Are there enough words?

You'll need to be my "friend" to see my Facebook status today, but I thought I'd provide a little back story. I have a slight addiction, I'm a bibliophile. I love books. I've written before about my love for Half-Priced Books. Yesterday, we had the opportunity to visit McKay Used Books in Knoxville. While there, my mom came across Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21730 pages.

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Not So Fast

Matthew 6:16-18
¹⁶ And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ¹⁷ But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Fasting is an often neglected discipline by today's believers, in spite of the fact that Jesus assumed his hearers would fast ("when you fast").  I've personally found great personal reward through fasting and try to make it at least an annual discipline in my life.  The start of a new calendar year is an ideal time to begin a fast.  There are several books written about fasting and it benefits; I simply want to give some personal experience insight.

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Daddy is smarter than Mommy

This morning as we were discussing Annie's school work, Rachel (aka Mommy) said, "You need to have Daddy help you with this homework. Daddy is smarter than Mommy." Now, I believe that Rachel was simply trying to "pass the buck." It is true that I should be helping Annie with her homework more often. However, I replied, "Do you know why Mommy says that Daddy is smarter? [Annie does not know...] Because, Daddy married Mommy, and, well...Mommy married Daddy." So, if that isn't proof enough, I don't know what is.

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Google Voice / Blackberry Storm / GVDialer

Point 1: I used to have a severe case of Smartphone Envy, that was until I became the proud owner of a Blackberry Storm. The iPhone wasn't an option, because I'm pretty sold on Verizon [VZW] (mainly due to In-network calling, because the majority of my family uses VZW. Not to mention, they have great coverage). When I upgraded to the Storm, I also ported our home number from a VOIP line to VZW's Add-a-line, because I was not ready to surrender the number, and it is less than $10/mo. to keep the number active (I also got a 2nd Storm with a BOGO deal).

Point 2: I've been a GrandCentral user for a couple of years (prior to the Google Acquisition). GC is now Google Voice [GV]. I had not made use of many of their features, but we want to eventually replace our home number with the GV number. Now, the additional phone has been set to forward to our GV number, which then rings both of our mobile phones. In addition, this lets us put some filters on the numbers to limit spam, and the voicemail transcription has been pretty cool.

Point 3: VZW has added a new Friends & Family option that permits me to add 10 numbers for unlimited calling to our current Family Share Plan. At this point, our GV number is one of those numbers. I can now call my GV number (initially for voicemail purposes) without concern of minutes used.

Point 4: The loophole is that GV permits me to make an additional call from within the GV menu. The call would appear for all VZW's intents and purposes, as a call to my GV number, and therefore free of charge. This requires a little bit of extra effort, but if I know it will be a long call, it could be worth it.

Point 5: GVDialer takes all the work out of it for me. After installing GVDialer, when I select a contact from my address book or punch in a number to dial, I am given an option to call via GVDialer. It is one-touch dialing from there, the app does the rest to connect my call. I've only made a few calls using the app, but I am pleased thusfar.

This has the potential to totally revolutionize my voice communications. I'm stoked.

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Happy Birthday Josiah

Today was a fun day around here. It was Josiah's 4th birthday. He has grown to be such a sweet boy and a great delight to have (most of the time). For those who are "friends," Rachel has done a great job posting to Facebook. She's also done well to keep our Family Blog up-to-date.

We opted to take the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge 2 weeks ago in an attempt to celebrate Annie and Josiah's birthday. We did this in lieu of throwing a public party for the two of them.

I started off today with a trip to the Y-Express. I got back in time to see Josiah open his T-ball set. Then I showered and headed to the chiropractor for my first (ever) massage. I returned home to begin working for the day. After Annie came home from school, we headed to Toot's for lunch. After lunch I came back home while Rachel and the kids headed to Chuck-E-Cheese to play some games.

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One Hundred Pushups - Week 1, Day 2

Today I managed the 5 sets: 14, 19, 14, 14, 12.  The final set was supposed to be a minimum of 19, continually leading me to think that I'll re-do this week.  I am, however, pleased with the progress.

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One Hundred Pushups - Week 1 - Day 1

Although it is listed as Week 1, day 1, I am on the Week 3 day 1 schedule.  I was supposed to do sets of 12, 17, 13, 13, min 17.  I was struggling on the last set of 13 and pushed out a max of 7 for the final set.  Maybe I should have started on Week 2's schedule.  I'm happy at this point and will continue on the Week 3 program.  Worst case, I repeat the Week 3 program next week.

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