Herman Miller's Pot of Gold

This morning there was a beautiful full rainbow that appeared to end at Herman Millers Mainsite. We joked about the pot of gold at Herman Miller. I ran to my car to get a camera, but it began raining and by the time I got back in the building not only was my hair ruined for the day, but the rainbow had melted into the rain.

Good Morning America

I almost cheered when I watched this segment on tv this morning. Way to go to put an arrogant interviewer in his place.

The timer counts down, and the best parts are at 4:40ish and 2:40ish.

Click this link: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA
Then go to Why Say Nay?

Edit:

Click the More button which says Less on the picture below. Then choose Congresswomen Explain Nay Vote.

This morning I was doing my morning walk. Typically I use this as my prayer time and then think about the day. I was walking along when about 15 yards in front of me something was moving. It’s still dark when I’m out, but thankfully a street light was close by. My first thought was a small dog or cat until I saw the white stripe down the back of the black animal.

Yes, a skunk went waddling from some garbage cans on the street up a driveway and along the side of a house.

That was a first for me, and I don’t want to come across a skunk again not only at that ridiculous time of the morning but ever.

Trash It Party

Tuesday night's Mary Kay meeting is a trash it party. My guest(s) can bring up to 3 items of another brand to trash and receive a 50% discount for each product they bring.

Want to be my guest? Call me.

Sunday a.m.

This morning I rang handbells for the first hymn and then went to the piano for the chorus just after the call to worship. Thankfully a couple of us looked in the little room to realize some things had been moved and the stairs were covered up. I would've sprinted through that room and had to jump down about 3 feet and not known it. It wouldn't have been or sounded pretty.

I actually was told to slow down a song which is unusual as typically I, and most everyone else, am told to speed it up, pick up the tempo.

Safe when flying?

Having flown this week I appreciated this post: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/09/random-travel-t.html

Last summer in DC a tour guide said yes, she gets very tired of the security at every building when the government isn't doing the big security things such as securing the borders, etc. If people who want to do bad are in the country then looking in a backpack at an event isn't making us safe.

Mission Service

Last night I went with my church to it's bi-monthly service at Mel Trotter Mission. I play the piano (same songs every time--Amazing Grace and Victory in Jesus), and last night I gave the testimony of how I came to know Jesus Christ.

The piano is bad. For my family members, it makes the piano in Grandma Hemmer's basement sound good. Many notes must be at least a whole step or more off which makes notes sound wrong when they really aren't. Also, you can play at the same stroke, but one time the note will play, one time it won't play, and the next time it will strike very loudly.

On the drive back to church I mentioned, "Well, when you get an average to below average player on a really bad piano the results can't be good."

The guy who preached last night after a long pause said, "Well, the important thing is you're doing your best to serve God."

I think I got that message pretty clearly.

Thankful Thursday

1. A great trip to visit family. I got to see everyone except for Andrew, Haley, and Linsday.
2. A job to return to.
3. I usually fly in at night to Grand Rapids and I don’t really know where we are, but yesterday was a beautiful mostly clear day to fly over Lake Michigan. I was able to locate where we were flying just north of Holland. I followed Chicago Dr to Marketplace and then east over Renae’s, found my condo, my church, etc.
4. Yesterday when John Michael was ready to leave for school, he came over said he was leaving and needed to tell me goodbye. I thought it was pretty good for a sixth grade boy to do on his own.
5. I got to spend time with my nieces and nephews, but it was really fun to shop with Mary Lee on Tuesday and build a birdhouse with Jeffrey on Sunday afternoon at an outdoor festival.

Vacation miscellaneous

Four quick observations during my trip.

1. When I landed in Atlanta, I walked to the luggage terminal--at least a mile--rather than take the train. As I ascended a long escalator a group of people stood at the top and started cheering as I walked off the escalator. It was so nice that people were excited to see me. Then I realized it was the USO and a soldier was two steps behind me. But I thought it was just a taste of heaven to have way better than the USO but family and friends and Jesus Christ to welcome me home.

2. I can see why kids like lacrosse. Who wouldn't want pads and a stick that you can hit other people and hit their sticks!!!

3. Yesterday I watched Molly play in her divisional doubles championship game. (She won.) I took a book I wanted to read called "What Do I Know About My God?" A group began playing on the court between where I was sitting and Molly's team was playing. In between serves one of the ladies in the closer court asked what I was reading. I told her the title and explained that it was a book to explain a way of studying the Bible so that you can know God more personally. She just looked at me. I wasn't sure which it was 1) You're reading a book about God??? or 2) Isn't that what studying the Bible is about anyway?

4. This morning I got up to see Ann and Mary Lee off to school. I went back to the couch, stretched out, and finished reading the paper. Of course, I fell asleep. Almost two hours later the phone rang. The caller left a message that explained he was calling from a funeral home and the visitation and funeral arrangements for someone. It seemed weird that he ended the message with a very happy Have a very nice day and we'll see you tomorrow night.

But I started thinking. Does a local funeral home call everyone with funeral arrangments? Do you call ahead to say let me know the arrangements for these people? Does the family give a list of phone numbers to call?

I guess I'll find out later today when I ask Ann.

Thankful Thursday

1. Today at 11:00 I was finished with work until Thursday morning (except that I'm back at work to finish a project).

2. This week has had lots and lots of sunshine. Unless you've lived through a sunless winter in Michigan you don't really know the joys of sunshine.

3. My team (the Really Rockin' Sisters for Renae, Rhoda, and Sue) won the $10 Wal-Mart gift card at our department outing this afternoon.

4. The price of gas is back below $4.00/gallon.

5. Did I mention I'm on vacation until Thursday?

6. A friend contacting me after we didn't get a chance to talk at church Sunday.

Local News

McCain and Palin had their first town hall meeting in Grand Rapids last night. Side note: I would have loved to have gone, but I was at handbell practice and didn't know until this morning that it was being shown live on tv which I could've seen part of after bells. Yesterday all the news was about preparations for the town hall meeting. The radio news in the afternoon detailed what time the planes landed (separately) and the motorcade, etc.

This morning's top newsline on the major local tv news station: A rollover crash in Holland has two injuries. The second story was about a local leadership summit addressing a myriad of issues beginning today. The third story was about Palin's personal e-mail account being hacked into, and finally story number 4 was about the McCain/Palin appearance.

I still don't know what was said last night as they had a senior nursing student from Western Michigan give her opinion about the appearance being in Grand Rapids and a local Democratic Party official telling why McCain/Palin are wrong for the country.

Books, books, and more books

On Sept. 24 I posted about three books that I was reading.

http://rkklop.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-i-am-reading.html

My goal was to finish Pride and Prejudice that weekend which I did. Last week I had a goal of finishing the other two. (I have read some other things in the meantime.) I completed the Mary Kay Ash book Miracles Happen on Wednesday of last week. There were quite a few pithy statements and lists of ideas that I wish I would've written down so I may do a quick skim later. On Thursday I finished Vince Antonucci's "I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy t-shirt". It's a spiritual growth book to experience authentic Christianity as opposed to the title referring to the souvenier t-shirts "My parents went to Paris and all I got was this t-shirt." Too many Christians get the gift at the end but totally miss out on the joys and experiences of the Christian journey. He's definitely a Gen-X and I'm not. He's a bit too crass for my liking, but I was challenged by the book.

I would like to read a John Grisham book next. I have not yet read Playing for Pizza and The Appeal, both of which apparently are too new for the Hudsonville library to have on the shelf. I also want to start on Mardi Collier's The God That I Know, a Christmas gift I haven't gotten to yet.

Ziploc DoubleGuard

Sometime last fall I made zucchini bread. I make a good zucchini bread since the summer of 1981 when zucchinis suddenly took over the summer growing season--just ask Mary. Last fall I put a loaf of zucchini bread in Ziploc DoubleGuard freezer bags and threw it in the freezer. I found the loaf over the weekend and put it out on the counter to thaw.

This morning I cut into it, and while it doesn't taste fresh out of the oven, it definitely is still fresh. There's no freezer burn, and it's still moist.

I'm officially endorsing Ziploc DoubleGuard as the official freezer bag of my blog.

Ms. Fit

One the selling, but rarely used, features of my Fit is the different modes of manipulating the seats for different uses. For instance, long mode lets you put the front and middle passenger seats down allowing you to put in a long object such as a surfboard. Relax mode is front passenger seat down so that you can sit in the back seat with your legs extended. Tall mode lets you put up the back seat(s) so that you can put in a tall object that fits floor to roof. Yesterday was the first time I think I made use of it, but it was nice for transporting a bush.





Who needs a truck?

I'm Sick

I'm sick. I have a virus. I want to go home. If I was in education I would have called in sick today, but the business world I'm in is different. It was nice in education to know I had a certain number of days--always way more than I could ever use in a year, but we have rolling sick hours and many fewer than in education so I am very careful about using them because there is always the "what if". What if I get something that I need to be out for 3 or 4 days?

So the result is that while I'd rather be home in bed sleeping, I'm at work today.

Friday's Question

Thankful Thursday

1. One week from now I'll be walking out the door for vacation to start!
2. I had three nights at home already this week. Loved it!
3. Mom's oral surgery is over. While she'll have several days of pain, our family has been blessed with extremely good health compared to the illnesses others face.
4. Sitting in the warm sunshine at lunch with a cool, gentle breeze.

Speedway Drinks

At lunch I stopped at Speedway to get a drink. I have a very specific way to make the drink. I do a 44 oz. for me and a 32 oz. insulated cup for Renae. First I put a shot of cherry frozen mix in the cups. Next I fill the cups with Diet Mt. Dew. This results in a lot of foam so I have to keep filling one and then the other until eventually I get a full cup. After that I put on the domed lid. Then I fill the lid with cherry for Renae. I like the orange frozen as well so today I filled about half the dome with orange and then most of the rest with cherry. This is actually not an easy thing to do as sometimes the fizz causes more foaming that spews out of the opening and can be a real mess, but I digress. Renae taught me to top off the opening with a small shot of yellow (Mt. Dew) frozen mix so that if the drink somehow spills I’ll get yellow on me instead of red which is harder to get out of clothing so I filled the tip of the lid with yellow.

So, today I’m mixing our drinks when a nicely dressed older lady came over. She put her hand on my upper arm, which actually was a bit unnerving for me, and said, “I’ve always wondered about these drinks. You make such a pretty drink.”

Do I Work for the Government?

Yesterday at a work team meeting we discussed two fields that needed to be added to a monthly report. I volunteered to talk to the report guru in my department about it. Today I met with her to tell her what we needed. She found the fields in the table and then shot off an e-mail to a person on her team to add those fields to the report. He will report back to her when he does it. She will report to me that he has completed it, and then I will report to my work team leader that it is done. Between meetings and actually doing it the entire process will be about 15 minutes.

Wednesday's Board Question

What one word has the most letters in it?

Edit: And the answer is not K L O P F E N S T E I N as some smart aleck in my department put on the board.

Yesterday's puzzle:

Make three 8-letter words from the following letters:

A A E L N P R T

Oh Charles, The Children Will Have Fruit This Winter!!!

This is the result of Renae's and my work last night. We canned 13 quarts of pears. Renae has a pear tree in her yard that has produced pears every other year. This year she learned that you have to pick off half the blooms each year to get the tree to produce every year.

This is the first time to can pears so we won't win any awards for presentation, but the pears are in the jars, canned, and all the lids popped.

Tonight's job is to mop my kitchen floor and scrub the counters.

A good link

Good advice not just for marketing for life in general. Valuing people's time shows how much you value them.

Me and John (Deere, that is)

Yesterday I had a decision to make--mow my friends' yard or not. I had several good reasons not to, but I like getting on the John Deere for a couple of hours and solving the world's problems along with some of mine.

So that's what I did--climbed on the John Deere and solved a few problems.

Thankful Thursday

Random things I'm thankful for this week:

1. Sarah Palin has joined the political race. Whether or not you like her, it’s good to have someone energize the election that has dragged on and on and on. . .
2. A job. Even when . . .
3. We’re getting rain.
4. Shelly, who is always ready to take a bike ride even when I call and say I’m available to ride right now.
5. Handbells started last night. This is season four for me.
6. Fresh peaches. I think they are my favorite fruit--at least until strawberry season rolls around.

Positive Thoughts

Sometimes the grass is greener on my side. This is a note I received from a contact I have at one of our dealers:


very hectic week here too
first the hurricane
then month end
then short week
go figure
no less work

At least Michigan didn't have a hurricane!

Sarah Palin

I couldn't say it better so read it here. Thanks to my sister for sharing her opinion.

In addition, the MSM wants to dredge up Todd Palin's DUI 22 years ago? What was Obama doing 22 years ago besides doing drugs as he tells about in his book?

My uncle recommended this commentary as well.

Labor Day

This is my labor on Labor Day painting my friend's three-season room. Before and after.