Spirit of the Y -3rd Place- Really?

As readers of the blog know, I recently made my way to Provo, UT, to meet Our Lady of BYU for Parents Weekend. You can read the older posts from October and see that we had a really good time. I found out that BYU had a photo contest for Parents Weekend and I submitted one of our photos on a whim, without telling anybody. Well, lo and behold, I found out earlier this week that we won! We took third place in the "Spirit of the Y" category. Here's the winning entry:

As far as I am concerned, we should have taken 1st! You can judge for yourself by going to the Parents Weekend website. We won a $10 Gift Card to the BYU Bookstore. I hope Our Lady of BYU spends it wisely.

Getting ready this afternoon to accompany PTL on an overnight in the local forest preserve. Umm...it's gonna suck. Supposed to be about 14 degrees tonight without the windchill. Ah...midwest winters. Maybe we'll get a surprise snowstorm to make it all the better tonight.

Is it Friday yet?

Really. Is it Friday yet? As I was leaving the office this evening, I honestly thought it was Thursday. Alas, it's only Tuesday but it feels like it should be Thursday. That's the kind of week it's been already.

Started the morning teaching Seminary at 0600, then raced to the office, where I was at my desk for a grand total of one hour today. I was awash in meetings today. No, not awash, flooded, even inundated with them. Even managed to miss one - only a critical one with my boss. Awesome.

Traffic was brutal coming home. As I was driving home, I called SML to check in and heard the sounds of a crying baby in the background. I knew it wasn't ours since we checked out of the baby stage long ago. We weren't babysitting either but I heard a baby. Well, I forgot that CAL is taking a "family life" class in high school and for the next two days (through Thursday), we have a "baby" in our house. Said "baby" is crafted from what I'm sure is the finest Chinese plastic and looks fairly authentic. Its cries, though, are dead-on. The makers of this robo-baby recorded the sounds of a real baby and loaded it up. This baby cries, A LOT. CAL has to care for this thing like there's no tomorrow because it records how it's treated. I held it for all of five seconds and have never been more creeped. CAL has to haul it to school or wherever she goes in a baby carrier. Fine lessons for the high schoolers. Screaming reminder why I am way glad we aren't having babies in our 40's. But every time I hear that robo-baby cry, I wish even more that it was Thursday.

Heard from Our Lady of BYU today. She's entered blogdom. I've put a link to her blog in the "Linked" section of this blog. You can read her blog here. Maybe she can make the weekend get here faster. Someone has to - I'm going to lose my mind.

"Fireproof" thoughts

So last night, for the first time in ages, SML and I had a chance to get out as a couple for a date. We joined our friends M & E for dinner and a movie. Dinner in suburban Chicagoland on a Friday night can be a battle against massive lines but last night, no. Perhaps it's because we edged dangerously close to the "early bird" special crowd and ate at 530PM. Mercifully not a single member of the blue hair/wash and set gang was seen and we had a good meal and conversation.

We then dashed off to the movies. I no longer pick the movies when we go out with other people - this is for a host of reasons, not the least of which includes my "unique" sense of humor which apparently doesn't translate to the masses and the fact that some of my previous choices have been regarded as questionable (I'd like to point out though that I was not the one who picked out "New York Doll" - that's all I'm saying). So last night's movie was "Fireproof." Perhaps you've heard of it...it's getting all sorts of play with the evangelical set and in marriage seminars. Based on the number of people in the theater and their average age, it's aimed squarely at the over-40 set (we are in that target group but we were skewing the averages lower) - it almost looked like we'd walked into an audience with Dr Phil. I'm not sure that's the target audiences the producers of the movie wanted but that's what they were getting last night.

The movie is getting a lot of buzz as a must-see for couples. I knew I should have been nervous about it when earlier in the day I mentioned to my mother that we'd be seeing this movie. She reported that all of her friends said it was the most wonderful movie ever - call me crazy, but I'm not sure that a gaggle of bunko-playing ladies who lunch in their 70's are the most authoritative sources of film review. So I was already approaching the film with caution. I was just glad going in that we had some free passes to the theatre.

So here's my take on it - this is not the most wonderful movie ever made (sorry, bunko ladies). The acting (and I use the word acting very, very loosely) was horrific. Kirk Cameron, (80's flashback - name his sitcom), starred and it was more like watching "Acting Pains." The other actors were wooden at best. I mean the original "Jonny Lingo" was more convincing ("Mahana, you ugly!" - the classics never go out of style!) The most convincing actor was the woman who played a stroke victim who never uttered a word. The camera work early on was pretty rough too. Methinks they used a lot of interns. And subtlety was a word the directors had banished from their collective vocabulary.

Now, that being said, the film's message is a powerful one and is worth thought and even application. In a successful marriage, there needs to be three partners - husband, wife, and God. Putting God and His Son at the forefront enables love in a marriage to flourish. Putting His love first makes forgetting a spouse's quirks and foibles so much easier to forget. Putting His love first makes forgiveness second nature and not a burden to carry. The message is a good one and I'm sure that some marriages will be saved as a result and that is good. I probably learned a thing or two...

That being said, next time I'm picking the movie.

I got nothin'

Maybe it's the fact that we are in that weird weather transition phase here in Chicagoland or maybe it's a case of the post-election blahs, but seriously, I got nothin' people, nothin.

It's gotten cold fast here but not wicked bad cold. It's been gray for days and I know that's working on me. And it's been wet, so I've not been able to run outside and that completely blows. Back to the treadmill at the gym at the office. I know that is weighing on me. No pun intended.

And now that the longest election cycle ever is over...what's one to do? I guess watch the press turn on Obama, which they will do. And watch the Democrats take this majority and implode through in-fighting. Which they will do.

Like I said, I got nothin.