The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
~Eric Hoffer, Reflections On The Human Condition

Dadgum traffic cameras!

Cait and I do a nightly Bible reading before we go to bed by just opening the Bible to somewhere, reading 3 or 4 verses and having a discussion about what we read.  Last night I flipped open to II Thessalonians 3 and read verses 1-5.  What really stuck out to us was verse 5:

“…and the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God, and to the endurance of the Christ.”

Wow, what a verse, what a perfect prayer!  Who has shown greater Love than God?  Who has shown greater endurance than Christ?  No one.

Tonight, when you pray, consider including the above verse…

“Lord, direct my heart into Your love and grant me the endurance of Christ while I am in this world…”

Caitlin’s cousin Emily has cancer…she is 2 years old.   She was the flower girl in our wedding recently.  It is a very serious case, so please pray for her!  Check out her Caring Bridge blog here.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.

 Psalm 46:1-2

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:28-31

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”

 Isaiah 49:14-16

 

 

 

 

What being a math major means…

Keeping score in Scrabble and being the banker in Monopoly.

Don’t know if anyone heard about this, but a Boston police officer sent a mass e-mail last week in which he compared Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to a “banana-eating jungle monkey.” This was after Gates had been accused of a crime and handcuffed when he was prefectly innocent.  Well, partially innocent.  Colin Powell released a statement saying that Gates got pretty worked up and lost his cool before he was handcuffed, but the crux of the story is that a few cops probably had it out for the black Gates.  Anyways, Justin Barret, the police officer who came up with the ever original “banana-eating jungle monkey” has apologized, saying he’s not a racist. 

Officer Justin Barrett, 36, told a Boston television station Wednesday night that he was sorry about the e-mail, a copy of which he also sent to The Boston Globe. He repeated his apology Thursday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

“I would like to take this opportunity to offer fellow police officers, soldiers and citizens my sincerest apology over the controversial e-mail I authored,” Barrett said on CNN. “I am not a racist. I did not intend any racial bigotry, harm or prejudice in my words. I sincerely apologize that these words have been received as such. I truly apologize to all.”

“I am not a racist. I did not intend any racial bigotry, harm or prejudice in my words.”

This guy can’t be serious!  How is the phrase “banana-eating jungle monkey” not a racially bigotted statement intended to cause harm and show prejudice? 

What an idiot.  I hope he gets fired.

CNN.com had this picture on one of its articles about exercising. I don’t know about you, but this guy really inspires me to go exercise- maybe I can look like him one day!

 

My brother, RossHoss, recently wrote all the things that make him happy in life.  I thought I would make my own happiness list.

Hmmm… my happiness list includes:

1) A warm bowl of chicken noodle soup on a cold, wintery day.

2) The fresh scent of rain after a spring shower.

3) The way a warm, fluffy, towel feels after taking it out of the dryer.

4) The way the headlights of my truck glint in the eyes of the opossums frozen directly in the path of my 4×4 tires.

5) Bunny rabbits at Easter time.

6) A fresh pack of yellow Sticky Notes.

7) Waking up at dawn and watching the first sun rays that peek over the horizon highlight the dew caught in a spider web.

8 ) Putting on a brand new pair of underwear for the first time.

9) The way the spine of a brand new book emits a little *pop* the first time it is opened.

10) Feeling the soft sting of static electricity when I touch a doorknob after shuffling my feet covered in a nice pair of woolen stockings over the carpet.

11) Walking through a parking lot and catching the silent beauty of a rainbow made by from the wondrous union of motor oil and water.

Does anyone else have any to share?

 

Mark Buerhle of the Chicago White Sox pitched a perfect game last night against the Tampa Bay Rays.  A perfect game means he faced the minimum of 27 hitters over a 9 inning game with giving up a hit, walk, or error to the Rays.  This is an excerpt from a MLB.com interview, and it is pretty cool what happened…

Presidents have a long history of calling Major League Baseball clubhouses to offer congratulations, but it typically has been after a World Series clincher. This was another extreme example of Obama’s love for baseball and specifically the White Sox.

Buehrle explained after the call that Obama also “was taking a little bit of credit because he wore the White Sox jacket at the All-Star Game and I told him how surprised I was that he actually did it. He said, ‘Congratulations,’ and ‘It’s an honor. A lot of people are going to remember this forever.’”

So, is Buehrle talking with the president every week now?

“Let’s hope,” the pitcher replied with a smile. “It’s weird, like I said at the All-Star Game when he came up. He’s almost like a buddy. I met him one time, and meeting him again, everybody else was in awe.”

Buehrle then was asked how excited Obama sounded over the phone.

“It was hard to tell,” Buehrle said. “Obviously he’s got a lot of stuff going on, and I think I was more nervous talking to him and trying on my end not to say something stupid. But I was just sitting there in the press conference and somebody says, ‘Hey, the president wants to talk to you.’ I got goosebumps. Obviously that’s never happened before and hopefully it happens again.”

I thought it was really neat how President Obama gave him a call.  I tried to call Buehrle and couldn’t get through.  Oh well.

 

Republicans call for 100 new nuclear reactors in the United States by 2030.   There are 104 in operation right now.  Our own Lamar Alexander is the leader of this movement.

http://alexander.senate.gov/public/_pdfs/blueprint.pdf