Shadow is 11 years old. He's by far the best dog I've ever had (as well as the only dog I've ever had). I remember the day I brought him home; he was only 7 weeks old, and he whined for the two-hour drive from the kennel and his litter-mates to his new home - oh, and he drooled too. Ashley and I tried everything we could think of to calm him down. We finally found that singing worked. We sang every song we know - twice. And we went through nearly an entire roll of paper towels, wiping up the drool... Today, 11 years later, he hasn't changed a bit (except he's now 110 pounds). He still talks as much as ever, and he still drools when he rides in the car.

Over the years I've gotten a few pictures of Shadow, but hardly any digital. When I came home for Christmas break, I grabbed my camera and pestered and taunted him for a good 1/2 hr. while taking some pictures. I don't think he minded - too much.

Okay, that's enough! (he doesn't bite - honest!)

I'd told my parents I wasn't coming home for Christmas. Between the cost of airfares over the holidays, and the chaos of traveling, I'd decided to just chill in Canada for the two weeks of our Christmas break. I'd checked airfares a couple of times back in October, and they'd risen from $200 to more than $350 for a ticket from Seattle to Denver. It was just on a sort of random whim that I checked again at the end of November. Expecting them to be more than $400, I was very surprised to find a round-trip ticket for $180! So I bought it.

I didn't exactly tell my parents about it though. I almost did once or twice (by accident) but I somehow recovered, and they didn't catch on. So I was going to surprise them and just show up for Christmas! I wasn't sure if this was a really good or a really bad idea. I could just picture my parents arriving at home to find me in the house. You know there's that moment between when you see someone and when you recognize them - that's what worried me...

Though how I was going to get to the house was beyond me. We live a little more than walking-distance from the airport. I could rent a cab, but that would nearly offset the bargain on the cheap ticket... I tried to think of people I know in Denver - but I don't know anyone in Denver. Then I remembered my cousin. Maybe he would pick me up. That solved, I promptly forgot about it...

You know how there's that period of time after you pack that you remember things that you forgot to pack? I spent that time in the car on my way to the airport. I had to preach that Sabbath in church, so I didn't pack until I got home that evening. I packed my suitcase, threw it in the car, and we headed for the airport. The conversation went something like this:

Toni: "The reason Justification is so widely..."

"Oh, you know what I forgot?", I randomly interject.

"What?"

"The house key..."

"Do you want to go back and get it?"

"No, we're already across the border"

Unfortunately, we were already across the border at this time, and it would be very difficult to explain this to the border patrol. So I had no idea how I was going to get into the house. A few minutes later:

Jacqueline: "So we were going to..."

"Oh, snap! I just remembered I need to call my cousin!"

Ya, I tend to wait until the last minute. I called my cousin about 12 hours before I was going to arrive in Denver to arrange a pick-up. He didn't answer, so I left a voicemail...

We spent the night in Seattle at Jacqueline's aunt's. At 4AM the next day we headed for the airport. I spent the next three hours with my neck craned to the left, talking about fly-fishing with a geologist from Alaska. I've never been fly-fishing.

When we landed in Denver, I still wasn't sure how I was going to get to the house, or once I got there, how I was going to get in with no key. Maybe I could stay with my cousin - but for all I knew, he could have moved away... I checked my voicemail, and there was a message from Justin, my cousin, telling me he would work something out for me. What a relief!

Justin was working, but his girlfriend, Lucianna, and a couple of other friends were able to pick me up and we went shopping and hung out all afternoon. When Justin got off work, Lucianna called my parents and arranged to meet them for dinner. This wasn't uncommon, so my parents weren't suspicious. Lucianna really got into this idea of surprising my parents, suggesting I dress up as a waiter and come to the table to take the order. I suppose we could have had a lot of fun with this, but I was pretty uncertain about how this would be received - whether we'd have a great time, or be spending the night in the hospital because one of them had a heart attack... So I decided to just walk in with the rest of the gang.

When we arrived at the restaurant, my parents had been waiting for a few minutes. We all walked in together. Both mom and dad looked at me as they greeted everyone else. But it didn't register. Then they did a double-take.

Mom was so happy she cried. Dad was so happy he just grinned. Nobody went to the hospital, so I was happy. It was great. I couldn't have done it without the help of my cousin and his friends, so if you guys read this - THANK YOU!

Well, Shannon, since I'm back in the States for Christmas, that means I get Silk Nog! Right now there's three quarts in the fridge. I also get to see my dog, Shadow:


But most importantly, I get to spend time with friends and family. I love you all, and hope you have a very happy Christmas!

Okay, so I have this problem with my wisdom teeth. My last trip to the dentist was a while back, and he said they were fine. Well, they're not now. I keep getting gum infections because they didn't fully break through the gum. So I get bits of stuff stuck back there and they get infected. These infections can be really annoying. So I got some stuff that's supposed to help relieve pain and promote healing.

I was standing in front of the mirror, having just applied some of this stuff to my infected gum, when the brilliant idea struck me that I should read the instructions. "If swallowed, seek medical help or contact a poison control center immediately." I looked in the mirror at my still-open mouth and this stuff (which apparently is poisonous) plastered all over my gums and thought, "Maybe this isn't intended to be put in your mouth." So I flipped the packaging over and checked the label, expecting it to say "for use on feet only." I'm not sure whether I was more relieved or perplexed to find the words "Oral Anesthetic." Go figure.

I looked in the mirror and slowly closed my mouth. I tried really hard not to swallow - really, I swear...

So I'm sitting in Sabbath School a while back and we're studying Romans 10. Now, I got there late because I ate breakfast late because I got out of the shower late because I finished with devotions late because I got up late because I went to bed early. I know that doesn't make sense, but it's true. So I don't know what all the discussion was about, but what I heard didn't really need much context, it was pretty transparent.

While I was there, the discussion was on witnessing to a particular group of people. The group in question would be those that don't believe in the inspiration of the Bible. The question was posed, "How do you show someone that the Bible is inspired?" Now this is a very relevant question - basic, but relevant. Then someone else, and I cannot for the life of me remember who this individual was, said something in response to that question that blew me away. They said, "We've convinced ourselves that the Bible is inspired."

Whoa! Stop right there. Not another word. Now, I could give this person the benefit of the doubt and assume that they didn't really mean to speak heresy. However, the fact that there was a room full of Seventh-day Adventists that sat there in silence, nodding their heads and inspecting their toes, without saying a word to the contrary, is something of a confirmation that, even if he didn't mean what he said, they didn't disagree. A statement like that is very disturbing and reveals a very ignorant condition inside the church. Actually, both do.

The answer to the first is pretty simple: "Why do you believe the Bible is inspired?" Your answer to that is what you share with the "non-believer". The anonymous comment is much more disturbing. I think it reveals a danger that faces most (if I can use that word) native Adventists. From the time they were knee-high to a toad stool they've been told the "truth." But they never really connected the dots to reality. All they're left with, therefore, is half the picture. So they cling to that half with a dogmatic devotion that the thinking individual would find weak at best. And when they seek to share their faith with those people, and they're met with minimal enthusiasm, they conclude that we're presenting the wrong thing - there must be a more friendly (i.e. fluffy) message to present. I have a problem with this on two levels:

1) Where are the pastors? Where are those in charge of directing, equipping, teaching, shepherding the people? Why don't they know these things? Why aren't they being taught? What happened to the Adventist message? The truth is that pastors come out of seminary speaking greek and hebrew, and knowing how to write a sermon, but they don't know the importance of visiting their church members. They can't disciple. They don't know what the people need to hear from the pulpit. They don't know the basics of pastoring! Our universities are largely responsible for this, but we cannot lay all the blame to their charge, as the pastors themselves have responsibility. The same is true of the churches.

2) Where is your first love? While the pastors and leadership of the Adventist church share responsibility for the ignorance of the people, it is not entirely their fault. There is no reason you cannot know for yourself what you believe and understand it thoroughly enough to give an answer. I recently read that "our churches are full of people who can give no better answer for their faith than that which they've heard from the pulpit." This is shameful! Did you live in Russia, under communism, your situation might be excusable. However, you don't! You live in America where you're never more than one hotel away from a Bible. There is no excuse for ignorance today. There is no reason you should not be able to give a compelling, thorough answer for your beliefs.

Do you believe the Bible is inspired? If you really do, then read it and discover, as David said, "How precious are Thy thoughts to me."

Did you know that you're being watched?

Last month I had visitors from 9 different countries. One from as far away as Australia. Norway visited my website 27 times last month. The US takes the cake with 274 in the past 30 days.

63 of those visitors are from Colorado, but Tennessee recently tipped the scale with 66 (62 of those are from Collegedale - interesting). California and Oregon are tied for 3rd place with 34 each. Although, the folks in Indiana seem to spend the most time on my site with an average visit duration of 00:09:50 (9 minutes, 50 seconds). That's slightly more than doubled (101.43%) since last month's 00:04:53, though the national average is down a little more than 35% to 00:03:08. But the overall trend is positive as new visits from the US are up 30.63% this month.

Let's see who's visiting from Colorado:

Out of the 63 visitors last month, 60 of those are returning visitors and only 3 are new. 58 were using FireFox, 4 were on Internet Explorer, and only one used Safari. Those using IE only spent 00:01:09 on merethinking - this is because it looks like a disaster on IE. But I don't care. IE is a developer's nightmare and I don't want to try and work out the bugs. Nobody should be using IE anyway due to it's security hazards. FF is the best browser availiable for PC. My one Mac friend, browsing on Safari, spent over 17 minutes on merethinking. Let's see where this person came from... Oh, Colorado Springs.

Speaking of Colorado Springs, I got one visit from UCCS (University of Colorado at Colorado Springs). This individual only stayed for 00:00:15. Was it because they were using IE or because a teacher caught them...

I had 3 visits from my sister and brother-in-law from their comcast cable connection as well. They used Ian's laptop, running Windows, the screen resolution is 1280x800, and they usually come via the link on my myspace page. They only spent an average of 00:01:27 last month because they're using IE. They really should switch to FireFox.

Last Month...

...the city from which I receive the most visits was Surry, BC, with 133 visitors spending an average of 00:09:50 on merethinking. Interesting, the same amount of time as the folks in Indiana.

...487 visitors stopped by, generating more than 1,500 page views.

...the average visitor spent 00:04:53 on merethinking, down 19.36% from the previous month.

...54.41% (265) of my visitors visited on Safari (Mac), up from 50.73% previously. 31.83% (155) used FireFox, 22.22% (66) used IE, and 0.21% (1) was using Camino (...great, another browser I've got to test for compatibility. Why can't everyone just use FireFox?)

...I had 74 new visitors, down 5.57% from last month's 83.

...only 11 people (2.26%) visited from a dial-up connection. The remaining 97.74% were using Cable or higher. (4 used Fiber Optic OC3 @ 155.52 Mbps - man I wish I had that kind of connection!)

...I watched you visit my website. Who else has been watching you?

It's been said, "were it not for the last minute, I'd never get anything done." That is an evangelistic truism. Sometime Friday afternoon, Jeffrey came to me and suggested we do an intro video for his Thinking About God seminar that Saturday evening. I stayed up until 2:30AM Saturday morning looking for music, scanning audio tracks, ripping videos from youtube, looking for quotes, editing pictures, compiling slides, and mixing music in Garage Band. This is the final result: