Luke’s Notebook

It is a good day when you are able to burn off more calories than you consumed. This was accomplished thanks to playing nearly two hours of full- and half-court basketball with Paul, Jude and some friends at the YMCA.

It is a much better day when you read something like Hebrews 10:15-25 –

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one anotherâ€â€

Seriously.

Who gives one the authority to “tag” someone and force them to write something in their blog? Was it you?

Anyway… I will comply, but under protest.

So, I’m supposed to write “five weird habits” of mine. As if there even were five strange things about me. I mean, come on! Let’s be honest here.

Well, I’ll give this a fair try.

1.) I am left-handed (though that’s not really weird, nor is it a habit to speak of).

2.) I like opening up computers.

3.) I have a tendency to clutter up my desk and the surrounding area, forcing me to regularly straighten things up.

4.) I enjoy being in front of and behind the video camera. (See http://www.famteam.com/videos/)

5.) I don’t type correctly. I do, however, type very quickly, so that makes up for that.

This afternoon, Paul and I traveled over to St. Charles, Missouri, in order to cover a deposition of a doctor. This was a videotaped depo, so Paul handled the court reporting duties while I took care of the video end of things.

After the deposition got out, we were roaming around, searching for a place to eat lunch. Paul saw a billboard for a Pizza Street, advertising a $3.49 buffet. Well, they had us at “buffet.” I had never been to this place before, but I’ve got to say it rivals Cici’s (http://www.famteam.com/luke/index.php?view=22) with their $3.99 buffet.

Pizza Street has some of the best cinnamon sticks I’ve ever had, some pretty good pizza, great salad fixings, and — get this — ice cream! Talk about a dangerous place to be if you’re trying to eat lightly! =-o Oh, and they also have Diet Dr Pepper, which is icing on the cake — or pepperonis on the pizza, if you will.

At any rate, we were really impressed with this place. Too bad it’s a good 40-, 45-minute drive from our home. Oh, well… I suppose that could be a good thing, because if we had a place like this in town I’d have a really hard time eating sensibly.

Tonight, Paul and I met up with our friend Steve at the YMCA in Belleville, and we had another workout session. I am going to try to go three times a week over the fall and winter. I’m finally starting to get into it again, where I’m actually kind of excited to go work out. This is definitely not always the case.

After lifting weights, Paul and I spent some time in the gymnasium hitting a volleyball around with Paul’s friend Jenna and her sister Lauren. It was nice to get a little bit of practice in. We also played some two-on-two basketball while in the gym, so that was fun.

I’ve been working more and more on this game, and I’m steadily making progress. I had to overcome some hurdles, and I’m stuck right now with what I think is a minor one. But I expect to be able to surmount this pretty soon.

I have the Steelers/Colts game on in the background. The Colts, at 10-0, are winning 23-7 over Pittsburg. Indianapolis has been very impressive this year. I’m hoping they go 16-0! That hasn’t been done since the 1970’s, when the Dolphins went 14-0 (I believe).

By the way, this is the Photo Of The Day and Week at FamTeam.com:

We took it last Sunday. Turned out pretty well, no?

Oh, and… one guess who I am.

First of all, thanks for the comments, guys. It’s neat to hear from different folks.

So… what did we do today? Well, after church, the family ordered some Domino’s pizza and munched on it while we watched the end of “Gods & Generals.” By the way, it’s a very good movie. It’s a prequel to the movie “Gettysburg,” and it is very good. My dad has always been really interested in learning more about the Civil War. It’s just incredible how our country was once divided against itself and we were killing each other, each person thinking they were fighting for and defending the noble cause.

Tonight, volleyball started up again. We had a 6:30 game, and we ended up winning two of three. As I look at the schedule, I see that we’re going to have nearly a month-long break, as we’ll play on December 18th and then not again until January 15th! Weird.

After volleyball, Jude and I went over to Aunt Jane’s house in order to take the dogs for a walk. While there, I pulled out my laptop and got online, browsing our message boards. Every week on the boards, we “showcase” a member, where all the other members will ask questions to get to know the person better. Well, this week I’m being grilled, so I’ve been answering all sorts of questions. Anyway, I spent some time just answering different questions.

I’m now back home. I might go over and spend the night at Aunt Jane’s house, or I may just stay here for the night. We’ll see.

I want to clarify the whole setup with commenting. I have disabled commenting on Xanga entries but have it enabled on the FamTeam entries. In Xanga, to leave a comment on a given post, simply click the “Click here to comment” link. If you’re reading this on my FamTeam blog directly (http://www.famteam.com/luke/), click “Make a comment.”

In a perfect world, I could have both the FamTeam and Xanga comments intertwined, where somebody’s comment on the FamTeam blog would show up on Xanga and vice versa. But, as I don’t have access to the Xanga system, that means one of them has to go. And, since I actually built this blog from the ground up, this one isn’t going anywhere. Thankfully, I figured out how to cross-post onto Xanga. So it’s still a pretty good setup.

In conclusion, I love comments, and they are always welcome. So feel free to leave them as often as you’d like. It’s pretty much as easy as it is to leave a comment on a regular Xanga blog; you’re just typing in a different form.

Saturday was, definitely, a unique day. I spent a good amount of time working on a new game that we’ll hopefully have up in the Game Room eventually. I’m not very experienced in making games, but this is coming along okay. With the help of Jude and Philip, who have created games in the past (namely, Jude’s Reversi and Tic-Tac-Tics games in the Game Room), I was able to overcome a few hurdles.

Without giving away too much information about this game, I’ll reveal that it’s a word game of sorts, and it’s an original game. We’ve played it on paper many times and have had a blast doing it. So… we’ll see if the online version can be as successful. So far, I haven’t hit many major snags.

In the evening, I baby-sat for Peter and David for a few hours. Five-year-old Peter is usually pretty easy-going, but two-year-old David can be a challenge! I was able to keep him happy by playing the “Mildew,” “Crazy Clyde” and “Mission Impossible” audio segments that we have aired on our webcasts. I probably played the three of those clips a total of 30 or 40 times for David. He just really gets a kick out of them.

Later on, the three of us watched some old Disney cartoons. I don’t know about you guys, but I used to (and still do, actually) really like the old Goofy and Donald Duck cartoons. Several years back, my dad would videotape them, and now we’re able to watch them whenever.

I also spent yesterday putting together a volleyball team for tonight. Three of our players are gone, as Aunt Jane and Judy are out of town, and Uncle Joe is on the disabled list due to a bum shoulder. Thankfully, I was able to get two other girls to play, and I called Jude up from the minor leagues to play in place of Uncle Joe.

While Aunt Jane is out of town, some of us older guys are house-sitting for her. Last night, Paul, John and I spent the night there, which basically consisted of walking and feeding her two little poodles. Tonight, we might have a little pizza party there.

The day after Thanksgiving is always a weird one. For one, I’m usually recovering from my Turkey Day feasting. Additionally, it’s a Friday, yet it feels sort of like a Monday. And, since a lot of people are off work that day, it almost seems like it’s a Saturday. So it’s odd.

Anyway, this morning I went with Dad and my three oldest brothers to have a little meeting at McDonald’s. It wasn’t anything fancy, but we just sat and talked about different things going on with our different businesses, things relating to the church, the ministry, and other things. We’ve got a lot of things to look forward to!

In the afternoon, I edited this week’s edition of “Safe At Home.” I would later take a trip over to St. Louis in order to deliver a copy.

This evening, Paul, John, Mark and I went over to the east Belleville YMCA. We ran into our Grandpa Arndt there. He and Grandma are preparing to leave on a three-week trip to Berlin, so it was neat to get to see him again before they take off.

After the workout was finished and we returned home, I hopped in the truck and took off for St. Louis. As I drove through downtown, I was amazed to see the Busch Stadium construction project. For one, the old Busch is about halfway knocked down, so it almost looks like the Roman Coliseum or something. Also, the lights for the new Busch are on as they are working around the clock in order to have the stadium ready for Opening Day in April. It’s really exciting. I’m looking seeing my first game in the new ballpark.

Now it’s time to get some shut-eye. I’ve been doing a little bit better at getting to bed at a decent hour.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We spent this morning preparing the house for my dad’s side of the family, as they were gathering for lunch here. We ate delicious turkey, stuffing, vegetables, mashed potatoes, pie, a bit of pie and some more pie (can you see a pattern developing?). We also hung around and talked, watched some of the football games that were on TV, and even showed our first silent movie, “The Unlikely Chums,” as well as the documentary for it. We had a really awesome response from Grandpa, Grandma, aunts and uncles. Very encouraging.

This evening, we went over to visit with my mom’s side and join their party in-progress. While there, I… ate some more pie (:blush:), and we showed our movie to more aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. People seemed to enjoy it.

So to summarize the day — which was very, very fun, I might add — I ate lots of pie, and I showed “The Unlikely Chums” to lots of people. The pie was very delicious, although I’m not exactly looking forward to my next encounter with the scale. You see, I have a sneaking suspicion that I didn’t lose any weight today… :blush: Thankfully, I made a point of eating a little lighter the past few days in order to help alleviate the damage.