At the tick of Midnight tonight we usher out 2008 and in comes 2009. Time for celebration. That is until my children wake up tomorrow morning at 7:30 and sit down to watch Noggin, only to see the great ant race.
Noggin is going away from my TV at 12:01 am tomorrow morning. It’s a classic fight of egos. Viacom who owns Noggin and a bunch of other channels including, Comedy Central, CMT, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike, TV Land and VH1, want to charge more for their channels. Time Warner is going to stick it to Viacom by not agreeing to their demand of more money. Thus forcing Viacom to remove their channels from my Time Warner cable. Thanks guys.
So who wins? My kids, maybe they’ll play outside more. Oh wait, it’s winter. Suck.
Who loses? Me. No more Colbert Report. I’m so bummed.
Tonight my wife was supposed to go to the movies with her friend Amy. It was billed as a “girls night.” I was instructed that I got a night with the kids while she hit the town. OK, maybe not the town, but the AMC. So I was just hanging out in my finest “do nothing, sit around the house” clothes when our friend Dawn arrived. I said something to Kellie along the lines of, “Hey Dawn’s here, she must have just stopped by on her way home from work.” Kellie smiled. After some chit chat with Dawn, Kellie looked at me and told me to get dressed.
Surprise. It’s Date Night! It would be me that she was going out with tonight, and not Amy. Dawn was our evening babysitter. WHAT?!?! I was blindsided. I LOVE MY WIFE! She’s the best!
Growing up, we ate a ton of Pot Pies. I was never really a fan. So today when my wife told me that she was cooking Turkey Pot Pie for dinner, I wasn’t immediately stoked. However when I got home and was served up some of the culinary goodness, I was blown away. It was delicious and good. I mean really good. Really, really good. So good my belly beat my brains out. It was simply amazing.
Thank you darling for putting your Turkey Pot Pie on my favorite foods list.
This morning our church, Elevation Church, didn’t have services. So instead of staying home, I took advantage of the opportunity and headed to a church I’ve heard a lot about. Renovatus Church. There is a ton of learning opportunities that come from visiting different churches. Kellie stayed home because she didn’t want to fight with the kids and a “new church.”
Lesson 1. Have great children’s stuff. And spell it out very clearly on your website. I can’t speak for Renovatus and their children’s ministry, as my kids stayed home this morning.
Lesson 2. Don’t have a meet and greet time. I’m naturally an introvert, and I was already spending time at a new place all by myself. The only thing that could make me more uncomfortable would be a 5 minute “hug your neighbor” time. Renovatus did this. I stood around and I’m sure looked awkward.
Lesson 3. Incorporate liturgy. Its been a long time since I’ve been to a church who does a responsive reading. This morning Renovatus did an incredible time of this. We recited the Apostles Creed as well as a responsive reading from the New Testament. It was refreshing and renewing.
Lesson 4. Build community. My biggest takeaway this morning was that this church, Renovatus, was all about community. They talked about it. The believed in it. They sang about it. I could tell in the 90 minutes I was there, that community was highly valued.
Lesson 5. Have banners. I wasn’t quite sure where I was headed this morning when I left the house, but my trusty iPhone took me to the doorstep of the Elementary School that Renovatus met in. The picture I saw on the Internet showed about 6 banners outside, clearly marking the entrance. This morning there was only one….and I had to look for it. If I were more introverted, I may have driven on by.
Lesson 6. The leader must be personable. Jonathan Martin is the pastor, and seems to be a down to earth and very personable. I didn’t get to meet him, mainly because of my introvertedness. But if I had, I’m sure I would have liked him. His message was right on. He preached from the Bible and did an excellent job of connecting the audience to what he was preaching.
All in all, I really enjoyed myself. Renovatus Church has it going on. If you’re in Charlotte and are looking for the real deal, Renovatus is an excellent choice.
The other day I got pulled over for speeding. I was told that since I now reside in NC that I must register my car here. “No problem,” I told the officer…after all, he let me off with just a warning.
So today I started the journey of registering my vehicle. In NC for some reason you must get an inspection before the DMV will let you proceed with the nitty gritty. I got up early and headed out the door to get the inspection. After $23 and sitting in the inspection place for 23 minutes they let me know that I failed inspection. What?!? I guess that my front tires didn’t have enough tread.
I’m now sitting in another tire place waiting on the guys to put on some new tires.
Next it’s back to the inspection place. Then off to the DMV. Then who knows what wild goose chase they’ll send me on. Oh well, everybody knows that one thing leads to another.
