Beach Vacation

Leah likes the beach. I prefer the woods and mountains. You can imagine how our discussions over vacationing destinations generally go. She wants to go somewhere sunny with an ocean and I want to go somewhere dirty with hiking trails. And I've always believed that I had a pretty good argument.

When you are in the woods, there are birds, plants, and woodland critters that are not the least bit interested in having you for dinner. Man is the top of the food chain there. I mean, sure, there are bears, snakes, and poisonous spiders, but they are really not all that common to see on most hiking trips and even if you do see them, they are relatively easy to avoid. On the other hand, I've always argued that the ocean is full of stuff that is waiting for you to sit still long enough to become dinner, and there are plenty of things that would just as soon skip over the waiting part. And that's not to mention the fact that the ocean itself with its riptides, undertows, crashing waves, and high saline content is ever ready to help put you on some aquatic dinner plate.

Now, though, I have an entirely new level to take this debate. According to scientists (http://www.livescience.com/health/070604_beach_ecoli.html), the beach itself is a breeding ground for E. coli. So, now, not only is the ocean and pretty much all of its inhabitants deadly, the beach leading up to the ocean is full of bacteria just sitting around waiting to make me sick. And Leah still wants to take a vacation to a sunny beach somewhere. I think we'll have to compromise and go to a city with a zoo and aquarium.

Nuts!

Those of you that enjoyed watching "Jericho" last season were disappointed I'm sure when you heard the news that the show has been cancelled. I thought it was a pretty smart drama with enough intrigue to keep it interesting, and although I was disappointed with the death of Johnston Green, I was more interested in finding out about the new design for the stars and stripes in the final episode. Of course, not too long after that I heard the news about the cancellation and all but gave up hope of ever learning the truth of what happened with the bombs.

For those of you in the same boat as I, I have good news today. CBS, in part due to receiving 50,000 pounds of peanuts at their New York offices, has reversed its decision and ordered seven new episodes of "Jericho" for the 07-08 season. The decision to order the remainder of the season is dependent on the volume of viewers for the first seven episodes. You can read the entire article here: http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=264639&GT1=7703

Make sure that you watch and tell your friends to watch, and if you haven't seen it yet, get caught up with reruns over the summer or the DVD set in September.

Catching Up

It's been a while since I've posted anything, so let me get you caught up on a few things going on here:

Leah resigned her position at the church a couple of weeks ago. After six years, that's been quite an adjustment. We were both very heavily involved in children's ministry at our church for so long that it's been hard to step away even with the certainty that this is the direction God is calling us. So, this coming weekend will be my last to teach for a while and I'm really going to miss it. I'm sure that God has other different opportunities for us, but we haven't hit upon them yet. For now, I think we'll just try to enjoy having a short rest.

Reagan finished fifth grade and we attended her fifth grade graduation last week. Who ever heard of fifth grade graduation? I hadn't, but I'm not sure that means much. Anyway, it was a nice ceremony. Reagan invited several family members to attend and many of them made it, so she was pretty happy to enjoy their company at lunch after the ceremony. The most disconcerting thing for me, though, was listening to the teachers speak.

The writing teacher gave an award to one of the students because "well, uh, he's got imagination." Hmm….I hope she writes better than she speaks, because that's not really inspiring me to believe that he's any better than my kid. Don't they all have imagination? Then, the art teacher or something gave an award to the students with perfect attendance and said, "On time is ten minutes early and on time is late. After that there's nothing to talk about." Ouch! My brain still hurts from trying to figure that out. Finally, the principal inspired me to purchase a new dictionary for the school when she closed the ceremony by telling the students and parents that she and the entire staff are "anxious to see these kids take the next step in their lives." Well, if she's worried about their ability to make it in life after fifth grade, then why are we letting them graduate?

Other than all of that, I've been working and helping Leah get things ready for our trip to DC later this month. We're trying to squeeze as much in to the five days that we are there as possible, and somehow the zoo made it on the list. I figured that we could go to the zoo in Dallas, but the kids are adamant that we have to go to the zoo in DC while we are there. As a matter of fact, when we asked what they wanted to see most they didn't say White House, Capitol Building, Washington Monument, President, or any other well known DC sight. They said, "Do they have a zoo?"