As a family, we have been blessed by kind friends and family who have given us rides and lent us cars this week. Our van’s computer (on the engine) crashed last Saturday, so we have been without wheels for over a week. I’m always amazed at how God takes care of us. Being a one car family has always been good stewardship for our budget, but sometimes it would be very convenient to have an alternative in the driveway.

Every time we think about increasing the gas charges, the repair bills, and the insurance, a second car looks like a bad idea.

The 1996 van has so far been cheaper to fix–transmission, computer, brakes, suspension–than car payments would be on another newer used car. It helps to have a mechanic that keeps his costs and ours low (and sometimes that means waiting a few more days for the car). The van has certainly served us well, picking up basketball kids, hauling the dog, packing in college furniture and bikes.

Sure beats our first car: the low-slung 1974 red Vega with the aluminum engine that used to drink gallons of oil for breakfast and needed new spark plugs every Tuesday.  1974 Vega—>

 EDIT: 1970 Plymouth Valiant

||||||  lynard

When I watched this episode of ER a while back, I was amazed that they would grapple with the issues of sin and epistomology. The guy who posted the clip on youtube entitles it “ER Discovers the Problem with Post-Modernism.” The episode is called The Atonement. If you watch the show, the hospital has this very Unitarian chaplain who wants the workers to get in touch with their spiritual side in a sort of vague way. Her character is earnest and sweet, but lacks belief in anything specific.

In this scene, a patient who is suffering not only with his chronic illness, but also with his sense of guilt, confronts the chaplain for having no balm for his tortured heart:

What do you think?
||||||  lynard

K is a “fairy” in Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night Dream.  Since the setting is a contemporary prep school, the fairies are more like Charlie’s angels in blue lipstick. Joanna Lowe (from Dead Patrol), the director, made the play one of the most understandable productions of MND or any Shakespeare that I’ve ever seen.

The tough thing is that K, L, and I were witnesses to a horrific accident a couple hours before K had to go on stage. She wasn’t sure she could do it, but she didn’t let her fellow cast members down. She is such a mature girl. (And with her hair up, she is 6′ 5″ on stage. LOL)

I felt so bad that she was on the scene of this accident (The news story.). L was with us and a great comfort. He, too, had big play responsibilities. He runs sound. Tough, tough day.

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I pirated these pics from T’s facebook. His volleyball intramural team made the championship game, which was held during Spring Fling weekend. They lost the game, but oo-oh how they played the game, eh? 

Also, if you don’t already know, T was offered a job (and he accepted) as a Student Life Assistant next year. He will be given his own room in the dorm and be responsible for shepherding a floor of freshmen. He’ll do a thoughtful job, IMHO, but I’m sure he’ll get his paycheck’s worth of troubles. 

The other big news about the boy is that he will be going to Germany and Switzerland before France. He is helping with a Bible camp in Switzerland for service families stationed with the US Army in Germany. It is a wonderful opportunity but will call for more prayer. He will be potentially more exhausted for his team leadership in France, and he will need to make special arrangements to meet up with his mission team in Paris before going to Nantes.

By the way, if you go to the boy’s facebook, there are a lot more pics.

PS–A friend hooked us up with free concert tickets to see Billy Joel this weekend. He was never my *favorite* artist, but his <i>The Stranger </i> was one of the first vinyl records I owned.  He was always a thoughtful lyricist and songwriter. It was sweet to see him in person in a sold out venue with tens of thousands of Pittsburghers singing along, singing and singing. Funny thing: Sitting at the keyboard, he looked old, but sounded young. When he stood to play guitar and move, he looked and sounded young. He had no warm up band, and he never left the stage for 2-1/2 plus hours. He came with two drum sets, back up keyboards, a brass musician, and another guitarist–all who added backup voacals. To further his bond with the audience, he began with Pittsburgh’s Beer Barrel Polka and left us with Piano Man. Thanks, Billy! You were class.

||||||  (six guitar strings, as always)      lynard

Austruck1 got me into this gig, speaking at the Mercer County One Day Writers Conference.

Last year, I spoke to fellow publishers in Nashville on “Publishers and Internet Presence” at one of my professional conferences. I mostly enjoyed it , so am looking forward to this new opportunity. This time I am talking about “Denominational Publishing.” Fascinating, huh? I’ll tape it so you can grab some popcorn and watch it on a Friday night with your family.

Being a visual person, I enjoy putting together the “Powerpoint” (actually, Keynote because it is Mac and I like it better). I have my illustrations, examples, handouts and text outlines. *yawn* But—to get to the purpose of this post—I could still use a good joke. You know how all public speakers are supposed to have a joke or two.

So, can you spare a joke—one that would be appropriate for a gaggle of non-giggly writers? C’mon, give a girl a laugh, at least.

|||||| lynard

Why do I not always get updated with posts from my subscriptions on Xanga? For a while, my hubster had his privacy settings knotted so tight, nobody knew he was posting. He has, however, loosened his settings, yet I don’t always seem to get notified when he updates… I had no idea he posted this past week–about daffodils no less. Who knows how many other peeps I am missing?

I feel bad because I don’t know if his family and friends know he writes.    (Dad, for instance, it looks like you are not even subscribed to your son! )    Too funny.

Well, here is a hot link if you want to catch up with my boyfriend:

http://www.xanga.com/secondhandmuse

||||||  lynard

Researching for a talk next weekend, I stumbled upon this blog with a unique topic: Crummy Church Signs–Critical Analysis of Critically Bad Church Signs.”

http://crummychurchsigns.blogspot.com/

The fun thing is that if you find a crummy church sign in your neighborhood, you can submit a pic of it to them, and possibly have hundreds of others shaking their heads along with you.

||||||  lynard

If you read T’s xanga, you may have seen this. He put it together to show an overview of his mission trip to Phoenix over spring break. If your screen is black at first, it is because he and Will got lost in the dark in the desert. LOL Hang in there. The stories at the end are worth the wait.    ||||||  lynard

At the end of our cell phone contracts, we have been researching phones and plans. Here are factors that weighed heavily in our decisions:

1–Phone reviews. If you want to know what phones have the best mp3 players, battery life, keypad ease, and reception, type in the model and carrier of the cell phone you like in the search field at www.youtube.com. Several outfits do thorough, visual, and technical reviews of the hardware. The flip phone that I want received applause for talk time, standby time, memory card size (1 gb), music file handling, but has a weakness in the antenna. Who knew? L and K are looking at sliders with sweet screens, but found they don’t have the capacity and battery life of the flip phone I want.

2–Upgrade fees. A lot of carriers charge an “upgrade fee” when you renew your contract. Supposedly, it pays for the shipment of your phone. T-Mobile never had one until last November, and it is $18 per phone. And it is subject to tax. But then, we found that many carriers have the same fee. Switching to a new carrier would avoid the fee, but there would be “activation fees” that would be twice as much.

3–Customer service. Some carriers have OK service. Some have horrid service. Some have even have reps in foreign countries that don’t speak English well. I know: One night I gave the phone to my husband in tears because I couldn’t understand the numbers the rep was telling me to punch in my handset. “Un, tree, en, en, eyn.” What? One, three, ten, ten, seven?? “Nah. Un, tree, en, en, eyn.” T-Mobile has been like going from night to day. In the past year we’ve had billing questions, unwanted texting charges, technical issues—and when we have called, the customer service rep has been kind, attentive, and English-speaking. Once she even added a service retroactively to reduce extra charges we had been accruing. The customer service in the store has been sweet, too.

3–Domestic travel. We’ve travelled quite a bit over the US and rarely encountered a dead spot with T-Mobile.

4–Overseas travel. Most countries are on a different cell phone signal–GSM–and US handsets will not work there even if there is satellite coverage. T-Mobile is a rare exception. They offer GSM compatible phones that simply need to be unlocked at the store. AT&T, Nextel, Sprint and Verizon don’t. The local T-Mobile shop cheerfully unlocked my son’s phone at no charge a couple years ago, and he called me when needed from France, no problemo (oops, not French), but will cost you plus des francs. I’ll be payin’ the francs again this summer.  Oui, monsieur.

5–Perks. Most plans seem to have free minutes in the evening and on weekends, so this doesn’t seem to be a big deal. Many have free calling within the plan, as does T-Mobile. Even though a lot of our extended family members have AT&T or Verizon, this seems to be diminished by the fact that mostly we call within our immediate family and those calls seem to be free no matter what plan we use.

6–Overall value. According to most comparison charts of the major carriers, T-Mobile still has the most bang for the buck, starting at $30/mo for 300 minutes. The family plan is $59.99 for 700 minutes and two lines, then $9.99 for each additional line.

So, surprise. T-Mobile, we’re sticking with you. You seem to be the best for this motley crew.

||||||  lynard

These guys combine Filipino heritage with French mime and street moves and urban tunes to create wondrous entertainment. We don’t get MTV, but these are the guys that won the Best Dance Crew competition.<p>||||||  lynard