As of this post, I'm moving all of my blogging activity to another location, also called Minister's Study.

 

All of the relevant posts from this blog have now been transferred over there.  It doesn't have all the features that this space does -- but the features that it has seem to work (unlike, say, the upload photos option here).  I understand that there are ways to add loads of features to it as I learn how.  I'm going to leave this space with its content at least for the time being (I haven't finished setting up my links and whatnot there yet), but I'll only be updating on the new one.

 

One of the nice things about the new location is that anyone can comment on posts; you don't have to have a hotmail account or anything.  So I hope to see all of you over there.  Drop on by and leave me a comment!

 

 

My delightful wife sent me out on a couple of errands the other day.  Really, they were both just drop-offs.  Not pick-ups.  But, see, one of those drop-offs was for the library books.  Now, I don't know about the rest of you out there, but it is really, really hard for me to walk out of a building full of books empty handed.  I really just can't help myself.  So I walked into the library with those three children's books to return and heard the siren call of the books for sale.

 

I just kind of drifted over to the shelves of used books for sale, figuring, "Hey, it's just a quick look.  And hey, if I happen to bring back just one or two books, it's no big deal."  And then I saw it.  Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in three volumes.  For $10.  Hey, you couldn't help grabbing them, either, could you?  So don't go getting all judgmental on me!  And then, how could I turn down The Oxford History of the Classical World?  You couldn't either, could you?  Okay, maybe most of you could have managed to do without that one.  In that case, we'll just skip over the two Patrick O'Brrian novels, the book by Nancy Farmer, and the couple of kids' books.  No wait, we will mention the kids' books!  Those two weren't really for me at all!  Complete act of selflessness, me buying those books.

 

Yeah.  My wife wasn't really buying that either.  But at least she's just reached the eye-rolling stage when I stagger in beneath another load of books for which we must find shelf space or box space.  I'm just afraid that one of these days she'll just make all the library runs herself.  And then where will I get more books?

Tuesday night we went back to the Goodwill rescue mission in Newark, NJ.  The gentleman who usually preaches was not there, so Dr. Stagno got to preach.  We took a good group, including a couple of ordinary church members who went for the first time, my wife, and daughter.  It was cold here Tuesday night (okay, frigid is probaby a better word), and that meant a good crowd at the mission.  Nobody wants to be on the streets when it's that cold.

 

I played the piano, except for one song for which they brought in their in-house guy -- he doesn't read music well enough to play any variety, but he sure tore the keyboard up on that one.  Dr. Stagno preached, and this is a format in which he excells.  He preached with real power, and you could sense the working of the spirit.  A number of people came forward on the invitation, and Paul Funchess got to lead one to the Lord.  Terrific evening.

...really hurt.

 

Over Christmas, I caught myself needing to take out an extra notch in my belt.  Not good.  A couple of months off from wrestling and running was taking its toll.  Then I went back to wrestling practice a couple of weeks ago, and couldn't last more than a full-length match against a high school kid (tough kid, but still!)

 

So I've gotten serious about getting back in shape.  My part-time job at the bookstore is back to being actually part-time (as opposed to Christmas time, which means "all the time you possibly have, plus another two hours.")  A gentleman in the church with a couple of teen sons is also taking some time off of work, so he and I have started running together (occassionally with one or more of his sons).  Those first couple of runs, rather like that those first couple of wrestling practices, were pretty painful.  The good news is that you always get it back faster and easier than you gained it in the first place.  I'm already starting to feel pretty good on the runs, and wrestling shape can't be too far off either.  The offseason program starts back up this week, with freestyle on Tuesdays and Greco-Roman on Thursdays.  I plan to try to make both as often as I can, which, coupled with the running, should put me back in shape in just a few weeks.  I still don't know about trying to go to the Empire State Games again this year, but if I do, I've got to get in shape.  And even if I don't, it's a lot more fun being in shape than not.

 

Another great benefit of this new running program with the man in the church is that I've been able to build something of a connection with him.  We talk while we run (okay, for the first mile or so, until we're gasping for breath too hard to communicate).  He's become much more consistent in attending church, and he's even planning to come with us to the rescue mission in Newark tonight.  I'd love it if we can really get him involved in the church and draw his kids in as well.

It's been far too long since I've updated this, as I've been searching for a new blogging home.  But since I haven't finished setting up my new one, I'll post here, and then transfer it all over there when I'm done.

 

Sunday afternoon, we had our Bigger and Better youth activity for the church.  Coming into it, I was afraid we weren't going to have any kids, maybe four or so tops.  Kind  of discouraging.  But when the time came to start the event, there were ten kids there!  They included at least one first-time visitor.  Just a hair on the low side of average for our youth activities, but still very pleasing.  We actually had to scramble to get a third vehicle so that we had enough cars for the kids.

 

The idea of the activity is that the kids are split up into teams, and placed into a car with an adult driver (a very responsible, mature adult driver!)  Each team is given a toothpick.  They then take the toothpick and trade it for something bigger and better.  Then repeat with that item.  The team to return before the deadline with the biggest and best item wins.  They can trade with anyone they like, family, friend, stranger, business, whatever.

 

I should have known better than to let one team go out with a pickup truck while the others just had a car and a minivan.  Paul Funchess' team returned with a working washing machine.  Another team had been offered a working dryer, but couldn't fit it into their vehicle.  I guess it's no surprise that the washing machine won.  If we go by and pick up that dryer, the church will then own a complete set for the parsonage, in case we take ours with us when we leave.

 

 

Well, I'm pretty fed up with the problems with the msn spaces.  Obviously my space looks a little odd -- msn made some changes.  But more annoyingly, I can't seem to post pictures in any kind of way.  My wife is having the same problem.  I suspect I'm going to have to try to find a new place to blog.  It's a pity, after putting in the time to figure out so much of how they do things here.  I may post here until I figure something else out, though, so we'll see what happens.

Edna Pearson's funeral was held yesterday morning.  I ended up leading the singing (we sang some of her favorite songs).  Not the easiest song-leading I've ever done, trying to lead a group of people, half of whom can hardly keep from crying, half of whom don't know the song at all, and all without a piano or anything to keep us on pitch.  Notwithstanding all that, the service went well.  Edna's great-grandaughters sang a duet, and one played the flute (Edna really loved music -- shucks, I shouldn't put that in the past tense -- I'm positive she still does.)  Our deacon, Ron Biller, did a superb job of eulogizing, including a poem that he'd written himself the night before.  Dr. Stagno always seems to have the right words for any occasion, and he did again.  Those who did not know the gospel heard it clearly and gently.  I suspect Edna was pleased by the service.

 

Anna was present both for the viewing Monday and the funeral Tuesday, but didn't really grasp what was going on.  The body in the open casket rather confused her, so we tried to keep her away from it and keep to a minimum the loud and inappropriate remarks that toddlers are so good at providing.  It was hard on both my wife and Anna, since both of them were close to the whole family.

 

Yesterday afternoon I went to wrestling practice for the first time in at least a couple of months.  All I've really got to say is, "Ouch."  I'm getting older, and those kids are getting tougher.  Two or three months off was plenty for me to lose my conditioning almost completely; a few little running excursions just don't keep you in shape like steady wrestling will.  I wound up paired up with an up-and-coming kid who won his weight at the event Sunday.  We wrestled pretty much two entire college-length matches.  I was rusty but okay for the first half or so of the first match.  After that, it was just my experience trying to stave off his energetic abuse.  Like I said, "Ouch."  I've got to get back out there regularly and get back in shape.

Well, this weekend lived up to the last couple of weeks.  Naturally I worked Friday night.  Saturday morning, while doing some prep kinds of things I got a phone call that an elderly lady (about 95) in our church had passed away early that morning.  She is the oldest of four generations of her family who attend our church.  Naturally, Paul Funchess and I went over to spend some time with her daughter (by now probably in her seventies herself) in the afternoon.  We'll be having the viewing tomorrow afternoon and night (I can only make the afternoon time because of work).  The funeral will be Tuesday morning.  There is no question in any of our minds that this lady is in heaven.  But many in her extended family are probably not saved, so keep them in your prayers.

 

Saturday evening we had our men's steakout at the church.  Funchess and I did most of the legwork (well, between us I think we did pretty much all of it, and he did most of it himself).  The food was terrific (Dr. Stagno said several times that he doesn't think he's ever had a better steak -- just goes to show that those western guys know their beef.)  We had a solid turnout, which included my friend Jason Bross.  All in all, the event went extremely well.

 

The service this morning required a little impromptu juggling, since the children's Sunday School teacher didn't show (her grandmother was the lady who passed away).  My wife taught the class, and I got drafted to ride herd on a three-year-old tornado kid.  Didn't help that the service went quite long.  I'm so glad I'm not called to teach little kids.

 

This afternoon, we went to the NYC Catholic High School wrestling tournament.  The kids I've worked with from Farrell were wrestling, and wrestling quite well, I might add.  They ended up with nine guys in the finals, and a goodly number of those won.  The top four from each weight class get to compete in the Mayor's Cup next weekend, and the top five get to go to the Catholic state tournament.

 

Tonight, we watched the first half of the Super Bowl at a church member's house (lest anyone think we were skipping church to do so, our church does not have a Sunday evening service).  We came back here to finish watching Paul Funchess' Steelers knock off the Seahawks.

 

Whew.  Well, this has been pretty dry; sorry about that.  I'll try to say something interesting some other time; if I try to be funny now, it'll just make this longer.  Toodles!

I guess an explanation is in order for the rarity of updates to this blog.  My apologies to those who check in expecting to find out what is going on and see only silence.  I assure you that this is not an accurate description of what has been going on here.

 

In the last four weeks or so, I've been out of town three times.  The whole family (the whole island, actually, but who's counting?) is coming off a nasty cold.  At least I've stopped coughing up blood.  That's a good sign.  I realized that today was my first real day off in the last three weeks, I think, between the bookstore, the church, and our visit to another church.  Dr. Stagno is out of town for two weeks on a much-needed vacation, so all I can say is "Praise the Lord for Paul Funchess."  And I will likely have another day off in a little over two weeks.  I can't wait.

 

As for my bookstore job, that is the titular dysfunctional work family.  We may have the most messed up situation on the island at the moment, and that's saying something.  We've lost almost everyone we hired before Christmas (we really needed most of them to stay around for another week or two at least).  We've also lost a couple of the regular crew who were here beforehand, including one of the lower management crew.  It looks like our associate manager is manuevering to get the store manager fired, while simultaneously looking for a position outside of the company.  That keyholder who quit, didn't serve out his full two weeks notice, primarily because he wanted to make problems for the store manager.  Another keyholder is quietly interviewing for another job (she would like to quit on short notice also, I think, to cause the store manager more problems).  One of our regulars was out sick for practically all of last week, in the hospital and out.  Another missed Monday to the flu, but came in Tuesday to work a double shift.  I had to run out to her calendar kiosk to cover for her while she went to throw up.  Not quite recovered yet, I guess.  As for the store manager, there is reason for all the ire directed her way.  During Christmas, I think she broke a couple of labor laws, while finding ways (inadvertently, perhaps) to treat just about everyone on staff pretty unfairly in some way or another.  She systematically lies in any situation in which it might be to her advantage, and has by now done this in front of probably every worker at some time or another -- so no one in the store trusts her whatsoever.  Her vindictive approach to problems with workers hasn't helped anything.  Word has come down the pike that she thinks that most of the store staff is overly loyal to the associate manager (who has been here far longer than she has, and is in the store far more), and that she is therefore beginning to seek excuses for firing all of us.  Her deliberate disregard for company policies now leaves her quite vulnerable to the scheming of the people who remain.  All of this adds up to me being in the store an awful lot, because not much of anyone else is left to be there or willing to show up.  Outside of all that, it's still not a terrible place to work.  I've maintained my firm insistence on always acting honestly, and on being discrete about not repeating what I hear as rumors.  I also continue to refuse to sell material that I regard as pornography.  Although that last is an inconvenience to most of the staff, I'm in pretty good standing with most everyone, and get along fine with everyone.  And I get to work with all those pretty books.  But I still look forward to being able to do away with a part-time job completely, regardless of that employee discount on the purchase of books.

Well, this is a bit late, due to craziness at work for the most part.  I'll have to touch on that in another post.  Dr. Stagno is out of town on vacation, so I handled the service on Sunday and again on Wednesday.  Paul Funchess will preach this coming Sunday and Wednesday.

 

The service Sunday went extremely well, really.  I was pretty tired from the insane week before, but we had an excellent turnout.  Funchess' early class on personal witness went well, and had a person or two show up that we didn't expect.  In spite of the absence of the Stagno clan and several other regulars, we had probably the best turnout in months for the morning service.  There was a return visitor (always a good sign), and a family visiting who had just moved up here from Texas with the Coast Guard; both seemed very positive that we would see them again.  I spoke on the subject of judgment (when it is appropriate for Christians to judge, what we should judge, who we should judge, and how); I have a post on this blog some time back on the subject, so I won't go over it again.  In any case, we were very encouraged by the whole thing.

 

A matter for prayer for those of you who pray is that an elderly lady in our church (she's about 97) has been admitted to the hospital with several health problems.

We found out why they call it a winter retreat instead of snow camp -- there was no snow this year!  It seemed very strange to me to be playing games with the teens wearing just t-shirts in January, right on the border of New York State and Pennsylvania.  But that's what we did.  I took a teen from my church and one of his friends up to Tri-State Bible Camp for their senior high winter retreat.  The pics are from the campground and some of the activities.

 

The trip went well -- we didn't get lost once, coming or going.  Neither of my guys got hurt, and I don't think any of the teens at the camp got seriously hurt (pretty good, really, when you have 70 people playing some of those games).  The preaching was good, and I think my guys had a pretty good time.

 

I did learn, however, that I am no longer 16.  See, we leaders jump into some of the games to keep the teams even, or to spend time with the kids.  So I wound up playing some of the games, helping my guys out and cheering them on.  So far, so good.  Then there was some free time, so I was hanging out by the basketball court, watching a tall black kid from somewhere in New York tearing through the other kids.  Then someone called out those fateful words: "Hey, man, you want in?"  And of course I couldn't turn that down, could I?  And you can probably guess who I wound up guarding and being guarded by.  That game hurt.  It hurt a lot.  I really felt the two months I've taken off from exercising.  Although my team lost, I think I hung with the guy pretty well, probably scoring more on him than he did on me.  Then we staggered off for lunch, where I sat and glumly stared at my grilled cheese sandwich, unable to talk my stomach into accepting more than a few bites.

 

A few minutes later, I'm walking by the basketball courts, and the same set of guys are out there.  "Hey, man, want to run it again?"  The teams were different, but of course I wound up facing the same guy.  That game really hurt.  We won, but it was at the cost of all good feeling in my legs.  All sensations coming from my legs were bad.  Off we went for a service or something, played some games, etc.  And then the big block of free time.  And someone was breaking out a football.  "You wanna play?"  Well, I couldn't turn that down, could I?

 

And that is why I could barely walk on Sunday.  Or Monday.  Or today.  Ouch.  I've got to get more exercise.  Excuse me while I use my walker to get to the kitchen for a drink.

Wow, it's been a terribly long time since I've updated this.  It's been so long that I even put off updating it on one or two of the few opportunities that I've had to work on it, just because I didn't know where to start.  But now I have started.  And so I must continue.

 

Since the last post, we took a few days and visited my family in Farmville, VA.  Always exciting to have that many people and collie dogs crammed into a small house.  Although two of the brothers missed each other, we were there long enough to catch all five of my siblings (along with John's wife, three kids, and the fiance (one "e" or two?  I can never remember) of one of his daughters; also my sister's fiance (again with the "e" question).  Once you add in my mom and dad, my wife, and my daughter, that made for one packed out little ex-trailor-house.  All seemed to be doing pretty well, really.  My next younger brother showed us some truly terrifying video footage (of the psychological terror variety, of course).  He had the video from his training in the MS national guard, complete with footage of him throwing hand grenades and using an M16.  The very thought of my younger brother with an assault rifle and grenades fills me with trembling, quivering, and several other manifestations of terror.  Eek.  Those of you who know him know what I mean.  Those who don't, well, I guess you just don't.  And might be rather less trembly than if you did.

 

Things really picked up last week.  We started the week with revival services with Chris Miller, a Bill Rice Ranch evangelist and an old acquaintance of mine and Paul Funchess.  The services went wonderfully on Sunday, with solid turnout.  Monday night I had to work.  Tuesday, we had a baptismal service, and four people were baptized.  There are some great stories involved, but because they are all personal to the people involved, I'll forego passing them along.  Sadly, I missed the baptismal service.  I was terribly ill, but trying to play the piano anyhow.  Didn't make it.  I had to leave just before the start of the service.  I suppose people found it preferable to the possibilities had I stayed around.  After laying around rather miserably for most of Wednesday, I was healthy enough to make the conclusion to a great set of services.

 

In the meantime, the water cooling assembly for my computer arrived, on Monday, I think.  I skimmed through the directions before pulling my computer apart, and decided that it didn't look too bad.  Not quite as simple as the customer reviews of the product had led me to believe, but not too bad.  Aside from the fact that the directions had obviously been written by someone for whom English was a third language, taken only for two years in high school.  Many moons ago.  But I digress.  Over the course of Monday, I got the cooling gear assembled, and started to install it in the computer.  Then I realized that I had missed one very important phrase in the directions when I skimmed through.  That phrase was "on the back of" -- as in, "on the back of the motherboard."  There was a clip that had to attach to the back of the motherboard to hold the processor cooler in place.  Joy.  This meant unplugging all sorts of things I had hoped not to need to unplug, and pulling the motherboard out of the computer.  Then, in the middle of open heart surgery on my computer (being performed, by the way, on the dining room table), I got terribly ill.  I had to leave the guts of my computer laying all over the dining room for a couple of days.  Upon my return to relatively functional health, I found that I couldn't attach the new clip to the back of the motherboard because the old one was "integrated."  Meaning that they clearly never meant for it to come off.  At least insofar as I could tell.  And of course the detailed product information is all online now (no phone customer service for us technologically advanced people -- no sir!) -- the booklet Intell provides with the motherboard very helpfully gives you the internet address for the help pages.  But strangely, I found that I could not read the online material WITH MY COMPUTER IN TWO HUNDRED PIECES SPREAD ACROSS THE DINING ROOM.  I don't think they would have helped anyhow.  In absence of any proper tool, I ended up using nail clippers to cut the old clip off the motherboard.  That was a terrifying hour spent struggling not to scratch the motherboard while hacking indestructible plastic from it with a blunt, curved clicking thing (the video card required much the same process).  From there, it was just a matter of reassembling everything.  That sounds easy.  But it was rather like installing intestines and a carburetor into Frankenstein.  While they are attached to his ear.  By tubes too short to reach his belly.  Most fun I'd had all year.  (Note the length of the year at that point.)

 

Anyhow, my computer recovered from the operation on Friday night, just before we took off on Saturday to visit a church in southern New Jersey that asked me to come preach.  The visit there Saturday and Sunday went very well.

 

And now we're back here.  Dr. Stagno called in sick tonight about 45 minutes before the service, so I taught the Bible study tonight.  Tomorrow I'll work, then Friday and Saturday I'll be with the teenage guys at a snow camp winter retreat.  Then back here for Sunday morning, where Stagno will be out of town, and I'll preach.  Whew.

 

I'm sure I've missed something.  In fact, I'm sure I've missed any number of things.  But this entry is far too long as it is, so I'm going to stop now.

Merry Christmas, everyone!  I hope your holiday has been a happy one.  I hope you've had a chance to reflect on the meaning of what lies behind the wrapping paper and the fruitcakes (and I mean that in both senses of the word!)  Paul Funchess preached this morning, and he suggested that the meaning of Christmas wasn't even in the birth of Christ -- it is in the reason for the birth of Christ.  "Unto YOU is born this day..." -- we are the reason for Christ coming to earth, and the reason for Christmas.  "For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."  I'm glad He came for me.

It is unbelievably nice to be mobile again, independent of the whim and whimsy of the MTA or the ridiculous expense of car services.  It's so nice not to have to try to find someone for a ride to the grocery store or Walmart.

 

The deacon of our church signed over his extra car to us yesterday.  It's a '94 Chrysler LeBaron, black, with about 58,000 miles.  Although the ten years means it needs a little work (tires and mufler) and has a few dings and whatnot, it's really in pretty good shape.

In light of all the attention that Tiki Barber (Anna's favorite player) is getting, I thought I'd throw in a link for a pretty classy article about him that was in the paper up here.  Barber is a veteran running back out of Roanoke, VA.  He's currently leading the league in yards from scrimmage (meaning that he is personally responsible, either by running with the ball or by catching it, for more yards gained than any other player in the NFL) for the second year in a row.  The article is here: Tiki the biggest Giant of them all.  Classy guy who really deserves all the attention he's finally getting.

I just finished reading this brief biography of George Washington.  The title of the book, His Excellency, was taken from the wartime title used by Washington.  This may have been the most balanced and objective look at Washington I have ever seen.  Although the prose was at times dry and could have certainly benefited from collaboration with someone who writes for the purpose of entertaining, it never reached that scholarly impenetrability that many seem to associate with good history.  The book was clear, and accomplished its purpose of giving an overview of Washington as a man and of his career from the French and Indian War until his death.

 

The author resisted the recent trend of iconoclastic bashing of Washington, as well as the older tendency to deify him, instead presenting a remarkable portriat of a man who was all the more remarkable because of the flaws with which he dealt.  This book is certainly a product of our times, and so it focused on isues of importance today, particularly that of slavery (which Washington privately opposed, but realized that fighting it publicly would tear the infant country apart even before it came together).  This was a fascinating read, and all the better because it avoided extremes and remained pretty balanced throughout.  Although it is entirely possible that the author is wrong in some of his conclusions (I think that he probably downplayed the importance of God in Washington's life, mostly because Washington didn't use the word "God" a great deal when referring to God -- he frequently referred to providence or "the Almighty"), this book was a refreshing and informative read.

I finished reading this book quite some time back, but hadn't really had the time to get out a real review on it.  I still don't, but I'm going to write something quick anyhow. 

 

Freakonomics is one of the most fascinating pieces of nonfiction writing I've ever read.  As the title suggests, the book deals with economics, but only in the broadest of senses.  If I remember the subtitle correctly, it reads, "A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" -- and that just about sums it up.  Of course, the book is far too short to cover everything, but it manages to range from the safety of swimming pools vs. guns, to the societal impact of abortion, to the organizational structure (and social impact) of crack gangs, to Sumo wrestling.  In a book this scattered, it's hard to come away with a central message, though one sticks out -- beware of people bearing statistics.  Although statistics can be powerful tools, the authors showed how they can be tremendously deceptive as well.  And this bring up another major point of the book -- correlation does not demonstrate causation.  Just because two (or more) events occur in the same vicinity or near the same time does not mean that one caused the other.  And when one did cause the other, sometimes it's not the one you think.  These aren't the only points of the book, but the powerful demonstration of both of these made the book worthwhile on their own.  Although I don't find myself in agreement with every conclusion reached by the writers, the book made me think at every point, and informed me on practically every page.  For anyone with an interest in politics or how society works, this book should be a must-read.  In fact, I'd be a lot happier with the political and social scene in our country if every voter took the time to read this book and think through what it has to say.

We went Christmas caroling with the church folk Sunday evening.  Although turnout was low, those who came had a good time, and I think we were a real blessing to those whom we visited.  There are some wonderful people in our church who just aren't able to get out much anymore (two were just out of the hospital within the last week), and you could really see that they appreciated us coming to them.  The cookies, provided by Joy, were as terrific as usual.

 

On a different note, I was thrilled by the performance of the New York Giants on Saturday.  Well, most of the Giants.  But they played a tough team, and did it without some of their top players.  And they won convincingly.  A lot of the credit has to go to Tiki Barber (Anna's favorite player, though she's hardly alone in that), who broke 4 team records and tied a 5th over the course of his 220 yards rushing (and that's not counting his yards as a receiver!)  Barring a meltdown, they should make the playoffs, maybe even with a first-round bye.  And barring an Eli Manning meltdown or more injuries, they have just about as good a chance of making it to the Super Bowl as anyone in the NFC.  The last couple of years were rough ones for a Giants/Mets fan, but this season has pretty much already surpassed most people's expectations for the Giants.  Now for the Mets.  But I'm not holding my breath for them.

I noticed that my last two blog entries both contained exclamation points in the titles.  I must have been getting carried away.  I don't usually use that many exclamation points in a week's writing, or speaking for that matter.  My dad used to call me "Ol' Colija" (I'm not sure at all about the spelling -- feel free to correct me, someone-in-the-know) after that old statue of an Indian that used to stand outside of tobacco shops.

 

Anyhow, some of you may have noticed that I've been monkeying around with the layout and graphics of the space when I get the chance.  Siobhan (she and her terrific blog are in my guestbook) was gracious enough to post the code for that nifty little picture at the top center of my space.  Unfortunately, I'm terribly photo-editing-program deprived, just limping along on MS Paint -- which won't even let me center the text or resize the text box on my graphic.  So if anyone happens to know of a decent freeware photo editing program that will let me insert (and preferably layer) graphics, I'd love to hear about it.

 

Oh, in case anyone wonders why the music doesn't always play and the graphic at the top doesn't always show up, it's because I've got those linked to my tiny little geocities free space, which only allows a tiny little amount of data transfer.  So if too many people visit the blog in a short amount of time, geocities cuts off those links, meaning that the music doesn't play and the graphic doesn't appear.  Once I get something better figured out, I'll change it.

The main deacon in our church has decided that, pending the outcome of a repair job he's having done, he will give us his extra car.  While not having a car has allowed us to save a fair bit financially, it really hasn't been easy, especially on my poor wife.  The new car is about the same age as our old one, but only has about a fourth as many miles as ours did when it gave up on us.  You (whoever you may be) probably have no idea how nice it will be for Joy to be able to go grocery shopping without needing to get a ride from someone else or lug all the groceries on the train.  Not to mention that it should give us a lot more flexibility in ministry, flexibility that we had begun to take for granted until we lost it.