Catbirds and Waxwings Oh My

The Cedar Wax Wing is an interesting bird, gray in color, with a bright yellow tipped tail, red dots on both wings and a black colored mask over its eyes.

Shaina found about 20 of these hanging out in our holly berry trees devouring all the berries a couple weeks ago. I'd never seen anything like them so we googled it and sure enough, we found it.

Then not too long after that we started hearing this bizarre dying cat noise, like a cat was repeated being stepped on and crying out. After a quick google search, we discovered that we did not have a dying cat but a living Cat Bird. It is solid gray in color. When I went to find a picture of it, I found the one above, which was funny so I went with it. You can listen to its catcall here. Click "Mew Call".

First flowers, now birds. Manpoints are floating out of my life.

Spring

I'm becoming a pansy...or a petunia...or something else I've yet to learn the name of.

Our new place has been bursting with color and for the first time ever, I'm actually attentive to it. We had approximately 3 bajillion daffodils, some that drooped, some that had orange centers, some that were yellow. Our Magnolia Tree blossomed and it was really...umm. pretty?...ok I can come up with something more manly...The tree was as perfect as a truck hauling 2 tons of freight with hemi power. However, the Magnolia tree is right next to my basketball hoop and that tree is the messiest thing I've ever seen. It dumped its outer casings when it blossomed then within two weeks, the blossoms all fell off.

We've got 6 or 7 lilac bushes that are huge and spell better than a car deodorizing pine tree. We've got some sort of giant red blooming bush that looks like fire...If I were to name it, I'd call it a burning bush.

Add tulips to the mix and this place is just bursting with color.

I am going to monitor my thumb over the next few days and make sure it doesn't turn green.

What's your favorite Spring bloom? I'm leanin' towards the Lilacs...I can be 20 yards from one of those and still catch a whiff.

*This post is nominated as the most de-man-izing post in the history of Mustard. Sigh....tomorrow...I will post about shooting helpless animals.

For Better or Worse

I love my wife.

After five years of marriage, I think I finally discovered and spoke her love language.

We were just into bed after a nice night of dinner at Rockne's and shopping at WalMart, when suddenly my wife gasped and looked at me with a frown. No I had not just taken my shirt off to reveal my pasty caucasian flab. Instead, Shaina had something in her hair that was making her nervous.

We went into the bathroom and turned on the lights and like a mother monkey lovingly grooming her baby monkey, I began picking through my beloved's scalp. Shortly, I found it, a little bugger that looked alot like the above little buggers...maybe a little bigger than the biggest. A tick...but he didn't just want to surrender...he was trying to burrow into her scalp to eat her succulent brain matter. So I clamped down and ripped the sucker out (along with a good portion of Shaina's hair and scalp). Shaina quickly flushed it down the toilet, perhaps thinking baptism might make the situation less grotesque.

She combed her fingers through her hair and felt something more...Wouldn't ya know it, MegaTick's little cousin Tickeysha was frolicking in the meadows of Shaina's follicles. I quickly snatched her up like a fat kid grabs a fudgeround and booyah...Shaina was groomed.

Not sure if the dog is bringing this Tick family into the house or what, but this all went down about an hour and a half ago and guess who cannot go to sleep now? Me...there's just this sensation that there are thousands of ticks in my bed and they are just waiting to burrow in my pasty whiteness.

It's a funny and nasty story. But I call it a love story. After all Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It does not hesitate when giant creatures seek to feast on brains. Straight out of the Bible...It's in the Greek.

P.S. Yes Shaina's hygiene is excellent. She showers far more regularly than I do.

P.P.S. With that said...this is the third different tick encounter she has had since I've known her. It has to be her voluptuous scalp, mixed with an intoxicating aroma of brain matter that lures these buggers to her rather than me.

thought provoking

Got this from Pete Wilson's blog. What happens when the worlds best violinist plays one of the world's best violins in a Metro transit?

Not a whole lot. Two people stopped.

What happens when the people of God fail to hear his voice or see his handiwork because of our own chaotic 'schedules' 'routines' 'agendas'?

Maybe the more challenging question for us, why, when God has done such redemptive work through Jesus Christ to make us distinctly his, do we fail to be remotely distinct from the world at large?

Winter/Camping Neccessities

Have you been suffering with a prehistoric warmth provider like a blanket, afghan or sleeping bag? Well its time to get updated. Join the 21st century warmth revolution.

Buy a "Selk", an awesome sleeping bag made for optimal movement, comfort, and style.

Or if you are looking for comfort around the house, why not go for a Snuggie, in one of these fashionably friendly colors!

Random thought. If we spent half the time that is spent finding creative ways to maximize comfort and convenience, actually trying to make a difference in a world that would kill for our 'prehistoric blankets', drinkable water and a safe place to call home, I wonder what would happen.

Week's Meanderings

-This was finals week so my blog life has been on hold. Here's some highlights.

-I wrote about 25 pages of final papers and have another 10 due on Monday. By yesterday I was running on fumes, but the tough part is over.

-My church office is painted. Pictures will be forthcoming.

-Last weekend was my nephew's birthday party in Dayton. Got to go down and spend the weekend there. (Redeemed myself by beating my sister in pig...Lets just say she needs to work on her off the roof, catch and shoot off the backboard shot. haha.)

-Found out I'm going to be an uncle for the fourth time. My other sister, down in South Carolina is expecting her second in October!

-Enjoying Championship Week in the NCAA bball world. Got to watch some games yesterday including part of maybe the craziest game in basketball history, a 6 overtime thriller between Syracuse and UConn.

-Going to my alma mater's game tonight to see if they can win their district and head to regionals. They are the number one team in the state right now in division III. Should be fun to watch.

Too much free time...haha

Stolen from my Catholic homeboy, Mike2theG

P. 56 Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence along with these instructions in a note to your wall. [or blog]
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

"Then behold, seven other cows came up after them from the Nile, ugly and gaunt, and they stood by the othercows on the bank of the Nile." Genesis 41:3

Do I get bonus points if the book closest to me was the Word of God?

Good Ol' Days

They just don't make 'em like they used to.

Pondering.

Monday Morning Meanderings-I am sitting in Starbucks, reading deep theological treatises for this evening’s class. This week we are studying Ecclesiology, or “church”. I’ve read 100 pages on what different people from different traditions have had to say about what church is and who church is. One line from theologian Michael Jinkins (quoting the church fathers) really sticks out… “There is no salvation outside the church.” This is loaded, but I believe it is true. God’s redemption is meant to take place in the context of COMMUNITY.

-I see that longing for community here at Starbucks (though many including myself would shudder at connecting Starbucks to anything positive about God…that’s another post). Husband and wife sit across a table sharing coffee, conversation and gazes. Friends catch up and share their struggles, hurts, fears, victories and excitement. Community is a longing of every person’s core.

-It’s snowing. I think God is calling me south.

-I have a crazy busy week with midterms, cooking for our Wednesday Night Small groups night at the church, important meetings with area young adult leaders to discuss what might be “rising up” for the next generation of Christ followers in Wadsworth. Then, we have a huge fundraising day on Saturday with pizza assembly and delivery, then our first ever Murder Mystery Dinner. I am already aiming for Saturday night when I am bed at midnight and the week is over…good or bad…its over.

-I need God. Not just ‘cuz I have a busy week, but because he is the source of life. I am empty without him. I really am. I have nothing to offer apart from him.

-I didn’t do much schoolwork yesterday (Sunday). I laid on a couch and watched football and napped for a good portion of the afternoon. I used to feel horrible about that…not anymore. I need one afternoon where I can just disconnect. Combine my time of resting with a Browns win and a Steelers loss and all in all, it was a great day.

I'm Angry

On Sunday, Shaina and I had a big day. We had to pick up a few things from WalMart to prepare for a big event/outreach the church was doing for the Wadsworth Community.

We had to get our stuff in record time, so I went in one door and she went in the other and we agreed to meet back out at the car.

I beat her back and got in the car to go pick her up. This is the scene that took place.

I saw a lady unload her cart and then put it on the little grassy area that divides parking sections. How hard would it have been to walk it 30 steps away to the nearest cart return space?

Then I saw a random cart rolling across the parking lot. I proceeded to pick up Shaina and noticed that a young woman who was Asian and spoke broken English had just turned from her vehicle, where she was loading something in, to her cart to grab the next thing. Only, her cart was gone! It had rolled across and ended up either bumping another lady who was unloading her cart, or bumping her car. Keep in mind it was moving about as fast as I run (slowly). I drove by and watched the remaining interaction in my mirror. The Asian girl, timidly but playfully realized her cart had pulled one over on her at the same time that the older lady realized she had been assaulted by a slow moving cart. The lady looked outraged, started yelling at the Asian girl and then shoved the cart violently either at her or into her vehicle.

Welcome to America my Asian friend, a land where you are more likely to get shot at, mugged or raped before you will be welcomed into someone's home. A land that needs mustard hope.