Monday, January 21, 2013

...And To You...

Rachel and I began our big date by eating lunch with our friends Andy and Jacki Miller who pastor Seneca's sister church in Canton.  We settled on Greek food, and boy was it standout.  I really savored the first bite of lamb.  I can almost....almost taste it now.  We sat and chatted for three hours, but it felt like barely any time had passed at all.  When we dropped them off, we went inside briefly to check out movie possibilities.  I hadn't necessarily planned to go see a movie as part of our date, even though we love to do that together, but after our long lunch time conversation I was ready to shut-up for awhile.  While surfing the web, the Miller's dog Rainey decided to become friends and gave my hand a very good licking.  The consistency of her tongue was very smooth, which was surprising.  I went to wash my hands, but Jacki commented that it would dry quickly, and then I remembered that dog saliva is really pretty clean, so I didn't trouble about it.  Later, I sniffed my hand, and noticed that there was no dog smell to speak of.  Andy also volunteered that he'd been listening to the Thrice CD that I gave him, which was a blessing to me.  Caught, but did not restrain myself from being cynical about myself and the church in general.

We settled on Silver Linings Playbook, which was playing at a Tinseltown (Cinemark) theater in Canton.  It is a really good character/love story and is worthy of it's Oscar best picture nominee designation.  All the major actors are firing on all cylinders.  After the movie, we had a "thrown together," but delicious supper with Grandma Brown and then on our way home in separate cars.  I miss traveling together.  I finally rolled in around 10 to discover that Rachel had had a hard time with the girls.  Wish I hadn't needed to stop for gas.

January 20th

Beginning early, once again, I worked on my sermon.  Today was one of those days where I went into it thinking I had good material, but seemed unable to deliver it properly or find my proper rhythm.  I was talking about Timothy (from Philippians 2:19-24), but struggled to build a decent bridge between Paul's thoughts and our world.  I'll get another shot with Epaphroditus next week.

We ventured out to Akron to enjoy the hospitality of my mother-in-law, and when it comes to hospitality there are few better.  It was exciting to take the first highway trip with the new van and drive her at 65 for a few hours and even more exciting to know that tomorrow Rachel and I will be able to go on a big date.  After a nice supper (that I didn't have to cook or think about) I ran a few errands, bought some birthday gifts, and then, after putting the kids to bed, Ann and I had a nice conversation about the thrills of moving and a myriad of other topics.  It's always a little unsettling to converse without background noise.  It's good, but I'm just now used to it anymore.  Rachel arrived late because of air transit complications, but it's always good to sleep in the same bed.

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