And now, the circle is complete...

Wednesday night. I get to watch one of my fave shows, Man vs. Food. [you can read my previous thoughts on MvF here and here]

The host, Adam, travels to cities around America looking for the best places to eat, as well as tackling some of the most outrageous food challenges ever conceived. Tonight's stop was... DETROIT!!

He opened up by trying out Coney Dogs at two competing Coney restaurants which are located next door to each other downtown. Then he tried a "Triple Threat" at Slows BBQ (bacon, pulled pork, and ham on a poppy seed bun). And finally, his challenge was to break a world record by eating a 190 pound hamburger. Not a typo: one hundred and ninety pounds.

Of course, he didn't attempt it on his own. He had a 40-man team eating along with him, but they had to eat it all within 2 hours. They managed to get about 160lbs. of it down, but they fell short in the end.

I was sad to see them not accomplish the task, but proud of my city. When I checked out the official website I found a vlog of Adam visiting the Heidelberg project! I was just there and just blogged about it!

Cool.

Detroit Art

This morning I took our youth group to the Capuchin Soup Kitchen in Detroit. They didn't have school today because it's an election day and I thought it'd be a great way to get involved in the heart of this region that is suffering so much. We had a fantastic turn out (18 middle and high schoolers) and we hung up clothes to allow the homeless to "shop" for their clothes (much more dignifying than taking a hand-out). We also packaged food into boxed kits for a couple of hours. We ended the day by eating lunch at one of the centers where they serve warm meals to homeless and struggling folks. In between those two events we took a trip to drive through the Heidelberg Project. I've heard of this art experience but didn't really know much about it; now it know that it's really cool.

It's an entire block (both sides of the street) that has been claimed as an outdoor art exhibition/experiment to draw attention to the center of this struggling community. The project is a multitude of sculptures and art pieces all constructed from trash.

It is really hard to explain in words, so just check out the website... or visit it sometime.

Also, here's some info on the Capuchin Soup Kitchen if you'd like to support them too.

Your backyard friends the...

BACKYARDIGANS

Halloween is an awkward event. Culturally, it is a celebration of fear and horror, and while much of it may be "in good fun", it doesn't feel right to me. In my opinion devils, demons, and evil creatures shouldn't celebrated. I don't think my kids (or most people) will turn around and start worshipping that stuff, but it lessens our defenses; it turns evil into a plaything when we should be centered on Christ alone. But I love the chance to dress up and act a fool. Trick-or-treating was always a fun family event growing up. And I want, I choose, to make this a fun family event for us.

I know most of you have already seen these on my facebook page, but here are a few pictures of us from this past Halloween weekend. We were dressed as the popular children's tv characters, the Backyardigans. There are all homemade; we did alot of thrift store shopping and Becky did some amazing work on all the details.

Lady and Gentleman, I give you...

TYRONNE

UNIQUA

TASHA

PABLO

AUSTIN

THE WHOLE GANG

Danna- danna- danna-danna BATMAN!

Manu Ginobli is a phenomenal basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs. And his mythos just grew as he swatted a bat out of mid-air during a game yesterday.

Yes, he knocked a bat out of mid-flight during a basketball game on HALLOWEEN NIGHT!

You've got to see it to believe it:

Electro

My office at the church is bipolar. When it's hot, it's really hot; when it's cold, it's really cold. Our hvac system is dated and ineffective, so I use a space heater throughout the fall/winter to stay comfortable. It's my litium.

This morning I unlocked my door and bent down to plug in the heater, as is my custom upon entering the room, but the results were anything but usual. I still had my keys in my hand and I think one of the keys entered the outlet as I plugged in the heater. POP!!! A nice sized spark lit up the room and I jumped back... luckily unharmed. The plate surrounding the outlet was metal and another key grounded the shock to the plate blowing the fuse and saving me from a big buzz.

Any close calls for you lately?

Goodnight Moon

Every night we pray with our kids before they go to sleep. We invite them to pray as well, but they don't always want to participate [we don't want to force them to pray]. But tonight they both said some things that are worth sharing.

Aaron tends to say just about anything that comes to his mind. Tonight he thanked God for "golfing and Tiger Woods"; then he thanked God for "not talking and don't touch the curtains or Mommy will get mad". I almost laughed out loud at that one.

Then Evan thanked God for being strong and for helping us.

Two prayers to put a smile on your face:)

Family Archives

I finally dug out the video camera in an effort to put to some of our memories in a shareable format. It's not riveting stuff, but here are some fun clips of Evan as a 2 and a half year old: