New York anniversary trip pictures uploaded to Flickr, not all tagged and described yet.

Youth “80’s Tacky Prom” pictures uploaded to Flickr.

Middle school mission trip pictures off loaded from camera. Video not so much.

Last rent paid on apartment. Carpet cleaner and move-out inspection scheduled for next week.

House closed! (w00t!) Less than half cleaned. Lot’s of little repair jobs to do yet. Half of boxes moved. Carpet cleaner, air duct cleaner, cable/internet guy, and refrigerator delivery all scheduled for Friday morning. (Ack!)

Major project at work at least two weeks behind with delivery date in less than a month. (Double ack!)

Surfing, blogging, TV, sleeping, and weight watchers all significantly curtailed or cancelled completely.

Folllow Twitter to keep up with this crazy life.

Now, what the heck am I going to have for breakfast with an empty cupboard? (Feeling a bit like Old Mother Hubbard.)

Don’t ya just hate getting behind the guy that’s driving five under the speed limit in the fast lane? Don’t ya just hate getting behind the lady who doesn’t understand you can take more than one lettuce leaf at a time from the salad bar? Don’t ya just hate when someone gives you weeks of teasers about some big trip they’re going on and then even more teasers about the great pictures they took, but the never post the story OR the pics?!

Me too.

Unfortunately, I’ve got a major project going at work and I’m in serious crunch mode. I’ve been pulling 12-16 hour days all this week and will probably will for the next few weeks. It’s that time again when the only time I see my wife is when she’s already asleep in bed.

The two weeks before I was working ’til midnight, I was rushing home to take care of this or that little issue, filling out this or that form or contract, in order to get our home purchase rolling. (By the way, all the paper work has gone to finance and title. From now until August, no news is good news.)

So, this is yet another sorry excuse for not getting something posted. Our New York trip was amazing and the pictures really are great. I’ve uploaded more than half of them to Flickr, but the rest are still on my home PC just waiting for me to get them online. I’ll do my best to squeeze that in some night. Then I can type up the trip report during my lunch hour or something.

Deal? Ok.

We’re back from New York. I’ve spent hours and hours culling and reorienting our nearly 400 pictures from the trip (and I haven’t even started any PhotoShop cleanup). I will do my best to get a full report posted this week.

Suffice to say it was a fun trip, but I’m glad to be back in Texas.

To my friends on Facebook, I apologize that their silly application just spammed you with a gazillion posts from my blog all at once. For my blog readers, allow me to explain.

I have been a “lurker” on several social network sites for years (starting with Xanga). The main reason for this was so I could keep tabs on the kids in our youth group. If you want to know what’s really going on in a kid’s life, you must follow them on the latest networking site.

I say I’m a lurker because, well, I am. I do very little posting on Facebook. I turn down 99% of the application invitations I get. I don’t have time to be kidnapped, or to exchange buttons, or send beverages, or poke, or hug, or slap, or anything else.

There’s an old meme going around again on Facebook and I thought I’d give it a shot. While trying to figure out how to post a note (Took me half an hour, dangit.) I found a place I could link my blog to Facebook via RSS. So, I did. And Facebook promptly posted my last ten blog posts as new notes like some kind of blog machine gun. Thanks for turning me into a spammer, Facebook!

Anyway. If you’re reading this on Facebook, the come check out my real blog: Surely You’re Not Serious.

Oh, and by the way. You know that whole giving up the internet for Lent thing? Yeah. Not doing too good.

Ok. I have to do this quick because it’s getting late and I need sleep in a big way.

My whole idea about doing my surfing in the morning or after I had accomplished something in the evenings just isn’t working out. Between last night and tonight, I’ve caught up on some, but mostly just emptied out (i.e. “mark as read”) dozens and dozens of articles in my RSS feed. I haven’t really posted to my blog since I started this fast. And I have gotten a few comments from people who’ve noticed.

That’s both flattering and humbling. (I know. They’re opposites. Deal with it.) It’s cool to know that people are interested in what I have to say. It’s sad that I have not been delivering on the expectations I’ve developed in others.

I’m actually doing pretty good at the web fast. I say “pretty good” and not “great” because I have had some weak moments when I surfed at work, but not so much that it affected my productivity… well, until this afternoon. But still. Pretty good.

As for things to post about, I’ve got plenty, though all from my personal life instead of my news and humor reading, but I just really don’t have time to share. Sorry, Mom. I know I should communicate better. (As an aside, for those of you who caught my comment about Tammy’s health, which I completely forgot about; She’s fine. She had some tests. They were negative. Nuf said.)

Lastly, for your information,Tammy and I are leaving Saturday morning (early… blech) for Galveston with 126 other members of Glenview Baptist Church, ranging in age from single digits to over 70. We are going to clean up, rip out, and rebuild a great Texas town. It’s going to be hard. It’s going to be fun. I’m taking my video camera, but I can’t promise I’ll have time to edit anything worthy of your fine tastes in entertainment.

Pray for us. And hang in there. I haven’t forgotten about you.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

P.S. Follow me on Twitter if you want more personal updates. I’ll be tweeting from the coast next week.

I’m not Catholic. I’m not a fan of the Catholic Church. I’m not saying all Catholics are going to hell or anything. If you’re Catholic, good for you. I pray you figure out grace and faith based salvation. Many Catholics have.

That said, Catholics have a lot of traditions that are pretty good ideas. Lent is one of those. In the Bible, 40 seems to be a good number for fasting (giving something up). So Catholics, for Lent, give up something for the 40 days before Easter. This has also spawned a not-so-great tradition of “Fat Tuesday” (a.k.a. Marti Gras) which is basically a day to abuse all your vices as much as you can before you have to give them up for Lent. It’s kind of like eating a bathtub full of ice cream the night before you start your diet. Yeah. Whatever.

I think it’s a good idea to fast especially for something that you should probably give up anyway. And I’m a firm believer in the idea that if you can do something (or not do something) for a month, you can make a good habit (or break a bad habit) that will last. New Year’s resolutions are great, but they don’t have a short term goal like Lent does.

I’ve got to be more productive, both at home and at work. So for Lent (which started yesterday… Yeah, I’m late. Sue me.) I’m going to give up personal surfing at work and I’m going to get up a little bit earlier in the morning to do my blog surfing before work. That way I’m not cutting into my productivity time at home either.

I’m predicting the unfortunate side effect that my own blogging output will take a hit. Maybe not, but it seems likely.

That’s my committment. What are you giving up for Lent?

I made a very short trip to my folk’s ranch this weekend. We only got to share two meals. But we did run through about $40 worth of ammunition. I delivered Mom’s Christmas present, a snub-nosed .357 revolver. Dad set up a really nice little gun range in a deep creek bed. Mom seemed to have a great time and she is a crack shot. I strongly recommend against showing up on the ranch with malicious intent.

While I was there, I got caught up on the family news and was really surprised (as I always am) to hear how many distant family members are following the blog (many of whom I have not seen in years if not decades).

Gee, no pressure there!!

So, again I find myself apologizing for my lax performance. I know you all must be thinking how rotten it was of me to do just a handful of Work-From-Home-Friday videos and then leave you all hanging for over a month. And I assure you, the wait is far from over. (Maybe it’s my way of getting back at the Universe for the cancellation of Firefly.)

Sadly, I am forced to make the difficult decisions, like spending my time raising up other people’s kids to be Godly men and women instead of filming myself in the shower with my clothes. It’s a tough choice!! But, and I know you may not agree, my fear of God is bigger than my fear of my second cousin whom I’ve not seen since before puberty.

Forgive me, dear readers. And, if you have grace enough, don’t give up on SYNS. There will come a day when my time will be own again and this blog shall rise from the ashes like a phoenix… in the shower… with its clothes on!!

Amen.

Today, I finally had some time to download all the video from my camera. There’s lot’s of holiday stuff on there, the 70’s Thanksgiving youth party, Thanksgiving in Amarillo (including a trip to Arnold’s you don’t want to miss) and Tammy and I decorating for Christmas.

It’s been a nutty holiday season for me. I can’t believe it’s almost over. I’m working at the church for a few hours tonight, then about five hours tomorrow morning, a youth party tomorrow night, church on Sunday, and a teacher’s party Sunday night. I doubt I’m going to have time to edit this new footage.

I know the excuses are getting old, but I really can’t wait to get it up and posted. It’s burning a hole in my… harddrive… I don’t think that makes sense.

I’ve updated my T-Shirt wish list! w00t!!

Clicky clicky.

Tomorrow, I have to work in the office due to a big staff meeting. So, yet again, there won’t be a WFHF video. I did take some video during my Thanksgiving visit to Amarillo, so I’ve got some footage for you, but I don’t know when I’m going to get to produce it.

Don’t give up on me folks!