place of nathan.

I have become what others would probably refer to as a coffee snob. It’s not because I want to be, it just sort of happened.
As my coffee palette was just beginning to develop, I couldn’t tell the difference between between different types of beans, roasts and freshness.
But as time went on, I grew to taste the difference between a good cup of premium coffee and a not-so-premium. Today, I can sip a cup of coffee and identify it as Folgers, Maxwell House, Eight O’clock or Starbucks. (I don’t have experience with other brands, and I would have a hard time being accurate with other brands.)

In years past, I used to be able to enjoy just any cup of coffee. Now, it’s actually rather difficult to thoroughly enjoy any cup of coffee. Because I have experienced what a great cup of coffee is supposed to taste like, anything less is a great disappointment. It is hard work and expensive to get a good cup of coffee consistently.

In our walk with Christ, I think the same in very true. We can’t consistently attain a close walk with Christ while we are not hard at work to be close.
What do you think?

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Bob Barr, former congressman, is running for president.
I give him 3:930 odds of winning the presidency over Hillary Clinton.

Check out his WordPress-powered blog to learn more about this Republican-turned-Libertarian.

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This week, I’ve been working on bring back to life a couple of older office computer to turn into day care ‘play’ computers.
I had three old computers, purchased in 2001 (I actually have one computer identical to these still in use), before Windows XP was released, so they all came with Windows 98se installed on them. I had since upgraded them to Windows XP, and so this week, I’m combing three crappy computers into two killer 98se machines.
One of them had no sound card (which renders it useless as a day care gaming computer), one bad a bum hard drive, and another had a bad hard drive fan and cd-rom drive. So I parted out the one unit, split its ram between the other two machines, and am working on getting the 98se machines back up and running.
I have one going strong, and working on the second one. It’s actually much harder than I remembered, because I don’t remember much about 98se. So today, I am re-learning the 11-year technology! I’d much rather be working on a mac!

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Last night my wife and I planted a two 4′ rows in our garden. We planted a row of mesclun mix, and also a row of Tom Thumb lettuce.
Hopefully this week and weekend cooperates with us (it is supposed to rain off and on this week and weekend), and we are able to get the rest of garden ground worked (I’m converting it from thick grass to garden–by hand!), and all the rest of the seeds in the ground. I am probably most excited about the endless supply of lettuce and green beans we’ll soon have.
We are planning to plant a few more lettuce seeds once a week or a few more weeks, so hopefully that extends the lettuce consumption. I love a big, nice salad. Yum-O!

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This week’s poll question is of political nature (I am an elected official, so it’s only natural!).
So when do you think Hillary Clinton will drop out of her bid to win the Democratic nomination? This poll closes the evening of May 13, so vote soon!

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How would you like to be this dude?

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As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on controversies and quarrels, I wanted to put a plug in for Perry Noble’s blog this morning, when he talks about the five phases in dealing with a critic.
It’s a great follow-up, because in it, he says this:

It didn’t take me long to realize that most critics don’t want an explanation…they want an argument.

Perry tackles how you deal with critics, and offers a better approach than arguing…I love Perry’s biblical, preach-it-at-you approach. Check out his Five Phases in Dealing with a Critic.

His advice is wise, and I am working on this one myself! What do you think about his thoughts?

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Yeah, I know I’m an eternal optimist, but have you ever noticed that those who seem to be always negative are a lot of times negative about things they actually don’t know anything about? And they’re willing to fight about it? Check this out:
1 Timothy 6:3-5:

If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

YIKES!
Lord, May I never have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels resulting in envy, strife, malicious talk and constant friction. May I continually be one with truth.

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Every morning, I do a weigh-in. This means I know how much I weigh on any given day. I watch for trends–like, I typically put on a pound or two over the weekend, and I am normally at my lowest weight of the week on Friday morning.

By measuring my weight every morning, I am able to carefully analyze my weight and what makes me gain and what makes me loose weight. If I want to stop putting on a pound or two every weekend, I’m going to have to eat less over the weekend.

It is a really handy tool to take a daily measurement. Sometimes we may measure other things, too–like the amount of gas in the car or the cash in our checking account. Sometimes being able to measure comes in very handy!

Do you measure your spiritual journey? If so, how?

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Here are some images from our recent trip to Chicago. Enjoy!

[Show as slideshow]

This is a shot from our seats at Wrigley Field.

We walked to Wrigley from downtown! About 6 miles. (We took the subway back!)

How much do you think Budweiser paid the owners of that house to wrap the roof?

This pitch from closer Kerry Wood was hit into deep right field for a 3-run triple. Wood single handedly lost the game for the Cubs in the top of the 9th.

My hot wife on Navy Pier.

Deep in thought (as always).

The Chicago skyline!

A lighthouse in Chicago Harbor (if there is such a thing?)

Self-taken photo!

Chicago skyline from Millennium Park's 'magic bean' (as I like to call it).

We had authentic Chicago-style deep-dish pizza at Giordano's on Jefferson.

Giordano's pizza is very cheesy!

Giordano's pizza. We couldn't finish the small pizza!

A Shot of Sears Tower at night, just before we hopped on our return train.

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