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Introduction To The House of Carr
Introduction To The House of Carr

I Love Our Church

We're coming up on two years into this grand experiment. Although progress has been incremental, it's been a blessing to see how things work when they develop gradually. Tonight we had another pot-luck-type-get-together after church and I didn't lock up the building till 10pm. Everyone who attended the worship gathering stayed for the fellowship time. I guess it's not just me: our people like people. Additionally, I usually feel the pressure to connect with everyone; I worry about "working the room" so all feel included. After taking care of some essential tear down issues after the gathering, I entered the room to discover everyone conversing. I even tried to enter a table conversation, asked one little question, and instantly became irrelevant to the new discussion.

That's how I like things to work. I put a lot of pressure on myself to create connections among our people, so when it happens naturally, it makes me smile.

I love our church. I love our people. I love our mission field.

God is good.

Must See TV

I was catching the SNL rerun last night when I saw a commercial for a local weatherman. It featured a band rocking out and I immediately recognized it was local recording artist Kristen Key. I do not know Kristen well, but she was recently enrolled at Cincinnati Christian University and her sister Erin and I were classmates and co-workers at said academic institution. I also coached their sister Lindsay when she played soccer for CCU. The Wertenberger clan [I can see where "Key" is a more marketable moniker] is a fine group of people, and Kristen isn't the only one with musical ability. Although I'm not really down with the marketing campaign [I'm not a big Channel 5 guy anyway], I'm really excited about Kristen's emerging career and hope this helps enlarge her audience.

Whoa, Nellie!

Wuske, an original Echo core member, is playing wingman to Dave Ferris, a one-time Echo attender, in an effort to visit all 119 D1 college football stadia [correct plural of stadium there, folks]. They recently got some love at CBS Sportsline that has drawn some national attention to their conquest [HT: SWIND]. Both these guys have roots at the alma mater and are fine, upstanding citizens. Last I heard from Shawn, they're might even be a possible reality show opportunity that could stem from this. Stay ahead of the cool curve and keep up-to-date on their exploits here.

Mil

Apparently my last post was #1,000 here on Beit Carr. That's a lot of crap. My stats also said I'm up to 942 comments thus far. Since I used Haloscan for a period this is probably not accurate, but perhaps I should offer now that whomever posts the 1,000 comment will get . . . well, most likely nothing. But I will give you a shout-out. UPDATE: As if anyone will go back to read this, I discovered that the 1,000 comment was made by Scott Duebber. Good for him.

Was It Worth It?

Perhaps you haven't heard this story yet, but it started even days before the Mets fan caught Barry Bond's record-breaking ball.

"As soon as 21-year-old Matt Murphy snagged the valuable piece of sports history Tuesday night, his souvenir became taxable income in the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service . . . Even if he does not sell the ball, Murphy would still owe the taxes based on a reasonable estimate of its value. Capital gains taxes also could be levied in the future as the ball gains value."

So congrats on owning a piece of history. The IRS owns you. And they don't want you to know how bad they own you. Even though it would be a debatable part of the tax code, the agency is betting the guy doesn't get a good lawyer.

"The IRS seems reluctant to clear up the confusion. With six-figure treasures so rarely falling out of the sky, the agency declined to comment Wednesday on what regulations would apply and whether they would be enforced in the case of the Bonds ball."

God bless America. Death and taxes. Yada, yada, yada. Full article here.

Website Redux

Matt with Factor 1 Studios did some awesome work with the Echo Church website last year. We get a lot of good comments about it; a few churches liked it so much that they had Factor 1 do their own site. Since it's been a little over a year now with that look, it was time for a tweak. It should be going full-speed on Thursday so you might want to give the revamped look a look. I will brag that it's almost all my photography. There is a picture of the Walnut Hills Church from the 1960's that I didn't take. My personal favorite change to the site: an ode to The Simpson's Movie with the Spider Pig theme. It is most excellent.

Home Run

I'm still behind this week, so much so that I couldn't stay up to watch Barry hit his record breaking home run last night [of course, I endured his first two at bats with no pay-off]. I'm sure they'll be televising the game on ESPN Classic later today, so I'll DVR it. I'm not going to talk about the historicity of last night's event; one of my very first blog posts was about the steroid issue. Almost all agree that the record will be viewed as tainted, due a Maris-like asterisk. Instead I will make a prediction that will haunt my father-in-law [a lifelong Hank Aaron fan] and other baseball purists for the rest of their lives: Barry's record will never be broken. Sure, the thought of Alex Rodriguez reclaiming the record has kept a lot of people upbeat despite this record falling to an alleged cheater but I just don't think he'll get it done. There are too many variables involved and I'm not sure A-Rod has the mental toughness to keep at it. Barry's psyche was perfect for the pursuit, a "I-hate-everyone,-everyone-hates-me" attack was what got him there in the first place. Bonds was relentless in this pursuit and I'm not sure A-Rod is truly inspired about anything.

So instead of hitching our wagons to this idea that A-Rod will eventually save us, we should come to realization that the game we love will never be the same. And Bud Selig can distance himself from Barry all he wants, but he created this problem that revolts him; it happened on his watch.

And history will remember.

For Pete's Sake

Full disclosure: I love Pete Rose.

It has to be tough for Pete that another Hall-Of-Fame class was inducted and he wasn't there. I've made a promise to myself that if Pete is ever enshrined, I'm going to Cooperstown to watch. At this rate, my grandkids might have to wheel me there. For the reason why, look at some of these comments he dropped at a recent speaking engagement:

"I was ****ed off that Marge [Schott, former Reds owner] didn't leave me any money in her will; she left it all to the zoo."

"Marge loved to smoke and she would have smoked in her sleep if someone was there to hold her cigarette all night."

"I saw Joe DiMaggio in the shower and he saw more of him than Marilyn Monroe ever did."

Interesting, to say the least. Apparently he also got off a couple of F-bombs. Nice. It's even more interesting when you realize these comments were said at a baseball camp in front of 7 to 14 year-olds. Do seven year-olds even know who Marilyn Monroe is, let alone Joe DiMaggio? I bet only a handful knew who Marge Schott was. As a professional public speaker, I would like to offer the Hit King this valuable piece of advice: know your audience before you speak so you don't reference things they're not familiar with.

Ah, Westside Godfather, how many more times are you going to embarrass me for claiming you as my favorite baseball player of all time? It's like I've run out of defenses. Pretty soon I'm going to have to claim my own addiction to explain my imbalanced choice.

I should note one thing he said that drew a lot of criticism from parents. He told the kids that "winning is everything and if you get second place you're just losers." I bet some of the parents were more put-off by this comment than the F-bombs. Personally, I love it. Who else is going to come out and say that anymore? Parents might deceive little Johnny and Suzie into thinking the world's a big love-fest where everybody wins, but they're liars.

In order to make it in this world, you've gotta go for broke. And Pete Rose actually exemplified that. This guy didn't have the talent to make the Majors, let alone be one of its greatest players. But he clawed his way to the top with his can't lose attitude and made something of himself . . . and then he gambled it all away.

This is a trainwreck from which I cannot look away.

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About Hype

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Over-hyped: The movie 300. I was stoked when it came out on video only to discover that it was the p0rn version of Gladiator/Braveheart. Watching King Leonidas in the trailers scream statements about Sparta seemed cool. In the context of the movie it became laughable. Under-hyped: Fatherhood. It killed me to go to class tonight as Kaelyn cried for her Da-dah. Lucky for me she was still not wanting to sleep when I got back so I got to hold her as she fell asleep; occasionally she'd look up at me while sticking her tongue out. As I left her room she uttered out a "night-night" [which currently comes across as "nah-nah"], and I knew life was good.

Just-right-hype: My wife. Just this past week in my class, we discussed the institution of marriage. An article we read absolutely ripped it apart, suggesting that it was an archaic institution that needs to be abolished; that if you're married life pretty much sucks and you wish you weren't married. I was partly pissed/partly sad because, when I think about our marriage, I can't imagine life without it.

When we were dating I knew that Kelly was something special. There's always a little doubt as to whether the romance can last and I can proudly declare that ours has. Nine years to the day when we said "I do" it's all been worth it.

My wife is amazing. Perfect hype. Happy Anniversary, Kel.

Hot! Hot! And, Dare I Say, Hot!

Truth: my sister-in-law makes the best salsa ever.After eating it yet again this past weekend I had Kelly call Mandi to get her recipe. Kel went shopping today and got all the ingredients necessary.

And Steve rejoiced.

Before heading to class tonight I decided to cut up all the vegetables and make the legendary salsa. I never really knew what cilantro was before today. It could soon become my favorite spice; sorry, oregano. After dicing all the ingredients, including three kinds of peppers, I washed my hands thoroughly twice and got ready for class.

As I was getting ready I scratched my nose [not a pick, I swear] and it felt en fuego. I proceeded to wash my hands once more, thinking the third time's a charm, and went over to Xavier.

About half an hour into class my left hand, the one I used to hold all the veggies while cutting, felt tingly. Within the next thirty minutes, the hand felt warm. By the end of class, it was absolutely on fire. As I type this, I have to stop periodically to clench my fist because it's still burning up.

Not really sure what I can do about this. Never knew working with vegetables could be so hazardous. But when I'm chompin' down on some freakin' incredible salsa tomorrow, it'll all have been worth it.

Up and Down

A strange couple of days here have left me scratching my head. Saturday we were looking forward to getting together with my mom's side of the family out at my brother's place in Indiana. It's about a forty-minute drive out there and we were having a great time until Kaelyn just went a little crazy; she had a few weird days where she's barely slept. So we left after a couple of hours, spending almost as much time in the car as visiting. Not so good.

That night I was invited to a party hosted by a guy on my soccer team. It was cool to meet some of his friends but it ended up being a classic frat party with keg-stands and liquor luges. It was a great venue in which to start a conversation with, "So, yeah, I'm a minister." But I was actually able to have some meaningful discussions with people who were only slightly inebriated. So, all in all, pretty good.

Then yesterday I was speaking out at the Bethel Church of Christ. They have two services: a traditional and contemporary. In the traditional service, median age 68, I might have delivered the worst sermon I've given in a few years. I did, however, get in the line "baptize them in beer" which actually received laughs. I was a little better in their second service, but still not great. Again, not good.

But we had a chance to go to lunch at Rob and Alicia Gee's house out there. Rob and Alicia are some great people who drive a half hour each week to come to Echo. Their kids Henry and Sydney are wonderful to Kaelyn and Alecia's food was restaurant worthy. So things were getting better.

At church last night Derek and Rachel Brown filled in for Tye and told about their mission trip to Guatemala. They did awesome. But I followed that up with another egg, rounding out an overall bad day of preaching. I thought I could put the weekend behind me and woke up early this morning to work out at Xavier. I get in the Explorer and it refuses to start. It's at this point that I wish I had my own liquor luge.

But before I fret, I call my buddy Micah. We were on staff at Mason together. He's a mechanic and knows my car from three years of working on it. He and his wife Missy just welcomed their fourth child, Levi, into the world and he was glad to give me advice. He reminded me that it was a similar problem that I had with it four years ago [the idle air control for you auto-clubbers] and all I really needed to do was disconnect it, tap it with a hammer, and reattach it. Sure enough, I did that and the car started right up. Excellent.

Honestly, I'll forget about this weird weekend in a few days but I was really down last night; I even went to bed a couple of hours early. But that's what I like about the new week: it can all turn around today.

Can Do Anything A Spider-pig Does

Took some time-out during my study day to catch The Simpson's Movie. I remember all the hullabaloo [nice word] surrounding the series in its early years. It was frequently cited as an example of decaying family values. It's interesting that now, compared to South Park and Family Guy, it's incredibly tame. There are even people who use the show to examine issues of faith in America. So this show that was originally labeled dysfunctional is now admired.

All in all, good flick. The creators used the film to do a few more edgy bits than they normally do on TV, but still it's clean compared to those other adult cartoons I named earlier. I thought they could've done a little more with it but it's still good for some great laughs. Dare I say, it's a family movie. Maybe I should market it to my church . . .

Sidenote: As I scanned the movie theater I was counting the number of people there who weren't alive when it first aired [on the Tracy Ullman show in 1987]; it was more than half the audience. So they've never known life without the Simpson's. Scary.

Need More Info

If Roger Goodell is trying to play hard-dog in light of the Michael Vick case by not reinstating Odell Thurman today, then he's a putz. From all we know, Thurman has kept his side of the deal, sought out counseling, and cleaned his life up. If there's something more we don't know, the league better release it quickly so as not to look like inconsistent buffoons. You know who looks like a genius now? Paul Tagliabue who retired as NFL commissioner this past year. Just when everything hits the fan he rides off into the sunset. Best . . . decision . . . ever.