ADD Ramblings

I guess taking a pratfall in front of the entire assembled clergy of the West Ohio Annual Conference would qualify as weird.



Tis the season for graduation parties. Some top thoughts from this season:

1. It is obvious how proud the parents are of their sons and daughters.
2. The variety of food at these parties is fantastic. I remember going to multiple parties in my former locale, only to find the same food at every single party. It kind of got tiring. Not to mention that they all had the same banners and photo displays. I liked some of the different things I saw this weekend (including the book created by my neighbor, Nick, when he was in second grade; it included that he liked puching [sic] his oldest sister, and that his other sister "has a hobby, but I don't know what it is" and that his mother "is the best cook in the whole family." Great stuff!).
3. I laughed at seeing Dillon B, one of the more popular of this year's graduating class (showing my age, though I like Dillon a lot, I relate a lot better to his dad, who is one of my soccer buddies), come striding into a couple of the parties, followed by a line of his friends. It was a scene that reminded me a LOT of his character from the school musical (in which he was the 1950s tough guy).
4. I also got a kick out of having some kids approach me wanting me to solve their debate; is Smirnoff Ice beer or vodka? (incidentally, it seems that there are two distinct products by that name, one being a malt beverage, the other being a vodka beverage)

There's nothing like a sleeping baby. Especially when he falls asleep while eating. Well done, Andrew!

We planted a bunch of flowers around the house yesterday as well as some tomato plants and some pepper plants. We chose habenero and cayenne peppers this year - the habenero peppers go nicely in salsa (when they've been de-seeded, they aren't so hot, though we generally will make a hot batch, too), and the cayenne peppers dry nicely. We've been using home-grown, home-dried cayenne peppers on our pizza and pasta for the past, oh, nine or ten years. It's good stuff.

And finally, did I stretch too far this weekend when I analogized parts of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)? The part about having God's commands tied to your hands and written on your foreheads and on the doorposts and gates? I said that our godly deeds tie God's commands to our hands and that true wisdom and discernment write God's commands on our heads and that our identity as Christians should be plainly obvious when anyone enters our homes.