Getting all Goddy again
I have one friend who says "Religion is for the weak minded." And I have another friend who is at a seminary to become a minister. Me? I'm a registered minister in... uh... well, I filled out a form on the web and now I'm... ok, whatever.

Anyway, Andrew grabs the bull by the horns with this statement:

I believe that religion and (for want of a better term) spirituality encourage irrational thinking, gullibility, exclusivity and divisiveness. The negatives outweigh the positives (and I acknowledge the positives). There is really very little difference, philosophically, between "mainstream" religion and religious fundamentalism.

As I do my best religious ranting/mumbling/philosophizing/etc late at night with a beer or two in me, I'll just say that I agree with everything Andrew says. And yet I also do not see it as incompatible with what other friends are saying.

Explaining THAT is beyond the scope of this lifetime.  11:16:36 PM    

The New Car
We went out yesterday to test drive some cars. Ann did a lot of research online in the morning and we narrowed it down to a Honda CR-V, Honda Oddessey, Toyta Rav4, or Toyota Sienna. All had top safety ratings and were in the right price range. The big question was to go SUV or Minivan. SUV seemed the better choice because the prices were better and we don't have that many kids (though we hope to, eventually!).

The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. We ended up coming home with a brand new CR-V.

It's blue and it's very shiny.

It's parked in the driveway behind Ann's old 1991 Honda Civic taking the place of my white Nissan Sentra which we traded in. I'm going to miss that car but, apparantly, nowhere near as much as Jack will. When they took the Sentra away last night he started to cry saying "White car? White car?" and even this morning, he looked out the window at the new car and asked "White car?"

I told him the white car was sleeping.

We're very happy with our new car, even if we are a bit freaked out at what we just did. We haven't had car payments in years and while we can afford this, we're still pretty wigged.
  12:57:15 PM    

Some much needed Jack pictures
Last weekend we drove by a farmstand which was offering pony rides. Jack went nuts. He started saying "Pony ride?" over and over. So, we stopped and let him ride his first pony.

Also last weekend, Jack got a much needed haircut (as did I, but he's much cuter than I am).

Jack waching me film Jack live on the laptop screen. Sort of a modern-day MC Escher kind of thing.
  12:51:11 PM