Random Saturday

I was tagged in on my friend Andrea's blog. I'll deal with that later..(I'm a WINNER!!!)....however I noticed a jump in traffic here. I would love to post a thought provoking post so that all these visitors think I"m smart and witty and would come back regularly to check my blog.....but alas it's Saturday and that means Randoms Saturday. Enjoy non-the-less.

-Back in January I posted a silly picture of chicken in a sweater for a Random Saturday post. I obviously found another one this week. But I've upped the ante even further this week. I found a bunch of nursing home ladies who spends their retirement years knitting sweaters for chickens. For real. (video and audio are a little out of synch)

-Yesterday morning when I went in to get Corban out of bed, the first words out of his mouth were "Hi dad, want to see my butt?"

-There are some links that I point you to, that I honestly have to ask myself..."how did you find that?" I know you ask the same questions. Here is one. 10 best images of elderly people playing the Wii. I know a couple local nursing homes have Wii's. The facility Marjorie works at has one!

-I met a really cool guy this past summer named Jim Baker....I call him friend now. He's a photographer and wicked cool. I was cruising his Flickr . Jim takes a picture every day of himself....but not like the other videos you might've seen. ANYWAY....he did one picture all of 2008 (the year I met him) and is continuing this year too. I vaguely remember Jim telling me about this when he took a picture of the two of us last summer. I'm pretty dorky. Jim, I promise to do better this summer!

-I realize that most of my Facebook profiles talk about my lack of sleeping or my desire for more sleep. This morning I thought to myself....I would like there to be a day where I sleep until I can't sleep anymore. A day where I literally have nothing to do and no responsibilities that warrant my getting up. Maybe in my 70's or something????

-What would happen if logos floated in the air instead of on top of poles. This would. I particularly like the one that says "Cheese" and "Sandwiches".

The 80's

This couldn't wait until Random Saturday. It was just too good. I just laughed and smiled.

Feet

I don't like feet. I would almost say that I hate feet. They're dirty. They stink. They're ugly. They're functional. I'm glad God made feet. It definitely makes walking easier. It makes playing hockey possible. Standing up without falling over is cool.

I don't really understand when Marjorie treats herself to a pedicure. I know that she loves it and that's important. She needs to have a treat from time to time. I just don't understand why that's a treat to her.

I also don't understand why someone would want a job where they have to touch other peoples feet. The person giving that pedicure, or a shoe salesman.....that to me would be one of the worst jobs in the world.

This is the main reason that I keep my feet covered up 99.9% of the time. I don't really desire looking at your feet, so I don't think you need to look at mine either.

And then my boys came onto the scene. Corban loves running around in his bare feet most of the summer. We often have to force him to put sandals on to go outside to play. Tobiah is constantly pulling his socks off (even in the dead of winter). He is Mr. Bare Feet.

Now it's a gimmie that I have the two cutest kids in the world (sorry to all you other parents to have to inform you in this way). So I guess it would stand to reason that my two boys have the cutest feet in the world too. However the words "feet" and "cute" in my world should never appear in the same paragraph far less sentence. But non-the-less there it is.

Is it possible that God redeems us in similar ways? Doesn't He take what's gross and smelly and functional at best, and see beauty?

Random Wheeze post

So since no one else posted from my Do-It-Yourself Random Saturday....I guess I should at least post the one link that was given to me. Wheeze did it. It's good stuff too. I've played with it a good bit.

It's a cool online drumset. The only problem I see with it is that I have to cross my hands on the keyboard to play it properly. Also the ride cymbal is more like a crash cymbal. But I'm just being nit-picky. THANKS WHEEZE for the link.

Since it's Wheeze's post....I'll post this link that she sent me recently too. I LOVE IT!

THANKS WHEEZE!

2/23 Monday update (on Tuesday)

I feel I'm constantly apologizing for my slacking. I've been in a winter funk for awhile now. I was called out publicly yesterday about my Monday updates. I had already started one, but never finished. I finished today and thought I should post it. I'll try doing better.....not because I fear a public outcry (all 3 of you who read this), but because it's good for me. I blog for me, more than you.

the weekend that was:
-You can read my post about our doctor appointment in Erie on Friday. We spent the day driving and doctoring. Marjorie did some shopping afterward....not enough for her, but still....
-Saturday has become my Sabbath rest day. I try really hard doing nothing on Saturdays. I love it. Because Sunday is a work day for me, I need another day to rest my body and mind. So I did a lot of nothing Saturday.
-Sunday church, naps, work, youth group.
-Youth group Sunday was at a local church instead of the YMCA. The Y booked a bunch of Sundays with other stuff rather than letting us book all spring. So we were at church with a gym in the middle of town. Good night. The acoustics were horrible though, so I yelled the whole time....and I was already losing my voice.
-I subbed for a hockey game Sunday night. I took some teens too. We won 5-3. It wasn't as close as the score says. They scored a late one on me to tighten it up a touch.

where i am at the moment: Home. (Actually I finished this at the local coffeeshop.)

on my to-do list this week: Not this weekend, but NEXT weekend is our local youth ministries retreat weekend. I'll be speaking, leading music, doing a workshop, games, etc etc....so I need to get on some of that stuff this week. I also need to take care of music for that Sunday since I won't be here. We're also doing some cool stuff in worship during Lent at church so I need to make sure I talk to some people this week to make sure we're covered.

procrastinating about: Detail stuff. They say God is in the details......I would argue that possibly Satan is, not God.

book I'm in the midst of: I haven't been very good about reading lately. I'm still working on Francis Chan's "Crazy Love". I'd like to say I'm going to finish that today or tomorrow.

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: I'm not sure what's really caught my attention. I've been listening to a lot really. I just added Jack Johnson's "In Between Dreams" album to my iTunes. I know he's trendy, but it's because he's good. So sue me.

grand revelations this past week: I don't know if it's been this past week....I've realized though that at 33 my perspective of teenagers is clearly flawed. I don't want them to have to make stupid mistakes like I did. I point out the dumb mistakes, but I see them with a perspective that they don' t have because they're living it out right now. I then often get frustrated because they choose to do stupid stuff.......but so did I.

how i’m feeling about this week: For some reason I feel stressed. I feel I have a lot on my plate, when my calendar actually says I have less to do this week than normal. Odd.

Random Video Saturday

I have these videos backing up on me....and since I'm in a blogging funk (and not the George Clinton kind)...I'm going the easy route today and just posting videos. Enjoy.

We start with the epitome of laziness.


I can watch this next video a couple times in a row and laugh every time.


I like really well done edit jobs. This is one. They took 3 different instructional videos and made music. Funny enough I used to own that Louie Bellson video (who as chance would have it died this past week). Really cool stuff though.


To my knowledge I haven't given anyone the raspberries seriously since childhood. This video makes me want to begin taking part again.


This makes me want to try this locally. I'm curious as to the results.


Last one for today. Last week I posted a super cool video...the Ruben's Tube. This week I post a video that could possibly rival it in coolness factor. A shark spinning crazily out of water. Watch the whole thing because they do slow motion later...

Heart update: Tobiah update

Let's start by reminding you about the previous scan of Tobiah's heart. Back in November they found that he had a couple problems with his heart. The biggest problem was a small hole just below one of his valves. The other problem (and much less serious) was an extra artery that should've closed shortly after his birth....but is still fully functioning.

At the time, we were told that if this hole didn't close by February we were looking at open heart surgery for Tobiah. Obviously we weren't incredibly excited y the prospect of open heart surgery.

Sooooo...this today was our appointment for the follow-up scan. The pediatric cardiologist is in Erie, which is a little more than an hour away. I checked the weather, because we've been getting some snow the last two days. Erie had a severe weather advisory. They got about 5 inches last night and they were expecting another 6 today. Not very exciting knowing you're driving into that.

The worst of the drive was actually on our end. Once we hit the highway (about 1/2 hour) we were golden. EXCEPT...about 2 minutes into the highway section of the drive, I realized I had no windshield fluid and I couldn't see out my windshield. So we had to get off the highway, take a 4 mile detour to an auto garage to buy windshielf fluid, and then back again. We made it on time.

Here's the long and short of it: I tried desperately to hold him down and hold him still so the doctor could do the scan properly (sort of an exercise in futility for the most part). The doctor turned to me and said, "I see no change here." My heart sunk to my belly. HOWEVER.....he also said that at this point he doesn't think anything needs done. The hole is really small. There is very little blood going through it. He also he found another small problem as well....but nothing they can do anything about. Basically he just wants to keep an eye on things. We go back in 6 months to see if there is a change.

Tobiah is stronger and more active now than he was 3 months ago. He will be MUCH more active in 6 months. We're believing we're on the up swing of these health problems. I didn't hear the words "we need to do surgery" today. I am praising God for that. Not exactly a good report today, but not bad either. Thank you God for keeping us safe. Thank you for blessing us with two handsome boys. Thank you for modern medicine that can see inside my son with amazing detail to know that we don't need to cut him open! God is good ALL the time.

Corban-Daddy Day

Last week Corban's Day Care was having a special Valentine's party on Friday, so they suggested we switch one of his days so he could go on Friday with the other kids. We thought that would be a great idea. However we didn't want to switch Tobiah's days with his care lady. So that meant I had a day with just Corban and a day with Tobiah. Now with Tobiah there's only so much you can do...play on the floor with him etc. But Corban....that's a different story. So we planed a special Corban-Daddy Day.

This is a bad photo journal of our day.

We started at home. Obviously. Breakfast. Daddy had to do some work so his secretary wouldn't be mad at him. Then we got dressed and off we went.
We headed to Jamestown NY which is 20 minutes away. We went first to the Social Security Office which was suppose to be a quick side trip. I don't have pictures because they don't let you take pictures in a federal building. We were there to get Tobiah a Social Security card/number. What should've been a quick trip turned into an hour....and we were told we were missing something because we changed his first name, we need proof of that. UGH.

NEXT...we went to lunch at Corban's favorite....Tim Horton's! He had soup and I had a sandwich...and of course we both had dough nuts!After lunch we headed uptown a little to the hobby and craft shop. Daddy got one of his CO2 tanks for paintball filled. Then we went downstairs to look at the model train stuff. We needed to pick up some green "grass" paper for Coban's train set. Daddy's going to build a little layout in the basement...so we needed this to get that project under-way.
After this we ran to the other side of town to get some other things. Then it was home. Corban struggled to stay awake on the drive. We made it home and I carried him to bed for a nap. We had a blast together. Tons of fun with this insanely smart little man.

Digital Conversion

The upside to the digital conversion is that it's been pushed back.
Also, it doesn't apply to me because we don't have TV anyway. Where we live because of all the hills, we get no channels anyway!
This video goes hand in hand with my questions about older folks and technology.

Ramdom Saturday

-So today is Valentine's Day. Anyone care to share their best or worst Valentine's story? Mine envolves an animal dying. Enough said....on with the junk.

-Seriously? Only one person took me up on my Random Saturday challenge from last week? How boring. (Thanks Wheeze) The rest of you chumps better go back and re-read and get on the ball. This is a participation type blog, I'm not here to entertain all the time. It's like a choose your own adventure book.

-So apparently I could never get a job at an amusement park guessing peoples ages. This funny little site lets you guess peoples ages. If you'd like you can also upload your own picture and have people take a stab at you too.

-If you're curious how you can go about using Twitter for Marketing and PR, this site gives you a simple explanation.

-At what point in my life will I stop playing hockey? There are guys that I see playing that just can't keep up. They're still playing though. Is that how I want to go out? Will I be self-aware enough to call it quits?

-Do you enjoy coffee? Do you use energy drinks? Ever wonder what would kill you? Apparently it's all mathematical. Put in your weight and choice of caffeine and it'll tell you exactly how much will kill you. I'm pretty sure this doesn't take into account health problems. HA.

-We're told repeatedly that we're the fatest nation. We don't have to look far to see the truth in that. I don't have any or many vices. I don't smoke, drink, drugs, watch American Idol, etc. HOWEVER I really like to eat. I love food. When Marjorie and I go on dates it usually revolves around where we're going to go eat. That begin said, I still don't go overboard either. So when I found "This is Why You're Fat.com"....I gave me both ideas, and disguiseded me at the same time. If you're going to look at the link, you really need to spend some time and go through page after page....otherwise you'll miss things like the 60 pound rice krispy treat or "the meat ship".

-With GPS technology and the high technology they're putting in cars these day, why haven't they developed a car that'll do long trips by itself? I'd love to go visit people far away but long trips just don't have the fun it used to.

-Remember in the 90's ABC had their TGIF line-up of family friendly comedy? Most of the shows had child stars. ABC has a little "where are they now" thing going on. Some of these kids had a rough time of it.

This is quite possibly the coolest video I've ever seen.

STOP THE PRESSES!!!! New Leak of the next Ocean's Movie!!!!

Review: Saints Coffee

Back in December I introduced some of you to Tom Davis and his Red Letters Campaign. I have since followed that up by getting his book and reviewing that for you here as well. In the process of reading his book I elaborated on some of his thoughts a bit too.

During my first post I mentioned that he also has a Fair Trade coffee company called Saints Coffee. The general idea is this. Buy coffee. Feed kids. For every pound of coffee you buy, you also feed a child child. So a little while ago, we bought two pounds from Saints. Here's my review.

(For the record: While writing this I am partaking of a cup of Saints coffee.)

Ok let's start with the Fair Trade part. Saints buys their coffee from countries in the developing world. They ALWAYS pay a fair market price for the coffee so you know you're not ripping anyone off (Starbucks cough cough).

The deal with feeding kids is this. Buy a pound of coffee feed a child for a month. Saints partners with Tom's other organizations (5 for Fifty and Children's Hope Chest) to feed orphans around the world. So now you're doubly helping out.

Cost. Ok let's be honest here. There's no way that they can do this and still keep the cost at 7.50 or whatever it is that Starbucks sells a pound of coffee at the supermarket. The cost of a pound of coffee is $11.00 (12 for decaf blends). So that's a little pricey. Honestly I wouldn't be buying it regularly because of cost. ALSO....that's just the coffee not shipping. Shipping to Warren was another 10 for the first pound, but only another dollar for a second pound. So for two pounds of coffee we paid around 33 dollars. AGAIN, I would say that I probably won't be doing this regularly from a cost standpoint.

The Coffee: We received the coffee on a Wed. or Thurs. and both had been roasted that Monday. I liked that. To be honest, at my last church our pastor liked coffee dark, and because I worked there 7 years, I grew to like darker roast coffee too. We ordered a pound of Ethiopian blend (because we had to obviously) and a pound of Saint's signature blend which is called St. George the Dragonslayer.

It should be noted that normally drink coffee for flavor and a warm beverage in the AM rather than for a caffeine fix......though some mornings I need a little boost.

The Ethiopian blend is a medium roast. Great flavor. Since it's not a dark roast, I find it a little lacking....because....it isn't suppose to be strong. It would be very complimentary to desert or something. Great flavor....oh yeah I said that.

The St. George the Dragonslayer is a dark roast. I really like this. Really good flavor. Good kick to it. I'm a big fan of this coffee.

Summary: Will I buy from Saint's again? Yes. Will it be next month? No. First of all I still have plenty from each pound (wanna come over and try some?). The cost is a little high for us to regularly be buying it. I really like the coffee. I'm going to buy coffee anyway, so I like that the money is going toward something that I feel strongly about. I would recommend to you Saint's Coffee. If you have a budget that can afford regular purchase....go for it.

Let's just get it over with

Seriously let's just do it already.

Your Time

In past posts I've linked to funny articles on a blog I like called Stuff Christians Like. It's witty, sarcastic, and usually pointedly true on some levels.

Today I read an amazing post that cut a lot of his witty banter out of it. It's just straight up truth. It's really is amazing and floored me.

What are you giving up really?

Here's the article. You really should read it.

As an aside from that, while I was in Brazil with World Vision we went to a village where every child was a sponsored child through WV. We got to talk, play, laugh with, these kids. Over and over we heard how much it means to these kids to get a letter or picture from their sponsors in the US. One kid wouldn't let anyone in his house touch his picture of his sponsors. He would position it just right so he could fall asleep looking at it each night. Talk about impact.

Another Beard Post

I just found these. Enough said. If you're doing this you might have too much time on your hands.



Song about facial hair....bad.

Random Saturday: Do It Yourself

If you're a regular reader of my Random Saturday posts, you know that I usually provide a variety of links that will make you laugh and waste your time.....or both.

Today we're going to try something a little different. You're going to help me create Random Saturday. I found this the other day. It's called StumbleUpon. Basically it jumps from site to site. Let me clarify that I have not used this to create Random Saturday posts in the past, and probably will not in the future. It seems like cheating.

Here's what we're doing today.....or whenever you read this.

1. Go to the above link.
2. At the top of the page is a blue bar that has topics. Choose any topic you want and click it.
3. Whatever topic page you choose will appear. Below the blue bar your topic will now appear in a bigger font, Click the topic again and it will Stumble you somewhere within that topic.
4. There will now be a Stumble button. Keep clicking the Stumble button until you find something really random or funny or time wasting......something worthy of Random Saturday.
5. Post a Comment on this post with the link. We all want to share in the Randomness.
6. Quit wasting time and go do something productive with friends or family.....or read a book.

BUT...since you did come all this way to see what's random today I give you this video. Matt posted it on his Facebook awhile ago and as the economy becomes tight I keep thinking how appropriate it is. Funny and yet sad.

White Lightning

As you know by now, Corban LOVES the Pixar movie CARS.

My friend J, told us about these little shorts that they have had on Disney Channel or something called Mater's Tales. We've been enjoying them on YouTube.

ANYWAY....a LONG time ago, Corban got a car in a geocache we did. It was Lightning. I think at the time he hadn't even seen the movie, but he loved the car. He took it everywhere. It was a cheep toy, so over time and lots of playing he's rubbed lots of the paint off of it. So instead of being red with decals and such, most of the car is now white.

You also need to know that Corban likes to play act things. He'll watch a movie, or something, and then he assigns each of us a character to be.

Corban "Mom you be Mater, Dad you be Doc Hudson, and I'll be White Lightning"
(Laughter by mommy and daddy)
Daddy: Um....Buddy, White Lightning is also called Moonshine.
Corban: Yeah I'm moonshine! Come on lets play.

Classic.

Things I Don't Understand

-Why would anyone use Classmates.com? You have to pay to get into the "inner circle" to view anyone's profile. You don't have to search hard on my blog to know I haven't been the biggest fan of Facebook. I'm on it. I use it. I don't fully understand why some people are obsessed with it, but I can see how it might be functional. I just don't understand why anyone would use Classmates. I've had a couple people contact me and the only place you can find them is Classmates....which basically means you can't find them. Basically you can't stalk them, like you can on Facebook, but if you don't want people finding you, then stay off the internet. Ok rant over.

-Why can't you have your cake and eat it too? If someone makes me cake, I'm eating it. I am a firm believer that you can have your cake and eat it too.

-Why do the makers of onesies put the snaps around the head/neck region in the back? They could make them look like a polo, but instead they hide them in the back. But when there's no words or major design, you don't know which way is forward. I can't tell you how many times I've put Tobiah's clothes on backwards.....unintentionally. I actually took Tobiah to the doctor with a backwards onesie the other day. I didn't know it was wrong until Marjorie came home and made fun of me.

-Why do more and more places have tip jars? You're doing your job, which you get paid for, why do I need to feel guilty because I'm not giving you extra money? If I ever find a tip jar at McDonald's I'm stealing it. Flat out.

-I don't understand why churches still have worship wars. Like really? Is this 1985 still? By this point your church is probably either has a contemporary service, or is blended, or is neither....and won't be. I encountered someone who still is upset that there is contemporary music at church......and it's been happening for YEARS.

-Why is there a guy in this coffee shop that has a blue tooth device in his ear....yet he has his phone up to his OTHER ear and talking very loudly?

-Classmates.com rant back on...I've thought of more....Why would you want to be associated with one class? I have no interest at all to be associated with Warren High School class of 19XX. Who cares? If you haven't gotten over high school yet, you really have other issues going on in your life. Classmates? Really? Come on.

-Why does Major League Baseball really not want parody? Granted, the Rays last year were amazing, but it's reached a ridiculous point between the haves and the have nots. The Pirates, Royals, Marlins, Nationals, etc are expected to compete when their team salary equals 2 or 3 players on the Yankees? How is this fun? Beyond the fact that it's an incredibly slow game to begin with. (note here: I frankly don't care because I quit following baseball when I was like 13 or 14)

-I just noticed this....why does one of Tobiah's onesie sleepers have pockets in it? What do they think an infant will be putting in their pockets? Particularly while they're sleeping? A little over kill there.

-How do they know that dogs can't see colors? I have yet to hear a dog say anything.

-Why all of a sudden when Marjorie e-mails me from work are they arriving two days later?

-Someone from Altoona PA checks my blog every day. To my knowledge, I don't know anyone I know no one from Altoona. Someone suggested that someone has an ISP in Altoona that checks it. Someone fess up.

-Why is there an Easter Bunny....but we hunt eggs. Someone along the way flunked biology class or something.

February

This could be a "Where I live" post.

Right now February is looking much like January. Cold. Snowy.

I'm not complaining.....but it sure ads to the Blah's.

Jen Trynin - Getaway (February).mp3

That's a song I used to sing at coffee houses back in the day. I think of it every cold February day.

6 months

My friend Andrea from Better Than Good posted a week or so ago that her son had been home from Ethiopia 6 months now. Since I met Andrea in Ethiopia on our way to the US Embassy, that means Tobiah has been home 6 months too!

In actuality, after we spent a week at Children's Hospital we didn't make it HOME until the very end of August, so I'm posting now because he's actually been HOME for 6 months.

It's safe to say that our life has changed since August.

Tobiah spent a lot of time laying on his back in Ethiopia. He wasn't mobile at all when he came home. He couldn't hold his head up. He couldn't sit up on his own. He couldn't roll on his own. He just laid flat on his back unless we propped him up. As of this week, he's beginning to be trouble.....he is army crawling all over the place.....which means he's exploring our house in new ways. He sets up, rolls over, bounces in his chair, and if held by the hands is starting to take steps on his own. So for awhile there we had to extremes for children....Corban is ultra-active, and Tobiah was non-active.

Tobiah has been a very sick boy for most of his life. While in ET, he was a regular visitor to the doctor and hospital. When we brought him home, he was on TB medicine (because they didn't know what else it could be) and was spiking fevers. Since he's been home we've found a hole in his heart, an extra artery off his heart, UTI's, digestive infections, he's had pneumonia once, he's been on different breathing treatments...which they are sure now is asthma, he has acid reflux....and the list goes on. I LOVE BEING ABLE TO GO TO THE DOCTOR WHEN I NEED TO!!!! Tobiah still isn't the picture of health today, but we're taking steps in the right direction every day. (the picture on the left is from the hospital....his first in the US....look how small he is!!!)

Corban LOVES Tobiah. This has been one of the greatest blessings about Tobiah coming home. We had no idea how Corban would deal with having a little brother. Corban has 100% of our attention for two years. What would happen if our attention was divided? Would he be jealous? Would he act out?

None of that. From day one Corban has adored Tobiah. If anything he's been overly protective of him. Does he still want our attention? Yes. Has he acted up? Yes, but not toward Tobiah. When I go wake Tobiah up from naps or whatever Corban always wants to come along so he can give Tobiah a hug as he's waking up. He regularly tells me how happy he is now that Tobiah is home with us. Yesterday he asked me if I was happy Tobiah was home too. YES I AM!

When I saw Andrea's post on her blog, I said to Marjorie, "I can't believe it's only be 6 months." I have a hard time remember a time when Tobiah wasn't part of our lives. I can't remember what it was like for those first 5 years of marriage without our boys. What is it that we did with all our time? Whatever it was, it can't hold a candle to family.

Sports Radio Comment on God

If you're a long time follower of this blog, you know that I listen to sports talk radio out of Buffalo when I'm in the car. I listen to music to, but if I'm just bopping around town, it's usually sports radio.

Between 10am and noon every day they cut away to the Colin Cowherd show from ESPN Radio. This is the one show that usually bugs me. He talks about sports, but he also has social commentary on anything and everything under the sun. He's usually pretty liberal in his viewpoints. I don't really care about your view on women or government....just tell me about the wide receivers for USC or something.

ANYWAY....just now I was on my way to the coffeeshop and Colin was talking about Michael Phelps. If you're not aware, there have been pictures of Michael smoking marijuana that have surfaced. I'm not totally sure what Colin's point was because his analogies weren't making sense to me. I know that he wasn't morally shocked about pot smoking. He was saying that you can't pick and choose which laws are good and which are bad. Then he related that to God. This is his quote to the best of my knowledge.....at least it's close.

Either you believe that there is a God who sees everything we do, or you don't believe He's there at all. You shouldn't treat it like a deli. You shouldn't pick and choose what you like and don't like. You can't like some of the Bible but then say, this part over here I don't like so much. Either you do or you don't.

I found that to be interesting....particularly coming from him.