Opening Day 2008

Opening day in Cincinnati is equivilent to a national holiday. I had a free pass from work to attend the game, and it seems as though the entire city gets excited about spring and the start of the season. Its so much fun, today I walked into skyline in downtown Cincinnati and the place was jam packed with people wearing red, enjoying some chili before the start of the new season. It is probably one of the coolest things about Cincinnati, its what distinguishes us from other cities, even large cities like NY, opening day in Cincy is something I think every baseball fan needs to experience at least once in their lifetime! To me it gives a glimpse of how great Cincinnati can be. Opening day brings the city to life, and it brings the excitement back downtown. We have a great city, I like how things are changing and I hope and pray that our leadership has the vision to continue to spur growth rather than squelch it with bad policy and bickering.
The opening slide of the photo story linked above was taken just a few rows above where I sat for todays game. The view was amazing, and the crowd excited, hopefully this team will mature quickly and have fun doing it. I think in spite of today's loss they have the potential to win a lot of games, and a very good shot at the post season. It should be a fun season and I'm looking forward to it!
My prediction the reds will win 89 games and win the NL central, what do you think? am I riding a crazy wave of excitement or does this team have real potential to win a bunch of games?

bog box irritation

So today I was out doing some shopping, I needed a few items for the house, and while I was out I decided to pick up my new digital converter box to convert a digital signal for use on an analog tv. Our wonderful government recently started handing out $40 gift cards to people that request them to help offset the purchase price of the converter. (If you want more info on this check out the link above.) So I was pretty excited that my gift cards arrived and now I will be able to pick up a few more stations since I don't have cable. Unfortunately there aren't many stores that carry the converters but wal-mart and meijer both were listed as stores participating in the rebate program and both are near-by so I checked wal-mart first. Three months ago I said I was never going back to the wal-mart on colerain ave, the store is always a mess, there are hundreds of shopping carts in the parking lot and they never have enough staff to run the registers or do other things, but today I figured I'd go back and give 'em one more shot. Well it was exactly as described above, it was saturday and only 4 or 5 checkout lanes were open, the lines were huge and they weren't moving so I turned around and left. I went to my trusty target store which has never let me down and they had all that I needed except for the converter which I knew they didn't carry. After that I decided to head on over to the Meijer store on Colerain which also three months ago decided I was never going back because they did not have what I needed. This only applies to Meijer on Colerain the others in the area have been fine. So I went expecting little, but figured it was worth the try. I found the converter box, made sure it was one that qualified for the discount and headed to check-out, however at the register the manager proceeded to tell me that they did not accept the gift cards from the government and that I should go to wal-mart. Two things about this really ticked me off, first the manager didn't care that I traveled specifically to his store at the recommendation of the government to buy a product with government money!( its surprising because I'm sure there's a big profit on the item because the government always over pays!) and second he told me to go to wal-mart!! What kind of manager tells you to go to the competition for something he has in his store? That was a first for me, I proceeded to tell him wal-mart was not getting my business and at this point neither was Meijer! I again left all my products and the register and went home in a grumpy mood without my converter.
So my question is when is it appropriate to write a letter complaining about bad service? I think I'm going to write to both wal-mart and meijer and I'm going to see who responds faster. I'm not looking for a free handout and I'm going to let them know that I'm simply looking for a retailer to care about their customer!
On another note, is this really a big deal? should I care about what a store has or doesn't have or should I simply blow it off and go elsewhere? am I just wasting my time getting irritated at a giant corporation? I feel like lately I've been a grump inside, I'm not sure that anyone else has noticed it, at least no one has mentioned anything to me, but things like this make me feel like I'm going to turn into a grumpy old man someday and thats not at all where I want to be. So for now I'll write my letter for the fun of it, and I'll do my best to not turn into a grouch! and I'll definitely boycott colerain wal-mart and Meijer until the next time its 3 am and I need something!

spoiled milk or rotten eggs

What's the worst thing you've ever taken a whiff of in your memory? On Monday night I thought I had smelled perhaps one of the worst smells in all the world, only to be eclipsed earlier this evening! On Monday night at club we blended two McDonalds happy meals, one was a chicken nuggets, with blue powerade ketch-up and bar-b-q sauce, and the other was cheeseburger with coke and ketch-up and of course the french fries were in both. Two students had to try to guess what was blended if they got it wrong they chugged it, if they guessed right Jen and I chugged it. Luckily for me I had the cheeseburger happy meal, we both ended up chugging them but the chicken nugget happy meal when mixed was quite possibly the most disgusting thing we've ever made at club, it had to smell worse than a 3 day old baby diaper. Needless to say Jen didn't drink much of it before nearly spewing! The cheeseburger smoothie was actually pretty good, I'd have to say the coke was the saving factor in that one, it's actually not a bad way to eat a meal on the run. haha
That brings us to tonight, I thought some milk and cookies sounded really good, I've had the milk for about a week, and the "sell by" date said 3/7/08 so I figured the milk would be just fine, however when I opened it I quickly realized it wasn't any good, the odor was beyond nasty, I almost puked twice while I dumped it out, the smell was definitely the worst in my memory!! It was ten times worse than the happy meal smoothie! Two things come from this 1) how in the world did the milk go bad? It was in the fridge, sealed up, and had only been opened a week ago, AND it was still before the sell by date! am I entitled to anything in this? Trauth Dairy needs to fix that problem! And 2) have you ever smelled or tasted sour milk? I think that would be a guaranteed way to barf if you ever needed one, that was straight up gross!

Living a legacy part II

A few weeks ago I wrote about how I wanted to live my life in such a way as to leave an impact, to change the world for Christ. I have been reading a biography on William Wilberforce, he is the man that started the effort to end slavery in Great Britain which eventually spread around the world. He was an amazing man, and I think that in looking at his life you would say that the way he lived his life changed the world. I don't know what God has for any of us, but I do know that he is the God of the universe, he made us and he loves us and he is with us, as followers of Christ we, and mainly I mean I should not be timid, or hold back in sharing the gospel because God can use that in big ways. I think we should also dream big, and if God is putting something on our heart we need to go for it. God did not send all of us to be president of the US, but the calling that he has for each of us is just as important!
It's interesting, Wilberforce grew up in a wealthy family, he had all that he needed, and he was bright and successful, and well liked. While he was studying at Cambridge he blew off most of his classes and partied and gambled, and basically wasted his time there because he was told that all he had to do was get through school and go into the family business and he would be well off. It didn't matter what he did with his life, he was going to have enough and live a comfortable normal life. But during his time in college something about that didn't sit well with him, it wasn't enough to just be wealthy and play all the time; he didn't just want to live a good life and die. I don't think there is anything wrong with living a good life, but I think I am focused on that a little too much and I just do what it takes to get by rather than doing the very best I can do to serve Christ with everything that is within me.

I think God has called us to so much more, the life to the full that Jesus promises sounds a lot like the life that Wilberforce lived, it sounds a lot like the life that Peter and Paul and the other disciples lived, they were not merely followers of Jesus but they were ambassadors, here on the earth in a foreign land representing Jesus in the position that he called them to. my prayer is that I would heed God's call, that I would know his voice and then follow him where he leads me and be an ambassador for Jesus! Who knows what would have happened if Wilberforce had decided that he enjoyed partying and gambling and the "good life" too much and decided that he was going to live that for the rest of his life and take the easy road. How many more slaves would have died, how much longer would slavery have reigned terror on people? What is God calling you and I to do? Lets not allow the world and all it's enticement take us away from our mission as an ambassador for the Lord Jesus!

Snow day??

I still really like a good snowfall, and I still get really excited when I hear the weather forecasters saying it's going to snow, although I generally hedge that excitement with a bit of cynicism expecting them to be wrong yet again! Today, however has been one of the rare times they were right, and we're getting a beautiful snow which makes me feel like a kid again hoping and praying for a day off school! Only now I'm stuck in the "real world" whatever that means, working a "real" job and really have no chance of getting a day off for snow. However, I'll still hold onto the slim chance that Fairfield declares a level 3 ultra snow emergency and makes it impossible and illegal to drive to work! So I'll be checking my computer every five minutes in the morning hoping that somehow I get a bonus day off to go play in the snow, but until that happens I'll be remembering the good ol days and holding onto the hope that it can happen again!

I think it's safe to say the yellow starburst will easily defeat the other very edible options given and prove my point that yellow deserves to stay in the starburst rainbow!! But, whoever voted for rotten eggs needs to have their head examined!!

The poll

If you've recently been on Ian's blog you've read his rants about the yellow starburst being nasty, so in the interest of fairness I have set up a highly scientific poll to determine if the yellow starburst shall forever be banned from the starburst lineup, or if it is indeed better than a chocolate covered cicada. Personally I'm a fan of the yellow starburst and I would pick it any day over even the coveted red starburst. So what will it be, is the yellow starburst worse than a can of spam or a rotten egg? If you think so I'd like to see you prove it!

Valentines day

I read a few articles today about valentines day, some were written by bitter people that have had bad experience seeking love from someone, and they talked about how valentines day brings back a rush of pain and frustration. Others were written by people in love, but they wrote about how much money they were going to spend to celebrate the holiday and inevitably how one gift or another simply would not be good enough, or might be too much or could cause a break-up etc. Either way it just strikes me that valentines day has become all about "me" and not about genuinely letting the people closest to us know that we love them. It should not be about the gifts or coming up with the perfect "valentine's day date" but about genuinely sharing your love with people in your life whether it's friends, family, husband, wife or your neighbor. Honestly, for me as a single guy valentines day has generally been a day that I just avoided and didn't put much focus on, but as I was thinking about it I realized that I needed to view valentines day as a reminder of the greatest love ever shown to anyone and that is the love that God has lavished on us by sending Jesus to rescue us from a life of sin and death. That is truly the greatest love story in all the world, there will never be one to top it, and I'm a part of that love story, and I need to include others in the story too. Valentines is an opportunity to share God's love, it's a day to let others know that they are loved by Jesus, and quite honestly that is the only love that really matters! Really though, not to sound corny but as a Christian every day should be "valentines day" that every day I should strive to let those around me know they are loved, not just accepted or tolerated but truly loved because that is how God loves me. I hope you have a great valentines day!!