Jesusgreek

To celebrate my 100th blog, I decided to post a video montage from "Scrubs". It highlights one of the shows secondary characters, Ted. Ted not only is the lowly hospital attorney (insert Beth), but he is also a member of a reoccurring quartet.

3:16am Alarm goes off and I proceed to get ready, dressed, and brush my teeth before heading out. 3:24am Start the car and pull out of the driveway 3:45am As I drove past Best Buy and Circuit City, I noticed there must have been at least 300-400 people in line already at Best Buy. Since Circuit City is where I really needed to go, I made an executive decision to head on over there and get in line. As I got out of my car and approached the front of the store, I was amazed that their were only 70-80 people in line. I just thought it was because I was so early (they were to open at 5:00am). So I took my place in line. That's when things got weird. In less then 10 seconds after getting in line, I heard a mob of people behind me. I turned to see a few hundred folks walking up the sidewalk to get in line behind me. I immediately turned and faced straight ahead trying to figure out what just happened. How did I get in the middle of all these people? I tried to listen to the conversations ...

I am a HUGE day after Thanksgiving day shopper. "Black Friday" as it is known in the retail world is my "running of the bulls". There are a few websites out there that have been posting what would be on sale at which stores for at least the past month. And I've been checking it everyday for updates. In the past, my routine has been: Kohls @ 5am, Staples @ 6am (sorry Charles), Circuit City @ 7am and Family Christian Store @ 8am. But this year, Circuit City has thrown a wrench in my plans, they are opening at 5am. So I guess I'll get up dark and early at 4 to go stand in line at CC. They have a ton of stuff I want to purchase for Christmas presents so I'm hoping that will take care of most of my shopping needs. I'm sure I'll run in Kohls and Target before heading home. I'll blog a full report on Friday. Happy Thanksgiving!

Check out the new "Rocky Balboa" Trailer: I can't wait!! I'm a huge "Rocky" fan. In my opinion, here are the five previous movies in order from best to worst: Rocky 2 Rocky 1 Rocky 3 Rocky 5 Rocky 4 The Office comes on at 8:35pm tonight and will last until 9:20pm. That's 45 awesome minutes!! Each week this season, every episode has been better then the last. Last week was no exception. Here are some great quotes in case you missed it: Michael: There she is. Jan Levinson. Jan: Michael. Michael: First thing in the morning. Love to start my morning with a hearty bowl of Jan. Jan: Michael. Michael (singing): Just call me Levinson in the morning, baby... Dwight: When you become close with someone you develop a kind of sixth sense. You can read their moods like a book. Right now, the title of Michael's book is "Something Weird is Going On"...colon... "What Did Jan Say?...The Michael Scott Story"... by Michael Scott with Dwight Sch...

As I have already said, Chicago as vaulted to the top of my favorite U.S. cities. That's really saying a lot because I love San Diego. Here are some random observations I made and my final thoughts on the trip/city: - Every one there was very friendly. From people on the street, to most restaurants, to places we visited, everyone we came in contact with was very nice. - There are a lot of single people in Chicago. I'm sure it is probably like that in most large cities, but I noticed it there more. More people shopping alone, walking alone, eating alone and just generally alone. - That place is IPod nation. I felt like we needed to go buy one just so we wouldn't look like tourist. Everyone had them and they were constantly listening to them. - We took our best cloths and we were still under dressed. It was the dressiest city I have ever been to. Everyone was always dressed business casual at all hours of the day/night. - Surprisingly it was a very clean city. The streets and...

Chicago is world renown for their restaurants so Beth and I tried to keep our dinning choices very diverse. We have two rules when we go to a new city and are looking to eat: 1) We try not to eat at any chain restaurants that we have back home (ie: McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Chili's, TGI Friday's etc.) and 2) We try not to eat at any over priced bad food novelty places (ie: Hard Rock, Rain Forest cafe, Nascar cafe etc.)So here is my list of some of the better places we ate. They are not in order of which was best because they were all very good in their own way. - The Village (Italian) Chicago's oldest Italian restaurant. It has been family owned and operated for 3 generations. It is a 2 story building with 2 very different dinning experiences. The 2nd floor is where we ate and it featured a traditional northern Italy menu at affordable prices. The staff was great and the atmosphere made Beth and I feel as though we were back in Florence, Italy. The bottom floor was a bit m...

Instead of having one long mega blog that details all of my happenings while in Chicago, I've decided to break it up into 3 different ones. The first will be my top 10 places I went/did, second my top places I ate, and third my overall thoughts and final opinion on the trip and city. Top Ten places I went while in Chicago: #1) Wicked on Broadway I've never been to a Broadway play/musical before so I don't have anything else to compare it to, but from my experience with "Wicked", I'd go back every chance I got. The theater was gorgeous (Ford's Oriental theater). It was everything you'd think of when you hear "Broadway". The architecture and paintings were unbelievable. We had really good seats, front row of the balcony. I wasn't too familiar with the story of "Wicked" except that it had something to do with the "Wizard of Oz". Basically it's that story but from the witches point of view. It begins with the birth of ...

Beth and I will be leaving for Chicago in just a little bit. While there, we plan to check out: The Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, The Field Museum, The Museum of Science and Industry, The Hancock Observatory, The Shedd Aquarium, "Wicked" on Broadway, and the Jerry Springer Show. I'll blog my full report once I return.

I ran across this site and thought I'd pass it on. It ask you 10 questions then tells you what kind of voter you are. According to the quiz I am a "Centrist". The red dot on the below image is me. Here's what it means to be a "centrist": CENTRISTS espouse a "middle ground" regarding government control of the economy and personal behavior. Depending on the issue, they sometimes favor government intervention and sometimes support individual freedom of choice. Centrists pride themselves on keeping an open mind, tend to oppose "political extremes," and emphasize what they describe as "practical" solutions to problems. Here is the link if you want to check it out: www.self-gov.org/quiz.html

On my way to drop Jacob off at preschool today, I was listening to my usual sports talk morning show. They shared a story about a gym in another part of the country that made a new rule of "no grunting allowed". They made the news because they recently kicked out a member for breaking the "no grunting" rule. They also have rules in place that prohibit no do-rags and bandannas. (For the record, I think do-rags and bandannas need to be outlawed nationwide because you look ridiculous wearing them) The female owner of the gym said she has made such rules so other members wouldn't feel intimidated. My suggestion: Make it a women's only gym and get it over with. A common theme that constantly seems to be popping up all over the place now a days is the feminazation of men. Society is trying their hardest to make more and more men act like women. From female clothing designers telling men that "pink" is the new black to no more grunting in gyms. Of all pla...

As I shared with my congregation this past Sunday, I've been visiting a councilor for about 2 months now. Without getting into the long explanation as to why, what's more important is what I have learned about myself and what the causes were that put me there. I basically was empty. My tank was dry and I was running on fumes. The problem was the only tank I cared about was my spiritual tank. What I've come to learn is God has designed us all with five equally important areas of our lives. And when even one of them get neglected, or four in my case, your life as you know it begins to shut down. What are those five areas? Spiritual: "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." Mark 1:35 We need to spend time daily communicating with God through prayer. I was trying my best to keep this tank filled and neglected the others. Physical: “For physical training is of some value......