Ahh! I feel like a heel... Awfully sorry I missed your B-day yesterday, Jonathan! I was planning on it all week trying to make mental notes about it, and then I was just either gone or working my head off all day. Sorry!

Anyway, hope you had a great and blessed day! Happy 18th! :)

Well, how's ya'll doin'? I've had an extremely packed schedule the last week... I won't go into all the boring details connotated by that statement, but I will mention the highlights in case anyone's half interested. :)

First of all, on Wednesday evening after choir practice, we sang the National Anthem for the Blazer game at the Rose Garden (actually, hannah was sick, so I was the only representative from our house, unfortunately). The whole choir got free tickets for the game afterwards and it was a real blast! Not that I'm a Blazer fan by any means... They're pretty much the lousiest basketball team in existence right now, holding the worst record in the NBA for game losses (they've lost 17 out of their last 19 games). But it was fun to watch them get creamed, anyway. :) So anywho, that was fun... Apart from me having a few embarrassing moments of abstract confusement (is that even a word?) while I was walking around blindly feeling like a lost ant in an airport trying to find my group section with Colin and Mel (no comments guys... I feel stupid enough as it is :)).

ANYWAY.

Okay, then the only other relatively interesting thing this week was going blading for somewhere around 3 hours with Kahleeb and Lukus Capucus (sorry guys... I personally think those are pretty sweet nicknames :)). Luke and I at first almost got killed by some punk in a SHO car who really thought he was hot stuff... After which we picked up Caleb and proceeded to make futile attempts for quite some time to indulge our sweet-teeth upon the local Dairy Queen. (Well hey! We figured that since we were on wheels we might as well try to implement the Drive Thru, but then we discovered that we lacked sufficient weight to set off the scale to activate the thing.) Anyway, we eventually struck upon the brilliant idea of taking off the rollerblades and going into the place in our socks, a technique completely in a class of its own. This was followed by us ordering three medium cones... BIG mistake. Turns out that if you look up "medium" in the greek, it translates to "14 inches". I think we made it through close to 6 inches before we started to feel totally sick. Not to mention going on a sugar high...

On the whole though, it was fun. :)

So that's pretty much it for last week... This week I have a few interesting things going on, the most important of which is me playing solo guitar at a benefit concert on Saturday evening. It's at a performing center in Portland (across the street from the Schnitz for you people who live in the area) that seats over 900 people, so it should be quite an experience. I thankfully only have to play for around ten minutes since there's so many other performers, but it's still going to be a little unsettling, I dare say. :) I'd actually appreciate it if you'd keep me in your prayers this week as I prepare for that...

Also had a lot of fun over at Josh's house today... My fam went over there for dinner and, ah, well, I brought a few guns along too and the rest is history. :) Matthew had his first experience with a high-powered rifle when he shot my 7mm Magnum and, um, he has a little bit of a bruise around his eye from the scope. lol, man, that was completely hilarious. :) Anyway, thanks again for a great day, Josh! (btw, did you get ahold of Mrs. McCormick about transporting firearms in her van?)

Well, that about covers it... It's gettin' a little late here anyhow, so I'll tune out here. :)

Oh yeah, Random Question of the day: Who has shot anything bigger than a .22 round?

Love ya'll!

So why exactly do store owners and enterprises which specialize in entertainment/holiday stuff advertise bunnies and eggs when Easter rolls around? Furry pink rabbits and eggs? Is there something wrong with this picture? Rabbits don't lay eggs! But then, can you visualize walking down Wal*Mart's Kiddy isle and seeing Easter Chickens lined up on the shelf? Can you imagine? "Buy now! Get a HUGE discount on your favorite colored Easter Chicken! *Some restrictions apply"

Okay, abstract moment of befuddlement over... What'd ya'll do for Easter? Anything particularly interesting?

Well, since getting my permit a week ago, I've put in a decent amount of hours. I drove on the freeway for the first time on Monday when I had to go to Portland for my classical guitar lesson and it went okay I guess. :) Freeway driving isn't as hard as it might seem, apart from having heightened senses and nerves at higher speeds. Just picturing the drastic effects of one mistake at 65 mph with lots of other cars around you is enough to keep a guy pretty darn careful. I'm not really what you'd call a speed demon always trying to go faster... For some unexplicable reason, the posted speed limit seems just fine to me! :) (Sorry, Josh, but I'm not as much of a dare-devil as you are when it comes to cars! :))

Anyway, I drove to church and back today... So I'm actually getting somewhere! :)

Oh yeah, I finally took the plunge and got a very long overdue haircut, too (courtesy of my wonderful mother who was surprisingly only too happy to ablige :))... And since I abhore getting my hair cut, that's big news for me. :) Well hey! It's depressing sitting there and watching all that warm, curly cozy hair just fall, clump after clump onto the cold floor! Don't know about you people, but I'm kinda attached to my hair... :) Anyway...

I'm feeling very, um, fat and sleepy at the moment. lol :) Characteristics which are easily derived from what a very large and tasty meal can bestow. :)

Oh yeah, random question: Who plays Johann Pachelbel's "Canon in D"? On any instrument?

And with that, I believe I'll go get some very much needed shut-eye! :)

Hi all you wonderful peoples! How's life treating you since, um, yesterday? :)

Well, today's "big" news is that I finally took the plunge and went to the DMV (okay, it's really the DOL, but I think DMV sounds cooler...) and got my driving permit. And then I drove home... Thrill city people! *starts looking suave*

...*cowers as crowd starts glaring*...

...Okay, so the truth is that I freaked completely out and went in having only skimmed the study book this morning (hey, I'm not typically a crammer, but it's Spring Break, and the rest is history...) and actually scored 92% on the test. It was essentially just common sense except for, uh, um, the two I missed. :) Well hey! They were like:

"how do you legally change lanes":

a) put on your blinker

b) turn your head

c) change lanes

So I'm sitting there going "uuuhhhh, they like all work". Problem was, there wasn't an "all of the above" option, so what was I supposed to pick? I ended up choosing what seemed to me to be the most logically correct option which was "turn your head", but apparently the computer thought that puting your blinker on was the more legal way to change lanes. Since when did computers care more about legalities as opposed to safety? Eh? So I guess that's all you have to do, folks... Doesn't matter if there's car right next to you, just put your blinker on and go for it! And then when the cop is drumming his fingers just tell him you were "perfectly legal, officer." After all, how are you supposed to know there was a car there if you don't have to turn you head?!! Huh? Huh?

I'm done ranting... I think I'm pretty well justified, right? :)

On another note, as of baking a world class batch of cookies yesterday, I feel compelled to say that I can outcook any girl here... *ducks* (Good thing you are all at least 100 miles away, otherwise I might have to back that up... :))

Random question: Who was the 17th president of the United States? *grins as everyone scrambles for their 5th grade history reader* Wait... *scrambles for my 5th grade history reader...*

Have a great weekend peeps!

Okay, so I'm on Spring Break... Gimme some leeway. :) I'm still very busy, but I thought hey, if I'm going to be on break, I should try something novel, ya know? The result? A batch of, uh, um, beautiful, yes, that's the word I'm looking for, CCCs (aka Chocolate Chip Cookies). And by the way, it's not MY fault that the second half of those cookies are ovals... Mom was like, "Hunny, why don't you try doing *this*?" Yeah, well, it didn't work, as you can see.

Not to mention I broke, as the picture shows, mom's favorite spatula... *slinks off to corner* Well hey! It's not my fault that the thing was used by Alexander the Great's great aunt! It was so brittle that just a leetle bit of pressure was enough to cause what that particular spatula has had coming for centuries.

So on the whole, my cookies don't, well, uh, look as good as say my sister's, but man, they really taste awesome (if I do say so myself)! And we all know that taste is better than looks, right? Oh, and, uh, no-one needs to know that I put in a half a bag of chocolate chips and like 3 cups of sugar, either... riiiiggght? :)

Btw, David, if you read this, I wanted you to know I've been working on POL this week too... Just so you don't think I'm neglecting it when I actually DO have time. :)