Living Room Sessions

I downloaded two cd's this weekend... both of them by Chris Rice. The are entitled "The Living Rooms Sessions" and "The Living Room Sessions Christmas." They are simply Chris Rice playing various hymns on his piano in his living room. I highly recommend them.

Karma or Grace?

Well, if you know me... I hope you know that I do not believe in karma. And so the answer to my question above is definitely grace. But let me play the role Paul Harvey...

On Friday night, I hung out with some buddies of mine while they played poker. I did not play simply because I was tired and didn't want to be stuck there all night. I stayed at my buddies place for about an hour... specifically, from 11:00pm to 12:00am. Well, good times were had watching the Flop, the Turn, and the River... etc, etc. But when the clock struck midnight, I was done. So I walked outside only to discover that my car was not where I had parked it just 60 minutes earlier. Hmmmm... what could have happened?

Well, a careful examination of the curb revealed the words "NO PARKING." Methinks a tow truck may have been involved.

Thus began an hour long journey that involved me smarting off to the man who had my car... my buddy driving me to pick it up... and me shelling out $185 (cash only, thank you). Not cool. But truly... I had broken the law (even though I didn't realize I was doing so), and the punishment (albeit severe) was justified.

Then today, I was called into my boss's office. I recently worked on a project that has taken most of this year to complete (I was batting clean up in that three or four other people had attempted to resolve the issue). My boss called us all in the office to give us a reward for all of our efforts... the reward - a $200 AmEx gift card.

So if you put this on a balance... I am Even-Steven (actually, I am $15 ahead). But in reality, I deserved the punishment of the $185... and didn't deserve the $200 at all. I mean it is my job, right? So it is not karma... it is grace. And the best part is that receiving $200 is meaningless compared to the grace shown to me by the Lord... I can't imagine going through life trusting only in my good outweighing my bad (especially when I don't always know when I am doing the bad).

Attention to Detail

Yesterday, while in the grocery store, I decided to buy some protein bars to eat for my mid-afternoon or mid-morning snacks (instead of the Little Debbie cakes that our admins provide). So I stood there looking at the various brands of protein bars... but more important to me were the various flavors. I saw some that were flavored "lemon zest" and "smores" and "dulce de leche" and "chocolate peppermint stick." So I decided to buy one of each...

Well.. I just ate one (lemon zest), and as I looked at the packageing, I noticed various figures of women in various active stances... dancing stances to be exact.

I then read the following:

"The Whole Nutrition Bar for Women" (italics NOT mine)

I had no idea that Luna Bars were intended for women... and what is up with them getting all the good flavors?

For Dovie's Proverbial Record, Luna is actually a division of Clif Bar. Note the contrast of the manly Clif Rock Climber with the graceful Luna Dancer. So in the future, I will just buy the Clif Bars... even if the flavors are not as appealing. But ladies, I highly recommend the lemon zest... very tasty (for a protein bar, of course).