Tag / Funny Stories

by Greg

Tape Delay

So, you just gotta love TiVo. It’s so easy. You watch what you want, when you want to (or can) and you can even fast-forward the commercials!

I love hockey! Versus carries at least one NHL game on Monday and Tuesday nights. I’m busy every Monday night, and somehow we are usually busy on Tuesday nights, so I have gotten in the habit of TiVo-ing them.

Well, tonight after recording the show, I picked up where I had left off when I went up to the office to record. Thing is, Jen was there, too. And, while I like hockey… I like talking with my wife more. So, we did.

At one point I finally noticed that the hockey game I had recorded was playing in the background while we chatted and snacked.

Do you find that odd too? Who records something in order to not pay attention to it? 🙂

by Greg

Chickens

We had dinner with some friends tonight who are back from Mozambique where they have been missionaries for quite a long while. It was a great night of good food and just enjoying time together.

Speaking of food, the conversation turned to food at one point. We began talking about how you make a nice grilled chicken salad in Mozambique. It’s not as easy as just going to the grocery store.

“First you have to kill the chicken!” said our African friend, to which we all laughed. She continued, “Oh, but first, you have to catch the chicken!!!” We laughed even harder.

Without missing a beat, her husband – the more seasoned veteran of life in Africa chimed in, “First… you have to find the chicken.”

At that point I just lost it and said, “THAT is going on my blog tonight!”

So far in life, I have not had to FIND my food. 🙂

by Greg

33

Well, yes, today is my birthday, but it has already begun to be celebrated. My sister made me a cake while we were down there with them at my Mom & Dad’s… they sang and everything. I got presents from the extended family. Many have been wishing me a happy birthday, including calls/IMs from Dad & Sister who have started this interesting tradition of wishing me a happy birthday on November 29th, so they can be the first one or something… 🙂

Last night we all went out as a family to celebrate. Red Robin gives you a free burger on your birthday, so we like to take advantage of that! We went there for dinner, they sang me a song. It was tons of fun!

During dinner, Kirstie (our awesome 3-year-old) says something about how we need to go to Chuck-E-Cheese for my birthday! I just smiled (as I am now!) and realized that to her, THAT is a birthday! We have done the Red-Robin-Chuck-E-Cheese birthday circuit for several birthdays running now! 🙂

So after dinner, we piled in the van and headed over to Chuck-E-Cheese!!

We got inside and the guy at the entrance said, “Is there a special occasion today?” I answered, “Yes……” He probed further, “Is it a birthday?” We all said, “Yes…….” He said, “Whose birthday is it???”

Everyone pointed to me and said, “Dad’s birthday!” He looked a little surprised, but handed me the birthday balloon!

We got a few dollars worth of tokens and headed out to have some fun. Strangely, most of the stuff we tried to do was broken, but the one thing I wanted to do – that cool little sketch/photo machine – did work and we got a funny photo memory from the night. I did get to play one game of skee ball with the boys, too. 🙂

So, for my 33rd birthday, I went to Red Robin & Chuck E Cheese! 🙂

But, there’s more. So far today I have received some awesome steak “plates” (they are boards!) hand-crafted by my almost-9 year old son and his crafty Grandpa Tom, and a BUNCH of e-mails, IMs, and other electronic birthday greetings. Jen has some plans for tonight too, but won’t divulge them just yet. 🙂

More later… unfortunately today is still a busy work day! Just wanted to tell the stories of how everyone has been celebrating my birthday. It’s been really fun so far, and much appreciated.

Thanks! 🙂

by Greg

Post-Thanksgiving Thoughts

We had a marvelous time with family in Ohio over the past several days. Besides my parents and my sister and her family of six, we also got to spend some time with my grandparents, two aunts, one uncle, three cousins (and one first cousin once removed). That was all topped with the news this morning that another cousin had delivered healthy TWINS the night before. (Funny part was, twin #1 was born at 11:52pm Nov 24th, while twin #2 entered breathable air at 12:03 Nov 25th! These twins have different birthdays!! Ha!!)

All in all, it was a wonderful trip, and a great time with family.

Tonight, reflecting on all of it (and troubled a bit by our current financial standings) I was truly thankful. Not some cheesy kind of Hallmarky thankful induced by an annual over-commercialized holiday. I mean really thankful. It was kind of a neat feeling. I was looking around me at all the stuff that we do have and enjoy. Much of which has been given to us by our generous family. And I was thinking about my four kids and my wife, along with the other tot on the way. All of these that God has given me.

Money may be an ever-present pressure, cause of stress, and the lack thereof a source of fear, but really… in the important things, I’m set. Life could not be better.

A few stories for tonight.

First, at one point on our trip a random file came up in our iPod song shuffling, and it was just precious. It was a little audio clip I had recorded of Ian and Alex for our now stagnant basicmm radio show. Man, I forgot how cute the three-year-old Alex was! The kids all wanted to hear that one several times.

But, speaking of cute three-year-olds, our current three-year-old, Kirstie, was dishing out her own cuteness throughout the weekend. She had plenty of classic lines all weekend, some of which I won’t repeat here, but one particularly cute moment was when I offered to lay down with her when she was supposed to be taking a nap. Unfortunately, at the moment, I forget what it was! 🙂 (I’ll add it tomorrow if I can remember it!)

Other cuteness came from little Julia this weekend. She doesn’t say much, but over the holiday at Grammy’s house – which is well-stocked with chocolate – she learned to use the word “Choc-latt” well, and OFTEN. AND, the best part was the true, deep sadness that followed any time she uttered the new word, without the appropriate results! 🙂 If we ever said no to choc-latt, the tears flowed freely!

Pretty cute, and apparently she has a sweet tooth like her dad!!

There’s a bunch more obviously, but as my sleeping time is quickly dwindling, I think I will head to my bed to get what I still can. (Yes, I really do sleep!)

Hope you are aware of and enjoying the blessings in your life, as God has reminded me of mine tonight.

by Greg

Steve Jobs Sighting!

Holy cow! What amazing timing!!!

We took the short trip over to Cupertino while waiting for the Apple Store in San Jose to open tonight for the big Leopard party (where we plan to get two free t-shirts!) We weren’t sure what we would find, but we had no idea we’d get so lucky 🙂

As we finally pulled into Infinite Loop, I noticed a guy in jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt. I said to Jen, “Who’s that Steve Jobs guy??” I was just joking, until as we got closer I noticed – IT WAS STEVE JOBS!!! 🙂

As we got to the main cross walk, Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ives were crossing, heading to their cars to go home! HA! Right in front of our car!! Hilarious.

Jen did not have the camera ready, so we didn’t get a good close up, but we turned around and managed to get a quick shot of him getting into his car. I’ll post here later. 🙂

For now, battery is almost dead… we’re gonna wait in line and get some t-shirts!! Whooohoooo!! 🙂

by Greg

Southwest Alphabet

Well, we made the next leg of the trip, but it feels like barely! We got to Chicago just after 9:15 maybe, local time, and had to get the flight to San Jose, CA at 9:55 local time. Seems like plenty of time right? Jen took a needed pregnancy bathroomo trip, and we headed through the airport to Gate B1 (all the way to the other end of the concourse!) only to find tthat the lines were already completely full!

This is my first time flying Southwest, and overall I would just give it an “average” rating.

Here’s why the lines matter. When you buy a ticket, you are not buying a seat. You get put into one of three groups. A, B, and C. Theoretically, the first people to arrive, get boarding passes in group A, then B, then C. That is also how they board the plane. Since it’s every man (or woman) for himself, you take what you get as far as seating.

We lucked out on the first flight, finding the last pair of seats together. Not so on this flight. Only middle seats left. Not to worry, I told Jen. I trusted in the goodness of humanity. Someone will move to the middle so that the pregnant lady can sit with her husband….

Not so. 🙂

So, Jen is in the row behind me. I am squeezed between two guys… and it’s a four hour flight.

I don’t think we’re going to fly Southwest again. I want to buy seats, not try to “get lucky”.

So, we’ll see what the flight holds. I’m sad for Jen. She’ll have to try to get out to go to the bathroom a time or two! 🙂 We’ll see if we can work the system on the way back so we don’t have to do this on the return flight!

More to come….

by Greg

The Less-Safe Plane

We got to the airport around 6:30am, checked our baggage and got our boarding passes. Everything went pretty smoothly there, until we got to the line for boarding passengers. It was so long! After just a few moments, we were approached by a guy from TSA who handed us a yellow card. He asked us to give it to the security person when we got to the front of the line. (They were using it to time themselves.)

Not even a minute after we were handed that card, another airport security person approached us and said, “There’s an alternat check point, why don’t you go there.” So, we did. But I remembered that card we had just gotten so I asked, “Do you want me to give this to someone else in the line?” To which he replied, “No… you can bring it with you.”

At this point, it smelled a little fishy. 🙂 We ended up in a shorter line, which was just fine with me. And they ended up with a shorter time. Good for them.

Everything was going just fine until the weather changed in Florida.

See, the Southwest plane next to us was heading to Orlando, leaving at 7:30. BUT, just as we were about to board (at 7:30) they decided to switch planes. They announced later that the plane we were supposed to take was better equipped to handle bad weather. (That got a laugh from all of us who were switching to the “less safe” plane!) 🙂

They swapped all the already loaded passengers from the original Orlando plane, as well as their luggage, and our luggage, and both flight crews… and the Orlando plane is finally leaving now at 8:25am. Too bad for them. 🙂

So, we’re about 30 minutes late so far, but all is probably just fine. Our next flight leaves at 9:55 central time. (Or, 2.5 hours from now.)

One other interesting thing about Southwest is that there is no assigned seating. You don’t purchase a seat, just a ticket. So, you may or may not get to sit with whomever you are flying with. The way to assure that is to just get in line even before they start boarding, which we did. The problem was, we were at the front of the line for the first plane! So, when we switched, we were at the back!!

The first shall be last.

Thankfully, Jen & I did get to sit together. Found two seats at the back of the plane. That’s nice.

Here we go!

More to come…

by Greg

Thwarted!

Last night we recorded our Buffalo Bills show after a few technical difficulties to start. First, when we initially connected, there was a very bad echo on my Dave’s side, but not on mine. He reconnected, then I did, then we started a whole new call… no luck. Was not going to work. I had told John to join us in a specific way using that service that was now too echo-y… so we scrapped that, and I called up John using Skype. All seemed well until the airport annoucements behind John nearly took over the conversation! It was frustrating, but kind of funny. Eventually, John was disconnected entirely, and we finished the show… glad to have gotten that over with.

When I came back to the office to do the final edit… I began listening and could not believe my ears. The echo was there—even though neither of us had heard it during recording—and it was unbearable. I could not go with what we had recorded. It was almost midnight, so we could not record again till the next day at least… I was not sure what to do.

I decided to post a note to the website saying we were having technical difficulties, and go get in bed with Jen and watch a movie on my laptop. I had one sitting around all week that I had gotten from the library, but never had time to watch. As I started watching it, though, the intro seemed familiar. It was a part three of a series, so I thought it was a recap. But the recap was taking a very long time. And it was all exactly what I remembered seeing before…. because…. I HAD seen it before! 🙂

So again, my plans were thwarted. I ended up watching a TV show online that a friend had recommended on his blog. It was pretty interesting, but then… I just ended up going to sleep. 🙂

The best laid plans…

by Greg

They Killed God

Kirstie joined us for the morning Bible read today. She’s three, and says some really cute things. Perhaps the following is both cute, and insightful? 🙂

After reading the story of the first part of the night Jesus was arrested and taken before the Jewish leaders, then Pilate, and then Herod, we were talking about how crazy it was that they just blatantly lied about such well-known things. Jesus was a very public figure, but his accusers were at best twisting the truth, or just flat out lying about what he said and did. And it eventually got him killed.

And I guess Kirstie knows that, because without reading that today, she said, “They killed God.”

I smiled at her simplicity and replied, “Yep. Well, he let them kill him.” I continued, “Because somehow, when they did, he was able to beat the things that kills us, that destroy us.” (I meant sin and death, but didn’t figure a three year old would grasp such a thing.)

She responded without hesitation, “Yeah, then they don’t destroy us!” She even said it with a finality and even joy at the resolution of it. Then they don’t destroy us. What some people take 1000 pages to say in some theological treatise, my three year old understood, and summed up in two simple phrases.

They killed God. Then they don’t destroy us.

Perfect. 🙂

by Greg

Very Strange Timing

I was sitting at my desk this morning, typing a quick story to a friend over instant message. As I was most of the way through my story, the phone rang. I saw who it was via caller ID, and figured I would call them back in a minute, since my IM friend needed to leave in about that same amount of time.

Well, I finished the story, and figured that the caller might still be on the line, leaving a message. So I picked up the phone. I was correct. The caller was still leaving a message. I quickly said, “Hello! I’m here! One moment…” and then clicked on the hang up thingie (what is that called?) to stop the answering machine from recording, without hanging up on the caller.

What happened next was extraordinary.

When I lifted my finger off the hang up thingie (mind you, this is all within about 1.2 seconds) I said, “Hello?” just to make sure the caller was still there. Imagine my surprise when the voice responding was ANOTHER, totally unrelated caller!!! (Of a different gender, to boot!) Somehow caller #2 had squeezed in a call in those few moments where the answering machine had picked up, and when I tried to switch it off remotely, my phone picked up the call on call waiting – though I had no idea it was there!!

So then, caller #1 thought I had hung up, and calls back! I put caller #2 on hold, explained briefly to caller #1 (and #3?) what happened, and finally got back to #2.

That was crazy. Crazy enough to make the blog. 🙂