Merry Christmas ACLU

The other day when driving through my neighborhood, I noticed the sign to the left in the front yard of one of my neighbors. After I saw this I had to get a photo of it as I really like the message and got a good laugh.

For those of you who don’t know, the ACLU stands for the American Civil Liberties Union. According to their website, the ACLU is our nation's guardian of liberty. We work daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Our job is to conserve America's original civic values: the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

On the surface it sounds like a good idea, but unfortunately that organization has morphed into something out of control. The ACLU is better known as an organization that has an anti-Christian agenda and has helped bring lawsuits that have done the following:

• The removing nativity scenes from public property
• Banning songs such as Silent Night from schools
• Refusing to allow students to write about the Christian aspect of Christmas in school projects
• Forcing schools to rename Christmas break Winter break
• Refusing to allow a city sponsored Christmas parade to be called a Christmas parade
• Not allowing a Christmas tree in a public school
• Forcing the renaming of a Christmas tree displayed on public property a Holiday tree

In addition to their war on Christmas, the ACLU has also tried to:

• Censor student led prayer at graduation
• Remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance
• Remove "In God We Trust" on our currency

I do not think that this is what our founding fathers had in mind when they talked about separation of church and state. This is one of the reasons we don’t send our children to public schools. God has been removed from our public school systems.

Last week a co-worker sent me an email that contained the above comic that I thought was very funny. However, it really isn’t funny in the sense that it is sad to think that this is what our society has come to.

So to you ACLU I send you very big Merry CHRISTmas message!!

Buck #2

As I previously noted, last year I was not successful in getting a deer during hunting season. Well this year I got my 2nd buck in 3 years of hunting. Again, I was hunting on Aunt Marilyn’s property with my friend Jeff.

When I saw the deer, I couldn’t tell if it was a doe or a small buck, but that didn’t matter. I took 1 shot and it took off running. I took a 2nd shot while it was on the run, and I could see that it fell down.

When I walked up to the deer, I was surprised at how small it was. I jokingly thought that I had shot a large German Shepherd. It was much smaller than the one I got 2 years ago. It didn’t have any visible antlers, just two small button nubs on its head. It was a very small antlerless buck. I didn’t even bother to take photo of it as I didn’t think it would be very manly to take a photo with a puny buck like this.

Yesterday I got my processed deer back from the butcher shop. There were only 3 grocery bags of meat. My previous deer filled up about 7 or 8 bags. Since I didn’t get a photo of the actual un-butchered buck, I decided to spread the packaged venison meat on the garage floor and take a photo of my bounty. The photo above left, shows the amount of meat generated by a 1st year buck.

Today for lunch, I grilled some venison steaks for myself, Gannon, Grant and Gibson. Christie isn't quite ready to eat deer meat yet, but she will come around. Although the thermometer said it was 19 degrees, I cooked the venison on the grill outside. (see photo above) Who says it has to be summer to grill outside? All of us agreed that the venison steaks were awesome. Hungry?

I’m 14,245 days old!

Today I hit one of those milestone points in life. I turned 39 years old. 39 years old seems to be a pretty popular age as I know that many older and middle-aged men and women like to lightheartedly say “39” when asked how old they are. I don’t feel 39 years old and I really don’t think I look 39….do I?

I’ve never been one to make a big deal out of birthdays. I mean once you turn 21, there really isn’t a reason to make a big deal out of it except for the fact that you’ve made it another year. I know some people make a big deal about birthdays and get upset if someone doesn’t send them a card or doesn’t call them. I’m not one of them.

Not that I don’t enjoy getting a card or phone call, it’s just that I don’t get upset if people don’t acknowledge it. I’m sure I’ll get a telephone call from my mother and sister Viki to sing Happy Birthday to me. I do look forward to those calls.

After work Christie and the boys took me to Applebee’s for my birthday dinner. I had the teriyaki steak and coconut shrimp combo….yum. After that we went shopping for a few minutes at the mall. I’m not much of a cake fan, so instead of a birthday cake, on the way home from the mall we stopped at Fazoli’s to get a few slices of cheesecake instead of a birthday cake.

According to the http://calendarhome.com website, 341,880 hours, 20,512,800 minutes and 1,230,768,000 seconds have passed between today, December 1, 2005 and the day I was born on December 1, 1966.

According to Scientific American, the average life expectancy of male living in the United States is 74.7 years. I’m more than half way there. So assuming that I’m normal (I’m not!), I have about 13,200 days left to live. I plan to make the most of them.

Soccer.....I mean football......

I used to be one of those individuals who thought soccer or football as the rest of the world knows it was a boring sport. I just couldn’t understand why it was the world’s most popular sport. However over the past year, my attitude about soccer has changed…..drastically!!

Now I enjoy watching soccer games, especially at the highest levels. My attitude began to change when my boys started playing soccer. Grant has been playing soccer for about 3 years and Gibson played for the first time last year. I was the assistant coach for their soccer team this year. To be honest soccer at this level isn’t that exciting to watch. It is basically a mass of youngsters chasing the ball around the field. The skill level just isn’t there. (Although in the playoffs, Grant almost made a header goal!)

This year Gannon played soccer for the first time for the Lakeview Christian School Junior High team. After watching a few of his games, I realized that as the skill levels of the players increased, so did my enjoyment of the games. I was finally hooked when I saw the Lakeview varsity soccer team play Blackford in a high school sectional game. The action was fast-paced and quite exciting. I also attended an Indiana Wesleyan University men’s soccer game and was really impressed with the skills of the players.

Grant is the one that really likes soccer. We get the Fox Soccer Channel, and he is always watching soccer games from around the world including the English Premier League. His favorite team is Chelsea. Next year Grant will attend Lakeview and he will be on the Junior High team and Gannon will move up to varsity since he will be a freshman. I’m already looking forward to soccer season.

It's Official.....Colts are my NFL team.....

It’s now official. My NFL team is now the Indianapolis Colts. Having spent most of my life growing up in Michigan, I’ve had the misfortune of having the Detroit Lions as my NFL team. Over the years I’ve probably attended about 15-20 Lions games; all at the Silverdome. As any long-suffering Lions fan knows, there have been very few great Lion moments over the past 30-some years. There were some bright spots like a few playoff appearances, the occasional Thanksgiving Day victory and of course the Barry Sanders era, but that was about it.

In my lifetime, I have watched 3 of the Detroit professional teams claim a league championship: Red Wings (1997, 1998, and 2002), Tigers (1984) and Pistons (1989, 1990 and 2004). The Lions have never won a Super Bowl nor have they ever played in a Super Bowl. Over the years one of their biggest problems is that they have never had a quality quarterback that was a leader. The list of Lion QB hopefuls that never panned out is endless…..Chuck Long, Andre Ware, Scott Mitchell, Rodney Peete, Charlie Batch, Mike McMahon, Charlie Batch, Joey Harrington…are some that come to mind.

Since moving to Indiana in 2000, I have followed the Indianapolis Colts and I have been to about 4 or 5 of their games. While doing this, I always kept a close tab on what the Lions were doing and I rooted for them. But now, I have jumped on the Colts bandwagon!

How can you not love a team that has Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison and Edgerrin James? Manning is the QB that the Lions wished they would have had all those years. He is an amazing QB and leader on the field. The Colts are already 10-0 and appear ready to claim a Super Bowl XL title, which ironically will be played at Ford Field, home of the Lions.

I haven’t completely given up on the Lions, and I’m sure that I’ll jump back on their bandwagon once they ever get a decent team again, but for now it’s the Colts baby!!!

My First Buck

It’s that time of the year again….deer hunting season. Deer hunting has become one of my favorite hobbies. As a child growing up in Michigan, I occasionally went hunting with my father. I’ve hunted duck, geese, pheasant, and rabbits but I never went deer hunting with him. His deer hunting trips consisted of a week with his buddies in northern Michigan or the UP (Upper Peninsula for non-Michiganders). Deer season took place during the school year and I couldn’t take a week off of school to go hunting. Plus, I never thought deer hunting would be that much fun anyway. I was content with plinking squirrels and black birds from my 2nd floor bedroom window with a .22 rifle.

Fast forward 20 some years…….I first went deer hunting with my buddy Jeff Whetzel in 2003 and now I’m hooked. Christie’s Aunt Marilyn has about 10 acres of wooded property behind her home here in Marion. Appropriately, Deer Creek flows through the property.

On the first day of the season I took a shot at a doe and missed. I saw a few more deer during the next several days and finally on the last day of the season my luck changed. As daylight was fading that Sunday afternoon, I big 8 point buck came walking up the trail below my deer blind. The adrenaline rush that hits you when you see a big buck is something that you have to experience to properly describe. My heart immediately began to beat hard and fast. (I now know why some deer hunters have heart attacks while hunting).

I drew my gun on the big buck waiting for the perfect shot. The deer looked up towards me and I pulled the trigger. Blam! He dropped like a brick. I could not contain my excitement. I remember yelling, “jackpot!” Why I said “jackpot” is beyond me as it is a pretty silly thing to yell out. Anyway, I ran down the hill to view my kill. Jeff came running over from his blind to see the fruits of my labor.

I shot the deer, just below its right eye. I was aiming for his chest. Lucky shot perhaps, but a kill is a kill. Ever since that day in 2003, I’ve been hooked on deer hunting. Last year I didn’t have any luck and so far this year, I haven’t got one, but Jeff got a nice 6 point buck on opening day. Sitting out in the woods on cold fall days can get boring at times, but it is peaceful being out in nature waiting for the trophy buck to appear.

Starbucks Has Invaded Marion

Well the big news here in Marion Indiana this week is the arrival of Starbucks. Now in most communities, this wouldn’t be a big deal, but here in Marion, it certainly is. While I’m not a huge fan of Starbucks, I do appreciate a good cup of coffee. I must admit that at one time I had an addiction to Starbucks. Back in the early 1990’s, I had a job with American Express that required me to travel all the time. Detroit Metropolitan Airport was like a 2nd home to me. I had a ritual, where before every flight, I had to stop at the Starbucks located between concourse E and F at Metro. At that time, Metro Airport was the only place I knew of in Michigan that served Starbucks. I just couldn’t get enough of that unique dark roast taste that Starbucks is known for. My early affinity for Starbucks helped me to become the amateur gourmet coffee connoisseur that I am today. Once Starbucks started sprouting up like dandelions in spring, the uniqueness wore off and I very rarely visited Starbucks.

I lenjoy a good cup of coffee in the morning while I am at work. Mainly for economic reasons, I usually brew up a single cup of coffee on the Black & Decker “Brew’N’Go” I have at my desk. Sometimes though, for a change of pace, I’ll buy a cup of coffee at the Tree of Life bookstore or the BP gas station. I try to avoid doing this because at $1.80 at Tree of Life and $1.29 at the BP, a cup of coffee a day can quickly drain the discretionary income fund of someone dependent on the meager wages of Indiana Wesleyan University. (that’s a topic of discussion for a later date).However, since the Starbucks opened up last Friday, I’ve been there 4 times already. On two occasions, I dropped $4.20 for a Venti Pumpkin Spice Latte. Although it was excellent (tasted like liquid pumpkin pie!), it wasn’t worth the money. On the other two visits, I opted for the more “economical” Venti Verona fresh brewed coffee with cream. They only cost me $1.80 plus tax.

I’m sure that just like my old favorite coffee shop at Metro Airport, the novelty of Starbucks will soon wear off. I’m sure I’ll get my java fix by making a hot cup at my desk, or I’ll splurge and get some at the BP gas station. Just think of the money I’ll save. But then again, I hear that Starbucks Cinnamon Spice Mocha is pretty darn good……..

Happy 8th Birthday Gibby!!

Today is Gibson’s 8th birthday. When you think of September 11, most people think of something entirely different. In our family we think about Gibson. Today we had a small birthday party for Gibson at our house. It was just our family, plus Aunt Marilyn and my friend Jeff Whetzel. We had Dominos pizza and a Sponge Bob ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. This was actually the third time Gibson celebrated his birthday in the last few weeks. Last weekend, he celebrated it with his grandpa and grandma Pieper, along with great-grandpa Pieper. A few weeks before that he celebrated it with his grandma Burgett. Next month Grant will be celebrating his 11th birthday. Next after that, dad hits the big 39. Yup, I feel old……..