Hello, it's me again...

Well, Christmas day has come and passed and we are still more or less functioning. It was nice to take a few days off after the event. I don't think we accomplished anywhere near the amount of things we needed to in that time, but at least we were able to rest. That is something that I know Lori needs a lot of these days, so in all retrospect, it was probably well deserved and a good expenditure of time.

Can you believe it is almost 2006? I know I sure can't. Seems like I just finally got used to writing 2005 a couple months ago! I guess it's just another surefire sign that I am getting older. My chronological comparison continuum, is ever shrinking. For those unfamiliar with the CCC theory, it simply applies that time goes slower as you are younger, because you have less actual physical time to compare it with, whereas an old fogey like me has much more experienced time to compare with, so time as a whole is ever shrinking. And if you believe all that, I have some nice beachfront property in Arizona to sell you for a real deal.

Anyway, life is good for the moment, but will certainly let you know as soon as it changes. Love and Christmas blessings to all!

So good to be alive...

Well, I have finally overcome whatever crud was in my system. I can not remember the last time that I felt that sick. It was a good thing I was able to get some people to cover masses for me so I could literally sleep for three days straight! Let's hope that's the last of that for awhile.

On the up side, Lori and I had another baby appointment yesterday. You can read about it on the baby blog if you are interested.

Finally finished all my Christmas shopping today. I spent a bunch of the churches money getting presents and appreciation gifts for all my musicians and singers. Maybe I spent some money on some other stuff too. ;) But I'm not telling what!

Anyway, not much going on, just a little insomnia after three straight days of sleep, so keeping you all updated in a short and disfunctional fashion.

Night!
Adam

Sick of being sick...

Tis the season to be flat on your back with a mind splitting sinus cold and raspy voice! Yuck!

Definitely tired of being layed up in the man room. Been sitting here laying in bed ever since the concert got over on Thursday night. Supposed to be having kids over for our advent tradition, and I may make a cameo appearance to play the guitar for P&W, but that is probably about it. I was at least able to muster up enough strength to help Lori get a few things cleaned around the house. Lord knows it became quite the mess this week. So, anyway, just sitting here on my futon bored to tears so I thought a little blog would put the universe back in order. God bless wireless technology! I can blog and watch DVD's in horizontal comfort till the cows come home.

Not much else new going on other than being sick. The concert went off well and we are sooo glad that is over with. I originally had someone scheduled to cover my evening mass for today so I could take a break, not knowing I was going to be sick. I just got off the phone asking someone to cover my 7:30am mass, so hopefully I can at least manage to get up out of bed and make a face appearance if nothing else at the 10:30 mass. At this point I just need to get better, still have quite a few things that I need to get accomplished before Christmas. And we definitely can't afford for Lori to get sick as she would not be able to take anything for it. I can at least toss through the night with the help of some Nyquil, but she would be up the creek.

One interesting thing is that Lori did say that the baby was starting to feel a little more "heavy" in the last couple of days. She can feel it inside if she moves in the right way or lays on her tummy or something. I thought that was really cool. I can't wait till there is even more to tell. :)

That's about it for today. Going back to drug induced slumber for now...

Weak and wounded...

Here we are approaching the 11th hour for Christmas Concert 2005 preparation! Needless to say, both Lori and I are exhausted. Friday could not possibly be further away at this point. Why do we do it you ask? At this point, I don't know that I could honestly give you a pertinent answer that didn't have some abstract form of a four letter word in it. It usually becomes apparent in the reactions and comments occurring after the incident. I hope it does anyway, cause we are beat. I don't know how my beautiful wife is able to keep all this up as well as undergoing the tumultuous burden of living joy inside her tummy. Needless to say, words cannot express the sheer love and admiration I have for her this holiday season.

Christmas really is one of my favorite times of year despite what it may seem like as of now. I enjoy the REAL Christmas time. The weeks after the actual holy day. THAT is Christmas time. It would be nice if it were possible to educate the rest of the world on that slight oversight. The time of waiting and preparation has ceased, the holy day of our Lord and Savior's birth has come, and no more choir practices for two weeks. :) Seriously though, the real Christmas time is something I really enjoy despite the rest of humanity's desire to get the tree in the trash and the decorations down as soon as possible. That should be the real time of rejoicing! Maybe when we're not so caught up in the comings and goings of fads and commercialism, we'll be able to appreciate it a little more. But that is just the ramblings of a humble music minister...

Peace to all and all to Peace,
Adam

Happy Advent!

Well, starting to post with a little more regularity now. Christmas season definitely sucks away all those little free minutes I'm used to having and taking a second to relax and blog my thought away. Guess I finally felt like doing something cause I just got a nice package from home with a piano playing snowman, and nothing makes you feel more like blogging than a piano playing snowman. :) Anyway... Not much going here besides Christmas Concert Mayhem! We had to move our dress rehearsal up a week because of the High School's scheduling conflicts, so that was two days ago and very interesting. On the one hand, it was kind of nice getting it over and out of the way so we have a good idea of the space more than just two days before the concert. It would be nice to get back in there again before the actual date though. Oh well, mental notes abounding for next year.

Pregnant life is going good. My beautiful wife has successfully mastered the first tri-mester and we're hoping she can stop taking the anti-nausea medicine shortly. We just need to make sure she gets enough sleep in the next week and a half. Lori is already well into several books and I'm sure learning plenty of things I should also know, but I will probably wait until after the concert to start delving in to things with a passion. I can't wait until we can see a more physical sign of the baby. Lori still isn't really showing at all yet, so it is still kind of hard to believe sometimes. It will be really cool when she is all rolly-polly and the baby is doing a tumbling routine inside her. :) I think it will be cool anyway, Lori might have other thoughts by the time it's over.

On a slightly less pertinent topic, we are going to see the Narnia movie tonight! All I really wanted for my birthday was to be able to go see that on opening night! Which is technically tomorrow, so we are going to the 12:01 a.m. showing! I don't think it will be too packed as school has not let out yet, so I don't imagine a lot of younger folks will be there. Hopefully we can all stay awake for it after a long night of practices last night and a long day of Immaculate Conception masses. I'm sure I'll make it somehow. Good thing Starbucks is right next to the theatre. I really need to get some stock there. :)

Well, peace to all for now, seasons greetings and blessings abound!
Adam

Poor Ol' Tom...

Well, the clamor and the clangor of the holiday season is finally upon us. Needless to say, I have been much amiss in my duties as a blogger. Ever since we got back from Colorado life has just seemed too insane to concentrate on anything at all. I had my big groundbreaking ceremony for the new church this past weekend which went smashingly well. I can finally end my freaked out tirade of stress induced grumpiness and apathetic melancholy. :) I don't know why my wife puts up with me. That's why I love her so much.

Baby is growing nicely. We were able to actually listen to the heart beat at the doctor's on Monday. It's supposedly about the size of a lime right now (You know the song, go ahead and sing it). I was a little bummed that we didn't get any more baby blob pictures, but oh well. The sucky part is that we won't get any next month either. Next month they will do a blood test to determined possibilities of chromosomal disorders like down syndrome and some spinal thingy. Then in January we will do another ultrasound and hopefully be able to tell the sex of the baby. If it's a Ubowski, I doubt it will be shy, so here's looking at you kid!

Yeah, Thanksgiving! Definitely one of my favorite holidays. Nothing really commercialized about it, except the day after. Just family and friends getting together to share good times and good food. It would have been nice to be in Colorado for it, but there was no way the baby news could have waited that long. Oh well. We should have some good times here in Niceville though. Lots of friends gathered round and some food and singing. Good times, good times...
Well I hope everyone enjoys their special day and eats too much turkey and gravy and put on a good five pounds at least.

Poor Ol' Tom...
"gobble go-b-ble, GO-B! g...."

Geez!

Well here another week has lapsed without a blog entry. I suppose I have just had a really busy week. Pulled an all nighter Wednesday-Thursday in order to get my friend's website done before his debut as Aquaman on Smallville. Everything else has just seemed to blend together since that point. I remember writing a nice long blog on Monday and then having the internet suck it into oblivion as it did not post and I messed up my copy and save procedure. Maybe that led to my distaste for blogging for the week. I'll see if I can recall some of the tidbits that I so painstakingly tried to reveal earlier this week.

Not much really new. Sunday was Lori's birthday. My beautiful wife turned the ripe young age of 25. Seems just like yesterday that I was meeting her in college. It's really hard to believe that the first time I met her she wasn't even 18 yet! Wow! 7 years that we have known each other. Crazy times! I'm going to be pushing an ancient 27 this year so get the walker and the geritol ready for me honey! :) Birthday went off without a hitch. We celebrated with dinner at her parents house after a LONG Sunday and just vegged for the rest of the night.

Lori and I spent all day most just chilling. We spent about 3 1/2 hours at the new Target in Destin. It is really nice. It was so great to be able to only drive 15 minutes to experience the thrills of "cheap chic" rather than the normal 45 minutes it takes to get to the other Target store in out area. Not to mention that is really old and doesn't have a lot of stuff all the time. Plus it had a Pizza Hut and a Starbucks inside, so between shopping, pizza, and caffeine, we pretty much had the essentials of life covered.

The rest of the week is basically a big blur consisting of too many choir rehearsals and e-commerce programming, combined with a hint of sleep deprivation. Can't wait for our impromptu trip to CO next week though. It will be nice to get back in the mountains for a little bit. It will be Lori and I's engagement anniversary and we thought it a fitting trip considering the time issue of the coupon, the engagement of my brother, Mom's accident, and just a general sense of nostalgia for the mountains on the horizon. (Cue cheesy music)

Anyway, that's about all for this blog session. See some of you soon, and others, well whenever.

Peace,
Adam

Interesting week...

Needless to say this week has certainly been interesting. Thanks to all who prayed for my mom as she recovers from her accident. If you haven't seen a picture yet, send me an email, or I'm sure it will be up on the website soon. Anyway, spent the latter half of this week in a complete daze. Mom's accident kind of sent me out of focus for the week. Kind of like Columbine, 9-11, and Katrina all wrapped up into one, except for no Fox News security blanket to fall back on. Thank goodness for cell phones I guess. It really sucked too, cause Lori was out of town so I was kind of left to my own emotional support. Jazz helped a little. Dog's are good for that kind of thing. Just holding a little ball of fuzz is medically proven to be healing. Probably why they do such wonders for the elderly and children. Anyway, not much else to really say at this point. Totally having an insomniac week. For obvious and other reasons.

Well, I managed to make it through an entire Christmas rehearsal with out Lori there directing. It was actually kind of nice, because it gave me something I had to totally focus on for a little bit so my brain could shut up. On the brighter side of things, my brother is still engaged, so cheerio Nate! They're shooting for 7-7-07 as a date. So cool points for that, but still a long way to go. Lori and I definitely know how that goes. Will leave off for now as an empty dishwasher and full sink is calling my name. Going to try and get the house in some semblance of order before my loving wife gets home. :) Peace out.

Another Monday bites the dust...

Well here it is Monday, and I just feel like blogging. Not really much going on, but just had the undeniable urge to type into cyberspace. One great point of interest is that my little brother is now officially engaged. Nate and Mariesa are gettin' hitched! Date yet to be decided of course and probably not for some time yet, but definite excitement in the family household. Hard to believe how fast everyone is growing up. Lori's birthday is just around the corner and she'll be hitting the half way to fifty mark. I'm ranking higher at a lovely 27 in a couple months. They really are right about time going faster and slipping away when you get older. I really do believe it is all about comparative analysis. At the age of four, you've only really experienced time in an annual form recognizably for maybe a year, so naturally it seems to take forever for Christmas to come around. Even at the age of 16 it seemed like life was moving so slow. Once college was halfway through though, time just seemed to skip off like a rocket. The measure of a year is not quite as big as it used to be. The more that pass, the smaller it seems. I can only imagine how an 80 year old feels about time passing. Must seem like a blink of an eye by that point. I guess the more siblings that grow up also tends to make me feel older too. When my oldest sister got married a year and a half ago, it didn't really seem to phase me too much as far as time is concerned, but now adding another one to the mix seems to really be pushing the time clock. Maybe I'm just getting nostalgic in my old age. :)

Well, anyway, I've waxed and waned enough for one blogging endeavor! Off to my "honey do" list and more Monday fun. Peace to all.

Can't breathe...

Let me say just one thing about the panhandle of Florida. If you didn't have allergy problems before you got here, you will! Man, today is horrible. Of course, it doesn't help that I ran out of my usual daily addiction of Claritin D, so I wasn't able to imbibe my source of respiratory relief for the day. Counting down the minutes until I get off work so that I can go shopping for cookies and drugs. We're having a first Friday gathering of young adults before adoration and a gathering with the youth tonight late after the HS football game. That's what the cookies are for by the way, not the drugs. :)

Other than feeling like a bronchial disaster, there's not much new going on for the day. I'll be living the single life again the end of next week, so look forward to more witty sleep deprived connotations and conundrums. Hope all have a blessed weekend and enjoy your Columbus Day whether you have it off or not!

Peace,
Adam

Old and feeble...

Well, at least out of shape anyway. Went on a little mountain biking expedition yesterday with a few friends. We went on some trails back behind the Army ranger training camp. Needless to say, I was definitely not expecting the amount of hills that we encountered. Florida is supposed to be flat. Biking an hour and a half under normal conditions I have been able to handle recently, but you start throwing in sand, rough terrain (which I was prepared for), and some serious hills (so not!!!), then you have a heaving sweating puddle of what used to be a man walking his bike up the hill. It's been a while since I've had my body at that sports exhaustion point where you know you're about ready to toss your lunch. If we had been out on a sports field doing soccer or something, I would have probably just pushed it and gone for the whole reverse stomach maneuver, but since we were in the middle of the woods with no idea where I really was or how far to get out, I wussied my bike up some of the hills silently sucking away at my camelbak. The exhausting heat probably didn't help, but not going to make any excuses. I guess I will have to find some more hills in this area to train on so I can cowboy up the next time around. I think I'll wait a week or so before trying that again though. Spent most of today trying to remain horizontal. :) Oh well, that's why God invented motrin!

Anyhow, not much else new going on this week as of yet.
Keep you posted.
Peace!

Happy Thursday!!!

Why happy Thursday you ask? Well, really, why not? Thursday is a very under rated day in my opinion. Monday already has its own connotations while Tuesday is often referred to as another Monday. Even Wednesday has achieved status as the "hump day" and everyone knows TGIF. But what about Thursday? It is probably the most overlooked day of the week and I am going to make it my personal mission of the week to give Thursday the credit it deserves. Thursday is really the build up day to Friday. You don't just magically skip from Wednesday to Friday by some extreme fluke in the space time continuum. How do you get to Friday's end? By route of Thursday my friends. So in the tradition of Hallmark, the maker of mythical holidays, I now create Happy Thursday!

Oh by the way, let me know if you like the new blog look. Less green.

Lazy blogging...

What can I say? Blogging has not been on the top ten things for me to do lately, which is actually quite disappointing for me. I get so few chances to be witty and rhetorical in daily life, that my cyber expansion of thought actually does bring a sense of fulfillment on a certain level. Needless to say there has been plenty going on. I am currently involved in a very big web development undertaking. Doing a site for a friend who is about to hit the spotlight in a big way. Won't mention any names or anything cause I would prefer not to have my blog hit the search engines come opening day. Anyway, if you're truly interested, you know how to reach me.

Regardless, life just seem to be plugging along. Hope to get some good recording done in the next couple weeks once I wrap up this web project. Managed to organize a lot of my random notecards and scribblings into a condensed folder so the creative process should be able to flow a lot smoother now that I have some place to start.

Well, not much else to say for now, as I should really be working anyway, so toodles till next time (hopefully this millennia!).

Busy week...

Well, it seem just like yesterday since I wrote my last post. Unfortunately, it's been a whole freaking week. Things have just been really busy for some reason over the last few weeks. Things are going good though. The weather is starting to cool down a little, so we can actually start doing some outdoor activities. I'm trying to bike for at least an hour everyday, so we'll see how that goes. It might be a little tough this week, as Lori's car is in the shop and something wierd is going on with it. Some drama going on with the repais shop also. Anyway, didn't want to go too long without posting, but there is really not much else to tell. Have to get back to recording the Christmas practice CD's so we can have them ready by Thursday for practice. Until whenever the next time is.

Peace
Adam

Time warp...

Man, I can't believe it's been that long since my last post. Life has been crazy busy the last week and a half. Seems like there are always a million things going on whenever company comes into town. Fr. Antekeir happened to stop by all this week so we are enjoying his presence and sense of wit tremendously. Had dinner with him and Lori's parent over here tonight and had a BBQ feast of burgers and bratwurst that was to die for. Other than that there is not much of importance going on. I couldn't sleep so thought I would take care of some emails and catch back up on cyberspace chat. Yeah for you all. Anyway, that is really all I have to say for now, so be good, eat your vegetables, and chew with your mouth closed.

peace,
adam

UPS blows chunks...

No explanation needed. Just stating a fact of the day.

Christmas in September..

Grrr! Already stressed about Christmas in this neck of the woods. We have our first Niceville Catholic Community Choir rehearsal tonight for the annual combined Christmas concert. It should be a lot easier this year than last, but still going to be a project. I guess I don't have much to complain about though. I can only imagine the thousands of families who are going to still be homeless for Christmas in the wake of Katrina. I don't think the reality of it has hit me yet either. All I can do is sit and stare at the television in awe and horror. Another 200 miles east and we would be in the same boat as the rest of the western gulf coast. I honestly cannot imagine having everything you have ever known just completely wiped away in one fell swoop. It seriously boggles my mind, and it takes a lot to do that. The only thing we can do at this point is pray I guess. I wish we had a bigger house that we could maybe open up to some refugees for a while as there are bound to be quite a few in the months to come. Things like this make you appreciate the little things in life that we take for granted. Running water, toilet paper, those kind of things. Did you ever think you would hear the word refugee used to describe someone inside the continental US? I never did. The world is definitely a more somber place than it was last week.

Adam

In the aftermath...

Well, Katrina came and went through our area. There really wasn't that much effect in and around here as it was far enough west to not really cause any problems. There were a few power flickers and some gusty winds, but that is about the worst we got. Even the rain was not much to write home about. Unfortunately, I'm sure the same can not be said about the New Orleans area. I'm sure the area is quite devastated at this point. Lori and I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to have everything just completely wiped away. We were kind of lamenting the fact that we never really got to see New Orleans either. We live close enough to drive, and had talked about doing it some time, but it seems that it will just never be the same now.

Not much else is really going on. Starting up practice for the Christmas concert allready this week and working hard on everything else as usual. Hope everyone else is good and having a blessed end to summer.

Peace,
Adam

Katrina cometh...

Well, the Russian Orthodox hurricane of the year is headed for us at the moment. People are already freaking out about gas as lines have been steady and long all day. Right now the track looks like it is hitting us dead on, but then it curls to the east at the last minute and hits Panama City. Let's hope it curls anyway. I really don't want to have to put up plywood again. Putting it up isn't too awful, but taking it down sucks, cause then you have to patch all the holes that you put in your siding and stuff. Not fun at all! At least if the hurricane is going to hit, it would be nice if it didn't hit on mine and Lori's only day off. It works out better when they hit later during the week, cause then we get snow days. :) Well, almost anyway. Not much else is new besides that. We'll keep you updated as things progress.

toodles,
Adam

Slave to the man...

Working real hard every night and day... nah nah nah...rollin' on the river...nah nah nah...

Just taking a moment at work to breathe and project some pent up creativity out into the world. Just got done with choir practice and am working on putting together my list of demands for my meeting with the church architect tomorrow. It's finally getting to that point where I get to create my ideal worship environment. At least technologically anyway. My brain is racked with all the little details that I have not really thought about until the last day or so. This meeting probably won't be that intense, but I still want to have a good idea of how I want things before I go in there so I don't look like a complete moron. I was hoping I would get to spend some leisure time in Pensacola tomorrow afternoon after the meeting going to some decent music stores, but have to come back in a timely fashion so Lori and I can play for a mass. Father Roy's mom passed away a week or so ago and he is saying a mass for her tomorrow for some closure as she did not desire a funeral of any sort. I don't think I want a funeral either. At least a traditional one anyway. I'd rather pay for everyone to go see Cirque du Soleil or something like that. That way all the money sunk into the project would at least be a worthwhile and memorable experience for those involved. But I'm sure my thoughts will change as the years go. I think...maybe...sure, we'll stick that. Hope all are well and I miss all those who are close to me yet so far away.

Dankeshane baby,
Adam

The gimps are prego...

Well, Kip and LaFawnduh are officially the proud parents of four little eggs. Whether any real baby birds are in them is yet to be seen. We should know in about 11-14 days whether or not we will have some more feathered company in our midst. Lori is pretty stoked about it, so I'm glad.

Didn't really do much productive today. Ran a few errands after we managed to crawl out of bed while it was still light out, but that's really about it. Started to do some recording but got interrupted by a few phone calls. I need to spend more time in here, but it is hard finding time to record and exercise, and I need to do both. Hopefully we can get the yellow room cleaned out this week so I can have our friend Jim come over and get some drum tracks recorded. I need to start reading up on the mastering procedures with ProTools LE. Recording is easy enough, but the final mixes will probably prove more of a challenge.

Trying to get into biking again. I need to get some gloves and a camelbak. I think the bike I have is decent enough for now, but I've got the bug, which is always bad, but can't afford anything really cool. There aren't that many cool bike store around here anyway. I miss REI and cool places like that in Colorado. Outdoor recreation is pretty much limited to Bass Pro Shop and the local Wally world. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers. And since everything in life is so interesting, I will sign off for now and leave you thirsting for more delicate morsels of the Florida high life.

Peace,
Adam

3 strikes and your out...

Just got back from another life enhancing experience! We were able to witness a Pensacola pelicans minor league baseball game. Didn't even know they had a team around here until a few days ago. It brought back some good memories of when Denver was Rockies-less and the Zephyrs were just as big a part of Mile High Stadium as the Orange Crush. Only one thing was slightly different. A million degrees! Next year, maybe we'll try and go see some games in the early season when it is not quite so sweltering. It did get a little better as the night wore one, but definitely needed a shower when we got home. The "stadium" is the UWF baseball field, so we picked up Lori's brother from school and went there. I guess they're trying to petition for funds to build a permanent field in the P-cola bay area, which would be kind of cool. Something else to bring venues in and have things to do around this 3 1/2 horse town. Well, have a long weekend ahead, so am going to keep this short. I still need to try and update more often, but have been rather grumbly this week, so didn't want to project into cyberspace. My love and peace to all.

Adam

A tacit life...

Not much new going here, but figured I should update so that the few readers I do have are not bored to tears with the same endless rants as before. Already starting to feel overwhelmed by Christmas. I still want to be in the summer funk where there's not as much to do and people aren't expecting anything. Oh, well. Time to suck in the gut and get back to life. I'm trying to get ready for a ministry fair this weekend. Gonna have to try and convince the lovely people of the parish to sell their souls to the music ministry and never have a life again! :0 We'll see if it works. I still don't have any one to help out on the children's music ministry side of things yet however. Plus, now there's talk of wanting more middle school involvement, so that means something else to do and be at, since my accompanists are in short supply as it is right now. Not really meaning to complain as much as it probably sounds I am, it's just one of those days where the weight of the world feels like it is closing in around me with nothing but a straw to breathe through, and it's a twisty glitter straw that doesn't really work anyway, so you look pretty while you're trying to breathe, but the actual task of doing so is completely pointless. [end rant here]

Other than that, life seems to be pretty good. Trying to exercise, trying to eat right, trying to sleep right, trying not to bring a hand grenade into heavy traffic. Normal as usual. Hope everyone else is having a blessed day/week/blink of an eye and take the time to smell the sewer pipes. Why? Because then you REALLY appreciate the roses. :)

living la vida loca,
Adam

Ever wonder why?

Do you ever wonder why things are the way they are? Why do some things happen the way they should and others completely fall apart. Why can't penguins, ostrich, and emu fly?

As much as I would like to change so many things in the world, I can't. Things are how they are for one reason or another. The only things I can hope to change and accomplish are the things directly under my control. That happens to be a very small amount of things by the way. The vastness of creation is far beyond my comprehension and so when I find myself pondering why, I simply flip the question around; Why not? Because God wanted it that way of course. If you're not able to accept that everything around you is derived for some purpose, whether it be singular or multiple, then you will certainly not be able to accept your surroundings. Of course it is admirable to desire something better. It is only human nature to seek out the best possible way of things, but one must keep in mind that the desires of our hearts are not necessarily our needs or God's wants.

Keep in mind the penguin. I'm sure he wants like crazy to be able to fly. But it's much easier to catch fish in the water than over it. There's a method to the madness somewhere. Don't try to understand the mystery, EXPERIENCE it!

Jeremiah 29:11-14
For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope.
When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you.
When you look for me, you will find me.
Yes, when you seek me with all your heart, you will find me with you;

Happy pondering,
Adam

Sunny Florida?

Rain rain go away, and don't come back no more!

Man, it is relentlessly raining in the panhandle lately. It has not only rained, it has stormed really hard every day for the last week and a half. If I had a wave runner, I could probably ride it to work at certain points of the day as the amount of water left standing is incredible. Of course, I will take a myriad of thunderstorm over a hurricane anyday, but the water is just getting nuts. On a positive note, maybe it will help our decaying front lawn. We have a nice brown spot in the front that we just can't seem to conquer. We've tried grub and mole cricket control, fungicide, fertilizer, and plenty of watering. I've finally concluded that it just can't take the full sun. We had a large nice shady tree in that spot last year before Ivan hit, but sadly it was taken from us at an early age. We managed to replace it with a young sapling, but it just doesn't produce any large amounts of shade just yet.

Nothing much new going on here besides the water. Hopefully our roof will hold up under the constant pouring and we won't find any more leaks. We still have to make it through the rest of the hurricane season! (Which they heightened the prediction amount by the way)

Will leave off at that and return to drudging away at a music schedule that just doesn't seem to want to coordinate itself, so life as usual.

Peace,
Adam

Comments Please...

Hello to all. I did not realize that only members were allowed to write comments on my posts, so I changed the setting and now anyone can. Feel free to respond and comment so AI don't feel quite so lonely and pathetic. :)

Kip and LaFawnduh...

Well after a long and hard deliberation, we settled on names for the Zebra finches. Lord, help our children. :) (Mom and Dad, you'll have to watch "Napoleon Dynamite")

We managed to find a local store in Niceville that actually had some finches, so we picked up the lovely couple this afternoon. We're a little concerned about LaFawnduh though. She seems to have a defunct head. We noticed when we got home that her left eye is recessed and her feathers are a little muffed under the eye. Looks like some of the other birds might have been picking on her. We're not sure if we are going to try and take her back and exchange her or not. I kind of think it givers her character. She's overcome adversity and gotten out of "The Store". No one's repressing her anymore! Power to the finches! Anyway, she's really the only one that chirps at this point also. Kip's too busy chatting online with babes all day.

Stay tuned for more details on the LaFawnduh saga. We may have a LaFawnduh2 tomorrow. :)

Peace, and there's more where this came from if you go to the dance with me on Saturday.

Wedding Bells Are Ringing...

Well bells really already rang, but it's still a special day nonetheless. Today is the big 3 year celebration. Hard to believe that it has been that long already. We're planning on going out to dinner tonight to celebrate. After we go to the pet store of course. I spoiled Lori and got her something that she has been wanting for a long time. She raised Zebra finches when she was growing up and she has been saying for a long time that she would like to have birds again. Taking this as a key opportunity to show my listening and deductive reasoning skills, I quickly put on an attitude of disdain for anything feathered so that she would never think we would get them. All I needed was an occasion to get the little flying terd balls for. :) I surprised her with a stand and a cage last night/early this morning, but I figured half the fun was in picking out the birds and the toys, so we're going to do that together tonight before we go out to dinner.

May the Lord bless all with the opportunity and desire to show others how much you care about them. You'd be surprised how rewarding it can be! :)

Bachelor review Day 4...

I slowly awake as I lay in a puddle of sweat on the cold tile floor, I suddenly realize that my life as a single man is near over. As I slowly come to and begin to rise, the gnawing hunger for a well prepared wife made meal and extreme dehydration take their effect as I quickly collapse to the floor in a weakened stupor. Only 10 more hours to go...

Seriously though, it's Monday and Lori is coming home tonight. Obviously nothing much went on this weekend, other than a creative lapse of brain cells and wasted time in cyberspace. It will be nice to have Lori home though. The dog missed her. :)

School starts back up this week for all the schoolers in this area, so it's time to start kicking work into full gear again. It's been kind of nice not really having to worry about too much during the summer because we have had trips to go on and stuff, but our trippage is officially over for the year. Lori and I were talking and this is the first time in over 2 years that we don't have some sort of extended trip or air fare planned. What is the world coming to? Of course, knock on wood, it will be kind of nice to concentrate on the home front for a while. Although, we're not quite sure what to do with ourselves.

Well, peace to all. Until next time. Same blog time, same blog channel.
Adam

Bachelor review Day 3...

Wha..t? What day is it? Mommy, I don't want to go to school today...

Where's Lori...? (cough, hack, spew, gutteral lung wretching sounds)

Anyway, it's Sunday. Enough said, it was a long day.
Maybe tomorrow will prove more exciting.

Peace,
Adam

Bachelor review Day 2...

The house is dark and chilly. An eerie silence hangs in the air. I am beginning to see my rib cage reflected in the mirror. The fridge has now been exhausted and all the pizza and beer is gone. I am slowly wasting away into nothing. (cue the buzzards circling) Water... water... (cough) water. Where is my wife?

Well it is 10:00 at night and I'm just getting home. Lori's parents invited me to see the "Fantastic 4" movie tonight after mass, so I rushed out of mass to try and make it across the bridge for a 7:10 movie. Did some shopping earlier today. Managed to come up with a couple of ideas for the ol' anniversary but choose not to disclose them at this time.

Hopefully, I will survive until Monday. Hopefully...

Adam (cough)

Bachelor review Day 1...

Well, Lori is off to Quincy for a wedding and I am stuck here at home with a dog and a list of chores. Why is there always a list? Well, I guess I've had the same list for a while, so it's probably my fault. I hope there's enough frozen pizza and beer in the fridge to last me until the wife gets back. :P

Things are looking bright at the moment however. The fridge is stocked and movies have been rented. Ready for a classic night of action man movies and vegetative lounging. Sounds just like college! The only thing missing would be the throngs of attractive women knocking at my door every 30 seconds. Seriously though, have you ever been to Quincy? I pretty much picked up the only gem there. ;)

Well the night is looking manageable. I'll keep you updated on my days to come. We'll see if I remember how to survive in the world on my own.

Peace,
Adam

Little body, sharp teeth...

Well, definitely had an interesting day today. Father Roy and I chased down and captured a little American Alligator running around the church parking lot and front lawn. I guess some parishioners had noticed it scurrying around in the bushes over the weekend and father has been keeping an eye out for it all week. I just happened to notice an alligator lying in the parking lot when I came back to the church after lunch, so Father and I had a St. Michael moment and went and slew the dragon. Well, we didn't actually slay it. Father is actually quite Franciscan in his dealings with animals.

Regardless, we marched onto the field of battle with broomsticks and rubbermaid shields held high. Okay, I'll stop with the sappy medieval references. Nevertheless, we managed to contain the 3 1/2 - 4 foot gator into a large storage bin and clamp the lid down on him without losing any significant appendages. I suppose we could have called park and wildlife services, but that just wouldn't have been any fun, and he might have gotten away by then, thus endangering little children appendages come the weekend. I'm sure the passerbyers on White Point road had a very interesting double take as they drove by the church front lawn with two men waiving poles and a rubbermaid lid and bin.

The picture above is probably a little bit smaller than it was. You have to imagine that the tail is about 1 1/2 times the size of its body also, so it was much more impressive looking. I suppose it was little compared to a full fledged crocodile or swamp alligator, but it was nonetheless a good thrill. It's been a while since I've done anything semi reckless, so the adrenaline was thoroughly enjoyed. Maybe Lori will want to go parachuting for our anniversary next week?

You'll be happy to know that Father was going to find a nice swampy area to return the little guy to so that society is no longer endangering his existence.

Anyway, peace to all, and happy dragon hunting! :)

Nothing special...

Well here it is Monday again. Another weekend of masses and music gone by, Yippee. Spent all day cleaning the house today. We finally had a chance to get something done. After two months of on and off travelling and a hurricane passing through, we had quite a job to do. I think I hauled more branches out of the backyard from Dennis than I did with Ivan. Needless to say, the grass was a mile tall also. At least in out neighbors yard anyway. I voluntarily take care of the elderly neighbors lawn, but I am starting to dread it, because their lawn is always so much greener and taller than ours. They have a sprinkler system which enhances their lawn's performance I guess. But it sucks because I have to mow the lawn now whenever THEIR yard is starting to look unruly when mine still has a good week before I would need to do it again. Needless to say, there is not much going around right now since I am venting about yard work. Speaking of, did I mention how freaking hot it was today? I think I sweated off about 3 pounds over the course of the last few days. Not just hot, but humid to th max. It was nice being in Colorado for a while and experienceing a dry climate again. Man, I miss that.

Anyway, after a hard day of working, Lori and I went to the new local coffee shop to play some cribbage and enjoy a nice espresso drink. It is kind of cool to have a somewhat real coffee shop in the area now. Emerald Coast Coffee is a project of the son of a deacon that Lori works with, so we kind of know some one on the inside. Maybe he can hook us up with some discounts eventually. :) Anyway, good cheer and peace to all, and remember this one piece of advice while on the beach.

Don't pee into the wind. Seriously, you'll regert it...

Out of the frying pan...

Well, we dodged another bullet with hurricane Dennis. We just happened to be out of town in Denver for our friends wedding which was both a blessing and a little stressful. It was nice to be out of harms way, but at the same time we were not really able to prepare our home adequately before we left. We had to rely on Lori's parents to help get our houses boarded up. They did a great job, but it is always stressful when you aren't able to be there yourself.

Needless to say, we finally got back to the panhandle and things are pretty good in our area. We lost some branches off some trees, but that appears to be the only damage that we had.

Well, it's getting king of late here, but will be updating more soon.

Thanks and God Bless!

What a difference a day makes...

Hope everyone had a blessed Independance Day a.k.a. the 4th of July. We had a fantastic one here in our neck of the woods. Good company and good conversation with just a pinch of pyromania seem to be the perfect combination for an extraordinary time. Lori and I had a great time visiting with our friends the Foleys and their two little ones over at the Ensley household after all the other guests have left. It was great to catch up with them and see how God continues to bless them in their lives. God Bless the Foleys, we love you guys! :)

Anyway, it was really just an extraordinary weekend for some reason. Maybe it has to do with the fact that we will be visiting Colorado soon and that always makes me happy, but I think it was just a really blessed weekend over all. Can't explain it, I just know it was.

Our friends Alysia and Brian are going to be getting married soon, so everyone say a prayer for them as they are going to need it this week. Lori and I remember those times all too well. It is really hard to believe that we are coming up on our 3 year anniversary. :0 Where has all the time gone? Nobody ever said that time moves faster when you get older. I'll be taking another step towards that ever looming 30 this year. Only 3 more years till I am officially old and uncool. Lori might argue that I became uncool a long time ago, but we won't mention that. :)

Our blessings to all and our thought and prayers also.

Peace...

Holiday weekend at Wal-mart...

I can finally say that I have lived a complete life. We were out and about the town last night when we decided on a whim to swing by the local wally world. Much to our voyeuristic enjoyment we encountered perhaps the most crowded store on the face of the planet. Have you ever been to a Wal-mart and they were out of shopping carts. Not maybe for 5 or 10 minutes or so, but for the entire evening. If you wanted to do any serious shopping, you had to pay 5 bucks to one of the scalpers out front who managed to get their hands on the cart of a departing shopper and decided to become an entrepeneur. Not really, but I seriously thought about doing that once I trekked out to the parking lot and eventually found a discarded cart between the cars somewhere. It was truly a unique experience.

Other than that, it was a nice night. We were pleasantly surprised to witness an early fireworks display while sitting in the parking lot of Petsmart. Lori has this notion that she would like to get some birds, but I am thinking otherwise. :P It only took us 20 minutes to get from our house to Lori's parents that afternoon, which is only about 2 miles away, so traffic could have certainly been worse. It must pale in comparison to what some of our adventurouse friends that moved out to L.A. have to deal with.

Anyway, nothing much else going on out here on the Florida homefront. Getting ready for a fun filled day of hot dogs, swimming, and the lingering smell of sulfer all night long as we celebrate this Indedpendance day. Hopefully eveyone will be able to take a minute and think and pray about how truly blessed we all are to live in such a nation as this where little things like writing aimlessly into the internet are commonplace and legal. In all seriousness though, God bless America and may He keep you all safe this holiday!

Peace...

The color of their eyes...

Good day to all. Being as this is the first official post on my pathetic attempt at relaying my daily thoughts and actions to the world, I will keep this pointedly brief. A simple question to ponder till the days end should suffice well enough.

"What color are your loved one's eyes?"

This should hopefully be something that everyone will be able to answer with much swiftness and clarity, but alas is not usually the case. I challenge you to learn the answer and to think of possible reasons why the answer was not known before. Only your immediate family really counts, but your spouse should hopefully be automatic. Extra points are allotted for creative and descriptive accounts of the color. Especially if shared in a romantic setting.

For example, some would say that the color of my wife's eyes are brown. I on the other hand would describe it as amber, a combining of brown and gold that shines like the rising sun as she smiles and blazes with a golden intensity when provoked. My wife's eyes rock by the way. :)

Anyway, as my attempt at brevity has steadily lengthened, take the time to look people in the eyes when they are talking to you is the moral of the story. If you look hard enough, you may just learn something about them.

Peace to all...