we're moving our musings over to http://teamsteel.blogspot.com/

check us out!

randomnosity

i was reading brad's blog and it occurred to me that summer was almost over.  actually, when you think about it, for everyone back in school already, i suppose it is.  christy and i went to cape cod - which was awesome, if short - and labor day is coming up fast.  for everyone still in school who may be lamenting the end of your summer, believe me - there is no summer once you work full-time.

speaking of which, i find it interesting that we have had 19 salaried employees in our division leave in the last two months, with at least two more expected to leave shortly.  the saying about rats and a sinking ship comes to mind; not that i think the company is about to go under, but simply that it lends credibility to the belief that something is wrong here.

i wonder how everyone happens to be doing these days.  everyone i knew in college has a job; everyone i knew in high school is either in college or beginning their last year of HS; all the middle schoolers are now in HS.  i feel old!  i guess though that if i'm only as old as i act, i must be early in my teenage years (just ask christy, she'll agree i'm sure).

on a more serious note, you should take some time to check out T4G, which is an excellent weblog provoking some serious thought.

the goings on here in new bern are aplenty.  we finally have internet and tv again - i have to say that i've honestly been too busy to really miss either, but it sure is nice having them back.  also, the parental units visited this weekend for the first time.  it was nice being visited instead of doing the visiting.  we're all moved into the new house (rented, not bought) and everything except the living room/dining room/kitchen is painted.  we have the new furniture; very nice, although i feel a little sad that i didn't make it myself.  dark wood is so totally the way to go.

in other news we made some friends.  this is a major development.  we also saw brooks wood band up in greenville this past weekend.  the show rocked.

the fourth of july - what a holiday.  i've been wanting to post about this for quite some time but i've found it difficult to do without the internet.  right off the bat, let me just say that i think america's pretty decent for a country.  we have a lot of things going for us and a lot of blessings.  that being said, i have serious issues with patriotism in the american church.  i respect the flag, the office of the president and all the men and women who fought and fight for our freedom at home and abroad.  church, however, is not the place to trumpet that.  acknowledgement of their sacrifice is something with which i'm fine; the lowering of the christian flag in subjugation to the american flag is definitely something with which i'm not.  when "worship" consists of the pledge of allegiance, america the beautiful, and the national anthem, i have issues.  when the pastor says america is the "promised land" (direct quote) i also have issues.  to paraphrase derek webb, i pledge allegiance not to a flag or a country but a King and a Kingdom.  america's pledge i support, in its proper time and place.  the american church needs to get over itself - we are neither the most blessed country nor the promised land.

finally, i can't wait for the weekend (and tomorrow should be pretty awesome too, or so i'm told by my i-bet-you-can't-guess-what's-in-your-presents wife).

so they (the IT guys) blocked gmail at work.  and here i was thinking i was all clever by using the chat function nobody knew existed.  other than that, life's pretty sweet.  christy and i have been married 6 months today - and she's still a hottie.   she also starts her job at bosch on monday, so we're excited about that as well.  oh, and we switched our membership from providence to our church down here.  it's like dave o always says (and if you don't know who that is, you're missing out, believe me!) - you have to be plugged into the local body.  Word.

in other news, brooks came to visit, which was nice.  we've also seen miah, danny, hannah and brady.  more than likely, that means we haven't seen you, dear reader (does anyone actually read this, aside from my wife?).  what's the holdup?  and if you make a comment along the lines of my wife ("the holdup is that you never post!") i will hunt you down and gut you like a fish.  10 points if you can name that movie.

all of this to say, we're looking forward to cape cod in a few months, we miss kenya, and we love you.  good night, san diego!

hello again!

so it's been forever since i've actually, really updated this thing.  i figure though that it's about that time - i can't keep the public waiting but so long.  also, i figure since my wife (genteel_steel) was xangasizing now, why not?  she and i are back in raleigh for the weekend - meredith's formal was friday night.

let me take a minute here to point out a fact you may or may not have noticed: that second-to-last sentence definitely read "my wife."  i could be wrong but i'm reasonably sure that my last post was shortly after our engagement.  it's still surreal to me that we had our wedding and we're now one person.  how is it, you ask me?  awesome.  every day there's something new about her that i'm learning.  i have a strong suspicion this trend will continue to continue for years to come. 

so three cheers for marriage, and three bigger ones for my wife.  she is definitely a model of a Christlike bride.  while neither of us could be considered perfect by any stretch of the imagination, watching her grow in her walk and having her spur me on in mine really can't adequately put into words.

rumor has it that my family has made shrimp cocktail as a dinner appetizer so i reckon i'd better head over to the house.  i'll pick this up later perhaps.  until then, all y'all have a good evening.