Things you find on ye old internet

Here a jsut a few things that I've found today just searching through various sites. Since I probably won't be on for a few days with Christmas and everything. Enjoy them at your pleasure.

Twins having twins

From News of the Weird

Recurring Themes

Six weeks ago, News of the Weird reported on two New Hampshire mothers who had been arrested for viciously assaulting their own children over rather petty provocations. Later, in November, came Nicole Mancini, 29, who was arrested in Rochester, New Hampshire, after she, wearing pajamas, walked into the St. Mary's Church with her three children and was overheard mumbling about the need to "sacrifice" the kids on the "altar" "before 3 o'clock." After charging her with three counts of child endangerment, a police lieutenant said, "Eighteen years I've been doing this, and I've never come across anything like it." [Valley News (Lebanon, N.H.)-AP, 11-14-04]

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Readers' Choice

In Kent, Wash., in November, a 24-year-old man, whose reasons will probably never be known, tried to heat his lava lamp on a stove; he was killed when the lamp exploded and propelled a piece of glass into his heart. And on Thanksgiving day in Worcester, Mass., Frank Palacios, 24, apparently got tired of being criticized for picking at the turkey with his fingers and stabbed his cousin and his uncle, sending both to the hospital. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer-AP, 11-29-04] [Boston Globe, 11-26-04]

Angry people at Christmas time?

WOW! I know that there are some people who don't believe in God. That's fine. Not everyone is going to believe, but a coworker came across this today. Either he's got a real beaf with the church or he's that bored and too creative. What made me laugh was the line "Tell them that Santa is no kindly old man; he is an evil demon."

Then there are those in the church that are angry at NFL for things like this and this. I understand the frustration, but the NFL schedule has been out for a long time (since April I believe). Why all of the complaints now? Is one football game going to stop either Christians or not-Christians from going to church? I doubt it. If people were already planning on going - then they'll go. If they weren't planning on going - then what was your church doing to try and reach the lost?

And of course, the anger (or maybe sarcasm in this case) isn't lost on politics. I am continually amazed at the time people have on their hands. If all of these creative people actually put their efforts to good use we might be able to solve some of the world's problems. Instead we live in a society that just says its ok to try and whine and cry the loudest so that you get heard.

Enough of my rant. I'm enjoying the day because we finally got some snow. It just ain't Christmas without the snow. I don't know how people in other parts of the world do it. I just don't think I could have a Christmas w/o snow. Anyway, back to the grind stone. As my brother would say - Peace y'all.

Finals... yippie :)

Yes, finals are upon me. I just finished taking my 1st of three finals today. It started at 7:30 this morning! It went pretty well. We had to come up with an idea for a church plant - how would we want to see a church grow. I believe that I will do ok on the essay. It was pure writting. We just came in, sat down and started. I've got another one at 1:30 this afternoon and then my last one for the day at 7:30 tonight! I guess I shouldn't complain too much. It could always be worse. On the upside, I get to sleep in tomorrow. At least for a little bit. I'll still have to drive my wife into work, but it beats getting up as early as I did today. Off to grab some food since I missed breakfast. Chao.

Christmas @ Northwestern

My sister-in-law, Amanda, goes to Northwestern on the north side of the Twin Cities. She plays the oboe (sp?) as well as piano and another instrument or two I believe. Anywho, it has become a tradition for us to go the the Christmas concert and hear her perform. I must say, IMHO it is the best concert at the college level that I have ever heard. Each year I am blown away at what happens. Thie first year we went, Amanda had a solo in this huge Russian piece - totally amazing. It also seems to be tradition to go to the Olive Garden before the concert starts. So we'll meet up with Mom and Dad, Amanda and my other sister-in-law Heidi around 5pm. I'm looking forward to the concert and to spend some time with family. I need a break from the chaos of school. I can't believe that 2 weeks from today the semester will be done! Holy crap!

Thanksgiving in Texas

WOW! What a trip. It was great to be able to see Chad and Erin (and Peanut). I know that it was great for Elsa to be able to just get away from the stress of MN. It's amazing how much you get to know about someone when you're trapped in a car with them for 40 hrs. That was about the total amount of time we spent in the car from MN to TX then back to MN. I'm using 'car' in the widest sense of the term. We actually rented an SUV from Enterprise. It was supposed to be a mini-van, but when I went to pick it up, they said they didn't have one and instead upgraded us to the SUV. They wanted to know if that would be ok? Like I could really say, "No, excuse me, I know you don't have any other large vehicles available so I guess I'll jsut cancel my trip." While it guzzled gas, it was also a pretty sweet ride. They gave us a 2004 Durango. I was just happy not to rack up 2600 miles on my own car :) The trip was a ton of fun. We got to see how Texans live, eat, and even partake in their night life (bowling if you're wondering). We also learned that massive amounts of swearing will occure from anyone (male or female) who plays any type of driving game. The guys spent numerous hours playing NASCAR 2005, while the girls enjoyed Mario Kart. Swearing became the standard for any driver that day.

I can hardly wait to go back. I know that Elsa, Jill and Jay feel the same way. I'm sure that next time though we will end up flying down. The drive was fun to do once. Maybe if we had more time for vacation we would drive again, but I think we'll be saving up for some flights. And flights should be cheaper when its not a holiday weekend. I know that Elsa would also like to actually see more of Texas. She's a HUGE fan of the TV show Dallas as well as a JFK history buff. We would have stopped at South Fork (I think that's the place where Dallas was filmed) if it would have been closer to our route. Too bad she found it on the map too late ;) I also wouldn't mind seeing some of Houston, or going down to the Gulf. We will what happens. For right now its back to the grind stone. SSDD.