Category: Miscellaneous babble

Yesterday I had my first experience at a southern Baptist church. A Missionary Baptist church in Wilmington NC. The wife’s mom decided to get baptized into this new church, so we went up there to share the big moment with her.
It was definitely an experience. It really is like you see on TV.
There was some serious preaching going on and more than a few people getting into this freaky weird frenzied state. “Getting the spirit” the wife called it. One lady in front of us who looked to be about 7 months pregnant was getting some serious spirit. I was afraid she might go into labour right there! Another lady got so much spirit she collapsed on the floor. I said to the wife that I thought EMS should be standing by for these church sessions. According to her it was all quite normal.
For me it was all a little over the top and too frenzied for my taste. Definitely not my style. When we left I felt like I needed to get away just to restore some of my calm and serenity. To each their own I suppose.

The wife wants a treadmill.
This was something we considered a couple of years ago, but didn’t have the money or space for at the time. Now she’s serious about getting one and has given me two weeks to find and purchase a good quality treadmill. Not one of the cheapo department store ones either (although some of the higher end NordicTrack models Sears carries would probably do). She wants a solid quality machine like the ones you find in fitness centers. There was one store we ran across across the river in Mt P that specialized in this kind of stuff. Now I just have to remember what the name of the store was and where it was located.

If I didn’t share the area my office is in with other people, I would put a big sign on my door saying “The person you’re looking for is probably next door”.
It usually happens at least once or twice a week. Someone will poke their head in my door with a lost look on their face and say they’re looking for so-and-so. I tell them they’re next door and off they go. Now, if these people would just read the signs on the doors, it should be pretty clear that the person they’re looking for is next door and not here. Nobody seems to ever do that though.
Sometimes I tell them “Next door” before they even say anything. I can do this because hardly anyone ever comes to my office, so anybody who pokes their head in my door is almost always looking for someone else.

A couple of months ago, the wife and I joined Weight Watchers to shed some extra poundage. Two months later, I’ve dropped 10 pounds. Woo! I was targeting 160, but the leader folks at the WW center we go to seems to think 170 or 175 would suit me better and going any lower would make me look anorexic.
Back when I was doing a lot of running and cycling, I was maintaining a pretty steady 145-150, so I think 160-165 probably isn’t too unreasonable. I felt pretty good at 150 and wasn’t overly scrawny or anything. I think if I keep up with what I’m doing, I can reach 165 pretty easily. It’s only 10 pounds away.
In the meantime I’ve definitely noticed that most of my pants are much looser than they used to be. I’m going to have to start wearing belts if this keeps up.

Lately the wife’s been having terrible luck with flying. A couple of weekends ago she was flying out to Durham, NC for a conference. Got to the airport a little late, wasn’t able to check her bag and get on so she ended up having to rebook. Then that plane ended up taking off late, so she missed the connecting flight in Charlotte, NC and had to catch a later one.
Today I dropped her off at the airport nice and early at 5AM for a 5:50 AM flight to NYC. A couple hours later she called to say she was still on the plane and hadn’t left yet because of “electrical problems”. Ended up having to rebook on a later 12PM flight, so now she’s stuck hanging out at the airport for the next 5 hours.
I’m thinking after this we probably won’t be flying anywhere for a while.