so tempting...

There's a job opening at Transport for London.

Unfortunately, there are at least two decent-sized obstacles to overcome in pursuing my dream job:

1. I'm not sure they will be looking for someone with an American accent...no matter how mild.
2. Somehow I don't see business trips to Houston being part of the job description.

But the biggest obstacle seems to be the fact that I can't find the job listed on their "careers" page. Hmmm...maybe it's one of those "you've got to know somebody on the inside" type things.

moving on...

Just for fun - and to get past the potty humor, but not the true subject of my last post - I offer you the following:

Today is Peanut Butter Fudge day!!

Now, those are three words that I like independent of each other, and combining them together creates lots of yummy things!!

• Peanut(s) - low fat and tasty source of protein; especially good with baseball and beer (although I guess the beer is full of carbs...which isn't fat, per se, but easily turned into it. I digress.)
  
  
• Butter - one of the purest representations of the truth that fat = flavor
  
  
• Fudge - any chocolate lover's delight
  
  
• Peanut Butter - mmmm...smooth, creamy and easy to combine with other tasty vittles, or equally satisfying on it's own (from a spoon, preferrably) for a late-night snack sure to sooth your hungry belly 'til morning

...and today's delight...

Peanut Butter Fudge - probably the best example of combining peanut butter with another tasty vittle.

world toilet day

Following on from global poverty prayer week...today is World Toilet Day.

Frankly, as a squeaky girl, I'd rather you get the details from Jonah than from me.

two sad days

Last Thursday, all the trains toward the London suburb where I work got re-routed, delayed or cancelled because there was "a fatality in the area".

Today I read in the paper that it was indeed what most people suspected and I feared: the Surrey Herald reported that a woman was killed when she stepped off the platform into the path of an oncoming train.

My heart broke last Thursday when I suspected it was something of the sort...because quite apart from the sadness of the event itself, many of the comments I heard were things like:

• "Now I'm going to be late for work."
• "Great. My other train was cancelled and now I'm stuck on this one with standing room only."
• "I had to pay for a taxi on top of my train ticket to get to work on time."

The list goes on, but is mostly grumbling comments about the inconvenience that has been caused.

And don't get me wrong. It was an inconvenience to me as well. The journey that normally takes me about 30 minutes ended up being over 2 hours that morning. But I cried on the train, thinking of how heartless we can be sometimes. I'm confident there were many others who were thinking the same thing as me that morning...and who were saddened by it. But that there even be any of us who are so wrapped up in ourselves that our first thought is of our own inconvenience, and not of the suffering of others is a crying shame.

My heart broke again today when I learned that the victim was a 76 year old woman. How sad and lonely Ann Winnett, of West Byfleet, must have been to step off that platform. I have a very tender spot in my heart for the elderly that feels like it has grown a lot in the last couple of years. I even find myself more and more sentimental about my grandparents (and the fact that I've lost them), rather than less and less over time.

There's just so much I think we don't capture from the older ones among us. They have the wisdom of age, they have great stories, they have seen years of change and the cycles that repeat themselves in life and history through politics, in relationships and in families. And they're often the loneliest and most forgotten among us.

The other thing that a few people said to me that day was "it's just that time of year", which is admittedly a factual comment (not a grumble), but just the fact that it is a fact...that makes me sad too.

Sometimes I really do just want to cry out "Come Lord Jesus".

another dose of Stott

Today's nod of agreement is about...The Cross of Jesus:

88. God in Christ
If we speak only of Christ suffering and dying, we overlook the initiative of the Father. If we speak only of God suffering and dying, we overlook the mediation of the Son. The New Testament authors never attribute the atonement either to Christ in such a way as to disassociate him from the Father, or to God in such a way as to dispense with Christ, but rather to God and Christ, or to God acting in and through Christ with his whole-hearted concurrence.

--From "The Cross of Christ" (Leicester and Downers Grove: IVP, 1986), p. 156.
----------------------------------------------------
--Excerpted from "Authentic Christianity", p. 54, by permission of InterVarsity Press.

I think this addresses the tendency of some groups of Christians who, maybe only in their diction, focus on God and seem to forget about Jesus, and other groups who focus so much on Jesus that they forget to acknowledge God. I'm sure neither forgets either the Father or the Son, but I often think about the outsiders, who sometimes don't get a full picture of the trinity. And even here we have not mentioned the Holy Spirit...but I guess I've taken this a step or three beyond what Stott was trying to address.

global poverty week

Thanks to Jonah for raising my awareness about Tearfund's Prayer Week.

There's a different focus each day this week. Get involved!

Sure, there are a million things that already beg for our attention in prayer, but that will always be the case.

Much like my attention was drawn to service men and women on Sunday when we had a special prayer focus (it was Remembrance Day in the UK, essentially the same thing as the our Veterans Day in the States) at the close of the service...Tearfund's one-week focus on global poverty brings the awareness of those prayer needs to the front of my mind, even if only for a short while...until either God grows a passion for those ills of society into my heart permanently or He shifts my focus to another prayer need (and then grows a passion in my heart for one of those), and I'll pray for global poverty again the next time God uses something like Tearfund or someone like Jonah to bring it to my attention again.

I hope that doesn't sound heartless. It's meant to be an honest confession that there are always more things that need prayer than I stop to give attention to...because I'm so self-centered and busy that when I DO stop to pray, it's usually about me, and then I quickly move on to something else. What a crying shame.

ahh...harry!!

Last Saturday night, my sweet Jonah took me to see

Harry Connick, Jr.


at the Royal Albert Hall.


It was a wonderful night...and we looked pretty fabulous, but I wish I'd taken a look at this photo before we left the scene. I'm sure I could have asked another random stranger to go for "take 2" to capture a less grainy version of this Kodak moment.



Insert big girly sigh here.

i pulled a "dovie"

My company holds an annual Halloween costume/decoration competition in the Houston office. My friends in the marketing department there had a very clever idea this year...they went for a group entry as "Ceiling Fans". See image below...faces disguised to protect the innocent (or guilty, depending on how you look at it).



I decided to send a little note of acknowledgement, and it went something like this:

TO: Employees London
Subject: "ceiling fans"
Well done. Very clever!

Now...the problem is probably quite evident. I can't seem to tell the difference between typing “Employees London” and “Marketing Group” in the ‘to’ line of an email…

Naturally, I made an attempt to recall the message, and that's never really a good idea, is it? It would have been better to just let it go. Following the receipt of about a gazillion "Message recall: Failure" notes, I sent a note to those folks saying "oops!", and tried to explain...but it's like a joke gone really bad...there's just no way to recover.

All this and it's not even NOON yet. I wish someone would just send me home to start the day over.

too good not to share

I know I'm always pushing Stott-isms on you...but this one was so good I couldn't keep myself from yet another plug for my favorite theologian.

I've never heard anybody address the Kingdom in this way...

Taken directly from my daily-email-dose-of-Stott:

The Kingdom of Heaven (cont'd.)

60. Total blessing and total demand

When Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God he was not referring to the general sovereignty of God over nature and history, but to that specific rule over his own people which he himself had inaugurated, and which begins in anybody's life when he humbles himself, repents, believes, submits and is born again. God's kingdom is Jesus Christ ruling over his people in total blessing and total demand. To 'seek first' this kingdom is to desire as of first importance the spread of the reign of Jesus Christ. Such a desire will start with ourselves, until every single department of our life -- home, marriage and family, personal morality, professional life and business ethics, bank balance, tax returns, lifestyle, citizenship -- is joyfully and freely submissive to Christ. It will continue in our immediate environment, with the acceptance of evangelistic responsibility towards our relatives, colleagues, neighbours and friends. And it will also reach out in global concern for the missionary witness of the church.

--From "The Message of the Sermon on the Mount" (The Bible Speaks Today Series: Leicester and Downers Grove: IVP, 1978), p. 170.

----------------------------------------------------
--Excerpted from "Authentic Christianity", pp. 43-44, by permission of InterVarsity Press.

rugby goes to paris

2007 is a Rugby World Cup year, and the England v. Tonga match landed on Mick's birthday. Even though he had the tickets long before we met, I got to go! Yay! :)

We went. We saw. We took some piccies! There aren't as many as I would normally take, but I was so preoccupied with being the tour guide that I didn't take the time to get my camera out that often.

England beat Tonga quite legitimately, but while there are other final scores of 103-8 being put on the tally board, we couldn't agree with a fellow England fan that the England-Tonga score (36-20) meant that we "stuffed 'em".

Now, who's impressed with my incredible picture-posting speed...given my recent performance?

i don't get it

I read a excerpt of this article during my morning commute today.

It does make it sound more like family members are pressuring them than they are seeking advice from psychics themselves...but still...I'd have thought phrases "devout catholic" and "psychic advice" would never really come into contact with each other.

snapshots of ireland

A little late (as are all my picture posts these days), but here are some photos of our tour of Northern Ireland in late August.

blog roll update

Jonah has (re-)entered the blogging world! Hooray!

two things

1. Arr! I ain't believin' me own bad memory! I failed to direct all ye good folks to pay homage to Talk Like a Pirate Day yesterday, I did. What a squiffy I am.
   
   
2. Jonah told me about this monstrosity a little while ago, but I managed to put it out of my mind, until Greg reminded me. One word: UGGABUGGA!!!!

happy 25th!

It seems the smiley "emoticon" is 25 years old!

Thanks to Jonah for passing this little tidbit along.

brrr!!

YAY! Today is the first day of properly chilly autumn weather in London...so there was actual NEED for my morning latte (over and above my caffeine addiction).

Scarves are out...the air is crisp and chilly...ah, it's wonderful!

it's ridiculous...

...how cute baby Daniel is, especially in his Wagamama t-shirt!

summer photos

Well...some of them, anyway.

Here's the snapshots from the trip to Houston and LA in July.

More pictures to come soon, from the trip to Ireland. And for those of you following along, both Abby and I survived quite well. Mick might be dreaming of a holiday without either of us, but all of us arrived home safely. :)

i can't resist

...I'm totally copying this from my friend Beth.

It turns out...snails actually really are cute!!



I'm not sure I'm going to stop eating them, though.

bank holidays: no joking around

Given that I can't keep up with any of the other trips (large or small) and associated pictures that require posting for your viewing pleasure...I thought another trip away to pile on the picture-posting stress would be a good idea.

Seriously though...a(nother) trip to Ireland is around the corner! Mick and Abby and I are going to Northern Ireland for 4 days! Yes: I'm going to be on vacation with a 4 year old person. Nobody panic: I will have supervision!

What prompted me to share this bit of information with you, my dear reader, when I don't typically pre-share all of my other holiday plans? Well, because it seems the British don't kid around with their holidays, and that makes me chuckle a little bit.

Almost all my friends here and several work colleagues (total English phrase I can't not use) are all fleeing the immediate area for the bank holiday this coming Monday (thus creating a 3-day weekend trip, at the least). If some of us weren't going to other parts of the UK, I'd be nervous that there would be a mass exodus of the entire country, leaving nobody to watch the cricket matches! Oh wait...nobody watches those anyway.