I had a couple of gift cards I got with credit card reward points I need to use, and was running out of places to put stuff in the garage. So, I decided to use the gift cards to get a new toolbox. Did the “order online, pickup in store thing”, which worked amazingly well - first time I’ve tried that.

I think I might have went a little overboard - didn’t realize how big (and heavy) this thing was until I got it home. Thankfully, Matt came over and helped me unload it. Now I just need to get more tools. I think it’s going to be mostly empty even once I cleanup the garage.

I was just in the Children’s Ministry office installing a thin client and they had a cool sign on the wall. “Stressed spelled backwards is DESSERTS.” Now why didn’t I think of that? That is awesome!

After over a month, I decided it was finally time to get rid of the default Wordpress theme. I went live with the new theme last night and just did a little bit of tweaking.  I had to “Widgetize” it, which turned out to be somewhat of a pain.

I’m still not sure what kind of header I want - the Cat5 cable is kind of cool, but I’d like something better. Anyone got any ideas?

I just noticed that Windows XP Service Pack 3 is available on WSUS.  I don’t dare approve it for install without some major, heavy-duty testing, but I’m glad to see it finally available.  Hundreds of patches have been released since SP2 and installing them all on a new system build is painful.  SP3 will include all of those previous pages.

There are also a couple of new features included.  Network Access Protection is now supported for connections to Windows 2008 servers with NAP enabled.  There has also been some IP Stack hardening added, similar to the hardened IP stack in Vista.

Once I get a couple of other projects wrapped up, I’ll do some testing and hopefully get SP3 rolled out in the near future.

I am not a Nine Inch Nails fan at all, but I thought it was cool to see that they have released their new album online.  I am also not an RIAA fan, so I think it’s awesome that bands are starting to choose to use the power of the internet to distribute their music!

I had the opportunity to visit Avalon Church yesterday and hear Joe Sangl speak in the morning services as well as at the Financial Learning Experience workshop. I think it’s awesome that Joe has dedicated life to teaching people how to manage their money. I especially like his story of the “Mortgage Burning Party” he attended. I might have to copy that idea.

I made a commitment way back to never fall into the “debt trap” that seems to plague our country today. I had one car loan back in 2001 and hated it, so I worked hard to pay it off in 6 months. Since then, I can proudly say I have never carried a balance on a credit card and today have no debt except for a Mortgage. My goal is to have it paid off in the next year. I think I’m going to start my own Payoff Spectacular to track my progress. Perhaps Joe will be able to attend my Mortgage Burning Party

I arrived back home last night after an few days at the beach with about 60 people from our staff team.  It’s awesome to have the chance to get away for a few days and have a time of relaxation and worship.  I’d like to share a few random thoughts about this week:

• Thomas shared a message with us each night based on Deuteronomy 6:4-5 - a great reminder that we must put the Lord first in our lives and love him with all of out heart, soul, and strength.
• It’s important not only to pray for our work and ministry, but for rest and fun.
• We discussed being “worn out” for the Lord.  Not worn out as in Burnt Out, but from loving and serving Him with all of our strength.  How awesome it would be if when we go home to be with the Lord, we are totally “worn out” from serving him with all of our heart, soul and strength.
• I got to spend a few hours on the beach late Friday night.  It’s so great to walk a few miles down, away from all the hotels, lights, and noise and spend time with God.  There’s so much noise and distraction in our lives these days, sometimes it’s hard to hear is voice.
• Getting up at 5:00 AM to go fishing is WAY too early and the water was really rough, but it was still a lot of fun.
• I’ve never had communion with red Solo cups until this week - there’s a first time for everything I guess.
• These retreats are always great because I get to spend time with and get to know people I otherwise seldom see.  Our staff is so big, it’s hard to get to know everyone well.
• I’m really tired.  I can’t say I came home from this retreat physically rested.  It was, however, a great time of renewing spritually.

I spent some time on way home today (when I wasn’t driving) to clean up my inbox.  I love cached Exchange mode in Outlook - the ability to delete, move, and reply to stuff and have it all sync up next time you hit the network is great.  Anyway, I still need to do a little bit more work, but I’m down to 160 items in my inbox.  I don’t recall it being that small in a LONG time.  Just thought I’d share

I just installed the Xirrus WiFi monitor gadget and thought it was kind of cool. Shows all available access points and their relative location on a “Radar Screen” with signal strength, SSID, MAC Address, etc. Nothing to see here at the house but my own AP. Will have to play with it some more at the office.

I started reading “i am no but i know I AM” by Louie Giglio a couple of days ago and have a few random thoughts/reflections.  None of these are new, but it’s always nice to be reminded.

• It’s easy to become so obsessed with our own story that we are totally blind to the God story happening all around us.
• The story already has a star, and the star is NOT ME.
• God is big, really big - and I am really small.  I am just a mere dust particle in a vast universe, yet God loves and prizes me and knows everything there is to know about me - AWESOME!
• God chooses ordinary people to play significant roles in his story.  And, he often chooses the lease among us to accomplish amazing things.  It is absolutely awesome that he has chosen me to play the roll I play in growing his kingdom!
• I am not sent alone.  In fact, God is doing all the work, but he often chooses a human vessel as an ambassador.