Camping 101: A Life Lesson from a Labor Day Weekend Trip

This past weekend, we went camping with Kim's family at a KOA campground in Richmond Hill, GA, just outside of Savannah. Based on the trip, I have a few tips that I thought I'd share with all of you, in case you ever go camping.

There are no purple bathrooms.
Kim and I travel quite a bit and, like most couples, we only pack one bag of toiletries. Well, when you go camping at a campground, they have separate bath houses for men and women. This is problematic when you want to shower or just brush your teeth before bed. So, you need to pack separate toiletry bags.

There are a lot of obstacles between your bed and the head.
This is not something that I have to worry about, but with Kim being pregnant, she has to make some middle of the night trips to the bathroom. Well, when you are at a campground, that means walking to a building way over there. Between here and there are pine cones, roots, rocks, and all kinds of other nature. So, bring a flashlight with you.

Stuff gets wet.
This is more of a convenience than anything, but it would have been nice to have had a drying rack for our clothes in our cabin. We had shower towels, pool towles, and bathing suits hanging all over the place in our cabin. So, if you are annoyed by clutter, like I am, bring a drying rack.

This isn't a walk on the beach.
I wear sandals quite a bit, especially on vacation. Well, camping is not super conducive to sandal wearing. Beyond the many obstacles available for stubbing you toe, there are many flavors of bugs that enjoy to chow down on your exposed toes. So, bring some shoes. However, sandals are convenient for going to and from the pool and to and from the bath house for showers, and I know there are some people who like to shower in sandal when using public showers. So, maybe bring the sandals, too.

It is not too hot.
Those same bugs that chow down on your toes don't mind legs and arms either. I brought pants to wear in case it got cool, but it turns out they are more useful as bug repellent. So, bring pants, and wear them, especially at night. You will want to bring some bug spray, too, for your arms.

Bond. Goldbond.
If you don't know why you need to bring Goldbond, you probably don't need to worry about packing any, but if you have ever needed it before, you will want
to make sure you have some if you plan to go camping for a few days.

Make sure you know the law of the land.
If you are going to be spending Sunday night and you are camping out of state, you need to know if they sell beer on Sunday. In Georgia, they don't. So, plan ahead.

Do you have any tips you can add for other inexperienced campers?

The Short List - Follow-up

A few weeks ago, I posted about one of our photos being on the short list of photos being considered for inclusion in the fifth edition of the Schmap Orlando Guide. Well, today, I got an email saying that our photo had been selected. You can see it here.


Pretty sweet. I think.

To clear up some confusion, Kim and I did determine that it was her, not me, that took this photo. So, I am a little disappointed that my name is listed under the photo and not hers.

So, congrats to my lady for being a published photographer.

The Short List

I just got a message on my flickr account that the picture shown above "has been short-listed for inclusion in the fifth edition of our Schmap Orlando Guide, to be published at the end of this month."

That would be pretty sweet if my photo made it into the travel guide.

Where the Hell is Matt?

This video makes me smile.


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

You can read more about Matt and his movie here.

Some of my favorite parts are: the dog attacking him (Kuwait City, Kuwait), the chick on the right in the white capris and striped shirt (London, England), and of course, all the kids.

What is your favorite part?

h.t. Joshua Longbrake

My weekend was amazing...

Friday, I took the day off work and it was probably the best day of my life. I know that sounds a bit over dramatic, but it very well could have been. I stayed at home and spent all day with Kim and Palmer. We just hung out at the house. At one point our entire family took a nap. Palmer in his crib and Kim and I on the couch. It was beautiful.

It was the most Sabbath like day I can remember. Palmer was amazing. He was so chill it was scary. He ate when I wanted him to and he slept when I put him down for naps. Kim wondered what had happened to our son that she spends every day with. Between eating and sleeping Palmer played, laughed, and didn't fuss. He even took a crap without getting it all over his clothes.

Saturday morning I left to go skiing with six other guys1. We went up to Ski Beech, which is a little over three hours away. We skied from about one o'clock until nine o'clock. I was surprised that after six years or more away from the slopes, I still had it. Well, I "had it" as much as I ever had. I fell about three times: once after trying to go big off a jump2, once coming off a box, and once right after I sprayed Mike, who had just fallen. That last one was probably karma.

Sunday, we decided to not go skiing because of the weather. It was cold and windy, which makes it seems real cold. Instead, we went on a hike, sort of. We visited what one person described as a rock colony. It was a place in the river where the water flows downhill through hundreds of car sized rocks. We climbed the hill rock-by-rock and then descended by jumping from one rock to another. One of the guys called it an adult sized jungle gym.

After playing at the river, and almost getting hit by a falling branch on the walk back, we drove home. I got home around five and spent the rest of the night with the family. I got to feed Palmer and give him his customary bath before bed. Then, Kim and I capped off the weekend by catching up on some television. We curled up on the couch and watch an episode of The Biggest Loser.

It was a great three days filled with family time and time with some great guys.

1. back Barry, Matt, Rowe, Daniel, Mike and Jeramie


2. back Big is relative. I was probably going to get two feet off the ground, as compared to my previous one foot jump.

Alaska Mission Trip

My good friend Meg is organizing a short term mission trip to Anchorage, Alaska for this summer. She has a few people interested, but she is still excepting applications.

The "Skinny": (Her words, not mine.)
When: June 28-July 6, 2008
Where: Anchorage, Alaska
Cost: $395 (plus flight costs, about $800 from Raleigh)
Purpose: To work with Habitat for Humanity, experience nature on a whole new level, and help a girls shelter.

Interested? Contact Meg Osterhoff at mosterho77 (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Also, please forward this to anyone that you think might be interested.

More Christmas Gifts

Kim's family also does the whole draw a name and buy gifts for one person thing. The twist with her family is that everything revolves around a list. You must provide the family with a wish list. I struggle with this because it goes against my philosophy on gift giving, but I go along with it because I must.

Usually, it's hard for me to come up with a list of wants because everything that I don't have that I want costs several hundred dollars, e.g. a bike or a macbook.
This year I was able to come up with a few things. At the top of my list was money to fund drilling a well in Africa. My list also included a leaf blower, a set of pliers, a torque wrench, a black long sleeved thermal shirt, a shop vac, and The Dangerous Book for Boys.

Kristin, Kim's sister, drew my name. She got me the book and the torque wrench. The torque wrench will come in handy when I change my spark plugs this upcoming weekend. The book was a great gift because she addressed it to Palmer and I both. I hope that we do get to use it together.

That's all for now. Merry Christmas.

Mid-West Road Trip

Last Wednesday, October 17, 2007, Kim's Uncle Joe passed away.



Joe, "Dimples", and their three daughters, all of whom are married with kids, live in, or around, Joliet, Illinois. At first we weren't going to make the trip for the funeral, but on second thought, we decided to go. We were a bit hesitant to throw Palmer in the car and take off on a thirteen hour drive because he was in the middle of a bout with a cold, and he has started teething. Not a good combination. At least, not one that you want to trap yourself in the car with.



We decided to make the trip for a few reasons. Uncle Joe and company had made the trip down to North Carolina a few years ago for our wedding. I had never met the guy and Kim had not seen him in a few years, but he felt it was important enough of an event to make the trip. We saw them again just a few months ago in Tallahassee, Florida when we were all in town for Kim's sister's wedding, and what turned out to be Palmer's "birth day".

Palmer's birth also had a lot to do with our decision to go up for the funeral. Several people that would be in town for the funeral had heard about Palmer, but had not gotten to meet him. So, we figured we might try to bring a little joy to the event. Aunt Dimples and Kim's cousins were as happy as they could be to finally get to meet him, even under the circumstances.

Aside from seeing family, this trip was a great opportunity to see friends that we don't get to see that often. We spent the night with the Meisels in Countryside, Illinois on Friday night.



We saw the Bartons for the first time in over three years on Saturday night in Lebanon, OH.



Then, we made a small detour to see the Burys in Marysville, Ohio on Sunday.



It was an excellent, yet jam packed few days. If you are ever going to drive through West Virginia or go to Chicago, I suggest doing it in October. The weather was amazing and the scenery on the drive was incredible.

Africa?

I've decided I want to go to Africa next summer. I don't really know what that would look like. I'm not sure who I would go with, how I would get there, or where I would stay once I get to my unknown destination. It's just something I've felt drawn toward for awhile now.

I asked Kim what she thought about it. She asked me why I want to go. Great question. My first thought is that I want to see it first hand. I've read plenty of stuff about the troubles facing our peers in Africa: poverty, hunger, war, disease. Now, I want to do more than just read about it. I want to live it. I want it to become a part of who I am. I want to be moved beyond emotion.

Also, I want to dig a well for a community there. Well, maybe not me personally, but I would like to finance the digging of one. Well, not even that. I want to raise the money to finance the digging of a well. I'm not sure what the looks like either, but I figure if I document it here you all can ask me about and maybe even help me figure out some of the details.

So, I worded the first sentence carefully "I've decided I want to go to Africa next summer." I definitely want to go, but my concern is leaving my wife and son here while I fly half-way around the globe. I would like to ask you all to pray for me. I need help making decisions. I am a bit impulsive. So, I need to make sure I fulfill my responsibilities as a husband, father, and participant in the redemption of all things.

Pit Stop in Charleston

Kim and I make several trips to Florida each year. We have started splitting the drive south into two parts. We usually leave after work and drive for about four or five hours and then stop for the night somewhere near the South Carolina/Georgia border.

Last Thursday we left home and headed south toward Kim's parent's house in Poinciana, Florida. The difference this time was that I had taken the day off. So, we able to leave earlier, which allowed us to do a little more than sleep when we made our stop.

We choose to stop in Charleston, South Carolina. I had been to Charleston once before when I was like ten, and Kim had never been before. We didn't have a plan. We just got off of I-95 where the sign said Charleston and figured we would work it out from there.

We ended up at a visitor's center. There we watched a thirty-five minute film on the history of Charleston, Forever Charleston. It was a great introduction to the city. There were several things that we would have overlooked had we not watched the movie.

After watching the movie, we spoke with a visitor's center employee and she suggested we walk down to the City Market. Kim and I took the eight-block walk and then briefly walked around the market. We didn't do much shopping as most of the vendors were packing up for the day, and we were on a different mission. We were in search of a good place to have dinner.


We ended up at a small place called Jestine's Kitchen. It was a home cookin' joint, famous for fried chicken and gumbo. We had to wait in line outside until tables opened up. The line was around the corner. So, we knew this place must be good. Dinner was great and the chocolate coke-a-cola cake was incredible.

After dinner, we got back on the road and made our way to our hotel, which was a few hours down the road in Brunswick, Georgia. Charleston seemed like a cool city with much more to explore. We will be back.

Chapter Four - This was not in the infomercial

Whilst traveling through the hallways of the hospital, I continued in my attempt to time Kim's "contractions", both the time between them and the time that they were lasting. Not being one to wear a watch, I had to resort to another mechanism. The iPod, though carried by many, it is not known for time keeping abilities1, but it was all I had. I have to admit that I was doing a pretty lousy job at recording our data, but to my defense, everything was happening pretty fast, including the contractions. At this point Kim was having a contraction about every threem minutes or so, and they were lasting somewhere around fifty seconds to a minute2.

Our journey through the inards of Tallahassee Memorial took us to meet a nice young lady named Alicia. Alicia helped us get checked into labor and delivery. There were a few papers that we had to fill out and forms we had to sign. It ws a bit of a special case because we were out of towners. She was a super nice lady, and found it funny that I wanted to take her picture. I kept making Kim laugh, and Alicia said if I could keep that up, that it would be good for Kim. Obviously, I didn't find that very difficult to do.

After a very short wait, we were called into triage. I wheeled Kim into the triage area, where we were directed to have Kim change out of her clothes and into a hospital gown. Once we accomplished this task, we were to go into the room next door where we would be seen by a nurse. We got Kim all changed, and we made our way to the room, and Kim laid down on the bed.

Soon after, we were visited by a nurse. She lt us know that she was going to be putting two monitors on Kim; one to monitor contractions, and one to monitor the baby's heart rate. After working through a bit of trouble getting the monitor to stay where she wanted it, the nurse informed us that what Kim was feeling were indeed contractions3. Upon verifying that Kim was in labor, the nurse decided that it may be a good idea to check Kim out to see how far along she was. A second hospital worker person, maybe a NP came in to examine Kim. After examining her, I think her first word was "Wow."

It is worth mentioning that I paid pretty close attention in the Preparing for Childbirth class, and having a pregnant wife, you sort of pick up on baby/pregnancy/labor lingo and jargon. So, when the examiner followed up her "Wow." with "You are 7 cm dialated."4 I couldn't help but laugh.

My first words were, "This is not how it happened in the video."

1. back There was a time when I was unsure why Apple had decided to include a stopwatch as an "extra", but I guess they knew that some day some random dude might need to use it to time his wife's contractions, or more likely, someone would need to time an a Sumo wrestler doing a shuttle run.


2. back I couldn't, and still can't, remember what the length of the contraction was supposed to tell me, but I felt like it was something I was supposed to know. Yet, another reason I should have found the Preparing for Child Birth book.
   NOTE: We still have not found the book. I'm begining to believe that a leprachaun stole it, or maybe a knome. I hear they are very sneaky.


3. back My deer-in-headlights look may have shifted towards the-kid-who-can't-find-his-mom-in-the-mall look at this point.


4. back For those not in the know, dialation only goes up to 10 cm, and it usually takes women, especially on their first baby, a long time to get to 7cm, we're talking like 8 hours, not 1 hour.

Chapter Three - From Hotel Room to Hospital Room

Kim's discussion with the doctor established that her water had most likely broken, and that we should make our way to the nearest hospital in a swift, yet smooth manner. He didn't say it, but I think he meant like gazelles gracefully galloping across the serene savannas of Sub-Saharan Africa. He also added that we would want to find out if that hospital delivered babies. Did he think we would be asking about the other services they provided?

We decided that it would be good for someone to know that we had left to go to the hospital, but we were unsure whom we should tell. At this point, we were not sure if we were going to have the baby or if it was going to be your typical trip to the hospital in the middle of the night with a pregnant lady. We decided not to wake the bride from her beauty sleep on the night before her wedding, and Kim's parents were at an RV resort several miles away. So, we/I decided to call Kim's brother, Kevin. We had our nephew's booster seat in our room, and they would need it if they decided to go anywhere. So, the call served two purposes. He came out to meet us, and wished us luck as we headed off to the unknown.

The hospital was not very far away, maybe four point three miles, or so. I had been timing contractions1 since Kim got off the phone with the doctor. The first few came about five minutes apart, which according to our Preparing for Child Birth class means it is time to get to the hospital. The short drive to the hospital took enough time for about four contractions. They were coming anywhere from three to four minutes apart at this point, and the stoplights weren't helping.

So, we roll up in the Emergency Room at about 1:45 AM, an hour after Kim woke up "leaking". As we walk in, the young guy at the desk, who was on his cell phone, probably spittin' game to his lady, says something like, "Oh. Hold up. I've got to call you back." He asks Kim how far along she is, and upon her saying almost thirty-six weeks, he gives us this wide-eyed, you-can-not-be-here look, puts Kim in a wheelchair, and wheels us through some corridors to an unknown destination.

1. back It's probably worth noting that at this point Kim and I were not completely sure that what she was experiencing were contractions. See, we have never had a baby, and everything you hear about labor is how excruciating the pain is. You see women on TV sweating, screaming, cussing at their husbands, and such. That was what we were waiting for. Kim was just experiencing, in her words, "bad menstrual cramps, but nothing horrible."
   

Chapter Two - Google, where are you? I need you.

Kim had moved from the bed to the bathroom, and I was still in the bedroom developing my strategy for handling the situation. Kim's change in location had no effect on her newly found likeness to a faucet. I thought this might be a good time to call the doctor. So, I started searching through Kim's purse for the number to Capital Area OB-GYN, to no avail. It was not in there.1 I decided to call someone who might be able to get me the number I needed.

After getting voicemail the first time, I called Daniel for a second time, and he answered. I informed him of the situation, and he got me a number. It was the number to the practice, but did not help any. On the second try, Daniel came through like LeBron in game five of the Eastern Conference Finals. He was money. I called the answering service and had the on-call doctor paged.

I left the phone with Kim and headed for the front desk to acquire the location of the nearest hospital, just in case. Coincidentally, on our hour long drive across town through traffic earlier in the day had taken us right by a hospital. After confirming that the hospital was where I thought it was, I returned to our room to find Kim on the phone with the doctor.

1. back This is the point where I regretted not owning a laptop. How the heck am i supposed to get along in the world without assistance from my friend Google in my times of need?

Chapter One - Can someone please turn off the faucet?

Kim woke me from my remote still in hand, Baseball Tonight still on the TV, sweet slumber around 12:45 with the words "Honey, I think I am leaking?!?" I had sat down on the extra double bed in our hotel room just two hours earlier with the expectation of catching up on the days happenings around MLB. Somewhere between Web Gems and Touch 'Em All I lost consiousness. It had been a long day.

Friday had started in Savannah, Georgia. We spent Thursday night in a hotel room, splitting our drive to Tallahassee across two days. We arrived at Kristin and Don's house a little after noon. The rest of Friday was filled with a trip to Publix for sandwiches, some Guitar Hero, an hour drive through five o'clock traffic, a wedding rehearsal, and a rehearsal dinner. The Cropenbaker rehearsal dinner was held at A&J's Blues Cafe, where the music is loud, the service is slow, and the the cajun seasonings are applied liberally. Some might say the latter was a contributing factor in the events that followed.

Upon Kim's informing me of her hypothesis, I quick concurred based on the empirical evidence found in her wet pants and the wet bed. She was indeed leaking. After a quick call to God on the prayer hotline, where I asked for guidance and wisdom1, I got up off the bed and entered into what can best be described as a shell shocked, deer in headlights mode. At this point I really regretted not finding the book from the Preparing for Childbirth class, Kim and I took at Rex, before leaving home.

1. back The words I used may have been closer to "Oh God. Oh God. What do I do?!? Okay breathe. It's going to be okay."

Bishop Tom

This past weekend, I took a road trip with some friends to Roanoke to see N.T. Wright speak. He gave several talks during the end of last week and the weekend. We only saw him speak on Sunday morning. One point that he made that stuck with me was this (I'm paraphrasing because I was not taking notes.):

We, as humans, are to be mirrors and reflect God's love to the world, it is a part of image bearing, but, therein lies the issue. We are not only a part of the solution, but also a part of the problem.

Aren't they beautiful?

Tomorrow, Jason and I are heading off the wild, wild west. Well, actually, we are headed off to the wild, wild mid-west, if there is such a thing. We are going to Isn't She Beautiful. It's "a seminar for leaders celebrating the local church". It is being held at Mars Hill in Granville, Michigan.

I'm pretty excited about going. I think they are doing a lot things to mend the world's view of The Church. Their pastor, Rob Bell, is an excellent communicator. His messages have been known to make you want to move closer to what God designed you to be. I look forward to hearing him speak. They are also having break out sessions. There is one on HIV/AIDS crisis. I want to check that one out. I'll try to update you on what I take away from my days there.

The downside of going to the conference is not being at home. I was trying to think of the last time Kim and I were apart for more than a day. I came up with one time when she went to Florida without me for a wedding shower. So, this may be the first time we have been apart since we have been married.

It's not that we can't survive being apart. It is just that I like her. I like being around her. It just feels right. It's weird how someone can become such a huge part of who you are. Plus, there is this thing we have going on right now that is kind of important. Kim happens to be carrying around my unborn child. Yeah, I know, you know. So, I am going to miss Kim, and I am going to miss the baby.

Even more than he weirdosity of someone can becoming a huge part of who you are, is how it is possible for me to love someone that I have not even met. I see my wife and her cute belly. If you think it is strange that I consider my wife's abdomen "cute", you go knock someone up and then get back to me. You'll get it. Anyway, I see Kim and her stomach and I just want to touch it. But, while I am goine, I won't have that option.

Oh, and I am going to miss the cats also. Smokey is looking at me like he can read what I am typing. His look says, "What?!? You aren't going to miss me?"

Okay. Time for bed. I have to get up early to pack before going to visio dei.

Maybe I should have packed already. I checked the weather, and the highs for Sunday through Wednesday in Granville are 27, 31, 30, 30, with a chance of snow everday.

The Highs and Lows of My Holiday Season

I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the year's Christmas while it is fresh in my mind. I have decided to lay out the highlights and lowlights. The highs far outweigh the lows. There are many more of both that won't make the list. Here's what I've got:

highlight: I got an iPod.
It was sort of a Christmas present to myself. My wife is so awesome. When I asked Kim what she thought about me getting an iPod she said, "Go ahead, you deserve it. Consider it your Christmas present to me." She is great. Just knowing that I was getting something I had wanted for a long time was present enough for her.

lowlight: 18 hours of driving to and from Florida, and only 52 hours of visiting in Florida.

hightlight: Watching la-eh-ah-er-na turn into "learn".
Our nephew David is five years old and is learning to read. He got a new book as a gift, Let's Go Swim. As I helped him read it for the first time, he sounded out the letters for the words he did not know. The look on his face when realized what word he was sounding out was priceless.

highlight: Kim's mom getting all choked up.
When she was reading the poem Kim framed for her to announce our pregnancy, Kim's mom teared up. It was incredibe to see how happy someone could be for someone other than themself. Kim's mom said she had been praying for us continually that we would be able to conceive.

lowlight: Kim getting upset about people complaining that we should have told them sooner.
My baby's mama doesn't need to be getting stressed out.

highlight: Hanging out at the Ramseys'.
The Christmas Eve service at Visio Dei was nice and simple. However, my favorite part of the evening was the after party at the Ramseys'. There was lots of good food, and quite a bit of fun. I had a lot of fun playing with the boys and the train. We probably ruined Jeff's rule about not touching the train.

highlight:Kim's excitment over my mom's gifts.
My mom went out and bought gifts for our yet to be born child. Kim said she thought she was going to cry when she was opening them.

There are tons more, but if I make the post any longer no one will read it to the end. So, I hope you all had a great holiday season. Feel free to share your highlights.

Novia, tomas tu a Novio como tu esposo?

I had a moment on Saturday when I thought, "I can't wait to blog about this."

Kim and I drove out to Roxboro on Saturday afternoon to attend a wedding. First off, let me tell you, if you have never been to Roxboro, it is way out there. It is not near anything except the North Carolina-Virginia border. Anyway, Kim's co-worker, Rosa, was getting married, and being the avid wedding goers that we are, we couldn't turn it down. In the past three and a half years, we have been to approximately 25 weddings. I sort of lost count, but I am pretty sure we average about 7.66, repeating of course, weddings per year.

So, we go to this wedding. It is being held at the church where Rosa's dad is the pastor of the Nueva Esperanza ministry. We get to the church at about 2:10 for a wedding that was supposed to start at 2:00. Lucky for us, they must operate on Hungry time because the wedding didn't start until about 2:30.

Just to note, the demographics of the guests was about a 50-50 split of Latin Americans and non-Latin. The church is all decked out with pew bows, calla lilies, unity candles and such. The festivities start and they play a little Canon in D followed by a little Wagner. This looks like a typical wedding. It smells like a typical wedding. It even sounds like a typical wedding.

But, then the ceremony starts, and there is not one word of English in the entire ceremony.

At first, I was a bit put off by this. Then, as the pastor prayed in a language I know very little of, something clicked. It hit me that I was standing here in this church building listening to this man pray, very eloquently I might add, in a language foreign to me, to the same God I pray to in English.

I had a moment. One of those moments when you remember how much greater God is than you. It was like, "Oh, yeah. God doesn't just speak English." I went from there to thinking about how limitless God is. He doesn't speak just English and Spanish, but all languages, and not just current languages. He is fluent in the many languages that have come and gone, like Latin. Who uses Latin anymore?!?

I don't think I had ever thought about the possibility that God could speak a language that has not even been created, yet. Wow. God is pretty smart. And, pretty amazing. No, not pretty amazing, definitely amazing.

Father... Thank you for the reminder of Your greatness. Thank you for the reminder of how limited we are as humans. I pray that Your greatness will be known in all lands and in all languages. I pray that our understanding of Your greatness will be a constant reminder of how much we need you. Thank you for Your grace. Thank you for letting us be a part of Your story.

D'ville, but not Cruella

Moved from the Called Men blog.

This morning I find myself in D'Iberville, MS. If you read the previous post, you might remember that I knew I was headed to MS, but did not really know where. D'ville right on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, just a little west of Biloxi.

Yesterday, Saturday, July 1, was a really long day, but not in the "will this day ever end" way. Here is the run down of the events that transpired:

We were up and at'em at 6am. By 7am we were at Linda's house raisin' the roof. Well, actually first we had to tear the roof off. By 1pm we were leaving and Linda had herself a new roof. Then, after a quick bite, it off to the Home Depot for a demo on how to lay ceramic tile, thanks David.

Afterward, there was a brief rest period where some folks grab showers, took power naps, and played single stob played horseshoes. This was followed by a trip to see the second home we were going to work on. The men checked out the house, and made a second HD run. The ladies planned meals, went to Wally World for groceries, and then stopped by the house.

We were invited to a fish fry at another church, Tabernacle X Church, where X equals something I cannot remember. Anyway, Robert, who was our team lead for the roofing job is staying at this church and he had ~40 volunteers coming in on Saturday. So, the church was throwing them a fish fry, and we got an invitation. The food was awesome. They had fried fish, fried shrimp, fried onions, i.e onion rings, and French fries. We also had some corn on the cob, which was spicy, but good, and some watermelon. They had paramedics on hand just in case anyone's heart stopped beating.

After the fish fry, where I consumed more fried material than any one human should eat in a month, we came back to headquarters (Note: My next post will be about this place.) and got ready to start the tile prep. It was about 9-9:30 at this point.

We spent the rest of the night at the house trying to get ready to lay tile. The house is built on a concrete slab. In the kitchen, they had layed linoleum. Imagine trying to scrape all the paint off of you car with a screwdriver. Getting the linoleum off the floor was a lot like this. We finally got it all up right at 2am.

So, it was a long, great day! Now it is Sunday morning, and time to get going on another one.

Soon, I will have all the pictures we have taken on my flickr.