Happy New Year

Tobiah's chair

Yes we still use a high chair for Tobiah. He's just so dang small. Even in his high chair, he sits on his feet to get up higher.

So anyway tonight he didn't really eat because we had friends over (thanks Wheeze and Jeff). So later he got hungry and Mari made him a sandwich. When he was done he showed us his new way of getting down all by himself. After I saw it, I taped it.

Uniform

It happened this past week. Winter finally showed itself (though for a brief time) in Northwestern PA. We had a couple days where there was actually snow. This winter has been nuts. SOOOO glad I didn't build that back yard ice skating rink.

As soon as I woke up I knew it was time to put on my winter uniform.

It's not an official uniform. I'm sure you already gathered that. But there's a 99% chance that if there's snow on the ground this is what I'll look at. First the picture then the description.
Let's start be reminding our readers that once snow hits our area...mainstream fashion generally goes out the window. From the top down:

-Regularly have on a wool hat/tuque.
-Hoodie sweatshirt. I don't have a ton of them, but they get rotated throughout winter. Under said hoodie is at least one, but generally two t-shirts. Layers people.
-On top of said hoodie is winter jacket. Winter jacket is left unzipped until it gets bitter cold.
-You can't see this in the picture, but I have a pair of triple insulate snowboard gloves (not because I snowboard but because they're waterproof and made well) that my sister-in-law bought me years ago that are stuffed into the pockets of my coat. They get regular use as my fingers and toes have poor circulation. Thank you Helena.
-The pants in this picture are my favorite winter pants....but they vary. These are a pair of Nike work out pants that are like triple layer so warm. They make noise (swish swish) as you walk. But they're warm. I would wear them every day but that'd get gross. Jeans are substituted.
-Finally are the boots. These are big honkin boots. They're bulky. They're not easy to run in. They aren't light weight. What they are is super insulated and extremely warm for my piggly wigglies. I usually have them untied and open unless the snow is deep. I just kind of trudge everywhere.

This is my winter uniform.

Failure

So I missed yesterday. My month of posting goes down the toilet. So I'll try to make up for it today if I can.

I'll just blame hanging out with Jim Baker and making my brain work too hard! HA!

8 in a box

As you may or may not remember....I am a Crayola Crayon freak. Here is a thread from two years ago to help jog your memory...it includes other threads on the matter.

So for Christmas I got this cool artsy deal from Marjorie and Corban. Corban wants it to go in my office at the church. Not sure how we're going to hang it. We'll see. It's much brighter in person...stupid cell phone picture!

I also just found this amazing artist named Diem Chau who does tiny detailed art out of Crayola. The detail she's able to produce in one tiny crayon is ridiculous to me. If you don't believe me hold a crayon in your hand while looking at these pictures. Crayons are small! You can commission her to do one of these for you........for 250 bucks! Check this stuff out! Check out here blog.

This first set was for a wedding. This is the actual couple in their wedding attire.

























Here's a set she made for her contractor. It's him, his pregnant wife (notice baby bump) and dog.
In this commission she used a color called Razzle Dazzle Rose...which she said is very soft to begin with and she had to put her hands in cold water regularly to not make the crayon too soft for working with. Also check out the cool bases that you get for your 250!



She also did this super rad set for Nike. Nike commissioned 66 crayons (11 sets of 6) to promote their gear for the World Cup in 2010. Nike did the bases and all the print stuff and she did the crayons. They also picked the colors.



































Finally I'll leave you with her last work that's at a gallery. So much detail my head is going to explode.

EDIT: Sorry for the weird layout of the pictures. Can't get them lined up the right way.

Don Cherry's Piano Desk

Thank you Steve for this. I had no intentions of posting a video today. I have another post in mind. However Steve showed me this and it's just too funny. This is mainly for my Canadian family and friends....or die hard hockey lovers. So dang funny.

Things I Don't Understand: Debt

This is totally just me here.....a lot has to be the way my parents raised me. I just don't understand debt. I mean I know what it is. I just don't understand the embrace of it.

I was listening to the radio yesterday and a commercial for a "debt elimination" service came on. In the ad, it said something like this (quoted to the best of my flawed memory) "Sometimes you find yourself in debt because of lost job, divorce, natural disaster, or just bad luck". Bad luck? What's that mean?

"Um I'll take the 52 inch TV. I don't know how I'm gonna pay for it when I get the bill....that must be some bad luck right there." How do you get into debt by bad luck?

I know there are lot of people who have lost their jobs recently and are wondering how to live their normal every day lives. I know that a lot of people have lost a lot of money from their retirement funds and investments etc. I in NO WAY want to make light of those situations. Please hear me on that.

At the same time, I look around and see A LOT of people who have dug themselves this really deep hole of their own free will and they can't see the shovel in their hands. It can't possibly be their fault.

Again for clarifications sake, I know that there are a bunch of people who see the error of their ways and are seeking good council and working through this. I don't want to pour salt on your wound here.

However some of their companions realize their in a heap of trouble and just want to start over. They won't do anything differently, but they want to start over.

The church has been pretty good (thank you Larry Burkett) at teaching budgeting over the past years. Some in the church have listened, others have not. I wonder what is being taught outside the church? How did we get here? It seems like it's almost like a gambling problem. I'm going to pay off one credit card with another. I'm going to pay the minimum amount on all my cards even though interest keeps building up and I never get further out of debt.

Again, a lot of this has to do with what I grew up with. I can't get my brain to understand buying something that I don't have the money for....except perhaps a house...or maybe college loans. I think a lot of it has to do with our idea of instant gratification. I want it now. Why shouldn't I have it now. I'm a good person, I should have what I want now.

I guess I've just had a few conversations lately with people who are totally fine embracing debt with both arms. Well I'll just put that on my card. I'll just get it now and pay it off later.

How? If you don't know where the money is going to come from....it's not going to come from anywhere. I just can't wrap my head around it.

Ant Crusher

This is mostly for Wheeze and my boys. Every time they see her they want to play this game.

First the bearded dragon.


Now an African Bullfrog.

Merry Christmas

From the Reinards to you....whoever and wherever you are....Merry Christmas.

This post has been approved by the boys.

What's Christmas about?

Pictures of Awesome

T's birthday. He finally bumped up to a big boy bed. His room was painted blue with white stars (house came that way) so Mari repainted an old bed frame the inverse colors with stars and moon to match. He LOVES it. Now he's a big boy.












































Real deal Santa. Corban kept asking him questions instead of just telling him what he wanted. Santa hit it out of the park. So good.

Christmas Horror

So last night I played hockey. The arena has tons of lights that are hooked up to music. You've seen the Youtube videos. ANYWAY....I got out of the van to hear the end of a song I hadn't heard before.....and almost threw up.

So what could make that horrid song worse? A horrid video.


Can I just say that the house with all that in the front yard is not the house where I'm gathering for family memories.

Also...the write-up on this lady is that she's Grammy nominated.....what the heck?

And finally....what are the songs/videos of Christmas that are worse than this?

Speaking English-Hockey

Once again it is technically Thursday the 22nd, but I just got back from hockey so my 21st is still in effect. It's my blog anyway, I'll make the rules.

You may not know this is going on. Once I tell you about it, you still might not care. But it's killing me.

NHL....Montreal Canadiens have been playing poorly all year. Someone had to be blamed, so they fired their coach. Now let me point out that firing your coach in the middle of a season, rarely (read never) works. It might slightly change your teams currently playing style, but more often than not, you're still crappy. So non-the-less the Canadiens fired their coach who has taken them deep in the playoffs the last two years.

The interim coach is a guy named Randy Cunneyworth. Before taking over as the head coach of the Canadiens he was the head coach of their AHL team. That happens regularly in hockey (Dan Bylsma anyone?). So what right? Well here's the problem....for those not familiar with Canada. Contrary to popular belief, most of Canada isn't very French. However Quebec is.....Montreal is a city in Quebec. Quebec believes it's it's own country (actually voted to try to leave Canada a few years back I believe). So the problem is that Cunneyworth was born near Toronto and only speaks English. AAAAAAHHHH the horror of it.

Quebec papers and political machine are freaking out by this. They feel their coach must be bilingual. He is being shredded in the papers. Torched. They want another coach now. Cunneyworth has said that he'll take French lessons during the season to learn French.

Is the entire province of Quebec on crack? I don't care if the coach is from a far off galaxy, I want my coach to win. That is priority one. If he can give good sound bites for radio after the game is not high on my priority list. Have you listened to an Evgeni Malkin interview? It's actually funnier that he can't speak English well! I just want my coach to convey what needs to be conveyed to the players....which shouldn't be hard since only 3 of the current Canadien's players are from Quebec anyway!

The fact that they are outraged has nothing to do with his coaching ability. Earlier tonight the Canadiens lost their third game in a row since Cunneyworth took over. So it's definitely because he can't speak French....it's not because they're just bad and they picked the wrong goaltender when they stuck with Price two years ago?

I can almost guarantee that he's going to lose his job...possibly before the end of the season. If that happens, something is seriously seriously wrong.

Happy Birthday T-bucket!

So yesterday was Tobiah's birthday. He turned 4. I know he doesn't look 4. He doesn't. It sure doesn't feel like he's 4. Trust me, he is.

So on Sunday afternoon my parents came up to celebrate his birthday and see the church Christmas program. So we had some cake and sang Happy Birthday. My parents had some gifts for him.

So as I've already mentioned that night was their Christmas program (see pictures in previous posts). Before the program there was dinner. At dinner there was a birthday cake.........for Jesus. So everyone starts to sing Happy Birthday....all the kids are crowded around the cake....and I know what's going to happen. "Happy Birthday Baby Jesus..." and Tobiah turns around with this crushed/angry/hurt look on his face. He thought everyone was singing for him. So cute.

Happy Birthday Big T!

Christmas Pagaent Re-Done

My friend Katie...who I told you about HERE...is an awesome artist and really funny.

Christmas Pagaent

So last night was our church's Christmas dinner and Children's Program/Pageant. Basically it's the Gospel message with a bundle of cuteness. Prepare yourselves for the cutest shepherd and wise man the world has ever seen (no bias on my part)!

Vines

This is not very Christmasy. It's not very Sunday-y. But it is one of those songs that once it's stuck in your head....it's stuck. It came up on iTunes yesterday and that was that. I found this song a couple years ago....actually I'm not sure how I found it. But now it's stuck in my head again.

Meaning of the song? um....sleeping in? dreaming? long lost love? who knows....dance around your living room

Reasons to Drink Coffee

cLike I need more reasons?

I was just bumping through this internet thing they have going on now and found a coffee blog. As I scrolled through it, I found this article...5 Health Reasons to Drink coffee. I'm down with that!

For those not willing to follow the link I've provided and rely on spoon feeding...here is the Readers Digest Version

1. Protects Your Heart
2. Diverts Diabetes
3. Your Liver loves it
4. It boosts your brain power (I believe they screwed this one up because I drink a lot of coffee...and look where it's got me)
5. It helps with headaches.

Now quit wasting time and go get some coffee brewing.

Vikings

My good friend Anneliese (Wheeze) is a junior high history teacher. We were talking the other night and she told me that she has Viking Day coming up just before Christmas break. She has a great Viking helmet that she gets to wear for the whole day.

If it didn't cost an arm and a leg I would be sure that next year she got to wear this or this though.

Francis Chan "Erasing Hell" sort of review

So there was a lot of hype around Rob Bell's book Love Wins. I have not read that book so I will not speak to it at this time. However I know there was a lot of media attention about Rob's assertion that a loving God wouldn't punish people to a place like hell.

Enter Francis Chan. I have to say that I've been a big fan to Francis' books. He writes very plainly and often just says things that we're thinking but no one wants to actually say. He read the Bible and tells us what it says. Challenges us with what it says. If this is true...then this is true.

This book is very different from the first two books that Chan wrote, "Crazy Love" and "Forgotten God". I found both of those books challenging on a day to day, personal growth of my relationship with God sort of way. This book was much more intellectual and studious.

Basically Chan and his co-writer Preston Sprinkle do what Rob Bell usually does. They break down the context of what was going on at the time of the writings about hell in the Bible. What was the culture? What was the prevailing thought of the time? What did Jesus say? What did his followers think?

They also go at Rob Bell a bit. A few times Chan says that Rob missed the boat and shows you how he did it. So while I haven't read Rob's book, I get a sense of what his book is about.

Here what I liked most about this book: They impress upon you that hell is real, and because it is, it HAS to change the way we interact with everyone. It has to change the way we live our Christian lives. It has to change the way we talk to unbelievers.

At one point he's writing from a Starbucks. He is describing all the people around him. He says that it's silly that he's writing a book about hell in this place knowing full well that within 25 feet of him there are people that probably will be going there. He is hurt. As should we. We should be pained by the idea that that's a very real possibility for those around us. Those we know and those we don't.

I liked this book because it was within terms that everyone can handle....but really challenged my brain a bit. I liked having to dive in to it a bit. It's definitely a reader!

Let Go

This literally just happened.

Mari worked late tonight so it was up to me to make dinner (a scary proposition). So I was in the kitchen. It's important to know that our kitchen, unlike anywhere else in our house, has a drop ceiling with those big ceiling panels.

Tobiah come strolling in and wanted me to pick him up. Which I did. Then he said "put me up Daddy." What he wanted was for me to pick him up above my head so his head bonked into the ceiling panels. I've done it before. No big deal. But Tobiah is also kind of afraid of heights. So he's in my arms and every time I try to lift him he grips my shoulders even tighter. I kept saying, "you have to let go if you want to go higher". He was giggling and it was silly. He just couldn't let go.

This instantly took me to this: We know God is in control. We know he is all powerful. He wants what's good for us. And yet we just can't let go. We hold on to our own desire to be in control. If we hold on we know we're safe, but we also don't go where we can.

It's Christmas time!

click for bigger clearer picture if you need

Making Wise Choices

Years ago I ran a children's program...a family program really...that had a bunch of catch phrases and repetitive things. One of the things we said all the time was "I have to make WISE CHOICES". We'd make everyone say that together a couple times. Now I know that that's corny. But here's the thing...over the years I find myself using that phrase when talking to adults, teens and kids.

Most of the things we do have repercussions. If I finish the milk tonight before I go to bed, the repercussion is that I'm gonna have some angry boys in the morning that can't have cereal.

I think there are some of us who are really good at big picture stuff. Casting a big vision for those around us. Challenging others to think of something huge. The problem sometimes with this is that we're not always sure what steps need to be taken to get us to the end goal. We see what we'd like way down the road, but we're unsure how we're getting there. We cast the vision, but aren't sure who is going to implement it and what resources we'll need along the way.

Others of us (and I see this group getting bigger fast) are all about immediacy. We can't make plans for next year, because we're struggling to know what we're going to do Friday night. We are all about living in this moment. What makes me happy right now? The obvious problem here is that we have no vision. There is nothing besides the short term.

A teen girl talked to me once about these big plans she had for getting out of Warren. The places she wanted to go and experience. The places she would like to live. The food she'd like to try and people she'd like to meet. She was excited. A few months later I found out that she was pregnant. Now I don't know what happened (or is happening) in her life. My guess is that her options for all of those plans are now pretty limited.

I had the amazing privilege to know both sets of my grandparents well into my adult life. They were all at our wedding. Actually both sets eloped. At our wedding we had a cake for each of them since one set was celebrating 50 years and the other was celebrating 60 years the same year we got married. That's a lot of years of marriage. I asked my grandpa one time how he stayed married for so long. He said that every day he told my grandma he loved her...and she did the same. He was diligent in the small, day to day things....so it translated to the big life long things. Before they passed a couple years ago my paternal grandparents celebrated 69 years of marriage. My maternal grandparents celebrate 61 years this year.

Make wise choices. Today.

Home Coffee

After watching this....my boys better step their game up!

Where I Live: Camo as Fashion

I think the more I do these "Where I Live" posts, the more I think that if you don't live here you'll never want to visit because we're nuts. It's possible. For the record I love where I live.

So today we'll explore camouflage as fashion. All I know is where I live. Maybe I'm missing the bigger picture here. Maybe this is fashionable everywhere.....but I doubt it. This is the hunting capital.

This first picture is hard to see. It was the best I could do. It was taken at the post office. This lady walked in. I heard her coming because she was wearing spiked heels. So spiked heels and baggy camo pants. She was clearly a business person of some sort.....in camo pants.


Next we have a young lady at the pharmacy. It took me a minute to see what she had because it had so many bedazzly jewels on it. Then I realized it was camo under all the glitter. Fabulous.

Slacker

All He wants for Christmas is His Two Front Teeth

Last year a few kids in Corban's class lost teeth. He was bummed. He kept asking when he would lose a tooth. He got impatient. Finally he had a wiggly tooth. He was excited. Marjorie was sad...because her little boy was growing up. He ate around his wiggly tooth for weeks. Then he had two more wiggly teeth.

So finally just after Thanksgiving, he lost his first tooth. He was so excited. The tooth fairy came and he was jumping around.

So the next night Mari put him to bed. About 1/2 hour after he was in bed she hears him going to the bathroom. So she went upstairs to check on him. There's blood on his hands, on his PJ's around his mouth. She goes into his bedroom and there's blood everywhere...on the sheets, on the pillow. Apparently as he went to bed he got obsessive and started playing with his other wiggly tooth. He couldn't stop. He just kept going at it. So she just told him to stay in the bathroom and get it out...because he clearly wasn't going to go to sleep on his own. So he finally pulls that one out too.

I was out playing hockey that night. I didn't hear a thing about it. So the next morning when he starts telling me about the tooth fairy coming, I thought he was talking about the night before again. For the record the tooth fairy upped the price the second night because of the work involved in the extraction!

He already had some adult teeth coming in behind his babies. Looks like I'm gonna have to shell out some bucks for braces! Dang.

Over the Rhine/Chrissie Baldauff Koerber

I had iTunes on random this morning and this song came one. Every time it does I think of Chrissie Baldauff Koerber. I heard her sing it first....actually I might've played it with her a couple handfuls of years ago....can't remember. The air that this song has is beautiful. It doesn't rush to get there. La-da-da-da at the end. Can you beat that? YouTube has a video of the song....dumb pictures but you get the picture.

Sheep

ISTANBUL: Hundreds of sheep followed their leader off a cliff in eastern Turkey, plunging to their deaths this week while shepherds looked on in dismay. Four hundred sheep fell 15 metres to their deaths in a ravine in Van province near Iran but broke the fall of another 1,100 animals who survived, newspaper reports said yesterday. Shepherds from Ikizler village neglected the flock while eating breakfast, leaving the sheep to roam free, the Radikal daily said. The loss to local farmers was estimated at $74,000.

Sheep don’t regularly commit suicide….they’re just dumb. Really dumb. Their leader falls off a cliff, they all fall off a cliff. So many followed that the ones on the bottom were crushed the the ones on top survived by the bodies below.

Can you imagine the shepherds watching this happen? Running. Screaming. Desperately trying to stop this disaster from happening. All because they stopped for some breakfast. They were neglecting their sheep. You would think they would’ve known better right? I mean, these were the guys that knew the most about sheep. They knew how dumb the sheep were. Can you see them running toward this ravine of sheep while their omelets get cold? It’s almost funny. The shepherds sole function is to care for and protect his sheep.

In Matthew 9:36, Jesus is walking through towns and villages and he is preaching. He sees all these people and then it says “he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” He saw people just aimlessly wandering. A people without direction and guidance.

I struggled for awhile with these type of analogies that Jesus made. Scripture regularly talks about Jesus being the shepherd and we are the sheep. He talks about splitting the sheep from the goats in heaven (goats are also rather dense….they eat ANYTHING). I guess the problem I had was, “Is Jesus calling me dumb?” Here’s what I’ve come up with…..No….but he could.

If I’m honest about my life…and if you’re honest about yours….we make the same mistakes again and again. Sin in our lives usually comes in the form of patterns. Bad habits. Making the same mistakes again and again. If a bystander could see the intimate parts of our lives it might almost seems as comical as sheep walking off a cliff. Can you hear them say, “Again? Seriously? Did he/she learn last time that that was a bad move? Why would they do that again?” Almost comical.

I need a shepherd. You need a shepherd. All the time. A “good shepherd” (John 10:11) who cares for me. A shepherd that knows that I’m dumb and need guidance. I need direction. See, I don’t think that just because I know who the shepherd is, I instantly become smart. Just because I know Jesus in my life, do I instantly not need guidance, and direction, and care. Quite the opposite. Now that I know who the shepherd is, I realize also that I’m actually a sheep in need of those things. I’m just more aware of how much I need the shepherd.

I hope the next time you read about our Shepherd or about us being sheep, you can acknowledge what you really are….sheep. That you need a Good Shepherd who won’t take a breakfast break and let you walk off a cliff. Maybe next time you see a pasture of sheep or go to the Fair, you’ll remember the promise of what we have.

Where I Live: Christmas Walk

I'm counting this still as Dec. 7 even though it's the 8th, but I just got back from hockey so I'm still awake as it's the 7th. So it still counts.

Talk about Americana. Every year our town has the Santa Parade and Christmas walk. Here it is in a nutshell. There's a super short parade (6 blocks tops). The band plays. Some community groups march. And at the end is Santa. Immediately following the parade, almost all the shops down town are open and most have window displays.

So last Friday was the day. It was cool, but not bitter and no snow this year. Some years have been bitter cold and TONS of snow. Here are some pictures.

Do you do something like this in your town? Is there something different? Tell me about it.

The Ramones: Part II

Ok this is a follow up to my post from yesterday about the Ramones lunchbox. I clearly messed up. I foolishly believed 2nd graders wouldn't know the Ramones. Tonight I found a video of Kindergarten South Korean children singing the Ramones.

Judy is a Punk

For Katie

I just found this video and I found it awesome. I thought of my art friend Katie (who actually reads my blog occasionally!) So I'll post it here.

While I'm posting about Katie, she wrote a book. You should buy it. It's called The Time Traveler's Pocket Guide. It is wicked funny. It's a must have for all your time travel needs. I read it in one sitting and laughed out loud numerous times. It rocks. Go get one....for yourself or a friend for Christmas.

Now for the video:

NHL Realignment

Ok not that most of you care, but I'll hit it anyway because I do.

The NHL owners just voted and passed a new plan to realign the teams. What does that mean? and why? The biggest why is that over time some teams have moved (most notably this season Atlanta who played in the southeast division moved to Winnipeg....but was still in the southeast division.....talk about travel), and others have been in weird divisions since they joined the league (how is Columbus in the West?)

So let's look at what happened and then I"ll give you my thoughts briefly. First let's look at the current set-up as it stand right now. There are two Conferences with 3 divisions each. So let's look at the East for example:

Eastern Conference:
Atlantic Division:
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia
New Jersey
New York Rangers
New York Islanders
Northeast Division:
Buffalo Sabres (all hail)
Boston Bruins
Montreal Canadiens
Toronto Maple Leafs
Ottawa Senators
Southeast Division:
Florida Panthers
Carolina Hurricanes
Winnipeg Jets (formerly Atlanta Thrashers)
Tampa Bay Lightning
Washington Capitals

So during the regular season (currently) you play each team in your division 6 times (3 home, 3 away) and each other team in their Conference 4 times (2 home, 2 away). That leaves 18 games to be played at random with teams from the other Conference. So let's take the Sabres for example....they might not see the Anaheim Ducks in Buffalo only every other year or so.

During the playoffs, the top team from each Division gets a 1, 2 or 3 seed in their conference with 4-8 going to teams with the most points. They then play Conference play 1vs.8, 2vs7, etc. Stanley Cup finals is the two Conference Champions.

So here's the new system:









There are no more BIG conferences. No East and West. Just 4 new Conferences.

Regular season format is that you play every team in your Conference 6 times (3 home, 3 away) just like before. Here's where it gets good though....you play every other team in the entire league 2 times (1 home, 1 away). So still using the Sabres as our example, you will see Anaheim in Buffalo every year (not sure why you'd want to though).

Playoffs format: The top 4 teams in each Conference play each other for the first two rounds of the playoffs. Where it goes from there is still a little shaky. They're still working the bugs out on that. Possibly re-ranking the remaining 4 teams (or Conference champions) and then going two more rounds.

Let's look at realignment a different way before I tell you my thoughts:
UP-SIDES:
-They've kept most of the rivalries in place. Pittsburgh/Philadelphia, Boston/Montreal, Detroit/Chicago, Calgary/Edmonton still see each other 6 times a year. AND they stand a good chance of see each other in the playoffs for a best of 7 series.

-Some of the Western Conference teams were traveling like crazy. With the new re-alignment most of them have cut their travel down quite a bit....particularly when it comes playoff time (Nashville-Vancouver last year are you hearing me?).

-It just makes sense. Almost all of the new Conferences make sense. Most junior higher's could've figured out that the old system was broke....and gotten close to what the new system will be.

-As I've already mentioned I really like that you see every team in the league in your building every year. That means that if Ryan Smyth plays for another year or two, I stand a great chance of seeing him! But even seeing teams like Vancouver or LA regularly is kind of cool.

CONS:
-If you're Tampa Bay or Florida, there's no dang way that you're in the northeast! I think they missed the boat with this one. They couldn't have put either of the NY teams or NJ in the northeast? Really?

-Some cool rivalries will be lost. Detroit/Colorado will only see each other twice a year. Philadelphia/Boston will only be a twice a year show too. Neither of these are huge rivalries these days, but they've been there. The biggest lose I see is the lose of the Chicago/Vancouver rivalry. That has been electric the past couple years. Let's hope for a good playoff series this year for one last go-round.

-The BIGGEST beef I have with re-alignment is that it feels a little like the BCS to me. Someone's going to get screwed. Because you only have the top 4 teams from each Conference making it, there is inevitably going to be a #5 team (and possibly a #6) with more points than a # 4 (and possibly #3) of another Conference. Some conferences will be stronger than others and some teams that are good will be lost in the shuffle just because they got stuck in a tough conference. Other teams that have no business being in the playoffs will get in. That's unfortunate. I see WHY they did it. They want to create Conference rivalries. But I'm really about letting the best teams play for the prize.

The Ramones

So I had to take Corban his lunch. It was a rough morning and packing his lunch just didn't happen. So I get to school and set his lunch down at the one seat open at one of the two 1st grade tables.

On my way out I walked past the 2nd grade table. And I saw this lunch box. WHAT....THE....HECK??? What 2nd grader listens to the Ramones? Let's take this a step further....what 2nd grader at Catholic school listens to the Ramones? Holy Smokes!

Christmas

I've written before who I used to be quite the hum bug during the Christmas season. I'll admit that there is still some residual affects from years gone by and I'm not always the most festive. But I do like to decorate our tree and I've found Christmas music that doesn't make me want to stick my hand in a blender.

That being said, how many times do we have to hear the old Frankenstein/Frankincense joke? It's not new to anyone. I'm not sure how it can still garner a laugh. It's really not that funny to begin with.

Also, we're all aware of people that don't want to say Merry Christmas. I get it. Does everyone need their own cheer on Facebook tell me how they're choose to say Merry Christmas this year to remember Christ? Just do it. Don't tell us how you're going to do it. But let's make sure that we carry through with other way sin remembering Jesus too.....and I'm not talking about a plastic figure on your front lawn.

And rounding out my thoughts for today...the manger was where they laid Jesus. It wasn't the place where they were at the time. The Bible doesn't actually say they were in a stable. It just says that she laid Jesus in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. It's a logical jump that's that's where they were, but it doesn't say that. I'm not going to nit pick about that, but don't tell me that they stayed in a manger....it's not a place.

OK I'm done. Bah Humbug.

Random Video Saturday

Guy convinces 82 year old grandma to try Pop Rocks for the first time.




From Afghanistan...the War on Terror




Never let it be said that this blog was all fluff. I'm hear to help you learn something. This is a must watch, must execute maneuver.

For real.

For now this is today's post