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A Tale of Two World Cups

Four years ago, we moved into this house. (Please note what a considerable record it is that 1. Keith has had the same job for four-and-a-half years now, and 2. We've lived in the same house for four years.) When we moved in, we had an air mattress, two dogs, some clothes, and a borrowed 13-inch television. For two weeks we camped out like this in our new home while we replaced carpet, painted, and generally spruced up the place.

During our infrequent rests, we watched World Cup Soccer. On a 13-inch TV.

Fast forward four years. Now we are down a dog and have done a nice job of filling the house and making it a home.

And this year we can watch World Cup Soccer in high-definition on a 47-inch TV. What a difference!

Yes, I'm 40

Last Saturday was my birthday. It was a big deal kind of birthday. To celebrate, Keith and I trekked to Florida's Gulf Coast, to the origins of me.

On Friday, we went to Honeymoon Island State Park with the intention of enjoying it and Caladesi Island. Since a storm front was rolling in and a small craft advisory was in effect, the ferry to Caladesi was not running, so we had to settle for Honeymoon Island. We walked up the beach as far as we could, looking for shells and other interesting sea life. It wasn't so bad with the wind to our backs. When we turned around, the wind and sand weren't very pleasant. When the pelting, stinging rain started, I was pretty much done with Honeymoon Island.

After we de-sanded and -salted ourselves, we headed to downtown Dunedin for dinner at a neat little Mexican restaurant and some window shopping at some cute little shops. When we walked out to the municipal marina, the sun finally shone just long enough to set. Then, we made a detour--literally; the road was closed--around the hospital where I was born.

Saturday we went into Tarpon Springs to buy a clean sponge and to enjoy a yummy lunch of Greek food before heading back to Orlando.

Our Saturday evening small group turned into a social event/birthday party later that night. It's just difficult to be serious when you're having so much fun turning 40.

Roger in Moving Pictures

Thirty-nine seconds into this video on the web site of The Ledger, Roger is marching in place almost in the middle of the video screen. And at 3:57, Kim's sister and nephew can be seen watching the buses pull away from The Lakeland Center.

Down Range

Yesterday was the official ceremony sending my brother's unit of the Florida National Guard off to Fort Hood en route to the Middle East.

Even though this is Roger's second deployment to that area of the world, this is different from the last time. In 2003, he was deployed with just a handful of soldiers; this year, about 2500 Florida National Guardsmen deployed. Several months after Roger deployed to Iraq in 2003, Keith and I undertook our own deployment-of-sorts and moved to Texas; right now, we don't even have an inkling of a desire to move. In 2003, Roger was married and spent a good deal of time worrying about his wife (now ex); this time, his girlfriend is on the same deployment, which may present its own special set of worries.

This year, we will pray for Roger daily, send lots of care packages, proudly support him from a distance, and yearn for the day when he comes home. If God lays it on your heart, we would appreciate your prayers, too.

Three Things That Kept Christmas From Being Perfect

1. Food Poisoning. On Wednesday, we went out to dinner. Thursday, Christmas Eve, was bad.
2. No Internet. My web site and e-mail were down from Friday to Sunday. I couldn't keep up electronically.
3. A Cold. I awoke from my Christmas afternoon nap with the beginnings of a cold. Hopefully yesterday was the worst of it.

Other than those little things, our Christmas was spectacular. I hope yours was, too.

The Great Faith Debate

On last Thursday, September 17, which happens to have been my little brother's birthday, my two Keiths (husband and uncle), myself, and a couple of friends met up with about 7,000 more people at UCF Arena to watch The Great Faith Debate between atheist Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, and Christian apologist Dinesh D'Souza, author of What's So Great About Christianity and What's So Great About America.

I have been a fan of D'Souza's since reading What's So Great About America many years ago in a book club. He made a compelling, logical argument to support his thesis and won me over, which maybe wasn't so difficult since I was already in the camp that believes America is great.

My familiarity with D'Souza's logical thinking made me very excited about the debate, which sought to pose three questions (What about God?; What about Christianity and other religions?; and What about science and reason?). It was a fairly lively debate, much of which you can easily find with a quick YouTube search.

D'Souza did not disappoint, stating clearly that he was making his arguments based on reason and not on Biblical revelation. Anyone who knows me will certainly know that I am a Christian and, therefore, inclined to automatically side with D'Souza. Likewise, anyone who knows me well will certainly know that I like to be intellectually challenged and am not afraid to look at two or more sides of an argument, regardless of whether I believe them or consider them to have any truth. So knowing very little about Hitchens except that he had written this book whose title alone makes me cringe, I approached this event assuming that Hitchens is (and, yes, he is) a very intelligent man and was looking forward to a logical argument to support his identification with atheism. I was disappointed. Aside from calling Isaac Newton a "raging crackpot," the most profound thing Hitchens said all night was that his primary belief system is that people should risk thinking for themselves and assume all responsibility and consequences for that risk. He believes that is the most important thing about being human.

Maybe the best part of the evening was meeting D'Souza and getting my books autographed. He was a bit surprised to see my copy of What's So Great About America, and now I have two more autographed books on my shelves.

The Maine Event

Last week, Keith and I were in Maine enjoying ourselves immensely. Our friend, Rebekah, is from Freeport; she, her husband (Joe), and their daughter (Libby) were there for vacation and invited us to join them. We are certainly glad we did. Here's a sum-up:

Day 1

• Arrived in Portland to rainy weather.
• Spent about two minutes meeting Rebekah's parents before they went into the airport to board a plane for Fiji, which seems far more exotic than Maine.
• Had lunch at The Lobster Shack at Two Lights, where I had my first Maine seafood, a Fish Burger.
• Went to the Portland Head Light and did our best to enjoy and photograph it in the pouring rain. I, of course, had no rain jacket.
• Drove to Freeport and went almost directly to L.L. Bean, where I purchased a much-needed rain jacket and fleece.

Day 2

• Ate breakfast at Moody's Diner, a Maine institution.
• Had a picnic lunch and sailed around Frenchman Bay on a four-masted schooner, The Margaret Todd. We were fortunate the foggy weather cleared up long enough for us to have a beautiful day on the water. And the fleece came in very handy.
• Drove the loop road at Acadia National Park and enjoyed some of the beautiful sights the park has to offer.
• Ate more seafood at Geddy's (apparently pronounced "jetty's") in Bar Harbor.

Day 3

• Took a foggy drive back into Acadia National Park and drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain, where we did a little hiking in the fog.
• Went to Camden Hills State Park, where more fog obstructed our view of anything. I also gave Keith a scare: We dropped him off at the bottom of Mt. Battie so that he could climb to the top while we took the more leisurely mini-van route. At the top, I thought I'd be clever and climb down from the top to meet him. Little did I know that I was on the wrong trail. Fortunately, two things happened in our favor: 1. I told Rebekah exactly which trail I was taking, and 2. I turned around after not meeting Keith in 20 minutes. Unfortunately, I didn't have my phone with me, which caused my husband to have a little increased heart rate. The best thing was that I got far enough down the mountain to be below the fog and see the view I was supposed to see from the top.
• Ate more seafood.

Day 4

• Took a day to do some resting and shopping in Freeport.
• Partook of yet more seafood.

Day 5

• Went kayaking on the Harraseeket River, which is really a bay. Keith and I signed up for an L.L. Bean Outdoor Discovery School and did a little adventuring. Even though I was apprehensive, I found that floating on the water, propelled by my own power, was calming and invigorating.
• Chowed on more seafood.
• Took a brief hike at Winslow Park, which is a favorite of Rebekah, who used to run there. The park had excellent views of the harbor.

Day 6 (aka Independence Day)

• Got up early to cheer Keith on as he ran the L.L. Bean 10k Road Race. I'm very proud of him.
• Sat on the steps of the church where Rebekah's dad pastors and watched Freeport's Fourth of July parade.
• Enjoyed a good, old-fashioned Maine lobster boil at Rebekah's parents' house.
• Went to the free Patty Loveless concert at L.L. Bean.
• Watched the fireworks.

Day 7

• Learned that TSA doesn't care if the blueberry jam and syrup in your carry-on are just gifts for the people who babysat your dog while you were on vacation.

Photos from top: The Portland Head Light, Keith on the Margaret Todd, Rita at Thunder Hole in Acadia National Park, the Fanas at Thunder Hole, and Rebekah and Rita at Winslow Park.

Staffing Up

A great and celebration-worthy thing happened this week: Roger was promoted to Staff Sergeant. Congratulations, little brother, on moving on up in the world. I'm very proud of you.

Space Shuttle Atlantis Launches for 30th Space Mission

This afternoon, the Space Shuttle Atlantis left for its thirtieth mission in space. For the 2:01 p.m. flight, Monty and I hustled ourselves to the top of the church's hill property to get a good unobstructed view of the launch. Unobstructed except for the massive wall of clouds formed by the sea breeze just before 2 p.m. this afternoon. Just in time to interfere with our shuttle viewing.

We arrived just a few moments before actual lift-off. Jeff Cooper was there with a couple of his relatives.

Even though it wasn't the most visually impressive launch I've ever seen, there is something terribly powerful about the sheer force necessary to send those astronauts to the Hubble Telescope. We're cheering them on to another successful mission.

A Saturday Morning, Good Friends, and A Hotel Implosion

Keith and I gave up a good Saturday morning sleep-in to leave the house at 6 a.m. to go camp out on the side of the highway and watch the implosion of a giant pink skeleton of a hotel.

The hotel was built before Disney World was in existence, and Disney executives used the Colony Plaza Resort in Ocoee, Florida as sort of a headquarters while they were buying up property and planning the empire. The picture at the right is what the resort looked like in its glamorous hey-day. The picture at the left is what it looked like in the middle of its implosion.

When we moved to this area in 1999-2000, the hotel-turned-timeshare wasn't nearly as run-down as it is now, possibly because it hadn't been sitting condemned for eleven years yet. In 2005, when we returned from our time in Dallas, I think the hotel had already become home to West Orange County's homeless population. (Here's some guy's flickr account with pictures of the hotel he uploaded in April 2008 to give you an idea of what it has recently looked like.)

At 7:10 this morning, thousands of people--including Keith, Rita, our friends Rebekah and Joe Fana and their daughter Libby, and Jeff Cooper with his son Johnathan--gathered along the corner of Highway 50 and Maguire Road to watch the end of the once-glorious hotel. After the demolition crew's countdown, charges exploded throughout the second floor of the hotel, and then it collapsed in a roar and cloud of dust. (Here's somebody's YouTube video of the implosion.) A very dramatic beginning to our day.

A Place of My Own

Every writer needs a place to put words to paper. Over the past couple of weekends, Keith and I have worked hard to make my little office a far more appealing place for me to be in while I put words on paper. Because it is so beautiful, and because Roger asked so nice, I thought I'd share a photograph with you.

What we did:

• Removed the old stained carpet and installed bamboo flooring.
• Removed the old 3" baseboards and replaced them with 5+" baseboards.
• Framed out the doorways to the foyer and the kitchen with some lovely casing.
• Painted the new trimwork and touched up the wall paint.
• Bought and installed a new shelving system with drawers and doors to hide clutter.

And it looks great. You will notice that everything a growing writer needs is close at hand: Apple laptop, printer, calendar, iPhone, house phone, water, and tournament bracket.

Discovery Launch

Tonight's Space Shuttle launch was spectacular. While our friends were congregating on top of our church property to have a nice hilltop view of the launch, Keith and I played loner so that we could come home and grab a camera. While I missed the fun of watching the launch with our friends, it was worth taking the effort to get the camera, don't you think?

Sunset launches are fairly rare and oh-so-beautiful. The sun's rays play dramatically against the smoke trail to great effect.

Each shuttle launch gives me a thrill and a pride in the human race, our country, and all the Floridians who work so hard to make this program a success.

Here's hoping and praying for a very successful mission.

Miscellany

• For their winter break from school, the nephews, chauffeured by Keith's brother, came to Florida for a few days. It rained the first day they were here, which allowed Eric and me to get in a few games of Scrabble with minimal complaining. Since Keith is in the midst of building a home media center computer, Ben and Joey were able to learn some marketable skills (see photo). On Saturday, I had the good sense to stay home while they all went to play paintball. I did, however, have the joy of washing the paintball gore from all their clothes. And finally, and since Aunt Rita has no desire to play Risk ever again, perhaps Joey will continue not to learn a valuable lesson: "When Aunt Rita says she won't play Risk unless you eat the dinner she cooked for you, she's serious."
• One of the highlights of our week is our Saturday night time with our church small group. We've been attending Avalon for not quite a year now but have made some dear dear friends. Nearly every Saturday we get together with a group to have a Bible study, discuss a book, and/or enjoy social time together. At first I thought I'd resent losing the freedom of our Saturday evening, but now I look forward to this time with friends.
• Monty was sick for most of last week. We don't know what, how, or why--just that we took turns a couple of nights sleeping on the couch to more easily let him in and out of the house. A few days of nothing but rice and chicken stock seem to have fixed him up, though.
• The other night, Keith and I were reading the book of Esther. After the king's wife embarrasses him in front of his buds, his advisors bring in all the virgins of the land so that he can choose a new wife. While all these virgins are being readied for the king, they are pampered and spa-treated and made over to make them more appealing to the king. Last night I told Keith that my mom and I would be playing today and intended to get a pedicure. He said, "So you're getting a beauty treatment like Esther." Further proof that the Bible does apply to every-day life.

Best of Luck, Johnny

This morning at about 6:30 a.m. Keith and I arrived at our polling location to participate in the democratic process. The doors opened promptly at 7 a.m., and we were on our way home by 7:45.

The election season has been particularly painful this year and full of more hate than usual. Even though I most definitely have an opinion about the candidates, I'll be happy when today is at an end and this election is behind us.

Anatomy of a Vacation

Number of days gone from home: 21

Total miles driven: 5,920

Number of flat tires: 1

Number of states entered: 15 (Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida)

Only state consistently out of gas, because panic drives the people there to make poor purchasing decisions: Georgia

Number of times driving across the Continental Divide: 2 (in Colorado and New Mexico)

Favorite dining experience in Colorado: The Wines of Colorado, where we ate lunch creekside on the patio and enjoyed the dappled Colorado sun

Number of National Parks and/or Monuments visited: 8 (Jefferson National Expansion Memorial--St. Louis Arch, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, Petrified Forest/Painted Desert, Carlsbad Caverns, Sunset Crater Volcano)

Number of State Parks visited: 2 (Goblin Valley, Red Canyon)

Best food in Utah: Panatele's Desert Deli in Moab, Utah, where the grilled cheese sandwich is a gourmet experience

Best coffeehouse: The Mean Bean in Springdale, Utah

Best restaurant service: Moab Diner, where the waiter not only brought sprouts to the table to bridge the language gap with our French friends but also gave me the recipe for the diner's honey dijon dressing

Nights sleeping in a tent: 7

Favorite Campground: Moab Rim Campark, which has hot showers, grass, and wi-fi

Coldest night in a tent: 32 degrees

Keith's favorite hikes: Park Avenue in Arches, Grand View Point trail in Canyonlands, and Angels Landing in Zion

Rita's favorite hikes: Goblin Valley, The Narrows in Zion, anything involving petroglyphs

A sampling of animal sightings: a couple coyote, a bald eagle, many ravens, chipmunks, the fattest squirrels ever, mule deer, pronghorn sheep, a tarantula, a roadrunner, a peregrine falcon, black-tailed jackrabbit

Closest critter encounter: a chipmunk tried to crawl into Rita's pocket in order to get closer to the yummy trail mix she wasn't sharing

Nights in a motel: 7

Favorite motel: White Sands Motel in Alamogordo, NM, because it looked like it was straight off of Route 66

Least favorite motel experience: the Super 8 in Winslow, Arizona, not because the room wasn't nice but because the busload of fellow travelers yelling at each other through the halls all night deserved the 6 am wake-up calls Keith started making

Best song heard on the radio: Mexican Dog by Chute Nine on Keith's beloved 95.3 the Range in Dallas

Nights with friends and family: 7

Number of photographs taken: in excess of 1700

Most used items: Nalgene bottles to keep us hydrated in the desert and Burt's Bees lip balm

Oddest gift received: a Schick Quattro from the proprietress of the Zion Park Motel, who apparently thought Keith's facial hair was out of control

Number of laps Happy Beagle did around the backyard when we arrived back in Atlanta: too many to count

Other Things We've Enjoyed

• Spending four days with Bruno and his girlfriend. Bruno is one of the young men we hosted as an exchange student several years ago. In the past four days we've done quite a bit of sight-seeing.
• Waking up frozen. Monday night we made the brilliant decision to camp out at Bryce Canyon National Park, which has a reputation for being cold. When we woke up yesterday morning, it was just at freezing. We promptly decided to spend the next night in a motel.
• Waking up very warm and toasty.
• Enjoying some fall color. Apparently, on the first day of autumn, fall color is easy to find at the right altitude.
• Watching a herd of mule deer feeding casually on the lawn at the Zion Lodge in Zion National Park, completely oblivious to the many tourists gathered around watching their meal time.
• Driving across Utah and watching the scenery change in new and unexpected ways.
• Anticipating at least one more day at Zion before moving on to the Grand Canyon.

Things We've Seen

• A bald eagle playing in wind currents in the wake of Hurricane Ike.
• The flooded banks of the Missouri River, which was another by-product of Ike.
• Our good and very missed friends, the Pecks, who now live in St. Louis.
• Fields of sunflowers, corn, and a bunch of other stuff we can't identify.
• A wind farm complete with dozens of giant wind turbines.
• A coyote wandering down a river bank. He decided he was too shy for a photo opportunity.
• Antelope playing on the range.



• The oh-so-majestic and beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains.
• Goblins. We spent our first full day in Utah hiking around the Valley of the Goblins.
• A whole bunch of bunnies who are intent on taking over our campsite. Keith said one of them made a run for the tent opening.
• Arches. We spent our second full day in Utah hiking around Arches National Park.
• Lots of Land Rovers. The 2008 National Land Rover Rally is taking place this week in Moab.

Let the Photos Begin

On Saturday morning, Keith and I left for vacation.

First stop was Atlanta, where Monty will be spending some quality time with Keith's parents. Saturday night we had a wonderful dinner with Keith's parents, brother, and nephews.

Yesterday, we drove to St. Louis, where we had the great joy of spending a few hours with our good friends Mark and Susan Peck, who moved from Dallas to St. Louis at the same time we moved from Dallas to Orlando. A side benefit of that was being able to also see the Arch, which I have never seen before. Even though I knew it was big, I never imagined it was quite that large.

Today we drove through Missouri to the westernmost parts of Kansas, where we plan to get a good night's sleep before journeying into Colorado tomorrow.

Stay tuned for more fun-ness.

My First Trip to Indy

Last Wednesday, I surprised my friend and sporadic blogger, Lynette, by flying into Indianapolis. Don't worry too much--her husband was in on the whole thing. Her 40th birthday was last weekend, and I followed a long stream of announced and unannounced friends and family who went to Indy to celebrate her birthday with her. We spent three days hanging out and just being friends. It was great.

In one of those crazy randomnesses that the universe sometimes throws at us, Lynette lives in the same neighborhood with a friend (boss) that we worked with in Atlanta only about thirteen years ago. So on Friday evening, Lynette invited Lou and his family over for dinner to surprise him.

I do see Lynette several times a year, so even though I was a surprise, it was nothing like the shock Lou experienced. I don't think I've seen him in a decade or more. Far too long, I assure you.

When I got home, Keith wanted to see my photos. Well, we were not too surprised to see that I had pictures of everyone's dogs. And Lou's motorcycle (yep, that's Lou on his toy). And not much else. It says a lot about me, doesn't it?

Rain Maker Fay

Rain Maker Fay has been camped out over Florida for a few days now, dropping "historic rain" and basically being a nuisance. Here in the "safe" confines of the center of the state, we've had gusting enough to whip some trees around and litter yards and streets with twigs and leaves. While we don't have the extreme flooding issues of some areas over on the east coast, the main road and the entrance to our neighborhood are now officially a lake.

Since it rained buckets all night long, during a lull in the raining this morning I rushed out to check the status of things. The storm drains are working overtime, our pool is close to cresting, and Rain Maker Fay seems to have a dislike for flag poles. Aside from all that waterlogging and the forecast that we are going to have more rain sporadically throughout the day, we are relatively high and dry.

But at this point, I am ready to ditto some of my fellow Floridians: Go Away, Fay!