Bustin' Out the Grill

Thanks to the oncoming spring weather, we decided to wheel out the grill tonight for the first time this year. I love grilling season - with just a little practice you can get all kinds of easy and delicious meals while enjoying the weather and proving your manliness. Tonight we tried out a new recipe - barbecued jerk chicken wraps. Our goal was to recreate April's favorite meal from the dining halls of Virginia Tech. The Biewengas were so kind as to bring us back some jerk rub and sauce from their recent trip to Jamaica that I used on the chicken. I also cooked some Spanish rice and sautéed some peppers and onions to complete the wrap. I'd say the results were quite delicious!

Philly Cleanup

One of the first things that April and I noticed when we moved here to Philadelphia was how dirty the city is in general. We had never really lived in an urban setting, so maybe it's something that's seen in every city, but we were shocked to see how much trash blows around the streets. Even more shocking to me were the many times we would see people blatantly drop a Tastykake wrapper, an empty bottle, or a Dunkin Donuts cup that they were finished with. I remember being reprimanded many times growing up by my dad for leaving trash and wrappers around the house, so I can't even imagine doing something like that now.

Michael Nutter (mayor of Philadelphia for a couple of months now) is kicking off his pledge to clean up Philly by having a clean up day on April 5th. They are looking for volunteers to clean up many streets, parks, and public places. April and I will be going out with some friends to clean up the beautiful Wissahickon park which is just down the street from us. If you're around Philly and are free that morning, consider taking some time to make the city a more pleasant and livable place. Check out the link below for details and to sign up.

PBS and Philadelphia, do those two really go together?

Growing up we never had cable in my house other than the basic 12 channels, NBC, CBS, ABC, and then there was PBS. I watched a lot of PBS. I'm not ashamed to admit that I would watch Arthur every afternoon when I came home from high school or the fact that my dad would turn on the Lawrence Welk show at least once every Saturday night and I would often find myself enjoying Mr. Welk as he sang his little heart out to the camera.
I write about this because tonight I watched "The Philly Food Show" on Philadelphia's PBS channel. Of course it was part of a donation drive, which it feels like PBS is always doing, however it was an all around enjoyable experience. It took me back to the days of my childhood when I would watch North Carolina now with my dad. I did notice a few differences between the days of yesterday and today, for one North Carolina accents are far better than Pennsylvania/New Jersey ones (at least in my opinion) and of course I disagree completely with the idea that TastyKakes are even remotely comparable to the amazing taste of MoonPies :). Nonetheless with all the lameness of the recent writer's strike I really respect and appreciate what PBS is doing .

Passion: DC

This past weekend, April and I went down to Northern VA for the Passion regional conference that was held at George Mason University's Patriot Center. Passion is a movement of college students around the world for the glory of God on college campuses. We took four students from our church down there for what turned out to be a fun and exhausting weekend.

We left Philly at about 2:30 on Friday. We had our biggest snowstorm of the winter the night before, leaving a couple of inches of snow on the roads. April and I were a little afraid that the trip down there would be painful when considering a typical Friday afternoon rush combined with bad driving weather, but we made great time and arrived in plenty of time to register and get dinner before the conference started.

I took the guys to go sleep at my good friend Micah and his lovely wife Jess's apartment Friday night. We had some Ting soda, got a little sleep, did some Gospelrobics, then were treated to a feast of a breakfast the next morning including eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, grits (none for me though - I don't know why people like that stuff), fruit, and coffee. Micah is undoubtedly one of the most generous people I've ever met, and it was a blessing to be able to hang out with him for a while and experience some true hospitality from him and his wife.

The conference itself was a bit overwhelming (we spent about 10 of the 30 hours we were in Virginia inside the Patriot Center), but inspiring and significant for everybody. We prayed, sang, danced a little bit, and heard some great stories and encouraging words about living fully in God's love and plan for us. For me, it was a much needed opportunity to meet with God and hear encouragement from him about my life.

We got back to Philly at about 2:30am Sunday, and I had to get up at 7 to be at church on time that morning, so I pretty much slept the whole day Sunday, waking up just long enough to fix the headlights on my car (which both somehow managed to burn out this weekend, forcing me to drive around with my brights on at night and anger countless motorists) and go to ShopRite for groceries. Although it was an exhausting weekend, there is nothing like the fun of a road trip and the joy of getting to know people better and experience intimacy with God together.

Some photos from our trip:


The students in our group.













April and I at one of the sessions.
















A view of the stage during worship.

Interesting Article

I found this article over the weekend and it really had a profound effect on my thinking. The author is Shane Claiborne, a pastor who founded The Simple Way community in Philadelphia, he's a very insightful radical man who challenges a lot of our stereotypes a/b the urban community and our beliefs a/b Jesus. Check it out here.

To be honest the idea of stepping in cow manure is grotesque to me, I mean I often wonder how I'll change my kid's diapers one day, so it got me thinking how loving and humble our God must be to send his one and only son to this "Stank Manger." How amazing must he be to love people like me, who think so highly of themselves they're afraid of getting their feet a little dirty.

MLK Jr. Weekend

I had off this past Monday, so Nic decided to join me in taking the day off himself (floating holidays are a true blessing) and I must say we fully enjoyed our long weekend. Friday night we went over to a friend's house from Dream Camp for a game night, we enjoyed a way fun game of Taboo and numerous tears from laughing so hard. Saturday we did some shopping and overall took it easy. Sunday I caught up with some of my friends from college, who were in the process of driving cross country from Virginia to San Francisco, it was so fun to talk to them and it makes me realize how valuable friendship really is. Sunday night was our "Wii Like to Party" night and we realized that some of our friends really get into their Wii Sports, Wii boxing for some is like taking a cardioboxing fitness class at the YMCA, if you haven't seen people Wii box yet you're definitely in for a treat. Monday Nic played in a "Playing for the King " MLK Jr. Basketball Tournament (see the picture) at a Baptist Church in Southwest Philadelphia, unfortunately his team lost but it was a fun time none the loss. I sat on the sideline cheering them on along with the other wives and girlfriends, conveniently located next to the portable heaters. It was hard to go back to work on Tuesday, I think I could definitely get accustomed to a 4-day work week. But nonetheless it's back to the cube farm for the both of us, more updates to come soon.

2008 Update

After a long and awesome week in Cincinnati, Nic & I made the drive back across a couple of states to Philadelphia. Cincinnati was amazing, we got to see friends we hadn't seen since last Thanksgiving (2006) and hang out with the super cool Uebel family. A couple of our friends had gotten engaged in the past few months so I got to see some new bling too (well done to both the Reuter boys). Nic's parents gave us $ to purchase a new bed/mattress & I don't think I could ever have asked for anything better. We put everything together this afternoon & our bedroom now looks like a furniture showroom. We were truly grateful for their thoughtfulness and generosity and upgrading to a queen bed after a year and a half in a full is like sleeping at the Hilton every night for us now.

We started out New Year's Eve at a performance by Stomp (Nic's Christmas present from me). These performers are truly amazing and can carry a beat 10,000 times better than I can with what seemed like every object known to man. Nic was so inspired by the performance that he was quite the human beat box over the next several days. We finished up the evening with the Biewengas; it was a pretty low key evening at their apartment, but a super fun one. I know sometimes I tend to rant a/b how much I don't like Philadelphia, but the Biewengas are certainly one thing I truly love about Philadelphia, I can't imagine having better neighbors or medical advisors =).
Nic & I are looking forward to what this new year will bring. We'll be sure to keep you posted as it all unfolds before us!