More Pictures from North Carolina and a Few From Sandy's Wedding

The day after Christmas Ross's dad took us downtown to the Museum of Natural History. It's right down the street from the NC state capitol building, which is the domed building you can see in the first picture.

Here are a few pics from Sandy and Alan's wedding.

Praying for Emily

From Cyrstal's blog:

I just got the call from Emily's doctor about her scan. She will go in Friday morning to drink the iodine 131 solution and then on Monday she will be scanned. It's going to be a LOOOOOOOONNNGG weekend!

If you all could be praying for Emily that would be AWESOME!

did a few sketches this weekend - kitties, of course :)

Willow Creek Community Church in the News

Evangelicals, Scientists Team Up to Battle Global Warming

By Michelle Vu
Christian Post

“Whether God created the Earth in a millisecond or whether it evolved over billions of years, the issue we agree on is that it needs to be cared for today,” said Rich Cizik, vice president of government relations for the National Association of Evangelicals, in a statement. [Click on the link in the title for the entire article.]

(Bill Hybels is briefly mentioned as one of the pastors who has signed the "Evangelical Climate Initiative")


Where God meets big business — and it's soon coming to a church near you

Tom Baldwin
The Times Online (UK)
December 27, 2006

American Evangelical Christians scare the hell out of secular Britons and, while their reputation may be unfair, it has been long in the making and is reinforced by some truth.

First came the monstrous sexual hypocrisy and fraud of Jim Bakker, then the foaming homophobia of Jerry Falwell — whose rants have included declaring Aids to be “the wrath of God” and saying that Hillary Clinton was more hated by conservative voters than Satan.

And more recently the European Left has been concerned about an American Religious Right bent on ensuring that the Book of Revelation’s apocalyptic prophecies come true through the current President’s policy on Iraq, Israel and the Middle East.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Evangelicals have a very different, but also damaging, image. The damp-palmed jeans-clad vicar who plays guitar in a Christian rock band does not scare anyone but fashion writers.

Somewhere between these two caricatures there may be an answer to the riddle about why Britain and America, nations with history, language and culture in common, have grown so far apart on religion.

That answer may just be found in Willow Creek Church, near Chicago, recently rated in a survey including 2,000 pastors as the most influential of any in America. It has grown from virtually nothing into an Evangelical megachurch with weekend congregations of 20,000, assets of $150 million (£76 million) and an annual turnover of $26 million. If that sounds like a business, that is because it is run like one: Harvard and Stanford MBA s handle the day-to-day management.

In the past decade Willow Creek has tried to export its formula to Britain and other countries through a separate $17 million-a-year association that has a branch office in Southampton. It now has 891 churches and other groups in Britain, from which almost 3,000 British delegates have attended its teaching conferences. [Click on the link in the title for the rest of the article.]

The 50 Most Influential Christians in America
The Church Report

Friday's Random Ten

1. The Eleventh Hour, Furthermore: From the Studio by Jars of Clay
2. Million Pieces, Thrive by The Newsboys
3. I May Know the Word, Tigerlily by Natalie Merchant
4. Pulling Mussels, Picadilly Collection by Squeeze
5. Michael, Franz Ferdinand by Franz Ferdinand
6. Exit, The Joshua Tree by U2
7. Magic Bus, Greatest Hits by The Who
8. Death and the Maiden, Sonate B-Dur Op. Posth. by Franz Schubert
9. Paperback Writer, The Beatles 1 by The Beatles
10. Everyone's in Love with You, Transcendental Blues by Steve Earle

Video pick of the week: Michael by Franz Ferdinand (#5). This was one of Mally's favorite songs to rock out to when he was just a wee baby. (If you haven't seen it, that kid can MOVE!)

New Years Pictures

The pictures keep rolling in. Here are some from New Years. Ross's friends Tayo, Brian and Becca came over. I accidentally won at Texas Hold 'Em. My prize was a giant bar of chocolate. Awesome!

More pictures from Raleigh

Hey everybody! More pictures from my holiday trip to North Carolina!

The Thursday after Christmas Kendell's boyfriend, Bryan, came over and Ross and I got to meet him. They make a beautiful couple!
That night Mr. Cangelosi fried up some oysters and shrimp and we made Po' Boys. It was one of the many home cooked Southern dishes I got to enjoy on my trip. (I gained 5 lbs while I was there, the food was soooo good!)
I also finally tried Sushi for the first time. I think I like black eyed peas better ;) But the Sushi wasn't bad and it was a fun experience. There at the table from right to left are Ross's mom, Brian and Autumn who went to college with Ross, Bryan and Kendell, me and Ross, and Ross's grandpa, Mr. Bates. Ross's Dad is taking the photo.
Ross's grandpa, Mr. Bates, came to town the day after Christmas. Mr. Bates is quite a renaissance man, but my favorite of his accomplishments is the coffee farming - how cool is that?!
Here I am with Ross's big brother, Brent. Brent and his wife Cindy were two of the first faces I saw in North Carolina and their kindness and hospitality put me at ease right away!

Doctor Who - Season 3 Promo

Airline employees report UFO sighting at O'Hare; FAA unconvinced

Associated Press
Published January 1, 2007, 9:48 AM CST

CHICAGO --

Call it a close encounter of the O'Hare kind.

Some airline workers reported seeing a mysterious, elliptical-shaped craft over O'Hare International Airport last fall but say their bosses and the government wouldn't take them seriously.

The Federal Aviation Administration has dismissed the reported Nov. 7 sighting by United Airlines employees as a likely weather phenomenon.

United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said there is no record of the UFO report and company officials don't recall discussing any such incident.

That doesn't sit well with the employees, who are upset that neither United nor the FAA investigated the incident.

A group of workers, including pilots, told the Chicago Tribune on condition of anonymity in remarks published Monday that they saw a dark gray, flying saucer-like object hover motionless in the sky above the United terminal around 4:30 p.m. that day.

After several minutes, the object -- described variously at 6 feet to 24 feet in diameter -- bolted noiselessly upward through thick clouds so powerfully that it left an eerie hole in the clouds.

The FAA acknowledged that a United supervisor called its air-traffic control tower at O'Hare, asking if controllers had spotted a spinning disc-shaped object. FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said no controllers saw it and a preliminary check of radar found nothing out of the ordinary.

"Our theory on this is that it was a weather phenomenon," she said. "That night was a perfect atmospheric condition in terms of low (cloud) ceiling and a lot of airport lights. When the lights shine up into the clouds, sometimes you can see funny things."

Funny is just how some controllers in the tower view the incident.

"To fly 7 million light years to O'Hare and then have to turn around and go home because your gate was occupied is simply unacceptable," said O'Hare controller and union official Craig Burzych.

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