Were Went The Weekend?

Wow, for a weekend as packed as this past one was, it sure went by quick.

It was kicked off on Friday with a rousing game of bunko with a few other couples from church. While we did have a lot of fun, I had to wonder who it was who sat & thought up all of the intricate rules &, especially, thought up the name. Bunko? For a game played with dice? Um, OK...

Anyway, we met a few more people from church & a good time was had by all, particularly the sitter for the kids. Being the first time that we'd ever employed a sitter, we overpaid her by quite a bit. I don't think we'll have any trouble recruiting her for her services again.

Saturday was started off (by T, at least) with a trip to a local second hand store where she came back with not only a gob of nice clothes, but also found what turned out to be a fairly valuable dish from around 1911. Score!

Later, we met up with my mom & headed to a (somewhat) new resturant down in SB called BJ's Brewhouse. Maybe it was due to the fact that since we've started this diet...er, 'lifestyle change' my cheeseburger intake has dropped dramatically, but I had one of the best sourdough cheeseburgers that I've had in a loooong time: cheddar cheese, smoked bacon, cooked (or, as some would say, undercooked) to my specifications - mmm-mmmm! The prices were comparable to Apple Bee's. The noise was a little much at first & then toned down as the crowd thinned out. Monitors are mounted all over the place with different sports channels playing. And, for those who inbibe, they have a long list of different house brews. We will definitely be hitting BJ's again.

Sunday rolled around (again, much faster than I had hoped/wanted), starting off with church & then off to Anaheim later to go to the Harvest Crusade 2006. This year's acts (for Sunday, at least) were MercyMe & Newsboys. Both seriously rocked! While I really like MercyMe, I didn't realize just how many of their songs I'd heard on the radio. I'll most certainly be hunting their discs down. The Newsboys have been around forever. When I first started listening to Christian rock, I wasn't too big of a fan of theirs. Too (to paraphrase T) Euro-poppy for my taste. Over the past few years, though, they've grown on me. They put on a great show. A lot of energy & audience participation. The lead singer, Peter Furler, looks a bit scary at times. He's quite intense, with his bald head, black lined eyes & strained looking singing style, so much so that I thought a few times that his carotid was going to burst from his neck.

Exploding arteries aside, it was a great show, followed by a good sermon from Pastor Greg Laurie (I've heard other messages from him & he tends to focus a bit on the End Times. While it's a good thing to teach about from time to time, to get people to think, I don't think scaring people into a relationship with Christ is always the best approach. Then again, neither is burying one's head in the sand when the subject is broached, so...) &, as is done every year, an altar call for people to accept Christ. It's an awesome sight to see three or four thousand people gather in the outfield of Angel's Stadium to make that commitment. If you ever have the chance to go I highly recommend attending. (In addition to the one in Anaheim, they conduct several others in across the States & in other countries.) A great time is to be had!

And now it's back to the grind. *sigh*