Patty Cake Cats

I don't know how to describe this, so I'll just post it. The voice-over is my favorite part.

The Thanksgiving That Wasn't

Yesterday, as planned, I prepared the turkey. It looks good. Probably the best turkey that I've ever made. I put it in the fridge to await the moment that I could put it in the oven. I was really looking forward to the food and the company that we expected to have on Thanksgiving day. We did our night-time ritual. The boys brushed their teeth. I read them a portion of "Kingdom Keepers III". Then off to bed they went. Joi had an upset stomach most of the evening. We just figured that it was the McDonald's that they had for lunch. We drifted off to sleep. At 11:30pm, I was awoken with the sound of Gavin crying. I went it to see what was up and he was sitting up...rocking back and forth. I picked him up and held him for a moment asking what was wrong. He didn't answer. I set him down and he made a beeline for the bathroom where he peed like there was no tomorrow. Oh..that was what was wrong. He had to pee. He went back to bed. A few minutes later Garrison was at my door. He mumbled some gibberish about having a bad dream, being scared, and something about throw-up. I asked him if he needed to throw up and he said no. I held him for a little bit and then sent him back to bed. A few minutes later, he was back. He was literally shaking, he was so scared. He mumbled some more about nightmares and throw-up. I prayed with him and sent him back to bed. A few minutes later, he was back. This time he was crying. By now, Joi was awake and she held him. Then, he said that he needed to throw up. She corralled him to the bathroom where he did just that. Joi, bless her heart, does as she always does in situations like this. She decided to sleep down stairs with Garrison so that she could be with him if he needed to be sick again. She knows that I don't care for throw up all that much and she is very kind to me. Garrison continued to get sick several times throughout the night. At 4am, Joi heard Gavin cough and then cry up in his room. She knew what was coming. She ran upstairs and found Gavin who told her that he threw up. I woke up in the commotion. I cleaned the carpet while she took Gavin to the bathroom where he continued to throw up. She decided to take Gavin downstairs to join the sick-sleeping crew. Also, she decided to have Gage join them, since she needed to strip their bed anyway to wash their sheets. They were sleeping together previously. So, they all went downstairs. I put on Lion King 1 1/2, as Joi juggled the kids as they took turns throwing up. The dust settled and the boys started to drift off. So, I went back upstairs to get a little more sleep so that I was functional the next day. Joi continued to take care of the throw-up brothers off and on throughout the night. It's now 8am. Gage never did get sick, but we expect it at any moment. Garrison hasn't thrown up in 4 hours. Gavin's been throw-up free for about 2 hours. Joi never did get anything else besides an upset stomach. Gage and I are both still fine. However, Thanksgiving is toast. Literally and figuratively. Today for Thanksgiving, the boys will be on the post throw-up B.R.A.T. diet (Banana's, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast). Also, we need to call Uncle Dale and the Ferris' and tell them that we need to cancel Thanksgiving. We don't want to get everyone sick. I still need to make the turkey, but chances are that we won't bother with "all the trimmings" since half of my family can't eat it anyway. So, Thanksgiving is pretty much ruined. No food, no good company. Just sick kids and Lysol. Bummer.

Thanksgiving Plans

I will most likely be offline tomorrow for Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd post a Thanksgiving blog today. First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who reads my blog (both followers and anonymous lurkers)! Today is going to be a slow day at work. There are not many documents coming in because most students are gone for the Thanksgiving break. The work-studies who work for me decided to throw a Pre-Thanksgiving party. I'm making a Chili-Cheese Dip with a small crock pot to contribute to the party. I also see a couple rotisserie chickens, something from KFC, soda, and Hot Chocolate. But, not everyone is here yet. Tonight, I'll prepare the turkey and get it ready to put in the oven tomorrow. Joi is super-cleaning the house and preparing everything else. She is also taking Garrison to the doctor today. He has had a sore left big-toe that appears red and swollen. Not sure what is up there. Tomorrow, more cooking. Then later on in the afternoon, Uncle Dale and the Ferris family are joining us for a Thanksgiving meal. It will be nice to see Steffanne, since she's been working so much lately. I usually get to see Russell once a week for lunch on Friday's. But, I haven't seen Steff much for a few months. After dinner, we plan to scour the Black Friday ads to find some good deals for Christmas. It should be a good day. It's going to be a chilly 32 degrees (as a high), but still no snow. I was hoping for a white Thanksgiving. Oh well...hopefully we'll still get a white Christmas. So, that is our plan for Thanksgiving. We have room for anyone else who might want to come join us. Anyone from California?

Dealing With Difficult Situations

My wife is amazing. I watched her deal with a couple very difficult situations during the last week and she handled it with poise, grace, and maturity. I, on the other hand, was angry. I wanted to lash out, inflict pain, and destroy anyone who would dare attack my wife in such a manner. Especially since these attacks were completely unwarranted. These were attacks that had their roots almost 12 years ago. But, these people just can't forgive and move on. They hold on to their bitterness and their anger. Yes, my wife made a couple mistakes years ago in these situations. But, she apologized and tried her best to make amends. Sometimes, people would rather hold on to the pain and bitterness, rather than accept a heartfelt apology and move on. I honestly couldn't believe the immaturity and lack of personal accountability that I was witnessing by these people. Seriously, this is junior high stuff. But, my wife handled the whole thing with peace, grace, and maturity. I was impressed. Me, however, I'm still seething. I guess it's the protective husband in me.

On an related note, this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for our dear friends. We have some amazing friends and I am so very thankful for everything that they are, and everything that they do (and don't do). Thanks friends!

Harder Christmas Music

I'm not at all in favor of starting to celebrate Christmas before we've even started thawing out our Thanksgiving turkey, but I'm planning ahead. So, bare with me. I provide the music for the entrance hallway in our church and I was starting to put together an MP3 playlist of harder, more up to date, alternative, and more current Christmas tunes that are clean and suitable for church. I don't necessarily want Christian stuff, but that is fine too. I'm okay with clean stuff from alternative, secular artists. However, I need suggestions. Or better yet, send me the MP3's. What should I put on the playlist?

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is hard. It takes a conscious decision and lots of work, but it is possible. Holding a grudge, on the other hand, is easy. In fact, it gets easier the longer you hold a grudge. Holding a grudge and being unwilling to move on does some major damage to your self. I fooled myself for lots of years thinking that my holding a grudge is hurting the person (or persons) who hurt me. But, the reality is, I was only hurting myself. In fact, it permeated so much of my life that I was becoming a bitter and negative person. It started to eat away at me like cancer. In the not too recent past, God told me (and my wife reiterated) that I needed to deal with forgiveness in my life. So, I bought a book on forgiveness and read it. I read some bible verses that deal with forgiveness. They both helped get me on the right track. But, the thing that helped me the most was just deciding to forgive. So, I finally let go of several hurts that I was carrying around like a necklace of heavy duty chains and decided to forgive. This sounds cliche, but it was like someone lifted a weight off of my shoulders. It was an amazing feeling to leave that hurt behind me. Almost immediately, the bitterness passed and the negativity started to disappear. Now, forgiveness has nothing to do with the wrong-doer acknowledging that they hurt you or apologizing. You won't always get that. But, you are required to forgive anyway. If the wrong-doer does apologize...then you have absolutely no excuse for holding onto the pain and bitterness. The only person you are hurting is yourself. Believe me, I know! It blows me away just how many people hold on to pain, bitterness, and continue to hold a grudge for years and years. It's not doing anyone any good. There is a reason that God asks his children to forgive...and it's not just because it's the nice or peaceful thing to do. God knows that it is bad for your health and your outlook on life if you fail to forgive. Like so many things that God directs us to do, it's for our ultimate good. So, if you need to forgive someone, do yourself a favor and get on with it. It's really better for you in the long run.

When Technology Interferes with Relationship

Technology is cool. You can do so much with it. Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and other such sites make it easy for people to keep up with you and for you to keep up with the ones you love. You can even update your Facebook status with your phone, in much the same way Twitter works. You can tell people exactly where you are and what you are doing minute by minute. Now, personally, I think this can get out of hand quickly...but that's another blog altogether. No one cares that you just ate a yummy snickers bar, or that you are leaving the grocery store where you bought bug spray and spam. Seriously, no one cares. But, I digress. The fact that all of these updates can take place via cell phone remotely is pretty cool technology. But, it gets in the way of relationships. For instance, let's say I'm at home having a wonderful evening with my family. I decide to update my Facebook status with "Having a wonderful time with my family at home. Enjoying the kids and wife!" If I am taking the time to get on Facebook to update my status with this message, I am no longer spending a wonderful evening with my kids and wife. I am now wasting the wonderful evening I could have had with them while I am away from them updating my Facebook. Does that make sense? Or let's say I make a trip out to California to visit my family, but I spend a majority of the time clicking away on my phone, rather than actually engaging with my family. If I spend most of my time updating my Twitter or Facebook, I am missing wonderful opportunities to spend precious time with my family. This is getting ridiculous people! No one cares that you are sitting on a couch chatting with your mom, except your Mom...and she would rather you put down the phone and actually chat with her. Put your phone down and show your Mom some respect and attention. The friends you have who are apparently dying to find out what you are up to at that exact moment can wait until you are alone. Don't let technology become your master and miss out on opportunities to actually spend time with the people you love and who love you. The world will always have phones, computers, and some form of social networking website. The world won't always have that loved one. Someday that loved one will be gone and you'll wish you spent more time with them, rather than updating your Facebook status.

All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth

It's approaching the holiday season and my musical son Gage decided to take that old Christmas classic to heart. A few weeks ago, Gage lost the first of his top front teeth when his cousin accidentally elbowed him on a trampoline. We never found the tooth. We think he might have swallowed it. It was loose to begin with, by the way. Last night, I pulled out front tooth number two. Gage is officially toothless, which is the nickname Joi is calling him currently. He's adorable with no front teeth and he's developed a little bit of a toothless lisp, which makes it even more adorable. So, with Christmas approaching....all Gage wants is his two front teeth. Well....and some toys and cash to ease the pain of having his teeth pulled out and elbowed out of his mouth.

Is it really that bad?

So, I noticed the storm coming in. Dark clouds and crazy wind. The weather report just called for a slight chance of snow tonight. Otherwise, it was supposed to be sunny and in the 50's. I just got an email from my boss saying that it's getting pretty nasty out there and that we have his permission to leave work early. Unfortunately, I'm taking the bus...so I have to wait until 4:15pm to leave before I make the long trek to the bus station to catch the 87x homeward bound at 4:53pm. So, I'm at the mercy of the bus and the weather. It's does look bad outside. Where did this come from? I'm glad I always have an umbrella in my backpack. You never know when you'll need an umbrella in Colorado. However, if the wind persists like this, it won't be any good inside out. Oh well, should be an adventure.

Life Group

My wife and I co-lead a Life Group at our church. Last night was our last group meeting until February. It's like a holiday break. It was a bitter sweet event. While having Sunday evenings without anything to do will be a treat, I really enjoy our life group. I will genuinely miss everyone during this next couple of months. I really enjoy getting together with these couples and "doing life" together with them. I enjoy getting to know them. I enjoy sharing our joys and sorrows together. I enjoy laughing and crying together. We are truly blessed to have some great couples in our group. It's also wonderful that we all have children around the same age who enjoy each other and play so well together. It's amazing how you can see these same folks at church for months and never really get to know them. But, when you join a Life Group with them, suddenly you can become the best of friends. It speaks volumes to how God designed us for intimacy. He designed us to need each other and for us to really connect with each other. And when you have that connection, life is easier (despite the trials and tribulations that life inevitably brings your way). I love our Life Group. I am thankful for the people God has placed in my life...for connection, friendship, intimacy, support, and to "do life together".

Video Friday: Old Spice Grover

Not much to say. The original commercial for Old Spice and then the Grover version. Awesome!

The Search for the Best Burger in Denver

I was born and raised in the land of In and Out, so that might make the competition that much harder in Denver, which has no In and Out Burger. But, I put myself on a quest to find the best hamburger in Denver anyway. I have been joined on many occasions by my burger buddy, Russell. So far, I'm not all that impressed with the burgers in Denver. Here are my observations. I asked several Denver-ites for recommendations for the best burger in Denver. The one's that get mentioned often are Cherry Cricket, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, My Brothers Bar, and SmashBurger.

Cherry Cricket is a small hamburger/bar near the Cherry Creek mall. I took Russell there for his birthday. The Cherry Cricket burger is 1/2 pound and starts at $6.50. That's just a burger on a bun. If you want toppings, you can choose whatever you like, but it will cost you. Cheese is an extra $1. BBQ sauce is $.75. You get the idea. For a normal burger with usual topping....you can already close to $10. Certainly not an In and Out price. The burger was greasy. The bun disintegrated in my hands due to being saturated in grease. It was messy and a little heavy on the stomach. Maybe some people like the grease, but not me. Russell and I each had a burger, we shared an order of fries (which was huge), and each had a drink. The total cost was nearly $40 after tip. Way too much for an okay burger that was too greasy. On to the next challenger.

My Brothers Bar gets mentioned often as the "best" burger in Denver. My wife and kids tried to find it one day when we were in downtown Denver and we never could find it (even armed with the address and a GPS). The reason? There is no sign. You can pass right by it and never know that there was a bar/hamburger place there. Later on, Russell and I actually found it and had a mid-week lunch there. We sat on the patio, which was pleasant and relaxing. Classical music is piped through the entire restaurant. The history is that this is the oldest still-operating bar in Denver. It did look historical and interesting. It was fairly crowded despite the fact that it has no signs or advertisements. Also, they have no website. I had a Johnny Burger, which has three cheeses and grilled onions. One of those cheeses is a homemade mix of Cream Cheese and Jalapeno. It wasn't too spicy and was actually quite good. The burger wasn't too greasy and wasn't bad. But, it wasn't great either. It was the kind of place that I could go every once in a while and be okay. But, it wasn't a burger that I would crave fort-nightly. Also, if I remember correctly, I spent about $10 for fries, a burger, and a drink. Not too bad...but not a great price.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries was my favorite hamburger place in Colorado Springs and it comes the closest to being in the awesomeness category of In and Out. I actually really like their burgers...perhaps even better than In and Out. But, Russell, who is an In and Out die hard would disagree. Their burgers are hand pressed, never frozen, and comes with any topping you want (for free). Their fries are fried in pure peanut oil, which gives them a nutty flavor. Also, they give you way too many fries. But, they are so good, it's hard to stop eating them even after you are full. Another bonus is that while you are waiting for your food, you can grab a basket of free peanuts in the shell and eat them to your hearts content, which is a favorite of my boys. This is NOT a place you would go to if you had peanut allergies. I really like Five Guys' burgers. They are tasty, not too greasy, and are addicting. For me, this is the best burger in Denver. The only problem is there isn't one located in Denver proper. They do have them in Aurora, Highlands Ranch, and Lone Tree...but it's not a place I can walk to from work, which is a bummer. We usually go to the Highlands Ranch location, which is nearest our home, but is still a 20 minute drive. This burger is worth traveling for, but it's not a place we'd stop in after church for convenience. Just too far away. If they get a Lakewood location, I'll be a happy camper. This is a burger that I crave and have withdrawals over. It's definitely pricier than In and Out, but not too bad. My whole family can eat there for about $30. So far, the hands down winner for me.

SmashBurger is a burger joint that that a friend of mine from California who now lives in Ft. Collins recommended as an alternative to In and Out. They finally put one on the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver, so I tried it a few weeks ago during lunch. Unfortunately, I'm not a fan. The burger was okay. A little too greasy as the bottom bun started to fall apart toward the end of my meal. Their "Smash Sauce" was a little weird. The guy described it as a Thousand Island made with Mustard, Ketchup, and Relish (instead of Mayo). The burger was overly peppered, which gave it a weird taste. The fries were interesting. Crispy and tossed with rosemary, olive oil, and garlic. It was like Italian style fries. Interesting, but not awesome.  A regular lunch there was a little over $10. Not my favorite. I probably won't go back.

BrownCow is a place I never heard of before until one opened near the Light-Rail station in Englewood. So, my wife and I stopped in a couple of weeks ago to try it. It seemed like a Five Guys knock off. It pretty much was. It was okay...but not great. It was a somewhere near $20 for the two of us. Joi felt a little "weighed down" afterward. My face felt greasy after eating there. Certainly not a place that we will frequent (or ever go again). Oh well...

Unfortunately for us, the closet In and Out Burger is in Utah, but you have to cross the Rocky Mountains to get to them. Not somewhere you'd pop in after church or for a quick lunch. I'm hoping that In and Out will get wise and will bring themselves to Colorado. With so many California transplants here, it just makes good business sense. Besides, we are still considered a Western State...and I know In and Out likes to stay West. Oh well...here's hoping.

Who Goes There?

Okay, it's time to call out the lurkers again. I can see that I am getting readers from all over the place and yet I still only have 14 followers. Just in the last few days I've had readers from:

• Oakhurst, CA
• La Cresenta, CA
• Jersey City, NJ
• Rome, GA
• Ottumwa, IA
• Stavanger, Norway
• Santa Monica, CA
• Yorba Linda, CA
• Australia
• Portland, OR
• Scranton, PA
• Leeds, United Kingdom
• Toronto, ON, Canada
• Pomona, CA
• Waynesburg, PA
• Long Beach, CA
• Coarsegold, CA
• Charleston, SC
• Halifax, NS, Canada

I'm glad that I have readers from all over the place, but I'd love it if you would "Follow Me" and make yourself known. All you have to do is click on the "Follow Me" button on the right-hand side of my blog and sign up. Come out of obscurity. Scamper out of the shadows. Put some light in the darkness. All you have to do is, like Jesus said, "Follow me". 

The Marx Brothers: The Very Early Years

My Mom has been practicing video editing and made this video from some footage I posted on Youtube from Halloween and some photos. Her video is much better than mine and she did a great job with the editing. Here it is for everyone's enjoyment!

The Times They are a Changin'

Finally. After a long, long, wait winter might be arriving this week. Last year, by October 10th, we had our first snow and it was a doozy....dropping several feet of snow. This year, it's been in the low 70's all through October and early November. Joi and I have been waiting for the snow. We both love cold weather. My kids have been praying and anxiously awaiting the snow. Our tradition is to give them the day off of home-schooling when we have our first snow. So, they are looking forward to that day for more reasons than one. This weekend, it was another perfect, warm weather weekend in the low 70's. Today is partly cloudy and 69 degrees. Tomorrow will drop 20 degrees and will only reach a high of 48 degrees. Plus, there is a 50% chance of rain/snow. Yep...snow. Then, on Wednesday night and Thursday, a second winter storm will drop in and will give us another 50% chance of snow with a high near 36 degrees. Bring it on. We finally bought a nice warm winter jacket for me...so I am ready for the snow. Bring it on, I say!

Those Old Dusty Cassettes

I bought a Sony Walkman Cassette Player and it finally arrived this week. I am using it along with a male/male 3.5mm audio cable to digitally transfer my old cassette tapes to MP3 using Audacity. I started by digitizing Cry for Mercy's very first tape. It was the white tape that we recorded at my Mom's church in Gardena, CA. We were low budget...so we set up our instruments on the stage, put a microphone on everything, and played live into the church's sound system, which was routed down to a cassette player meant to record the sermons. Yes, very low budget. We "borrowed" the church sound guy and he did his best to make a beautiful noise come out at the end, but there was only so much he could do with what he was working with. At the end of it all, we recorded nine tracks that day. A snapshot in time of Cry for Mercy in the first two years of our band-hood. To make matters even more comical, we bought a bunch of blank white cassette tapes from Focus on the Family when it was located in Pomona, CA. These tapes were meant for recording lectures or sermons that Focus distributed. We used these blank tapes and using a dual cassette player played our master and recorded it on to each tape one by one. We did a J-Card with Danny's original artwork and made copies of it at Kinko's. We painstakingly cut, folded, and placed each J-card in each cassette holder. Again, we had no budget. At the end of the day, we had a horrible sounding "demo" that we sold at concerts and gave away to friends. It was nostalgic and horrifying to hear those songs again. The music, lyrics, and sound hearken back to a simpler, more pure time in the life of CFM. But, the sound quality and vocals keep me grounded to the fact that we had no budget and did the best we could. So, those tracks are now digitized and immortalized as MP3's. If you want a copy of them, let me know and I'll give you the links to Dropbox where they now reside.

It's been fun dusting off these old tapes and listening to old practices and concerts. Also, I found a few tapes of just me working out new songs for the first time. I found early renditions of "Hope" and "Goodbye"...which eventually made it on my solo tape. I found some practices of CFM that had songs that I had completely forgotten about. Like one gem called "The Happy Song"...which I found a practice session version of with just music and no lyrics (or title) yet. I'd like to say that someday, these old cassette tape gems will be worth some money when one of us becomes famous. But, they may only ever be worth something to our kids when they listen to these MP3's and realize that their old man used to be in a rock group.

The Copeland Boys become the Marx Brothers

For Halloween, my boys decided to be The Marx Brothers. I was so proud of them. I have been raising them to have some culture and part of that was introducing them to the Marx Brother films. They loved the films so much, they decided to be the Marx Brothers for Halloween. Garrison became Groucho. A thrift store purchase of a tuxedo jacket, some grease paint, some black hair spray, and some glasses completed his costume. Gage decided to be Harpo. Joi found an awesome tan trench coat at a thrift store, and she curled his already curly hair. I painted a white top hat black and we bought him a bicycle horn to complete his costume. Gavin was Chico. A thrift store jacket, tie, and a felt hat completed his costume. If it wasn't for a giant man dressed as a woman, they would have won the best costume contest at the party we went to. They came in second. The boys looked great and even tried to perform a few of their bits for the camera. Enjoy.

Here are the pictures of their costumes and a couple from trick or treating.