From the Desk 8/2/2008

This morning I woke up later than intended, but still managed to get out the door shortly after 8am. The drive up to Knoxville was peaceful. There was little traffic and good weather all the way into town. I arrived just after 10:30 at my parents' house and found Jon and Dad finishing up changing the starter in Jon's car. I ate a couple of blueberry muffins as I walked out the door to meet Jubin and Chris Reed in the driveway. We all piled in my car and headed out to "the Mounds" which is Knoxville's newest frisbee golf course. We arrived at the course and almost immediately regretted choosing today to go play as the sun was already heating the outdoors like a frying pan ready to cook bacon. We played through the 18 hole course over 2 hours and our play seemed to improve throughout the course. We skipped hole 6 as someone had apparently stolen the basket. I never knew that an actual frisbee golf basket was such a hot commodity, but nothing really surprises me anymore. We stopped off by Sonic on the way back to my parents' house to hydrate as best we could. I dropped Jubin and Chris off at their cars and then I headed to my next item on the agenda.

I met Chan, Hickey, Clay, Amy, and Jon at West Town Mall for some lunch. Forgetting that it was tax free weekend, I expected there to be a sizable, but not overwhelming crowd at the mall. I was disappointed to find the later was true. I parked near the outer rim on the Sears side of the mall and began my 5 minute hike into the building. I arrived and after a few minutes Amy and Jon showed up and we grabbed some food. I left the mall and met Hickey at his parent's house after he dropped Chan at his car. We headed out to Alcoa Highway to meet Elizabeth. We met at the Starbucks and she gave me the envelope containing the photos and music to put together the sideshow for her wedding in September. We chatted briefly, but then had to head on to the next stop on the agenda. Hickey and I ran by Movies 4 Sale and I picked up 5 movies I had Hickey hold for me (and took advantage of their buy 4 get 1 free sale) I dropped Hickey off at his parent's house and then returned to mine to say hello to Mom and get ready for the wedding. I was only able to chat with Mom and G-mom for about 15 minutes before jumping in the shower and then heading out the door to meet Hickey.

I met Hickey at Movies 4 Sale (yes that was the 2nd time I went there today) and we headed out to New Vision Fellowship church to the wedding of Brenda's daughter, Khaley. The ceremony was beautiful and everything went smoothly (as it always does with Brenda and Lisa). We said hello and goodbye in the same breath to the people we knew and then headed to get gas on my way out of town. I dropped Hickey off at his truck and then followed him to his parent's house to pick up the guitar he was lending me. I left Knoxville around 7:35 and soon found that I was very tired from my full day of activities. I talked to Stacy for a bit on my way home to try and stay alert. I also had to stop off in Calhoun, GA to get some food and a drink to re-fuel and hopefully wake me up somewhat. It did the trick enough to get me home. I called Christina and she came over to watch some Fresh Prince of Bel Air with me. After just 3 episodes I could no longer keep my eyes open and was forced to make her leave for the night. It was good just to see her for those few minutes and hopefully I will get some good sleep so I will be open to what God teaches me tomorrow morning at His Hands.

Meditation for the day: 1 Sammuel 16:7 “But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

From the Desk 8/1/2008

Happy August! I'm not really sure where July went, but apparently it wasn't a bad month because it didn't seem to stick around for long. I woke up this morning and went into work dressed in my regular attire as I was actually going to be in the office all day today. I worked in the morning on getting an update on our fall catalog mailing, searching the media outlets to see if our stores appeared anywhere we didn't know of, and tweaking some signs with correct prices. I also added an idea I had for the new catalog cover while driving to Stacy's to the list of possibilities to consider. I worked up until around 11:30 when Chris arrived with lunch for everyone. We had turkey and cheese subs, chips, and cookies. It is really refreshing to know that the company you work for, doing what you love, also cares about its employees.

I watched a couple of episodes of That 70's Show at my desk as the tables in the break room were taken over by trays of food. I returned from lunch to work on another project having to deal with the website. I needed to add two more documents to the manager's page and fix the links on about 4 other documents. The last time I tried to add documents to the site, it crashed and was down for about 4 days. This time the results were much better. I not only fixed the broken links, but added the new documents without any catastrophic results. I think that I'm beginning to understand more how html editing works. That process took quite a bit of time to complete and then I had to update some email marketing tools for Kenny to use for the TN store accounts. They simply needed the newest catalog cover on them so they would seem fresh and new to the customers when they open them. I updated them for the various discount levels and also made a sign to promote the rest mats at the correct price. (the sign was rather old and the prices have changed twice in the past 6 months) After that I received a text from Christina telling me that she was stuck at a gas station when her car wouldn't start. Her dad was going to be able to get there fairly soon to look at it so she told me when I offered to come sit with her that it was ok. We planned to go to a concert by Adrianne tonight in downtown Atlanta, but due to this new occurrence I wasn't sure if we would be able to make it or not. 5:00 rolled around and once I double checked to make sure Christina was ok I headed home.

Christina called me to let me know that her car was fixed after they replaced the battery. She went home and showered and then came over around 8:00. We decided that we would most likely miss Arianne's portion of the concert since she went on at 8:00 so we went to get some dinner at Las Palmos (where we had our first date). We returned to the apartment and watched the new episode of "Psych" and an episode of "House" before I fell asleep for about an hour or so. Christina woke me up and I walked her to her car so she could go home for the evening. I went to sleep with mixed feelings about the drive to Knoxville tomorrow. On one hand I really missed my friends and family and wanted to see them, but on the hand I wasn't thrilled at the idea of buying the gas to get there and back or to take the time necessary to drive the distance. I seemed to have no trouble falling sleep though and thinking back on the evening I went to sleep with a smile on my face thinking back to our (Christina and I) first date.

Meditation for the day: Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 "Two are better than one. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who fall and has no one to help him up!"

From the Desk 8/9/2008

This morning I slept in for some much needed rest. I woke up around 10:00, but drifted in and out of sleep before reluctantly getting out of bed around 11:30. It marks the latest I've been in bed in the last 5-6 years so naturally I felt well rested when I got up. I straightened a few things around my desk and then ate some lunch after grabbing a shower. I talked with Stacy briefly and may go over to her house to mow later today (too hot right now). I began the long, arduous task of laundry that would probably consume most of the day. I spent a bit of time learning to read guitar tabs online and then use them to learn another song on the guitar Hickey lent me. It came together easily (as I selected an easy song) and in about 30 minutes I had learned to play "Hang" by Matchbox 20. I took my excitement for learning that song and poured it into playing some Guitar Hero III on the hard setting and not doing too bad at first. I have now made my way through the first 2 sets of songs.

I ran an errand, between loads of laundry, to Target to pick up a few things. After shopping I stopped off by the Box parking lot to leave a note on Christina's car to suggest that we go to the Marietta Diner after she got off work to have some of their legendary desserts. I received a text about an hour after that from Christina saying that if I really wanted to go that Leslie and Bill would like to join us. I responded that it would be great if they would. Late night restaurant visits are always more fun with more people. I watched some TV until 9:45 when Christina called to say that they were almost done and then I headed out the door to meet them at the Box. After a little debate about how to drive down there (number of cars, who was driving) we were on our way. I know that Christina and I are fairly indecisive people so it was a big step for me to just say, "Why don't we take one car and I'll drive". I really was just hungry for some dessert and knew that Christina was too. We arrived and were seated immediately. The Diner was relatively crowded for 10:00 on a Saturday night so I consider us fortunate to have been seated so promptly. Leslie and Bill actually ordered real food, but Christina and I had our hearts set on some sugary treats from the cake display. She ordered the 7 Deadly Sins Chocolate cake and I ordered the White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake. (If you see this picture dad, stop drooling, and yes it was that good!) The "slice" of cake they brought me was enormous! The picture shown is served on a full-sized regular plate. Obviously I didn't eat the entire piece that night. I only managed to eat about 1/3 of the piece before feeling so overloaded with sugar that I might start running with just my legs under the table.

After we left the Diner, I dropped Leslie, Bill, and Christina back off at the Box to get their cars. I then followed Christina over to Leslie and Bill's to watch a movie. Leslie is a Disney enthusiast so we had selected to watch "The Sword in the Stone" as they had just received it in the mail. We began watching it and I was instantly reminded of how good the Disney classics are. That didn't, however, manage to keep any of us awake as we had come down off our sugar highs and at one point we were all jarred awake by a sound from the TV. At that point we decided to take a rain check and watch the movie again when we could start it a little earlier. I said goodnight to Christina and then drove home. It was nice because Leslie and Bill live about 5 minutes from my apartment so it wasn't long before I was in my bed fading off to sleep.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 119:14 “I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.”

From the Desk 7/31/2008

I woke up and even though I was sore and tired I managed to drag myself out of bed and go to the fitness room and run. Today was my last day (this week) packing orders in the warehouse so I once again put on shorts and a t-shirt as the warehouse has been getting warmer each day with the weather outside. I arrived and had to work with Mike for the first part of the day to update the header on the website since the countdown clock to the kick-off of the GA Classroom Gift Card had reached 0:0:00 and then began to count backwards. Mike didn't get in until 9:00 due to his checking on his home computer that all the stores were operational for tax free sales. He came in and we almost got a chance to update the header, but it seemed that every time we started to sit down he got interrupted by a computer emergency. We eventually used the time machine function on the Mac (which literally allows you to go back and access the files and settings you had from up to 6 months ago) and restored the original file, then updated the graphics and made it work correctly. I then went to the warehouse to help them pack orders. When I showed up to pack there weren't many orders ready, but I stayed and packed a few orders up before realizing that I probably was taking work away from someone else as there were people waiting to pack when an order arrived. I returned to my desk in time to join Stacy, Tausha, and Blair in the break room for lunch.

Leslie (from Town Center) and Dave went together and got Chick-fil-A for everyone for lunch. They soon realized that there wasn't enough chicken to go around so pizza was soon ordered to supplement the missing food for the hungry people that had yet to eat. I had a couple of pieces of chicken and the other half of my burger from Friday's. After relaxing briefly I went back to my desk to work on finishing the final page of item updates for the BTS sales flyer items on the website. That took about an hour to do the remaining page, but I was glad to get that off my plate. I also updated the sign posting the extended hours for Town Center as due to crowds they have decided to open at 8:00am instead of 9:00am. Since I mentioned crowds, I was truly amazed at the amount of customers we had in the store at one time. It was difficult for me to move form the back of the store to the front without having to stop and wait for people to move/get out of the way so I could pass. It was truly a crazy scene, but the employees seemed to be handling the rush with smiles and confidence. I worked on fixing another page (the About Us tab along the bottom of the website) that had been broken for about 2 months, but wasn't high on the priority list. I fixed it in a matter of minutes and then went to work on one more update for the website. I added a blurb about the Carson-Dellosa Create A Winning Classroom Contest to our bonus savings section as the contest is accepting entries until September 15th. I finished that up around 5:15 and decided it was time to go home. As I made my way out the front of the store, hoping to say hi to Christina before I left, I saw that she was running register and there was no end in sight for the lines so I passed as it would only slow things down. I sent her a text that she would get later, and I figured I would see her when she got off work.

I drove home and promptly crashed for about half an hour. I woke up and called Amy to discuss the plans for Saturday. After that I talked to Dad so he could relay the information to Mom and let her know when I would be around to visit. I took another 30 minute nap before checking my email and finding that Mike had captured the new report the featured The School Box and tax free shopping. You can watch the report here. I spent some time burning some mix CDs for Hickey so he will have some new music to listen to when he drives down to GA over Labor Day weekend and then to Myrtle Beach in October. I finalized my plans with Jubin for Saturday and then ate some dinner. I watched/snoozed to episodes of "Burn Notice" on USA until 8:00. I then took a shower and decided to go set up a surprise for Christina when she got off work. She had mentioned the other day that she liked Sonic's Peach Tea so I decided to find the nearest Sonic and around 9:30 I drove there to pick her up a tea for when she got off work. I also got a cranberry slush for myself. I took them back to my apartment and Christina called me at 10:05 to let me know she was leaving work. (Side note: remember that the store closes at 9:00, but people didn't finish shopping until 9:30!) I knew she was exhausted so I told her if she stopped by briefly that she had a treat waiting for her. She came over and was happy for the tea. I didn't keep her long as we both had to work at 8:00 tomorrow morning. I went to sleep listening to a song Christina recommended for me, "The Luckiest" ~by Ben Folds. Look it up if you have a chance.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 119:114 “You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.”

From the Desk 7/30/2008

This morning I decided to delay my running routine and use this first week to ease into the program I have set for myself as to not burn myself out too soon. I got up and got ready for work, wearing warehouse appropriate clothing. I got to work and took care of a few things at my desk before heading back to the warehouse. Tausha and I began packing around 9:00 and were joined by AJ, Patrick, Glen #1, and Glen #2 as the packing table was fully manned today. It was fortunate that we had so many people able to help pack as they had about 7 people pulling orders. It seemed that no matter how fast we packed, the carts waiting to be packed began piling up behind us. We worked quite hard up until 11:30 when we realized that it was time to go to lunch. Stacy, Tausha, and I went to T.G.I.Friday's for lunch where I consumed more sweet tea than food. It was relaxing to just sit still in an air conditioned building and not have to listen to all the noise and commotion associated with a warehouse environment. I took half of my burger back to work and will eat that for lunch tomorrow.

After lunch, time seemed to speed up yet we were still behind on packing. We pushed through the fatigue and tired feelings and kept packing as fast (and accurately) as possible. Around 4:00 I had to take a break from packing to help Dave split out some dry-erase boards to go out to the stores. I returned to packing and ended up packing until 5:15 when I realized that people were still pulling orders and I should stop packing or I'd be there until close.

I left work and Stacy and I omitted our planned trip to Best Buy for her to buy a new TV as we were both exhausted and she needed to go buy food to have at the cookout tonight. I went home and finished duplicating the DVD copies for the wedding planners this weekend. I changed and probably should have showered but I opted to fall asleep at my computer instead. I woke up about 10 minutes after I was supposed to leave to pick up Christina so I hurried out of the apartment and hit the road. I arrived at Christina's around 6:45 and that was good because she had gotten home a few minutes before from shopping with Leslie (from Town Center) and was worried that I would show up at 6:30 (my original ETA) and she wouldn't be there to buzz me in. We drove to Stacy's where we found a very hyper Cooper greeting us. He was somewhat reluctant to warm to Christina, but soon got over that as he wouldn't leave her alone for the rest of the night. Stacy grilled hot dogs for us and we enjoyed them with chips and dip and potato salad, which I ate and enjoyed! It was from Publix and was made using red potatoes so that might explain the difference in the usual reaction of mine to potato salad....gross! We ate and then watched the movie Disturbia. Christina and I had both seen it before, but it was Stacy's first viewing. She really liked it due to its superb balance of light-hearted romantic comedy and suspenseful- thriller feel. After the movie was over we said goodbye and I dropped Christina off at her apartment. I wanted to stay, but I knew that I really needed sleep so I just went home. I went to bed after a brief chat with Jubin on Facebook about Frisbee Golfing on Saturday morning. It was the earliest I have gotten in bed in about 3 weeks so it felt really nice.

Meditation for the day: John 1:12-13 “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.”

From the Desk 7/29/2008

Today I began the day as planned. I woke up at 6:15 put on some running clothes and headed to the fitness room at the apartments. I ran on the treadmill for 25 minutes after which I was awake and ready to conquer all the packing the warehouse could need. I had some oatmeal for breakfast and then headed in to work. I arrived and took care of a few odds and ins before heading back to the warehouse around 8:45 to begin my duties for the day. Tausha and I were joined by Patrick and AJ as we overtook the packing tables to prepare orders to go out for delivery. Even though there were four of us packing, there were 6 people pulling orders. That meant that it was still a constant struggle to stay caught up on packing. We worked non-stop until around 11:15 and then people started talking about lunch. I asked Corey, Stacy, and Tausha to bring me something back so we would have at least 1 person packing while everyone else was at lunch. They called me and I ended up meeting them at Jersey Mike's since they decided to eat there. I had the Chipoltle Philly Cheeseteak again and it was just as delicious as before.

After lunch I checked email and messages and then returned to the packing tables in the warehouse. We worked the rest of the afternoon, right up until 5:00 packing orders. Christina got off today at 3:30 so when she came back to tell me bye, I told her that I would call her and let her know if we were still going hiking. About 30 minutes later they skies opened up and dumped lots of rain complemented with flashes of lightning and sounds of thunder. It was good for two reasons; first, we need the rain desperately and second, we didn't have the energy to hike so the rain was a good excuse to cancel the trip. I called Christina and told her that we weren't going due to the storms and then I ran to my car at 5:00 to avoid getting too wet.

I ate a quick bite and took a shower. I called Christina and picked her up and then we went to Target to get some supplies for the cookout tomorrow at Stacy's. We dropped the things I bought off at my apartment and then watched some of "Ocean of Fear" which was part of Discovery Channel's Shark Week specials. It was the story about the American ship Indianapolis that sank in the Philippine Sea after being torpedoed by a Japanese ship. The crew abandoned ship and floated for four days in the water being subjected to constant shark attacks until their rescue. It was interesting, but not too fun to watch so we switched over to "Family Guy" on TBS.
After watching several episodes we walked outside so I could walk Christina to her car. There was just one problem: we had both forgotten that I picked her up and her car was at her apartments. She had her keys out ready to go home and I didn't have my keys as I didn't think I was going to be driving. Once we realized that and I got my keys I drove her home. We said goodnight and I returned to my apartment where I soon found myself falling asleep after a hard day's work.

Meditation for the day: Matthew 5:14,16 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

From the Desk 7/28/2008

This morning I had every intention of waking up at 6:15 to get up and go run again. Apparently my body did not agree with my intentions as it allowed me to sleep past my alarm and past 7:00. I hurriedly got ready and made my way into work. As I was passing the Exxon station on the corner I noticed that the price had dropped yet again (without me purchasing any gas) and was down to $3.86 per gallon. I got settled into my desk at work and began working on the last sign I should have to make for a couple of weeks as the Back-to-School craziness has officially arrived. I did figure it was important to make this sign as it was announcing our extended hours during this time of year. I also worked on finishing a project I was helping Stacy with for the majority of the day. I tediously updated the sale prices of the items listed in our BTS Sales Flyer so they new sale prices would be reflected in customers' shopping carts on our website. The process was slow, but I began to see progress so I kept at it until lunch.

Today Vickie took Stacy, Corey, Judy, Tausha, and I out to eat for lunch. Stacy had recommended Taco Mac as a good place to go so that's where we went. I had a delicious Hickory Burger with fries. We talked about the crazy and sad things going on in the country as there were several TVs encircling our eating area and most showed breaking news that made me question the "goodness" of humanity. After lunch we returned to work and I began chipping away at the last pages of the item updates. I finished my pages around 4:00 and proudly presented them to Stacy. She, in return, gave me 3 more pages to work on which would finish this project for good. I worked on them briefly until 4:30 at which point I packed up my things and left to go mail some DVDs at the post office.

The post office I frequent usually after 4:30 only has one employee working the front counter which produces a line like a new ride at Six Flags on opening day. Today I was pleasantly surprised to find that three people were manning the counter and the line was not very long and moving rather quickly. I mailed out my packages and then headed home for the day. I arrived home and so as not to feel like I cheated the Box out of some time, I worked on finishing the item updates on my own computer. The fact that I was not sharing an Internet connection with the entire office made the work go much faster. I managed to finish 2 pages in about 35 minutes (as opposed to the normal time of 1 page per hour!). I also started copying wedding DVDs to give a copy to Brenda and Lisa this weekend at Brenda's daughter's wedding. I sent several emails in an attempt to schedule some activities while I'm in Knoxville this Saturday. Christina called me and informed me that she was done with her finals and the Summer classes were officially over! To celebrate she selected the movie "Into the Wild" to rent and she brought it over and we watched it. It is a powerful movie about the freedom of the human spirit and how sometimes our focus on possessions and society can blind us to what really living feels like. It stars Emile Hersch who does an excellent job as the main character. You can read more about this movie, which is based on a true story, here. After the movie was over I walked Christina to her car. We would both need sleep as we both had to be at work at 8:00 the following morning and I was determined to run before that. We said goodnight and I went inside to drift off to sleep.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 119:93 “I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life.”

From the Desk 7/27/2008

This morning I was actually quite proud of myself. I woke up just before 8:00 and threw on some workout clothes and went down to the fitness room at the apartments. I hopped on the treadmill and ran for about 30 minutes. I was exhausted afterward, but you have to start somewhere right? I also knew that the fatigue was only temporary as usually when I run/work out I'm energized about an hour after I finish. The same was true today. I showered and then left to pick up Christina for His Hands. The service was wonderful as always. This week they decided to change things up a bit. Instead of taking the Lord's Supper at its usual time (right before the message) we talked about how Jesus met with people and how he was human and really wanted to enjoy the company of his friends. This led into the way in which we observed the Lord's Supper this week. We observed the Lord's Meal this week. We picked up larger cups of juice and large pieces of bread to sit and just "eat a meal with Jesus" and pray to him about whatever was on our minds. It was different but nice to just think about eating a meal with Him just like his disciples. The song that was played at the conclusion of this part of the service was so beautiful. It had a rich piano line and the man that sang it had a voice like the lead singer from Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The message was good as well. We talked about the human side of Jesus, and will pick back up on the hard sayings next week.

After the service ended Christina and I went to Red Lobster to get some lunch. I had been looking forward to this all week and I was not disappointed. I had the Georgia-Peach Bourbon Glazed shrimp and bacon-wrapped scallops while Christina got the Hawaiian Salmon and Coconut shrimp. It was phenomenal and along with my 3 1/2 glasses of Boston Tea it was one of the best meals I've eaten in a while. After lunch I took Christina home so she could study for her two finals tomorrow. I returned to the apartment and made the copies of the wedding videos necessary to mail them out tomorrow. I also spent a good deal of time cleaning (aka throwing away) lots of things from my desk and night stand. I worked on that until around 5:00 and then took a break while my computer was de-fragmenting the hard drive in an effort to find more storage space on my main drive. I watch vh1's Storytellers with Dave Matthews Band and then watched part of the newer version of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. Both were an excellent choice. When the movie was over I continued working on my laptop as my computer was still de-fragmenting, and updated my facebook profile with pictures from the hike in Chickamauga with Paula, Zach, Amy and Laura. After that was done Christina called and she came over to take a break from studying.

We watched various funny videos on YouTube and I showed her the pictures from my Appalachian Trail hike about 4 years ago. It was fun to look back on that trip and how much it taught us about winter hiking. We then watched some of the movie Titanic. I know you're probably thinking that we just watched that not too long ago, but there's a twist to watching it this time. It was on the Spanish TV station so the voice overs were all in Spanish! It may not seem like much fun, but you have to try it sometime....it's hilarious to watch. After amusing ourselves for way too long with that, we watched about 3 episodes of Boy Meets World. After that it was time for Christina to leave so I could attempt to get up early and go run for a second day in a row. I walked her out to her car and we said goodnight. I went inside and then quickly fell asleep as I had surprisingly not taken a nap this afternoon.

Meditation for the day: Philippians 3:14 “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

From the Desk 7/26/2008

This morning I managed to sleep in until about 9:45, which was wonderful as I needed the extra sleep. I almost immediately began working on the reception video and was making fast progress on the project until I hit a snag. The video files that I had pulled over to my computer were not complete. For the last half of the clips I had transferred lost their sound or picture about half way through the reception. I was worried at first that the original miniDV tapes might have been corrupted or damaged, but I quickly determined that they were fine. I re-pulled the footage for the last half of the reception for both cameras. While that was transferring to my computer I went over to Stacy's to mow the grass.

While I mowed Stacy got out her clippers and gloves and went to work on cutting down the monster weeds that had overtaken her flower bed in the back and along the fence too. I was particularly glad that she removed the thorny vine from along the fence as no matter how much I tried I couldn't avoid getting scraped by it as I pushed the mower along the fence. It took me longer than usual to mow as the grass had grown a ton since the last time I mowed. I had to empty the bag 4 times by the time I finished, and what normally takes 20 minutes took 40 minutes! I had a bottle of water before returning home to try and finish the video. I ate a quick snack and then got back to my computer. I worked on the video until I finally finished all the editing and menu preparations around 8:00. I then realized that I worked on the video for almost 7 hours and was very glad when Christina called and she said she would come over. She stopped on her way and picked up food for us from Chick-fil-A. I had told her to surprise me with something from wherever she stopped. She chose wisely (read: Indiana Jones movie reference) as she selected a chicken sandwich with fries.

After we ate we watched the movie "Accepted" starring Justin Long and Lewis Black. It was a hilarious comedy that I had enjoyed many times, but this was Christina's first time viewing the feature. She enjoyed it and afterwards I showed her some of the DVD from my latest completed wedding reception. She enjoyed the band featured at the reception, The Max. They were a very talented band that played a stunning rendition of "Smooth" by Carlos Santa. After that we ended up watching the tale end of "Father of the Bride II" on ABC Family. I walked her out after that was over and we said goodnight. I was really looking forward to tomorrow as not only were we going to His Hands, but we were eating lunch at Red Lobster! I went to sleep after duplicating the reception disc and printing the labels.

Meditation for the day: Hebrews 12:1 “[God Disciplines His Sons] Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”