Saturday, December 20, 2008

Saturday, December 13, 2008

White Elephant Party

This is your early reminder of our upcoming annual CG Christmas party, at Ross and Rachel’s house, on Friday, December 19th. Socializing will begin around 7:45, but the actual event may not start until closer to 9, to allow for our Southland Singers to arrive from the Friday night service. (This bodes well for all you late arrivals!).

The basic plan is for use to have a variety of Christmas snacks, a showing of the cartoon version of the Grinch, and a white elephant gift exchange. The basic rules of the White Elephant exchange is that everyone should bring a gift (of approx 10 dollars in value). It can be a nice gift, a gag gift, or a combination of both. (In recent years, the combination gifts have brought the most entertainment value. I seem to remember it rather interesting to watch people fight over a tacky gold purse to get the Starbucks card inside). Gabe will explain the rules the night of the party, but the brief version is, we all draw numbers, we draw a gift at our number, 2 exchanges can occur during each turn, Number 1 gets to also exchange last (so good number to have!). And Gabe often has an extra gift for the person who is deemed to have the most pitiful gift.

Monday, November 17, 2008

CG Thanksgiving Potluck -Friday 11-21

Event Info
Host: CG

Date:Friday, November 21, 2008
Time: 6:30pm - 10:30pm

Location:
Ross and Rachel's House

Join us for our annual Thanksgiving Potluck, Friday, the 21st at 6:30 PM at the home of Ross and Rachel. So far on the menu: meat, chicken casserole, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, Deviled Eggs, apple pie, and pumpkin pie. Other items needed will include drinks, side dishes, and desserts.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

God's beauty



Just a reminder that we are meeting this Friday for a regular CG.







In the meantime, I thought you
might enjoy some of God's nature pictures captured at the Gorge this weekend.



Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Pumpkin carving


Time for our annual pumpkin carving event this Friday. Bring your pumkins, and perhaps we can put some photos on the site, and "vote" for our favorites!


Visit to Pachuca


Jerri and I had a wonderful trip to Pachuca. I loved getting to see people I connected with on the mission trip this summer! Just wanted to share a couple of photos! The food was fantabulous!!!










A view of pachuca!!!












Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Gabe in the Philippines

Greetings Friends!



After our ordeal in Houston, I have continued on to the Philippines. OK, this may seem petty to those wealthy world-travelers among us, but I had my intial Frist-Class experience! Here are the first two courses of a 5 course (maybe more) meal.



Everything you have seen in the movies is true, from the hot towels, to the larger bathrooms to fully-reclining seats which helps on a 15 hour flight. Next, the hotel is rather spectacular. Not quite Disney, but inpressive in its own way. Here is the building of my room.



Here is the view across the 5+ acre saltwater swimming pool. There are 3-4 other swimming pools plus a coral reef, spa, fishing pond, lots of activities for kids, 4 restaurants, a private beach, scuba . . . I wish my family was here to enjoy the experience. I don't, however, wish to attempt a 30 hour travel experience with two small boys. Here is a satellite view:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=10.261457,123.983803&spn=0.002513,0.005472&t=k&z=18

More updates later, or see you at Connection Group!

Gabe

Knowles Family Update

Friends,

First, thanks to all of you for your prayers and encouragement over the past week. The chaos should be over now. To review:

I had a work trip to Chihuahua, Mexico and Cebu, Philippines scheduled September 11-26. Rather than leave Kristin and the boys at home, we scheduled a trip to Houston September 10-18 where Kristin's sister and family live (Tim, Jennifer, Zachary, and Jacob Roth). I was on the same flight as Kristin, Nate, and Nick, but they were scheudled to come home alone. I purchased the tickets on Priceline, so the flight was routed through Chicago as opposed to direct as we had hoped.

Watching the weather days before we left, we observed Hurricane Ike cross the Carribean into the Gulf of Mexico. First, some brief hurricane background: Hurricane Rita hit the Texas / Louisiana coast in 2005, less than 2 weeks after Katrina hit New Orleans. People feared the worst after what happened to New Orleans, so all of Houston evacuated. Interstates were jammed, people ran out of gas just sitting in traffic. At the last moment, Rita turned north. Houston recieved about 1/2 inch of rain.

The day we left Lexington, Ike was forecasted to make landfall near the Texas / Mexico border, so we saw no reason to alter our plans. However, the next day, Ike was forecasted to hit just south of Houston. Fearing the airports would be closed on my scheduled return day, I postponed my trip to Chihuahua (sorry Lexmark). That decision turned out to be a good one, as Ike made a direct hit on Houston and I would have been stuck in Chihuahua for at least 3 more days and would have missed my flight to the Philippines.

The day before Ike hit Houston, we boarded up the Roth's house and move to Tim's church which turned out to be an ideal location. Ike made a direct hit on Houston. Winds reached 112 mph downtown which is about 30 miles inland from Glaveston. 2.4 of Houston's 2.5 million households lost power. Power wa not expected for up to 4 weeks, so we relocated to Kristin's cousin's home in San Antonio, about 3 hours west.

I rearranged my trip to the Philippines to depart from San Antonio on Monday.\

I'm in the Philippines now and Kristin should be in Lexington any moment.


Nate and his cousin Zachary observe Ike's devastation on their playground.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Upcoming events

We are currently looking at our Fall CG schedule. Here is the finalized version

September 19 – CG-Held at Gabe and Kristin’s house; Jerri scheduled to lead (most likely)
October 3 –CG- Held at Bethany and Rod’s new house?, Game night for those not going to Cedar Point hosted by Robert.
October 17 – CG as Nate's 2nd b-day party at Gabe and Kristin’s house.
**October 24 - CG - (Gabe out of town) –Leader unknown, Annual Pumpkin carving event, Return to Ross and Rachel’s house
November 7 - CG - (Gabe out of town)- Leader?, Ross and Rachel’s house
November 21 - CG - Thanksgiving potluck, Ross and Rachel’s house
December 5 - CG – Regular CG, teacher to be announced, Ross and Rachel’s house
December 19 - CG - White Elephant Party, Ross and Rachel’s house
December 31 - CG - New Year's eve party? Location and event undecided at this time

**-where CG shifts by one week

Monday, August 18, 2008

getting my bearings....

Just a few words to post now that I am getting my bearings in Roanoke. It is a spread out place, with 90,000 people in the city and supposedly 130,000 in the greater area. it's very much a "valley town", deep in a mountain valley of the Appalachians. It's a beautiful place, especially up in the hills overlooking it all.

I temporarily live in an area which I think would best be described as "old money", ( some may say, "overpriced" - Jeremy Miller for example !! ) with large old homes, very little automobile traffic, and quiet tree lined neighborhoods. In a word, idyllic. The homes are almost every one, very well kept and one block away is a corner Pharmacy, 1938 Grocery store ( "Tinnells"), post office, three restaurants, and two main stream denomination churches ( First Presbyterian which is a beautiful and quaint old stone church - look it up on Google Earth - WOW ! - and a more modern United Methodist Church that would be very much at home in Wilmore ). I walk almost every night, and have discovered something new almost every day. There is a large park with a river / stream / creek running through it, just two blocks away also ( Smith Park ) and lots of people walk and jog beside the water ( presumably hospital affiliated employees, as there is a shiny new Carilion hospital nearby also ). I saw several fish that looked like trout there, and while there was the usual bleach bottle and styrofoam detritus that one would expect in an urbanized stream, there was also evidence of an active and ongoing cleanup and beautification effort as well.

I think that's enough for now. I hope to get better with my new digital camera, as I get more time and more deeply established here, perhaps I will try to post some photos.

see y'all.....

sg

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Scott's Transatlantic Opulence Experience

The following is an email blurb from "Scott Garbonzo" that is worth reproducing here [it has been lightly redacted/edited to protect the guilty & to comply with federal law]:

"I was in awe.

My return cross Atlantic trip from Frankfurt to Newark was going to occur in opulence and luxury in a 21st century, Boeing 767 wonder world of self indulgence.

Not only had I scored a Business Class Fully Reclining Seat with Frequent Flyer Miles, I had also garnered the coveted Seat 1D location.

Center Aisle. Bulkhead. Maximum leg room, maximum space from other passengers.

I witnessed a veritable parade of culinary delights, a non stop express of epicurean pleasures dancing across my palate. Curry chicken, tomato egg plant legumes, a demitasse of piquant chili soup, chive coucous, made-to-order gourmet ice cream dishes, fluffy pastries, exotic chocolates, and of course, the coveted steaming wet hot towels on tongs.... I got tired of saying "Thank you" to the subservient flight attendants. I kept waiting for one of them to ask me if I'd like someone to read me a bed time story, or massage my feet.

Skimming through both the Financial Times AND the Wall Street Journal, with a mind boggling myriad of video and audio entertainment choices at my fingertips, I pondered, nibbling my warm macadamia nut and white chocolate chunk cookie, while sipping cold milk....HOW did I score THIS ?

Suddenly a shooting pain occurred in my right foot.

Something was in my shoe....bothering my big toe....

Stuck in my shoe, was a small Eurodollar coin...

AND THEN, I REMEMBERED...

This trip, I was prepared !

I was ready !

The coin was actually my 100% guarantee of success while parasitically sucking perks off the airlines.

What was it, you ask ?

Why, it was my.....

ST. JASON THE MUNIFICENT, PATRON SAINT OF FREQUENT FLIERS, LUCKY EURODOLLAR MEDALLION ( Copyright 2008 and all patents pending ) !!!!!

That's right, thanks to my paying homage to St. Jason, I had scored BIG benefits against those greedy major airlines.

The magical image of St. Jason the Munificent had once again worked it's powers in the computers of the Airlines, and they were helpless to do ANYTHING against me ! Just carrying the coin in my shoe was my assurance against any and all threats against my Frequent Flyer status, and provided that added edge I really needed to get that fabulous 1D Center Aisle Bulkhead seat. And I will be relishing these memories for years to come....

IF YOU TOO WANT THAT KIND OF EDGE WHEN YOU TRAVEL, TO OBTAIN A ST JASON THE MUNIFICENT LUCKY FREQUENT FLYER EURODOLLAR MEDALLION, JUST FORWARD THIS EMAIL ON TO TEN FRIENDS, ACQUAINTANCES, OR FAMILY MEMBERS, TEAR UP YOUR LATEST PAPER FREQUENT FLYER MILES MONTHLY STATEMENT FROM A MAJOR AIRLINE, AND THROW THE SHREDDED SCRAPS OVER YOUR RIGHT SHOULDER, THEN IMMEDIATELY ( DO NOT DELAY ! ) CALL COLE INDUSTRIES NIGERIAN SUBSIDIARY EXECUTIVE HOTLINE ( ) OR EMAIL () AND REQUEST A MEDALLION OF YOUR VERY OWN. REMEMBER, ALL REQUESTS MUST BE MADE WITH A VALID US CREDIT CARD OR FULL BANK ACCOUNT INFORMATION TO THE ATTENTION OF MR. JASON COLE. ACCOUNTS WILL BE DEBITED A SMALL NOMINAL FEE* FOR YOUR ORDER OF COURSE. LIMIT ONE ORDER PER HOUSEHOLD. THIS OFFER MAY BE NULL AND VOID IN CERTAIN NORTH AMERICAN, EU, ASIAN, CARIBBEAN, AFRICAN, SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICAN, MIDDLE EASTERN, ANTARCTIC, MICRONESIAN OR OTHER PACIFIC COUNTRIES WHERE LEGAL ACTIONS AND/OR FRAUD PROCEEDINGS ARE PENDING OR THREATENED AGAINST MR.COLE OR COLE INDUSTRIES, (very) LLC.

:)
------------------------------------
* The nominal fee varies by location, and local currency exchange rates. Additional surcharges for shipping, handling, and escrow may apply for wire transfers or other complicated transactions through Swiss or Nigerian accounts.
------------------------------------
Cole Industries, LLC, which markets and distributes the "St. Jason the Munificent, Patron Saint of Frequent Fliers Lucky Eurodollar Medallion" (SJMPSOFFLEM), is a division of Discospock.com, with offices conveniently located in Port Quagmire in the island of Lower Flemish Equatorial Tasmania. Cole Industries, LLC, notes that Mr. Gard is not a duly authorised, official spokesperson for the SJMPSOFFLEM product, but we welcome the free advertising. Cole Industries, LLC, is delighted that our SJMPSOFFLEM product made Mr. Gard's flight a truly opulent experience he will never forget. It is clear that his Total Flight Experience would have been horrifying had he not purchased and properly used the SJMPSOFFLEM. We have reports from customers who purchased an SJMPSOFFLEM, but because they failed to bring it with them on a flight: (1) were immediately killed in a horrid plane crash and subsequent fire; (2) were executed or immolated by terrorists in Business Class; (3) committed suicide mid-flight by jumping to their deaths through an opened exit door (most likely due to the horrid food served in Economy Class); (4) were assigned seats next to Guiness-Record-holding largest humans; or (5) were unnecessarily hassled by ticket agents who ultimately placed them in the cargo hold for involuntary transport to their final destination. In one instance, the passengers who forgot their SJMPSOFFLEM and who were placed in the cargo hold of an Air Pakistan flight were inadvertently misrouted to Greenland. Their bodies were never recovered.

Cole Industries, LLC, does not recommend placing the SJMPSOFFLEM into checked baggage as its effectiveness may be significantly reduced. Certain unknown chemical compounds emitted and synthesized by the SJMPSOFFLEM have been known to cause cancer in the state of California. In the event that an SJMPSOFFLEM product is accidentally swallowed, it is recommended that the victim be humanely euthanised as soon as possible before The Abomination occurs.

Due to extremely high call volume and high demand for this product, only one per customer per household per country will be allowed at this time. Various litigation and regional shipping disruptions may delay receipt of your SJMPSOFFLEM for up to 90 days. We are working with our Nigerian suppliers and Bulgarian zinc-gold platers to remedy this situation. For your convenience we offer same-year shipping. Operators are standing by to take your money.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Fri. 8/8 CG - EVENT

For security reasons I cannot elaborate on the details, BUT it is very important that everyone (esp. core attendees in the last few years) attend the CG on Fri. 8/8/2008. This CG will be at Gabe & Kristin's house. This will be a celebration of sorts. I can neither confirm nor deny the possibility of dancing or 'general cavorting'.

My Accident

Ok, I have finally accepted the invitation to join this exponentially-expanding blog. I appreciate everyone's patience whilst I get used to this new-fangled technology *and* deal with the aftermath of my bike accident (yea verily, I was hit by an inattentive driver who decided to exit a driveway without stopping at the end before entering traffic!). I will post more as I have the relevant inspiration to do so, the copyright permissions, and approval from my market people, etc.

Those Nice People at Kroger

will give you a $.04 (yes that is four cents) discount when you take your own bag. Now I'm not sure if that is for each bag or for all of them as I only had one bag and didn't ask the cashier. She was already looking at me kind of weird anyway. I guess that's what happens when you buy 3 Lean Cuisines, 2 different kinds of mints, and a pint of peanut butter-chocolate ice cream. Thanks to Nancy's handy-dandy calculator, I did figure out that it will take another 50 trips to Kroger until I break even on the $1.99 I spent on my grocery bag.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Finally figured this out?

Geez, I finally think I've managed how to write my two cents worth on this page. I'm not too good at this stuff, but on occasion, as Nancy so kindly puts it, I try to move into the new millenium. =) Anyway, I wish I were asleep, but since this baby is making my legs restless, I'm here awake trying to figure this out and now I have! Now what do I want to say? Well, I'm looking forward to being at CG next week and we had a good time at Cedar Point last weekend. The ferris wheel is a great ride! We (mostly Ross, but he did let me help) carpeted the baby's room this week and he's been busy fixing a bunch of stuff up around the house for before this kid comes. Okay, that's all for now and hope you all enjoy your Sunday tomorrow!

Friday, July 18, 2008

Possible water mania event Aug 10th

Ok, I do hope for the blog to contain more fun stuff than just a repeat of the email that went out, but it seems handy to post the events to the blog too, in case someone loses an email!

Jason had the wonderful idea of a CG day to the water park (The Beach) in Cincy for Aug 10th. He asked me to send this out to see if there was interest in scheduling such an event. It is Rubber Duck Regatta adult admission special price on Aug. 10 (9a - 9p): $12. (I am not sure what this exactly entails, and if we have to bring rubber ducks or what. But, Jason can also get us a pretty similar rate as a group rate from Lexmark if we have a group of 10 or more. If not, general admission runs about $17 dollars.).

If you think you would be interested in a day at the water park or just hanging out with a bunch of wet, waterlogged people, email me or Jason. We can plan out the details closer to the event when we have a head count idea.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Mantinee movie-Sat July 19

Hi all,

A group of us will be going to see the movie "Mamma Mia" on Sat, July 19th at 12:30 at Lexington Green. Lexington Green is only $3 for the matinee! If you think you might be joining us, please email Nancy or Jackie so we will be looking for you in the lobby. We will be there around 12:20 or so.


Hope to see you there!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

CG Friday July 11

Hey everyone,

Gabe and Kristin will be hosting our regularly scheduled Connection Group this Friday (July 11), beginning around 7:30 ish (heavy emphasis on the ish!) Ideally, we want to begin by 8:00! Jerri will be leading the group, with an informal discussion similar to the talk she gave in Spanish in Mexico! (I promise, this one will be in English!!!!) We might be able to share a few of our pictures from our trip to Pachuca as well, on that ginormous TV of Gabe’s. (Again, I promise not to subject you to all 1800 photos that Rustin took!!!)

As always, feel free to bring something to snack on. Friends are most certainly welcome as well.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Summer Event

Maria, Jackie and I will be driving up to the Newport Aquarium on Saturday, July 26th. Right now they have a special frog exhibit. There's a joke there, but I can't think of one right now. We will tour the aquarium and then have a yummy dinner somewhere nearby. If anyone is interested in joining us, please let me know by Wednesday, July 23rd so we can make driving arrangements.

Our plan now is to leave Versailles around 10 am, which will get us to the aquarium around 11:30. The tour lasts a couple of hours and then we will be having a late lunch/early dinner (probably somewhere around the Newport Levee but that is up for discussion). Then we will head back to Versailles.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Random statements made at the June 13th CG

the table of spite and the testosterone couch

"He who uses a dull tool is a fool!"

Pockets of Holy

Soul proprietor (somebody thought this would make a great name for a Christian rock band)

"We don't heal people, we just send them home with pills and bills."

"Cynical & jaded" "Those are two very good words."

How fun is this?!!!

I just wanted to say that I think this could be great fun! I do have something to post here but must have left it at the house (yes, I am at work right now) so I will have to post it later.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Whirled Peas

CG Friends,


Here goes - my first blog post ever! Kristin let me sleep last night, so I am functional today. Thanks to "Too much free time" Nancy for starting this blog. Now we need twitter, frappr, flipper, nipper, zipper, clipper, and whatever other functionality is available! Oh yeah, it has to be iPhone compatible too!


And finally, a shout out to Maria for leading Connection Group. Soon she will dominate teaching! Note that teachers, in addition to Nurses, are hot, making Maria doubly hot.
Of course, I have to upload pictures of my kids!


Sunday, June 29, 2008

Current CG news

At our CG meeting this past Friday, Maria led us in a discussion of the vine, branches, and gardner. We also talked about what had been happening during everyone's week. It had been a busy week, with people returning home from a mission trip to Pachuca, others buying and selling houses, job searches, and hair-cuts. Oh, and the newest member of CG -Nick Knowles, attending at 5 days old!!

Saturday, June 28, 2008

1st CG post

Well, at CG last night, several people discussed the idea of a CG blog. So, here it goes....