Wild Weather

Last Saturday, I went to Louisiana to get Jacob for Christmas.  I knew it was supposed to be raining, but I wasn't at all thrilled to find that it was raining the entire way there.  There were long stretches of the trip where visibility was down to about 100 ft. Once I got to Jacob's house, it wasn't bad at all.  It was 73 degrees, a full 40 degrees warmer than Missouri, and the rain was down to a slight drizzle. We got him loaded up and we hit the road about 3:15.  We were just pulling into the south side of Ruston, Louisiana when it got very dark very fast.  My phone started blowing up with a tornado warning telling...

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World Cup Excitement - Free Download

ATTENTION! If you downloaded the World Cup spreadsheet before June 21, 2014 then you have a copy that has errors.  A fixed version is now available for download here with scores filled out up to June 21 or for a blank version download this one. I apologize for the calculation error.  Technically, it's not my fault.  I originally built this spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel 2003.  Since the first round is a point system that breaks ties in points by goal difference and ties in goal difference by total goals scored, the formulas to determine the ranking for each group are surprisingly difficult to write.  I wrote formulas...

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Is Self-Defense Biblical?

Photo Credit to funnycuteanimal.blogspot.com I recently got into an online discussion that prompted me to do some studying.  The discussion was about Luke 6:28-30, or at least it was initially.  As all conversations do, this one took many turns.  What started as a question (evidently not meant to be answered) became many statements of position from both the question's poser and a couple people, myself included, who read the question. Let's start with the scripture (NIV): 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes...

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Cease and Desist

In a matter of only about 3 weeks, we've managed to get the deck from just a plan in our heads to almost a completed physical reality.  Considering the fact that I haven't taken any time off of work for its construction, I think 3 weeks is a really short amount of time for such a large construction project. Despite all of our best efforts, though, we can't do a whole lot about the weather.  Now, I didn't mind being out there working in the cold too much.  But, I can't work very well while the whole thing is covered up in snow.  I keep waiting for the snow to melt away.  This is the Ozarks, right?  I mean, it was...

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10th Yeariversary

Yesterday, was Jodi's and my tenth yeariversary.  I've explained what a yeariversary is before, I'm sure, but to those of you who don't know: it's the anniversary to the day we met.  It started with weekiversary then transitioned to monthiversaries.  You get the idea. Why do we celebrate that day, you ask?  Probably, because it's pretty much when we fell in love.  I say 'pretty much' because love is more than just a moment of infatuation.  It's more than just a connection being made.  It's not a moment in time, so to speak.  You know exactly when you fell down the stairs.  Falling in love isn't...

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The Whole Tomale

So, I couldn't resist.  Once I got to thinking about the photo that I could take from atop the garage roof, it was all over.  I knew that I could capture the whole thing and I hadn't really done that yet from any previous angles. So, I rather nonchalantly scaled the roof to our outdoor closet, quickly walked across the top of our garden wall, and stepped up onto the roof of the garage to get this photo.  Getting down, however, proved to be a bit more difficult.  My old fear of heights tried to revive itself.  It took me close to a full minute to get myself to step down the 5 or 6 inches onto the wall from the garage...

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Really Coming Together

Just as the title states, the deck is really coming together.  I apologize for the fuzzy photos.  They were all taken in the dark. As of last night, I managed to knock out the last of the stairs.  Then, I got a great start on the privacy fence.  I got two sections done (minus the top part that will come later).  As you can see, Jodi was adding the first privacy boards to the fence and having a lot of fun doing it.  I love my home renovator wife. :) This is the part that I really like, because up until now, I've essentially been building a platform pedestal for us to be easily spotted from the street.  This...

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Thanksgiving Deck

Sorry for slacking off with the updates.  This Thanksgiving was a success, I believe.  We hosted it at our house for my wife's family.  We also had some friends of ours and their children with us since they have no family in town.  It was fun and there was some great food, as always.  I ate a nice lunch and then found myself maintaining a fullness through 5 o'clock through random bites of the various dishes every 10 to 15 minutes. We got quite a bit accomplished with the deck over the long holiday weekend, though, not quite as much as I would have liked.  I'm notorious for underestimating the time it takes to...

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