...And We're Back

Alright, let's get this thing moving again. Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post, even though you all agreed with me. I was hoping to foster some heated discussion, which I firmly believe is the best way to bring a community closer without involving balloon animals, but it seems that everyone who disagrees with me can't be bothered to express their opinions.

Either that, or I'm right.

At any rate, I appreciate the heartfelt responses and I'm glad I gave a few people a chance to vent. It bears repeating, perhaps, that I wasn't whining about the particular issues I mentioned so much as the rigidity we have around them, especially in light of the way we keep going on about how much more open-minded we are than other churches. It's not that I want us to not be rigid about anything at all; it's just that we should recognize and admit that we've decided some things that just are going to be set in stone. Every church does. It's good that churches specialize; different people need to worship in different settings. If we're going to be a church oriented towards twenty-something singles and people with similar tastes and schedules, let's just say that. Lord knows the world could use a few.

But I'm not doing another post about my church. So what else has been going on? Well, another Canadian has taken his rightful place in the Guinness Book of World Records with the world's longest nipple hair. I'll warn you: there's a picture. In other dumb news, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee just won the lottery. Makes you feel better about the economy we'll be passing down to our children, doesn't it? Oh, and speaking of Americans and debt, how about our diplomats in Britain who have racked up over a quarter of a million dollars in unpaid traffic fines? They refuse to pay on the grounds that they're exempt from taxes. Man, I wish speeding tickets counted against my income tax here too.

As for life in the Fuller household, Michelle and I just got back from a wonderful weekend in Two Harbors on the North shore of Lake Superior. I love the name of Lake Superior. "I'm not saying my cabin is better than yours, but it is on Lake Superior." If I ever discover a lake, I'm going to name it Lake Inferior. I think a body of water could pull off self-deprecation pretty well.

So yeah, Two Harbors is beautiful. We stayed in my boss's cabin, which is extremely comfortable and sits about twelve feet away from the actual lake. Unbelievable. We went up Friday night and didn't come back til Sunday afternoon. Without Toby. Yes, he stayed at Grandma's the whole weekend, and loved it (of course). For Michelle and I, it was something of a revelation to be alone together for that long. We woke up in the morning and just laid in bed. When we ate breakfast, we didn't cut any of our food into bite-sized pieces and put it on a tray to have it flung back at us. We went for walks. We sat and read. We finished sentences. Dozens of sentences, consecutively. It was weird.

But of course we were thrilled to see our Toby again, and listen to him tell us all about the fun he had with "Nana" and "Papa." He seems to learn something every time he stays with them. Today Michelle sneezed and Toby said, "bless you." We keep thinking he's going to stop getting cuter at some point, but he never does.