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Step One

Last night we had the first "meeting" of the newly formed College/Young Adults ministry at PCOL (our church). This is something we had wanted to do in CA after they hired a full-time youth pastor, but never had the chance to b/c of 1) baby and 2) moving.

So, one of our goals as we took over the "youth" ministry at PCOL was to start some sort of college ministry. We're not near a college, so it wouldn't really be a "reach out" type of thing. More of a way to support students who were in the HS group and have since gone on to college. I think it's kinda ironic that the first thing we did officially "on our own" was start a new ministry, not have a meeting for any of the existing ones. :-) Like we don't have enough to do...

Anyway, we met for coffee and dessert. Just basically wanted to get to know them (four came) and find out what we can do to support them.

The highlights were a rousing game of Taboo (especially entertaining was the non-native English speaker trying to get people to guess "Glasnost". I believe he passed on that one.) and a sampling of my Christmas gift, the 2005 Jones Soda Holiday Pack (I got the "Regional" one).

We decided the flavors were (from worst to best):

1. Turkey and Gravy
   
2. Broccoli Cassarole
   
3. Smoked Samon Paté
   
4. Corn on the Cob
   
5. Pecan Pie
   

Seriously, the first two were nasty.

A good time was had by all, fellowship was fellowed, and shots were downed, just not the kind you usually expect with college kids. These were far worse.

"I was Xtraing when I met you..."

I've mentioned before about Xtras shifts. Basically, during a few peak times, "back of house" employees (ie: you don't work in the park itself) work a few shifts in the park to help deal with extra traffic.

Yesterday I worked in the games area of Lost Continent. It's a collection of your typical midway games. Ring toss, water gun race, etc.

I was working the "knock the bottles off the platform with the beanbag" game. I'm watching some kid throw the beanbag, and he knocks down a bottle or two.

"Oh, so close. Maybe next time," I say in my friendly/barker voice. I turn to set the bottles up, grab the beanbags, turn back around to the guests, and...

I'm eye-to-eye, two feet away from Steven Tyler.

My first thought was, "Wow. This guy reminds me of... Steven Tyler."

This was followed immediately by, "This IS Steven Tyler."

Then it became surreal because he really liked the beanbags (they were made out of leather and actually kinda cool... for beanbags), and he started asking me if he could buy them. I said I had no idea. Then he wanted to know where he could buy them, and I'm saying stuff like, "I don't know, maybe a party supply store?" when I'm really thinking, "How did I end up trying to help Steven FRICKIN' Tyler find places to buy beanbags!?"

Anyway, he was very nice and friendly. And, as they always say, seemed smaller than you'd think.

And, no, Liv was unfortunately not with him.

I have another shift today. Working the turnstiles. Since the famous people usually don't come through the front gate, so I doubt I'll have a story to top this one by day's end. But who knows. Maybe...

Apocalypto

I just finished watching the trailer for Mel Gibson's new movie, Apocalypto. Is this movie all about how the Aztecs (or is it Mayans?) could run? Because that's pretty much all the trailer shows. Them running through the woods. Running with torches. Running from each other.

Maybe it's a pre-Prefontaine?

WHOA!

I just realized that I'm approaching 200% of my bandwidth usage this month. My guess is folks have been linking to ads I've posted in here. So, I'm taking all the big movies off. I'm still probably screwed for this month, but I've got a way to serve stuff so it shouldn't happen again.

Gondork

I'm blatently hoarking this from Roland's blog because everytime I look at it, it makes me laugh.

Let's Get It Started

I should be able to resume my usual babble of blogging now that work load has decreased. However, it just wouldn't feel right to jump into the next post without at least acknowledging that one of the most important events in the world has passed by.

So, I hope all of you who celebrate it had a merry Christmas. For any Jewish readers, I hope Haunukah continues to be illuminating. And if you celebrate Kwanzaa, please post in the comments and tell us what it is even celebrating.

Alright, charming child story time.

Ali is sitting on my lap at the front of church during "Time for Kids" on Sunday morning. This is when the children all come forward and someone gives a short message for kids. The pastor was doing it this Christmas morn' and he asked, "What would you give Jesus for Christmas?"

I repeated the question for Ali in her ear. She leaned back to me and whispered, in a voice the said she had the greatest gift of all in mind, "A jack-in-the-box."

I do so love their tacos.

UPDATE: Holy crap! I can get J-in-the-B tacos delivered (among other items)!

TPQ Thursday

Category: Wild Card
Question: For whom did Mark Twain reserve one of the three chimneys in his Hartford home?

Engulfed

Just when I thought I'd dug my way out from under piles of work (mainly radio scripts), I get deluged with changes (And a small pile of new jobs to go with 'em). Guess I should have gotten those scripts right the first time. :-)

Song of the Day: "Deliver Me" by David Crowder Band (original and remix are worthy)

Back To Normal

Sorry the blog when back to the future for awhile there. Apparently the TypePad engine was wonky, so they shut down new entries and put up an old copy of everyone's blogs while they worked things out.

It's all shiny now.

Speaking of shiny, has anyone seen the commercial for the Serenity DVD (out this Tuesday)? Oh my goodness. It is so clear that Universal has no idea how to market this movie. So sad.

Short Stories

Scene One
At Ali's preschool class's Christmas party today.

ALI: Here, daddy, do you want a bite? [holds out cookie to me]
ME: Sure. [bite]
ALI: They make you cough. But only a little bit. [takes bite] [swallows] [proceeds to offer up the fakest cough I've heard since I tried to get my mom to pick my up from the nurse's office in junoir high so I could miss a test I hadn't studied for]
ALI: See. Just a little bit.

Scene Two
Ali has been wary of one of her classmates because apparently he pushes her on the playground or something.

ALI: [pulling a leaf off a plant] I'm going to keep this flower to give to Abhay for when we get married.
MOM: I thought you didn't like Ahbai because he wasn't nice to you.
ALI: He got better.