They don't OWN it!!

This is the least important of the promised posts kicking around in my head, so it goes first!

The other day, our office was all in a dither over the need for a clock that has "military time" on it. Apparently, times must be recorded in the 24-hour clock for our studies. Wait, did you see what I did there? I called it the 24-hour clock, instead of "military time". Why, one might ask, would I do such a thing? Because that is what it is called!! Believe it or not, the military does not own the 24-hour clock. In some countries, everyone uses the 24-hour clock. Even civilians! Amazing!

What is more amazing to me about this little scenario is that we do not attribute everything the military uses to the military. For instance, while people often wear camouflaged clothing, I do not believe I have ever heard an adult refer to them as "military clothes", even though the military wears such things. Medals are given as prizes at various academic, athletic, or scouting events, yet never does the announcer say, "And now for the military awards ceremony!" Why? Because the military does not own all medals! They have no copyright over them!! People go to gun shows, not military weapon shows. The military uses computers, yet I never ask my husband to turn off the piece of military technology. And so on.

Now while I proudly claim my title of "stickler" (thank you, Lynne Truss), I am not usually this anal about things. But this one bugged me.

And the time now is? 19:25!

Celebrate Competent and Know Stuff Day!!

Doesn't matter when you celebrate it, or even how, because we haven't worked out those minor details yet. But if you are unsure of what I am talking about, hop on over to Kar's blog and find out.

Watch this space

I have a great post-- actually, a couple-- running around in my head, and I hope they don't leak out my ears before I have a chance to get them down. But right now I don't have time for getting them down, I'm afraid.

On the upside, I got final Jeopardy! right on Monday.

Running on earth, because space is out of the question

Some of the Earth Day specials last week were amazing. How anyone can see some of the world's most beautiful places and not see God is beyond me. If you missed the broadcasts, you missed out.

My sister was astounded to hear that I wore a dress to the funeral last week. Hey, even I have standards.

I wish I had done something exciting last week that would be worth blogging. In fact, I wish I could remember anything at all that I did last week. It's all gone completely. I did recruit (well, dragooned is a better word) a new running partner, who I dragged from bed at 6 AM on Saturday to run 4 miles. He didn't seem to mind too much, since he talked the entire time. He says he is trying to get me to talk, to make sure I'm not working too hard. I told him the only way I could be both running and not working too hard is to walk instead. Fortunately, he is willing to acquiesce when I request his silence so I can concentrate on getting one foot in front of the other.

I did go to a spa-themed Ladies' Day on Saturday, and amused the other women by my non-touchiness when we tried to give one another massages. I'd really rather go around stiff and tense than have someone (other than Chad, that is) give me a massage. At least they didn't try to hug me.

No, wait, someone did. But I got away.

Something new

Okay, I really hope to make this my last post for the day! So I added a link to "Reverend Fun" to my sidebar, and idea which I stole from Sparquay. Some days are... um... less funny than others, just by way of warning. But go on over and have a look.

I admit it, I copied off of Flee

So I've been singing this song to myself for a few weeks:

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light my strength my song
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This Gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
Till he returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand!

I even tried to learn all the words while working a few weeks ago-- still can't remember all of them. But this song (like so many others) not only points me to Jesus, but also to the church family that I love. The last time we sang this on Sunday morning, I had gone to church without Chad and was sitting with people who I barely know (though I did know who they were). And every time I've thought of this song in the past few weeks, I've been back in that moment, worshipping alongside a brother and sister with whom I have an eternal bond. It hardly matters that our earthly bond is merely "acquaintance".

Thanks, Joe and Linda.

Spring is here

And I would not bother announcing that, except we are certainly getting the spring weather.

I've been reading in the paper lately that we are getting a wetter year than usual because it has been an El Nino year. Apparently, we will (at some point) be coming out of El Nino and into La Nina, which will give us a hot and dry summer. (Causing me to wonder, do we have La Nina every year?)

So, blah blah blah weathercakes, we are under a tornado watch. Again. So I have the window open to watch for the tornado. And if it does make an appearance on my street, I am fully prepared to dive under my bed. Because while I don't mind being the last one to see the tornado, I do mind the tornado being the last thing I see.

Gone, but not forgotten

I went to a very lovely funeral yesterday. This is really a sentence I never imagined I'd type. The funeral was not for someone I knew, although I met him a couple of times. He was the father of a friend. During the course of the eulogy, I thought it is a fitting testimony to what a wonderful man he must have been that everything they said could also be said about his son (our friend). He may be gone, but he will live on in the example he set for the subsequent generations of his family.

Also I hugged people while at the service. I'd hate for that to catch on.

I would be delighted at this sermon...

Bible Bowl: Part 2

I would say that we woke up nice and early on Saturday morning, but some of our group never really went to sleep, and in my hotel room, the awakening was neither nice nor early. Trains went by across the street at 30-minute intervals, which was sufficient to keep a lot of us from getting a good night's sleep, I'm afraid.

We had to load up to go to McDonald's for breakfast, because the hotel did not serve breakfast. Although it is fair to say that none of us really wanted to stick around there any longer than we had to, anyway, still it was an additional snag in our weekend. (By "snag" I mean "unplanned expense".)

So after loading up on fats and carbs, we headed for the church where the competition was held. Someone lost her glasses, quite a few children had early-morning grumpiness, and a couple of the girls apparently had their brains reprogrammed overnight so that all they could say was "Stop it!" to one another in really high-pitched, whiny voices. (Another side note here to say, this is probably the worst-behaved I've ever seen this group of children act, so it's not like I have much to complain about.) After a last-minute behaviour pep talk, we sent the children in to their holding area whilst the coaches went to a meeting. When I was a kid at these things, I used to wonder what it was the adults were all talking about. Now I know: Nothing. Although this meeting did give us a funny moment for the weekend. The man running the meeting prayed for us to all have "safe passage" home, so at the end of the prayer, I turned to Rebecca to ask, "Are we going home by ship?"

And the rest of the day went pretty smoothly. So far as I know the lost glasses were never found, one of the spectators took a phone call during the competition (really annoying the moderator, not to mention everyone else), and our scorekeeper thinks Lubbock is spelt "Lubic". We came home with a few ribbons and trophies.

And for some bizarre reason, they let me choose where to eat supper. I haven't worked that one out yet.

Bible Bowl Weekend: Part 1

I don't know if you'd call this weekend a comedy of errors, or perhaps the lighter bits of a tragedy, or maybe just what happens when a group of people get together and do things.

So on Friday morning Chad and I went to pick up the rental vans for the trip, only to find out (much to our horror) that we were the "only authorised drivers" of the vans. Chad and I were not planning to drive to Abilene. Turns out, though, that was a problem easily fixed.

So before we even left, one sponsor dropped out of the trip, one of the drivers came late (and had to be rushed to the car rental place to hand over his driver's license before we could go), and several of the girls started off their first round of bickering. So we left late, inciting Rebecca to panic (since she was in charge of all the arrangements). Then we ran into some zero-visibility blowing dust. All that and we still arrived in Abilene on time to get to the gymnastic sports centre.

I would like to take this opportunity to say, if you are ever bored in Abilene, go by the Gymnastic Sports Centre. It is fantastic.

After an enjoyable couple of hours of playing, we went to our (somewhat disappointing) hotel to check in and unload, and then on to Gatti's for the children to stuff themselves with pizza and finish running themselves ragged before heading back. Also while at Gatti's, I was dancing along to "YMCA", causing one of the other adults to remark, "I would say she is re-living her youth, but she is too young for that."

Whatever. Someday my grandchildren will be dancing along to "YMCA".

Safely home

Just returned from an eventful Bible Bowl weekend, about which I am anxious to blog, but for now I would prefer to go to bed!

This morning

This morning we are going to be fingerprinted for a background check for our adoption, and then I am leaving for a Bible bowl trip to Abilene. But first, I'm going to go run two miles.

We spent quite a bit of time with Angie (and some other people) last night. It was nice to see her after so long!

Tenebrae

The much-awaited description of the Tenebrae service:

I admit I had never heard of this until about two weeks ago (although I believe Maria Trapp makes reference to it in her book, The Sound of Music), so I had a very fresh slate with which to participate on Friday. It is a service of darkness, beginning in a dimly-lit room and ending in a completely darkened one, which symbolises the darkness over the earth when Jesus was on the cross.

Each of the seven statements of Jesus from the cross was read in turn. After each reading, the congregation read aloud a "confessionary prayer", which was followed by a hymn. After each hymn, one of the candles on the stage was extinguished. At the same time, a light switch in the room was turned off, so that the room was darkened a little at a time. At the end, all candles were out, all lights were off, and we all exited the room silently. (We had been asked to exit the building as silently as possible as well, but there was quite a bit of whispered fellowship going on in the foyer.)

That brief description does not really do the evening justice, but I don't really know how to go into more detail. As I said before, I strongly encourage anyone who has the chance to take part in such a service next year-- it is well worth it.

Jogging on Monday

I really don't want my blog to turn into a running journal. But that is, unfortunately, what is on my mind just now...

So last week did not go so well. I ran on Monday and Tuesday (and was very distressed on Tuesday to find it was a 3-mile day, not a 2-mile day like I had thought), Wednesday is a normal rest day, and after that the wheels came off the wagon. Thursday night was Bunko, Friday night I went to Tenebrae, and Saturday and Sunday saw me with a severe case of too-cold-itis. So I had to get back into it this evening or risk, as I said to Chad, turning into a lump. (Especially since this is chocolate-eating week.)

I puttered around the house as long as I could this evening, but I finally had to just go out and do it. And it turns out that five days of rest has done me at least some good-- I enjoyed the run without feeling like I was about to die. This week also marks me upping my run/walk ratio from 2:1 to 3:1. So at the end, I finished my two miles in 23:50, which may be a sad time to most, but for me it was brilliant.

Perhaps running three miles tomorrow won't be so bad, after all.

As Lent draws to a close

I went to a Tenebrae service (service of darkness) yesterday evening with a friend from church. I think it would be hard to describe to those who haven't been to one, but it was a very nice service and I strongly encourage everyone to try it next year.

On a much more superficial level, I am so looking forward to a Cadbury egg tomorrow.

I hate running.

I mean it. I hate it, hate it, hate it. And I cannot, for the life of me, work out why I do it. This has been an off-and-on hobby of mine since I was 12, for crying out loud! And yet I hate it.

When I rounded the corner leading to my "home stretch" on Saturday morning, I also hit the beginning of a walking minute. There was quite a queue of cars lined up at the stop sign, and I was very thankful that none of them could see that my stopwatch read "32:00". To stop and walk at that juncture is a bit embarassing.

Turns out I am going on a Bible bowl trip after all!

Sort of running

So Lubbock Daily Photo this morning was arduous; I composed my post yesterday and saved it as a draft, so all I had to do this morning was push the button. Well, that's not what happened. Thirty minutes and some HTML messing-with later, and we're all set now, so I suppose it wasn't that arduous.

Speaking of arduous, I ran three miles for the first time yesterday! Even calling it that much I feel like I'm truth-stretching. I am starting back into running regularly, a hobby which I have dabbled with off and on since I was 12. But in order not to get frustrated/burnt out/injured, I am going very gradually; I've taken an easy training schedule for a half-marathon and adapted it for my own needs, and I've started off running two minutes, then walking one (repeated as many times as necessary). And I run pretty slowly anyway. As I told Chad yesterday, I thought I would feel triumphant since I ran two miles and three miles in the same week (both of those things for the first time in years), but because of the walk breaks I don't really feel like I did it.

But that will change. In the meantime, I have next Saturday to look forward to: four miles!