cup a joe

Got this e-mail from my sister-in-law:

Hi everyone....

Sorry for the mass email format... I'm calling in a favor ;) My awesome boyfriend Greg's band Sour Deluxe is participating in a contest to be a part of Lollapalooza this August in Chicago. The first round consists of a voting process by the fans, and the top 100 bands from around the world move on to the next round. It would be totally awesome and truly outrageous if you could help them out! You can vote once every 24 hours, and voting ends on June 30. They are currently in 25th place, and really need our help to stay there and move even higher on the list. This would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the band, and if you could devote 10 seconds of every day from now to the end of the month it would be a HUGE help. Do you have multiple email accounts? Even better!!

Follow this link to: http://www.freshtracksmusic.com/lolla2006/showartist.aspx?aid=50069&sgn=Indie+Rock

and click on "vote", then check your email to confirm your vote. If you know anyone who would be willing to support local Chicago rock, then pass this on to them as well.

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I started cycling today as a form of exercise. I have tried running, walking, and the "Y" at one time or another over the past year, none of which have stuck. As I was pondering this last week, I remembered that back in college, I used to cycle a lot. So much so that for a few years there, I was in fairly good shape. So today, I pulled out the old bike, and started to ride. It was not as hard to start off as some of my previous exercise attempts, and it felt like my heart rate started to rise. Hopefully this will stick and I will start to see some change in my life.

I have a confession to make. I really get into the World Cup. This is something that I have kept in the closet ever since the World Cup was here in 1994. Like most American's of my age, the only background I had in soccer was P.E. class. I'm not even sure that my High School has a Soccer team! But that all changed in 1994. I found the entire World Cup thing to be totally fascinating. And ever since then, I have somewhat followed it. Now, I am no where near as fanatic as most fans are around the world, but at least I'm paying attention (that is better then most Americans!) For what it's worth, I also follow the Chicago Fire and I have been to a few non-AYSO soccer games in my life (mostly college).

I remember a few years ago when I was in Atlanta, there was this guy who went to our church (his name escapes me) who was from South Africa. The rugby World Cup was going on at the time and he was really into it. So much so, that he would drive into Atlanta every morning that the South African team was playing to watch the games at a rugby friendly pub (they were usually on at 4:00am). He really got into this and helped me to see how global this thing was....how it was like the entire world coming together....in a way that was bigger and more meaningful then the Olympics. That was rugby....I have come to find that soccer is even more so. When this thing is going on it feels like the entire world is coming together....not out of peace and love, but to try to beat the snot out of one another on the field. I really get into that...and I enjoy watching the game as well.

So, for the next month, I will be rooting on team US (by the way, you know, we really have a shot this year, although Brazil, England or Germany probably have a better shots) and watching a lot of soccer (or is it football) with the rest of the world. Perhaps later this year, I might even go to a Chicago Fire game.

There, that feels so.....so....liberating.

I'm sitting here this morning waiting on the heating and air guy to show up and tune up our HVAC units. He is (was) supposed to be here at 7:00 am (it's 7:10 now).

Yesterday was interesting. I was planning on preaching on the last part of our vision statement, the geographical area of our focus (neighborhoods, cities, nations an the world) and the Lord just interrupted me. I preached on it, but without notes, using a totally different scripture then I was initially supposed to. During morning prayer, I really felt like we were supposed to do something different....I was given a different scripture to preach from (Joel 2), but did a similar sermon. Not sure how it went (did get some positive feedback from Cindy, Jeff & Theresa), but all in all, I felt pretty good about it.

Got to go, the heating and air guy is here....

This is just too funny, and too true....

......if you walk up to Cindy and say "Shave my poodle."

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