While We Were Out

Whenever I leave home for a few nights or a long weekend, one of my greatest fears is to return home and NOT find things exactly as I left them. Well, I can say we've crossed that one off the list.

We returned home Sunday afternoon from a wonderful time with family over Thanksgiving, with lots of travelling and turkey and too much time in the car, longing only to sleep in our own beds. Instead, we climbed the stairs to the sound of an industrial fan and found all of our posessions piled high in the non-carpeted areas of our two-bedroom apartment. Sometime early Friday morning while we were away, a pipe near the water heater had burst and our apartment had flooded, mostly in the closets and bedrooms and hallway. When they called on Friday morning, they said it was a "leak" that got the "carpet" and would be "cleaned up" by the time we got home. Bleh for bad communication! Though not completely unexpected, it was still a shock. Thankfully, the water didn't get everything, but they had to clean the entire carpet so everything was moved and rearranged and piled up hurriedly. I will say one thing -- the poor guys who had to move all our heavy furniture and bookshelves and stuff miraculously moved three bookshelves and our computer desk without taking anything off the shelves. (Even Gaines' little Yoda figurine above the computer is still there!) Way to go, Carlos!

We stayed in a hotel for three nights and were able to return to our apartment on Wednesday night. (In between, some very gracious friends offered us places to hang out, nap, eat, play and check e-mail. We are so grateful for their hospitality! Jacob, especially, since it meant he could actually crawl around and interact with other kids!) They dried out the carpet and replaced the carpet pad, and now we're cleaning up the rest of the mess. We are just now finding out exactly what the damage entails. I'm finding all sorts of stuff that I didn't think about being on the floor, like the mesh laundry bags or the cardboard boxes of pictures under the bed. Thankfully, all of our electronics/computer stuff and furniture has survived unscathed. So, here I am, sitting at the computer researching how to get that mildew smell out of clothes! I'm very thankful for internet access. If you have any cleanup tips, please let me know.

I'll end with a few important things I've learned this week:

1. I am way more attached to things -- especially favorite pairs of shoes -- than I should be.
2. Always clean up before you go on vacation because you never know who may have to rearrange your stuff.
3. We have too much stuff.
4. Even if your home is in disarray and smells slightly musty, if you've been away for a while, sleeping in your own place is always better than somewhere else.
5. Always, and I mean ALWAYS, turn off the water before you plan to be out of town. It will just make things so much easier in case of unexpected emergencies.

|

Fare Thee Well, Chan

On Monday, Georgia Tech announced the firing of head football coach Chan Gailey, a move that was hardly surprising to long-suffering Jackets fans. Personally, I'm conflicted about the news. On the one hand, Gailey never had a losing season during his six years at Tech, and Tech recruited some stellar talent during his tenure. On the other hand, his teams always seemed to have the potential to perform much better than they actually did. One assessment I heard rings true: Gailey did a great job of turning average players into good teams, but he was never able to turn superior players into excellent teams. Of course, there's always the question of how much responsibility the head coach should bear in the first place, but that's another story.

Anyway, coaching talent aside, Gailey is a fine Christian man. This article gives a great example of how classy he is. I can only hope that his replacement is at least as good a person as he is.

|

Happy Thanksgiving!

Travel safely, eat well, and most importantly, be thankful!

|

Odds & Ends

Not much time for blogging these days, and even when there is, the office firewall doesn't always play nice with Blogger. I know, excuses, excuses. Anyway, here are a few links for your perusal.

Re:Greek is an online Biblical Greek resource from the folks at Mars Hill Church. From my limited poking around, it looks like the site has plenty of neat features, including parsing, lexical tools, concordances and what-not. Plus, it's FREE.

N.T. Wright spoke at Asbury Theological Seminary (Kentucky) earlier in the week, with chapel messages on "Use of Scripture in Contemporary Political Discourse" and "God is Public? Biblical Faith in Tomorrow's World." You can listen online at the Asbury chapel site. (Scroll down to 11/13 and 11/14 for high- and low-bandwith recordings of both talks.)

I have already listened to the first one, which was good. Wright gives an overview of how politically-minded folks in both the US and Britain use Scripture to advance their causes, noting that they tend to cherry-pick a few verses here and there while ignoring major themes and key passages. He then offers some insight on how the full story of Scripture (with particular attention to the Gospels) can and should inform the Church's interactions in the world. (Apparently, there was a third talk on Acts with Q&A, but it does not appear on the webpage. Pity.) Update: The third talk is now available.

Speaking of the Bishop of Durham, I just received my copy of John Piper's newly-released The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright in the mail this week. I think I would have been more interested about this book a year or two ago, but I'm still going to read it. I might even write a review.

Sufjan Stevens has a great Christmas present in the works: the rights to one of his songs. Contestants enter by submitting an original song. The winner gets to exchange the rights to his/her song for the rights to an unreleased Sufjan song.

Oh, and Sufjan has put up his entire (excellent) Christmas box set for free streaming here.

And finally, as a shout-out to Duke fans everywhere, here's a site devoted to their upcoming bowl game.

|

Christmas Giveaways at 5 Minutes for Mom!

Lately, I've been addicted to entering contests, and this is one of the best. So far, the prizes include diaper bags, a stroller, cameras, and a Secure2Me blanket (I have a sun-protection one, and think these are a great idea! Love the warm winter cuddly ones!). Click on the graphic here on in our sidebar to find out more -- it runs through Nov. 25th, so you might want to check it our soon!

Also, for those of you who aren't moms, I'm adding a Prizey graphic way down at the bottom of the sidebar, because online giveaways are fun, and someone has to win them, right?

|

happy 30th, daddy

|