Need Halloween Lunch Plans?

Friday is free Chipotle if you come in to the Chipotle restaurant dressed like a burrito. Or I think all they need to see is you wearing tinfoil in some manner. I think we finally found a use for that industrial sized box of tinfoil that'd we've been working on for 5 years.

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What should our new car be named?

Larry Boy Lorry Lolla Fred

Car buying Lessons

We've spent the past 2 weeks looking around for a new car. We finally found one and here's what we've learned.

1. Car salesmen are really desperate right now. In fact, we're on first name basis with many of them because they keep calling with new deals: especially Billy, the tattooed salesman with cool glasses. He almost had Matt convinced to become a car salesman so he could be just as cool.
   
2. It takes much more time to look at cars than we realized. It took around 20-30 minutes per car that we looked at.
   
3. Everyone has opinions about buying cars ranging from don't buy anything and keep the Jeep running...to buy something but don't go into debt over it...to buy something and who cares how much it costs. We went with the middle option.
   
4. It's a lot harder deciding on a car when there are two of you involved and you're a one car family. I didn't get my mini and Matt didn't get his hummer.
5. If you keep looking, have people praying for you, and stick to your list of things your looking for rather than your emotions...you'll eventually find something that meets almost everything you are looking for.

So what'd we get? A fun red 2004 Pontiac Vibe. So far so good...but we'll reserve our final judgment for a year or so after driving it.

The New Conspirators

About 4 months ago I read the New Conspirators, by Tom Sine and was challenged particularly in how I should respond to culture as a Christian. Since then it's been fun to read my sister's excellent impressions on the book. Recently another good friend has started reading it which has caused me to read it again....but this time take a bit more time on it.

This book in combination with Andy Crouch's new book Culture Makers, has gotten me thinking a lot about the various subtle ways I have chosen culture as a religion over God and what is my role in changing it. I feel that given today's strange economic circumstances both books are very relevant to where I and many around me are at. Specifically given that one of the main religions in American culture, "money", is now failing...it's a good reality check to think about which religion am I really buying into.

It's been interesting to listen to various responses to the economic turmoil...most of which are either of despair , avoidance or forced/shallow hope. Tom Sine writes that "The biggest lie of our modern global empire is that no God is present in the world. Of course the empire allows us to worship a God, if we choose, as long as we recognize that the God who shows up during worship and at our bible studies has little power to actually change the world. The message is clear: The world is governed by the forces of the global free market, political and economic power, and random mutations of nature-period.

In spite of this message, I am finding growing numbers of Christians who believe the God of the mustard seed empire is actively at work in our world. Our wild outrageous hope is that through the death and resurrection of Christ, our God will write the final chapter and make all things new, not just personally and spiritually but also culturally, economically and politically; he will transform every dimension of our global society."

One voice I have felt strangely absent in all this economic turmoil are Christians who still have an "outrageous hope" that God is still at work. Not a hope that God will make our economics secure again necessarily, but a hope that we are secure in God despite whatever happens in this world. It's my prayer that I can continue to believe in that hope.

Lessons learned from this past weekend....

1. When moving to a new state, it is essential to become friends with a 6 grader. That's one of the years when kids learn about state history and can fill you in on all the random fun facts about the state you now live in. For example, I now know that the capital of Wisconsin was chosen to be Madison because the legislators were bribed with buffalo coats (this must have done the bribing in winter).

2. You should never leave an ink pad on the floor open while making cards. While the floor is still ink free...my socks are not.

3. It's nicer to go car shopping on a Sunday when car dealership are closed. You can look at cars and no one will bother you!

Birthday Fun

Well, we've made it through two weeks of birthday fun (matt's was two weeks ago, and mine this past week) and we can now both officially say we are 28. I'm looking forward to being 28...I'm not really sure why but I think 28 always seemed like a cool year. We'll see if it turns out to be such.

To celebrate my birthday I finally broke down and got snowboots. I've managed to go two years in Wisconsin without them but decided that if we really are going to get the predicted 120 inches of snow this winter...it might be a worthwhile investment. We also went out and saw "Get Smart" which I have to admit has become one of my new favorite movies. Matt's still trying to figure out how I can like that movie since I'm not a huge fan of slap stick comedy. I guess it'll just be one of life's mysteries!

California Trip

Last week, we made a mad dash out to California for a dear friends wedding (all I can say is Natalie, it was about time!). Lesson's learned from this trip:

• make sure to check with your airline about flights. We thought we had checked but somehow we missed that a flight had been canceled.
• MidWest Airlines is not so friendly on the ground...after finding out that our flight was canceled, the counter help just handed us a 1-800 number and then disappeared!
• it helps to be a prefered member of a car rental place. After spending an hour on the phone with the airlines at LAX, it was nice to call the rental place and get a car within 1 minute!
• People drive crazy in LA. I had forgoten that.
• I'm grateful my parents only live 40 minutes away from the airport and don't mind two stranded kids showing up on their front porch! :) Thanks mom and dad!