I headed out to my morning activity with a quick detour to the parents house to pick-up dirt moving implements. From the rents house, I drove by the newest hot spot in Peoria, Sonic. I love Sonic, but had originally intended to note my disgust at the fact that greasy (aka yummy) fast food was so busy at 9am. However, Jerelyn set me straight by informing me that they do indeed serve breakfast food. I'm sure it's greasy too, but at least it's the right category.
Pastor Joey enlisted the help of church folk to move some dirt plopped down on his front driveway to his back yard. It sounded like a great excuse for some exercise and free food, so I signed up.
I think Joey might have just been using the dirt moving as an excuse for a character building exercise for his youth group. Nice job guys.
Let it be noted that I avoided using pictures of Emily to save up for one later.
On my way out, I got a computer support request from Miss Kate and made a house call. She is currently working on a jean quilt, and showed me a previous quilting work. They look good in a quilt, but I had to ask why in the world she ever had red, white and blue jean shorts.
Since I was in the same parking lot as my future roomie, Ben, I jaunted over to his place for a visit and a brisk jog. There are ALOT fewer trees on his jogging route, hence the red face today, for those who wondered.
I was informed later of the opportunity to crash a girls night out (eh, why not). But first, got another support call of a different sort. JohnyB and I have been scratching our heads over this wierd car starting deal Sarah has had for the last couple of days, so I went over to perform some simple battery maintentance before dinner.
Shortly after arriving, Emmy showed up, pulled up a chair, and vuala, I have an audience/cheering section. I believe the look on Em's face is something like "Oh I know you're not taking that picture because it's not like it's ending up on your website".
After the cleaning, and continuing to be baffled at how Sarah's van is acting, I released the ladies to their own ladies night and headed to mine. This entry may need editing after I sleep on it.
Miss Kate invited me to a ladies night out dinner and movie to which I happily attended as the alternative was unproductive, as usual. And they just had one the night before, so it's okay to crash every once and a while. If this sounds a little familiar, that's because almost the same thing
happened earlier this month with some of the same ladies. You can also see a pic of future roommate Ben in that post.
I got downtown before the ladies and looked around a bit. The Fireguy was in town, attracting crowds. Look closely and you'll see one of my church usher teammates with his fam in the crowd (I can only think of two readers who MIGHT care at all).
Dinner was at Joe's Crab shack, with it's endless and tasteless crab jokes. Alright, I get it. You got crabs.
Mom is probably throwing her hands up in frustration right now at the fact that I had all of these cute single ladies at my table, and am dating none of them. Sorry mom.
It's a rare occasion for any of my friends to have a drink while eating out. And even rarer for me to say anything about it. But it was quite funny. The ladies were very curious at the idea of a mixed drink which incorporated pop rocks, so they ordered one up. It turned out to be an enormous margarita, which Katie
wouldn't even attempt to finish her self, so we helped out. Sorry for the action shot Kim.
Apparently Old Chicago get's their goat cheese pizza ingredients straight from the parking lot. Who knew
The movie (that's right, Beauty And The Beast) was canceled due to the time, but it only took 15 seconds to talk me into having ice cream at Kim's before going home. We all know why I really went though.
Jack and I had had some man time (aka blue rubber ducky time) while the ladies prepared the food.
Do you normally give Jack a sugar high right before bedtime Kim? :-)
Man...these ladies know how to do ice cream right! (took a couple bites first...again!)
I headed out to my morning activity with a quick detour to the parents house to pick-up dirt moving implements. From the rents house, I drove by the newest hot spot in Peoria, Sonic. I love Sonic, but had originally intended to note my disgust at the fact that greasy (aka yummy) fast food was so busy at 9am. However, Jerelyn set me straight by informing me that they do indeed serve breakfast food. I'm sure it's greasy too, but at least it's the right category.
Pastor Joey enlisted the help of church folk to move some dirt plopped down on his front driveway to his back yard. It sounded like a great excuse for some exercise and free food, so I signed up.
On my way out, I got a computer support request from Miss Kate and made a house call. She is currently working on a jean quilt, and showed me a previous quilting work. They look good in a quilt, but I had to ask why in the world she ever had red, white and blue jean shorts.
I was informed later of the opportunity to crash a girls night out (eh, why not). But first, got another support call of a different sort. JohnyB and I have been scratching our heads over this wierd car starting deal Sarah has had for the last couple of days, so I went over to perform some simple battery maintentance before dinner.
Shortly after arriving, Emmy showed up, pulled up a chair, and vuala, I have an audience/cheering section. I believe the look on Em's face is something like "Oh I know you're not taking that picture because it's not like it's ending up on your website".
It's a rare occasion for any of my friends to have a drink while eating out. And even rarer for me to say anything about it. But it was quite funny. The ladies were very curious at the idea of a mixed drink which incorporated pop rocks, so they ordered one up. It turned out to be an enormous margarita, which Katie 
wouldn't even attempt to finish her self, so we helped out. Sorry for the action shot Kim.
I found a bundle for two of their albums, and then another for two more albums. In total, I purchased Hiding Place, Press On, Be Still My Soul, and Bless The Broken Road for $20. There are still a few more out there I'd like to get.
I've listened to all these songs at various places and trips, but haven't had a copy of them until now. These truths in song (both old and new) are such an encouragement and God glorifying distraction when you need it. 
I have a habit of listening to the same album over and over again anyway, so listening to the same 48 songs over and over again for a month will be nothing new...and ain't nuthin' wrong with that!
I had never been to their house before. This isn't a problem when I have directions and obsessed about google/microsoft maps of the place well in advance. However, I received a new toy in the mail today (as a bonus for buying something else) and it was a great opportunity to try it out.
On the trip, I eventually started forgetting to photograph my food (look, I just have to all right) before digging in. I'm still doing it. Dan allowed me to snap his untouched plate instead.
Jim surveys the battlefield before zero hour. Hope you guys had a blast!
While setting up for the luncheon, I noticed that Pastor Chris's chess game (played against remote challengers at times) had been messed up a tad.
So I messed it up thoroughly.
Peoria's major college campus is Bradley University. Every year, Bradley allows a local ministry, Campus Crusade for Christ, to run a water balloon fight to kick off the first week of classes. Cru provides an abundance of filled water balloons every year, so my Sunday school class offered to help out with the filling of said balloons. We were given a couple thousand to fill, with permission for a certain number of them to be wasted "on accident".
Every faucet needed to be utilized in order to finish at a decent time, even the bathrooms. Nick made himself comfortable.
But certain rules must never be broken. Ladies!!
They tried, but I don't think we "accidentally" broke the 10% we were allowed.
