Verse of the Day

I just added a Bible Verse of the Day for my blog courtesy of www.biblegateway.com. I love that site. You sould check it out if you get a chance. If you see the same verse two days in a row just hit refresh on your browser. Bye!!

Still sick... but much better!

It's nice to be back among the living once again. I finally went to the doctor after some prodding from my mother-in-law and I am glad I did. He gave me some pills and I feel a ton better today. I hardly got out of bed for about four days. Not a way to live. I didn't even catch up on any TV watching. At least I was able to finish my sermon for Christmas Eve. The bad news is that now Jill is sick in bed. She did not go to school today. That is the first time in about five years she missed school. She was running a fever and felt awful yesterday. So off to the doctor for her and now we are on the same medication. Well enough about the sick... Christmas is in two days and I am looking forward to spending some time with freinds and family. Jill's sister and her family came over Friday for dinner and presents. It was fun. I made a pork roast on the grill (yes we can do that here in CA, it was 75 degrees and sunny today) and potatoes etc. It was pretty yummy. Josh came over too. We all watched "The Muppets Christmas Carol". Nothing says happy holidays quite like Kermit and the gang. Jill and I are off to Phoenix on the 28th for a wedding and to see family. Both Jill and I have family in AZ and we are looking forward to seeing them. Thats about all for now. I will write more in a few days. Have a wonderful Christmas and a Blessed New Year.


P.S. If any of you are interested in reading through the Bible in 2006 with some other people, I am leading an on-line group all through the new year. I will be posting studies every week and we can discuss together via blogger. If you are interested please go to my blog for Chruch at www.bethanylutheran.blogspot.com. See ya!!

Still sick...............Blah..........

I'm sick

Sorry for not posting in a while...but I am sick. I just spent the past 14 hours in bed. I wish I could put a thought together. I will post agin when I feel better.


Bye

Post Script to IKEA

Here is a great example of the directions that come with IKEA furniture. Enjoy!!

IKEA

In preparation for the coming of little ones into our home Jill and I realized that we needed some more furniture. So being the computer geek that I am I went shopping on line. Off to the regular sites...Lowes.com, HomeDepot.com, Sears.com but we didn't find much that we liked. Then off to IKEA.com. We found some good things but of course the things we wanted were not offered on line. We did find a few things but with the rush of the holidays the items would not be delivered until after January 15th. Well I decided that I would just go to my local IKEA store. We have two that are close and I am glad that you can check stock on line and after making sure they had the products, I was off to Costa Mesa. If you have never been to an IKEA let me tell you it is an experience. All IKEA stores are giant warehouses with al cool showroom and even a restaurant. IKEA is a Swedish company and you can get a nice plate of meatballs and gravy before you shop. It usually takes about 45 min to wander through the maze of displays and items and then the shopping really begins. I knew the drill and I entered through the exit to avoid the showroom and picked up my 12 boxes of furniture. Everything at IKEA is build it yourself and luckily I did not take after my dad in the tool proficiency gene. (No offense Dad, I still Love you) My dad's idea of a tool box included a butter knife and some tape. But I digress.... To make things "easier" (notice the quotes) the assembly directions for all IKEA products have no words. Only pictures. Now this is OK for me, a visual learner, but sometimes I can't tell what the "F" they want me to do. One time many years ago the directions on a lamp I bought show a guy putting part "A" into part "B" and then banging the two parts together on the floor. Being the direction follower I am I complied and broke the dang thing in two. I guess they had not factored the strength of the American man in banging things to the ground. At least they take almost everything back. Which reminds me, when I was in IKEA I had to go to customer service where I encountered a lady who wanted to return a bar stool which she purchased in the "AS IS" department. The lady would not take no for an answer and the manager had to be called...no luck with the manager and the lady was getting irate. So the store manager was called. He asked to meet the customer in the "AS IS" department where he promptly showed her the HUGE sign in four foot letters "AS IS: No Returns or Exchanges". The lady then looked like someone just ran over her dog and she turned tail and sulked out of the store. What a great moment. I wish I had the stones to do something like that. I give kudos to the store manager who may have lost a customer but gained my respect. Ok... back to my point. I have been spending the past two weekends putting together furniture from IKEA. At least I think it is pretty easy and sorta fun. If you ever need help putting any furniture together from that place just let me know and I will be glad to help. Well that's all for now. Have a great week!!

Greek is Done!!

I just got home from class and I feel great! I took my Greek final and I think I did pretty good. I nailed the grammar portion. I only messed up on two little parts. No big deal. The translations were tough and I know I got one completely right. The other three are not as clear. I think I got all the words right but I don't think I got all the inflected meanings. Well I guess I have to practice. The rest of the semester (two weeks) will be devoted to practicing our translations using the New Testament. Now I just have to finish one paper and put the finishing touches on my computer project. That's all for now... got to hit the hay!! Good night.

Rats and Maggots!!

Just a short post because I am a bit creeped out right now. So Jill was in the garage getting the Christmas decorations down and as she grabbed one box to bring it down a big rat jumped out right by her head. Man that just grosses me out to no end. Just to think that some disgusting rodent is getting into all my stuff. It scared Jill too. She will not open any more boxes and I don't blame her. Now we have to clean out the entire garage next weekend. Then to make matters worse, our drive way was covered by maggots. It looked like someone threw a bunch of rice down...but this rice was moving. YUCK!!! Well yours truly forgot to take the trash cans out to the curb last week and now old pavo bob is home to millions of fly larva. Biology at work, gotta love it. We cleaned them up and I think they were trying to get some water since in rained a bit the other night. So I am off to Lowe's to get some rat poison or traps or smoke bombs or a gun or whatever it takes to get this rat out of my garage. I guess I should get something for the maggots too. On that note enjoy your lunch, and I will talk to you soon.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Well after about 30 min on the phone with Home Depot they finally found a tracking number (after they said they didn't have one) for my tree and they told me it would be arriving today and that I do not have to stay and home and wait for it. So as I came home today there was a box on the back steps with my tree in it. So all is now well with the world. You can all go about your business and stop worrying about me. Home Depot...you are off the list.

Curses to you Home Depot!

I thought I was being so cool about 10 days ago when I ordered my Christmas tree from HomeDepot.com. They said it would be here in 5-7 days. That being said it is still not here. I was hoping it would arrive last week when people would be around to sign for it but of course now that no one will be home during the days all week who knows when I will see my tree. By the time I see it, it may just be firewood. So much for that idea. I hope they will just leave it. I tired to call the customer service line but of course they work on east coast hours and by the time I called they were closed. So I stayed home all day waiting for nothing. At least I spent most of the day in my PJs. I hope to have some time in the morning to give them a jingle and a piece of my mind. Be warned this may not be a very merry Christmas if you order your tree online. Just when you thought the internet was making our lives easier. ARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!

Time with family!

Well turkey day has come and gone and we had a great time yesterday here at our house. There were a total of 16 people (including three short ones). The brined turkey came out great as always and only took about 2 hours to cook. That sure makes cooking a lot easier. I had a lot of help in the kitchen this year. I was only responsible for the turkey and the creamed spinach. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law along with my wife did all the rest. For the first time in years no one sacked out on the couch right after eating. We had a bit of a rivalry with Sandy rooting for the Broncos and Joel rooting for the Cowboys. In the end Sandy was much happier although it went to overtime. Dawn and Joel are heading back to Napa today. It is about a 7 to 8 hour drive. It was great to spend some time with them. We had fun at Disneyland on Wednesday. One of Matthews favorite rides was the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster (see picture, Matthew is the one behind the lazer gun). Matthew was a real trooper and lasted until the fireworks at 9:30. He promptly fell asleep in the car on the way home. He loved it. It was good to have both my brother and sister here for Thanksgiving. It is not often we are all together.

On the adoption front: We received our provisional license number last week so that is one major obstacle we have hurdled. We got our fingerprints done on Wednesday and now we are moving right along. We now need to start parenting classes which begin in January. They will last for six weeks. During that time we will have our home study done. So if all goes well (and remember we are working with the government so don't get your hopes up) we should be ready for placement sometime in late February or March. We still have a lot to do around the house. We have to be ready for any age of children so we are collecting linens and hygiene items for children. A member of our church gave us a crib and Dawn is going to send us some crib sheets and other things to go with it. We still have to buy some toiletries and more towels, and sheets and pillows and the list goes on..... We also have to do some kid/baby proofing of the house. We need some more furniture too so if you have any that you are not using, let me know. That's all for now. Have a great weekend.

Pavo Bob!!

Well here it is...what you have all been waiting for. First of all lets get one thing straight. I love to cook and I love football and watching SportsCenter and drinking beer so don't get any funny ideas about this post. Second I like to watch the food network quite often. One of my favorite shows is called "Good Eats" hosted by Alton Brown. The reason I like Alton so much is that he uses science to tell you why things work they way they do and me being sort of a science geek get all giggly when he tells us why a brine works and all about osmosis and diffusion etc. So a few years ago I was watching and I saw his Thanksgiving special. He had me at hello when he said something to the effect of' "Don't you hate dry bland turkey on Thanksgiving?" Well gave out an audible "Yes" and settled in for 22 minutes of magic. Needless to say I had to try his brining method for a turkey. What is a brine you ask? Patience my paduan...first let me introduce you to my wife. Jill is...how do you say...headstrong. She knows what she likes and is not afraid to speak her mind. I am glad that she likes me. So one year as Thanksgiving was approaching she dropped the bomb on me. She asked if we could not have turkey for Thanksgiving. What?!? No turkey?!? Are you an American? What about all that Pilgrim and Indian stuff? I was quite taken aback, but once Jill gets something in her head it will happen...and don't you forget it. Well I just couldn't imagine having cold hotdogs and sweet pickles with a cheese chaser(one of my wife's favorite meals) for one of the best holidays in the year (next to my birthday, mark you calendars, May 2nd, I have a wish list at Amazon). So I told her I was going to try something new this year with the turkey and if she didn't like it we could go for ham or at least add ham for next year. So I took Altons advice and went to Lowes and picked up a 5 gal. bucket and went to the store to get all the fixins for the brine. Most of my family was very skeptical but I knew I had science on my side. So there I was on Wednesday afternoon cookin' up the brine. It is a long process and I was wondering if it would be worth it. I followed the directions from my pal Alton and darned if it wasn't the best tasting, moistest (is that a word?) savory turkey in the world. I am hooked and so is my family. They all loved it...so much so we had turkey again that Christmas. This will be year three with the brine and I will never go back. Now I would like to deep fry a turkey some day but those big fryers scare me too much, to many bad encounters with the fryer at Wienerschnitzel (now that is another post all together). So here is the recipe from www.food.com:

1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey
For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
1 gallon iced water
For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil


Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.
A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.
Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.
Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.
Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.


If you have the time for this try it and you won't be disappointed.

Don't get the title of this post? Well pavo is turkey in Spanish (and Latin but that doesn't matter now), and it just so happens that I live on Pavo St. in Long Beach. And to top it off one year, many moons ago my dad made a hand-puppet out of our Thanksgiving turkey before it was cooked and made it fly around the kitchen. He called it Pavo Bob and that has been the name of our "meal" ever since. So there you have it a glimpse into my world. Have a great Turkey day everyone and if you need a good creamed spinach recipe I got one for ya. Until then. Adios.......

A stroll down memory lane...

So I bought a new computer today. I got the new apple iMac 20 in G5. Now before all you PC apologists start in let me explain. I first saw a Mac in operation in 1985 at a youth function at St. John's Lutheran Church in Orange. I was amazed. This little thing was awesome and I was hooked. Now I started my computing life on a Commodore CBM that had a whopping 8K of memory with a tape drive. That was back in the early 80's. If you are younger than 30 you have no idea what I am talking about. Here is a picture:

I eventually graduated to the Commodore 64. Now I wanted the Commodore 128 but my dad said, and I quote, "Nobody will ever need more than 64K of memory." How wrong he was. That computer was not much more than a game system (think Atari 2600).

And then when I was in high school I learned how to program with the Apple II. This was my first introduction to Apple.

And in 1988 I really started working with the Mac. This was back in the day when DOS was king and my visual brain just couldn't understand all that colon...backslash...whatever stuff. So the Mac was my friend. I have been using them ever since. I have owned a classic (see picture) an LC, LCII, Performa, Powermac, and a few others.

Way back in 2000 (ancient times in the computer world) I got an iBook (think Mac laptop). It was the first version and looked like a clamshell. It was pretty cool and I still use it as a word processor and a place to store my pictures. But I love the Mac. Now I do spend quite a bit of time with PCs too. I have one in my office and I am quite comfortable working within that environment even though Bill gates ripped if off from Apple who ripped it off from Xerox...but I digress.

So I can't wait to set it all up get my iTunes going and surfing the net at home once again. We have not have internet at home for a few years because my old iBook could not handle DSL. Well here is a picture of what my computer looks like:

My next post may be coming to you from my new baby. I feel like its Christmas in November. Feel free to post your own computer memories. I would love to hear them. Talk to you soon.

Next post: Thanksgiving recipes.

Kickball League!!!

Ahhh the beautiful sport of kickball!! I have fond memories of this most wonderful of recess activities. Now some of my memories are not that great. I was usually the last one picked on a team and I had my share of the ole swing-and-a-miss-and-fall-on-your-butt moments. Kickball was king for me. There were some other competitors out there...dodgeball, teatherball, four-square, handball and the blacksheep...... butts-up. But my heart was taken by kickball. You knew it was your day when Peter Geisler was on your team. He was the biggest kid in 2nd grade. He was the best athlete, had all the girls etc. You know the type. Handsome, strong, always had a twinkie in his lunch and generally envied by all. Then there was me: the hand-me-down wearin', long hair havin', carrots in the lunch bringin', preachers kid. I think thats about four strikes. But I loved kickball. Fast forward to 2005. I just found one of the most amazing organizations in the world. It is the World Adult Kickball Association. I am not kidding. They organize kickball leagues all across the Untied States and the world. They even have a world championship every year. They call themselves a social-athletic organization. This is from their website:

WAKA is the World Adult Kickball Association - a social-athletic organization created to advance the joy of kickball around the world. WAKA's mission statement says it all - To provide a unique club with an inclusive co-ed social culture and establish the WAKA Kickball experience as the New American Pastime!

How awesome is that!!! Well needless to say I would like to start a team at church and join a league. I hope for next spring or fall. I am not sure which is more important the social or the athletic. Each league goes out to a bar after the games to knock a few back. This sounds like my kind of organization. Let me know if you want to be on our team. I will need at least four guys and four gals to make a team. We can have up to 26. ARE YOU WITH ME!!!!!

I love the Government (Yeah right!!)

Well here is the Greek update...I am alive!!! It's not really that bad. I think I have a pretty good grasp of the Greek verb, for now. I have learned my lesson...as soon as I think I got it, BAM! something changes and throws the world out of wack. But for now the planets are still spinning and I have my feet firmly planted on the ground. The next few weeks will be interesting as we continue with participles. At least I understand that in English.

In other news...We finally heard back from Social Services regarding our application for adoption. Well as all good government agencies, we were told one thing and we were required to do another. So our application was sent back to us for revisions. We found out that they need proof of residence as well as certification for CPR and First Aid. No big deal, but we were never told that they were necessary. So they sent the forms back to us (at taxpayers expense) certified and registered mail. Now I have to gather a few more things and then I have to send it back to them, at my expense. And we will wait two or three weeks for a reply. Until we get this done we cannot proceed any further. We can not get fingerprinted or sign up for parenting classes. You got to love how the government does business. I wish I could fire them all and start over!!!! (Deep breaths Seth... Count to three... O.K. I feel better). So the saga continues. I guess the children God has in mind for us are not ready yet.

My ankle is much better and I will not have to see the doctor again unless it still is giving me problems in six months. That is good news for sure. I have three more weeks of physical therapy to go and it is going well. I can definitely tell that it is helping. It still is not very fun and I have a tough time getting up to go but thems the breaks. Well thats about it. Have a great week everyone.

Oh.. I just had an idea!! Thanksgiving is almost here and I am always looking for some good recipes. So get your best ones together and lets share. Coming soon... the Thanksgiving post: Its BRINE TIME Baby!!!

Has it really been a week and a half?!?

Wow, I just went to my blog and noticed I haven't posted since the 19th. Well lets see what has been going on? I have finished the weird, wonderful, and wacky world of Greek verbs and I can honestly say I understand. Not perfectly...but much better than I thought. I have a big test tomorrow so we shall see how much I really know. It has been quite an adventure. So, to keep me going after Greek class I just bought a parallel/interlinear Greek New Testament. What is that you may ask? It is a New Testament with the Greek text with each of the words translated right underneath. It also has two English versions. 1) The NASB (New American Standard Bible) which is what is called a literal translation. That means it strives to stay as close as possible to the original wording even if some of the meaning or understanding is not clear. Other literal translations are KJV (King James Version) and NRSV (New Revised Standard Version) 2) The NIV (New International Version) which is called a dynamic equivalent. Dynamic equivalent translations stay close to the original text but usually translate idioms and figures of speech into equivalent idioms and figures of speech in English. I am looking forward to using it.

For those of you who skipped over the last paragraph because it got a bit technical...Welcome back! I went to see a concert on Saturday night. It was a church event, but we did not have much interest. Oh well, their loss because it was awesome!! The headliner was Jeremy Camp, and he had two opening acts. One was Bethany Dillon. She is a new, young (16 yrs old) artist on the Christian scene. I picked up her album a couple of months ago and I really like it a lot. She played first and sang about 6 songs. Very simple, acoustic guitar, bass, and drums. She has a great voice and one of her songs is in the movie Dreamer. Click here for info on the movie. Up next was The Afters. I had never heard them before and I was quite impressed. They are a well put together band. They signed with a small Christian label and then Sony Music heard them and signed them to a big time deal. They have a video playing on MTV righ now and they seem to be on the edge of blowing up (in a good way). Then Jeremy camp came out and he put on a fantastic show. He was a worship leader in his church for a while and he has a grasp on some good Church music as well as his own songs. He puts a new spin 0n some hymns as well as popular "praise" songs. I would encourage you to pick up any of his CD's if you are into modern worship and praise worship. He also wrote a song for the movie The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It is on the CD of music inspired by the movie (Bethany Dillon is on that CD too). He spoke a lot about the struggles he has in his life and was very honest. It was a good witness that even he doesn't have it all together. He said that his hope is in Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus. Good times!! Well I could go on but I will keep it at that.

In health news, nothing new to report. I am still going to physical therapy three times a week for my ankle. I go back to the orthopedic guy on Thursday. My ears are better (even after the concert) and I will see the ENT again in January. We are still waiting to hear from the county regarding our application for adoption. I hope to hear soon. So that is my post for today. Man, why did I wait so long. That was fun. Talk to you all soon.

Narnia

Well I have a few minutes right now but nothing burning in me to blog about so we will see where this goes... School is still going well. I have been carrying my Greek flashcards with me everywhere and flipping through them when I get a chance. My pastoral theology class has been fun. We have spent a lot of time in Ephesians and 1 Timothy. I have been using my new Greek interlinear Bible and it is making some sense. My Wednesday night Bible class that I have been teaching has been great although rather sparsely attended. Each week there are about 12 people there. We have five more weeks to go. We are studying C.S. Lewis' book The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. If you haven't heard by now, the book is being made into a full length movie that will be released on December 9th. The same people who did the special effects for The Lord of the Rings are working on this movie. I hope it lives up the hype. Disney is behind this one and the website for the movie is pretty cool. You should check it out. I love all of the books in the Chronicles of Narnia series. I remember that my third grade teacher Mr. Kerstin read some of them to us in class. I remember them vividly. We would come in from lunch recess and lay down on the carpet in the reading center and drift away to the land of Narnia. How I wanted to be there with Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. What great adventures they had. Little did I know I was learning about God the Lion of Judah. The books seem to get better with age. If you haven't picked them up in a while I highly recommend it. If you have never read them it is time to start. If anyone wants my notes from my class just let me know in the comments section or you can email me. I would be happy to share. Well I guess I found something to write about after all. I will give you an update on Oktoberfest as soon as I get the pictures from my friend Joey. Take care.

P.S. Happy Birthday Dawn!!

Gotta Love the Weather in SoCal!

With the pitterpatter of rain outside I write a short post. Yes it is Southern Californian and it seems like we don't get much rain, but it is sure nice today. We have been battling the heat from the Santa Ana winds the past couple of days and I am getting a bit antsy for fall to start. Now mind you we really don't have seasons here in Long Beach. We have summer and then spring. Now I am not complaining. I love the weather here but I wish we would have a hint of the seasons. The crisp air of fall. The snow of winter, the newness of spring. But alas I guess I will suffer with another 70 degree day with sunshine and a chance of rain. I like weather. I am one of those nerds who owns a weather radio and on occasion actually listen to it. One of my bookmarks is for the weather channel and I even took a graduate class on weather. But here I live in SoCal where channel 7 has the Doppler 7000+ and when it starts raining we go on "Storm Watch". The local news cracks me up. Lets go out to our reporter in San Fernando... "Thanks guys... Droplets of what I can only assume to be water have been falling from the sky for about 30 minutes now and the ground is getting wet. We saw people opening up umbrellas all over the valley in the past hour and we thing it may last for a while... back to you in the studio." This goes on for about 15 minutes with reports fro Oxnard to San Juan Capistrano. Then we go to the "weather expert" for 10 min. with the super doppler veggimatic or whatever and he tells us it is raining!! Oh my! Then... breaking news from Orange County... "It looks like a couple of people have "fallen" into the Santa Ana River and swift water rescue crews have been dispatched." This happens every time it rains. I hate to imagine what would happen if we ever get real weather. Oh well, that is life. Well got to go...

The Pit Of Despair... or Greek II

I told myself I would post more often so here goes...Went to physical therapy today for my ankle. Man, that place is like a dungeon from the dark ages. There were all sorts of contraptions and whatnot. I thought I had entered "The Pit Of despair" from "The Princess Bride". There were some machines in there that I have never seen before. I was a bit scared as I sat down for my evaluation. At least the lady helping me spoke normally. If she started hissing, I was outta there. Now mind you this is in Seal Beach and for those of you not from So. Cal. Seal Beach is home to one of the many leisure World retirement communities. So the clientele was rather... how shall I say... the 4:30 crowd at Denny's. I was hopeing to work out next to some athlete but all I got was Melba who was there recovering from her fourth, count 'em, fourth hip replacement (you can't make this stuff up). She was lying on some water torture device with a towel wrapped around her head and in no pain, so I though this might not be too bad. Well, I had to bend and twist all sorts of ways that a person should not. I am in more pain now than before. I rode the bike for a while and did some stretches as well as some range of motion exercises. I guess it could have been worse. So I have to go back twice a week for three weeks and then I will go back to the orthopedic guy.

In other news, school is going well. I am in the fog of the Greek verb right now. Boy those guys must have been board when they made that stuff up. Lets see how can we make this easy... no, I have a better idea, lets make this sooooo hard we will be remembered forever. Here is a sample. If you don't understand all this just nod and smile, (that's what some of the guys in my class do). For every verb there is tense. Sounds easy but here are the tenses: present (so far, so good), Imperfect (O.K. gotcha), Future (piece of cake), Perfect (I think I studied that), Aorist (What!!) 1/2 Aorist (you lost me), Pluperfect (MOMMY!!). Then there is mood: Idicative, Subjunctive, Imperitive, Infinitive, Participle, Opative (my mind is mush at this point). Then there is voice: Active, Middle, Passive, Deponent. Not to mention person and number. My Greek professor at this point dangles the carrot in front of us by saying we will be taking baby steps. So I reach down and pick my jaw off my desk, wipe the tears from my eyes and we get to work. So far so good. We are only working with Present, Active, Indicative verbs for now, and I get it. It makes sense. We will see what the next few weeks hold. I hope I look back on this post and laugh sometime (soon I hope) and say that there was nothing to it. OK so I have successfully wasted 15 min of valuable study time on this post...so back to the books. Kali Mera, Eukharisto Pali!!

Eins...Zwei...Drei...Suffa!

Yeah, I know... you come to my blog every day and see the same post. At least my new counter at the bottom of the page is getting some use. So here is the latest. My second round of seminary classes is underway. I started Greek II and Pastoral Theology last night. So far so good for Greek. Of course all we did yesterday was review Greek I and I still remember most of that. I did take most of last Friday to study with one of my class mates Shin-Hwan Kim. He is from Korea and was a missionary in Ecuador before coming to the States for seminary. Our conversations are mostly in English but when we need to we speak Spanish too. He helps to keep me speaking Spanish a few times a week. We worked on our Greek vocab cards and some basic grammar. I carry my vocab cards with me all the time so I can study when I get a chance. My computer design class has been a blast. It is pretty cool what you can do with a computer. I said in an earlier post that I would try to get my latest project on the blog to show you but it turns out that the file is almost 32 megabytes. I think it would take at least a day to upload that one on blogger. So if you are really interested I can send it to you as an attachment. You will need to have a high speed connection to download it. Since it is October the annual trip to Alpine Village in Torrance is set for Oct. 14th. Time for some brats, pretzels, and good ol' German beer!!! Not to mention the um-pa-pa band and the stein holding contest. We have gone a few years in a row. If you are in So Cal come out and join us. We will be there from about 7:00 to who knows when (probably 9:00 when Jill will get cold). Make sure you print out a coupon from the website to get in for free. There will be about 20 people from church there, but no worries they are all Lutherans! It's not the Hoffbrau Haus, but it is the best we have here in the Southland. And I leave you with this:

Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, der gemiitlichkeit
Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, der gemiitlichkeit
Eins, zwei, Drei g'suffa!
Zicke, zacke, zicke, zacke, hoi, hoi, hoi,
Zicke, zacke, zicke, zacke, hoi, hoi, hoi,

I think that is light at the end of the tunnel

Wow! What a few weeks. Man, I have been soooooo busy. Not that I really have a break right now, but things have eased up a bit. My ethics class meets for the last time tomorrow night and I couldn't be more pleased. My group is one of the three presenting and I think we are ready. We still need to form a paper but I hope that its not too hard. It has been difficult working in a group on a grad school project. We all have different ideas and they don't always match. We have really struggled but I think it has been for the best. I start round two for this semester on October 4th. I will have two classes, Greek II and Pastoral Theology. Each class only meets once a week for ten weeks so it is not as impacted. I am really loving my computer design class. I am just about to finish up my project for Corel Painter. I will be painting a landscape with the computer by using a picture as a clone source. It sounds complex or rather Star Wars, but it really is cool. I will try and post my project as soon as I finish. My piano class is plugging right along. It has been a bit better since most people now have headphones and are not interrupting the professor during class. I am learning a lot but unfortunately I am finding it hard to practice. I have good intentions every day but other things seem to get in the way.

My ankle is feeling better today. It gets sore as the day goes on and doctor said that was to be expected. I hope to start physical therapy this week, that is if the insurance comes through. I am still waiting on bloodwork from the ENT doctor. She needs to check a few things before we continue with anything regarding my snoring and sleep issues.

I was on duty to preach at all four services this weekend and it has gone well. Our congregation has a parish theme every year and this year it is "On the Road Again... The Journey in Jesus", and since I came up with the theme I got to preach the first monthly installment. I used Willile Nelson's song "On The Road Again" as a metaphor for the message. I played the song in church just before the sermon I it went over well. I talked about how we are all just gypsies on the highway of life, going places we have never been, seeing things we may never see again, and making music with our friends. And how Jesus took this journey as well so our destination could be heaven. I hope to post the audio of the message on our website, but we will see because our webhost is located just east of Houston and we have not had email and our website has been down since the weekend. They have not had power since Saturday and we hope everything is all right with them. I will let you know if it gets posted. That is about it for now. Talk to you soon

Sorry folks but I had to do it.

I added "word verification" to my blog today. It is a feature that will stop spamming in the comments section of the blog. There have been a few times when my blog has been hijacked and multiple comments have been left by an automatic system. So if you want to make a comment, you will need to type in a word that is displayed. It is very simple and easy to do but I do apologize for the inconvenience.

Good News

Just a short update on things. I still have a lot on my plate, but it is getting less crowded right now. My Ethics class will be done next Tuesday and I still have some work for that. I am preaching this Sunday so I have some work to do on my sermon. My Wed. Bible study is going well and I am almost prepared for the next few weeks. Adoption paperwork has been on hold for a bit while we find some time.

On the medical front, I went to the foot and ankle specialist today and he said I don't have to wear the big black boot anymore (YEEEE HAAAA!). He is pretty sure that what the other doctors saw as bonechips are remnants of old injuries. He is sending me to physical therapy for a month and then he will re-evaluate my ankle. For now it will be a bit painful as I may have some regression switching back to regular shoes but that is expected. There may be a chance of surgery after my re-eval. but we will cross that bridge later. I go back to the ENT this week as well, my ears are much better and I should have the results of some bloodwork then.

Thank you for all your prayers. I will keep you updated when I get a chance.

One more thing...

I almost forgot I also have to write a sermon for Sep. 25th.

Please Stand By!

I will have to take a break from posting for at least a week or two. I am under a tremendous amount of work right now. Here is the list so you can pray (I'm not kidding).

-Presentation and research paper for ethics class (30 min presentation &15 page paper)
-Presentation about Mission Alaska for this Sunday (Powerpoint & Bible Study)
-Bible study on our parish theme for Sep. 18th
-C.S. Lewis Bible Study (starts Sep. 14th)
-New young adult group starting on Sep. 24th (at my house)
-Developing advertising for our move to three morning services in Oct.
-Project for Computer Design class
-Shut-in calls
-Three more Dr. Appointments
-Possible surgery on my ankle
-Adoption paperwork to finish

Thanks for your prayers.

Party On Dude!

When I was in college I used to be a regular at dollar Tuesdays at Edwards Cinema in Irvine. Many of us would go every Tuesday since Wednesdays were always light days academically at good ole' Christ College. There was a time when Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure was playing and I went about four weeks in a row. I loved that movie. I still think it is pretty good. Some of the best work from Mr. Roboto Keanu Reeves. The reason I bring this up is that my Seminary class that I am taking right now is called "Christian Ethics and Culture". So far we have been studying the philosophy of ethics with a lot of time spent studying the ancient philosophers. I have been hip deep in Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Mill, Kant, Nietzsche etc. Boy those guys know how to write big, long, drawn out sentences. YIKES! So we have spent many hours with Socrates and I can't help thinking about how Bill S. Preston esq. and Ted Theodore Logan go back in time to get people from history for their project. Something was definately amiss at the Circle K. One of the unfortunate travelers is ole' Socrates. Now Bill and Ted aren't the sharpest crayons in the box and they call him So-crates. Now all through class I am thinking about So-crates and not Socrates. That movie has tainted philosophy for me forever. So here I am in class and I don't think there is a soul in my class who shares this nugget of info so I am relegated to having a party in my head. It is still a party, but not as fun. I wonder if "Wild Stallions" can play for my ordination. Party On Dude!!

In other news, I have an MRI today for my ankle. Yeah, I am moving at the speed of insurance, then off to the specialist next week. So nothing new there. This just in: The CT scan shows I have a brain.... and good sinuses. Next for me with the ENT is a new sleep study. I can't wait to be hooked up to about a million wires again and have someone watch me sleep in that green haze of night vision. Now that is a job that I don't want. On the Adoption front: I have filled out most of the paperwork. What a chore, but it is done. We will send it in next week and then wait for processing (about 2 weeks) after it is processed and there are no red flags, we can get fingerprinted and signed up for our class. That's about it from here. Talk to you later. Be Excellent to Everyone!!

My Life May Never Be The Same

My life may never be the same, and I say that not necessarily in a bad way. Jill and I attended an adoption orientation meeting today in Long Beach. This was the first official step in our process of adoption. We have been thinking about this for a long time now and we even went to a few other meetings but this time we submitted some paperwork and have the very large application in hand. The next step is to sift through the document and fill it out. Then we have to get fingerprinted (again) and get the house ready for our "in home" study. We will need to get a bunk bed and some other furniture before the study can be done. After that we have to enroll in a parenting class. (Sidebar: I think everyone should have to take one of these classes before they are allowed to have kids, but I digress) That class is 33 hours and takes place over 6 consecutive Saturdays. We will start that sometime in the next few months. Once that is complete we will be licensed foster care providers. Only then will we be set for placement. It take a while to get everything in order but we are looking forward to it. One other thing, if you want to babysit for us you will have to get fingerprinted. It's the law. First offense $500, second time, up to $3100. I think the $55 for fingerprinting is a better option. Let me know if you have a lead on a bunkbed and some other kid furniture. We will need it. I will post some cool websites for the county of Los Angeles Children and Family Services division in a few days so you can check them out for yourself. I am busy now getting some practice watching my nieces. Maddie is 2 and Sophie is 1. I always seem to be here when they need to be changed. Oh well, I can hear them both crying on the baby monitor. Gotta go.......

The doctor will see you now....

O.K. So here is the scoop on my ankle as of right now. I went to the orthopedic specialist today and he took more x-rays and poked and prodded and found out that I chipped a bone in my ankle. Now that was on the side that was not giving me much trouble. So he ordered an MRI for next week to check out what is going on with the other side. He said there could be some ligament damage there. So the prognosis is surgery for sure to take out the bone chip and to fix anything that shows up on the MRI. I am not looking forward to that! I also had him look at my knee that I hurt way back in high school. It has been bothering me more and more lately. He also ordered an MRI for that one and hinted at surgery to repair a weak patella. For now I am walking with one of those cool black boots that keep your foot stable. I am stylin' now!!

In other health related news, I had a CT scan of my head on Monday (yes I still have a brain). It was ordered by my ENT doctor. It turns out that I have a deviated septum and that may be the cause of my intense snoring (just ask Jill) and breathing problems at night. I go back next week for a follow up for that one.

Man, I am way too young to have this many things wrong with me. I talk like I am 70 something. Yeah I take seven pills a day, see the doctor at least once a week etc. Man this sucks! What is going to be like when I am 70? Oh well, I guess you play the hand you are delt.
I will update later in between doctor appointments, naps, and games of cribbage. Until then...

Red Sox Nation = Raider Nation

Found a cool new website that I have spend some time on in the past couple of weeks. It is called ThatWasRandom.com. I stumbled upon it while searching for that famous Randy Johnson Fastball vs. The Bird video clip. This site has some video clips and pictures of some of the most bizarre things. Well being a fan of AFV (that is America's funniest videos for all the non-geeks out there) this site was just up my alley. I enjoyed the two legged dog who walks upright and the redneck rollercoaster just to mention a few. Enough of the plug.

I made it to an Angel game this week. I went on Wednesday with my good friends Rich and Heather. We got cheap tickets and then I got "upgraded" when I saw my ex-coworkers from the stadium. We sat on the field level out by the left field foul pole. You know there is something about the pace of a baseball game that lends itself to good conversation. We talked about all kinds of things, sports, friends, family. It is nice in our busy age to just sit and talk to one another. Unfortunately the Angels lost to the stinkin' Blue Jays but the real treat was to hang out with good friends. This is the weekend that I am sooooo glad I am not working at the stadium this year. The Red Sox are in town and talk about a bunch of rude, selfish, myopic fans. The Red Sox games were always the worst to work. I am sure it will be at another level this year since they won the world series last year. Now I don't have anything against the Red Sox team per se except they are playing my team. And I like the city of Boston, but the self proclaimed "Red Sox Nation" has a lot common with "Raider Nation". You know what I am talking about. The fan who believes that his teams poop don't stink and that everyone is out to get them, and F-U if you don't like their team. So needless to say I will be thinking of my friends who are working at the stadium this weekend. I just hope none of them take a bottle in the head or worse. I on the other hand will be enjoying my last weekend of the summer before the onslaught of reading comes. Have a great weekend. Take care and God Bless!!

Just your standard update

It's back to reality for me. I spent most of last week trying to get back in the swing of things at work. Being out of the country for a while does weird things to you. I find myself trying to translate everything I hear. I guess that is a good thing but it definitely means that I am not fluent in Spanish. At any rate I was in charge of all four services this weekend. I did the whole shebang. I wrote the liturgy and did the sermon. It was the first time I had done that for the morning services and I was a bit nervous but it went well. At one point during the 10:45 service I totally lost my place in the sermon and spewed out about 2/3 of a sentence and just said, "I don't know where I was going with that one, let me start again." It was scary but I heard from many people that they would rather here that than a bunch of nonsense.

This week finds me finishing up paperwork from the Alaska Mission trip as well as working on the presentation we are giving to the congregation, planning my fall Bible study (on C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), planning a new young adult and DINK's (double income no kids) fellowship group, and gearing up for school. Speaking of school I am taking three classes at Concordia this semester (Christian Ethics in Contemporary Culture, Greek II, and Pastoral Theology). And I am taking three classes at Cypress College (Intro to Computer Design, Beginning Voice, Beginning Piano). I will spend Tuesdays and Thursdays at school again this semester, leaving the house around 8:00 AM and returning around 10:30 PM. I am ready to get back into the swing of things. That's about it from here. Talk to you soon.

Mexico Pictures

I am safe and sound back in the states and am glad to be home. My trip to Mexico had its ups and downs, but I learned alot and will use what I learned for years to come. Here are a few pictures from my trip. (These ones are from my camera, not snatched from the internet.) If some of the pictures don't make sense, look back at the previous posts from Mexico City. Enjoy!
















In front of my School.






















The Symbol of Mexico City- "The Angel"

















Standing on top of the pyramid of the sun, looking at the pyramid of the moon at Teotihuacan.

















The freakin' sidewalk that ate my ankle.

















The BUS!!!!! Broken of course.

















A beautiful San Carlos Sunset.

















The Catherdral in the Historic Center of the City.

















The National Palace and the crowd of people in the Historic Center.

















Traffic, on a good day.

Diving!

Well I take off for the States tomorrow. I hope it takes less than 36 hours to make the trip, but I am flying America West so there is no guarantee. A few thoughts about the dive trip. After the hell of travel, the trip was spectacular. The weather was good for the most part except for some thunderstorms and the bugs didn't bite too hard. We stayed in the new Casa de Schulz in San Carlos. You can visit my friend Ron's blog for some pics of the house. It is beautiful with a great view of the marina. We took the boat out for five days and saw some great sites. The only bugger was the copious amounts of jellyfish in the water. I got stung several times by those bad boys. Not a fun experience. I was pretty well protected except for my face and I am still showing the marks of one sting on my lip. With that said, it doesn't get much better than hanging out with some of your best friends and eating some great grub and diving in a wonderful location. The beer was cold and the tacos were spicy. I look forward to next years trip. See you in the states soon! Hasta luego!

P.S. The picture above has not been retouched or photoshopped in any way (really!!)

Take me out to the ballgame!!

As many of you know I am a big baseball fan and my favorite team is the Los Angels/ Anaheim/ California/ whatever you want to call them Angels. I even got a job at Angel Stadium so I could be close to the game and watch without the high-price of season tickets. So you can imagine that it has been pretty rough for me this month being in Mexico City and away from Major League Baseball. I have been trying to keep up via the internet but it is not quite the same. Here in Mexico City we get ESPN Deportes, and a few times a week they show a MLB game. It is of course in Spanish and is always an east coast game but I watch anyway. It is a good way to work on my language skills. Well on Wednesday, to my surprise, they showed the Angels vs. The Orioles from good ol' Angel Stadium. I was in heaven. The announcers could have been speaking French and I wouldn't have cared. It was great to see the boys pound out some hits and get the offense working again. It was hard to stay up past midnight to see the end of the game but it was worth it. Thank you ESPN Deportes you made my week!

The Bus Ride from Hell !!!

The great bus adventure was truly an adventure. I called for a cab from the apartment using by broken Spanish skills and it actually arrived and did not cost me too much ($10 US). I arrived at the bus station and checked my bag. I had about an hour to kill so I got a snack and read my book for a while. When I went through the gate a saw my bus I knew that I was in for a long trip. There were all these nice new shiny deluxe busses parked at the station and then there was my bus. It was smaller, older, and dirtier than all the others. It was like the ugly duckling, but there would be no happy ending here. Well I took a deep breath and boarded my home for the next day and I was greeted with a rather pungent aroma. This was the freshly cleaned bus. Oh Crap, what have I got myself into. Well we left on time and that was the last time we would be on schedule the rest of the trip. We fought the traffic out of the city and headed north. About two hours into the trip we ran into our first bit of trouble. The bus was having a hard time climbing up the hills. So we stopped and the two bus drivers got out and banged around for about 20 min with no luck. We proceeded to advance very slowly for the next two hours. We finally arrived at our first stop and the driver said we had a 20 min. Break. Well about one hour later I saw about 10 guys standing around the back of the bus trying to figure out what was wrong. They sent for a new part and put it in and we were off again about 2 1/2 hours later. With all that work the bus was still not woking properly. Luckily the roads were rather flat and we made some good time. That is until we turned onto this two lane road to head to this small town. Since we were already about 4 hours behind schedule we ran into major traffic on this two lane road because of a local fiesta that took up one lane of the road. It took us about 2 hours to go about 5 miles. Finally we arrived at the station and once again the bus driver said 20 min. Well about 45 min later we hear that they are bringing us a new bus. An hour later (mind you it is now about 1 in the morning) the new bus arrived.

This bus was bigger and nicer and didn't smell as bad so that was a positive. We finally get on the road and we traveled for about 10 min and the bus stopped at a taco stand where the driver and a few people got out and ate. This was after we had been at the station which had its own taco stand for about two hours!!!! I was pissed!! We finally got going and I tried to get some sleep. I would sleep for about 15 min. at a time and then I would wake up with some pain in my leg or my back or my backside. I dozed until about 6 AM when we got stopped for a state inspection. We got going again and about 10 min later had to stop for a federal inspection (this turned out to be a pattern as we were inspected about six times). Each time took about 20 min. We finally get to Mazatlan at noon. The driver said 20 min, and 50 min later we finally left. I was supposed to be in Guaymas by about 2:30 local time and it was already almost 1:00. I checked my map and figured out we had almost 11 hours left to go!!! The rest of the day was a series of inspections, 20 min breaks that lasted 45 min, and very bad B movies being blasted on the TV. I think there was a Steven Segal movie, a Jet Li movie, a Jean Claude VanDamme movie and many others. Some were in English and some were dubbed into Spanish. They were all terrible!! I brought enough food along for four meals and I was going to need more than that so I bought some tacos from one of the many vendors who came on board during each stop. There were selling all kinds of stuff including food and drinks and all sorts of knick-knack crap. My tacos were pretty good and only cost $10 pesos ($1 US). I bought a phone card at one of the stops and made a call to the house in San Carlos to tell them that I would be late. I finally arrived in Guaymas during a heavy downpour with some wicked thunder and lightning 36 hours after I left Mexico City. A fitting end to a hellish experience! There was a lot more that went on during this trip including the Mexican immigration officers coming on board and the three hours that 10 people did not have seats and had to stand (there were no chickens or livestock aboard that I could see). Needless to say, I sucked it up and Jeff and I flew back to Mexico City. That was much better. A two hour trip and they even fed us some breakfast. What a trip. The diving in San Carlos was great! We had some great weather most of the week. I will post more about diving later. See ya soon.

San Carlos here we come!

Tomorrow morning I head off to the Terminal del Norte to catch a bus up to the Mexican state of Sonora. Sonora is just south of Arizona and home to beautiful San Carlos. I will be meeting a bunch of friends there and we will be spending a week scuba diving and fishing. One of the guys in our group is a part owner of a house and a boat in San Carlos. We will have the run of the house and the use of the boat all week. I will take the bus to a town called Guaymas and then I will get picked up there for the 20 km drive into San Carlos. The bus ride is about 28 hours from Mexico City. This will be a true cultural experience. I hope I can handle it. Jeff is busy at work and he will be meeting us there after he is done. I look forward to having some good times with the boys, eating some good grub, and relaxing at about 60 ft. I have been to San Carlos a number of times and it is a sleepy fishing village filled with retirees from the US and Canada. The population doubles in the winter with many snowbirds from the states. San Carlos also holds a large fishing tournament every year. For us it will be relaxing with a margarita and trying to forget the traffic and pollution of Mexico City. All should be well as long as I don't have to pay an arm and a leg for the taxi to the bus station. I will write an update when I return unless I find an internet connection in San Carlos. Bye for now!

Viva Brasileirissimo!

We went to a great Brazilian steak house yesterday. If you have never been to one of the these, clear out your schedule, skip lunch and maybe breakfast and prepare for some of the best eats around. It is all-you-can eat and well worth it. Of course they try to fill you up with other foods like empinadas and fried bananas but the real gem is the various kinds of meats that are brought out to your table on giant skewers and cut right onto your plate. It is rather "cavemanesque". I had about four or five types of beef, some chicken, some pork, three kinds of sausage, and a few things I could not identify (I think one of them was chicken hearts). About half way through the meal the live music started and the dancing girls came out. It was a great time. Jeff and I are heading up north to go diving next week so I will not be able to post much next week. I will give you an update when I get back to Mexico City. Have a great weekend!!

Looking Forward!!

Not much going on the past couple of days. Just studying espanol and getting ready do go diving. I had my presentation yesterday in class. It went well. I got 20/20 on it. I leave on Tuesday morning for San Carlos in Sonora. My Spanish exam is also on Tuesday so I am trying to schedule an alternate time to take the test. I really don't need the certificate of completion, but it would be nice. The bus ride to Sonora from Mexico City takes 28 hours. It is over 1000 miles. I should see some wonderful countryside as long as I can stand being cooped up in a bus for that long. I got a special student rate on the ticket so it only cost about $50 US. I was browsing on my friend Ron's website and found some pictures from our San Carlos trip a few years back. Boy I can't wait to get back into the water with these monkeys. Just a few days!!!! See you later!

Pozole

Last night we went out to a restaurant called La Casa Tono (you need to put a ~ over the n). This is a very locals only place. It is located in colonia Claveria. You will not find any information about this colonia in you lonely planet tour book. This place is strictly for locals. This restaurant has three locations all right next to each other and is super busy at times. They give you a number when you arrive and you need to watch the board to see when your number comes up. We were lucky and walked right in. When we left there were about 20-30 people waiting for a table. The service is fast and there are no frills. You fill out your order form and give it to one of the employees. Your food then arrives in about 5-10 min. The specialty of the house is a dish called Pazole. It is like a tomato based stew with all kinds of "stuff" in it. I don't know what it all was but it sure tasted good. You also put lettuce in it when it arrives at your table. I had a cerveza with dinner and some tacos too. Very good meal.

Well my big presentation in Spanish class is tomorrow. My topic is sports in the United States. I should do fine.

Colonias de Mexico D.F.

On Saturday Jeff and I went to Condesa which is one of the many neighborhoods (called colonias) in Mexico City. Think of it like the Burroughs in NYC. Each colonia has a distinct flavor and some interesting sites. Condesa has some great sidewalk cafes and many restaurants. We ate at an Uruguayan steak house. It was pretty tasty. Those South Americans sure know how to cook up meat. We met up with some of Jeff's friends and spent some time in a cafe then we walked around and went through the park where one of the scenes from "Man on Fire" was filmed. We ended up in a small cantina and had a few cervezas. Condesa has some great old houses and tons of trees and small parks. This would be a nice place to live.

On Sunday Jeff and I went down to Coyoacan and San Angel. They are colonias that are right next to each other and have a ton of character. We started in Coyoacan (which means 'place of the coyotes' in the Aztec language) and mingled with the locals in the central square. Coyoacan is packed on the weekends with all kinds of people and vendors selling various things from clothing, to food to incense, to lucha libre (Mexican wrestling) masks. Coyoacan is also known for its great ice cream. Of course we had to try some. Coyoacan is also home to Cafe El Jarocho which is an extremely popular Cuban coffee place. We were lucky because it was not to crowded when we went. I got a great hot chocolate. By the time we passed by later there must have been 100 people or more in line. We fought the crowds near the cathedral and went inside. It was pretty ornate and well maintained. There were street performers outside and a band playing across the way. We left the central square and made our way to San Angel. It was about a 30 min stroll down cobble stone streets with old houses and ivy covered walls. Very nice indeed. On our way to san Angel we passes another square full of vendors and some carnival type rides. It looked rather poorly maintained so Jeff and I skipped the rides. We continued on to San Angel which has much more charm and less people than Coyoacan. It is filled with old colonial style houses and quiet cobbled streets. We walked around and visited the small church. We stopped in a cantina and had a refresco (soda). We took a taxi back to Coyoacan and had dinner in a restaurant adjacent to the main square. It started to rain just as we sat down. It poured for about 30 min but it did nothing to the crowds and the vendors. After dinner we walked through the crowds and back to the car. All in all a great couple of days.

I went back to school on Monday and found out that my teacher is sick and may not be back all week. That is a bummer because she was great. The sub is not bad but she is a bit quiet and not as fun. Oh well, thems the breaks. That's all from here. I will talk to you all later.

The Ankle Report & Man on Fire

My ankle is much better today. Not much of a problem to walk. Still hurts though. Jeff drove me to school today so I was there early. I saw one of my classmates and he told me what the homework was. That was a big help. I have a presentation to do for class next week. It has to be an interactive presentation of at least five min. No problem.

Jeff and I have to go back out to the northern bus station this weekend to buy our tickets to go to San Carlos. I was planing to go into the central historical district this week but my ankle prevented that from happening. We may go make the Man on Fire tour tomorrow. Man on Fire is one of my favorite movies. If you have not seen this movie, go rent it. Put the kids to bed, brush up on your Espanol, and hold on! This movie does portray life in parts of Mexico City very well (not necessarily where I am) and Denzel Washington is amazing.

From Yahoo Movies:
Denzel Washington stars as a government operative/soldier of fortune who has pretty much given up on life. In Mexico City, he reluctantly agrees to take a job to protect a child (Fanning) whose parents are threatened by a wave of kidnappings. He eventually becomes close to the child and their relationship reawakens and rekindles his spirit. When she is abducted, his fiery rage is unleashed on those he feels responsible, and he stops at nothing to save her.

This movie is not for the squemish or the faint of heart. Great story none the less. You will get a taste for life in this big city. So in the morning Jeff and I will head out to Coyoacan and San Angel and see some of the neighborhoods where the movie was filmed, get some lunch and avoid kidnappers (the last part is just a joke). Should be fun.

The Weather

Just a quick note about the weather in Mexico City. It has been great!! Usually a bit of rain in the afternoon with temps in the 70's. Even though this is July, it is not the hot time of the year for this place. Click here for more information, and here for a wether forcast.

Me and "The Pack"

Well I woke up today and it looked like a golf ball was sticking out of my ankle. Needless to say I did not go to school. So I hung out with the ice pack and watched Seinfeld on DVD most of the day. Me and "The Pack" as I like to call him, also spent some time checking email and surfing the web. At about noon we made some lunch and then took a nap. We are looking forward to catching a movie later. Thats is about all from here.

P.S. "The Pack" says "HI" to everyone.

Mexican Sidewalks!

I left the house today with plenty of time to spare and I am walking down Av. Horacio. This street has a wide greenbelt in the middle lined with trees and is a lot better than walking down some of the other strees and dodging cars and people washing the sidewalk etc. The only thing to worry about is the bold flower sellers who don't like the hear the words "no gracias". So I am about half way or more to school when I step on what I though was a flat portion of the walkway and I stumble and twist my ankle pretty good. I heard a few pops and I think to my self, "Oh Crap, I am in Mexico and I just hurt myself pretty good!" I managed to stay upright and dodge a few taxis and I flasback to the multiple times I have done this in the past. Will this be one of those times when it stops hurting in a few minutes or am I in for some serious pain? The pain starts to subside a bit and I keep walking but it never really feels better. After sitting in class for two hours I get up and I can hardly walk. I am in some serious pain. After a few minutes I am able to walk and I leave school. I walk about two blocks and decide to take the bus. I get on the bus but I have to stand for most of the trip. That sucked! When I get off the bus I have to limp another 4 blocks to the apartment. So needless to say, I have stayed at home all day with my foot up and rotating ice packs. It hurts alot but it is not bad enough to go to the hospital. (It wouldn't have been the first time in a foreign hospital.) I will try to stay off it as much a possible and take some Tylenol and what not. Jeff and I are supposed to go out with some of the embassy people tonight but I don't know if I can make it. Oh well, thats life in Mexico. Moral of the story = Never trust a sidewalk in Mexico. Talk to you all later.