Tag Archives: the book of general ignorance

books, family, music, personal

monday morning update, august 4, 2008

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the weekend that was: mostly packing for the move, and some running kids around. liesl had 7 friends over for a pool party saturday night, and i hosted that also.

where i am at the moment: at my desk, for one day this week.

on my to-do list this week: today is a crunch day. a couple key projects to work on, and a handful of meetings. but mostly, this week will be about family and rest, as we’re leaving on a 9-day vacation tomorrow.

moving update: thanks to all of you who prayed. things seem to be back on track. the buyers asked the appraiser if he could raise the appraisal at all, and he raised it 3 grand. our realtor kicked in an additional 3 grand. the owner of the home we’re buying can only drop the price at all if the appraisal on that one comes in lower than our price, so we’re having that appraisal done in the next day or two and hoping we can eek out another few grand. but i think we’re back and track and moving forward either way. i worked on a new mortgage the other day, and was happy with what i found. and i packed about 25 boxes this weekend. we’re going through the new house tomorrow (before we fly to our vacation) with a measuring tape, to get detailed info about each room, so we can make decisions about what’s going where. move date: august 28/29.

procrastinating about: everything except moving stuff!

book i’m in the midst of: i took a break from the book of general ignorance to read scot mcknight’s upcoming release, the blue parakeet (which was great, and which i’ll review soon). i’m just starting an edited manuscript of phyllis tickle’s upcoming release, the great emergence (which i’m really looking forward to reading, ever since i heard her give a talk at our convention last fall based on the book).

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: mostly had itunes on party shuffle this week. but, yesterday, i took a couple hundred cds into music trader, and came home with a few:
beck: modern guilt
sheryl crow: detours
elvis costello: momofuku
b-52s: funplex
rolling stones: live licks
system of a down: system of a down
beastie boys: to the 5 boroughs

next trip: my family flies to calgary tomorrow, for a 9-day vacation. we’ll spend the first two nights at the fairmont banff springs (a hotel i could never afford, but which wants our canadian business, and is comp’ing me a room!). then we’ll drive to radium hot springs, and spend 7 days in the condo of the parents of a gracious friend. some good friends from seattle are driving over and staying with us. should be a wonderful time.

how i’m feeling about this week: fantastic. can’t wait to chill. when we return, we’ll have two weeks ’til the move date, and it will be serious crunch time.

family, personal

monday morning update, july 28, 2008

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the weekend that was: holy cow. it was all about house hunting. so freakin’ stressful, as our house sold so much more quickly than we expected (2 weeks). more update below…

where i am at the moment: sitting at my desk for a day! yeah!

on my to-do list this week: the main thing is a trip to Z for a leadership team retreat, which i have a bunch of prep for today. we also need to start packing, and hopefully, agree on a purchase price for the home we made an offer on.

moving update: wednesday night, we drove by 25 houses (thank god for gps, baby). thursday, we started spending 5 – 7 hours a day with the realtor. we went through 9 houses thursday, 10 friday, 15 saturday, and 8 sunday. our spirits were pretty down by saturday night, as we were finding that buying a house has a lot of similarities to a software or website build. software and web people say there are three variables everyone wants: finished quickly, low price, and custom/robust features. and, they say, you can only have two of those — any two, but only two. we found in our house hunting that there were three variables also: neighborhood we want, house we want, price we want. we could only find two of the three. we’d find a great house in a great neighborhood, but couldn’t afford it; or we’d find a good house for a good price, but in a neighborhood we didn’t really want to be in; or we’d find a house we could a afford, in a neighborhood we liked, but the house sucked or was too limited in one way or another. finally, on sunday, we found a couple that met all three variables, and after going back to them a second time, one was the clear winner. we made an offer sunday night, and are waiting to hear a response.

procrastinating about: not much. everything is at full-tilt right now. i’m not making progress on my next book, but i don’t know how i could — so it’s not really procrastinating.

book i’m in the midst of: the book of general ignorance, by John Mitchinson and John Lloyd, and the blue parakeet: rethinking how you read the bible, by scot mcknight

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: very little music this week.

next trip: tuesday through thursday in holland, michigan, for a zondervan leadership team retreat.

how i’m feeling about this week: i’m sure the leadership team retreat will be great, but i’m really stressed about what we have to accomplish this month with our impending move.

books, family, personal

monday morning check-in, on, uh, tuesday

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ok, so i forgot about my new practice of the monday morning check-in yesterday. but here’s the funny thing: i’m typing this in aukland new zealand, and it’s tuesday afternoon here. but it’s still monday in the u.s. so while this post will go live tuesday morning in the states, it’s being written on monday (even though it’s tuesday where i am). yeah. sure. whatever.

the weekend that was: yeah, world youth day, in sydney. blogged a lot about it, so won’t more here. really wonderful weekend — so glad i came here for it.

where i am at the moment: aukland, new zealand, on my way home.

on my to-do list this week: i have one day in the office this week again (wednesday), so it will be a massive catch up day. i think we’ll have an announcement to make, and i’m sure i’ll have some stuff to do with that. we were planning on camping thursday through sunday, but i talked to jeannie today, and i think we’re going to cancel that for a few reasons, not the least of which is that — this sucks — my whole family has discovered they have lice in their hair. don’t know where it came from — max was clearly the carrier, as he had it the worst. jeannie had to shave his hair off – poor little guy (he loved his long hair). i’m just hoping i don’t have them!

moving update: we had a couple more showings, and an open house over the weekend with good traffic. we’ve continued to go back and forth with one of the previous low-ball offers. we’ve countered, they’ve countered, back and forth. we’re within 5 grand of each other now, so i think it’s likely this will happen, and we’ll be in serious “bust a move” mode, trying to find a house and move within 40 days.

procrastinating about: i have so much to catch up on. i feel like i’m on my tip-toes to keep my nostrils above it all. so i don’t know that i’m really procrastinating about anything; but i’m still dropping balls, i think.

book i’m in the midst of: the book of general ignorance

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: matt maher

next trip: assuming our camping trip is off, my next trip is in a week, to grand rapids, for a zondervan leadership team retreat.

how i’m feeling about this week: canceling the camping trip feels good — it was feeling like i wasn’t going to have time to breathe. but i wish i had two weeks in the office with no other commitments.