Upward Leadership Conference – KC

Attending with 5 great friends (including my wife, who is still my best friend…) the Upward Leadership Conference to help us prepare for Upward Basketball. I’ve been involved with Upward sinece 1999, and this is my first year to step up and be the League Director at our church. We’re haveing a good time, and the worship and vision ‘seed casting’ last night was just the right way to kick off the event. Click to read more about the Upward Mission Statement and Values

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Give the Rangers a broom…

The cellar dwelling Rangers, swept the AL West second place Mariner’s adding another day of no-joy in Mudville for the Seattle faithful. Five sixths of the Stueve clan was in attendance whooping it up in section 318. (Lauren had youth camp to attend, and she ate too much Pizza, and too much ice cream, but had a lot of fun).

The Missus has a post up with pics and a description of dealing with bershon tween Brenna, who took many of the pictures in the flickr set (click the photo to see all the shots…)

Special note on this picture taken by Angie:

I am smiling! There on the left side, is Ramon Vazquez swinging on the game winning shot in the bottom of the 8th. Relief pitcher Joaquin Benoit owes Ramon about a case of beers, after giving up 3 runs in the top of the night, Ramon saved his bacon with his two-run dinger, after Marlon Byrd led off the eighth with a single and got to second on a sacrifice bunt by Frank Catalanotto. The game winner was a the expense of the M’s relief ace J.J. Putz (oh how HE must’ve hated High School).

It was a fun night in Arlington.

John from Cincinnati

jfc.pngAs the spring television season wound down, I was wondering what would capture my attention for periodic television watching over the summer. We decided to order the movie package from Verizon FIOS, as we thought it might be cheaper than pay-per-view and blockbuster late fees. With that package came HBO.

I’d heard rumblings from TVSquad about this new show, John from Cincinnati, that was made from the producers of Deadwood (which I’ve never watched, but heard it was very good) so I made a point of watching the first episode about this guy that shows up in Imperial Beach, California and starts to work/observe positive changes in a circle of relationship surrounding a very dysfunctional family of surfers.

That synopsis doesn’t give the show justice. I’m really liking the show, and have become a fan of David Milch, the creator of JFC and Deadwood just from the concepts portrayed in the show. But, word of warning, this is a show on HBO, and as such, the language and themes are not what you’d find on the networks. Both in a good a bad way, perhaps. If you pale at the use of strong words starting with ‘F’, then you’ll probably be put off by the show. A word of advice, the language is there for a reason, and the advice from Milch is watch the actions, don’t listen to the words. And after hearing that and re-watching the episodes, there is some real gems and some great acting.

The great thing about HBO is that there are lots of options for watching the show, it airs at many times, and it is available on VOD. But for now, I’ve got the HD version of it airing Sunday night locked in on my DVR. Though I have to find alone time to watch it, since Angie doesn’t care for the language, and it probably shouldn’t be heard by the kids either. Also, it being on HBO, the amount of people I know that might watch it is reduced as well.

It is hard to describe the amount of wonder, confusion and then satisfaction I get from this show. It has taken its time in setting up the stories the show will tell. The characters aren’t always likable, or ever do or say the right thing. The themes are redemptive in nature, oddly reminiscent of some themes from The Shawshank Redemption (a wonderful movie… go watch it).

So while my water-cooler talks with friends might not occur about JFC, there are a few online places I can turn to: wiki, podcast, forums, blog and more blogs. What about you, do you watch John from Cincinnati?

Hally-Lou-YEAH!

Just heard from my Property Manager that our house in Ingleside is RENTED!

Whoop!

These past three months have been a large burden, and really put a hold on my zeal for adhering to a debt reduction plan, because we frankly couldn’t afford it and the extra burden of the mortgage for the rental.

But still since the beginning of the year, we’ve paid off both of our cars, and have been blessed by family donations to be able to send my eldest daughter to mission in Mexico, and my second daughter to a fun summer school.  So we ain’t doing to bad… Thanks to all for the prayers and wishes.

J.