Christmas Calculations

I read an interesting news article today about Jesus' birth. Using computer calculations, astronomers can track the exact location of the planets in our solar system at any point in the last several thousand years of time.

In doing so, it was realized that on June 17 in the year 2BC the planets were aligned such that both Venus and Jupiter were almost overlapping each other relevant to Earth's location. The two planets together would have shone with a great intensity and could very well be what was described in the Bible as the star representing Jesus' birth.

You can read the full article here.

Hard Core!?

I played basketball today in 40 degree weather, wearing just shorts and a double layer of t-shirts.

In addition to having numb hands and stiff muscles and joints from the cold, my legs were really sore from working out with weights yesterday too.

I wouldn't say that it was one of my better days of ballin', but all things considered it wasn't one of my worse ones either.

Black Beauty

I recently went to our local Nissan dealership to look into ordering some parts for my 300ZX. As I pulled up, there was the usual flock of annoying salesmen circling around, like vultures over a dying beast. I walked toward the building, ready to reenact the scene from Airplane with Rex Kramer and the religious zealots.

After one of them greets me, I immediately state that I'm headed for the parts department. Then he says "You drive that Z, right? You might want to take the long way around", and points toward the front door of the dealership.

I take his advice, and as I round the corner I see a shiny black metallic glow and I'm pretty sure that I heard the hallelujah choir sing their high note. There it is - a brand new pitch black Nissan GT-R. All of the adrenaline and testosterone rush that my heart desires, right there in front of me! If I had that, I could not only be the ruler of the streets, but the whole world too! Mwuahahaha!

So I promptly decided to sell my 300Z, our house, the few retirement accounts we have, and possibly the kids into slavery too. As I was signing the papers though, I realized that I would probably miss my family, not to mention having a roof over my head. So I finally snapped out of it, proceeded to wipe the drool off of my chin with my sleeve, and returned on my path to the parts department.

When I was finished there, I sat back down in my 91' 300Z with 135k miles, started it up, and headed home. And I thanked God for the blessing that it is. Maybe, I thought, I'll keep the kids after all. And then I began thinking about what modifications I could do to make my Z an even faster blessing! Maybe eventually, with enough time and effort, I could even beat a GT-R! Mwuahahahah! Snort.

Annual Reviews - for Marriages?

Well, it's that time of year for employees at my company and at others across the nation - performance reviews. I have filled out and submitted mine, and I am now eagerly (or not) anticipating feedback from my peers and superiors for my job performance over the last year.

In addition to my review at work, I recently sat down with our roommate to discuss how things are going with her. She's been living with us for over 6 months now, and not only was I interested in her perspective, but I also wanted to mention a few marginal improvements I am hoping she will work on.

Although I have been in positions of leadership before, I had never sat down with someone to give them a "review". I think it went well, but the next day I thought about a new twist on this idea - what if marriages had an annual review? What if we scheduled a recurring date to exchange honest feedback about our performance as spouses?

I think it's a great idea! There are two problems that I can foresee though - 1) Both sides would have to be willing and able to accept criticism, otherwise what's the point really? 2) I can't think of any viable consequences for negative feedback. Firing them isn't an option, nor is not giving them a raise.

What do you think readers (crickets chirping)?

Christmas Question

What would Christmas be like if you could redo it completely, starting from scratch? No presents, no Christmas trees, no Santa, no ornaments, lights, holly, mistletoe - just erase all of it and start over.

With all of that stuff gone, all you have left is Jesus' birthday, right? So now what can you think of to do on Christmas day to celebrate it? What traditions, if any, would you now want to start with your family?

Thanksgiving Weekend Details

Thanksgiving weekend was fun filled and eventful, including the following activities:

• I arranged a boyz night out on the town on Wednesday night. One of them suggested going to Old Town Roseville. For such a small-town downtown, I was pretty impressed. They have six clubs within a 1/2 mile square area and we hit each of them that night, since none of them were charging a cover. We got drinks at two of them, played darts in another, then played pool in yet another one. We just walked into and back out of the others to check them out. I can't remember the last time I went club/bar hopping, so I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
  
  
• Amanda and I ran/walked in a 10K on Thursday morning, in the Run For the Hungry. Unfortunately, Amanda wrenched her ankle on the way to the starting line. She's tough as nails though, so she still wanted to run it. We had originally planned to do the 5K, but that crowd was so thick that it was difficult to maneuver the double jogger though it. Since we were both feeling good at the point where the two routes split, we decided to participate in the 10K instead. About halfway through though, Amanda's ankle was bothering her again - along with her leg, knee, hip on that side (probably from favoring the ankle). So we walked a good portion of the 2nd half.
  
  
• Our family ate Thanksgiving dinner with another family from church, Greg and Elise Winter, and their son Zachary. They invited us over to their house and made some absolutely incredible food. And Marilyn's (another guest they invited over) cheese cake was some of the best I have ever tasted too.
  
  
• We actually joined the fray on Friday to purchase a multi-purpose HP printer from Best Buy and I got a little taste of man heaven at Harbor Freight Tools. The coupon prices were phenomenal, so I bought a decent amount of various tools and project helpers for only $40 total.

Thanksgiving Dinner Pictures

Ok, not really. These are pictures of toxic sludge that I cleaned out from my sink drain over the weekend. It gets so full of this nasty goo that the water barely drains anymore.

<-- The drain stopper.

This is the second time that I've cleaned it in the two years that we've been here. The only thing that could possibly be causing this is a combination of shaving stubble, toothpaste, soap, some leave-in conditioner, and perhaps the hard California water?

The drain.-->

But we've been in two other houses for five years prior to this one, and my cleaning and preening routine has never caused a problem such as this one before. So what's different now - the plumbing in this house? The water?

<-- The trap.

All I do know is that the sludge that results from cleaning it is some of the grossest, nastiest looking junk that I have ever seen. Thankfully, at least it doesn't smell bad too.


Oh, and our Thanksgiving was actually really awesome. Our friends from church, Greg and Elise Winter, invited us over to their house for dinner. They made some absolutely incredible food. And Marilyn's (another guest they invited over) cheese cake was some of the best I have ever tasted too.