Our Big Date

Well, we've been talking about it most all week. Friday finally rolled around and Amanda and I went out for our first Daddy/daughter date. Here we are, all dressed up and ready to go out. She didn't quite understand the lessons I'm trying to teach her about how a boy should treat her when she's old enough to be thinking about real dates, but she definitely got the part about being important to and loved by Daddy. Amanda's first love language is physical touch, but I think quality times comes in second and is becoming more important to her.


Amanda wanted to get dressed up, so we did. She knew we were going to Cotton Patch to eat (so she could use her coupon). Here we are at Cotton Patch in Mansfield. What she didn't know was that I planned on taking her to see Night in the Museum afterwards. She asked if we could go to the mall, so I said, "Yes, we can go to the mall, but I want to take you to a different mall. And I have a special place I want to take your first." Fortunately, the Cinemark Theater at Six Flags Mall does not look much like a theater from the outside, so I was able to surprise her. She was excited since she had mentioned wanting to see this movie. We got home around 9:30pm after a great evening together.

We don't like it when Mommy is out of town, but this is definitely something we will do again when she is. It makes Amanda feel special, it is a joy for me, and it will give her a standard to use one day in the future when younger guys want to take her out on a date.

Billary '08

Dressin' Up for my Date

My wife is going to be out of town this weekend, I'm not going with her and I've got a date on Friday night with a girl who has caught my eye. Does that sound bad?

I guess for some people, that might not sound bad (shame on you!). But for the rest of us, let me explain. When Amanda and I went geocaching this past Saturday, she traded items at a cache and got a coupon for a free kids meal at Cotton Patch restaurant. She has been anxious to use the coupon, so last night I told her I would take her out on a date Friday night while Momma was gone, and we would go to Cotton Patch.

Well, we were talking about this on the way to school this morning. I reminded Amanda about our date and she asked me if we could dress up. I told her I thought casual would be more fun, but she disagreed. She then told me I needed to ask Brooke to get her (Amanda's) "hair stuff" down from the top shelf of her closet. I reminded her that Mommy would not be here Friday night and I wasn't real good with hair. "That's OK, I can do it myself" she told me, undaunted. So I guess I'll be dressin' up for my date. Check back here for pictures!

Keeping Things In Perspective - Cool!

I'll tell you what. I'm proud to be representing African-American coaches, to be the first African-American to win this. That means an awful lot to our country. But again, more than anything -- I said it before -- Lovie Smith and I are not only the first two African-Americans, but Christian coaches showing that you can win and doing it the Lord's way. We're more proud of that. - Tony Dungy

Amanda Makes Some New Friends

Here's one more picture from yesterday's geocaching. We saw these kids sitting there looking lonely, so Amanda introduced herself and sat down to read with them

The weather has been great this weekend after all the cold and rain we've had recently. Amanda and I went for a six mile bike ride today.

Been Way Too Long!

GeoPunkin and I went geocaching today. We only did 8, but it felt good to be at it again. Here are just a few pics from our adventures today.

A bamboo patch Amanda thought was really cool!

Here's one we found near 7-Eleven on Park Springs and I-20 frontage road.

Amanda always wants to do a the goofy shot, so we did this one for her.

I Know What I Was Made To Do

About my junior year in college, I was having a conversation with my Mom. I knew the Lord had called me into youth ministry and I had decided that was the career path I was going to pursue. My Mom pointed out how that was a little ironic since I was not a natural people-person and since I was a homebody. But we talked about how God equips you to do what He has called you to do, and I think my time as a youth pastor was testament to that very thing.

As a youth pastor, I was bit of an anomaly because I was organized and could administrate things. Not many of my youth pastor friends could do this, and to be honest, even fewer of them cared that they could not! And then, a couple years ago, the Lord changed my heart and my ministry and I transitioned to become the Administrative Pastor at our church. Now that I've been doing this for two years, it feels like this is a more "natural" fit for the gifts God has given me although I am so very thankful for my 15 years and youth pastor and have no doubt I was doing what God wanted me to be doing at the time.

But as natural my career seems, I have found something even better. I have found something that fits my heart's desire like an Isotoner glove fits your hand...I am a Daddy. My eyes are tearing up just sitting here thinking about it. When I first got married, I didn't want to have kids. It wasn't like "I never want kids", I just wasn't in a hurry. And then, only a few months before we found out Brooke was pregnant, something had begun to change in my heart. And then, when I found out I was going to be a Daddy, there was this overwhelming desire to be Daddy to a little girl. And God heard my heart's desire and answered it. If I had to choose just one thing that I think God created me to do in this life, I would have to say it was to be Amanda Kay's Daddy. Of course I couldn't do this without the love of my life, Brooke who is the greatest Mommy to our little girl. We're a team, and it's been quite an adventure!

So why the sudden pouring out of my heart amidst all of my political, anti-monopoly and dumb joke postings? It's because of this song by Rodney Atkins. Brooke listens to 99.5 The Wolf, so it is always on the car and I've been leaving it on recently. There is this song, Watching You, that can make me tear up every time if I let it. He's got a son and not a daughter, but his song is about the awesome privilege and responsibility of being a father. There's just not too much that can beat that. So anyway, here's the video if you want to watch it. If you're a Daddy, I think it will tug at your heart, too.

Tea Anyone?

Amanda having a tea party with Bunny & Puppy

NFL Stealing Plays from RIAA Playbook

RIAA, the Recording Industry Association of America. They say they are trying to protect the revenue due recording artists. Many feel they have gone overboard threatening people with lawsuits so large they are intimidated into plea bargain type arrangements. Now it seems the NFL is stealing plays from the RIAA playbook.

INDIANAPOLIS — The NFL has nixed a church's plans to use a wall projector to show the Colts-Bears Super Bowl game, saying it would violate copyright laws.

NFL officials spotted a promotion of Fall Creek Baptist Church's "Super Bowl Bash" on the church Web site last week and overnighted a letter to the pastor demanding the party be canceled, the church said. Initially, the league objected to the church's plan to charge a fee to attend and that the church used the license-protected words "Super Bowl" in its promotions.

Pastor John D. Newland said he told the NFL his church would not charge anyone and that it would drop the use of the forbidden words.

But the NFL objected to the church's plans to use a projector to show the game, saying the law limits it to one TV no bigger than 55 inches.

The church will likely abandon its plans to host a Super Bowl party.

You can read the rest of Fox New's NFL Thwarts Church's Plan to Show Super Bowl here.

What? No Pictures??

Nope, I didn't have anybody take a picture. And I'm not sure why. You can't truly appreciate all that was involved without them. Oh well, should have thought of it sooner.

You see, there was a gutter at the church that is in "disrepair". Of course the broken gutter would have to be at the highest part of the building (second story). One guy at church asked me about it, but I did not know what he was talking about. And then Pastor pointed out the "disrepair" which, of course, meant it needed to be fixed. So, being the handyman that I am, that left me with two choices: 1) figure out how to fix it and fit it into my too-busy-right-now schedule or 2) find somebody in the church who could fix it and meet them at church on my day off to fix it. I went for the former.

Did I mention that I'm not really that "handy" in the "handyman" sense? For some goofy reason, I thought this repair job could be accomplished in about 30 minutes by climbing up on the roof, sliding the fallen flashing back under the shingles and screwing them (through the shingles) into the roof. I was wrong.

First of all (and it's a good thing), Stan pointed out to me that putting screws through the shingles (even at the very end of the roof) would sorta defeat the purpose of having shingles. Once I made a repair in this fashion, I would have a permanent leak. I definitely felt less than handy and a little less than intelligent after he revealed this. He was nice about it, but I was just plain thinking stupid thoughts when I came up with that original idea!

So Stan and I were up on the second story roof sizing up the situation. Not only had the gutter slipped away from the roof, but the piece of trim board that was supposed to be attached to the roof (and the gutter attached to it) was also coming off. We ended up screwing the trim board back into the edge of the roof where it belonged and re-securing the part of the gutter that was in "disrepair". It certainly does not look professional upon close inspection, but I think it will direct the water in the proper direction and, I don't think too many people will climb up to the second story roof to look at it, so we should be good.

This little 30 minute project took up most of the afternoon between running to the hardware store, hauling ladders around, drilling, riveting and our Laurel-and-Hardy-like. I say it was "like" Laurel and Hardy because, I don't know which one was the little skinny one, but neither Stan nor I look like him! Anyway, the routine started when he had the baby food jar which contained the screws we were going to use. Stan had them, I needed them, and I saw he was going to toss them to me. My first thought was to say "no" and go get them, but then I thought, "Aw, I can catch." Well, I THOUGHT I could catch, but obviously I could not. In my defense, I had something in my right hand and my left hand's only purpose in life is to keep my body balanced by providing equal weight on that side.

It was a good thing Stan did not laugh too hard at my lack of coordination. Thirty minutes later we were at the hardware store getting the necessary equipment to do our work along with some light bulbs for the church. We found one odd-shaped bulb that we needed and Stan proceeded to hold the old bulb up next to it for comparison purposes. I still can't figure out how, but the thing managed to jump out of his hand and fall to the floor. "Clean up on aisle three!". We couldn't help but laugh.

But after all of this, I have no pictures. No pictures of us picking up broken glass. No pictures of big men climbing little ladders to get on the roof or pictures of us laying down, head first peering over the side of the roof 40 feet off the ground. No pictures of Jason and me lifting a 20 foot A-frame ladder up to the first story roof when the 8 foot ladder would have worked just fine. We put our lives in danger and I didn't even think to have someone take a picture. Bummer.

Microsoft Chaps My Hiney!

I am not anti-big business. And I am not against people like Bill Gates who make tons of money. If they are doing it legally, fairly and taking care of the people who helped get them there, I am all for them.

Having said that, I would like to state for the record that Microsoft chaps my hiney! You will notice a graphic and link along the side of my blog for Open Office. This is an open source office suite. To keep it simple, this means it is FREE and the code is open to anybody who knows how to do that sort of thing, so they can tweak it to customize or improve it.

The reason I like Open Office is because it uses open document files. This is Open Document Format. This is an open source file format which makes it possible for ANY office suite to open and save to this file format. What does that mean for you and me? If all word processors would support this format (which most all, sans Microsoft, do), I could create an .odf document in my word processor (whatever one I choose) and you could open it your word processor (whatever one you chose) even if it is different from mine. Not only could you open it, but you could edit and send it back to me with the changes. All of this, and we would not have to have the same word processor. Have you ever received a file from somebody and could not open it because you did not have the software program they created the file with? Open Document Format would solve this problem.

So what's the hold up in seeing this implemented? One word...can you guess? MICROSOFT! They do not want to support Open Document formats because it means could not force as many people to buy their software. Right now, Microsoft Office formats are pretty much the standard. If you want to share documents with others, you must purchase Microsoft. But ODF would change that. Microsoft could keep their own proprietary format AND include ODf, but they have chosen not to.

Microsoft claims that their documents would lose their formatting if they had to use ODF. So they have come up with their own "open" format for documents. Of course, it is competing with Open Document Foundation. In other words, "We agree, everybody should be able to use one format...OURS!". Well, the folks at Open Document Foundation proved this week that Microsoft is full of hot air. They created the ACME 376 Compatibility Kit which makes their case. You can read about it here.

Prior to Office 2007, Open Office could open any Microsoft Office document and save to any Microsoft Office file format. Open Office also saves to Open Document formats that can be opened by other office suites as well. That's why I like Open Office and use it frequently.

But with Office 2007, not only can Open Office (or any other office suite) not open Microsoft Office 2007 files, but even earlier versions of Microsoft Office cannot open them!! A friend sent me a file this week and I spent at least 45 minutes reading on Microsoft's site how to download the patch that would allow me to open this file with my 2003 version of Microsoft Office. It didn't work. I kept getting an error message saying the patch was only for pre-release, Office 2007 files. This patch came directly from the Microsoft web site and still would not work.

I am forced to use Microsoft Office because that is what everybody at my office uses, but this latest stunt by Microsoft has renewed my commitment to using Open Office whenever possible. I am going to load the ACME 376 Compatibility Kit into my copy of Microsoft Office so that I can use Microsoft Office to save documents in ODF, and I am going right now to add an Open Office link to the signature line of all my outgoing e-mails.

I encourage to check Open Office.

• It runs on PC, Mac and Linux machines
  
• It opens and saves to all Microsoft Office formats (prior to Microsoft Office 2007)
• It opens and saves to Open Document formats that most other office suites use, so others can open, edit and save files you send them even if they don't use Open Office
• It's a full office suite, it is powerful, and it is FREE
  

How NOT to Pick Up a Date

Are you a parking ticket? 'Cause you've got fine written all over you.

Do you have a Band-Aid? Because I just scraped my knee falling for you.

Do you have any raisins? No? How 'bout a date?

Muslims In America Support the War Effort...NOT!

"Do you ship to APO (military) addresses? I'm in the 1st Cavalry Division stationed in Iraq and we are trying to order some mats but we are looking for ships to APO first."

We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.

Bargain Suppliers Discount-Mats.com"

Read the whole story here.

Anti-Farty Pants

That's how a Fox News story describes this product. I'm not sure how else to tell you about them besides send you their link. I'm sure that this is a God-send for people would actually NEED to purchase them, but even the inventors admit there is a humorous side.

USA Wants to Be Like Norway, Sweeden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark?

California Lawmaker Seeks to Ban Spanking of Children Under 4, reports Fox News.

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, said such a law is needed because spanking victimizes helpless children and breeds violence in society. "I think it's pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child," Lieber said. "Is it OK to whip a 1-year-old or a 6-month-old or a newborn?" (emphasis mine, click the link above to read more)

Of course, Assemblywoman Lieber has to use typical liberal tactics and use emotionally charged, connotative words to try and re-frame reality. Who is arguing you need to "beat" a child? That's why we have two different words, 1) beat and 2) spank. And then the use of the word "whip" in the same sentence as "newborn". Is this what an education at a liberal college does for people?

Yes, there are child abusers out there, and of course that is wrong. But spanking, when done in love as an act of discipline, is no more "beating" a child than taking away free time if school work is not done is "psychological torture". Do we really think this will stop true child abusers?

Snow And Ice

That's ice on the twigs/weeds around Amanda. Amanda came to work with us on Monday since she was out of school. She thought the ice on these things was so "beautiful" that she wanted me to come see them.

I got up Wednesday morning and let the dogs out before getting Amanda up to get ready for school. When I looked outside, I was surprised to see what the weather had brought the night before. No school Wednesday. Everybody (Amanda, Brooke, Boo and Sully) came to the church playground, so I had to take a break and go play with them.

Here is Boo climbing up the tires to play with us at the top of the playground equipment.

Boo would have nothing to do with this "bridge crossing", but Sully thought nothing of it once he finally got up the nerve to climb up the tires onto the equipment.

And here is why Sully had to work up his nerve to climb the equipment...he fell through the first time!

Gotta Love Sleepovers

Amanda Kay spent the night at a friend's house last night. It was her friend's birthday, so some girls came over and spent the night. Amanda and one girl stayed awake until 2:30am talking and then had to be up in time for church today. This is what happened when Amanda was playing in her room this afternoon. And she was NOT a happy camper when she had to get up.

I'm Surprised, But It's True

Perhaps you've received the same e-mail I received for the third time today:
-----------------
Subject: Update on Sheriff Joe Arpaio

You gotta' love Sheriff Joe. Maybe the Feds should let him deal with jailing illegals. It would be cheaper than a boarder fence.

Update on Joe Arpaio

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (in Arizona) who created the "tent city jail": He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights. Cut off all but "G" movies.

He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects. Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.

He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked up the cable TV again only let in the Disney channel and the weather channel. When asked why the weather channel he replied, so they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs.

He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value. When the inmates complained, he told them, "This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back."

He bought Newt Gingrich' lecture series on videotape that he pipes into the jails. When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series might explain why a lot of the inmates were in his jails in the first place.

More on the Arizona Sheriff:
With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record), the Associated Press reports: About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts.

On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before. Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their pink socks. "It feels like we are in a furnace," said James Zanzot, an inmate who has lived in the tents for 1 year. "It's inhumane."

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your damned mouths!"

Way to go, Sheriff! Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.

If you agree, pass this on. If not, just delete it.

Sheriff Joe was just reelected Sheriff in Maricopa County, Arizona.
--------------

One of my pet peeves in urban legends. It REALLY bugs me when people pass along stories without ever bothering to check whether or not they are true...especially when it is so easy to go to Snopes and check it out.

I love this story about Sheriff Joe, but it sounded a bit too good to me. And now with the "If you agree, pass this on..." at the end, it is all-the-more suspicious. So I Snoped the story here and found out, for the most part, this story is true!

I was going to recap the Snopes version for you, but for those who may not be familiar with Snopes, I'll just let you use the link above to check it out for yourselves. But the cool thing is, this story checks out. Sheriff Joe is my kind a guy!

Monday Night Geocaching

We headed out to do just two caches. This is a travel bug we took for the Dew Drop Inn I-20 Travel Bug Motel. A travel bug is any item you attach to one of these tags. You drop it off in a cache and then somebody else picks it up, takes it to another cache and logs its trip. Interesting note: you can click on the Google Maps link from this cache page to see where this area is, but it used to be an I-20 rest area (Park Springs at I-20). That's another neat thing about geocaching...you learn local history you never knew before.

Amanda traded a small stuffed raccoon for this balloon animal kit which she put to good use as soon as we got back from our outing.

Today's Time Waster from Download Squad

I subscribe to the RSS feed from Download Squad. One of the posts they send out is the "Time Waster" of the day. I haven't found that many that I'm real excited about, but I thought Throw Paper! was a lot of fun. You try to toss the paper wad into the trash can, but you have to watch the arrow on the trashcan what shows which way the fan is blowing and how hard. Anyway, my best score was 12 in a row. If you've got some time to waste, try it out for yourself here.

How Many Church Administrators Does It Take?

I don' t know if you will think this story is as funny as I do, but I'll share it with you anyway. Sometimes it's good to laugh at yourself. This is a true story which I will tell via the e-mails I exchanged with an online friend.

First E-Mail I Received
Hi Guys!

I am creating a birthday calendar for myself. Can you please click on the link below and enter your birthday for me. Don't worry it is quick, and you don't have to enter your year of birth:-).

(link was here)

P.S. If you're married and I don't have a separate e-mail for both you and your spouse, please click on the link again and register your spouse's birthday too!

Thanks,
Jason

My First Reply
(remembering a local pastor named Jason I met in December and had lunch with, I wrote back)
LOL,

Hey Jason...gotta laugh. I thought it was nice but wondered why you sent me this e-mail. I see that you have my e-mail address listed under (lady's name here) on your list! Thought you might want to change that in your address book.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and that you have a blessed new year.

Hey, are the peacocks still there?

Blessings,
Rob Hurt
Vine Fellowship

Second E-Mail I Received

HOW FUNNY IS THAT? I'm extremely embarrassed! If you only knew how completely anal I am about life in general.

Thanks for the heads up . . . I'll change that in my address book! However, don't be surprised if you receive a birthday E-Card from someone who is practically a stranger to you!

Thanks!

Jason ...

... Assembly of God

P.S. Your video was a hit at the Volunteer Appreciation Banquet that I spoke at. About 250 people in Russellville, Arkansas, now know about the Vine Fellowship and Rob Hurt! Thanks again!

My Second Reply
(at this point, I am totally embarrassed as I realize this is an administrative pastor I met online who found our volunteer appreciation video on YouTube and wanted to use it...it was not the local pastor I had met!)

Wow...who is more embarrassed? Did you wonder about the peacock comment? There is another Pastor Jason here in Arlington I met just before Christmas and I got the two of you mixed up! He had a couple wild peacocks show up on his church property and that is what I was asking about.

So let's see...you sent a birthday reminder invitation to me by mistake. One for you.

I filled out the birthday reminder invitation sent to me by mistake. And then I got you mixed up with another Pastor Jason! Two for me.

Oh well, what a funny way to start the new year!

Happy New Year,
Rob

Third E-Mail I Received
Too funny! And they trust the organization and administration of our churches to us? That's really scary, huh?

Well, I was wondering about that peacock comment. I thought maybe you knew something I didn't.

That's hilarious! Thanks again for the laugh!

One Man's Commode, Another Rat's Abode

In light of what happened at our house this week, I found this Fox News story interesting:

One Oregon man's trip to the toilet gave his household some unexpected excitement as soon as he lifted the lid.

As Lee Rich opened the toilet seat, a 10-inch long rat, dripping with sewage, came shooting out of the bowl and darted into an open cabinet where the family stores their bath towels, Salem's Statesman Journal reported.

"That thing just came screaming out of there," said Rich, 66, a retiree.

He trapped the rodent in a plastic coffee can and sealed it with tape. He then put the can in the freezer to kill the rat.

Salem takes 10 to 15 complaints each year from residents about rats in their sewer pipes, said Public Works spokesman Mike Gotterba.

City workers put rat poison in a manhole near Rich's home and promised to put more bait at the location if they needed to.

Guess I ain't the only one!

Ahhh! #2

Now Mommy & Boo take a turn relaxing on the couch

Updating My Resume

I'm not really in the job market right now because I feel I have the perfect job, but there are some things that are just too good to pass up. Take, for instance, my making Time Magazine's "Person of the Year" in 2006. I had to dig through my typewriter-written files to find my resume (circa 1991), but I finally found it. Now I can kill two birds with one stone...I'll get my resume onto the computer and I'll put at the top of the list, "Time Magazine Person of the Year 2006". Since I'm not currently looking for a job, maybe it's worth a raise!

God does not respond to talkers,
He responds to doers.

- Pastor Phil Hunt, May 2002

Ahhh!

No, nobody's sick...it's just the men of the Hurt household relaxing on a Sunday afternoon
(most pictures on this blog can be enlarged by clicking on them)

More Alabama Pictures

Here's a couple pictures (click to enlarge) of our last geocaching adventure in Alabama with cousins David and Hannah. Click on the photo album below to view the rest of the pictures from our trip.

Hurt Christmas 2006

Something to be Said for a Sense Of Anticipation

We drove back from Alabama yesterday...an 11-12 hour drive depending on stops. I couldn't help but notice that the sense of anticipation we had when we were leaving Texas for Alabama was not there. We are very glad to be home, but the trip home is just not the same as the trip there.

And as we were taking down the Christmas tree today, I commented to Brooke, "This is not near as much fun as putting it up with the Christmas music is playing and all." I couldn't help but notice that the sense of anticipation we had putting up the Christmas decorations was not there as we took them down.

I was thinking about this a bit more as I carried the Christmas tree into the garage for storage. I'm very glad I live under the New Testament covenant as opposed to the Old, but I got a new perspective today. I never much thought about the ANTICIPATION the Old Testament saints lived under. What must it have felt like for Simeon and the wise men as they saw thousands of years of prophecy fulfilled right before their eyes!

I don't guess any of this is too profound, but I gained a new perspective coming back from Christmas vacation and putting away Christmas decorations. There is something to be said for a sense of anticipation.

Dr. Walter Williams Perspective on Racial Profiling

"... Racial profiling controversy is nothing new. For a number of years, black Americans have made charges of racial profiling by police and store personnel who might give them extra scrutiny. Clever phrases have emerged, such as "driving while black" and now "flying while Muslim," but they don't help much in terms of understanding. Let's apply some economic analysis to the issue.
God, or some other omniscient being, would never racially profile. Why? Since He is all-knowing, He'd know who is and is not a terrorist or a criminal. We humans are not all-knowing. While a god would have perfect and complete information about everything, we humans have less than perfect and incomplete information. That means we must use substitutes such as guesses and hunches for certain kinds of information. It turns out that some physical attributes are highly correlated with other attributes that are less easily, or more costly, observed..." Read the rest of the article here.

You May Not Believe This, But...

...I believe the stories about rats in the sewers in New York City now. And I also believe the story about the lady who found the boa constrictor in her toilet bowl.

No, I did not take a picture, but I can show you the evidence double-bagged in the dumpster if you don't believe me. We came home from our trip to Alabama and have been home for about 4 hours. I just got around to going into the bathroom in my office. We always leave the lid down on the toilets (because Boo thinks it is just a giant water bowl), so when I lifted the lid 5 minutes ago, it's the first time it's been up in over a week. As you might imagine, I was a bit startled to see a dead rat floating in my toilet! I'm glad he was dead, but I don't think I want to know how he got there. Ugghh!

Anyway, just thought I'd share that (true) story with you. I guess I can see two positives from this: 1) the rat is no longer here, 2) hopefully this was what was making the chewing noise Brooke was hearing at night before we left!

Enjoy the story...Brooke may make me take this down when she reads it!!!

This Is How It Happened

What could be more innocent than a child opening a Christmas present? (Hint: it depends on what's inside the box)

This was really her mother's idea!

When you're an artist, you absolutely MUST let your creative flair be seen

And this is what happens when you cross being Daddy to an artistic little girl and husband to a Mommy who has a mischievous streak!

Geocaching With David

When we were in town last time, I introduced my niece and nephew to geocaching. My nephew David really like it so, when Amanda and cousin Hannah spent the day at Hannah's house, David and I went on a 21 cache, 6 hour cache run. Here are the highlights.

Turban, Yes; Santa Hat, No

Short version: a kid gets on the school bus, sees his bus driver, Kenneth Mott, wearing a Santa hat and gets "offended" because he doesn't believe in Santa Claud. Mr. Mott is told to loose the hat.

Question: if Mr. Mott were wearing a turban, do you think he would have been required to remove it? (question raised by Rush Limbaugh)

Long version: click on the picture if you want to read the whole story

Caution: Breakable

There was a very gracious lady who was mailing an old family Bible to her brother in another part of the country. "Is there anything breakable in here?" asked the postal clerk.

"Only the Ten Commandments," answered the lady.

Lot's Wife

The Sunday school teacher was describing how Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt, when little Jason interrupted, "My Mommy looked back once, while she was driving," he announced triumphantly, "and she turned into a telephone pole!"

An Ear to the Ground

Vacationing in Arizona, a group of British tourists spot a cowboy lying on the road with his ear to the ground.

"What's going on?" they ask.

"Two horses -- one gray, one chestnut -- are pulling a wagon carrying two men," the cowboy says. "One man is wearing a red shirt, the other a black shirt. They're heading east."

"Wow!" says one of the tourists. "You can tell all that just by listening to the ground?"

"No," says the cowboy. "They just ran over me."

New Year Resolutions

Every year I resolve to lose weight and save money, but I always get them mixed up.

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer Gives Award to CAIR Extermist

Click photo to read the whole story

Updated: 12/30 - Click HERE to read where she rescinded the award.

Does This Mean I Should Clean More

We used to have Life Group at our house, so every Wednesday we did a "touch up" cleaning job on the house. Now that we don't have Life Group here each week...well, we don't "touch up" as much as we used to. Last time we had a Young Marrieds event here and cleaned the house for it, Amanda kept asking why we were doing so much cleaning. I tried to explain to her that it takes longer to clean for company when you don't do little bits each week, but I'm not sure how much she understood. She kept asking about it.

So today, I looked around in my office and decided I wanted to reorganize. I've been moving furniture, vacuuming, cleaning shelves, throwing stuff away, boxing stuff up, etc. Brooke just came and told me that Amanda asked, "Is Daddy cleaning because we are having company over?"

Does this mean I should clean more?

Merry Christmas, Aunt Judy

Here is a picture of one of the walls in Amanda's room. These are two bulletin boards she has just figured out how to use.

Amanda's Aunt Judy always sends a savings bond for Christmas. She also sent Amanda a card this year. When Brooke gave the card to Amanda, this is what Amanda did with it (you can click on the picture to make it larger).

Merry Christmas, Aunt Judy. You made Amanda Kay's day.

For All My Friends

For My Democrat Friends:

"Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere , and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes. By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself or himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher."



For My Republican Friends:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Superman No Longer Proud To Be American

Watched the new Superman movie tonight (first mistake). Did you catch the part at the beginning of the movie where he's flipping channels on the TV and one scene shows a Muslim in a war zone (no indication if they were supposed to be terrorist or victim). When I saw that I thought about one of the few things I remembered about Superman. Do you remember the three things Superman stood for?

• Truth
• Justice
• The American Way

I thought about the American way and how being pro-America isn't as popular as it was in Superman's heyday. Remember him standing in front of the big, waving, American flag?

Next question, did you see Superman standing in front of any waving American flags in the movie? Nope.

Last question: Did you catch what Perry White (editor of the Daily Planet) said when he was giving out Superman assignments to all of his staff upon Superman's return..."and find out if he still stands for truth, justice and all that stuff"! Hollywood can't even stand for a comic book character to pro-American. Can I "unwatch" the movie and boycott it?

59 and Pregnant

A woman went to the doctor's office, where she was seen by a young, new doctor. After about 4 minutes in the examination room, the doctor told her she was pregnant. She burst out, screaming as she ran down the hall.

An older doctor stopped her and asked what the problem was, and she told him her story. After listening, he had her sit down and relax in another room.

The doctor marched down the hallway to the back where the first doctor was and demanded, "What's the matter with you? Mrs. Terry is 59 years old, she has four grown children and seven grandchildren, and you told her she was pregnant?"

The new doctor continued to write on his clipboard and without looking up said, "Does she still have the hiccups?

(Thanks to Dawn for sending me this)

It's Christmastime at the Hurt Household

Ahhh...can you smell it? It's "hot stuff" cooking at the Hurt household. What? You don't know what "hot stuff" is? It's the Hurt recipe for Chex Mix, and we make it every year at Christmastime. Here's our family recipe:

• 1 box Cheerios
• 1 box Wheat Chex
• 1 box Corn Chex
• 1 box Rice Checks
• 1 Can Spanish Peanuts
• 1 Can Mixed Nuts
• 1 pkg. pretzels
• 1/4 lb. butter
• 1/4 c. worshteshire sauce
• 1 T. celery salt
• 1 T. onion salt
• 1 T. cayenne pepper

Melt butter. Add remaining ingredients. Mix over cereal. Bake 1 hr. at 250 stirring every 20 minutes.

A Memorable Moment

This is a true account as recorded in the Police Log of Sarasota, Florida...

An elderly Florida lady did her shopping and, upon returning to her car, found four males in the act of leaving with her vehicle. She dropped her shopping bags and drew her handgun, proceeding to scream at the top of her voice, "I have a gun, and I know how to use it! Get out of the car!" The four men didn't wait for a second invitation. They got out and ran like mad.

The lady, somewhat shaken, then proceeded to load her shopping bags into the back of the car and got into the driver's seat. She was so shaken that she could not get her key into the ignition. She tried and tried, and then it dawned on her why...for the same reason she did not understand why there was a football, a Frisbee and two 12 packs of beer in the front seat!

A few minutes later, she found her own car parked four or five spaces farther down. She loaded her bags into the car and drove to the police station to report her mistake. The sergeant to whom she told the story couldn't stop laughing. He pointed to the other end of the counter, where four pale men were reporting a car jacking by a mad, elderly woman described as white, less than five feet tall, glasses, curly white hair, and carrying a large handgun.

No charges were filed.

If you're going to have a Senior Moment, make it a memorable one!

The turtles were nestled all snug in their beds...

Here's a picture of Little George. We haven't seen him since the Monday before Thanksgiving. Little George, Grumpy and Grace have all snuggled in for the winter and appear to be hibernating. We saw Grace and Grumpy on Thanksgiving day when I moved around a little dirt where they had dug in. Grace even came out from her spot and dug into another one. Little George is dug in way down deep (I'm thinking he may be directly under Grumpy by an inch or so), so we did not see him on Thanksgiving day. Don't know if they are having visions of sugar plumbs dance in their heads, but hope they're doing OK so we can see them again this Spring.

Flying Imams and the First Muslim US Representative

Was it an orchestrated stunt? Click on the picture to enlarge so you can read it. Click on the title to this post to read the entire story.

Oops!

An American Airlines flight was brought to an unexpected stop Monday due to an excess of gas … and not the kind used for fuel.

A woman on board a flight bound for Dallas/Fort Worth apparently struck several matches in an attempt to hide a flatulent faux pas, reported the Tennessean.

The flight was brought in for an emergency landing after passengers reported a burning smell. After investigators began questioning people, the woman admitted to striking the matches while trying to hide her "body odor." She is from the Dallas area and reportedly has a medical condition.

When reports of the smells were heard, the plane landed in Nashville and all passengers and crew members were brought off board. Bomb-sniffing dogs were then called to the scene and they tracked down the used matches.

The flight took off again after the incident, but the woman was not allowed back on board. American Airlines has reportedly banned her for a long time. Although it is illegal to strike a match on a plane, the woman was not charged with any crime.

Story here.

Did You Blog It, Daddy?

Before going to bed tonight, our proud little tooth-puller asked me if I had blogged about her feat last night. I told her no, but I would tonight. So here it is...a picture of Amanda's missing tooth (bottom row, just right of center). But this one is special...it is the first one she pulled all by herself.

The tooth has been loose for a while and Amanda was determined to pull it herself. Brooke was out with friends last night when the tooth got real loose. Amanda showed it to me and then started crying, "please don't tell Mommy!" (literally crying). A note of explanation: I do NOT pull teeth, for some reason it grosses me out. I did not like loosing teeth as a kid because I thought it was gross. So Brooke has been the tooth puller at our house. There was that one time I had to hold Amanda down on the ground, but Brooke did the actual tooth pulling.

No before you put two and two together (the duct tape picture from a couple days ago and the whole pinning your child down thing), let me explain. Amanda usually wiggles her tooth until it is bleeding real good (like she did last night) and then just stalls and will not pull it out. She wiggles it, cries, whines and stays up late playing with it, but she will not do the deed. Finally we cannot take it anymore and Brooke yanks the thing out.

Last night, Amanda wiggled it around and I put her to bed because I knew she would not pull it. Two minutes after praying with her and coming back to my office, she was out of bed showing me her bleeding tooth (where she had begun wiggling it right after I left her room). Short version, I got the pliers out and "convinced" her it would be to her benefit to pull her own tooth. Three minutes later she came running to me to show me her accomplishment! Mommy brought the dollar home to put under her pillow. (Actually, she didn't go get a dollar...she bummed one off one of her friends. But you didn't hear that from me).

Six teeth down and I don't remember how many to go.

Schooling Sully

Boo does not put up with such nonsense, but Sully is just good-natured and lets Amanda torture him as seen here. I believe he is the student, as as you can see from his paw in Amanda's hand, the teacher is helping him finish his homework.

An Absolute MUST Read

I know some of my regular readers (OK, I have 2 that might count at "regulars", so don't laugh so hard) are not all that excited about my "political postings", but I ask you to read this article (The Faking Imams) about the six imams who were kicked off the US Airways flight.. The article contains a link to the official police report and an eye witness report. The article is eye-opening to say the least.

• They were not asked to leave simply because they were Muslims (there were other Muslims on the flight who were not given further scrutiny)
• Their prayers were not "normal" Muslim prayers
• Enough people on the plane were nervous about the actions of these six men that the passengers APPLAUDED the crew once the men were taken off the plane

You can read the rest yourself...please do. This incident is being used to try and stop common sense security measures at our airports. I will not comment further for those of you who are not into the "political posts", but please read this article.

Note: I had to try SEVERAL times to get the page to load. Probably thanks to the Drudge Report, lots of people are finding this site right now.

What Can I Do To Make Your Flight More Uncomfortable?

If Ann Coulter is too "over the top" for you, don't click on her picture to read her take on the six imams kicked off the US Airways flight.

Side note: wow...Ann Coulter should run for the most hated political commentator on the planet...it was really hard to find an image of her (I use Google image search) that was not Photoshopped into something mean or nasty. We know Ms. Coulter doesn't claim to be tolerant. Isn't it the people doing all of the Photoshopping who espouse "tolerance"? What's up with that?