Big boys just have bigger toys

The past few weeks I have been in the midst of a hard debate with myself.  I have long loved bike riding, just a year or so ago I would go on 20 mile bike rides for the fun of it.  Up here at DBU, however, there aren’t really what you could call safe bike routes.  So I’ve been searching for a nice bike rack that I could put on my car and get back into the habit of bike riding.

The only problem here is that the bike rack I really wanted would cost $500 just for the bare bones.  The basic gist of the idea is that I have no runners on the roof of my car.  Runner, of course, meaning those things that you see on mini-vans.  But this awesome company named Thule makes runners to install on cars without actually ripping up your roof to do it!  They just cost the afore mentioned $500.  Then it would cost another $100 for the bike adapter so I could carry around the bike on the runners I just bought.  So that idea was a no go.

The second option was a hitch mount.  Only, again I have no hitch on my car.  I could get it installed but that would put me right back up in to the $300 range and then another $100 for the bike rack.

The final solution is what is called a trunk rack.  It uses cords that attach to your trunk to keep it from swaying around.  It’s a great idea, and some are as cheep as $40.  The downside to this being that it usually causes paint damage to your trunk!  I finally decided that this was, however, the only viable method and bought a bell 2 bike rack from Wal-Mart.  It took me 10 minutes to set it up the first time and I realized, “Wow, that’s horrible.”

It was a cheep design, it lacked the straps necessary to prevent horizontal movement on the trunk, and it looked kind gaudy.  Plus, it lacked proper fasteners to secure the bike in such a manner that the bike wouldn’t hit the bumper of my car all the time.  I realized quite quickly that I could use this bike rack, but that it would demolish my trunk in the mean time.

Fortunately, earlier today, Amy and I had stopped by this wonderful (albeit slightly inflated prices) bike shop called Bicycles Inc.  A nice older gentleman showed me the pros and cons of the different trunk racks and after hearing the price tag, I politely turn him down.

Having set up the Wal-Mart bike rack, however, I quickly removed it, and sped with all haste back to the bike shop before it closed.  I arrived with mere minutes to spare, purchased the bike rack (which while being worth it still pained me to pay). 

It’s a Saris Bones 2-bike model.  It was a little difficult to set up the first time, but that was mainly because I was unfamiliar with trunk bike racks in the first place.  Once everything was in place, I tried to give it a little jiggle and was EXTREMELY satisfied when not only did it not move an inch, but it actually caused me to jiggle the car! 

Here are some pictures I took after driving it back to DBU.  You can see in the bottom picture that it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of room for a second bike to be placed without bumping the bumper, but I’m not sure if that’s reality or just a trick of the photograph. 

Ironically, After all the work I did getting this set up and making sure my bike was in shape, I forgot my helmet!  Oh well, I played some ultimate Frisbee for the first time since I got a grade 2 sprain of my ankle (playing ultimate Frisbee a year ago) and needless to say, my leg muscles aren’t too happy with me right now.  It didn’t really help anything that it was about 30-40 degrees outside from what weather.com says, but it was a blast none the less!  I look forward to getting to drive out to some bike trails in the area and start biking again!

Big boys just have bigger toys

I wonder if I’ll finish this one…

The following is a new story that suddenly came to me.  It is the first chapter of a work in progress that I hope will one day turn into a fun story for my nieces and nephews.  And the picture to the left is a picture of me on crazy hair night.  Hope you enjoy both the picture and the story.

The Curious Life of Marlo T. Brandersnuff

Have you ever tried to read a sentence backwards? Here, try it with this sentence. backwards sentence a read to tried ever you Have? Did you read the word backwards differently with it at the front than you did with it at the back? Did you find it hard to read the words in that order? As if your brain knew everything was jumbled up? It’s not very easy to read a sentence backwards is it? At least if it’s written you can start at the end and work your way back to read it like normal, but what if it was spoken? Do you think you could work it out? This is a story about a man named Marlo T. Brandersnuff who lived every day of his life hearing sentence spoken out backwards!

I first met Marlo the summer after I turned 27. I had just graduated college, and was excited to get out into the world and find a job. I had recently moved and was enjoying a peaceful cup of coffee in a quiet little corner café I found. As I sat there drinking my coffee and enjoying a newspaper, a strange man about my age sat down next to me and said, “Well, I suppose that’s everything then. Thanks for being such a good friend to me all these years and be sure to remember to give the book back to me when I’m 71.” I barely had time to look up from the newspaper before the man had up and left, leaving behind a curious, small, leather-bound book.

Intrigued, I picked up the book and examined it. It was a simple book. It had no fancy picture on the cover nor a summary of the book on the back cover. A utilitarian, magnetic clasp reached around the right side to keep the book shut tight and the leather cover was worn from frequent use. It was, in fact, similar in every way to the book you are now holding. Including the titled that spread across the front cover, which read, (as I’m sure you already know) “The Curious Life of Marlo T. Brandersnuff.”

It was the title that gave the otherwise plain little book such an air of mystery to me. I sat there and wondered what adventures lay within the pages of this book. What mystery was held bottled up by the magnetic clasp. What action lay waiting to burst out for whoever dared to open it?

“Return the book to him?” I muttered to myself. “What on earth could he have meant?” Despite the intrigue the book seemed to promise me, I was determined to enjoy my day of getting to know this new city I found myself in. I quickly finished off my coffee, placed the book in my backpack, and began my grand tour of this new city on my bike.

Whenever I moved somewhere new, I would get on my bike and head off in any given direction. I would follow side rides and rabbit trails just to see where they led and to see if I could find my way back home. It was great fun as well as a great way to learn the area. Once I was done exploring, I would know 5 different ways to get from my house to anywhere in town.

Today, however, my mind just wouldn’t focus on where I was. Three times, I almost ran into a tree or a person, twice I ran through stop signs without stopping, and once I even rode my bike right into a pond! It was a small miracle that I didn’t ruin that curious, leather-bound book right then and there, but fortunately when I ran into the pond, I fell off my bike and landed in shallow water keeping my backpack nice and dry.

“Alright,” I said to myself with a laugh. “I know when to stop fighting my own curiosity. It’s time to read that book!” With a broad grin, I carried my bike out of the pond and found a nice spot under a giant oak tree. Even though I had spent the whole day exploring points of interest and biking around town, I couldn’t help but feel energized with excitement as I laid out a small sheet to sit on.

Sitting down, with my back to the tree, I took a moment to enjoy the view. The pond was located in a small park on the west side of town. The tree I had chosen let me face the sunset as it slipped down and gently kissed the horizon. It was summer time and I knew that even with the sun setting, I had another good hour of sunlight left. Plenty of time to start the book and bike back home before dark.

I removed the magnetic clasp and chose to indulge myself in one of my few bad habits. Rather than start at the front of the book and be surprised by the ending, I chose to skip straight to the last page and see what was written. What I read there was what I consider the beginning of my strange and amazing friendship with Marlo T. Brandersnuff.

I wonder if I’ll finish this one…

Happy Valentine’s Day (Part 2)

As you may have noticed, this is a little past Valentine’s day, but I want to make sure people have plenty of time to see and post on Amy’s posts before I make a post. Besides, I had a part 2 in mind for Amy and mine’s Valentine’s day.

Amy and I are both very practical people. Neither one of us wanted to go out on Valentine’s day itself since we both knew the places would be crowded, and that just doesn’t sound like a fun, romantic trip to be surrounded on all sides by strangers.

So we celebrated our Valentine’s day the Wednesday before Valentine’s (you can read her post below if you want to see more about that). And it turned out to be a rather good thing that we did celebrate early since I got sick on Thursday with what I assume was an allergy attack that turned into a nasty little infection. It had me out of it all for several days.

However, I decided I wasn’t quit done with Valentine’s day. If we weren’t gonna celebrate on V-day itself, then we should (for at least this year) celebrate it again the following Wednesday too.

So it was that I set up a date for Amy all before hand. I rented a movie, chose which restaurant we were gonna go to (it was a pizza place by DBU that we had never tried, turned out to be less than awesome), and bought some really colorful flowers who’s name I can never quite remember.

Thanks for being so amazing Amy, for always listening to my ideas no matter how far fetched they may be, and for being so understanding of how much school work I always seem to be working on. I love you Amy Grace!

Oh and here's a funny little comic from Frazz

Happy Valentine’s Day (Part 2)

Cake time!

This month I began cake decorating class with my sister. I thought I would share the results of my first cake (first IN CLASS cake) with you all. There are several errors but I am proud of my 3 year old cake. (It was too difficult to put 21 or 22 on the cake, so I choose a fun age: 3.) Anyway, I ate a piece of it today and it was delicious! :-)

Click on the picture of the cake to see a larger version.

Cake time!

Valentine’s Day: Feb 11

Matthew and I are very logical, mostly. We decided it would be much more enjoyable to celebrate this holiday before the entire world did. We saw no point in joining the other 5 million Dallas-ites at the Olive Garden; we opted to go Wednesday, Feb. 11^th.

After getting lost and meeting half way (I was 22.5 miles away from him…seems like much farther during traffic) we arrived at the nearly empty Olive Garden. It was delightful to be seated immediately and our food arrived within minutes (literally less than 5) of ordering. We hadn’t even taken a bite of our salad when our entrée was served. Also, due to our good judgment (mostly my convincing skills) our total was only $12 before the tip! Come to think of it now…our waitress did not charge me for an additional salad.

Our waitress had painted on eyebrows which Matthew failed to notice (they were extremely obvious). And she also had gold teeth. She was so nice and did an awesome job as a waitress! Bless her heart! She pretty much loved that we were celebrating Valentine’s Day early…it was kind of odd how much she liked us.

Anyway, I hope Matthew and I keep this “early Valentine’s” tradition; I find it most enjoyable and convenient!

Valentine’s Day: Feb 11

A lunchtime discovery

I am ending my third week of working. I am still very thankful for my job. So far it has excruciatingly slow here, yet again, I am thankful! I am enjoying the peaceful work less, yet PAID days here at work. I drive 25 minutes each way and pay two tolls each way to sit here and get paid. The boss said it should pick up here shortly, but he also said that three weeks ago ; )

Anyway, the point of this particular blog is to discuss my lunchtime discovery. As some of you are quite aware, (others not so aware) I LOVE going out to eat. Whether it is fast food or sit down, it is my favorite activity. So as I realized that I was going to be in an area new to me, I was excited to find all the good lunch spots. However, after a few ventures out by myself I found that my favorite activity is not very fun at all without good company! But on the same account, I go stir crazy if I don’t get out of the office for at least 30 minutes each day for lunch.

A lunchtime discovery

The Shack (of lies)

So, just to remind everyone, I write on this blog too :) When I update, I’ll be sure to put a little picture of me over there to make it easy on you. Not necessarily that one mind you, I just thought it looked funny and appropriate for this post.

Earlier this week, I over heard my mother and father discussing a new book called, “The Shack”. Specifically, they had very negative things to say about. Always being one to check things out for myself, I looked into some excerpts to find out a little about what this book was all about. The basic premise of the book is that a man goes up to a shack after a tragic event in his life and is there met by God (an African American Woman), Jesus (a Jewish Carpenter), and the Holy Spirit (an Asian Woman).

Ignoring the fact that the author identifies God as being a woman (which, you know, kinda goes against how God identifies Himself always with masculine articles) since that is a modern “make God gender neutral by using a female” movement. It is vitally important that we focus on the fact that this is a book filled with the worst kind of spiritual fluff: the FALSE kind.

I was going to point out the various theological falsehoods that permeate this work, but this guy has done a much better job already (it’s 17 pages long though, I’d only read it if you really wanted to find out more). I will however quickly point out couple of basic points that to give me a little ground to stand on for my overarching point (the suspense!)

1) In his conversation with “God”, “God” tells the main character that Jesus was just a man, and that everything that Jesus did could be done by any one else on the face of the planet.

2) The author has a very flippant attitude towards, God, the Bible, the Church, the Trinity, and most points of religion. The greatest offender of these things can be send in His use of portraying God basically as Aunt Jemima (which for the record, I also consider to be a little bit of a racist view of African American women).

I realize that he’s trying to be allegorical in his portrayal of God, but both the feminizing of God as well as what the author has his “God” say about Himself consistently display a lack of reverence both for God as well has God’s judgment of sin.

So here’s the overarching point I’m making with this post. First of all, don’t read this book. Just… just don’t. It doesn’t even help explain why pain is allowed in the world (which is the point of the book, remember). All it does it present just enough truth to make you go “oh, hey this is a trust worthy guy” then he throws fallacy after fallacy at you. Additionally, it has the potential to get a lot “young” believers seriously messed up.

Secondly, I would encourage anyone who is attending a church where the pastor advocates this book to find a new church. “Whoa, Matthew!” you’re saying. “That’s a pretty drastic thing to say just cause the pastor recommends a bad book"!” Here’s the thing, if you’re under the teachings of a man who would encourage you to read a book full of heresy and false teachings, then odds are, he’s weak in the faith, and, in the worst case scenario, teaching you falsehoods himself. This is not the sort of person you want to be under.

Find a church that faithfully teaches God’s word, not 30-minute feel good sound bytes. It might be a hard transition at first to get used to a church that diligently teaches the Bible if you’re only used to Sunday morning pep-talks, but it is worth it, I promise!

The Shack (of lies)