Name that tune

Over the last few years our family has grown to enjoy the music of Johnny Cash. As an infant Ezra was rocked to sleep by the lullabys of Folsom Prison and Hey Porter. The stereo in our house is always playing Johnny Cash - or "Dondy Cazz" as Ezra so affectionately calls him. The Family of Blacks are fans of Cash. His music even influences the way Ezra goes "down, down down" the stairs to our backyard. Every time we get into the car and something other than Cash is playing we are reminded - "no! Dondy Cazz."

Last night we were in a fairly noisy sports bar (restaurant for the Southern Baptists) - so noisy you could barely hear the 70's, 80's and 90's mix of music playing through the house stereo. Half way through our meal Ezra's eyes brightened and he said "Dondy Cazz." I listened intently and sure enough it was none other than Mr. Cash. The interesting thing was that the song playing was not on any of the albums we own. Ezra simply recognized the vocal and musical stylings of the late, great John R. Cash. What more could a father ask of his two year old son?!

Congratulations!

Rob and Holly (my sister) are now engaged to be wed on October 7th. Congrats to you both!

Transformationalisticologizeny

I have my personalized Google page set with the "word of the day" feature. One of the words today was transmogrify. The given definition is "to transform." This is the example sentence: A washing machine transmogrified into a guitar. Why wouldn't you just use "transform?"

That's as deep as my thoughts will allow me to go today.

Southern Baptists on Alcohol

Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds has an interesting post about the new SBC resolution on alcohol. Read the post here.

Just to grab your attention I will post a quote - "...when I go home at night and close my eyes and let eternity rise in my mind I see ten million more people in hell because of legalism than because of alcoholism." Now go read it in context!

Hmm, what say ye?

Assault by a dead dog in MO.

This is another true story from the home state of Ma & Pa Black.

"A Missouri woman has been arrested for breaking into a dog breeder's home and beating her repeatedly over the head with a dead Chihuahua.

She pushed her way into the house and tried to get to the basement... but after some hair-pulling, the breeder managed to wrestle the woman out of her house. When she got outside she started hitting the breeder on the head with the dead puppy, drawing the attention of a neighbor who called police.

The woman then went back to her car but waved the dead puppy out of the car's sunroof while yelling threats at the breeder, who did not seek medical attention, police said." (read entire story)

More animal news in Missouri

Small towns have their own strange problems. In a town just south of Ma & Pa Black one of these problems occurred. I am not making this up - it is all true. My monkey-loving friend will not like this article but there are times when the truth needs to be told.

Residents of the Aspen Trace neighborhood are tired of putting up with attacks by a neighbor's pet monkey.

During the regular City Council meeting Monday, Peggy Bearden showed council members a shirt belonging to her grandson that she said was damaged by the monkey during an attack.

Trey Hardy, community redevelopment coordinator, said the city's animal ordinance addresses future would-be monkey owners but current owners are grandfathered in, although the animals must be restrained.

"She can not control that monkey -- it gets away from her," Bearden said.
(read full article)

Now that's...oh, nevermind!

I am going to stop this series on Christian Cheese for a few reasons. First of all (and unfortunately) I am running out of family friendly material. You wouldn't think that a series on evangelism would have to be censored but it does - especially since I found out that families from our church read this blog (hello Kate & Dawn). Secondly, my buddy Bryan saw the sign from yesterday and said, "...I can't read these anymore. It's like nails on a chalkboard. Let me know when this series is done." I can't disappoint him so I will post a picture of Bryan and Starbuck the dog.
Stay tuned for the next series entitled "Animals killed on roads near my parents house."

Now that's evangelism!? - pt. 9

So...let me get this straight - you CAN bypass God but it's not a good idea...so you shouldn't...or...maybe...?