DISQUS

Well, were not football stars and we don't have kids. But my husbad and I have been together for twenty years. We've stayed together through two major career changes, unemployment, six startup businesses, infertility and my chronic illness. We are very much in love. Knock wood :-)

I think you mean tract homes

It's probably wrong to do something superstitious when speaking of a sermon, but I have my fingers crossed for you.

You don't sound like you have a bad attitude at all. You sound like you have a frustrated and disappointed attitude.

You have something you care about very much, and you tried to not only express that caring but respect the time of others.

It hurts to be disrespected and disregarded and I imagine the scenario you describe left you feeling a bit of both. Other speakers sucked the energy out of the room and disregarded the rules.

As far as your effectiveness as a speaker, you never really can tell what others will take away. Although had I been in the audience, I'm sure I would have taken more away from your speech simply because by respecting the time of your audience you acknowledged them and their importance, thus made an impact.

And now I'm just babbling so I'll stop.

The tithe is NOT Biblical to the New Testament. It is Biblical to the OT and the Old Covenant.

I understand your point.

But don't you think God is bigger than the rest of us? If God can use Balaam's ass to send his message, God can surely draw real followers from this type of event as well.

I understand the father's feelings, but I also get annoyed with the brazen selfishness of others. (Try going to Disneyworld only to have the ride experience ruined by idiots taking flash pictures or having a film-light attached to their video recorder.)

Had it been my child I would have inquired ahead of time if there would be an official video of the performance for me to purchase. If there wasn't going to be an official video I would have requested AHEAD OF TIME that the symphony organisers grant me permission to film my child's performance as both a memento and a tool for college applications.

I know this is a rationalisation, but I had sworn off sweet sodas a few months ago, going from about 40oz of Coke a day to 0.

But I absolutely LOVE Boylan's Black Cherry soda. Like Jones they're a boutique bottler who uses real cane sugar. Like Jones you can get them at Publix.

I will say that I think my body reacts differently to the cane sugar than to the corn syrup of large bottlers. I can be satisfied with one 12-oz Boylan's and not have my cravings ratchet up the way they would with Coke or Pepsi products.

Okay, so it probably IS a rationalisation. Nevertheless, I do love my Boylan's.

Never have tried Jones, although their holiday flavours (like "gravy") do make me curious.

FWIW, I don't think dolphin was mad.

dolphin is someone whose comments I always value because he almost always sees things the exact opposite of me and is eloquent about why. He can come off as angry, but I just think that's his way of speaking on the web.

Also, he's from Virginia and lives not too far from the school, so this is all exquisitely personal for him.

All that to say, I don't think he was mad.

???

There are rules for improv?

Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

That is simply a WONDERFUL sermon. Great job.

Julia Sweeney's newfound atheism does make me very sad, but given her personal journey of the past few years it's understandable.

While I think it's her choice to exercise free will and embrace atheism, I am a little frustrated with her belief that part of being an atheist is making fun of Christians, putting down Christians as stupid, etc.

I still swear that was Andy Griffith's best work.

Congratulations. You were right up there in my list. I had such trouble deciding between you and Amy.

But you're correct about the pyramiddyness of it all. My fondest wish is that everyone on my b-roll will have this by the end of the month. ;-p

So we are not doomed to repeat it.

duh.

;-p

It was opposite 'Silent Witness' on BBC America, so I'm Tivo'ng the later show at 1:00am tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to their take on the whole thing.

...and NOW I'm hungry. ;-p

I don't dare harrass you about yours if I don't harrass myself about mine. ;-p

It's funny. I just got rotated on to the P.R. Committee for my church and our task this year is to do a video. I saw this one about a year ago and forgot about it. I think I'm gonna have to send it to the other people on the committee as an example of what NOT to do. ;=p

Ah! The great Trivial Pursuit stumper.

It's one of those questions that you THINK is gonna be like "Who's buried in Grant's tomb?" but could actually cost you the game.

I'm proud to say that I beat my all-time rivals with this question in High School. I've had a soft spot for _Holiday Inn_ ever since.

The restaurant on 21st avenue that is now Jackson's Bistro was, for many years, a Dunkin Donuts.

There was also one downtown and one on Murfreesboro Rd. The problem was that around 1992 or 1993 (?damn, I'm getting old) they changed ownership. The new franchisers would never clean the stores, never restock the merchandise and basically ran a shoddy operation. Eventually all the local stores shut down. Then another family took over the Murfreesboro Rd. location and did a good job. But they had such a hard time building the business back up because people still had the negative associaton that they eventually closed that store as well. That was maybe 2 years ago.

I think enough time has passed in the collective Nashville memory to enable people to enjoy DD again without the crap association from the old owners.

I'm sure once the Franklin store makes a good showing he'll go back to the college neighborhood at least.

I know you're really snowed under, but I was so sorry you couldn't make the blog meet up thing. I really wanted to get to meet you!

We'll have to do it soon, once your life settles down a bit.

Oh, please DO come! It'd be great to finally meet you face to face.

I'll definitely keep you at the top of the prayer list.

I don't think anything in life is more basically frustrating than red-tape.

Sure, there are illnesses, financial difficulties, etc. But red-tape tops everything for the sheer lemon-juice-in-paper-cutness of it all.

That's quite cool!!!