Miles Biked Update: August 29, 2008

We haven't added any family members since my last update 19 days ago, but we did add a bike rider. About two weeks ago Landen learned how to ride his little training-wheel bike. I put a bike computer on it about one week ago and he has been a bike riding machine ever since. He probably has logged more miles than any of the rest of us the past seven days.

Miles biked in 2008:

Steve - 482.8
Kristi - 386.6
Kylee - 294.1
Kenna - 293.3
Landen - 12.1

Indiana High School Football Schedules

Here's a link to one of my favorite football season web sites. The site lists every high school in the state of Indiana that has a football team. When a school is clicked, that school's schedule and scores are listed. Each team on the school's schedule is also clickable, so you can easily see how your team's opponents have faired, who they have played and how those teams have faired.

Hello?

Kristi's dad is having some problems with his computer. He called me a couple times today to see if I could help out at all. This afternoon when I talked to him I told him I would check into some things and give him a call back this evening.

After supper, I did the aforementioned checking, picked up the phone, dialed, then sat unsure of what to say after the person answering said "Hello." You see, it wasn't Kristi's mom or dad on the other end. I quickly raced a thousand scenarios through my head of who could be answering their phone. I thought the lady sounded familiar, but was sure that it was no one I knew who would be answering their phone. The person had answered with a casual "Hello" after all, not the type of greeting used when answering a stranger's phone.

So, after about three seconds and a time-buying "hello?" from me, I decided I had called the wrong number, and stated as such.

I then started up the stairs, having decided that I would call Dick's cell phone with my cell phone to make sure I wouldn't end up dialing the wrong number again when. . . IT HIT ME. I hadn't dialed Dick and Trudy's number at all. I had dialed the number of the parents of a girl who had been my girlfriend in middle school! (Who is mentioned more than once in my 80s journal posts.)

One thought quickly came to mind. . . caller ID.

Oh the humiliation!

The two phone numbers are a little similar. They both start with an 8 and have a 2 in the fourth place and repeat a little at the end similarly (one significantly more than the other though.) More embarrassing though is the fact that I probably have these two numbers stored in my brain as "phone numbers of girlfriends from long ago."

9th Grade Teachers

I think Shelly Flickinger's blog will be extra fun to read this fall. She has been writing about her return to teaching after some extended time away from the classroom. Shelly has my niece, who is in 9th grade, in class.

You know who else is teaching 9th graders this year? Glenn Medeiros, who had the 1987 hit song, "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You." He is teaching 9th grade at Mary Knoll School in Honolulu, Hawaii. You can even e-mail Mr. Medeiros from the school's web page.

Listen

2008 Election - How It's Looking - August 21, 2008

I just ran a new electroal college forecast for the 2008 presidential election based on Intrade.com's state-by-state election futures markets.

The forecast for August 21, 2008:

McCain: 227 electoral votes

Obama: 311 electoral votes

This is the same totals as my last forecast on July 13.

The difference this time is the closest states.
Nevada 48.1 Obama, 46.0 McCain
Virginia 49.0 Obama, 47.0 McCain
Ohio 50.0 Obama, 45.0 McCain

However, if McCain wins all three of these states, Obama still comes out ahead (in this forecast) 273 to 265.

Busy, Busy

The beginning of the school year is a notoriously busy time for elementary school teachers. I'm always excited to get the new school year started though, and enjoy this busy time. I haven't had much blogging time recently, so I thought I would post a few pictures from the past week.

Calling All College Football Fans

My dad and I have been going head to head in The Sporting News - Salary Cap College Football fantasy game for the past three seasons. We're both big college football fans and playing this free game has added even more enjoyment to the season.

Every year, we say to each other that we wish we could get some more people to play. So, here's a call out to college football fans everywhere to join us.

Sound like fun? You can read the game rules here. (This league is a "basic" league.)

The league I set up is called "Nappanee Area Football Fans." (You don't need to be from the Nappanee area to play - I just called it that because I was determined not to sit here for an hour trying to think of something clever.)

You should be able to join the league by following the link below (where you will also also need to first set a Sporting News account.) There is NO password for the league.

Join the League

If you know of anyone else who you think might want to play, feel free to pass this blog post link on.

I will post weekly standings on the blog (even if it is just my dad and me.)

Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency

I just watched the beginning of the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency, in which Pastor Rick Warren is asking questions of both Senators Obama and McCain.

I'm not sure what the senators will have to say, but if either of them say anything half as enlightened as Rick Warren's comments to begin the discourse, I will be encouraged.

"I have to tell you upfront, both these guys are my friends. I don’t happen to agree with everything either of them teach or believe, but they both care deeply about America. They’re both patriots. And they have very different views on how America can be strengthened. Now, in America we’ve gotta learn to disagree without demonizing each other. And we need to restore civility in our civil discourse." -Rick Warren

A Father's Day in August

Today was quite the day of fathers for me.

Landen usually likes to sit on Kristi's lap for a while after he wakes up in the morning. Today Kristi was at work when Landen woke up. So Landen and I sat together on the couch for an hour this morning and watched Word World and Wow Wow Wubzy.

This afternoon my father-in law came over and helped me take a quickly-growing cottonwood tree down that was too near our shed. I haven't done much (if any) tree falling in my life (at least not that requires a chain saw.) I enjoyed this experience and working with Kristi's dad.

Tonight my dad arrived in Nappanee. He lives in Las Vegas and is in town for Nappanee High School's 50th class reunion. He took us out for supper at LaFogata. Back at home we watched the kids play in the driveway and watched the Olympics.

Days like this are few and far between for me. I'm glad I didn't miss appreciating what a special day it was.

Way Before They Blogged - Rocki Stillson

Way before she blogged, my cousin Rocki was a sixth grade cheerleader for my sixth grade basketball team. Sixth grade was Rocki's last year living in Nappanee before moving to Arizona. I really wonder how her story would have turned out if her family's move west had never transpired.

This is my favorite picture that I found in the 1983 Nappanee Advance News archives. The picture is filled with friends from growing up, future really close friends and friends that are still friends today.

1983-84 Nappanee Middle School
Sixth Grade Cheerleaders
Go Bulldogs!

Click on the picture for the full size version.

Updated Post

I updated three parts of the "Daily Time Alone with God" post from June. If you're interested, the updates are in the "A Few Thoughts" section.

Miles Biked Update: August 10, 2008

My 200th post to this blog - to celebrate, I offer another edition of the ever boring "Miles Biked in 2008 Update."

Steve - 454.2
Kristi - 344.8
Kylee - 261.4
Kenna - 259.3

One of the goals both Kylee and Makenna set for the summer was to bike 250 miles. They both surpassed this goal since my last update. Good job girls!

Cubs Chances

The Cubs have a 96.1% chance of making the playoffs this year according to coolstandings.com.

Wordle

I think Rob's "word cloud" header is pretty cool. I like my current header, but wanted to try out Wordle anyway. Here's what Wordle gave me from the words in my blog.

Town Hall Meeting

Kylee, Makenna and I spent the morning at McCuen Gym, in Elkhart. We really had a great time - observing the secret service, the satellite trucks, the crowd, as well as getting the chance to hear Obama speak.

Although, this evening when I mentioned to the girls that I bet they will always remember this day, Makenna said, "Yeah, the day of hearing the boring speaker!" Still, a neat opportunity for the girls to see the political process in action.

For not even having tickets, we ended up with really good seats.

More Broken Bones on the Way?

The other day I looked across the yard to see that my two year old son had climbed a tree. Did I rush to his rescue? No, just to get the camera.

Don't Drink So Stinkin' Much Mt. Dew Diet - An Update

I'm still at it. Three and a half months ago I said, "I don't think I have weighed under 130 since 2000. That's my goal."

I reached that goal today. . . 129.6 pounds. First time in eight years!

I've really just stuck to the plan I started in March.

• Don't drink very much pop (I mostly drink water)
• If hungry between meals, eat some fruit or Cheerios
• Try not to eat too much, especially junky stuff
• Get some exercise

It's been really nice having the Omron HBF-500 scale to make sure I'm losing fat, not muscle.

Searches for July

Besides the many variations of searches for: a certain Mexican restaurant in Nappanee, Protege bike computers, Deep River Water Park coupons, Wakarusa Missionary Children's Resale, and reviews for the Omron HBF-500, here are some of the searches that led to this blog during July.

• time alone with god
• daily time with god
• how to spend daily time with god
• daily how to dwell in god s presence
• daily devotions getting out of bed struggle
• i m fat utube
• iblog do you
• first broken bone
• michigan city indiana
• survive high gas prices noble romans
• ramona the pest birthday party
• continental devide wakarusa indiana

And my favorite:

• how much money should a person take if travelling to mammoth cave kentucky from michigan city indiana

Way Before They Blogged - Dick Pletcher

Kylee, Makenna and I spent some time perusing the booths at the Amish Acres Arts and Crafts Festival today. We stopped and talked to Dick Pletcher as he manned the gazebo microphone. He mentioned that he just doesn't have very much time to blog. I told him I I thought his stories about Amish Acres were really interesting and that I missed his updates. His post regarding the aftermath of the Nappanee tornado was the best one I read anywhere.

I remember listening to Dick announce the Art Festival events when I was kid, way before he blogged. As a matter of fact, I may have been at the festival the day this photo was taken for the Nappanee Advance News in 1983.

Book Review - The Shack

I finished The Shack by William P. Young tonight. This book has had quite a bit of buzz surrounding it recently. It is currently #8 on Amazon.com's bestseller chart. It was even mentioned on The Tonight Show.

So what is God like? It's a question that intrigues me. A fictional book that makes an attempt to answer this very real question certainly catches my interest. And The Shack was an interesting read. However, I was disappointed by the book as a whole. The writing style seemed overly simple for this complex topic and the story aspect of the book was quite predictable.

There were some parts of the book I did like. For example, one theme in the book deals with how God can allow bad things to happen, and even use these events for good even though He did not will them to happen. The book did help me clarify this issue in my own mind.

However, there were some aspects of the book that were too weird and just not quite aligned with what I know about the Bible for me to recommend the book.

When I read a book like this, I keep this one thought strongly in my mind. . . different people have different ideas regarding who God is and what God is like (including me,) people also have things they hope about God. But in regards to who God is and what He is like, it doesn't matter what anyone thinks or hopes. . . God is who He is. He doesn't change dependant on my (or anyone else's) thoughts or hopes.

A book like The Shack can give the reader a glimpse of how the author views God. I'm just not sure this book offers the most accurate description.

Here are a few links to people with (I believe some justifiable) concerns about The Shack.

Chuck Colson: Stay Out of The Shack
Don Holmes: The Shack - A Very Critical Review

And this video of Bob Botsford: