What's New?

It's been a couple of weeks since I wrote....my apologies. Some top of mind thoughts tonight:

1. Out here in the East, attending a Good Friday service is a big deal. It's funny how I'm considered to be so non-religious because us Mormons don't go to church on that day. A couple of colleagues were a bit taken back that we went to IKEA on that day. But we more than make up for it 52 Sundays a year!

2. Speaking of IKEA, I'm writing on this great little two-seater couch in our playroom. It was around $151 and the best find from IKEA in a while. Very comfortable and just the right touch for this room.

3. Our neighborhood has a little bunny rabbit that hops around the area lawns. For those who know me well, they know that's a huge plus for me as I have always had a thing for baby rabbits. The kids call him Cottontail. (I wanted to call him Carmel after my pet rabbit from when I was in first grade, but I was overruled.) He just sits on our lawn quietly, though we haven't been able to get up close enough to pet him yet.

4. The Yankees need some pitchers in the worst way!!! They're letting all of A-Rod's homers go to waste. And why were we ever crying for A-Rod to be traded? I can't remember....

5. I walked to the train station this morning. I forgot how much I missed that since we moved. It is now a 1.25 mile walk, which is about 1.16 miles further than at our old house. But I left at 5:30 to catch a 5:59 a.m. train. It was very pleasant. I forgot that the walk to the train served as my morning prayer time.

6. I have a new plan for keeping the Sabbath. Too often, I let work hang over me during the full weekend as I plan to "log on" Sunday night and finish my Friday afternoon work that didn't get done or make a jump for the next week. And it really ruins the whole weekend for me. So now I'm attempting to avoid that...and when I do, it makes a huge difference for me.

My solution: I plan to get to work on Mondays super early (hence my 5:30 a.m. walk to the train this morning). Then I have about 1.5 hours to get stuff done before clients get to their offices. It also means I have to go to bed early on Sunday night....which I don't do often enough.

A side benefit: I feel OK leaving work "one train earlier" to come home on Monday night, which lets us start family home evening before all the kids unravel.

One simple thing -- honoring the Sabbath -- with a lot of side benefits. Let's see if I can keep it up.

7. The annual merit badge seminar was this weekend. I always kind of dread it, but I lucked out with a good group of boys. My best teaching idea: they have to teach a technique or skill to the class. I printed up some of the "Worst Case Scenario" items from the internet, and had them teach how to fight off an alligator, jump from a building into a Dumpster, escape from a car submerged in a lake. Bizarre enough that they liked it.

8. By moving from our old house, I no longer have to master parallel parking. But now Kathryn is forcing me to do a different parking skill: back in to the driveway. She likes to do it and by default, I kind of have to do it, too. I kind of thing it's rather pretencious (I can't spell tonight) to back in, but I suppose the neighbors won't run us out of town for that.

Mark