Gustav's Aftermath? Not Too Bad...

...for us, anyway.

This is my pond when it was new, which was a little less than a year ago...

This is what I came home to yesterday.  The murkiness comes compliments of the sand bags we put by our French doors...

So, I drained my pond.  While doing that, our dog Roxy thought it would be a good idea to play in the murky water coming from what she must have perceived to be a magical fountain flowing from the other side of the big temple wall...

Once I got the pond drained enough to see my fish, I caught them and placed then in their new makeshift homes:  two 16-gallon containers, and a 10-gallon ice chest.  Here's Fool's Gold and Silver...

Goldilocks and Speckle...

Lil' Miss (who we think may expecting), Lil' Koi Watson, and Spot...

Explanation:  our worship leader's name is Coy Watson, and that's where we got the name for our high-dollar fish. This is what my pond looked like once it was drained...

Yuck. The junk on the bottom is marble chips in a lovely combination of marble and sand sediment with a healthy dose of leaves and fish poop. Here is it after I cleaned and pressure-washed the area...

I didn't pressure-wash the bottom, because my pond actually has a leak, and I'll finish the job when the leak is fixed.

All in all, not too bad. I'll ache tomorrow, but other than some sticks in our yard, and water in our kitchen under soaked bedroom carpet upstairs (because of an open storm window - duh...), that's it! We didn't even lose power.

Thanks to all for your prayers!

Dallas Trip, Part 1 of Many

I just arrived back in Lafayette from a trip to the Big D, and I have LOTS to post about, but we're getting ready for Gustav, and my church will serve as a shelter, so I'll be needed to help with that.

Once everything dries out, I'll hopefully have a house to come back to, and a place to sit where I can fill you in on Gustav's wake, plus all I got to do in Dallas.

Introducing the New and Improved Crossroads Creative

Well, it's finally here:  the new and improved Crossroads Creative site. It's been a long time coming, but we did it (finally). No new logo as of yet, but I got tired of waiting for us all to make up our minds. Logos are hard!!

Anyway, we have 114 pieces, some of which are actually packages, plus an interactive search. We have four product categories:

- Countdowns

- Sermon Starters (with PowerPoint title and background slides)

- Sermon Illustrations

- Video Announcements (with full-res Quick Time movies for customization)

 Check it out here and let me know what you think!

Next up on the horizon is a 50,000-piece email blast, which will start going out this week.

Saying Goodbye

Lori Ellen Belaire Booth

1967-2008

It is with great sadness that I am writing this post. One of my oldest friends, Lori Booth, passed from this life into the next this last Monday, August 11, 2008. She was a wife, and mother of two.

I've known Lori since kindergarten, and although it's been twenty years since I've had the chance to be with her for any length of time, the hole left in my heart is larger than one can imagine.

I'll always remember her sweet smile, the laughs, and her all-around love of life. It is my most sincere prayer that God would bring glory to Himself through this situation.

To all my dear friends in the AHS Class of '85, I love you and wish the very best for each and every one of you, and that includes making Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior. Please understand that I am not forcing religion on you, or making any judgments, but I simply want you to know the love that I have found through knowing Jesus, and I pray that you would come to know Him as I do.

Goodbye Lori. We will all miss you. I already do. 

Friday Funny

I found this picture yesterday on a friend's facebook page.  You write the caption...

The Olympics - and a Random Thought

OK, this post has nothing to do with anything, except perhaps how thoughts stay with us for a lifetime.

I was talking to my wife today about the Olympics (our daughters watched the Olympics all day at their grandmother's house), when I told her a deep dark secret of mine.

When I was a kid, I thought the word "gymnastics" was a dirty word, because it sounded like "nasty" to me.

Fun With Photo Booth!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I use my Mac for serious stuff - editing, writing, audio, etc, etc.

But sometimes it's fun to mess with stuff. I just took these pics while trying to come up with something cool and different for my facebook page. Which one should make the cut?

1.  The cartoonish egghead?

2. The weird wide-headed alien?

3. The double-chinned cylops?

4. Just plain headless?

It's fun to have a cool computer.