Church Stuff & General Life

I think I already posted that Kat got baptised and we joined our church about a month ago. As it happens, Kat's parents were here that weekend, so they got to see all that too. Baptism isn't a pre-requisite to joining our church, it just worked out that it all happened on the same day, in the same service.

We had our annual calendar-planning meeting at/after church this past Sunday. Some progress, but still a lot of the "pew-potato" syndrome; folks think it's GREAT that we have and/or add all these programs, as long as THEY don't have to get involved in any of them, anywhere but as the consumer/spectator/audience! :(.

Among the changes is a monthly "Community Game Night" outreach on the first Friday of the month. I'm in charge of that, so I'll have to come up with some sort of _brief_ teaching or scripture reading or "church/spiritual psa" for it.

I'll be talking to Pastor Randy about this. Yes, for help and input, but I also want his help in keeping that part of the game nights from getting too "heavy" and turning the Community game nights into Churchfolks-only game nights all-too quickly.

We're also starting up a Youth Group, since the church is finally getting enough kids who are old enough for one. I don't have any official responsibilities there, but I'll offer whatever assistance I can give to those who do. I not only want to be sure that it "takes", I also want to do what I can to ensure that the content/curriculum's worthwhile.

We also added a Men's Retreat to the church calendar. They've had 1-2 Women's Retreats every year since we've been going there, but this'll be the first Men's one since we started going there. We've also got a Bowling Night, a Hayride(which we'll probably pass on, depending on it's theme), and a lot of other good stuff in the church calendar this year.

I'm also hoping to get a group together to go to a Phantoms game. Hopefully on "Faith & Family Night", February 11th.

I know there's also a lot of interest in a churchgroup outing to a Blue Rocks game. So, hopefully, we can "make that happen" next season.

The monthly small groups have been cancelled tho. Apparently, folks just weren't showing up. I know we're as guilty of that as anyone else is, but when you've been away from something for a month, it's hard to(want to) get back into it for another night, only to leave it alone for another month. I think the groups'd go better if they were at least bi-weekly, if not weekly, but I doubt that ever happens.

We had Chip & Chris over for dinner on Saturday. After dinner, we chatted and watched some M*A*S*H videos. Chip's about as much of a quasi-reformed M*A*S*H-aholic as I am, so we had a lot of fun with that.

Kris & Rich were here 2 weekends ago. Kat's parents were here 4 weekends ago. And we went up to see my folks 6 weekends ago. So, it had been a LONG time since we'd had one of Kat's 3-day weekends off without a trip or "company" planned. It was a nice break too.

We're still discussing whether I'm gonna work the 2nd shift @Vanguard in October or not. There are stong points to me doing it and strong points to me skipping it as well. Of course, we're praying about it, but it prolly comes down to whether we're able to find someone to watch Rebekah for the few hours between when I'd be leaving each day and when Kat'd be getting home each day. Not that I'll definitely do it if we can find someone, but I definitely won't be doing it if we can't.

These Colors Don't...Matter?

I'm sure that everyone reading this is aware of the merger between Exxon & Mobil. Probably less of you are aware of the merger between Shell & Texaco. And probably even less of you were aware of the merger between Amoco & BP - until recently.

The reason I say "until recently" is that the Amoco/BP merger has resulted in all of the gas stations in both of those chains being painted to look like BP stations. The other mergers aren't like that, at least not yet. For example: Exxons still look like Exxons and Mobils still look like Mobils. About the only major change there is that Exxons now accept Mobil cards(and vice versa) as well as Mobil's "Speedpass". But, anyway, all the Amoco stations - which were once a very sharp-looking red, white, and blue - have been(or are in the process of being) painted in the Green-with-Yellow-trim-and-white-background color motif of BP stations.

Even tho we don't have a car(and haven't since '96) and even tho green has been my favorite color for as long as I can remember(resulting in severe difficulty if I play a game, like Risk, and someone ELSE is green, lol), this change REALLY bugs me! I'd SO MUCH PREFER it if they'd painted all of the stations in the newly-combined chain Red, White, & Blue!

I understand why they're doing it the way they are. It symbolizes the fact that BP bought out(aka took over) Amoco and not the other way around. Just like Exxon/Mobil "says" something different than "Mobil/Exxon" would.

I still don't like it tho. And I have to think(and hope?) that it's a bad marketing move too.

While Trying To Think Of Other "Eternal Questions",...

I came up with the one(or is it just kind of one) about why hot dogs and hot dog buns aren't sold in the same(or compatible) quantities. I chose not to list that one as a comment/reply to my "Eternal Questions!" post here, cuz I don't think it's an especially good one. But stuff like this has been happening to me/us a LOT lately.

"It all started" a few months ago, when I was at Aldis. On this particular trip, my funds were especially limited. So, I put most of the groceries on the belt, but held some stuff back(in my cart). I had the cashier total what I'd put on the belt, but even that(without the other stuff in my cart) went over the amount that I had on me that day.

So I had her take enough stuff off my order to get my total justunder my fund limit. Among the stuff I took back was 2-3 bags of tortilla chips. When I got home and started unpacking the groceries to put them away, there they were: the 2-3 jars of salsa I'd put in the cart(and purchased) to "go with" the tortilla chips!

Naturally, I found myself wishing that I'd bought 1 or 2 bags of chips and 1 jar of salsa, instead of only the salsa. Or even only the chips, since that's slightly more "useful" by itself than the salsa is. But, of course, when you're over your limit at the supermarket, you're usually not thinking in such "logical" terms, you're just looking for "extra" or "discretionary/non-essential" stuff that you can take off your order but which'll also total enough to get you back under your limit.

So, I wasn't really upset with or mad at myself, and I knew the salsa would keep, especially since I wouldn't be breaking the seal on the jars anytime soon. I just didn't know that I'd started anything; that this wouldn't be "the end of it".

Not that I'm superstitious or anything like that, I'm not(I'm a Red Sox fan, so I can't afford to be, lol). But things like this "tortilla imbalance" _have_ continued to happen - with other grocery items - since this "event", and - so far, at least - the superstitious axiom of "things come in threes" also fits. The "tortilla imbalance" was #1.

One of our other regular purchases at Aldi's is bagels. Naturally, we also buy cream cheese. But we usually buy 1 box of cream cheese for every bag of(5) bagles we get, and we get both(the cream cheese and the bagels) at Aldis. So, we're _usually_ able to keep these in very good, very close balance.

Until recently. Now, we often have bagels in the house but not "sufficient" cream cheese for them, or we've got "extra" cream cheese but no bagels. Yes, Katrina's a cook, but we rarely use cream cheese for anything other than bagels. This, I guess, has been #2.

#3 happened rather innocently. A few Aldis trips ago, I bought some corn chips(similar to Fritos) in addition to our/my "usual" purchase of tortilla chips(similar to Tostitos). "Naturally", I also grabbed a carton of sour cream to "go with" the corn chips.

As with the bagels and cream cheese, this corn chips and sour cream purchase _seemed_ balanced. But, for whatever reason, it hasn't been. We've continued buying both since that initial purchase(the Aldi's trip I blogged about in an earlier entry; what would you expect to pay for this?), but we often get "unbalanced" here, just as with the bagels and cream cheese.

So, as much as I'm NOT a superstitious person, I'm really hoping that things really DO "come in threes". But only cuz I DON'T want there to be a FOURTH example of "grocery imbalance" anytime soon! ;)

Has This(or something like it) Ever Happened To You?

I woke up in the middle of the night last night. Before I fell back to sleep, I prayed some. Mostly for another person, somewhat in depth.

Then, when I woke up "for good" this morning, I thought back on those prayers. I couldn't remember if I'd really prayed them or just dreamt that I had. I'm still not 100% sure.

I wonder if prayers prayed in a dream still "count"?

Is It A Vitamin, Or A Placebo?

I take vitamins sometimes. When I'm taking them, I'm usually fairly consistent in that I take them every day. But if something breaks that routine for more than a day or so, it's often a few weeks or even months before I'm back in that habit again.

The other day I didn't have much of an appetite and didn't eat much of my dinner(even tho it tasted great!). I hadn't eaten much the day before either, so I decided I'd take vitamins that day.

So, I went and got the Echinacia(sp), Vitamin C, and Multivitamin bottles out of the cupboard. But, for whatever reason, I decided to check their expiration dates before taking them.

Wow! 1 of the bottles had expired in 3/'04 - SIX MONTHS ago. Another one had expired about 2 months ago. But the multivitamins had expired in some month(I forget which) of 2002!

Now, at this point, I should probably mention that all 3 of these vitamin bottles were purchased @BJs. So, they prolly all had around 250-300 tablets in them when they were full.

But still! Even 300 tablets is less than a year's worth. I know I wasn't taking them regularly full-time(as I've already explained), but I can't believe that neither I nor my(RN!) wife checked any of these expiration dates any sooner than this.

Fortunately, I don't think "expired" vitamins do you any harm. I don't know if they do you any good either, or how much if they do, but I don't think they're "harmful".

And that's a very good thing too. Cuz I prolly took about 1/2 of the multivitamins that aren't still in that bottle AFTER their expiration date! :(

Eternal Questions!

As anyone who's read my profile here already knows, I'm a fan of Eternal Questions. They're not quite a hobby of mine, but they're close, lol.

For those who might not know, Eternal Questions are humorously(-intended) questions that point out one or more of the absurdities, inconsistencies, or contradictions of our everyday life and speech. Examples include:

"Why do we drive on the parkway and park on the driveway?"

"Why does 'sour cream' have an expiration date?"

"Why do 'fat chance' and 'slim chance' mean the same thing?"

The object of Eternal Questions is NOT to reply to them with an answer! It's to acknowledge and perhaps ponder or reflect upon the absurdity, inconsistency, or contradiction they reveal. In other words, if you respond to(the Eternal Question of) "What makes the Teflon stick to the pan?" by saying "Covalent bonds", you DON'T get it!

I've always wanted an all-inclusive, quasi-exhaustive list of Eternal Questions. But I've never seen or made one before. So, I've decided that this blog entry of mine - and the replies and comments to it - will be(come) that list!

So, please feel free to respond to this post with any Eternal Question(s) that aren't already a part of this post or it's prior comments/replies. All I ask is that we keep the topics and terminology of all submissions "family-friendly" and let's steer clear of religion and politics too. However, it is NOT a requirement that all submissions be "PC". ;)

I'd list a few more Eternal Questions here. And I'm sure I'll respond to this with more when I remember them. But right now the only one I can think of that's not already a part of this post is:

"When you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn?"