Beautiful Sunny Friday

Oh the crockpot pork roast was the best ever, and it didn't matter that it got warmer outside.
It was a center cut, looked like about 2 pounds, with onion, potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms cut up chunky-like on top, and then a package each of beefy mushroom and onion soup mix over all. Maybe a cup and a half of water, cooked on LOW all day and wallah!

Dem fine meal, sir; dem fine.

I almost didn't have room for the Kroger Lite Fun Munch Cookies 'N' Cream Deluxe Churned Ice Cream my sweetie left me with, but I made room (as usual).

Tigers won, Soria got his 20th save, and I am tied with the league leader heading into the weekend in my fantasy baseball week.

My prayer on this Friday

Theraputic Thursday

Cool, dark, and rainy this morning. I was able to finish up the power-washing yestreday and return the borrowed washer. I made a little fire near where I was working to help deter the mosquitoes - it was so damp and still - AND i was working in an area we rarely bother. Those skeeters needed some rousing!
The patio blocks look much better. I will not say they look 'brand new' cuz they don't. Just much better. We don't have good drainage and several bricks are crumbling. But most of the black stains are gone, and I am thankful. Next I get to paint and hang the flag, if it ever dries up here in beautiful southeastern lower Michigan.

We threw a roast in the crockpot this morning, it's that kind of day...

Tigers are in Minnesota for a four game set before the All-star break. You can vote for one of five players in each of the AL and NL to make the team as many times as you want. I'm voting for Cespedes and Familia a hundred times.


Thank You, Father, for this new day.
May my heart be like Christ's; may my mind think Your thoughts.

 

4th of July Weekend Fun

We spent much of the weekend entering into projects long deemed necessary and finally pronounced mandatory by both of us: power-washing the deck and patio brick, fixing up and painting the trim and fascia of our home and shed, getting a new vac, and we finally got that American flag my sweetie has been wanting for so long. In fact, last Thursday we took an evening trip to the closest Menards (where you save big money), in Lansing. It had been a while since we were there last, and I only got lost once on the way.
When we finally got there, we grabbed a cart and began our journey through the myriads of over-priced snack items, T-shirts, flashlights you wear on your head, miracle cleaners, and 24 packs of winter socks to get to our five primary objectives.

i) Slider screen door rollers - check!

ii) Vinyl shutters for our kitchen window (brown, to conform) - check!

iii) Garbage can with a lid and wheels - check! (double check, as we found a nice 13 gallon can with a lid for the kitchen also!)

iv) 1 x 4 rough sawn cedar boards to replace some of the rotten trim on the shed - check! (I've always loved Menards for boards - you get to go up on a catwalk to find the ones you want :-)

v) Garden hose caddy/roller/something to store the hose in instead of leaving it coiled up on the patio - we really didn't agree on one during this trip; we had to wait until our next excursion to The Home Depot to score number v.

Having acquired 80 percent of our objectives (80 plus, if you include the jumbo can of pretzels and the We Love the USA T-shirt my wife had to have), we moved down the retail road towards Target, where we were looking for a deal on bathroom towels or perhaps an upright bagless vacuum that sucked pretty well. Neither popped into our radar here, so we were back on Interstate 96 heading home.
There is a Wal-mart right off the expressway about half way home so we decided to stop there for a look at the vacs. Bam - the

PowerForce® Helix™ Turbo Bagless Vacuum 68C71

jumped right out at us, and stole our hearts. And for twenty bucks less than the list price, we were sold.
So as I lugged the behemoth of a taped up box over my shoulder toward the checkout aisle, and my bride tactfully did a quick search for some nice soft cheap bath towels ( and found some nice ones!), we happened upon a watermelon on rollback that had 'summer tasty' - as well as our name - written all over it.

We scored again, glory to God.

Due to the sobering fact that White Castle was closed (WHAT?!? It's like 10:02?!?), we made a reluctant visit to KFC right next door. Now, it's already dark, and we're about a twenty minute drive away from home, and a bucket of yummy juicy hot flavorful chicken would end up (at least on the driver's side) mostly on my shirt, in the seat, and on the floor. So we got these little chicken sandwiches and a diet Dr. Pepper for the trip home.The moon was rising full and orange right in front of us and we made it home without arguing once. :~P

Still unsatisfied and a bit heartbroken regarding number v) above, we made an early Friday morning trip before work into Brighton (Li'l Chef for breakfast only because they were open so early, and we probably won't go there again any time soon) for our Home Depot run. The garden center had all manner of hose apparatus's (apparati?) in every price range. We decide to get the little holder that I ended up mounting to a landscape timber buried into the ground right off the deck. I topped the timber with a 1 x 3 crossways, from which I hung three suet feeders. Looking good, Winthorp.

From The Home Depot, Moni took me back to where we had left the Grape the night before. She went on to her greenhouse of fun, I to my office of despair. I worked a couple hours and then headed home with my gallon of Behr's paint, can of wasp spray, and the hose holder.

The entire weekend was warm and sunny, which allowed us to get much done around the house. We ended up borrowing a power sprayer for the deck and patio, and we are still in the process of finishing that job up.  Hopefully finish washing tonight, and then by this weekend it will be dry enough to paint - and then fly that flag!

Thank You, LORD, for our home, and for providing the resources to fix it up.
Thank You for teaching us to work together, and to love each other throughout all.
Thank You for giving my wife such a vision for potential and change for the better.
And thank You for bringing us together twenty one years ago.
Glory to You, LORD!

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest

Cleanse me from my sins, Lord.
Reject me not, O Lord.
Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and renew a right spirit within me.

Blessed be the Name of the LORD!
Holy is the Name of the LORD!

Pour out upon us Your Good Spirit.

Cleanse us from our sin, heal our land, turn our hearts back to You.


Hymn #233
The Lutheran Hymnal


1. Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,
Vouchsafe within our souls to rest;
Come with Thy grace and heavenly aid
And fill the hearts which Thou hast made.

2. To Thee, the Comforter, we cry,
To Thee, the Gift of God Most High,
The Fount of life, the Fire of love,
The soul's Anointing from above.

3. The sevenfold gifts of grace are Thine,
O Finger of the Hand Divine;
True promise of the Father Thou,
Who dost the tongue with speech endow.

4. Thy light to every thought impart
And shed Thy love in every heart;
The weakness of our mortal state
With deathless might invigorate.

5. Drive far away our wily Foe
And Thine abiding peace bestow;
If Thou be our protecting Guide,
No evil can our steps betide.

6. Make Thou to us the Father known,
Teach us the eternal Son to won
And Thee, whose name we ever bless,
Of both the Spirit, to confess.

7. Praise we the Father and the Son
And Holy Spirit, with them One;
And may the Son on us bestow
The gifts that from the Spirit flow! Amen.

by Rhabanus Maurus, 776-856
Translated by Edward Caswall, 1814-1878

Text: John 14:26
Author: Rhabanus Maurus, 856
Translated by: Edward Caswall, 1849, alt.
Titled: Veni, Creator Spiritus, Mentes
Tune: "Komm, Gott Schoepfer" based on "Veni, Creator Spiritus," c. 600

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

Oh, how God keeps sending to me AT THE EXACT PERFECT TIME, just what I need...thank You, Father, for Your goodness.


All praise to You - eternal Father!
All glory to You - immortal, invisible God only wise!
We worship Your majesty - King of Creation! 
Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow!
Praise Christ, His Son - Redeemer of the world!
Praise His Spirit - our Comforter and Guide!

Gladly for aye we adore Him!

"Praise to the Lord, the Almighty"
by Joachim Neander, 1650-1680

Translated by Catherine Winkworth, 1829-1878

1. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is Thy Health and Salvation!
Join the full throng:
Wake, harp and psalter and song;
Sound forth in glad adoration!

2. Praise to the Lord, who o'er all things so wondrously reigneth,
Who, as on wings of an eagle, uplifteth, sustaineth.
Hast thou not seen
How thy desires all have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

3. Praise to the Lord, who hath fearfully, wondrously, made thee;
Health hath vouchsafed and, when heedlessly falling, hath stayed thee.
What need or grief
Ever hath failed of relief?--
Wings of His mercy did shade thee.

4. Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee,
Who from the heavens the streams of His mercy doth send thee.
Ponder anew
What the Almighty can do,
Who with His love doth befriend thee.

5. Praise to the Lord! Oh, let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him!
Let the Amen
Sound from His people again;
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #39
Text: Neh. 9:6
Author: Joachim Neander, 1679
Translated by: Catherine Winkworth, 1863, alt.
Titled: "Lobe den Herren, den maechtigen"
Tune: "Lobe den Herren, den"
1st Published in: _Erneuertes Gesangbuch_
Town: Stralsund, 1665

I love my wife.
I enjoy Tiger games, especially when they win.
I tolerate our boyQuat, and really don't like it when he pushes his face into everything. He is cute; but he's learned how to be annoying in order to get food.

I like how James McCann hits home runs when you don't expect him to.

I like how our community doesn't allow fireworks.

I like how many fans I saw were still at the Tiger game last night in the 13th inning in the wee hours of the morning.

USA Bless God

During my morning readings I was touched by this prayer, offered by Maria Faustina Kawalska on behalf of her native Poland.

I offer it to-day on behalf of our great country:

Most merciful Jesus, I beseech You through the intercession of Your Saints, 

and especially the intercession of Your dearest Mother 

who nurtured You from childhood, bless my native land. 

I beg You, Jesus, look not on our sins, but on the tears of little children, 

on the hunger and cold they suffer. 

Jesus, for the sake of these innocent ones, 

grant me the grace that I am asking of You for my country.

Recipe # 15

This is a rub recipe I found for the pork tenderloin I got at Meijer and decided to grill up this past Sunday. I did not trim the fat from the loin, and I also forgot to sear all the sides.

Searing, I found, is important. Without the sear, you lose much flavor, AND, the juices of this very lean cut of meat will run out. As a result, the meat ended up being tougher than I would have preferred.
I also cooked it until it was white all through, something I don't normally do. It read at least 150 degrees F everywhere I checked; usually I pull it off the grill when it starts getting near 145 - and then let it rest under a foil tent.

I didn't realize just how much juice this cut lost until the following day when I was going to cook brats and burgers on my charcoal grill. I lit the briquettes and waited about ten minutes for them to get pretty hot before shutting the lid to get the grilling surface nice and hot. When I came back out a couple minutes later, the temp on the grill hood read over 700 degrees F and the entire charcoal pan was in flames!

Do be careful, one and all.

Here's the list of items for the rub:

2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp ground cayenne powder
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Combine in a small bowl. Set the loin on a large platter and apply the rub evenly to cover the entire roast. I let it sit about 40 minutes at room temperate before cooking.

The charcoal I kept heaped on the left. Sear the meat here, then cook it with the vents open on the right (indirect heat).  I went about 40 minutes on each side and then maybe 20 minutes more overall, for this 3 pound hunk of pork.

Do let it rest for a bit under foil before you slice it. I enjoyed the meat with grilled bi-color corn and a bit of potato salad.

Thanking God daily for His provision.

Monica

She waters all the flowers and her shirt has got a tear
She never ever goes to mass, she sings like she don't care
And early in the morning she's got benders in her hair
The love she has for country music scares me

She's always late for dinner, but her penitence is real
She's never late for work at all, her flowers are ideal
I do quite often say it, and  I very firmly feel
Mon-ic-a's quite an asset to the green-house

I'd like to say a word in her behalf; (go ahead Sister MillerLite-ia)
Mon-ic-a makes me laugh.


How do solve a problem like Mon-ic-a?
How do catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do find the word that means Mon-ic-a?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!

Many a thing you know you'd like to tell her
Many a thing she ought to understand
But how do you make her stay
And listen to all you say
How do you keep a wave upon the sand?

Oh, how do solve a problem like Mon-ic-a?
How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?

When I'm with her I'm confused, out of focus and bemused
And I never know exactly where I am...

Unpredictable as weather, she's as flighty as a feather
She's a darling! She's a demon! She's a lamb!

She'd out pester any pest, drive a hornet from its nest
She could throw a whirling dervish out of whirl

She is gentle! She is wild! She's a riddle! She's a child!
She's a headache! 

She's an angel! 

She's a girl!

How do solve a problem like Mon-ic-a?
How do catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do find the word that means Mon-ic-a?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!

Many a thing you know you'd like to tell her
Many a thing she ought to understand
But how do you make her stay
And listen to all you say
How do you keep a wave upon the sand?

Oh, how do solve a problem like Mon-ic-a?
How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?


This is not my creation. I took the song Maria (The Nuns), written by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein for The Sound of Music motion picture, and butchered it a bit. The show song has always reminded my of my beloved wife Monica, whom I love dearly.

Passing it On

I thank F. Allan Debelak, my fifth grade teacher at Greenfield Peace Lutheran School, 7000 West Outer Drive in Detroit, for playing his guitar and leading us in singing songs about Christ and our love for Him. We (an adventurous few) would sit on the backs of the chairs attached to our desks, in order to (perhaps) be closer to God, while we sang and clapped and reveled in not having to do social studies or some other such non-essential. We sang popular choruses from that era - Blind Man (Stood by the Road and He Cried), Thank You, Pass it On (It Only Takes a Spark), I Am the Bread of Life, I Cannot Come, Give Me Oil In My Lamp, Arky Arky, Lord of the Dance. There were more, I just cannot recall any others right now.

Mr. Debalak played his guitar and wore bell bottoms and had a huge white-person afro. I liked him but he only stayed for one year. He was replaced by Lonnie Nagel, whom I may discuss in another post. I think F. Allan was hired to replace Mr. Prokopy, who left for 'personal reasons'. (We found out later it was to go to another Lutheran school in the area, a school we regularly whipped in basketball contests.) I just found out Mr. Prokopy passed away in 2008.

F. Allan Debelak is now a Lutheran pastor (he likes to be called Pastoral, heh heh) at an ELCA church in Columbus OH (I know).

Mr. Debelak still likes to sing and play

Merciful Jesus

I am part of an online Bible study group of people from all over the world; we're reading through the four Gospels in a calendar year. Yestreday's reading was from Dr. Luke, where he describes the Transfiguration and Jesus' call for us to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses daily. One of the folks in our group posted this prayer, which so spoke to my heart that I have copied it here, with permission, and I am making it my personal prayer to-day.

Thanks so much to Joyce W for all the spiritual insight and wisdom you share with us daily.

Lord, You give to each of us the cross of self knowledge. 

When we fail to take up that cross and allow You to transform us, 

we add to the weight of the crosses of others around us. 

Merciful Jesus, help me to face up to my own shortcomings 

and to respond with love and mercy to the shortcomings of others.

LORD, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

Movies, Movies, Movies

In the absence of a baseball game in which our Tigers could remain at least fairly competitive, on Saturday night I rented American Sniper. I knew very little about the movie, other than Bill Simonson (The Huge Show 3-6 pm WBBL Grand Rapids, @HugeShow) highly recommended it and advised I shouldn't watch it with my kids. I also had heard the ending was stunning, and some folks somewhere were offended by this picture. And my only knowledge of Bradley Cooper was from Valentines Day (puhleeeeeze) and The A-Team, which I loved.
The intensity of the war scenes and the ups and downs of title character Chris Kyle's relationship with his wife Taya were both compelling factors and assets in this picture. But Cooper's consistency and believability, as well as an excellent screenplay and superb directing, make this film - period.
I understand the graphic violence and foul language are real parts of soldiers lives, and I hope that I don't become accustomed to that stuff - so that it remains shocking. (Actually, I'm only referring to the violence. My mouth is pretty foul quite often). But seriously, it's not one to watch with the kids.

I was also blessed to take in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939 - Hollywood's greatest year!!) over the weekend, and for the first time I watched it in its entirety. James Steward is a naive young congressman who finds the best interests of his great state are up against a self-aggrandizing political machine bully, who also happens to have many 'friends' in the same house of congress. Senator Smith stays true to his values, in spite of untrue personal character attacks, and every effort by the corrupt political machine to remove him from the Senate.
Jean Arthur plays a DC reporter who is touched by Smith's innocence and naivete, and ends up falling for the big lug. Precious, endearing story, brought to us by the same Frank Capra responsible for George Bailey and Henry Potter.

Incidentally, many actors in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) were also in Smith: Stewart plays George Bailey and Jeff Smith, Beulah Bondi - George Bailey's mom and Jeff Smith's mom, H.B. Warner - druggist Mr. Gower and the Senate Majority Leader, Thomas Mitchell - Uncle Billy and Diz the reporter.

I am not going to the Hamburg Family Fun Fest this weekend

I have learned all I want to know about starlings, whose beaks are dark in winter and yellow in summer.
They are bullies.
They may or may not live near you. Please check the copied map for the grey coverage areas (thanks to Wikipedia.org)

They make a mess of your eaves and the surrounding fascia.
They enjoy nuts and fruit and all manner of suet.
They squawk with annoying repensity (if this is not a word, it should be).
They do not like safflower seed.
They do not like to feed underneath cover.

I found a local farm and feed store that sells safflower seed at a pretty good price and will keep my feeder filled with that for a while. That is Action Point 3.

Action Point 1 was to hang white plastic shopping bags near the gaps in our siding where the opportunist Sturnus vulgaris used to enter their (rent-free) nesting spots. One of the two bags did deter the starlings and now I have only one nest site to deal with.

Action Point 2 actually moves in the PG-13 to R rating; the details will therefor be withheld from this forum.

Action Point 4 follows from the last item I learned in my search to find out all I wanted to know about starlings. Since they can demolish an entire suet cake in about an hour, and thereby do not allow the other smaller, prettier, songier birds to also enjoy, I have purchased bowls to cover the cages. I will drill a hole in the bottom of the bowls and slip the hanging chain through the hole. Chickadees, finches, woodpeckers and nuthatches apparently don't mind hanging a little cocked to eat their fill. So I will finish this project, take some photos, and share my observations.

Otherwise, the hummingbirds have been making short work of my 4 to 1 nectar hanging right outside our kitchen window. They seem to also loose almost all stagefright in the late evening, when we see four or five at a time come around dancing, darting, and bellying up to drink. Beautiful handiwork of the Creator, these hummers are! The stunning contrast in color from the ruby ring around the male neck to their shimmering green coat and white belly, and then the more constant shiny green-grey the females sport.

We have already been blessed with fresh herbs from the garden to season our meat and potatoes with. My problem is using too much at any one time due to my exploding enthusiasm in using what nature provides rather than what Kroger provides (and due in part also to a general lack of common sense).


gloria sit Deo!

Just as a follow up ...

...after her flights have been completed - when Monica does land here in beautiful southeast lower Michigan - she will have been in the skies above 14 of the 50 states on this day: CO, KS, MO, AR, TN, MS, AL, GA, NC, VA, KY, WV, OH, and MI.



And all because she got so see these cuties:

Spirit Air

We've* been flying Spirit Air for almost 20 years now and have never had a late flight or any type of problem whatsoever. But we must have been overly lucky up until my wife's most recent trip out west.

Her Friday morning flight out of Detroit Metro was delayed. Wouldn't have been a big deal, except she had booked a 2 hour shuttle bus ride from the Denver airport up to the Air base in Cheyenne. So she missed her bus, but they run every two hours and she was able to hop on the next one.

Her return flight was scheduled to leave Denver at about 8 pm yestreday (Monday) local time and arrive at Metro at about 12:30 in the morning (Tuesday here). Well, yestreday morning the flight was posted as 'delayed' about two hours. She had enough notice and so was able to spend an extra couple of hours with those babies before hopping on the bus south.
By the time she got to the airport, though, there was already another hour delay posted, and shortly thereafter, the flight was cancelled.

Cancelled?

What do ya do now?

We talked on and off for almost two hours as she waited in line with a hundred other happy souls and as I tried to access alternative flight options online by means of our very unreliable internet connection (remember the joy of trying to download songs in 1995 through the phone line?!?). The frustration level was high, and I swore some.

2:30 am our time and she just called with the itinerary: 6:25 am (about six hours from now) Delta 1517 leaves for Atlanta and arrives at 10:54 am. After a two hour and 16 minute layover, she will board Delta 1608 at 1:34 pm and arrive in Romulus at exactly 3:31 pm. Meaning, I get to leave work a little early :-).

She was in good spirits and with good people, and I thank God for that. She also said there's a McDonald's with dollar cheeseburgers in the airport. Life is good.


Thank You, Father, for working this out. Thank You for always making a way, thank You for always providing. 

We love You, too.
 



I am ready for bed.




'We' is a bit of a misnomer. I flew once with my wife down to Lauderdale for a spring break adventure in 1996. We rented a Sebring convertible at the airport and spent a week in the Keys. It was a wonderful time. It was also the only time I've ever flown. Moni has flown to Vegas a couple times with her sister, and more recently, several times to Denver, en route to see her son and his family in Cheyenne, WY.

Tommee sings and plays...

Sunday Evening Prayer

Perfect Holy Immortal, Invisible God only wise,

All praise to You this evening! You alone are worthy of our praise; if we did not sing out, the rocks would!

I confess our sin to you, Lord, and ask for Your forgiveness yet again, by the blood of the Lamb. For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Thank You for all good gifts: life, love, laughter, family, friends, food, shelter, song, salvation.

Father, I pray tonight for those who are ill and suffering - bring Your healing to them

for those who are without a home to lay their head - provide for them

for those without a family to love them - send surrogate family from Christ's Body

for those who have no one to pray for them - hear their prayer

for those who feel the need to hurt others - change their hearts

for those with little - be their Sustenance

for those with much - be our Sufficiency

for those who do not yet know You - come, Lord Jesus

for those who do know You and struggle with doing the right thing - forgive us when we fail, and give us the grace to continue to fight the good fight

for those faced with weighty decisions - grant us Your peace

for those who are grieving tonight - comfort their hearts.

Into Your hands we commend ourselves, our bodies and souls and all things. Let Your Holy Spirit be with us, that the wicked foe may have no power over us.

Amen

Thumpin Thursday

My beautiful bride is flying out west tomorrow early am to see the grand-babies and I will be holding down the proverbial fort. The grass is already cut, so I will be bored.

Joslin Mia and Liam Jason get to visit with Gramma Moni all weekend!

Not really. I will have the vegetables, herbs and annuals to water and tend to, and the hummingbirds to talk to.

The fantasy baseball week goes from Monday through Sunday, so I usually spend a good bit of time on the weekend shoring up my team for the next week. Injuries, player trends, suspensions, hunches (I do alot of that), and MLB Network's Quickpitch help me make informed decisions.

Despite my regular bitch sessions, I do enjoy many aspects of my current job as a mortgage loan processor on the second floor of an office above Coney Joes in beautiful downtown Brighton Michigan. First and foremost, I have been able to get my Spider Solitaire win percentage in two suits up to 90% through persistence and tenacity. Secondly, I enjoy meeting nice people and having brief, mostly meaningless conversations, all under the guise of trying to obtain necessary documents/information/etc. Thirdly, the smells from Coney Joes below us are overwhelmingly endearing.

What a Weekend!

We got alot done in our yard this past weekend - thankful for the wonderful weather we had!
Parsley, tomatoes, peppers, and pineapple sage have been doing fairly well, so I added garden sage (Thanksgiving yummmm!), sweet basil (bruschetta!), rosemary (flavoring our pork loins), oregano (oh that Italian-y aroma!) and German thyme (a plethora of uses - it will replace our mother-of-thyme, which did not survive the record-low-temperature winter). Cut the grass and weed-whipped all over to give the estate a nice, trimmed look. Also had to replace our blower; to get the grass clippings off the patio, our new Homelite150 mph 233 CFM 7 Amp Electric Blower/Sweeper did the job.

Won my fantasy week, thanks to Jason Hamel's 58 points - i think my best pitching score ever! The guy i'm against this week has Max pitching twice so i'll need a little more from Miggy and hoping Rendon is healthy and productive!

 
 


And now, I work a little...

When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Photgrapher

Bigass spider at work

Otis the Quat on his perch

From his perch atop his scratch post, Otis the Quat can look at the birds to the north

The forsythia bush only partially blocks Otis the Quat's view of the northern birds

Full moon a couple nights ago, with my .03 megapixel phone camera

Full moon rising a couple nights ago, about 20 minutes after it was low and orange

Full moon rising in the southeast a couple nights ago

Full moon and our scantily illuminated shed

Why does it look so big live, and then in photos it looks so small?

Google does this for me; I have not yet this skill

Our little patio south of the deck

A little American Flag, in our barrel planter, south of the large sagae hosta (named Hosta of the Year in 2000) on our little patio

Out of focus, and taken through both a dirty window pane and the accompanying screen, a hummer sits amid the dappled willows

A slick attempt at capturing the hummer feeding, this time through the open window and nearly opaque screen, failed

Pussycats and Potassium

The losing streak engulfing our Tigers has made evenings just ordinary. Forgive me, Lord, for placing so much of my anticipation in regular sporting events.

Anibal Sanchez led the American League in ERA two years ago, but has struggled at times this year

  
Rachael Ray's Sloppy Joes, a favorite in our household for the past several years, will allow me to work inside instead of out. Last night we had asparagus, corn, and marinated chicken cooked over charcoal on the grill. As I covered the grill back up this morning, the smells from the chicken assaulted my olfactory senses causing mild salivation.

This perfect plate really only shows about a quarter of my meal last night.

Forgive me, Lord, for placing so much of my anticipation on food. Forgive my gluttony and lust of all good things edible. Help me to enjoy the recreational activities and provision You have given us, without making it such a big deal.

You are the Big Deal. You suffice. You satisfy. You fill - to overflowing. You imbibe.
I praise You this morning; You alone are worthy of praise.

Worrying?? Me?!?

I think worry is a sin that those of us who like to have control of the situation commit more often than others do. Stress is a result of this worry, and I will leave that topic for another day.

I remember during my first years of teaching, I would have nightmares that I had lost control of a class. I would be screaming and threatening and no one would listen! Airplanes and rubber bands flying around the room, kids drawing on the marker boards and sitting on the desks talking and laughing loudly (a nightmare indeed!), ... it was terrible.

It's always so easy for me to worry about things like paying bills, rent, insurance,  car payment, etc on time. I can also be quite anxious over a visit to the dentist. (I loathe that chair and the upside down angle I am reclining at while strangers poke and prod in my mouth, and I think that I hope I never really have to be in one ever again as long as I live. Contrarily, sitting upright while having a a white-robed individual peer incessantly into my eyeballs with the painful brightest of bright white lights and even enduring the poof of air test is a walk in the park for me.) I find myself grabbing the arms of the dentist chair until my forearm muscles cramp up, and thusly God reminds me to give it to Him - and stop worrying!

He always knows when I need him the most. He always speaks to me through circumstances, people, and even the animals (the hummers at our feeder and catmint plant last night were a special treat!).

He knows what I'm enduring, what I'm facing; He knows all about the bills and the dentists and the IRS and the necessary losses. And He's not worried. Nor shall I be. :-)

As faithful members of the Body of Christ, we would do well to heed the words of St Peter

And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for

“God opposes the proud,
    but gives grace to the humble.”

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves, keep alert.

~1 Peter 5:5-8a 

God, grant me the serenity 

to accept the tings I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can, 

and the wisdom to know the difference.

Blessed be God forever!

Beautiful Cool Monday

Cool (cold, actually) air coming in my westerly facing office window as the noise of Monday morning Grand River traffic in my left ear competes with 99.1 Today's Lite Rock in my right.

After the heat and humidity of the past week, all of a sudden yestreday a front moved through and wallah! it got cold. I was coerced into closing ALL our windows at home can you believe it; there was even discussion of a fire in the fireplace!

I lost several writings I had not yet posted here, in an effort to organize my photos on my desktop at home. I am sad.

Thankful for a new day and for the time I got to spend with my sweetie this past weekend.

Blessed be God forever!

Thanking God for His provision - a newer, safer, roomier vehicle: The Journey