Sardonic

Today’s “Non Sequitur” comic strip.

I wanted to share this since it included one of my favorite words – Sardonic.

To learn more about the word “sardonic”, check out one of my first posts here.

What to do with my tax rebate…

According to the IRS, my “economic stimulus” (a.k.a. tax rebate) should be deposited in my account by this Friday.

It’s really been very interesting reading and listening to the media’s take on the tax rebates all year. (Politicians too, for that matter.) The latest thing I’ve heard is that all of the money is just going to go to OPEC, so another tax rebate is needed.

Do you have plans on how you will spend yours?

I honestly haven’t given it much thought. I think Andrea and I discussed it for the first time this weekend, and it wasn’t much of a discussion.

Some of my thoughts:

• Go to Sam’s Club and buy $1800 worth of rice. Too bad I don’t have a membership…
• Pay down my student loan. It doesn’t really stimulate the economy though, does it? At least not short term.
• Donate to the building campaign at GracePoint. Builds the kingdom, but no short term impact on the economy.
• Buy a new laptop.
• Buy some mosquito nets for Nothing But Nets to help prevent malaria. Actually a pretty good idea…
• Put it in savings or buy a CD (not the musical kind). Andrea hasn’t mentioned this one, but I’m sure it’s what she’ll want to do.
• Do something nice for the staff at my church.
• Buy some new dress shoes. I gouged my brown ones last week on a wooden pallet at work, and my black ones are getting worn out.
• I’m sure Best Buy is going to sell a lot of high definition TV’s, but that’s not really in my plans yet.

Any other ideas? Let me know.

Weekend Recap

Wow! Monday was a crazy day. I left the house around 7:30 am and didn’t get back until 10:30 pm. I imagine my kids were wondering if I’d gone out of town or something…

We spent this weekend with my family in Oklahoma City. Had a great time.

Here’s some of the highlights:

Friday night, Andrea and I went to the Aranda CD Release Party. You may recall that I told you about Aranda last week. Although I’ve stayed aware of them over the years, I’d never heard or seen them before last week. Their live show was incredible! These guys are scary talented with the kind of tight vocals that you only get with siblings. I’m now officially on the bandwagon. I’ve seen very few live shows that were as good as Friday night. They generally involved expensive tickets and extensive stage production. Aranda doesn’t need that. Their talent and personality make them a must-see. I’ll let you know next time they’re heading to Wichita.

Saturday night, we went to see my niece, Anna’s, ballet recital. Friday night it was rock and roll; Saturday it was The Sleeping Beauty ballet. She was very cute in her tutu.

Sunday morning was the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. The last several years, my dad has put together a relay team for the marathon. My wife wasn’t able to run her leg this year due to a healing stress fracture in her foot. So my 6 year-old daughter, Jada, stepped up and ran a 3.2 mile leg. (That’s 5 kilometers for our non-U.S. readers.) We were very proud of her. The Burgess team ranged in age from my daughter to my 77 year-old grandmother who has been training for months so she could walk a 3.2 mile leg. My sister’s husband, Mike, completed his first half-marathon. And another brother-in-law, Scott, completed his first marathon along with his brother Todd. OKC really puts on a heck of an event. It’s a lot of fun. Did I mention that I hate running?

Sunday afternoon was my nephew’s birthday party. Chance turns the big 4 this week!

We arrived back home in Wichita about 7:30 Sunday – completely worn out.

Will Rogers quote

I ate lunch at Ted’s Montana Grill this week. On the wall was a great quote from Will Rogers:

“If you’re riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it’s still there.”

Great advice for leaders. You aren’t really leading if nobody’s with you…

I believe you’re flying solo in that case.

Share-it Saturday, April 26

Happy Saturday! Here is this week’s collection of interesting things I stumbled across this week. Bon appetit!

• Great Freakonomics post about TV Weather forecast accuracy.
• Kinetic Church in N.C. invites the person who stole their trailer to attend their church. Be sure to click on the link to the billboards that they put up around town. After having 75% of the equipment for their portable church stolen, Kinetic Church reacts in interesting ways.
• Tony Morgan wrote a great article about “10 Stupid Leadership Mistakes” for Church Solutions Magazine.
• Funny video from Fee’s blog about trying out for the band.
• Does your church have a gear swiper? GracePoint goes through XLR cables like crazy. No idea where they go…
• The mystery visitor from the Wichita Eagle visited GracePoint. Read the article in today’s paper.
• 22 Qualifications for Church Sound Engineers courtesy of Thoughts of a Worshipper.