy food (and yes, it shows).  I'll admit, I tend to use food not only for survival, but for comfort.  I eat when I'm bored, stressed, frustrated, lonely, etc. etc.  My family teases me because most of my favorite foods start with a P....pizza, popcorn, peanuts, pulgogi, pickles, puffs (Cheetos)....

My question to you is, what are your favorite comfort foods?  Any of the pictures below look good?

Are you hungry yet?