The Return of Lotsa Little Bits

First off, let's start with this...

Mark Koopmans  is doing what he calls the 50 States Of Pray.  Basically, he is looking for (at least) one person from (at least) each of the fifty states (so far by my count he has 30 states and 7 foreign nations represented).  The name of the game is, on Christmas Eve, each person posts "a prayer, a thought, a memory, a hope (or) even a regret about the past and/or a wish for the future", in about 100 words.  I'll be there; and I encourage any of you so inclined to hit the link and join the list found therein.


Next, I just finished my most creative use of turkey leftovers ever!

Pre-cooking...

The basic concept is "turkey salmon patties"- I chopped turkey small, added what I would to a can of salmon (one egg, salt, crumbled bread in lieu of the Ritz Crackers I didn't have, and garlic Italian croutons), fried 'em up with a cheese slice, and put 'em on white toast.  Result:  Damn good, although my innards were a touch disappointed that it wasn't salmon, but much better than the usual turkey sandwich.  I do think, however, that turkeygeddon 2013 is run its course and the remaining leg will have to go to Mr. Humpty Back when he next raids the dumpster.



Next, the first round of the 2013 NHFFL fantasy football playoffs is in the books.  The Angels routed the Fiery Beagles 42-28, and the Elks rolled over Buzz 40-27.  The Angels play the Greenwoods next; the teams split this season's games, with the Angels taking the week three meeting 41-29 and the Greenwoods winning 4 weeks later, 46-41.  The Elks will go up against the State Ducks;  they have played two close matches this year, with the Ducks winning 41-39 in week 3, and the Elks handing them their second and final loss, 33-31 in week nine.  The Elks have beaten the Ducks twice in the playoffs:  30-17 in the first round in 2005, and 51-30 in another first round game in 2007.

Why State Ducks, you ask?  Well, I found a shirt in a garage sale years ago.  It was red with a gold embroidered logo for "State Dock Marina" with anchor and all.  I loved that shirt, but my son -raised in the finest tradition of smartassery I learned from my sister Jenny- looked at it one day and said, "State DUCK?"  When we decided to re-expand the league in 2005, I brought the State Ducks into the league.

One last word here on NHFFL for those who may not comprehend:  Me, Laurie and KC each run four teams, but each of us has a main team.  The Elks are Laurie's; the Clock BBQs are KCs; and mine are the KCAs, named for my favorite son and baseball team.  Oh, and Laurie runs Scrappy's team, the Fiery Beagles (originally the fiery dragons, but when Laurie joined the league in 2002, they became the Beagles in honor of her dog, the late and missed Fred.


Then, there's the matter of work.  After killing the better part of an hour and a half as the big boss from corporate trained us on the proper way to train an new employee (and gave me my next new word- when you hold comments in until you finally let out a bunch of them at once, they call it "gunnysacking") this morning, we then had an hour-long sit down on re-upping our health insurance.  Good news, our plans are ACA-approved so screw you, Obama.  Bad news, they go up an average of 9%, so screw you, Obama.

Finally, a serious note.  After all the battling I've been going through with the blogger I mentioned Sunday morning and her slow slide into atheism, I heard a pertinent message on the program Grace To You last night.  The pastor, John McArthur, listing characteristics of the Bible, said that it was "deterministic."  He explained that "The Word of God is the determining line between salvation and not... if you believe what God says in His word, you are guided by the Holy Spirit and ergo you are saved; while if you look at portions of the Bible as "outdated", "contradictory", or against what you believe, then odds are that you have not established that one-on-one relationship with Christ.

  This doesn't mean that you have to just close your eyes and take it all blindly; but if your seeking, reading and learning lead you away from God rather than nearer to Him, you have a problem.  Sadly, I mused, that fit this blogger to a "T".  Much of the discussion before I left came down to a post about the "ridiculousness" of the story of Adam and Eve.  Why did God put the tree in Eden was a question that, instead of leading her to the concept that there had to be a choice between good and evil, to obey God or not, led her to listen to people telling her that "Adam and Eve couldn't possibly make the right choice because a) they had no experiential knowledge of what good and evil were and thus couldn't POSSIBLY grasp the concept of obedience, and b) how did they know that God was "good" and Satan was "bad"?  This is not the reasoning of someone honestly seeking God; this is the reasoning of someone justifying disbelief.


Alright, I gotta wrap this up because I tested this post earlier and deleted it, and now a certain Canadian thinks I'm an Indian giver.  Have a good evening, everyone!