Sometimes I wish I had the writing talent of an English major ... then I could come close to expressing myself as much as I desire:  I'm overjoyed & awed at the grace & greatness of our Lord Jesus for his work on the Cross of Calvary.

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.   2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (ESV)

Got home from tennis earlier and I see I lost another hubcap.  Grrrr.  The sad thing is I just ordered a new hubcap on Friday to replace the first lost one.    At first I wasn't going to replace that first lost one since my folks did the same thing and then promptly lost the replacement (or another one, not sure).

How come we can fly to the moon, yet we can't figure out how to keep a hubcap on a car??

Great, I already get flack from one of my friends about not replacing the first lost cap.  This new situation got me thinking that when I finally get that new hubcap on, everybody will still think I haven't bothered to fix the problem.

Well, funny thing is that as soon as I started checking the other two hubcaps, and there was the second missing hubcap ... just a few feet away  ... just sitting there ... all by itself ... face up ... kinda like the prodigal son returning home    ... okay, not quite.   But still nice, anyways.  I'm gonna take it into the shop when I pick up the new one and see what the deal is with these hubcaps.

But why, oh why don't hubcaps stay on??

Every so often there's something in the news about some kind of soccer-football fan violence overseas.  And then there was the recent death (murder?) of a cricket coach (not sure if they officially connected his death with the team's cricket tournament loss).  Now there's fan violence at a volleyball match??  From ESPN:

Petrol bombs?  Knives, flare guns, and brass knuckles?  Good grief.

"A cross centered life is made up of cross centered days."  C.J. Mahaney in Living the Cross Centered Life.

It's tennis time!  The weather was great tonight, and since I ate way too much with the weekend's festivities (b-day party & church banquet) there were calories to burn off.

Why do my friends like to see me chase after balls?!!    First they hit to one corner, then to the other corner, and back to the original corner.  Actually, it's all good.  It'll get me back in shape faster ... assuming it doesn't kill me ... but tonight I didn't stretch beforehand, so my calves are burning right now!!

To keep from hitting the ball late I've been changing up my swing habits.  Instead of swinging back and forth in one continous motion I'm now starting my backswing earlier & then holding the racquet behind me until I'm ready to hit the ball.  It feels super-weird to change a swing pattern I've used all my life.  Hopefully this old dog can learn a new trick. 

Unfortunately I can feel the allergies starting up again.  Itchy eyes, scratchy throat, sniffles.  Bleh.

Year 2002:  The first day I started going to Ambassador Bible Church I found out they were going to celebrate their 5th year anniversary.  I managed to join in on the night's festivities ( with no late fee! )

Since then I've celebrated every anniversary, plus my own anniversary with the church.  Tonight was the big TENTH anniversary!  So it's also been FIVE years for me ... very cool.  Thanks God for blessing me with this church.

Happy Anniversary Ambassador Bible Church!

You know you were tired when you sleep from 7pm until 8am the next day. 

My coworker said something like this:

A busy schedule at work + hunger + Girl Scout Cookies within an easy reach =    (Not a good combination)   "Must resist, must resist ... can't resist, <munch><munch>."

(Half a box later):  "Ugh, I feel sick". 

Oh yeah, happy meteorological spring today!   It's nice to be back in the heat wave of 50 degrees.

Following Pastor Young's 1+ year old movie advice I finally saw the 1995 BBC version of Pride & Prejudice (yes ladies, the one with Colin Firth) ... all 5 hours of it.  Jennifer Ehle did an incredible job of demonstrating the wit, sass, & charm of the Elizabeth Bennett character as did Keira Knightley, albeit at a slightly slower dialogue pace [ Though I must admit I did watch the BBC version with Closed Captioning (subtitling) turned on.  No doubt, if I ever watch again Knightley's 2005 version (now on DVD) then closed caption again will be my friend. ]

Colin Firth also did a fine job as quiet, awkward, dour Mr. Darcy.  Me thinks he has great career ahead of him   Anyways, having 300 minutes to watch allows one to really enjoy the character development, the scenery and the twists & turns of the story.  You also see more of the real Mr. Darcy than the shorter & faster big screen version.  The comedic relief via the cousin Mr. Collins and the straightforward non-romantic issues via best friend Charlotte Lucas are allowed a more thorough treatment in the longer version.  Unfortunately, while handled well, the mother character of Mrs. Bennett, was just too much for me over the course of time, i.e., she really got on my nerves!

All-in-all, Young's advice was on the mark, but the big-screen version was still Keira Knightley's best role IMHO.

I wonder if I'll ever read the book version ... naaaaah.      Oh, well, I think I got enough "culture" for now.  When's Spidey next movie coming?