Today Chck-fil-a is giving away “free” meals to anyone who comes in dressed like a cow. I don’t think that they took into account the loss of other things; things other than money. It still costs some level of pride that could be lost while walking onto campus dress as a cow. Than again…it is Chick-fil-a, and sooo worth it!

MOOOOOOO!

Ironman Muncie is tomorrow. It’s always interesting seeing all of these athletes roll into town. Tonight they will be carbing up at local restaurants after they check in. I think I will put on some athletic wear, write numbers on my arms and legs with a sharpie, and go out for pizza….but I don’t think I will be competing.

http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011107070324

Well, once again it has been way too long since I have written anything on here. I wish I had an excuse. Perhaps this isn’t so natural for me? Perhaps I have lacked the energy? Perhaps…well, I just haven’t.

I probably should have written when Dorothy Jayne refused to eat the tops of her asparagus insisting that it made her eyes jiggle. Especially once she demonstrated it after I challenged her claim. I now concede. It does make her eyes jiggle.

Perhaps I should have written something after Jack’s A-Team birthday party. The prompt was there. One of the kids proclaimed, “This is the best party ever!” sometime during the car chase that followed our jailbreak (sneaking out the guest room window).

I definitely should have written something when I watched my little Madi Sue (now 11 years old) drive off to Philadelphia for the week with some friends of ours.

Without question, Andrea’s trip to the Dominican Republic should have been mentioned…and my trip to Colorado with my brother to see my mom. But, alas, nothing.

Hmmm…I just glanced back at my previous posts and it seems evident that I am most motivated to write when we have an animal intrusion or a renovation snafu. Which may imply that my lack of writing indicates that we have experienced neither of the above recently. Not true. So, the mystery continues. Why haven’t I written anything? I will get back to you about this…maybe.

“All is gift. ‘Grace is everywhere.’ God in Christ is actively doing for and in us everything involved in the practice of resurrection. So what is there left for us to do? Receive. That is our primary response if we are to find ourselves no longer lost in the cosmos but at home in it. For the most part, receptivity is a learned response. Receive the gift. Paul’s question to the Ephesian elders when he first met with them continues to be implicit in this letter he later wrote. It reverberates still: ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became a believers?’ (Acts 19:2).”

Practice Resurrection, Eugene Peterson

“MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

……….Note, once again, the admirable work of our Philological Arm in substituting the negative unselfishness for the Enemy’s positive Charity.

Your affectionate uncle, SCREWTAPE”

The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis

“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. ‘He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,’ is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes….A soldier surrounded by enemies , if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water, and yet drink death like wine.”

Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton

“The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.”

Exodus 3:7

I would enjoy hearing what is running through your mind.

We had a great trip to Philadelphia. As always, it was too brief. Too brief to connect with all of the folks that we would want to. To brief to connect as deep with those who we saw. Too brief to eat at all of our favorite restaurants. Too brief to see all of our favorite things. Too brief….

When I returned from Philadelphia my bathroom sink was over flowing. I had left the water dripping so that it wouldn’t freeze. The drain either froze or somehow clogged and was now, one drip at a time, overflowing.

I decided to plunge it (a trick I learned from a restaurant that I worked at). This caused a lot of nasty black stuff to come out but it was still clogged. So, I poured Drano in it and went to bed.

I woke up to a sink that was full of nasty black water and Drano.

I tried to run a plumbers snake down it with no success. So, I decide to take the trap off to clean it out and run the snake from there.

I put a bucket down. I put the wrench to the nut and turned. It began to loosen. Then, the whole sink dropped from the cabinet onto the tile floor and shattered into pieces sending a tidal way of nasty, black, Drano, water onto the family room carpet and through my shoes into my socks.

Jack ran out. Andrea sheepishly peeked around the corner. I just stood there laughing.

At some points this would not be funny. But it just seemed so over the top in light of all the other house projects that we are doing. This was our working bathroom. Not to mention, I don’t think this has ever happened in the history of sinks.

Then again, I might be more light hearted because I also came home to a mouse in one of my traps. It seems that I just needed to fatten him up. Apparently he had no peanut allergies.

1. My first traps were the new kind. The mouse goes in a little box and the door closes behind him with force. Days go by, no success. I can’t blame the guy. It is like getting into your own coffin. The whole thing is a little suspicious. I credit my opponent for not being so foolish.

2. OMGosh! I hear screeching in my wall so loud that I can’t stay down stairs. Andrea had told me of such a sound before she went on her trip but I thought she was exaggerating. I couldn’t stay down stairs because it was so unnerving. I go upstairs. I can still hear it! I leave for more traps.

3. I set traps everywhere, with peanut butter bait as recommended. This time they are the normal kind, what you would think of in a mousetrap. I wake up the next day and none of the traps have been tripped.

4. I call the exterminator. The exterminator tells me that I likely have bats or FLYING SQUIRRELS beginning to hibernate in my walls. Bats, been there. Flying squirrels? I did not know that they existed in the States…but I am not surprised that they are in my walls.

5. Slightly relieved that the screeching is not coming from the mouse that is leaving droppings in my cabinet, I begin to hope that they are mouse-eating-flying-squirrels.

Still, I leave my arsenal of traps out for another day. No catch.

6. I wake up and realize that there is no peanut butter on the traps and yet they are not tripped! How long has this been the case? I only checked for tripped traps, not missing bait. Well done my little opponent.

7. I cram peanut butter into every whole and crack in the trap. He will work for it and I will win!

8. I wake up. Traps are not tripped and there is no more peanut butter on them than when I bought them! I am now imagining Mission Impossible mouse dropping down from the sky by a cable and licking away his prize.

9. My friend tells me that there is a “never-fails” trap. He has used it repeatedly with success. Large trash can in middle of the room with a ramp going up and an Oreo cookie at the bottom of the can. The greedy mouse goes in and can’t get out. I am willing to do whatever circus trick gets me out of this face-off. I construct the trap.

10. I wake up. I failed.

11. Glue traps. The mouse walks on and is instantly glued and can’t get out. It seems a little mean to me so I have waited to implement it. However, I WILL have my opponent.

12. Finally, a catch. Andrea gasps, “Dorothy!” My head quickly turns to see what’s the fright. Dorothy, in pink pajamas, holding a pink blanket in one hand, has her entire hand stuck in the trap. She is glued. I then watch my wife try to extract her like a fly friend trying to save his dear buddy from the flypaper.

13. Oh little mouse, where art thou?

Well, apparently, I only write when our house is being invaded by an animal. Which, happens to be several times a year.  It’s a mouse this time. It’s been days. There are several traps. I can’t catch him (or her).  I will keep you posted…because I know that you are real interested.

Ball State students made videos for local businesses to promote the downtown area.

Check out this website. After the intro click on “Explore”.

http://www.yourdowntownmuncie.com/

11:01 p.m.  I crumble a cookie in the cage so that the selfish little critter will have to work for every morsel.

6:00 a.m.   I greet my worthy opponent saying, “So, we meet again”. He looks sheepishly at me through the cage.

Raccoon: battle    Human: war