The Flying Pig

Merry Christmas 2006

2006-12-27T17:19:00.000-05:00

Everyone home in time to attend the Christmas Eve service at Fellowship. All is well. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

planes, trains and automobiles

2006-12-22T11:51:00.000-05:00

z was supposed to fly home from Denver last night but...the airport has been shut down for a couple of days due to a blizzard. since so many flights were cancelled, the best the airline can do is get him home late Christmas day. he's decided to go with plan B: catch a ride with a friend to indianapolis, then fly from indy to atlanta. now, if i make him take marta (atlanta's light rail service) from the airport up to our side of town, he will have completed the trinity of travel - planes, trains and automobiles. at least he doesn't have an unwanted travel buddy ("those aren't pillows!"). here's a pic of a car in his driveway early yesterday morning.

Sudden Mustache Day '06 (smd06)

2006-12-14T09:16:00.000-05:00

Yes, although it doesn't have quite the momentum of national talk like a pirate day (september 19), sudden mustache day (dec 1) still exists. Here's a pic from this year. Go back to posts in late 2004 (oct thru dec) to see what this is all about...

I'm still here

2006-11-22T08:38:00.000-05:00

Whoops. Accidentally didn't post for a year. Well, Cindy and I are now empty-nesters, although Zak and Lauren and our friends the Danielssons from Florida will be here for a few days to celebrate Thanksgiving. The transition into empty-nesters has had some sadness, but it's had the tradeoff of the reward of spending more time with and focus on Cindy. A couple of things I've learned: 1) As a married couple, be sure you invest lots of time in each other while the kids are at home. So many couples lives revolve completely around their kids, but the kids go away... 2) Make sure you develop relationships with others while your kids are at home. When they leave, those relationships will become even more meaningul and will help fill some of the void you'll feel when the kids move away. Deep thoughts...

So, just cuz I like to post pictures, here's a pic of me and Crowder taken last summer at a Third Day/Crowder concert up in Chattanooga. Gotta love this guy. Some people have called his beard style a "crowder" and there's even a website called
growyourcrowder.com. My beard in this pic is kind of a jr. crowder. Incidentally, have I mentioned that Sudden Mustache Day 07 is just around the corner?

SPLOG or BLAM

2005-11-18T08:52:00.000-05:00

had to REALLY tighten up the comments area of this blog cuz apparently the spammers out there decided to start posting their solicitations on blogs. too bad. so is blog spam called splog or blam?

speaking of full houses...have some guests (6)from poland staying with us. they're attending a missions conference here in town. on top of that, lauren had 3 of her girlfriends stay last night. i like having a house full of people.

full house empty house

2005-10-14T12:23:00.000-04:00

since sunday is a "work day", i TRY to take some time off on fridays. it works about half of the time... but today i'm home enjoying a house full of people. z is home for the first time since he left for college and our friend tami and her son jesse drove up for the weekend from florida.

yesterday we "kidnapped" lauren from school so we could have a family lunch together (welcome to moe's!). for any of you with kids still at home, don't take those all-family dinners for granted because they'll be scarce before you know it.

so anyhoo, we've got this house full of people but...everyone's gone. z is with his girlfriend sheryl, lauren is at school then work then a haunted house, cindy tami and jesse went to ikea. i'm home with the dog. think i'll get another cup of coffee and practice piano. not bad.

dust and 802.11g

2005-10-08T12:46:00.000-04:00

sanding down the spackling in my dining room - a lot of dust in there. needed to get a little fresh air so i'm sitting on my back deck catching my breath. the weather is cool, humidity is low and my 802.11g wireless network is rocking!

tonight is lauren's homecoming. amazing how much more goes into these things than when i was in school. kind of like an early prom. i'm sure she'll have a great time.

home improvement

2005-10-07T17:36:00.000-04:00

finally - some rain in atlanta. we went quite a while without it. that's the good news. the bad news it that i've been driving the old mustang convertible around today - the one that needs a new top - the one that leaks so much that it's raining almost as much inside as outside. oh well, could be worse.

spent some time today spackling the walls in our dining room. we decided to take off the old wallpaper. how hard could that be??? worst home improvement project of my life. but now we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. should be able to start painting this weekend.

decided to NOT go to a couple of events i normally attend - catalyst and the fbc men's retreat. too many good things can be a bad thing. need to keep a little margin in my life.

lucky

2005-10-01T10:57:00.000-04:00

this is a recent picture of z in his backyard.

so here it is october already. and i've received a bit of grief about not updating this blog enough. it's time to break down the walls of blogdom - who says you have to update it all the time. maybe sometimes you just don't feel like talking... :-)

end of an era

2005-08-28T14:32:00.000-04:00

listed our minivan on autotrader.com today. this was our second minivan - purchased for the days of carpool, music lessons, sports and family vacations. sounds sentimental, but i never was a big minivan fan...so if you want to buy it - search autotrader in the 30022 zip code. i'll make you a great deal!

heard from z today. said that yesterday (saturday) he went to a beach volleyball tournament that had olympic players, did a long run in the mountains, then hung out at rocky mountain national park last night. lucky.

emotions

2005-08-24T08:45:00.001-04:00

i haven't posted in quite a while because since i returned from europe, it seems as if i've constantly had something going on. culminating in this past week when i experienced pretty much every emotion you can feel.

flew out to boulder with z on tuesday morning. although i knew that i'd miss him, for most of the time leading up to him leaving for college i was just excited for him to have the opportunity to move to such a beautiful place and study. that was until monday night when i saw the suitcases packed and his closet empty. suddenly the sadness hit me big time. then when i said goodbye to him in the parking lot outside his dorm on wednesday...it was an emotional drive back to the airport. on the postive side, here's a pic we took at a spot about a 10 to 15 minute drive from his dorm room. lucky.

so i've got 3 takeaways from the experience of dropping off a kid at college for anyone who has pre-college kids. 1) save your money. not just for tuition, books (a racket), room and board, but all those other miscellaneous expenses that creep up on you. even if you just sock away a little at a time, you'll be glad you did. 2) it's a lot more emotional than you think it will be. 'nuff said. 3) when you drop off your kid at college, there are NO BOUNDARIES and they can do whatever they want. don't let that be a major change for them. loosen up their boundaries as they grow older in high school - maybe even let them make some mistakes while they're at home - so that the college transition to total freedom isn't that much different.

flew back into town wednesday night and headed straight to a rehearsal for an event we held at the church - 80s night. we'll occasionally do entertainment-oriented events at church where the only goal is to provide an environment where our members can bring friends who may not want to visit church, but will come to a night of entertainment. our only goal is for them to feel welcomed and walk away thinking that church people aren't so bad after all. i get occasional pushback from people about why we would do this. why we would do songs like "money for nothing," "thriller," and "whip it" in a church. i could get into a long discussion about this here, let's just say "all things to all men." whatever we can do to win some, without compromising our integrity, that's what we'll do. anyhoo, here i am in my devo outfit.

speaking of more emotions, got a v-mail from my friend wayne schroder while i was in boulder telling me that his wife ida had gone to be with the LORD. ida had been battling cancer for 3 years. ida served with our worship team and always had a smile on her face. she was an encourager and a woman of prayer. the worship team led in worship at her memorial service last saturday and i had the honor of officiating. ida - you lived a life that demonstrated the love of Christ and kept the faith until the end. i look forward to seeing you in glory someday in the future.

july

2005-07-27T11:45:00.000-04:00

it's been an incredibly busy july. z and i returned this morning from a 2-week trip to europe. we were part of a team that performed outreach concerts and taught at an arts camp in poland. on the way home, z and i had a 2day "layover" in paris. more info on the team trip at durand robertson's site - gemcwtheworks.blogspot.com.

music stuff

2005-06-25T09:30:00.000-04:00

here's a pic of the family (including cindy's mom) after the concert at spivey hall (south of atlanta) last week. check out z in a tux - with tails even!

many late nights this week. recorded a live worship cd at church. today i'm going to play outside in the dirt to refresh myself and my yard.

stuff and gardening part 5

2005-06-18T08:51:00.000-04:00

lots going on this summer. taught at fbc last weekend on the presence of God. you can check it out online at www.fbconline.org. went with some worship team members up to the billy graham training center (the cove) in asheville for a few days this week. darlene zschech from hillsongs church in australia led a worship seminar. she has some great insights and it was refreshing to have some extended worship times with participants from over 300 churches around the country.

today z is playing in a recital down at spivey hall. he's playing the 1st movement of mozart's d minor piano concerto with the metropolitan youth symphony orchestra. should be cool.

meanwhile, in the garden...here's a picture of the front perennial garden in june:

and here's a shot from the back garden. the red stuff is bee balm (native plant, can be invasive if you don't watch it) contrasting with the blue hydrangeas. nice.

here comes the...

2005-06-04T13:11:00.000-04:00

man, haven't seen that bright thing in the sky for almost a week! nice to finally get things dried out. would post more pictures from my garden (woo-hoo!), but i need a new battery for my camera.

the graduate

2005-06-03T13:23:00.000-04:00

it's been a busy couple of weeks. saw z graduate from high school. a lot of different emotions going on with this - never been here before. had friends up for memorial day weekend, planned to take some days off to work in the gardens, but it's been raining for days! oh well.

21 years ago today

2005-05-19T08:31:00.000-04:00

21 years ago today, this beautiful woman for some strange reason married me. i became the most blessed guy on the planet.

21 years ago yesterday, my mom bought me some new underwear for my honeymoon.

sabbath

2005-05-15T22:13:00.000-04:00

another busy sunday. church this morning, straight to cindy's students' recital, straight to z's baccalaureate service. well, the sabbath really is on saturday anyway...

this was my first baccalaureate and it was pretty good. chip ingram gave the main message all about the dangers of materialism and relativism. jere wood, the mayor of roswell, was pretty unimpressive following chip. basically said something to the effect of "go out there and party." thanks jere. who voted you in?

btw, the baccalaureate service derives from the medieval European custom of presenting the candidates for the degree of bachelor (bacca) with laurels (lauri) of sermonic oration. (definition from www.bates.edu)

gardening part 4

2005-05-13T09:55:00.000-04:00

i'm sorry...but just have to post a picture of my first rose bloom of the year. was at lowes a couple of months back when someone got on the intercom to announce all roses 90% off. well, i'm not really into the hassle of growing roses in this part of the country, but being the sucker for a good deal. i mean, $1 for a rose plant? i'd be a fool not to get...a few. well, i planted one in a pot on my back deck and here's my first bloom.

and speaking of accordions (???), my buddy bill plunk and his wife are coming over tonight. bill took accordion lessons as a kid (it was a real babe magnet), and is bringing his accordion over to show me how to use all those left hand buttons. going to grill some sausage, make it a real bavarian evening.

sometimes i'm just random part 2

2005-05-12T08:42:00.000-04:00

ok, i've lived in the south for over 25 years and have never been to a wedding quite like this...

although i have to admit that i was surprised to see statues and memorials to "our confederate soldiers" when i moved here from indiana back in the 70s. a whole different perspective in the south about the "war of northern agression." sweet, little old ladies in savannah are still ticked off about sherman camping out in their city after he trashed atlanta.

gardening part 3

2005-05-07T08:52:00.000-04:00

here's a picture of some blooms in my front perennial garden. check out the difference from just over a week ago posted previously. from front to back you'll see morning primrose (pink), homestead verbena (purple) and irises (purple and white). i use a lot of this color combination cuz it's cindy's favorite.

and yes, this is a second gnome that lives in my backyard garden currently hanging out among the snapdragons.

this is why they call them snapdragons. if you pull them apart, it looks like a dragon's mouth...kind of. i guess this is changing from a blog to a glog (garden log)!

you can do anything...

2005-05-06T16:43:00.000-04:00

...at zombocom. worth a post of it's own - zombo.com.

university of colorado

2005-04-30T10:29:00.000-04:00

z finally made a decision to attend the university of colorado at boulder this fall. although his first choices were in california, the numbers just didn't add up. the folks at colorado have been extremely helpful and generous and seem to really want him to go out there. not a bad place to live for a few years...

we almost moved to colorado about 10 years ago. my company was relocating their headquarters to boulder and wanted me to move out there. cindy and i checked it out and decided it would be nice. even had a house picked out - the backyard backed up to a golf course that backed up to the mountains. was ready to pull the trigger when my boss said "well, we just bought another company in chicago, so i think i want you to move up there." uh...nice city, but i fled the great white north a long time ago - nothing against it, i just like the warmer climate. and once you've added "ya'll" to your vocabulary, it's hard to move north of the mason-dixon line.

gardening part 2

2005-04-26T17:50:00.001-04:00

spring in georgia is a wonderful thing. this year has been especially cool, slowing a lot of the plant growth, but prolonging some of our early spring flowering. here are a couple of my azaleas:

and here are some plants in my woodland shade garden in the backyard. clockwise from top - astilbe, jacobs ladder, bearded iris (barely get enough sun here to bloom), snapdragons (they were on clearance at lowes - got a bunch for about .60 - i'm a sucker for a good deal), gerber daisys (special at publix - got'em cheaper than at a nursery), in the center is an easter lily i threw in the ground after easter last year. and check out that gnome - one of 2 in my backyard. if you're really quiet and leave them a little food, they move in:

and here's the early growth in my front perennial garden. i'll have stuff about 8 feet tall in here by the end of the summer:

is my life exciting, or what???

spring break

2005-04-10T19:25:00.000-04:00

managed to get out of town for a few days for an all-american vacation in florida. drove down to tampa and spent a day at busch gardens, then over to orlando to stay with our friends tami, per and jessie danielsson. here i am chillin' with the flamingos at busch gardens.

here are the 3 kids at mgm.

i guess a sign of age is when you go to places like these and find yourself more interested in the plants and landscaping than in the rides. oh well.

gardening

2005-03-31T17:31:00.000-05:00

this is a florida shield fern, aka dryopteris ludoviciana. it's a native to the southeast and is one of only a few ferns that can take full sun. i'm going to put it in a sunny, slightly moist spot next to my driveway in front of one of my perennial planting areas.

i took last monday off to rest up from the busy easter activities. i ended up ordering a few plants online - first time i'd done that. so - i've got a bunch of new plants ready to go, but it's been raining like crazy and probably will tomorrow again... so i've gotta wait.

i find gardening very relaxing. i can spend hours working in my yard and end up feeling refreshed. i think tending a garden might be in my genes.

Easter 2005

2005-03-29T19:33:00.000-05:00

had a great easter weekend. 2 good friday services, 3 easter services. after the services on sunday, we had our small group families over. it was raining pretty hard, so had an easter egg hunt inside. someone thought it would be funny to put a pickle and some olives in a couple of the eggs. the kids didn't think it was that funny.

and of course, what easter celebration would be complete without some accordion (aka party-in-a-box) music. it really got the ladies dancing.

my buddy bill plunk (accordionist extraordinaire) wants to start a christian emo worship accordion band called "suspected spam." how could you go wrong?

happy st. patricks day

2005-03-17T13:51:00.000-05:00

I take for my sureties: The power of God to guide me, The might of God to uphold me, The wisdom of God to teach me, The eye of God to watch over me, The ear of God to hear me, The word of God to give me speech, The hand of God to protect me, The way of God to go before me, The shield of God to shelter me....

Christ be with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ at my right, Christ at my left, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks to me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me. -St. Patrick

and i'll still pinch you if you're not wearing green today...

fiddlin'

2005-03-13T21:57:00.000-05:00

sunday - a day of rest...sorta. i slept in an hour later cuz i wasn't leading worship today (got up at 6am rather than 5am). sat in 1st service, did a new member interview 2nd service, taught the college classs 3rd service - outside on the deck - nice, came home to accompany a bunch of cindy's students on their fiddle recital. it was pretty fun.

cleaned up after the recital, went out to our friends the whitaker's house for dinner. just got home around 10pm. well, really Saturday is the sabbath anyway.

sometimes i'm just random

2005-03-10T21:25:00.000-05:00

this picture has nothing to do with anything going on in my life. i just thought it was slightly disturbing.

this is the kind of post i make when i haven't slept well for a few days...

until we meet again

2005-03-07T17:31:00.000-05:00

this week saw the unexpected passing away of a great man - chris carey. chris is the kind of guy that you can't help but love - a little crazy...maybe a lot crazy, an encourager, an optimist, creative, and incredibly loving to his wife and 2 daughters. had the honor to participate in his memorial service yesterday. probably the most uplifting and hopeful funerals i've ever attended - matches chris' personality.

i know that i will see chris again in the future. chris stands on the promises of Jesus Christ and i do too. goodbye brother. until we meet again.

cuttin' stuff

2005-02-26T16:39:00.000-05:00

a couple of weeks ago i picked up a chainsaw blade sharpener at lowes. i had to try it out... so for the last couple of weeks i've been cuttin' stuff around the property. i've got a lot of trees, so there's a lot to cut.

i grew up in indiana. my dad converted our car port (do they make those anymore???) to a family room in the late 60s complete with green paneling and orange carpet. we were mod. anyhoo, rather than tieing into the heating system, my dad put a wood stove in the room. turns out, we could heat our entire house with the thing. the only problem was that he would keep it about 95 degrees in the family room. i remember times when it was like 20 below zero outside and i'd be sitting in the family room wearing shorts and no shirt. balmy.

well, in order to keep the room a comfy 95 degrees, we spent the spring, summer and fall cuttin' stuff. my dad would hear about someone who had a big oak tree down and we'd hop in the ford pickup to drive out to where it was so we could cut it into manageable pieces to throw in the back of the truck. when we got it home, we'd have to split it. so, we were pretty much cuttin' stuff one way or another most of the year.

i cut a lot of stuff today. gonna go in on renting a chipper with my neighbor. there's this bradford pear tree that i never really liked...

18 years ago

2005-02-18T12:09:00.000-05:00

february 17, 1987 (18 years ago yesterday), God blessed us with our son zak. having your first child is a pretty weird experience. you leave for the hospital with just you and your wife, and you come home with a stranger in a car seat who's planning to live with you for about 18 years. on the way home from the hospital, i thought "what if we don't like him?" well, we did, we do, and we're very proud of him. happy birthday z!

that kobe bryant guy is a lot bigger than he looks on tv...

be careful what you preach about

2005-02-09T08:50:00.000-05:00

last summer i taught a message at fellowship where i used an illustration of a flying pig. since that time, i've received numerous flying pig gifts including stuffed flying pigs, ceramic flying pigs, battery-powered flying pigs, wall-hanging flying pigs and christmas ornament flying pigs. i really like all of my pigs (they go well with my chickens - but that's another story).

so i started thinking...i'm teaching again this week. rather than use a flying pig illustration, maybe i'll use this one:

2005 dynaglide lowrider in case you're interested. :-)

winter storm emergency 2005

2005-01-29T10:31:00.000-05:00

i grew up in indiana. the last year i was there (1978) was especially cold and we had snow on the ground for weeks in a row. one of the cool things about living in atlanta is how big of a deal it is whenever we get some winter weather. with even a rumor of a light dusting of snow, every news channel blows it up to be a major winter storm emergency, people flock to the grocery stores, and pretty much everything shuts down. i'm not sure why this is. i've heard that there was an event back in the 80s called "snowjam" when a big snowstorm unexpectedly blew in during the middle of the day, creating one of the worst traffic jams in history as everyone tried to drive home in the snow. maybe this still lingers in the minds of atlantans.

anyway, here's my house this morning. that's not snow on the ground - it's sleet with a layer of ice underneath. looks like we'll be stuck at home for weeks. or at least until tomorrow when it's supposed to be in the mid 40s. hope we have enough bread, eggs and milk to survive...

wisdom

2005-01-27T22:14:00.000-05:00

teeth that is. z got his taken out this morning, and he's not feeling too hot right now. prayers are appreciated. 1,390,000 google hits for wisdom teeth in case you were wondering.

words in red

2005-01-25T07:52:00.000-05:00

i've been spending time reading only the red words in my bible. try it - after a while you start noticing some stuff that we (evangelical Christians) explain by saying "what he really meant by that was..." i wonder if Christianity would look like differently if we only had the red words...

the z-man returned from california sunday early morning. the good news is that the auditions went well and he'll most likely be accepted into the schools he auditioned for. the bad news is that we've got to wait to see what the scholarship situation will be.

ok adam - you're a grandblogger again. my buddy durand robinson with greater europe mission in germany started a blog after reading mine. you're now a blogger of many nations. that reminds me of something i've read before...

california dreamin

2005-01-22T11:07:00.000-05:00

yesterday morning i dropped zak off at the airport where he caught a plane to LA for college music school auditions. he's auditioning at ucla, usc and pepperdine. with lauren gone to a school basketball game, cindy and i had the evening to ourselves. this is becoming more and more common - a taste of the way things will become too quickly.

other than missing him like CRAZY, i think it's cool that z is looking at schools on the left coast. i mean, there's lots of interesting people out there. here's a pic of a cool guy i met when we were out there last year. note the guy in the tan shirt on the right. what's he looking at?

call me shallow...

2005-01-14T14:44:00.000-05:00

...but yes, even though i've been a follower of Jesus Christ for almost 25 years now, i still like my geeky gadgets. the audiovox smt5600 smartphone came in the mail yesterday. it runs windows mobile 2003 os. cut me some slack here. after all, i did spend many years of my life in app dev, and a few years with a microsoft partner company. and since most people no longer believe that bill gates is the antichrist (see previous post sometime way back), what harm is it in supporting them? heck, the phone was free (after rebates)! ok, ok. maybe my next post will be deep.

btw, REALLY digging on the new U2 release, and REALLY digging that band muse - kind of neo-prog emo.

back, books, geeks, beards and dog

2005-01-11T19:36:00.000-05:00

after taking some time off after christmas eve, i've been back at work for a couple of weeks and am in the process of getting back into the routine. meanwhile, i'm reading two books, both recommended - blue like jazz by ?? and a generous orthodoxy by mclaren.

had a geeky day at home alone last friday. i resorted back to my geeky inclinations and ended up buying a windows smartphone. oops. the REALLY geeky thing about this phone is that i'll be able to download entire movies onto it. now i can watch napoleon dynamite wherever i happen to be. yow.

also managed to trace my geneology back to john beard who was born in virginia in 1733. he moved his family over the mountains into kentucky in about 1790. his son, josiah, helped start a new church in a remote part of kentucky. turns out it was the same church that my father attended as a child. cool.

in the totally random category, here's a picture of our dog, maisy.

dinner with a view

2004-12-31T13:21:00.000-05:00

after a busy christmas season working at a church, i've found it's good for my soul to take some time off to recharge. and of course the best place for me to recharge is in the mountains. went up with zak and my buddies joe and don for some backpacking. weather was pretty much perfect - highs in the 50s, lows in the low 40s. this is the view from our campsite / dinner site. amazing how much beauty can be generated from time and chance...

toe jam

2004-12-18T19:30:00.000-05:00

last thursday night we were supposed to rehearse for our upcoming worship service on the 19th. we're doing lots of music, including an instrumental prelude off of the trans siberian orchestra christmas cd. well, the power went out in the building, so we did a vocal rehearsal by candlelight (pretty cool) and had to reschedule our instrumental rehearsal for 6:30 am saturday - the only time we could get everyone together. we've got two keyboard players, two guitarists, bass, drums and viola, but there's this one place where we just needed to add one more extra part...so:

foiled again

2004-12-15T09:08:00.000-05:00

so when i opened the door to my office yesterday, someone had decided to help me out by creating a monochromatic scheme matching my aluminum christmas tree. don't know if whoever did it really likes me or really hates me.

btw, thanks to those of you who prayed for me this past sunday. definitely felt that many were praying.

christmas at fellowship

2004-12-07T18:40:00.000-05:00

so it's about 6:45 pm and i'm staying late at the office so i can work on this week's mesage. last week we began our christmas series where we're looking at some of the "I am" statements of Christ. last week was "I am the bread of life", this week i'm doing "I am the door."

a bunch of VERY dedicated volunteers put together a beautiful set for the holidays. here's a picture from rehearsal last sunday morning. note the way cool setting of bread up front.

anyhoo, if you're reading this and it's before december 12, 2004, pray for me that i'll present the truth well. i'm not up front a lot, so i feel extra stress leading up to it. thx!

a day to remember

2004-12-02T15:42:00.000-05:00

well, here are the pictures from smd2004 - a day to remember... who's in for next year? now on to something else.

smd0

2004-12-01T08:30:00.000-05:00

just like christmas: you wait, and wait, then finally it arrives! sudden mustache day 2004. starbucks mansell and alpharetta highway 9pm. pictures coming soon!

smd-1

2004-11-30T17:11:00.000-05:00

sudden mustache day -1. last look at the beard.

blood mountain

2004-11-27T19:54:00.000-05:00

after a wonderful meal on thursday, my son zak (aka z, aka batman) and i decided to take a trip up to the north georgia mountains on friday. the weather was perfect - 50s and clear. we hiked to the top of blood mountain, took in the view, and took a nap. blood mountain is on the appalachian trail in georgia, and is about an hour hike up from the parking spot at neels gap. i can be at the foot of the mountain from my house in a hour. there was snow at the top and yes, z threw some at me. i'm gonna miss my hiking buddy when he heads off to college next year.

btw, notice my goatee that's all ready for sudden mustache day next week!

just remember...

2004-11-23T14:12:00.000-05:00

...you are what you eat.

1. cut out aluminum foil in desired shapes
2. arrange the turkey in the roasting pan, position the foil carefully
3. roast according to your own recipe and serve
4. watch your guests' faces...

happy thanksgiving!

trinidadian invasion

2004-11-20T10:18:00.000-05:00

the past 2 summers, i was able to go with others from FBC to trinidad to help with some music and worship leading training. a couple of days ago, 12 youth workers came to atlanta to attend a youth worker's conference. we've been able to return some of the hospitality that they've shown us by helping to take care of their needs while they're here. had a big get-together at joe's house last night with everyone - what a blast! as joe said, a picture of what heaven will be like.

see your future, be your future

2004-11-13T11:59:00.000-05:00

now that's not nice

2004-11-12T13:13:00.000-05:00

this week microsoft introduced the beta version of their new search engine intended to go after google and yahoo!. if you type in the search string "more evil than satan", your first hit will be google. i thought "that's not nice" until i read that google did the same thing a few months back. gotta love the competitive spirit.

btw, i found out about this from one of the few blogs that i check out pretty regularly called j-walk blog. My buddy joe (see polka praise) told me about this site a few months ago. definitely worth an occasional visit.

3 weeks to go...

2004-11-10T11:58:00.000-05:00

...until "sudden mustache day." my goatee is back and ready to be shaved! dec 1, 9pm, starbucks @ mansell and alpharetta highway.

road (rhodes) trip

2004-11-09T08:56:00.000-05:00

this past weekend i drove up to new jersey with my family to attend friends' daughter's bat mitzvah. it rained the ENTIRE way on the drive up - only turned off my windshield wipers while going through the tunnel in baltimore. the drive back was nice, but it looked like i missed most of the fall colors by a week or two. our friends are reformed jews, one of three major groups of judaism. you can click here if you want to read more about the groups.

about a year ago my buddy dennis (no blog yet) was up in philly rehearsing for a concert. the rehearsal was in a high school band room and he noticed a fender rhodes suitcase electric piano in the corner. knowing that i was looking for a rhodes, he asked if they wanted to sell it.

so...since i was in the area...i made a little detour to the high school, paid in cash, and loaded in the back of my van.

i must say that cindy (my wife) was a pretty good sport about the whole thing. especially since i "reminded" her about the rhodes on the drive up. i mean, i THINK i mentioned something to her a while back about it.

the rhodes i picked up was manufactured in 1977. right about the time that i was playing on the same type of keyboard in rock and jazz bands back in indiana. if you're not a keyboard player who used to own one of these, you just wouldn't understand. it's got a sound and a feel that just can't be matched. unfortunately, me and almost every other keyboard player sold our vintage stuff back in the early 80s when all the digital stuff came out. now we've all realized the error of our ways and are trying to buy them back.

trick or treat?

2004-11-01T17:08:00.000-05:00

last night was halloween. was thinking this morning on the drive in about how my wife and i made a decision when our kids were born that since we were Christians, we wouldn't do the halloween thing. well, that lasted about as long as the first dressed-up kid showing up at our door yelling "trick or treat!" we both remembered how much we loved trick or treating when we were kids and quickly threw together clown costumes and took our kids out for their first night of trick or treating.

so here we are about 15 years later with a 17 year old son and a 16 year old daughter, and i think i can say that we didn't ruin them by letting them join in the fun. it struck me last night as i saw how excited my daughter still is about dressing up and going trick or treating. i'm really over the carve the pumpkin thing, but for her, it's become a treasured memory and a tradition that we cannot break. my son chose to stay at home and answer the door. from the other room where i sat, i could hear the kids yelling "trick or treat" and then one by one saying "thank you" when they received candy. i can think of a lot of other issues to get hung up over.

relevant

2004-10-27T18:12:00.000-04:00

i promise i had the idea first! so when i got home yesterday, i found the new issue of relevant magazine in the mail. i usually just scan through it before reading everything. well, guess what i found? they published their top 10 2004 trends that ruled the year. number 10 says: the mustache is back...our prediction is the triumphant return of the mustache.

hah! i guess that makes me, like, relevant dood. and i have no idea who this guy is, but that's one relevant 'stache he's got there.

anyhoo, i'm serious about december 1st being the sudden mustache day. i thought whoever is interested could meet at caribou at 9pm for a group shot, but found out they close at 9...uh...

so...how about starbucks at mansell and alpharetta highway. december 1st, 9pm. group mustache shot. seriously. come on - you can always shave it off later.

mustache

2004-10-25T18:00:00.000-04:00

i'm not sure exactly what's going on inside my head, but sometimes...OFTEN...i get strange ideas. like, i was thinking: how come hardly anyone wears a mustache anymore? i remember back in the early 90s when it first became cool to wear a goatee. you were actually considered pretty "edgey" if you had one. now, it's like EVERYONE has a goatee, and hardly anyone has just a mustache. so i was thinking... i wonder how many guys i could convince to grow a full beard or goatee and then shave the beard on the same day so you'd get a bunch of guys with mustaches suddenly showing up everywhere.

i mean, just look at how cool a mustache is - worn by the KING of the mustache, tom selleck, aka MAGNUM. now, if you match the mustache with an unbuttoned shirt, it's the epitomy of cool.

SO - who's in? i'm pretty sure that my buddy joe (see polka praise) is in. i suggest we make december 1st the official "macho mustache" day. bloggers unite! pass the word!!!

life themes

2004-10-19T16:20:00.000-04:00

there seem to be a few recurring themes that keep popping up in my mind.

one of them is that everything in creation tells us something about God. like the colors of a sunset scream His beauty and creativity; the first cool evening after a hot summer hints of the refreshment and satisfaction that only He can completely give; you name it - i think every created thing reflects something of the Creator. the psalmist says that heavens are telling of the glory of God. john piper reflects on this and says that our size in relation to the universe gives us a clue as to how much greater God is than we are. try it sometime - take any created thing and meditate on what it teaches you about God.

another recurring theme, of which i'm only beginning to realize the significance, is the idea that there are no accidents; no "chance" encounters. take my buddy adam. we just happened to meet on the AT in north carolina, miles from the nearest road. when we met, we found out that we both just happened to do the same things in our jobs (worship and arts pastors), and just happened to work less than a mile from each other. figuring that maybe, just maybe God worked this out, we decided we should get together and talk when we got back to atlanta. so we've been meeting about once a month since that time and continue to see God at work in common relationships (a guy trusting Christ), common passions, experiences, etc. it's easy to think that God might be in it when you meet someone under those circumstances, but i have this nagging hint in the back of my mind that every relationship is set up this way. i think we could see it if we just had our eyes open.

so i guess the common denominator of these two life themes is that perhaps God is a lot bigger than i imagine Him to be. of course, if my mind could comprehend Him, He wouldn't be that big. i'm thinking He's like...HUGE...uh...infinitely HUGER than HUGE...

polka praise

2004-10-18T17:39:00.000-04:00

decided to take my accordion (aka "party in a box") to the annual FBC men's retreat a couple of weeks ago. my buddy joe just happened to bring along a baritone. nothing like a rendition of roll out the barrel to really set the mood for a Christian men's retreat. since we've created a Christian sub-culture for everything else, maybe i should be the first to get out there with "POLKA PRAISE!" we could reach a whole new people group! assuming we wanted to reach that people group...

anyway, this past weekend we ended up having some much needed chill time. seems like i've been pretty much on the go for a while, so it was nice to slow down a bit. i'm not the best at slowing down - i'm done now.

more googling

2004-10-14T14:44:00.000-04:00

i find myself using google more and more for research and to find "stuff" on the internet. imho, google is the closest we've come so far to fulfilling bill gates' (he's apparently NOT the antichrist) original vision of information at your fingertips. well, now those crazy googlers have created an application that puts the same interface on your desktop. you can download the beta version and check it out by cliking here.

i guess the next step will be to add peer to peer searching across every computer on the planet.

interesting (or not) facts: a google of "christian" brings up 45,800,000 hits. "muslim" brings up 5,870,000 hits, "buddhist" brings up 7,480,000 hits. therefore, i think it's safe to assume that christianity is the prominent organized religion on the internet. and isn't it great to know that the first three google "sponsored links" when searching for "christian" include:

www.loveandseek.com - Free to browse thousands of picture, audio and video profiles
www.godfaithministries.com - Be Ordained By A Real Pastor Today - Religious Degrees & Church Charters
www.ChristianityFreebies.com - Everything is for Christians. Everything is free.

sigh...

too busy to blog

2004-10-07T11:33:00.000-04:00

well, i've got a lot to blog about...but have just been too busy this week. things should settle down a bit next week. i hope adam doesn't take me off of his recommended blogs list in the meantime.

speaking of lists though, is it just me, or does everyone get my old homepage (the VINTAGE 1996 page) as the first hit when you google or yahoo "tim beard"??? #1 of 232,000 hits on google, #1 of 426,000 on yahoo. guess i was the first tim beard on the internet - i feel like such a pioneer.

accordions and spiders

2004-10-02T13:46:00.000-04:00

well, october is here so it seemed like a good time to break out the accordion. this picture was actually taken last christmas when i received the accordion as a gift (i got homer and a new backpacking headlamp too...). i just can't tell you how happy my neighbors were last christmas morning when i put homer on the front porch and serendaded the cul-de-sac with accordion christmas songs.

you know, accordion is one of those instruments that just puts you in a better mood. you can't help but smile when someone starts playing. maybe we should change the stereotype of playing a harp in heaven, to playing an accordion. looks like someone already had that idea, thus the website accordion heaven.

if you go there, make sure you listen to the mp3 of the clarinet polka that's posted on the front page. sure to bring a smile to your face. btw, google returns 560,000 hits for "accordion." that's a lot of accordion stuff out there...

anyway, now that it's october, i sat on the front porch with my accordion, and noticed that it caused some of those big garden spiders that show up each fall to quickly crawl away and hide. now, i know i'm not that great of an accordionist, but wondered if it was my playing or just the sound of the accordion that caused the fuss.

which got me thinking...do spiders have ears? have you ever thought of that? (i'm suddenly thinking of the only fly with ears i've ever seen - remember the end of the original movie the fly? the fly with the human head caught in the spiderweb?? "help me! help me!" - that was weird) ANYHOOOOO...do spiders have ears?

turns out that some of the hairs on their legs are considered sensory organs - probably HEARING HAIRS. how weird is that? "speak up! i just finished shaving and can't hear you very well." of course, i got this info on a webpage titled BELGIAN SPIDERS, so maybe that's just european spiders. you know, the ones that don't shave under their arms...

embarrassing christianity

2004-09-30T08:55:00.000-04:00

came in this morning and as usual began checking my e-mail. apparently, i've managed to get my e-mail address on a christian junk e-mail list as i'm now receiving a few unsolicited advertisements for "christian stuff" each day.

today i received an e-mail from the "christian emergency network" advertising their christian emergency survival kits. The e-mail says: "Noah prepared for the flood. Joseph prepared for famine. Esther prepared for terror. Moses prepared for the angel of death." therefore, we should prepare for a disaster by purchasing one of their christian survival kits. I guess what makes it christian is that they've thrown in a few pieces of christian literature. you know, i guess these guys are probably sincere, but would i be bad if i purchased a "secular" survival kit from REI???

i've been a christian for almost 24 years now. i believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, that He came to take our punishment for our sins, that He rose from the dead, and that we can have forgiveness and peace with God by accepting the this free gift of forgiveness and beginning a relationship with Him. but it's embarrassing to me that we've created this christian subculture that just makes us look weird. not to mention any names, but don't you cringe sometimes when you're flipping through the channels and come to TBN (trinity broadcast network)? i mean, who are these people?? i never see ANYONE with hair like that...even in church! isn't it great to know that, thanks to the worldwide distribution via satellite, this is the first impression we give to the world of christianity??

sorry to rant, but before i get off the subject, be sure to run out and purchase your Jesus Christ action figure and fill your pockets full of Testamints...you know, the mints with the bible verses on them?

"hey, i really don't have time to share my life with you or help you out in any way, but here's a mint. make sure you look up the verse imprinted on it before you eat it. God bless."

"hey johnny, my Jesus can beat up your g.i. joe..."

on the more positive side, my friend paul dzubinski, a church planter in spain, read my blog and it inspired him to create his own. you can check out his first post: "time to smell the urine." hey adam, your influence is moving around the world!

have you seen these men?

2004-09-28T15:41:00.000-04:00

if you don't know who these guys are, then you're missing out. i've seen napoleon dynamite 3 times and found it funnier each time. word of warning. if you don't like the first 60 seconds of the movie, you won't like any of it, cuz it's all pretty much the same...

this has been playing for months at some of the local theatres and consistently sells out on friday nights. perhaps this movie appeals to so many people because we all know or knew someone like napoleon. someone who just didn't fit in.

swedish invasion

2004-09-25T10:01:00.000-04:00

my swedish buddy per danielsson came to visit from florida because his lifelong friend magnus was in town on business. for some reason, we thought it would be a good idea to get out some of the christmas decorations to mark the occasion. always a blast to hang with the swedes. swedish is one of those "happy sounding" languages because they tend to have a rising inflection on their last syllables. while in trinidad this summer, we noticed that the caribbean's have a similar inflection. why not brighten your day by listening to some swedish radio online? you can find a nice selection here.

birthday

2004-09-23T14:58:00.001-04:00

celebrated my 44th birthday this week. was actually away from home on my b-day at a spiritual life retreat with the church staff at winshape. went to dinner with the family last night - lauren gave me a tommy boy dvd (we like watching it together) and zak gave me the van halen cd. tommy boy and van halen...what does that say about me???

pirates and haiku

2004-09-18T09:14:00.000-04:00

in case you missed the big day last year, tomorrow (september 19) is national talk like a pirate day (viewer discretion advised on the site). good thing i'm not leading worship at church...a morning of pirate praise!

anyhoo, a couple of careers ago, i went through a one week period of communicating e-mails in haiku. just cuz. try it - especially fun for business-oriented e-mails. if you're not familiar with haiku, i googled haiku and the first site is haiku for people. as opposed to what?? haiku for dogs??? which reminds me of an old haiku someone once e-mailed me...

Dog Haiku

I love my master;
Thus I perfume myself with
This long-rotten squirrel.

I lie belly-up
In the sunshine, happier than
You ever will be

Today I sniffed
Many dog butts-I celebrate
By kissing your face.

I sound the alarm!
Paperboy-come to kill us all-
Look! Look! Look! Look! Look!

I sound the alarm!
Mailman Fiend-come to kill us all-
Look! Look! Look! Look! Look!

I sound the alarm!
Meter reader-come to kill all-
Look! Look! Look! Look! Look!

I sound the alarm!
Garbage man-come to kill us all-
Look! Look! Look! Look! Look!

I sound the alarm!
Neighbor's cat-come to kill us all!
Look! Look! Look! Look! Look!

I lift my leg and
Wiz on each bush.
Hello, Spot - Sniff this and weep

How do I love thee?
The ways are numberless as
My hairs on the rug.

My human is home!
I am so ecstatic I have
Made a puddle

I hate my choke chain -
Look, world, they strangle me!
Ack Ack Ack Ack Ack Ack!

Sleeping here, my chin
On your foot - no greater bliss - well,
Maybe catching cats

Look in my eyes and
Deny it. No human could
Love you as much I do

The cat is not all
Bad-she fills the litter box
With Tootsie Rolls

Dig under fence-why?
Because it's there. Because it's
There. Because it's there.

I am your best friend,
Now, always, and especially
When you are eating.

You may call them fleas,
But they are far more -I call
Them a vocation

My owners' mood is
Romantic-I lie near their
Feet. I snore loudly.

i googled dog haiku and found that it was written by a guy named Steve D. Marsh. he's apparently written a book of dog haiku: Dog Daze: Haiku Channeled From Two Mixed Breeds, Zac and E.D., 2000

now i wonder if anyone can write dog haiku in pirate talk. hmmm...

close call

2004-09-17T09:29:00.000-04:00

2004-09-17T09:25:00.000-04:00

hurrican ivan blew through the area last night. even hundreds of miles away from the coast, it was a pretty potent storm here in atlanta. came home from worship team rehearsal last night to find that a tree had fallen right on top of one of our cars. the amazing thing is that it looks like it caused little or no damage. i'm thankful to God for sparing us from a lot of damage, but my heart goes out for all who were not so "lucky."

The question of God

2004-09-16T09:41:00.000-04:00

last night i watched and "tivo'd" "The Question of God," based on the book by Harvard professor ArmandNicholi, dealing with the lives and beliefs of Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis.The second part airs next Wednesday, September 22nd. i was impressed by what i thought was a very balanced portrayal of Lewis and Freud.

granted, i viewed the episode from a christian worldview, but just felt like Lewis' perspective was positive and attractive while Freud's was not attractive at all. it'd be interesting to have a discussion about this show with a mix of people to hear their perspectives.

here's a link to the website: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/

a couple of other random items:

- was pretty impressed that adam hit my site a few hours after i created it. the wonders of science. wonder if you'll get another notification that i linked again!

- thought i might update my 1996 website, but decided to keep it the way it is. it's vintage!

be gentle...

2004-09-14T17:04:00.000-04:00

here i am, an early adopter of web stuff, and i haven't updated my website since 1996, and i'm way late in the game to create a blog site. so this is my first time...

my buddy adam got me reading his site many months ago. i enjoy lurching on his site and on very rare occasions, posting. met with adam this afternoon over at caribou. always a blast to catch up with him and i'm excited about his future ministry plans. it'll be fun to see how our paths continue to intersect.

that's all i've got to say about that - for now.