Yeah, I know; I’ve been on vacation all week and haven’t put up anything here. Shame on me.
The first couple of days (Saturday through Tuesday) I mostly relaxed at home, though Saturday was spent in Indy, wrapping up my birthday recognition (for the record, it was on 04/27).
Another year, another “too much stuff” for my birthday. Sure, I usually make a pretty good sized list, but it’s probably a good thing that each year, that list is harder to think up. I’m 23 now… Still feel the same, though I am grateful that it is another year which the Lord has given me to see here on Earth.
On Wednesday morning, Alicia & I left for Greenville, South Carolina. We had tickets to the play “Twelfth Night, or What You Will” (Shakespeare) being put on at Bob Jones University. It was past five, I think, when we made it to Greenville, and after getting checked into the hotel room, we met up with our friend (Alicia‘s former roommate from when she attended BJU & bridesmaid at our wedding) Jacinda for dinner at Red Lobster. I had the New York strip steak. It was good.
After that, we pretty much called it a night and Alicia & I retired to the hotel room. The next day, I slept in. I’m on vacation–that’s what it’s for. When I finally did drag myself out of bed, we got all dressed up (sorry, no pics) and headed to BJU, where we immediately went to the book store. Aside from having mountains upon mountains of typical Christian bookstore trinkets, their selection of books was pretty good. I came out of there with just two books, though (my wife also got two, and a CD): Rightly Dividing the Word by Clarence Larkin and The KJV-Only Controversy by James White, which I am currently reading.
Afterwards, we went to the snack bar on campus so that I could try some of the bosco sticks I had heard so much of. And I was disappointed, mainly because I could barely taste the cheese inside–needed more zest.
Jacinda & her roommate met up with us at the snackbar and talked us into taking them to the mall for a bit before the play. We agreed, and went. After a few minutes at the mall’s pathetic book store, I was bored. I’m pretty sure there is some unwritten law somewhere that a young man shouldn’t be able to be bored in a shrine to materialism as elaborate as a mall, but I don’t claim to be normal.
Back to BJU, with plenty of time to spare for the play. I wasn’t sure what to expect (sorry, Dad, didn’t read it beforehand), but I was pleasantly surprised. The play was very funny, and there was a wonderful folk band playing little jigs in between scene changes and during the intermission. A wonderful touch that was!
After the play, it was goodbye Jacinda, hello hotel, and after another night’s rest, we came back to Connersville. I wish we could have afforded to go down there for the whole week and see more of the sites or to hang out more with Jacinda. Friends are a precious rarity, I’m learning.
I’m working third shifts this coming week, beginning tonight, helping to reset the home entertainment department. I’m not looking forward to it, but I am happy to help.
Also, while at the hotel, I had a stroke of inspiration (it might have been indigestion). My wife loves names. She isn’t even pregnant, yet from where I sit I can see at least seven baby names books. I see lists of names scrawled (or beautifully scripted) on loose leaf paper quite often, not to mention throughout notebooks.
I’m not sure what got me thinking about it, but the thought of her having her own baby names website appealed to me and (to my somewhat amazement) to her as well. However, there are hundreds of name sitse out there, so I needed it to be something different, and the thought of using a wiki site jumped out at me. Any mother-to-be, mother, name-lover, or even guy can contribute names, discuss every name via their own discussion pages, create their own user pages with favorite name lists, sibling sets, or whatever, and so much more. So, I am proud to introduce The Baby Names Wiki. It isn’t much yet (somewhere around 40 names, I think), and we have a long, long way to go before the 10,000s boasted of by other sites. We’re hoping a community effort will help to drive that along. It’s been fun so far working on it!