School has returned and I'm slapping the dust off that part of my brain that handles the tough questions (aka: fudging, skimming, and looking interested). Actually, I'm really excited about this semester because my schedule is great, I'm working with good people, helping with great projects, and generally having a good start. Brooklynne seems to be off to a great start as well. As soon as I have more specifics about what we are doing I'll post it here. In the meantime, if there are any history types reading this, give me a top ten list of your favorite scholarly works (I'm having trouble compiling a reading list). All others... how about a top ten fictional works for Brooklynne? Happy posting!

Brooklynne and I were just discussing my hairstyle for the upcoming school year. As some of you know I have had a few changes over the years, but mostly my hair has stayed the same old brown football helmet since I was born. So we decided we should have some fun and maybe boost our readership as well. So today I am announcing a contest to determine my hair for the next 8 months or so. By following the "continue reading" link at the bottom of this post, you will be able to view six of my favorite rockstar hairdos. Then you can vote for the one you would like to see me imitate by leaving a comment. On September 1, Brooklynne and I will talley the votes and I will embark on the hair adventure of YOUR choosing! Ready? Have fun and choose wisely!

Brooklynne and I really hate paying rent. The longer I live in an apartment, and the more I understand the history of our cities, I have come to believe that housing is often one of the greatest obstacles to financial security and independence for those not fortunate enough to be wealthy. So today I considered buying a house.

I write this as today was the deadline for us to renew our lease and lock in a "reduced rate" for the next 8 months (still $50 higher per month than the rate we pay now). We don't really like our apartment. It's too small. It's on the wrong side of town for our commute. We haven't made any friends. The apartment staff changes every week and none of them seem to care much about developing relationships with the renters. There is always some problem such as the garbage compactor that wasn't working for much of last week. Still, there is no place better, because we have found exactly 4 complexes in Manassas that allow dogs Kona Bean's size and 3 of them are subsidized so that we do not qualify to live there. So as much as it hurt, Brooklynne and I bit the bullet and told our property manager we would renew our lease here, at our shoebox in Manassas.

Thanks to a complicated set of circumstances, though, we have to wait until the weekend to sign the paperwork. That means that we got a short extension to mull over our options. Then as we drove to our friends' house tonight, we saw a small, pitiful-looking, stinker of a shack for sale that gave me a new hope. Why don't we just buy a house? We could probably be able to afford a mortgage in what we pay for rent. We could have a place of our own. We could start paying rent to ourselves. We could start living the American dream, get out of the passively predatory quagmire of a rental lease, stop throwing money out the window.

We marked the spot and stopped on our way home to pick up a flyer.... $339,000 for a 2 bedroom/1 bath house from the 50's who siding was falling off, had no AC, and whose best assest was its potential to win a home makeover from ABC! As I drove the rest of the way back to our apartment, a.k.a. money vacuum, I caught myself wondering where are the bamboo shoots to stuff under my fingernails?

This weekend, our small group watched another installment of Brian Wilkinson's Secrets of the Vine DVD and discussed God's work of pruning his followers. Brooklynne and I had missed the past couple of segments because of our hiking trip, so it took me a while to really catch up mentally, but now that I've had some to meditate on what we were talking about, I wanted to share some thoughts. I hope anyone from the small group who may read this will share a comment--or anyone else for that matter.

For those of you who are not familiar with the series, the DVD is a group of lessons drawn from Jesus's parable of the vine and the vine dresser recorded in John 15:1-17. In the video, Wilkinson seems to draw a distinction between discipline and "pruning." Discipine is the consequence of sin, while pruning is God's reaction to a lack of fruit in our lives, independent of sin. Our group spent a good deal of time talking about recognizing when we are being disciplined (and thus need to confess and repent) and when we're being pruned (and need to follow God's leading to produce more fruit)....

I didn't get a chance to post a entry for Brooklynne's birthday, but I've felt bad about that because she really does deserve to get some air time for all of the ways she makes my life perfect. Tonight I came home from work and dinner was waiting for me, our place was clean, and Brooklynne had been to the store. Then, I read the new sports illustrated and talked on the phone with my sister while Brooklynne made doughnuts for dessert. While we ate our doughnuts, we caught Bad Boyz on TV. Is there a better night? (ok, maybe we could have been watching a better movie, but don't be too picky.) My life is good and Brooklynne is a big reason for it. She's a great spiritual partner too. She's been a very special person for 25 years now and I'm just glad that I get to enjoy the next 25 with her. Happy Birthday, Babe!

The end of the summer is drawing close and once again football is in the air. I love watching college football, maybe more than any other sport and I've said it before--no offense to last year's UNC dream team--I would give three basketball championships for one in football. I know what you're saying. I won't hold my breath and I won't ask my great grand children to hold theirs either, but really, what are the Heels' chances in our league this season? Here is my prediction for the ACC this season....

We're back from our trip, and alas, I was unable to post while I was away, so there is such a back-log of stuff to write about, I'm throwing it all out and starting from scratch tomorrow. That means the pictures too, although I might eventually have a day when I'm desperate for material and I finally post all the pictures from the hiking trip (roughly 76 over 40 miles of Utah wilderness). For now, enjoy the few thumbs I've thrown up here and email me if you want me to send you some of the real photos.