New Glasses

My new glasses arrived today. I'm wearing them, but there is always an adjustment period with glasses, and as a result I'm getting some motion sickness. So I won't be able to make it out to the tent meetings tonight, but hopefully tomorrow (and hopefully by tomorrow I'll be adjusted enough to the new glasses that I'll be able to go to work without any problems!

The new glasses have the SV 1.67 lens, which means they are half as thick as plastic. That means that if I had plastic lens they would be three quarters of an inch thick!

Food of several sorts

My children have taken to identifying the various food groups at every meal. "We have grains, meat and milk products, but no vegetables at this meal." This new emphasis on nutrition has made for some embarrassing questions like, "Is Diet Coke good for you?"

Speaking of a different type of food (specifically food for the soul), the Gospel Tent Meetings started tonight. There was a good crowd of about 100. Joe Reese gave an excellent message. He is a "tell it like it is" kind of preacher, but is polite, doesn't manipulate emotions and never seeks to embarrass anyone. Of course, he won't tell someone they're going to Heaven if in fact they aren't. If you live in Ottawa, come on out to Bridlewood Bible Chapel, 465 Eagleson Road, Kanata at 7:00pm any night this week. It's a message that will change your life and change your eternity!

Just another busy Saturday

Saturdays always seem to be busy. This morning, Karen let me sleep in to about 7:30 (very late for me) and then I got up with the children and she went back to bed. I tooks some nice pictures of the children, including a couple of Hannah smiling.

At 10am, I took the older two children out to the library and then around for some things I needed to pick up. After lunch I got some groceries, then Karen and I took turns looking after the children. During my rest, I slept. During Karen's rest I played Lego with Joel and watched Hannah. I was also able to get a couple of things done around the house like changing a light bulb and fixing the freezer door. Scrofulous the Monster made a brief appearance to tickle Joel but was vanquished by the sword he picked up at his Vacation Bible School last week.

I barbequed supper, and once again while doing the barbequing pulled some weed from the back yard. I'm trying to be a good no-herbicide eco-friendly kind of guy, but I'm spending a lot of time pulling weeds and still seem to be losing the battle.

Late night updates

I can't sleep, so this might be a good time to do some updates.

I've ordered some new glasses. My current glasses are about 7 years old and the coatings are coming off. Unfortunately with my prescription and the SV 1.67 lens, the glasses come out to $450+. My vision plan at work covers some of this, but it's still a lot of money out of pocket.

Bethany and Joel are attending a Vacation Bible School this week. It runs during the mornings, so Karen gets a couple of hours with only the baby to look after. They are really enjoying it. The church that is running it is doing a really good job (very elaborate decorations, etc.).

I ordered a copy of the book, "Seven Men Who Rule the World from the Grave". It's about 7 men whose ideas have influenced our modern world and current thought patterns. It should come in next week. In the mean time, I'm rereading "Preaching with Purpose" (hightly recommended for preachers) and little book on Canada's Prime Ministers. I've been compiling a list of books recommended by some of the Bible teachers I've been listening to. These men are rather deep thinkers, and the books should be very interesting. Now I just need to order them and read them!

On Tuesday I had an interesting experience. I was at Carleton University interviewing coop students. It's been a long time since we were able to hire a coop. No, we haven't fully recovered from the hi-tech meltdown, but things are slowly getting better. It's been really rough...

Racial Profiling

An interesting article at http://www.womenswallstreet.com/WWS/article_landing.aspx?titleid=1&articleid=711. Is racial profiling a legitimate tool in protecting ourselves against crime? Or is it an unacceptable invasion of our civil rights? Personally I believe the validity of the tool is in direct proportion to it's value. In other words, if racial profiling could help reduce car theft, it probably isn't worth the reduction in civil rights. If it could help reduce terrorism, it's probably worth it. If it could help prevent nuclear terrorism, then it is certainly worth it!
 

Thanks for the warning

The local community newspaper had a warning from the SPCA today: do not neuter your cat or dog by yourself. Take your pet to a vet to have it done. You would think this would be obvious, but... there are 2 folks in Ontario who are facing charges for doing just this! Thanks for the warning, but I think I have that one figured out already!
 
Just below this edifying warning was an ad for the Gospel Tent Meetings our church is holding at the end of July. I hope folks notice it. We live in an affluent community, but one which seems to have forgotten it's spiritual needs. Christianity offers a message of hope. No collections will be taken at this event, which will hopefully help people to realize that the church doesn't want their money but that God wants their hearts.
 

Power power everywhere, and not a newton to drink...

We had another power outage today. It wasn't one of those province crippling widespread outages; just a regular Kanata crippling 3 hour outage. Kanata has the most unreliable electrical supply of any city I've seen. Apparently some substandard wires were buried 20 years ago and they are starting to go. OK, but if there was any competition, the local utility would be out of business.

Hannah had her immunization today, and so she had a red sore leg and was really crabby. When we got her down to sleep, I went to sleep right away. I slept from 8:30 to 11:30, then I was up with Hannah for a while, and now I'm just about ready to go back to sleep.

I barbequed hamburgers Monday night. The Loblaws President's Choice Prime Rib burgers are about the best I've ever tasted! Highly recommended!

Clean up

Our church is having a week of special "Gospel Tent Meetings". Yup, we're getting a big tent and a strong evangelist is coming and thousands of flyers are being distributed and there is a big sign outside the chapel. We've been praying for months that some precious folks would see their need for salvation.

In order to make the place more presentable, we did some chapel cleanup today. Mostly trimming trees, cleaning up some of the brush and sweeping the parking lot. It looks really good. It was also really great to work alongside some friends.

My part in this week of tent meetings includes counseling (even though I'm not an evangelist!) and some late night security at the tent.

No Problem...

Has anyone noticed how "no problem" has replaced "you're welcome" in today's vocabulary? I was at a restaurant tonight and asked for a refill of my iced tea (they give free refills). When the waitress returned with the drink, I thinked her and she said "No problem." Of course it's no problem. It's free. If I ever own a restaurant (unlikely) please remind me to train all my employees to say "You're welcome" instead of that awful "No problem". Even better would be "My pleasure", but I guess that's asking too much. By the way, I still had a nice time at the restaurant and still gave a good tip.

The Long Weekend

My parents are visiting for the long weekend. It's really great to see them again, and they are really a big help. They took all of the children for a walk this morning, and so Karen and I had over an hour to work on cleaning out the garage. My parents and I also spent quite a bit of time pulling weeds from the back yard. I have hired a lawn care guy to fertilize, and he spent a couple of hours in the spring pulling all the weeds he could find, but today we really made progress!

During their visit, Popa taught Bethany to ride her bike. I tried to teach her, but it eluded me. Anyway, she started yesterday and now she rides like she's been doing it for years!

Of course, Nana and Popa have been enjoying spending time with their newest grandchild, Hannah. Popa took the two oldest children to Burger King for breakfast, which is a tradition for them. And there has been lots of time spent with Hannah, holding her and taking her out in the stroller.