Television

I'm a fan of Survivor. I have watched it the last few seasons. However, I have to say that I haven't actually ever watched an entire episode of Survivor.

I really don't enjoy watching bickering and fighting, so I have gotten into the habit of fast forwarding my DVR through everything but the challenges and the tribal council. In doing that, I actually get a pretty complete picture of what is going on, and it makes for quick television viewing.

In my opinion, that is the way to watch.

Speaking of television, I have to tell you something that I stumbled across today on television. First off, I must explain that it has been a bit of an unusual day in that I have been home much more than normal. I have a sick dog, and so I went to the office to get some "must finish" work done this morning, and then brought the rest home with me.

Since I have been home most of the afternoon I had the television on while I worked. At one point, I was flipping through the guide on my TV, and I'm not sure if it was subconscious or not, but I stopped on "Walker, Texas Ranger." (I included a picture in case you weren't placing the show, but I made it small in the hopes that you wouldn't figure it out.)

Yes, "Walker, Texas Ranger" is the the old Chuck Norris television show. My parents used to watch it, but I think that is because they didn't have cable. Needless to say, it was an oft-viewed show in our house.

So, I decided to watch it. I watched the WHOLE episode. Oh it was awful. It was essentially Chuck reading cue cards, then Chuck fighting bad guys, then Chuck reading more cue cards, then Chuck arresting bad guys, then Chuck reading a very Brady Bunch-like moral of the story off the cue cards.

Strangely enough, I couldn't make myself turn the channel. Man, that is an hour I will never get back.

Ouch!

So, I have always had a bad habit of sticking things in my mouth. I know that is a bit gross, and it is not a habit I am proud of, but it is textural. Every pen and pencil I own have teeth marks in them. In fact, I usually have to wipe them off before I feel comfortable handing them to someone.


Give me a styrofoam cup, and I can have fun for hours biting away at the rim. Now keep in mind that I don't actually swallow or chew on the styrofoam, but I do create a nice little design.


Well, this morning I figured out why it is definitely not a good idea to put things in your mouth.


Here is what I stuck in my mouth.

Let me assure anyone who ever wondered...it hurts when one of those is hooked up and the metal part is even just a little bit broken, and you get a bit of current going into your mouth.

I'm thinking that I won't ever make that mistake again.

Soup Soup Everywhere

I realize two posts in one day is a bit much, but oh what an evening it has been. Before I tell you what happened, I first have to ask Deborah if she can figure out what my post is about before I even tell you guys the story.

Anyway, when I got home this evening from work, I felt like soup for dinner. My soup of choice for this evening was homemade tomato-basil. As I finished heating the diced tomatoes, I put them in my blender to puree.

I made sure the top was vented since the tomatoes were still hot. As I finished one pass with blender, I decided it needed a little more. So, I hit the puree button. Oops. Actually, BIG OOPS.

I exploded tomato-basil soup all over my stove, countertop, blender, refrigerator, basically anything within a 5-foot radius was showered with soup. You know that cute little container that holds all the stirring/mashing/ladeling utensils? Completely showered with soup.

Once everything was cleaned up, I managed to salvage enough soup for a yummy dinner in my pajamas (did I mention my clothes were covered in tomato bits?).

Back in the Land of the Living

So, I am not sure if that is the best title of for this blog post, but it will have to suffice for now.

I survived two carnivals this weekend (fortunately, I was not in charge of either; I was just there to help), a handful of meetings, way too much work to do, and all of this while I am still a little sick.

Now before you go asking, yes, I have scheduled a doctor's appointment. It is on November 18th. Yep, you read that correctly...November 18th...and we are still in the month of October. It's a good thing I am not seriously ill. Otherwise, I might die before I am actually able to see a doctor.

In the meantime, I have toyed with the idea of going onto WebMD and self-diagnosing, but the last time I did that I managed to diagnose myself as having a tapeworm that is only contractable if you have been in the far reaches of the rain forest...which I haven't. So, I think maybe I will stay away from WebMD for now.

New Post

Okay...I guess I need to update my blog since it has been a few days.

I haven't done much lately because I have been a bit under the weather. So, each night, I come home and just crash. Needless to say, I haven't gotten much work done.

I did try to go vote yesterday. I wasn't able to, though. (Yes, I am registered to vote.) For some reason, the system wouldn't pull be up. It went something like this...

Early Vote Person (EVP): My I see your Driver's License? Do you still live at *** *******?

Me: Yes.

EVP: (swipes my driver's license) Nothing is coming up. Are you registered to vote?

Me: Yes.

EVP: Do you live in the Harris County part of Katy?

Me: Yes.

EVP: Let me hand you over to Patricia. She'll take care of it. Patricia, the system is not recognizing this lady.

Patricia (P): Sit over in this chair while I call someone.

Me: Okay.

(At this point, I sit for about 10 minutes while she visits with various people. I see her reading information off my driver's license.)

P: Nothing is coming up. Are you sure you are registered to vote?

Me: Yes.

P: Are you sure you live in the Harris County part of Katy?

Me: Yes.

P: Let me hand you over to Robert and he'll take care of it.

(At this point, I sit for about 10 more minutes while he visits with various people. I see him shaking his head and rolling his eyes a few times as if he thinks that I don't know whether or not I am registered.)

Robert (R): Nothing is coming up. Are you sure you are registered to vote?

Me: Yes.

R: Are you sure you live in the Harris County part of Katy?

Me: Yes.

R: Let me try one more phone call.

(I sit for another 10 minutes while I am assuming Robert is on hold with the person he is talking to because he did some texting and clipped a hang nail while he was supposed to be sorting out my voter mess.)

R: They have located your voter registration information, but it was held up at the State Department. You will have to call this number tomorrow and sort this out before you are allowed to vote.

(I see him secretly judging me for unlikely reasons as to why the State Department has held up my voter registration.)

Me: Thank you.

Like I said, I tried to vote yesterday. I have contacted the State Department, and it is nothing major. There apparently was information that they needed to verify since I lived out of the country almost SEVEN YEARS AGO. Apparently, my time in the middle of Siberia has now made the American government a little suspicious of me.

Hopefully, the next time I stop by the Early Voting place, it will be a much more fruitful trip.

In the meantime, I am on my way home and off to bed because I still don't feel good (sniff, sniff).

Saving Supper Carnival

So my cousin is hosting a Saving Supper Carnival today. The goal of this carnival is for everyone to post "tips/ideas/humorous stories on how they survive the late afternoon/dinner preparation time in their household without losing their mind!" The prize is a collection of recipes from casa de Phillips. Lynley (casa de Phillips madre) is a very good cook, and so this is a very good prize.

So, here goes.

There is not much demand for dinner at my house. No kids underfoot. No whining voices. However, I am not a fan of cooking, so if I am really tired when I get home, I REALLY don't feel like cooking. So, my tip is that I try to prepare the majority of my food for the week during the weekend. That way when I get home, I just pop stuff my dinner into the microwave, heat up some vegetables, and my dinner is ready. I do the same for pre-make for breakfast.

My new favorite dinner that survives reheating pretty well is Deborah's Tomato-Basil Soup. I sprinkle some croutons on top and yum-o. For breakfast, I tend to do Whole Wheat Pancakes, and since I am not really a syrup person, those go right into a baggie, and I can eat them on my commute.

Check out the Phillips' Family Blog for more Saving Supper Carnival tips.

My Search for Gold Crowns

I realize the title of this post might make you think that this is going to be a deep, profound post on a Christian's search for living a more godly life.

However, that is not the case. I really am just going to tell you about my search for gold crowns.

The 3-year olds need them for Bible Class on Sunday, and it is actually harder than one might think to find child size, gold crowns that have a hook so that you don't have to staple them.

I thought about going to Burger King, grabbing a handful, and running out of the store, but some might call that stealing, and I feel fairly certain that a church worker probably shouldn't steal. Plus I would then have to spray paint the crowns so that the kids wouldn't ask where the Burger Kings were in Jesus' time and if they had camel-through windows.

I've searched as the usual craft stores and teacher stores, but I didn't find any. I also went to Party City, and while I didn't find any paper crowns, I did find a good variety of Mardi Gras head pieces. Hmm...I wonder if those would work?

Wouldn't You Know It

Okay...so I have to be honest...I really don't have the time to update my blog tonight. I was already behind on my work from this weekend, and then I had an all-day meeting today. So, I am REALLY behind now.

However, the last 30 minutes have inspired me to carve out a few minutes for an update.

As I was leaving work today, a couple of the wonderful office ladies sent me home with a couple of leftover biscuits from this mornings staff meeting. You see, I make a week's worth of Deborah's Whole Wheat Pancakes to eat for breakfast on Sunday or Monday night, and then just heat one up each morning. However, they knew I didn't have time tonight (and I didn't get it done last night). So, they sent me home with breakfast so tomorrow morning is taken care of.

When I got home, I realized that I didn't have any dinner stuff ready to heat up either. So, I threw a handful of noodles in a pot, and once they were ready I mixed a little spaghetti sauce in.

As I was sitting down to eat, I thought ever so briefly that I should probably change out of the ALL WHITE shirt I wore to work today. But then I realized that I was an adult, and I could probably eat spaghetti without making too much of a mess.

Oh how wrong I was!

The spaghetti kept sliding off my fork and down the front of my all white shirt, and I only seemed to make the mess worse as I would try to pick it off my shirt. Needless to say, my shirt is no longer all white. In fact, it has been doused with Shout and is soaking in the wash.

Lesson to self, spaghetti doesn't care what age you are.

Okay...thanks for letting me complain...now back to work.

Oh Man...

Oh man...I think I am going to have to break down and buy a new television. This really bums me out because first of all, I was really hoping to celebrate its 20-year old birthday, and secondly, I have never actually bought a new television. I've always gotten hand-me-down TVs.

Needless to say, my television is a little old school. My parents purchased it in the early 1990s as their brand new, fancy television, and then they gave it to me in the early 2000s when they got a new TV.

The screen keeps going dark, and I either have to turn it off and count to 10 then flip it back on or I have to hit it good on its side (I'm guessing that the hitting of it is not prolonging its life).

Anyway, maybe my dad will read my post, take pity on me, decide that they need a new TV and give me their old one. I'm thinking that answer would be no, though.

I guess I need to start shopping for a television. Maybe I'll get fancy and go for a 19-inch with a remote control. A girl can always dream.

Dancing 2008

Once you watch this video, read the post below.

Dancing 2008

The following post and the above video came straight from my friend Roxanne's blog. She is very articulate and able to express so much through words. After seeing the video and reading her thoughts on it. I had to share it with you.

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Dancing: Now Expanded (by Roxanne Langley)

I did some poking around his website last night, and read his FAQ section. He’s a very witty writer, self-proclaimed computer game geek, and Humanist. Someone asked him if he was religious–that’s how I found out the Humanism part.

Anyway, someone ELSE asked him what the lyrics were to the song in the video. Sometime after I’d watched it again, I began to realize that the pictures are wonderful, but the song PAIRED with the pictures is what pulls at me and brings the emotion to the top of my throat. Here is his answer regarding the lyrics.

That’s a difficult question to answer. The lyrics to “Praan” were taken from a poem by a Nobel Prize winning Indian author named Rabindranath Tagore. While the poem was written in Bengali (or Bangla), I chose it based on its English translation, which I later learned to be more of an interpretation that captures the spirit of the original without matching it word-for-word.

The English version of the poem is called “Stream of Life.”

Here it is:

The same stream of life
that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world
and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life
that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life
that is rocked in the ocean-cradle
of birth and of death,
in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious
by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages
dancing in my blood this moment.

To fit the song, we had to chop things up a bit; turning one verse into a repeating chorus and omitting other sections. Here are the lyrics as they ended up in the song, translated in a more direct way from the original Bengali:

I will not easily forget
the life that stirs in my soul
Hidden amidst Death
that infinite Life

I hear you in the thunder
A simple tune
A tune to which I will arise (3x)

And in that storm of happiness
As your music plays in your mind
The whole wide world
Dances to your rhythm

I hear you in the thunder
A simple tune
A tune to which I will arise (3x)

This video is one of those things that begins to take on a life of its own. I love that no matter where he is, there are people and kids and dogs and other animals–that he has to put a banner across the bottom to let you know where he is, but the life in the shots is still the same. It pulls the lines off the map and turns it into one big world instead of something that is broken into pieces. It shows that some guy doing a goofy dance will make people laugh and/or join in no matter where they are. . .well. . .maybe not in the Korean DMZ. And even if Matt doesn’t KNOW that there is a God–or doesn’t care–the lyrics of the song he chose, and the images of the world he’s showing scream that there is a Divine Creator who put that “stream of life”–that LIVING water–into this place He created for us so long ago.

I taught a student a few years back who had just come to the United States from Pakistan. Pakistan had recently opened a Consulate in Houston, and his father had been chosen as Consul. I was invited to the Pakistani Independence Celebration where I met his mother. She and I stood and talked for a bit. She had three sons; two in “university” and the one in middle school. As we spoke, I asked her what it was like to move to the United States and if she missed home. Her reply was, “We took this job and came to give our sons a better education–a better life. They are happy, so I am happy.” I very nearly cried right there in the dining room of the Consulate building. It did not matter than she was from Pakistan and I was from the southern United States, or how old our kids were, or how we were dressed, or that we would probably disagree on our political points of view. We were two mothers wanting the exact same thing for our children: education, a good life, happiness.

That’s why I love this video.

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Thanks, Roxanne, for articulating such a neat sentiment.

So This Is Probably Photoshopped

So this probably is photoshopped, but even so, I had to admit that I laughed pretty hard at the thought of church trash talk via the church sign.

Church Bulletins

Okay...since I don't really have any great ideas for a post today (blogger's block), I thought I would reprint an email that was forwarded to me. First though, I want to give all of you moms a heads up to check out my cousin's blog. She has an upcoming Saving Supper Blog Carnival that you might be interested in reading about.

Now, to the post at hand. Enjoy the giggle.

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Thank goodness church ladies with typewriters. These sentences appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services.

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.

The sermon this morning: Jesus Walks on the Water. The sermon tonight: Searching for Jesus.

Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.

Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.

The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say 'Hell' to someone who doesn't care much about you.

Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.

Miss Charlene Mason sang I Will Not Pass This Way Again, giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be What Is Hell? Come early and listen to our choir practice.

Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.

The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.

Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.

The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.

This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.

Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B.S. is done.

Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.

Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use the large double door at the side entrance.

The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new contribution campaign slogan last Sunday : I Upped my Pledge - Up Yours.

It's Time for a Week Off

You know ever since Hurricane Ike, my motivation to get work done has been incredibly low. In fact, it just dawned on me that this week was the first FULL week that I have had complete with power. Maybe that is why I am so tired.

Maybe we need to take a cue from Ike and schedule more "holidays". Although, I think the government might frown on calling a natural disaster a holiday.

Just a thought.

Fantasia (1940) - The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Everyone, enjoy a little culture. My mother needed this for her elementary music class, and so I posted it for her.

I Think There Is Something Wrong With Me

So, I think there is something wrong with me. However, before I get started on this post, I need to comment on my previous post.

Many of you have commented, both in person and on my blog, about the fact that the whole money bank incident actually happened in college. Yes, it is true. In fact, all 6 of us were either in college or out in the work force. I'm now thinking that I should be embarassed by that. There is a picture that was taken that day with the boys and their banks and me empty handed, but I couldn't seem to find the picture. If I happen across, though, I'll post it.

Anyway, back to the point of this post...I think there is something wrong with me.

Usually, on Wednesday nights, I go grab dinner at Subway in between work and church. So, this evening, I leave work and head to Subway. Once I pick up my sandwich, I jump bag in my car to head back to church.

As I get closer to the building, I realize that it is only Tuesday. So, I switch lanes, and when the light turns green, I head for home.

Unfortunately, it actually is WEDNESDAY. I had made it about halfway home before I realized it, and honestly, the only thing that tipped me off to the day was the traffic guy.

Now what I want to know is where did Tuesday go?