I watched the Homerun Derby last night… not all of it, cause it is INTERMINABLY LONG… but I watched a nice chunk of it nonetheless. It was difficult to tune out the incessant banter of Chris Berman’s “backbackbackbackback” but I managed to do so for most of the evening and just catch the highlights. I was disappointed in Ryan Howard’s showing, but I didn’t expect him to put on the same show he did the previous year anyway. Oh well. I guess that players other than Phillies are allowed to win every once and a while…

There’s a great article by Jayson Stark on how to improve the Derby for next year…check it out if you have the chance. He is awesome, and I highly recommend anything he writes or says. He is fantastic and very insightful, not to mention entertaining.

After a whirlwind weekend, I’m back in OH sans Sarah and Big E, who have stayed behind in IL with Uncle “Bubba” and Aunt “Yi” (Benji and Liz). I picked up Debbie (Sarah’s mom) at the Indy airport on Friday night at 11:55pm… since she was 1:30 late, we decided to get a room in Indy instead ov driving the addtl 3hr to Decatur IL for a wedding the next day. Let me tell you– I now know why they “leave the light on for you” at Motel 6 — it’s so all the cockroaches scatter before you open the door.

After a rather uneventful evening (except for the fact that the fan made it sound like a semi was idling in our bathroom), we hit the road and arrived in Decatur to meet Sarah and Ethan who had gone ahead of us. We did a little running around and exploring, had lunch at La Gondola (home of the slightly strange sweet bread) and got a little snack at Del’s Popcorn Shop(YUMM-O). Some of the best caramel corn and definitely the best kettle corn I have EVER had. The wedding was later that evening in Clinton — nice service, lots of Sarah’s family involved… her brother and cousin sang and her uncle did the marryin’… Ethan behaved VERY well and kept announcing to everyone that he knew the people up there… at one quiet point during the minister’s message, he proudly exclaimed “Pa-paw” (Sarah’s uncle) — needless to say, that was Papaw’s favorite part of the entire wedding! One thing that I thought was cool that I had never seen before — Nick and Jessica (bride and groom) actually came back in again after the recessional and dismissed the guests. Quite a nice touch. Wish I would have thought of that…

Back again to Decatur for the reception — fairly uneventful, but there were some items of note…

1. It was held in a Masonic Temple. Nice place, but I had never been to one before. It’s a little more interesting to me after the whole DaVinci Code thing lately…
2. Food was quite good
3. Beer was quite not
4. Neither was the wine
5. During the reception, one of the centerpieces (a bottle of some sort of cherry infused wine) spontaneously exploded, drenching the entire table of 60+’s with red liquid. We think it got too close to the candles on the table, which heated the air inside the bottle and then “PRESTO” — instant entertainment!

Afterwards, we headed to Benji and Liz’s place in Tuscola IL. We went to church outside in the park the next morning as part of the 150th Anniverary celebration for the town (otherwise known as the ‘Sesqicentennial’). Benji’s band sounded great despite the heat out there, and we enjoyed a great message. We then headed home for a short rest, returning at 2pm for a set of original music by Benji and the band… now known as Taking Refuge (although some of the promotional items out there heralded them as Taking REFUSE)… ! The played well, and we stuck around to hear the headliner, Building 429. Great band. Check them out online. Very cool.

Went out to dinner that evening with Liz’s parents and I began the uneventful trek home around 7:30 — which was 8:30 EST. Got back at midnight, yutzed around for a while and went to bed. All in all, I probably logged 600 miles and ate my share of Del’s popcorn. Not a bad weekend. Can’t wait till Sarah gets home.

Just found out… probably July 13. Friday the 13th. Don’t know if I’m happy about that, for more reasons than the obvious…

Good news is that it gives us a few more days to get the trash out. Bad news is that it delays our payoff, so we get less money, so we have less money to work with NOW…which is the major problem. Prayers are appreciated.

Lot going on – let’s try to break it down into personal stuff, house stuff and job stuff

First – Job Stuff

Still working at the RV through next Friday. My interview with LexisNexs went well but apparently not well enough. They wanted someone with more coding experience. Understandable I guess… I’ve never really considered myself a coder, and I had really been out of it for 2 years or so while working at JC. Unfortunately for me, it’s not like the whole “riding a bike” thing… I definitely do forget a lot of it. But I have a follow-up phone interview for another position with the same company — less money, but a job none-the-less. Let’s see how it works out. I also have an interview with another recruiter sometime this week or next — I applied for a number of positions online for this same company, so I’m not sure exactly what they are interested in me for… but hopefully it’s something good. (duh!)

Next – House Stuff

Had to go back to Maryland last week to finish packing up… left on a Tuesday and came back on a Friday. Lots of box-packing with Mom in the meantime. She came down to help out and ended up staying way later than originally anticipated CAUSE SHE ROCKS. The best Mom ever! I don’t care what the rest of you say!

We packed a ton of boxes and unfortunately I had to give in about 4pm on Friday without finishing CAU… and because I have the best friends in the world, I had 4 people volunteer to come by and help finish packing while I was back in OH. I need to mention them here because they are SUPER AWESOME. Thanks to Jen C, April A, April R and Angie F. You are the bestest ever!

Had to find a moving company while I was there to handle the move – we were originally planning on having someone come while we were there, but since there was no way to get it done in time, we decided to get a company to come in for us and move the items without us being there (apparently this is done often enough that they didn’t sound surprised when I asked). The original company we wanted to do it for us quoted us one rate and then said it would be about $2500 more when they did a walk through. UNACCEPTABLE. We found another company and they gave us a NTE price, plus they’re storing items for 1 month for free. This is superb since we don’t have a place to put things yet — there’s no way it’s fitting in Sarah’s mom’s place that’s for sure! Closing is still scheduled for Monday the 9th, and it’s on track. There’s still a lot to do by then, but we are praying and hopeful that everything will happen as it should and we will be done with the MD house. Hurray!

Finally – Personal Stuff…

There’s a wedding this weekend in Illinois — looking forward to meeting more of Sarah’s family and catching up with my brother and sister in law, Benji and Liz. Besides the wedding, we’re supposed to attend a church service in the park (Benji is leading worship) and afterwards we’ll be going to a concert. Benji’s band is opening up for a band called Building 426 (?) or something like that and it should be a good time. Sarah, Debbie and Ethan are staying through Thursday, although I’llbe leaving to heard back around dinnertime Sunday cause I have to work. Gotta pay the bills ya know.

I’m feeling slightly anxious yet also invigorated these past few days seeing things line up in anticipation of Friday (job) and Mon (house). Mom and Dad have been a great shoulder to lean on as have other family members (Debbie and Aunt Robin) and have kept me encouraged. It’s difficult to be struggling so much right now — I’ve never had to really worry about finding a job before (they’ve always found me), and honestly it’s been a bit of a blow to my self-ego. I know there’s a job out there for me, but I feel like I don’t even have the time to wait for it cause I need money NOW. We have been blessed by financial gifts from friends and family, have had some unexpected windfalls in the way of tax returns, etc., plus I had some client billings that came in… so we have had money to live on. I know that God will provide… but it’s been a trying time to say the least.

Church out here is way cool. Sarah and I are meeting with the Creative Arts pastor of Vineyard Cincinnati next Friday and hopefully can start to get plugged in — either band, tech or something. We really feel comfortable here and seems to be a natural extension of our time at JC without the pressure. It’s a great place to worship and is really outreach focused… check their site and learn all about the recent Sumnmer of Service they hosted for teens!

Ok — that’s all for now…

“Our house… in the middle of our street…”