A New Way To Get Your Groceries Home

Yes, after making all my stops on grocery day, my car decided it wasn't up to the task of actually getting everything home. A couple of nice young men came out of the coffee shop I died in front of and pushed me around back to the coffe house parking lot, so that was nice.

Unusual Bank Deposit

Drunk deposits horse in bank for night
Wed Apr 25, 2007 11:25 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man called on his bank for an unusual service when he was too tired and drunk to go home -- he bedded down there for the night with his horse.

The man, identified as Wolfgang H. by German media, went to sleep next to cash machines in the local branch of the Mittelbrandenburgische Sparkasse in Wiesenburg southwest of Berlin after unsaddling his horse Sammy and closing the door.

A spokeswoman for the bank said that aside from an undesirable deposit made by his horse inside the building, the 40-year-old account holder had not breached any house rules.

"The horse was otherwise very well behaved and kept a good watch on his master," she said Wednesday. "Perhaps we should have a supply of oats and water on the premises in future."

Another customer discovered the horse and rider as he slept and informed police, who asked the man to leave.

A police spokesman said that since the horse's droppings had been removed, the matter was now closed.

Something to do on your next date night

Maturing cheese becomes Internet star
Thu Apr 26, 2007 9:08 AM ET



LONDON (Reuters) - A large English cheddar cheese has become a star of the Internet, attracting more than 1 million viewers to sit and stare at it as it slowly ripens.

First placed in front of a webcam in late December, the Westcombe cheddar from West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers leaped to public attention in early February and has since attracted viewers from 119 countries.

"The hits went over 1 million this morning. It has been a real challenge keeping the cheese up and running with all the interest it has generated," a spokesman for the company running the website, www.cheddarvision.tv, said Wednesday.

Watchers have tuned in from as far afield as Albania and New Zealand, although most are from the United States where a school has even sent in pictures of two crocodiles to guard the cheese.

"The whole idea was to show people how real food is made -- and it seems to be working," cheesemaker Tom Calver said. "It takes a year for the cheese to mature. This is not fast food. It is slow food."

Portuguese Lyrics!

Don't worry - he sings it in English. LOL



And another . . . .

Occupational Hazards

Okay, so there are some occupational hazards associated with mobile computing.

Resident Army Soldiers







Local Fishermen



Flower Girls



I guess if you have to work on a beautiful, sunny afternoon, this is the way to do it. :)

I Guess Spring Has Sprung

It's FINALLY nice enough to take the laptop out on the porch today to work, and what's going on in the tree right in front of me? It barely has any leaves yet, and there's a couple of mourning doves making out like a couple of teenagers.

For all the times in my work life that I wished I could take my computer outside and set up shop in the sunshine . . . .HA! HA! It's just as nice as I always thought it would be!

My Life as a Medical Transcriptionist

how did you get into this field and with how much/what kind of training?

First of all, it's only due to a couple of major administrative foul-ups that I even made it out of my probation period when I got this job. In the first, no one noticed after my first 30-day period that I wasn't anywhere close to meeting minimum production requirements. The second allowed me to continue receiving an hourly salary until I had been with the company for about 10 months, when it should have ended after 14 days. By the time those two things got straightened out, I was both meeting production and making enough to actually pay the bills when they took me off of hourly pay. So I lucked out big time.

I got into the field entirely by accident(?). I needed a job quick back in 1991, went through Kelly Services and ended up getting assigned to the genetics department at one of the local teaching hospitals. The job turned permanent, and I worked there for about six years before going into the computer field for another five or six years. That particular department gave me exposure to a lot of different terminology from just about every specialty you can name, so even though I never had a formal terminology course, I was able to pass the transcription test when I was hired.

What little I know about how hires are made in this field is that usually someone either needs a year or two of current experience (my experience was not current when I was hired - another administrative goof - no wonder they closed that office!) or else an approved training program. Some companies will state right on their web sites what courses they will accept.

Don't expect to make big bucks right out of the gate. Even though I had previous experience transcribing hospital dictation, it still took me a good six months before some of the doctors stopped sounding like they were drunk, and it took about a year before I actually was making what I consider a decent salary at it (which is still about 1/3 to 1/2 of what I was making as a computer tech).

Maybe my sis Annette has some additional insight into the question that she would like to add as a comment to this post?

Breakfast of Champions

Shrimp and Sausage Jambalaya. Good for what ails you, especially with an extra dose of cayenne.



1 lb hot sausage
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
salt to taste
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp black pepper
1 cup uncooked rice
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 to 2 cloves garlic (I usually double the garlic and half the salt), minced
2 pounds raw shrimp
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 cups chicken broth
3 Tbsps butter

Cut sausage into 1/4" slices.
Cook sausage until browned - transfer to a plate and set aside.
Melt butter over medium-high heat.
Add onion, celery, green pepper, garlic and saute 5 to 7 minutes.
Add rice, cayenne, white and black peppers and stir.
Add chicken broth, tomatoes, and sausage. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer until rice is tender and most liquid is absorbed.
Add shelled, deveined shrimp and cook until pink.

Mmmmm, mmmmm, good.

See Those Little Specks In The Water?

I'm going to be real interested to find out next month why God has had his eye on that little place for so long. I've only been aware that it even existed for about five years or so. It's taken two years from the time I was first asked to pray about going to get to the point where I can actually say that, barring the unforeseen, I AM going -- and it's all been God's doing. All I've had to do is cooperate with Him and pray.


When I step on the plane, though, I guess you all might want to say goodbye, because from what I hear from others who have gone I won't be coming back the same. And that might just be a blessing. :)

Fall Back and Punt

Okay, so sometimes my lesson illustrations leave a little something to be desired. Tonight, I thought I was right on the money. The text tonight was Micah 6:6-8 -

Wherewith shall I come before the LORD,
and bow myself before the high God?
shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves of a year old?

Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good;
and what doth the LORD require of thee,
but to do justly,
and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God?

So I needed to define terms some with the girls, and we're discussing what this thing called mercy is. The discussion was pretty lame, but a couple of them had some good ideas. To move things along, I said that mercy is like when you're in big trouble with your mom. You KNOW you've messed up bad this time, and you DESERVE what you know is coming. But instead of punishing you, she comes up and gives you a hug.

Silence and blank stares.

One of the girls piped up with the fact that this wasn't something that was part of her experience. This got a chorus of agreement. That got me wondering where that illustration even came from. Is it something I remember from my own childhood, or something I know I've done with my daughter? I don't really remember. It must be in my heart somewhere in order for it to have come out like that, though.

I pulled it out by saying that if our own mothers have never had mercy on us like that, it's still exactly what God has done for us by sending Jesus Christ. But for a minute there, I was wondering if it were going to be a total loss.

So is this experience so foreign? Has none of us who are mothers ever had mercy on our kids instead of requiring sacrifice? Do none of us who are children have memories of receiving mercy from our parents? If they give us our first picture of what God is like, what does that say about how we view God?

Rocky Top

Some songs are so associated with certain memories that bringing up one automatically brings up the other. So tonight, I came across this video of John Denver, Johnny Cash, and Glen Campbell singing Rocky Top, I was immediately transported to the basement of our house in Independence, Missouri, where the three of us (my cousin Beverly was living with us at the time) would spend hours and hours playing guitar and singing. Not just Rocky Top, but pretty much anything by John Denver, Neil Young, or Pink Floyd. I still miss her.

This is going to be fun!

Surprising sermon

An American minister was preaching in Portuguese as a guest pastor at a church for the Brazilian community in the borough of Queens in New York City. At one point, he proclaimed, Jesus está em nossa meia! and received a puzzled reaction from the congregation. He was trying to say, 'Jesus is in our midst' (Jesus está em nosso meio!), but instead it came out as, 'Jesus is in our sock!'

Let's just hope I don't do what one poor soul did and ask for a poopy pretzel instead of a coconut pretzel. LOL

Another Mobile Blogging Test With Pictures

Yes, I am a hopeless gadget geek.

this is a test

trying out the mobile blogging possibilities

Quote of the Day

Jesus didn't come to give us miracles . . . . He came to give us himself.
Michael Card

In class we've just been talking about John 11 where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead after he had been in the grave for four days. I still find it fascinating that everyone believed that Jesus could heal Lazarus from sickness, but nobody thought he could do anything about it once he had died. This is the miracle that directly led to Jesus' crucifixion, and, once again, when it was his turn to die, no one expected him to rise again, despite the fact that he had told them many times and in many ways that he would do just that. But the main point Michael Card made in the sermon from which the above quote is taken is that, on the day of Jesus' death, the greatest miracle of all was that there was no miracle. Jesus healed when he chose to heal, and did miracles when he chose to. Each one was meant to point to Jesus as the promised Messiah. Yet when the crowd mocked him and said -- "He saved others. Let him save himself. Then we'll believe." -- there was no miracle. No angels came to take him down from the cross and zap the ones who had done this evil to the Son of God. This day Jesus performed no miracle.

Michael Card wrote a song for his grandfather some years ago. At the beginning of the song, he attached a small clip of his grandfather, who was an old time gospel preacher by the sound of it, reading John 12:24. Imagine hearing that voice as you read Jesus' words below:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and DIE, it abideth alone: but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit.

I love listening to that old recording of an old preacher who knew just what Jesus knew and just where he would have put the emphasis when he spoke those words himself.

As Michael closed his message on today's program, his song Immanuel was played. As we prepare to celebrate Jesus' resurrection from the dead, I close with those words:

A sign shall be given
A virgin will conceive
A human baby bearing
Undiminished deity

The glory of the nations
A light for all to see
Hope for all who will embrace
His warm reality

Immanuel
Our God is with us
And if God is with us
Who could stand against us
Our God is with us
Immanuel

For all those who live in the shadow of death
A glorious light has dawned
For all those who stumble in the darkness
Behold your light has come

Immanuel
Our God is with us
And if God is with us
Who could stand against us
Our God is with us
Immanuel

So what will be your answer?
Will you hear the call?
Of Him who did not spare His son
But gave him for us all

On earth there is no power
There is no depth or height
That could ever separate us
From the love of God in Christ

Immanuel
Our God is with us
And if God is with us
Who could stand against us
Our God is with us
Immanuel