Category Archives: Religion

Minnesota State Fair #1

14 work days of working from home in the books. I think the last time I indicated that I was starting to get a system going. Now I can say that I’m starting to get comfortable working from home. I don’t mean that in a bad way. I’ll pumped when it is safe to work from the office again, but I mean that my FOMO is tamping down quite a bit.

That being said, Naima has been pretty much a Sleepy McGee during the day and left me alone to work. However, today she was a ball of fire. I think it is because I have new neighbors that have moved in next door and they have a dog named Gator. Naima and Gator like to “play” by running up and down the fence together. It is a positive that Naima has a new friend. If there is anybody that is really bad about social distancing, it is golden retrievers.

The new neighbors seem good. When Linda moved out, she left a Hawkeye windsock hanging off the back of the house. As the new neighbors have moved in, I’ve been watching that windsock. After 5 days, it is still there. Unfortunately.

Last night I got to introduce myself to the patriarch of the household. I mentioned that I have been waiting for that windsock to go down. The windsock will be staying up. They are Hawkeye fans. Other than this obvious shortcoming, they seem like they will be good neighbors.

An update on what I have been listening to while I work from home:

I still listen to 96.1 from 7 to 9 in the morning. Listening to Christian music does help center me and is a good reminder that while we may feel alone in this pandemic, we are not alone. Not by a long shot.

Then from 9-11 I listen to the Master Playlist. You don’t know about the Master Playlist. It is a playlist of songs I put together for my last birthday party. It is 1,585 songs. 102 hours of music. I am listening to it to cut some of the fat. I’m up to track #307 right now. The acoustic version of “100 Years” by Five For Fighting. Not to be confused by the radio version of “100 Years” by Five for Fighting. That is track #303 silly.

Then from 11 to noon I eat lunch. Watch one episode of THE OFFICE. Then I shower. Lotion up. Gotta keep them feet soft. Put on a fresh set of clothes. Then I’m ready to take the world back on.

From 12-2 or so, I listen to the Master Playlist some more. At I turn on Murph and Andy and they take me to 4, when I clock out and call it a day.

14 days done. Who knows how many more to go, but I am beyond blessed to still be able to work 40 hours a week, have health insurance, and collect a paycheck every other week.

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Here is part of devotional I found on the Methodist Women website that I thought I would share:

John 13:34-35

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” -John 13:34-35

Jesus calls out the importance of love to his disciples, the importance of loving one another. Love is the only way, the only path to grow with, the mark of a disciple as beloved, the keeper of the fellowship of disciples. Love is central to Jesus’ mission.

Even as he knows the pending betrayal by Judas and Peter’s denial of him, Jesus demonstrates love by washing their feet like a slave does.

Jesus is focused in his teachings on the centrality of loving one another, so that love will not be broken by troubles and doubts among the disciples.

Jesus glorifies God as the highest, the one source of the new commandment to love and act as one beloved community. The parallel verse to this new commandment is in John 15:12-14, laying down one’s life for the love of friends, and for all friends to do the same. It lifts up the heroic act, giving one’s life for others. Love is the formation of community, and love becomes eternal.

Jesus’ pronouncement in John 10:10 is made real.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus Christ, help us to rest in your words of love, and loving our neighbors who are suffering, be with us in search of the true meaning of life you offered and find us to be faithful in helping build communities of love, nurture and care. In your name we pray, Amen.

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Last August I went to the Minnesota State Fair with Bethany, Becca, Jonah, and Shawn. I do have to say this, “whoever said that the Minnesota State Fair is better than that Iowa State Fair is seriously disturbed.”

That being said, the Minnesota State Fair is definitely worth visiting. It is crazy overcrowded, but there is more than enough to keep a person entertained!

Here are some pictures:


Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019
I can’t tell if this is genius or madness, but I love them!

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019
I don’t know what Swedish Egg Coffee is, but it sounds disgusting.

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

Minnesota State Fair - 2019

The one thing I was told not to miss at the Minnesota State Fair is the cookies in the bucket. We did get some and they did not disappoint, but that that is a story for another entry though.

What I want to point out is that another thing the Minnesota State Fair is famous for is a place that sells bottomless cup of milk. The tragedy of this situation is that they aren’t right next to either. In fact, they aren’t even close.

Oh the humanity!

Mish Mash

Happy Maundy Thursday! Traditionally I would have been a the Computer Mine for a full hour by the time this was publishing. However, my mind would be thinking about tonight’s worship service at the Boone First United Methodist Church.

Maundy Thursday is traditionally one of my favorite worship services of the year because you never know what you are going to see. This was going to be Pastor Dave’s first Maundy Thursday Service at our church and I really wonder he would have had in store for us.

But there won’t be a worship service at our church tonight. But I still think it would be apropos to include a picture of the Youth Group to start your morning.

After all, my co-worker that likes to call this my “Jesus blog” would be disappointed if there wasn’t a little bit of Jesus’ disciples included on Maundy Thursday.

This is a small entry with a small collection of pictures that stretched across 3 consecutive days back in October. The Youth Group pictures are from the annual Hayrack Ride. The other pictures are from the Computer Mine. One is a Computer Mine company photo. The other is from the Computer Mine Halloween festivities.


Mish Mash

Mish Mash

Mish Mash

Mish Mash

Mish Mash

I swear I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel with this backlog. When it is done, I’m going to bore you with an extensive history of my cameras.

Piebald

Another post hitting up the 2019 backlog. This post is a collection of a few different photo outings, but perhaps none of them had enough pictures to have their own post.

Some pictures are flowers from my Grandma’s house. Then there are some pictures from the Youth Group Pool Party. Plus, there are also pictures from the dog pool party, where Naima gave her worst performance yet.


Piebald

Piebald

Piebald

Piebald

Piebald

Piebald

Piebald

Piebald

Pool Party

Pool Party

Pool Party

Pool Party

Naima hates the dog pool party held at McHose Park every year. I thought that as she has grown to love going into the pond at Dickcissel Park, she would begin to enjoy the dog pool party more. The opposite has occurred. She hates it more and more every year. Last year, she literally last maybe 5 minutes. Then she turned and walked out of the pool and back to the car.

It happened to be the same time that my Mom was showing up to watch the dogs. She took Naima home in my car and I stayed to talk to Logan while he took pictures for the newspaper.

The Youth Group Pool Party is the kickoff of the Youth Group year. If you look closely, you can see that Taylan is one of the lifeguards.

Youth Group Christmas Concert

5 days of work from home in the book. Here is my strange positive from the day. I get to do a lot more self care. Let me explain.

I have to be at work at 7 AM. Which means if I shower in the morning I have to hit the shower, brush my teeth, hit the pits and be out the door as fast as possible.

After I get off work I usually don’t have that much free time. I burn the candles at both ends a little bit. Most of us probably do.

Now I have more time and I’m mostly stuck at home. I can take as long of a shower as I want. When I get out of the shower, I have time to take care of other business at my leisure. I’m not rushing out the door.

Now I don’t know how many times I wash my hands these days. But I’m guessing it is definitely in double digits. I wash them when I get up in the morning. I wash them every time I go to the bathroom (that isn’t new for the record). I wash my hands every time I eat. I wash them every time I get back from leaving the house. I think I even wash my hands before I go to bed. My hands are definitely starting to look and feel like the hands of a guy who washes his hands, a lot.

So now, I’m using a lot more lotion. Including, after I take my extra long shower, I lotion up. Including, my feet. I’m not ashamed to say that my feet are becoming very soft. If it wasn’t for the fact that feet are gross and disgusting, you would probably enjoy touching my feet.

Soft feet. A surprising bonus of working from home.

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Hitting up that 2019 backlog. With the unification of our youth group with the Baptist Church and the Central Christian Church we moved the Christmas Concert from it traditional Sunday night to a Wednesday night.

I took a few pictures of the concert.


Christmas Concert - 2019

Christmas Concert - 2019

Christmas Concert - 2019

Christmas Concert - 2019

Christmas Concert - 2019

Christmas Concert - 2019

Christmas Concert - 2019

Christmas Concert - 2019

Christmas Concert - 2019

Christmas Concert - 2019


You can tell the the Sr. High Students were really pumped to be in the Christmas Concert.

The last Youth Group we had, I had the Senior High watch DOUBT. I don’t know that we will have a Youth Group for the rest of the year, so I guess those kids will never know if Phillip Seymour Hoffman did it!

Band Festival

The last two years my church has manned the food stand at the Municipal Band Festival. The first year it was pretty successful, but maybe slightly unethical. Last year, it wasn’t very successful from a financial standpoint, but people that worked it had a good time.

Here are some pictures from last year:


Band Festival - 2019

Band Festival - 2019

Band Festival - 2019

Band Festival - 2019

Band Festival - 2019

Band Festival - 2019

Band Festival - 2019

Band Festival

I imagine we won’t have a hand in it this year for a wide variety of reasons. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the food stand replaced by a couple food trucks. But what do I know.

2009-09-09

The pictures in the folder 2009-09-09 are from two road trips I took back in 2009. One was a trip with my Mom, Grandma, and Teresa to Kalona. Kalona has always been one of my favorite places to visit. It has been too long since I have been there, that is for sure.

The second road trip was one I took with Jay and Jesse to visit Faust up in Mankato. It also has been too long since I have visited Faust. I don’t lack proper motivation. Mankato has a sweet Godzilla statue that I still haven’t seen.

Here are some pictures from those road trips:


Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Kalona Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

Mankato Road Trip - 2009

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

Vacation Stuff – One

Vacation Stuff – Two

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve some family photos I did for Jim’s lady friend Pam.

Ash Wednesday Spaghetti Fundraiser

A big thank you to all the people that showed up and supported the Youth Group on Ash Wednesday! This year, it was a huge success! We raised more than double the money that we raised on last year’s Spaghetti Fundraiser!

Here are some pictures from the event:


Ash Wednesday Spaghetti Fundraiser

Ash Wednesday Spaghetti Fundraiser

Ash Wednesday Spaghetti Fundraiser

Ash Wednesday Spaghetti Fundraiser

Ash Wednesday Spaghetti Fundraiser

Ash Wednesday Spaghetti Fundraiser

Ash Wednesday Spaghetti Fundraiser

Ash Wednesday Spaghetti Fundraiser

Ash Wednesday Spaghetti Fundraiser

Ash Wednesday Spaghetti Fundraiser

Ash Wednesday Spaghetti Fundraiser

Don’t worry if you couldn’t make it on Wednesday. There will be at least one more, possibly 2 more fundraisers for the mission trip to Indianapolis in the next couple of months!

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is FASHION:


WEEK 233 - FASHION
FASHION

Remember a FASHION photo is any photo where you get an look at the clothing that the people are wearing.

Happy photo harvesting!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

I have to start today’s post off by wishing the happiest of birthdays to Micky! I’m not sure how old Micky is now, but I hope he is at an age where he start to gain a refined taste in pancakes. Micky is one of the best outdoorsman I know, if he ever conquers his fear of snakes, he could even be the best.

Here are some pictures of Micky:


Pie In Your Face!

June 17, 2017

Happy birthday Micky!!

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You are probably wondering what Micky would like for his birthday. The answer is pretty obvious, since it IS Ash Wednesday.

Micky would like you to come to the Heart of Boone Youth Fellowship Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser for our trip to Indianapolis!



It is all the spaghetti you can eat and you get to name your own price. Starts at 6. Ends at 7. At the Boone First United Methodist Church in the Fellowship Hall in the basement.

Why is this what Micky wants for his birthday? Because a funded mission trip gets me out of the office for an entire week! A full week he doesn’t have to deal with me at work. I know! I can feel people scrambling for their checkbooks right now!

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Since Micky is a truly great outdoorsman, I think the type of pictures he would like to peer at on his birthday are from when the family stopped at Jester Park after post-worship lunch some Sunday in August.


Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

I just don’t make it to Jester Park enough.

The New Hotness

I recently purchased a new camera. I don’t want to go into the details about what I am calling an “adult decision” at this time because when I open up on the details I’ve why I bought what I bought and the intricacies of the new camera and what it means for the future of my photography, it it going to take a bit of time. Most of you won’t want to read it. Heck, all of you might not want to read it. Some of you have already been bored with hearing about it already.

I received the new hotness on Wednesday and I just want to share some of the pictures I took on its first flight. Some are pictures I took of Naima in the backyard. Others are pictures I took at Youth Group.


The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

If you are wondering what the Youth Group was doing, I had them make Valentine’s based on their understanding of God’s love. If you ever want to see these cards in person, they are on display in the Youth Group Room window that faces 7th Street.

I’m wondering how many of you are going to show up on Wednesday to support these amazing kids!

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This is your reminder that the theme for this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is OLD:


WEEK 232 - OLD
OLD

An OLD picture is of something or somebody that you consider OLD. Be careful telling somebody your taking their picture because they are OLD. Some people don’t take kindly to some young whippersnapper calling them old. Unless you are taking a picture of me. I fully acknowledge that I’m old AF*.

Happy photo harvesting!

*AF means autofocus, right?

Birthday Road Trip – Misc.

Hey! Guess what? One week from today is Ash Wednesday! Do you know what that means? It means that it is another chance to come support the Youth Group’s Mission Trip to Indianapolis!

We will be holding a Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser from 6-7 PM at the Boone First United Methodist Church. You can come down there and slop down some delicious spaghetti for whatever price you deem acceptable. Just throw some of your spare scratch in the donation basket and knock down as much spaghetti as your heart can take. Some garlic bread too!



All the information you need is right there. Hope to see many of you there!

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This is the second to last collection of images from my Birthday Road Trip. This is a collection of some random stops and places that just didn’t quite have enough pictures to warrant their own post. Places like Fort Atkinson and The Small Church near Festina.


2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

The last collection of images from my Birthday Road Trip are the cruddy cell phone pictures I took that day.