Category Archives: Sports

7 Quick Takes: Laptop Update, Folk Music, and 49’ers Fan Schtuff

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

My friend Tim. So how many of you saw the viral video in which a pastor who was a 49’ers fan did an “abbreviated service” this past Sunday? Yeah, he is actually a former colleague of ours from our days in Montana and he is a heckuva guy. He and his wife hosted us several times when we were splitting our time between Great Falls and home when Daniel was in the NICU as well as visiting me in the hospital. He is a native northern Californian who was transplanted to Montana for ministry and is a rabid fan of all the Bay Area sports teams, especially the Giants. (I swear… I can hear him watching the game all the way from Montana when they play.) I miss him, his wife Sandy, and their son John very much.

And yes, he *did* go back and do a REAL worship service after this was filmed.

— 2 —

OMG NCIS!!!!! I got seriously verklempt at the end of NCIS this week. Why? It wasn’t because Delilah was paralyzed after her accident. It was the scene where McGee calls Gibbs down to the hospital and asks if he can sit with him. Gibbs comes down and goes and sits with Tim as a way to lend him some support. I remember the people who came to be with me in the hospital when I’ve had surgery or when Daniel has been in the NICU/PICU/peds ward. They didn’t have to say beautiful words of wisdom or advice — all I really needed was for them to sit with me and hold my hand. It is really hard to communicate just how much their presence meant to me even if they just sat there quietly with me.

— 3 —

Speaking of the 49’ers… We have a bit of a family war going on at the moment because my extended family is mostly in western Washington and of course, I’m down here in northern California. I predict amusing status updates this weekend. I feel sorry (but not all that much) for my evil twin — his wife is a Green Bay fan, his cat is a Panthers fan, and he lives in Seahawk territory. He commented that it’s impossible to watch football right now without pissing anyone off.

— 4 —

The Boxer. I think I’ve posted this before but it’s a video of Allison Krauss and Shawn Colvin doing a cover of “The Boxer” from a concert honoring Paul Simon. It’s one of my favorite Simon & Garfunkel songs and it’s nice to have a recording that I can sing along with in my specific register. (Not that I was doing this at 2 a.m. or anything…)

— 5 —

Also a fan of this one… This is “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” from a Bob Dylan tribute concert 20 years ago. There are others I like from this particular concert (Tracy Chapman singing “The Times They Are A-Changin'” for example) but this particular one fit with the Shawn Colvin theme of the last Quick Take.

Aw heck… here’s Tracy. I love her performance because she doesn’t embellish anything in the song and her bluesy voice just fits perfectly.

— 6 —

Last video, I promise. I’m listening to Simon and Garfunkel as I blog this.

— 7 —

Orphans. Do you see these darling children?

L-R: Brett and Iris
BrettIris

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and their dossier has been submitted to her country.

— Bonus —

Update on the laptop. I received the hard drive from my old laptop in the mail on Tuesday. I was WTFing until my mom pointed out that this was not a bad thing in case my backup on my external hard drive is messed up. I got ahold of my case manager at HP yesterday and he told me that the ETA for the build of my new laptop is January 24th and he’s getting it shipped to me 2nd Day Air so I’ll get it on the 26th. *sigh* It means sharing a Macbook with Jon for another week or so but I’m getting a new laptop out of it so I shouldn’t complain… too much. #stillwhining #firstworldproblems

Pray for Jon. I’m not the easiest person to live with when I’m going through laptop withdrawal symptoms.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

7 Quick Takes: My Week, Requests for Help, and World Series Musings

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Relief. Jon is home after being gone since Monday to our denomination’s pastor’s conference. It’s good to have him home and I’m not just saying that because I now have someone to do the laundry/dishes/cat care. I’ve had a sick kid since Tuesday night and had to haul butt to UCD Pediatrics Urgent Care yesterday — it’s good to not be handling this alone.

— 2 —

The sick kid. Daniel refused to go to sleep on time on Sunday and Monday nights. I thought that it was probably due to Jon being gone on Monday night but he went down super early on Tuesday night which would have been great had I not been hit with restless leg syndrome. (Fibromyalgia, you suck!) Wednesday, he got sent home from school with a fever of 100F and I got the call right as I was putting my feet in the warm water for my pedicure. (I know… #firstworldproblems) His temperature started spiking so that it was 102F by mid-afternoon and I called the advice nurse at UCD Pediatrics Urgent Care to ask what they wanted me to do. The answer: “GET. UP. HERE. NOW!!!!” Diagnosis: a bad ear infection in his left ear and an upper respiratory infection which was setting off his asthma. He’s on antibiotics and I was alternating Motrin and Tylenol to lower his fever. I’m hoping he’ll be back to school tomorrow.

— 3 —

Forty to Forever. From my Facebook wall:

OK… I’m the social media person for the Forty to Forever fundraiser and we’re trying to raise money for families adopting kids internationally who have special needs. We need two things:

1.) We desperately need churches who are willing to sponsor families with prayer and also with funding to a degree. This doesn’t have to be costly and there is information on the website about what to do. If you ladies could talk to you church councils/pro-life groups/ missions people/women’s ministries/whoever, I’d greatly appreciate it. If you can’t find the answer to one of your questions, let me know and I’ll get the information for you. You can find most of what you need here.

2.) We need people who can commit to being prayer warriors and praying for us/the families/the kids one day a week during Lent. (We could also really use it right now.) It’s a fifteen minutes per week commitment and if it would help, I can send you prayers, a litany, or whatever you need in terms of help in how to pray. The page for sign-ups is here.

The website is http://www.fortytoforever.com/ and we’re also present on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks!

— 4 —

NaNoWriMo fundraiser. I’m taking part in NaNoWriMo this year and I’m pondering the idea of making it into a fundraiser for Brett. I’m thinking of offering to let people read my manuscript for a $10 donation. What say you, readers?

— 5 —

World Series. The Cards just took Game 2 and I was happy that they showed up to play tonight instead of sending their middle school doppelgangers. (Obviously, I’m rooting for them and not Boston.) The series goes to St. Louis next and I’m hoping the Cards do better on their home field.

— 6 —

Orphans. Do you see these two cute children?

L-R: Brett and Iris
BrettIris

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and their dossier is on its way to Iris’ country.

— 7 —

World Series fun. You have to love it when the *ORCHESTRAS* from the cities of the World Series teams start trash-talking. 🙂

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

7 Quick Takes: Dinner Fail, Malala on The Daily Show, and Cute Animals

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Only in Montana… I found the following stories in the Great Falls Tribune today:

Canadian man ticketed for driving 154 mph in Montana. (Did he forget that our speed limits are in miles, not kilometers???)

Montana woman too drunk to get out of her car calls 911. (I shouldn’t laugh because drunk driving isn’t a joke. However, this one just boggles the mind.)

— 2 —

A worthy cause. Malala Yousafzai was on The Daily Show this week. She rendered John Stewart speechless. There is an organization started in her name to advocate and raise money for women to receive education around the world. Go check out the Malala Fund. She is also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and I’m hoping she wins. (She’s the youngest person ever nominated.)

— 3 —

Orphans. Do you see these two precious children?

L-R: Brett and Iris
BrettIris

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and they are compiling their dossier to send to her country.

— 4 —

Prerequisite baseball take. I’m rooting for the Cardinals because the Giants didn’t make it to the post season. They knocked out the Pirates and will be facing Jon’s team (and mortal enemies of the Giants) the Dodgers. There will be lots of good-natured trash-talking over Twitter and Facebook during this series.

I also just saw that the Tigers beat Oakland. Things are as they should be. 😉 (Oakland is the OTHER Bay Area team and I’m still grumpy about the 1989 World Series.)

— 5 —

The zoo zoo zoo. I saw footage of the surgery that was done on the Sacramento Zoo’s tiger and the pictures don’t do justice to his size. He was sitting in the window of his enclosure and his paw was bigger than my hand! His son, CJ, is getting so big as well!

There’s also the red panda blog. We saw Kodari, the baby last month and he is adorbs!!!

— 6 —

Dinner fail. I got some of ciopinno from Trader Joe’s which I’m sure is lovely but it was too fishy for me. (It’s a seafood stew. Imagine that!) OK… onto the Gardenburgers in my freezer… which tasted weird. I finally gave up and nuked some Morningstar Farms stuff and added some baby carrots to it.

— 7 —

Research study. I got to talk to a researcher doing a project on PCOS on Friday. I wish I’d had better answers for her but it was nice to be part of a study and get to do something that might help out with eventually finding a cure for it someday.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

7 Quick Takes: Stylite Monks, Acapella Wonderfulness, and Prayer Requests

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Stylite monk in Georgia. I remember reading about stylite saints in college and it’s interesting to know that they still exist. It’s a fascinating article and they mention St. Simeon Stylite who was on his pillar for 33 years and used to chew out those who came to him for advice (at least according to the hagiography I read in college).

— 2 —

Sandwiches are beautiful/Sandwiches are fine/I like sandwiches/I eat them all the time. A man told his girlfriend, after she made him a sandwich, that she was three hundred sandwiches away from an engagement ring. The woman decided to blog about her sandwich-making exploits and just got featured on a bunch of news sites. Her adventure has been decried as “anti-feminist” and “1950’s housewife” but I think the way she is going about it is actually kind of cool. She’s blogging new and interesting recipes and figures that if she doesn’t have an engagement ring by the end of it, she’ll at least know how to make a bunch of different foods.

— 3 —

NaNoWriMo. Because I totally don’t have enough on my plate already, I’m thinking of doing NaNoWriMo this year. I’m thinking of doing a murder mystery again and this means that I need to get my editing project done in the next month and start compiling plot points, characters, setting, etc. Oh yes… I also need to remember to back up my progress daily so I don’t lose it if my hard drive fails like last year.

— 4 —

Amazing. Priest’s Wife shared the first video with me. This choral music snob found it amazing! (The song is “One Thing Remains” by Kristian Stanfill.) The second video (“In Christ Alone”) was featured as well.

— 5 —

This makes me smile. This video of Jimmy Fallon and The Roots has been going around Facebook today. I love how they’re playing preschool rhythm instruments and the Muppets are interspersed between them.

— 6 —

Horrible. Last night, a Dodgers fan was stabbed outside of AT&T Park. (AT&T Park is where the Giants play.) It follows the beating of a Giants fan outside of Dodgers Stadium 2 1/2 years ago. Seriously y’all, if you have to engage in violence to prove your superiority in baseball rivalries, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG!!!

— 7 —

Orphans. Do you see these two sweet children?

L-R: Brett and Iris
BrettIris

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and they are compiling their dossier to send to her country.

— Bonus —

Prayers for the Fuller twins. Please keep praying for Thomas’ twin sons that they can stay in utero until 24 weeks at least. Our prayers have gotten them to 22.5 weeks and the longer they can stay in the womb, the better.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

Five Favorites: Miscellanea (XVI)

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Five Favorites

One

Doctors who suture stuffed animals while they fix their humans. This story is tear-jerking. It took five minutes to suture the hole in the stuffed wolf’s shoulder, bandage the “wound”, and put it in a mask and gloves. However, this is a 5-minute job that a young boy is not going to forget. (Ask me about my stuffed cat “Sam”.)

Two

ABA tutors who use every trick in their arsenal to get children to comply. Daniel has been in an “I-really-don’t-want-to-work” mode this week and EG (his Monday/Wednesday/Friday tutor) has been finding new and creative ways to reinforce him when he complies. (Translation: “he rewards him when he works.”)

Three

Thomas. My blogging buddy Thomas has a really precarious situation on his hands. His wife is pregnant with his twin sons and is experiencing serious complications. We’re being asked to participate in a novena to St. Gerard for them, ending on the 24th. If you’re not Catholic, please just pray.

Four

Iced whole milk vanilla lattés from It’s A Grind. I had one on Monday and it was the best one I’ve had in ages. Peet’s is also good. $tarbux, not so much. (They’re too stingy with their shots and their syrups.)

Five

The Giants’ 19-3 victory over the Dodgers. Yes, they lost to the Mets tonight and that fateful game was almost a week ago but they shut down the freaking Dodgers and set a record for the largest number of points scored by any team at Dodgers Stadium. It’s makes their abysmal record worth it.

Go love up Hallie and the others.

Five Favorites: Miscellanea (XV)

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Five Favorites

One

Mater Eucharistiae CD. I first heard about this CD on Facebook (I think) and was blown away by it. The “Te Deum” is amazing and their arrangement of Palestrina’s “Sicut Cervus” is breathtaking. I sang in the UCSC Women’s Chorale in college and have a fondness for women doing chant so I downloaded it off of iTunes. If you order it from them here, they get a larger share of the profits which goes to help build their new priory outside Austin, TX.

Mater Eucharistiae CD

I also just found out that someone I know from a couple Facebook groups is a postulant with them. Small world.

Two

This song. Twelve years ago today, there was an impromptu prayer service called and the entire student body and faculty of my seminary (probably 150+ people) crowded into Schenk Chapel with some of us sitting and some of us standing. Our seminary president remembers it as one of the really formative times of his tenure and most of us students do as well, bringing it up on Facebook every year on this day. We alternated prayers with choruses of “Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying” and this Taizé chant:

Three

Sleep. I love sleep. I’m not getting much of it though and I’m trying not to nap today so that maybe I can get my sleep schedule back on track. I almost fell asleep today while getting my haircut — that takes some doing! If I’m not careful, I may fall asleep during my mani/pedi tomorrow.

Four

Grammar Nerd Jokes. I am a complete grammar nazi so I loved these jokes. With #11 though, I thought it was cruel to make a grammar nazi do math.

Five

The Giants winning. It’s been a bad season for them and I’m unfortunately married to a fan of their big rivals. I think baseball needs to come up in the pre-marital counseling next time…

Go love up Grace (who is guest-hosting this week) and the others.

7 Quick Takes: Virtual 5K’s, Harmless Political Fun, and Overheating Laptops

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Slow going. My laptop is overheating despite being on a cooling pad so Facebook is being slow (and of course, I have 15 hours of status updates to read) so I’m switching over here to write a Quick Take every time Facebook has to load more stuff. Whee! This is what I get for not being at my laptop for 12 hours.

— 2 —

Endocrinology grumping. I cleaned up my diet and my A1C got worse. (I didn’t see my other numbers though my liver enzymes apparently continue to be beautiful — thank God for that!) I think my endocrinologist would be an awesome coffee date but she has no clue about what my life entails. I was able to test a little bit after eating lunch today but dinner eluded me because I’m sipping on tea a lot of the time. (I need to move from my Lipton Pure Leaf stuff to Crystal Light or something because the Lipton stuff *will* up my carb load.) My thyroid function is also the lower boundary of normal (thanks Mom!) so we’re going to up my Synthroid by half and see if that makes a difference. There was the usual fight over trying new drugs because my insurance company hates me so she gave me samples while a prior authorization could be worked out and also a discount co-pay card for the meds she wanted to give me. My glucose meter had died so they found me a new one (I use a Freestyle Light) and it had a $15 co-pay card attached for test strips. (They can be between $50-$150 if you have to pay for them at the pharmacy.) I see her again in 3 months and God willing, she’ll be happier with results. I mean, I dropped 10 lbs while sitting on my butt so my dietary changes actually did something.

— 3 —

Wow. For those who are fans of the musical Les Miserables, you have to watch this.

He also does an amazing parody of Disney princesses after their “happy endings”.

— 4 —

Humorous Amazon.Com reviews. Amazon.Com has done the world a favor and has compiled a list of their products with fake reviews. George Takei also should have a decent list on his Facebook page and you might even be able to find him as a reviewer on Amazon.Com’s website.

— 5 —

Some political fun. Al Franken is up for re-election in 2014 for one of Minnesota’s US Senate seats and he is engaging in a little political fun. He is letting people vote on what Minnesota State Fair food he will be eating in a virtual postcard to supporters. Choices are things like alligator, tater tot hot dish, a chocolate-covered pickle, a steak dinner-on-a-stick, ostrich, and walleye-on-a-stick. I’m linking it here because I think it’s creative and it’s some harmless fun where Republicans and Democrats alike can vote on something. It’s the 21st century equivalent of putting him on a dunk tank or a pie-throwing booth.

— 6 —

Run for Little Flowers Giveaway. Katie at Blessed with Full Hands is organizing the Run for Little Flowers again and is having a giveaway. There’s running gear, a $20 gift card (put up by me), and other things available. The virtual 5K raises money for the Little Flower Projects.

— 7 —

More on The Bloggess’ book. Like Jenny Lawson (the Bloggess), I deal with generalized anxiety disorder but I’m not quite as humorous about it. I haven’t told people about swallowing a needle at parties but I tend to be more likely to focus on one or two people and just have a conversation with them. Like her, I also sound so much more normal online than I do in person. I was interviewing a respite worker for Daniel and it was probably one of the more uncomfortable 2-hour blocks of my life. It’s been interesting to read her book because I can totally see myself doing the stuff she has… well, kind of but with less dead animals.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.