Trial by fire

I just got back from my first worship team practice...ever. Actually, it's the first organized singing group thingy I've done since junior choir when I was about 8.

I had an "audition" which consisted of our worship leader playing the piano and me singing by myself. I've never been good at starting off cold by myself, so of course the first line was really flat, but then I was more decent.

We had a small group today because one person was sick, one had a wedding rehearsal, and one couldn't make it, so I think that made me feel even more self-conscious because there weren't as many voices to blend in with.

As if singing on the worship team for the first time on Sunday wasn't enough, I was also asked tonight to sing the first verse of one song by myself and to read a bit of scripture as a transition between two songs. So much for a gentle introduction... ;-) It's going to be wild and crazy come Sunday, so wear your ear-plugs if you're within 50 miles of Anoka this weekend.

The other first this Sunday: My Dad is preaching at his church! He's filling in for there pastor who is apparently going to be out of town. He, of course, didn't tell Dana or me about it until after we said we'd sing with the team at our church, so we can't go. But if you're in the Albert Lea area for some reason, head on over to the Methodist Church to cheer him on!

DotD: Free USB Optical Mouse - I decided to continue with the free stuff trend. No, that won't always be the case, but free stuff is fun. It's red, it's optical, and it can be yours free after rebate. Even the shipping is free. It's a bit spendy before the rebate ($29.99), but if you can make due without that much for a couple of months, you'll get the money back after you've forgotten about it, so it will seem like free money.

Mom, she's poking me!

My highly-anticipated visit to the allergist is now over. The past couple of years I've suffered through a couple really rough weeks of allergies in the Spring, along with usually feeling a little miserable when I'm outside a lot in the summer (like camping). When I described this to the doctor before we did the testing, she said I probably had some grass pollen allergies. 

So, the testing began. Thirty pokes in the back with different things to see what you react to. Immediately, my back started itching. The doctor came back in about 10 minutes later and was really surprised at the results. My back was lighting up like a Christmas tree with much redness and many large welts.

There were a couple things I didn't react to, so for those they do an additional test by injecting some of the chemical under the skin on your forearm. Two of those four also became very itchy with large welts and redness.

As it turns out, I am really allergic to grass pollen, but am also allergic to tree pollen, dust mites, mold, and cats.

The cat thing was a surprise, since I do have a cat (Charlie, who just walked across my lap as I typed that and is now trying to get to my cereal bowl), and he's never bothered me. My Mom and both of my siblings are allergic to cats, however. I did not react to the cat one on my back, but did have a big reaction when they injected it under my skin.

The doctor's take on this is that if my allergy symptoms start becoming year-round, it could be because of Charlie and I may have to keep him out of my bedroom, for instance, or use that special anti-allergen shampoo on him.

My take on it was that I shouldn't inject Charlie under my skin. 

DotD: Free photo mug and 20 free photo prints - New Snapfish customers can get their first 20 digital photo prints for free, plus you can also get a free coffee mug with one of your pictures on it. It's only good through June 30 (Saturday), so you'll have to hurry if you want your free stuff.

Goldfish and Honey

Continuing on the Sons of Jacob theme...

My church just finished VBS this past week, so on Sunday the kids were a big part of the service. During the week, each group was named after one of the tribes of Israel, so we had Joseph, Levi, Judah, etc. This in itself was slightly odd, because as I walked in the balk of the sanctuary on Sunday, there were a bunch of signs across the back with a name of one of the tribes on each one. Since this was the morning after card day, my first thought when I saw the signs was, "Gee, Gad is a card in the Reclamation deck I was using last night. And Joseph too!" 

Side note: One of the things I'm looking forward to with the Reclamation game is its ability to help me remember some of the smaller characters and events in the Bible. If you doubt this ability, then you have not seen my friends and I rattling off the names of almost all of the aliens in the Cantina in Star Wars. Credit that to the Star Wars card game we play.

Anyway, back to the VBS service. During the week, the kids were trying to raise money to buy sandals for kids in Sudan, most of which do not own and shoes at all. Many of them develop permanent problems with their feet while walking to and from school, for instance, as they can easily cut their feet on glass, rocks, etc. The goal was to try to raise $300, which would be enough to buy around 120 pairs of sandals. After the first 2 days, they had only raised about $90, so the stakes were raised. If the kids could hit the $300 goal, the tribe that raised the most money would get to pour honey on the head of our children's paster (no idea where they came up with that idea). Well, suffice it to say, that goal was quickly reached.

The children's paster then had another great idea. if they could get to $500 by the end of the week, Pastor Nate would eat a goldfish. Final collection amount: $680. With the collection we took at the Sunday service, we ended up raising about $860 for the Sandals for Sudan project, which should be able to purchase about 350 pairs of sandals for kids. Praise God!

Pastor Nate said at the beginning of the service on Sunday that we would see a few things we'd never seen in a church service before. He was right! First, we saw him eat a goldfish (Silas during the first service, and Peter during the second service) in front of everyone. I was a little sad for the poor little goldfish, but it was for a good cause. Then they brought one o those kiddie pools up front and our children's paster sat in it. Each kid from the winning tribe of Joseph got their own bottle of honey (that's a lot of honey!) and poured it all over her head, shirt, face, etc. I can't wait to see the pictures!

DotD: Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2007 3-user pack - $0.00 - Continuing yesterday's streak of free stuff. I purchased this about 6 months ago for myself, and now it's on sale again. The rebates from Symantec are really quick (much better than the normal 6-8 weeks for other rebates), and arrive in the form of a Visa debit card that you can use pretty much anywhere. Plus, with this 3-user pack, you can use it on up to three computers. Even if you already have Norton AntiVirus but your subscription is expiring, this is a great free way to give yourself 1 more year, plus you get the new version at the same time.

Satan is Dead!

Card day has come and gone, and it was a blast. We played Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, and Reclamation. A couple of us also managed to sneak in a couple games of ping-pong. 

Reclamation was fun, although there's a bit of work to be done to balance things out (which is completely expected). People tend to do strange things when given the chance, and often find ways to do things in a game that the designers never expected. I pulled off a very unique trick in my first game of Reclamation against Joel. Here's what happened:

I had played Reuben on a previous turn and then I played Levi next to him. I then used the Human Sacrifice card to kill Levi to draw 4 cards (I was losing, and desperate times call for desperate measures). This is where things got weird. One of the cards I drew was Vengeance of God, which says if your character was just killed, you can make another character Might +5. The idea was that if a Hell character killed your Heaven character, God may take some action. Instead, I had actually chosen to kill Levi on my own (as the Heaven side) just to draw 4 cards, which then made Reuben really strong. I used another card to start a battle between a Heaven character and Hell character, and I chose to have Reuben fight Satan alone. Normally not a good idea, but because of the Vengeance of God, Reuben not only won the fight, but killed Satan! Following this? Here's the recap:

Reuben murders his brother Levi in a messed-up human sacrifice, this makes God angry, God grants Reuben super-human strength as a result, and Reuben uses this strength to kill Satan.

Not quite what Cooper intended, me thinks.

The other unusual event of the day occurred in Star Trek. I was flying my ship around, and ran into a Borg Cube in hiding. It attacked, and obliterated my ship completely, killing all of my people. And then it happened again, one game later. ;-)

DotD: Free PC case and Free USB hard drive enclosure - Both rely on mail-in-rebates to make the final cost free (before shipping). I'm a sucker for free computer stuff. I built one of my PCs with a free PC case (not the one shown here), a free power supply, and a $10 AMD 2 Ghz processor.

Let me know if you see it

It's gone.

It's actually been gone for a couple weeks now. I have no idea where it went. But it definitely went missing and left me all alone. I need help finding it, and preferably soon.

Have you seen it? Do you know where it is? 

Does it not like me any more? Did I do something wrong? Have I hurt it in some way? Should I apologize? Did I anger it? Did it just need some time alone?

Why, oh why, won't it come back. Why now? We were so good together! Like peanut butter and jelly, milk and cereal (strange flashback to Baron at TEC just now), or bananas in tomato soup. 

Anyway, if you have any information about its whereabouts, call me right away, day or night. I miss it, and want it to come home. These summer nights are really tough without it. I just really need to rediscover

...my softball swing...

Please, let me know if you see it.

DotD: Optimash Prime - $9.99 - It's a Mr. Potato Head. It's a Transformer (Optimus Prime, no less!). It's going to look great sitting next to my Darth Tater and Artoo Potatoo.

Yesterday

So, here we go. Mac Man is starting a blog. He's been harassed, prodded, begged, and then ignored. Plus, I post enough in Cooper's blog to fill my own blog anyway. And the timing is perfect, since Mr. Baron is out of town. So here, you go, Mac Man unleashed, uncensored, and uncannily funny! Okay, maybe uncensored is taking it a little to far, I do have my standards you know.

So, yesterday was a big day. Why, you ask? A couple reasons:

1. First day of summer

2. 15.5 hours of sunlight (if the clouds weren't in the way)

3. 3 months since I got engaged

4. 1 month since Cooper's birthday

5. Softball game

6. 8 days until the iPhone is released

7. The last day without a blog (Baron will be so happy!)

See, we both survived my first post together! Cue the sappy music and start the hugs!

DotD (Deal of the Day): Plush Elephant LCD TV - $109.99 - It's a toy, it's an elephant, it's aTV, and it's just plain cool!