From my secretary to all of you

My secretary (who is not really my secretary) set her doggy on my desk today while I was trying to do work. She then took a picture of me with her doggy. Aside from the evidence of the goo on the lens, I like the picture, so I have placed it here. Note the new-to-me 19" flat screen monitor that I get to use. It is much nicer than monitor that I used to use at work. Also note the large array of project boxes.

After I finished working, I drove to Kingston and used the ferry boat to transport me to Edmonds so that I could travel to my dear sister's house in Monroe. She will be leaving for missionary school in a week or so. She is pictured here playing a word game with my brother.

We finished off the day with the not-so-great Charolett's web movie in Lake Tye Park and Apples to Apples and ice cream. I never have a good time sleeping at my dear sister's house and that is why I am blogging right now.

Sitting in a room, big and dark

Last night I went to a local movie theater and received a student (or military) discount for the first or second time in my life even though I am no longer a student and I have never been a part of the United States military. The movie which watched was recommended by Trevor and was called Transformers. I had no idea what the transformers movie was about because I was not allowed to play with transformers or read about transformers as a child because my mother determined that she had better things to do than to determine whether or not the somewhat ugly looking toys were related to anything good. It had its problems, but was quite fun. Even more fun than the Spider Man 3 movie. The person who gave me the unexpected discount at the movie theater was a lady and most of the men whom I know would probably have advised me to pay a bit of attention. But none of them were there to remind me, so I don't even remember anything about what her name is or what she looks like. Oh well.

Having more movies that I want to see, in a theater than I can justify spending money to see is unusual for me. I am not used to more than two interesting movies being built in a year.

Curbing your disappointment

On Saturday night, worship pastor Patso informed me that the rate at which I have been posting updates to this blog has been disappointing of late. Having disappointed leadership is not good, so I am typing this to offset that disappointment in a desirable direction.

Unfortunately, I do not seem to have sufficient imagination or inclination to type a real post or to finish any of those posts which are in my drafts folder, so I am left with referring you to something that you have never seen before (most likely).

I am referring you to blog writings that were written by the wife of my good friend Brandon. Brandon and his wife are more liberal than I am, but we are still friends because they seem to love Jesus.

Loving Jesus is one of the subjects of the writing to which I am about to refer you. The lady typed about a song called, My Jesus, I love Thee. The song has a chorus and this chorus ends with the words, If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, tis now. I have wondered a number of times, "What makes the vocalists think that they love Jesus any more during the last chorus than during the first chorus? Is it just the singing of the song? Perhaps we should get the whole world to sing this song so that everyone will have some love for Jesus." Brandon's wife wrote better and more interesting things about this song than these. You may read them by clicking here.

This lady also wrote a bit about patriotism while I was in church this week. You may read it by clicking here.

Oh yes, this same lady also wrote the gag tract which I posted earlier.

New people igniting dry humor with fireworks

Have you ever been in a church or at the meeting of a special interest group and had your buddy take hold of your shoulder while earnestly whispering in your ear, Friend, look over there! It's a new person! If this has ever happened to you, you probably responded by turning your head in the same direction that your buddy had been pointing and you expected to see someone who had been born only the day before. But of course, you were disappointed because there before you, seemingly at the end of the finger of his or her introducer was someone who had clearly not been born yesterday, or had he? You never know, because some people are born twice.

I finally got around to taking a picture of a person whom I met upon the day directly after the day upon which he was born the first time. His name is Halsey. Please gaze upon this picture which contains an image of himself. The same picture also includes an image of another person named Joel whom I met once at church and have spoken with several times at community group.

I have included that little bit of dry humor because I need to explain the difference that exists between dry humor and wet humor by contrasting them.

I had community group at my house last week and only two people showed up and both of them were women (they were still women when I saw them this evening as well). One of them brought a whole load of food because we were expecting a lot of people who decided to not come. We read through a lot of scripture verses about the day of the Lord and how disastrous it will be for many people (all of those who do not trust in the Lord). We prayed. We ate food. One these women left. The other woman invited me to watch fireworks in Poulsbo with her and yet another woman. I'll call this other woman Lady C.

I think that fireworks on the 3rd of July is a really good plan because it enables people to have a good time staying up late before a vacation morning which can then be used for what could normally be called excessive sleeping, but would normally just be called sleeping in. This leaves the evening of the 4th of July free for going to bed at a prudent hour so that work can be done well during the 5th of July. I don't know why I didn't think of it. It works just like New Years Eve and New Years Day!

Lady C was still busy working when I arrived with one of the first two women. I'll call this woman Lady A (Just in case you were wondering about Lady B, be informed that she departed and left my home directly after the community group event ended and was hidden from my sight until Sunday). So Lady A explained to me a bit about power ballards whilst I explained to her a bit about how to wipe compact discs without damaging them excessively even though lady A kept going into and out of the place of employment of Lady C to see if she had yet completed her labors over which she had presumably been laboring laboriously.

At l e n g t h these labors were complete (or maybe quiting time finally arrived, I don't really know which) and we picked up chairs from the place of employment (perhaps I should say from a place of employment for she has a couple) of Lady C and sat upon them in various locations about the parking lot from which we expected to see fireworks. After some discussion we found a place near a kid who needed to be told to not tackle bushes. This location was mere feet away from a fence which surrounded a large stormwater detention pond, so I got to spend a while explaining to ladies A & C about why stormwater detention ponds are built. Lady C related to myself and to Lady A one of her own experiences which she experienced while employed by an engineering company in California and how she quit over a conflict between her own wardrobe and the dress code of said company. It was quite enlightening for me. Then some people shared some wet humor.

My mother raised me to avoid wet humor entirely, so I stuck to dry humor, which leaves me many more options than wet humor because everybody knows that all wet humor is about the same thing, but dry humor includes endless variations.

Several pictures were taken by a 2.1 Megapixel camera that had a battery that quickly became depleted.

The fireworks were not very impressive in any way. They could not be heard very well from my location.

I was transported back to my home without incident.

Ladies A & C were very nice to put up with me for part of their evenings, and to request this report.

Traveling to Mars Hill Church

I went to Mars Hill Church yesterday for the first time in 364 days. Mars Hill Church is the flagship of the Acts 29 network. I figured that I had been away so long that I could justify going again when Tim asked me if I wanted to go on Thursday. Tim is my volunteer at church. I used to think that I was the A/V lead, but I learned from a piece of church literature yesterday that I can probably get by with calling myself a service producer.

Tim and I finished up with our one (1) service at Seaside Church and decided that we wanted to show up for the 1700 service and joked that we would attend both the 1700 service and the 1900 service. I offered to build lunch for Tim, but he had family to visit, so we agreed to meet at the ferry terminal at 1500. I went home and ate something and drove back to Seaside Church for parking and walked approximately one mile to the ferry boat. I arrived as the gate was opening so that I could board the ferry boat. Tim and Tim's sister joined me after I had decided that I would make the trip all by myself if Tim didn't show himself. We managed to get along during the ferry boat ride to Seattle and we discussed how I could save approximately $500/month on housing.

We arrived in Seattle and found the bus stop. Tim and Tim's sister decided to buy coffee and managed to finish just in time to hurry across the street and into the bus before it departed.

I have not traveled on very many buses. I traveled on a bus in Seattle with my friend Darin Brill when I visited him in Seattle once, but he had to tell me exactly what to do and what not to do. I rode a bus in Pullman Washington once, but I had instructions on the amateur radio and from other passengers. I think that the only other times during which I rode a bus were long ago when I was quite young and I was following my mother around because I was not allowed to chose to do otherwise.

I looked like I didn't know what I was doing when I tried to begin the bus trip by paying at the beginning of a trip that originated in the ride-free zone. Then I insisted that we get off one stop too soon and we had to walk across the 15th Avenue bridge. I have included a picture of Tim and Tim's sister traveling across the 15th Avenue bridge because of my mistake while carrying some of my stuff so that I could take a picture of them walking across the 15th Avenue bridge because of my mistake. None of the cars smashed themselves into any of us.

We arrived at Mars Hill Church Ballard in just enough time for me to greet my friend Darin Brill and to utilize the facilities and to be one minute early. I mean, we arrived in just enough time for my friend Darin Brill to greet me (because he was in charge of all of the greeters).