I’m feeling pretty lazy (and it’s late) so I’m not going to formulate any of these thoughts into meaningful and prosaic type paragraphs.  But I thought I needed to write something down though, so here goes nothing…

• Last night I decided to take a shower.  A hot shower.  With our bathroom in the state it’s in (i.e. water leaking from the ceiling onto the electric outlet where we plug in our hot water heater) this decision is suicidal at best.  For me, it was worth the risk…

  The hot water was refreshing and I was thankful to actually have water.  Then water suddenly started spraying everywhere.  My first thought: all the piples in the bathroom have exploded!  Then I realized that the shower cord that connects our tub faucet to the shower head had punctured.  Do I need to mention that this was a brand new cord?  Probably not.  I had to ask this question:  Is this really happening?  Is it possible that any of this is really real?  Did you ever see the movie, The Money Pit?  Other than the money part (and there’s some of that to consider) our situation is starting to have striking similarities.

• A girl (probably six or seven years old) walked up to me on the street today.  She said to me in pretty good English, "Hello, where are you from?"
  I said in near-perfect Chinese, "Meiguo" (America).  She replied, "Oh," almost rolled her eyes 360 degrees and walked off.  I think she was miffed at me that I didn’t speak to her in English.  Sor-rry!
• I bought a wireless router for our computer today…and it actually worked!  At least for the time being (tomorrow being a new and unpredictable day) I am able to use our laptop to access the Internet completely cable-free… This was a very needed purchase for us because we only have one phone jack in our house and it’s in the living room.  (I can’t take a shower in my own bathroom on most days, but I can surf the world-wide-web from any room of my house…this is a really weird life.)
• Small victory: Today, I understood one piece of Chinese grammar that most of the rest of my class did not!  I kept raising my hand for the teacher to call on me so that I could astound her with my new-found knowledge.  She kept saying, "Hen hao!" (Very good).  My classmates kept discreetly rolling their eyes and murmuring under their breath, but I figured I won’t have many moments like that; I’d better make the most of it.  Carpe diem, nerd boy.
• My hometown in Florida, which still has many people (family, friends, etc.) I love in it, is about to be creamed by a Category 5 hurricane.  Please pray with me that this force of nature will denigrate to a tropical storm.  After seeing the damage caused last year to Punta Gorda, my parents have fled north, but hurricanes are tricky and unpredictable.  I’m hoping things will turn out much better than the forecasts predict…
• Drilling’s done!  All our walls are drilled.  We still have radiators to be hooked up, but thankfully the dust has settled…and been swept up (for the most part.)  Now we just need to deal with the leaky bathroom.  Then we can buy some rugs and put some pictures on the wall!  Woo-hoo!
• Cool World Series…(with apologies to my friend, Jason, who is a hardcore St. Louis fan) I think it’s cool when two teams who haven’t been there before/in a long time get to go head-to-head.  I wish I could watch a few of the games on TV.
• I got two offers from total strangers to practice conversational English with them.  I am really trying NOT to do this while I am studying Chinese, but I did give one of these gentlemen my phone number.  We’ll see what happens?
• Thinking of positive things about my new living situation, I thought of a biggie for me.  No car headaches.  Sure, it’s a pain not being able to drive (but would I really want to drive here anyway) but I don’t have to worry about my vehicle breaking down, high gas prices, insurance, getting the oil changed, theft, and a myriad of other things I HATED about owning a car.  It’s great… I just have to watch out as I’m crossing the street so that I don’t become a splatted little Meiguo Frogger.
• Lastly, besides reading Sci-Fi novels, I have been re-reading Dallas Willard’s, Renovation of the Heart.  I am a huge Willard fan and I think this book is very helpful in spiritual formation.  I am hoping to really delve into it and allow God to renovate my innards once again.  They need it…for sure.  Check the book out if you haven’t already…

Signing off for now.
Your yeti in waiting…