What's YOUR New Year's resolution?

This next year, I'm doing a couple of "thing-a-day-for-a-whole-year" type programs:

Picture-a-Day I haven't researched this much. I read about it randomly on some site and saw that there is a Flickr group for people to share their daily images. Maybe I'll use another blog, maybe Flickr. Donna bought me a little keychain camera for Christmas, so hopefully I'll be able to stick to it.

Read the Bible in a Year BibleGateway.com has some reading plans for reading scripture. There are plans for reading the whole Bible or chronological and biographical highlight plans. I've never read the Word cover to cover, so I'm going for the comprehensive plan. The best part of BibleGateway.com is the insane number of versions available. I counted 20 English versions.

The Hoppiest Place on Earth...

We're driving home from a marathon Magic Kingdom trip. Actually, Donna is driving and I'm blogging, because that's how we roll.
With the park hopper pass, we got to ride the cool rides in both Disneyland and California Adventure. Helpful hint: when hopping between DL and CA, GET A STRATEGY. We played it spontaneous because of a nice Christmas bonus and tight schedules, and we ended up walking close to 1600 miles. No exaggeration, my pedometer read 1.58 x 10^8 when it was all said and done.

Meet Howie...

We traded in the Neon and hooked up with a local credit union to buy a new car. The Hyundai Tucson is a mini SUV with four doors of suburban goodness - and fold down rear seats.

Perfomancing Test

I'm trying this new Firefox Add-on called Performancing. We'll see if it's any better than logging straight into Blogger to create and publish posts.

Into the sunset...

Arizona has quite a bit of road trip charm, if I do say so myself. The other weekend, Donna's mom was in town, so we drove East on I-10 to check out some of the more... tenured attractions. The cynic in me would say that Historic Tombstone has degenerated into a second rate tourist trap. Which is pretty much what it is.
The first thing we did when we got there was to track down a gun fight. A man dressed in almost-authentic cowboy garb pointed us down the road, promising us the show would be funnier than Blazing Saddles. I'm not a big Mel Brooks guy in the first place, but we continued up to the wooden-frame store. Having seen Blazing Saddles, I can tell you this show wasn't quite what was promised, although it featured Richard Blake (Parole Board Chairman from Raising Arizona). We found out later that there is another gun fight closer to the OK Corral that is the main ticket in town.
There are some genuinely creative things happening in between the cheesy "saloons" and reproductions of Wyatt Earp posters. On this particular weekend, Tombstone was hosting a Western Music Festival. We passed by the stage, and the music wasn't half bad. The crowd was a mix of weekend road trippers with digicams (me), and honest-to-goodness Western music fans clad in Wrangler jeans and cowboy hats.
Other highlights of the trip included a slightly creepy, mostly touristy graveyard where a couple of the Clanton's are buried and The Thing, located in Dragoon, AZ. For a dollar, you get to go through some random exhibits of junk, basically. After, you get to say you saw The Thing. Gotta love AZ.

The Fifth Dimension...

For my birthday, Donna and I cavorted up to Grand Canyon a couple weekends ago. I'll just echo everyone else in saying it is amazing. We hit several different view points on the rim, and it was unbelievable from every single spot.The obligatory landscape shot.

That's some kind of Grandness.

Ranger Allyson showed us around during a couple of geology walks around the rim. We learned, first and foremost, that there is no "The" in the name. To locals, it's just Grand Canyon. Donna thought Allyson was yelling at her the whole time, but really she just talked really loud because she was used to working with 50-60 people, not 15. It was kind of like a science field trip with a PE teacher.Height, width, and depth are the physical dimensions of Grand Canyon. Allyson also talked about time as the fourth dimension and a fifth dimension: the spirituality of Grand Canyon. Possibly biblical, mostly hokey.

On the way back, we elected to stop at Flintstone Bedrock City. For the low low price of $4 dollars, we were able to walk around a poorly maintained gravel lot populated by various pastel-painted stucco structures. The best part was the "goatasaurus". It's life-like environment looked like someone wrapped up a bunch of wire coat hangers and nailed them to the open part of a shed. You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but Fred can't pick either.

Yeah.

We saw several signs around the rim basically indicating that young, athletic looking men are falling into Grand Canyon all time and getting stuck. I wanted to make sure I wasn't at risk. You make the call. Deep down, we all want to be like Legolas. Right Andrew?

Apparently, Grand Canyon is the most popular tourist destination in the world, so I'm sure there will be other blogs that speak of it much more eloquently. But really, does anybody do natural wonders like the Flying Zehrings?

The Best Stockboy Ever...

It's been a full month since I did the blogging thing. I just picked up a night and weekend gig at the local Target box to supplement our savings account. Here's a little Zehring demographic update:

- 2 person household
- 2 car household
- 4 job household (Donna's working as a substitute teacher part time, in addition to her increasing responsibilities as a youth pastor)
- 2 TV household
- 2 computer household (all Mac, all the time)
- 6 Gilmore Girls DVD season box set household

So far, the benefits of working at Target far outweigh the headache of working second job. The hours aren't too overwhelming, but I get enough time to make decent money. The actual work is pretty mindless. "Go to Location blahblahblah. Scan UPC blahblahblah." And of course, it's tough to beat the 10% discount. Well, I guess it wouldn't be too hard. C'mon Target, how about a 15% discount?

Check It Off The List...

It's pretty widely accepted that I have a tendency to drop the ball on many tasks and priorities. I'd like to put a positive spin on it and say that I've done alright so far in the absence of a dependable system, but ultimately that would just mean I'm happy with the bare minimum. I'm not.
One step that I'm taking to shape up and get productive is reading about productivity. Before you roll your eyes... what? Too late? Fine. Before you shake your head and chuckle to yourself... come on now! Give me a chance!
The book Getting Things Done, by David Allen, is really shaping the way I see task management and productivity. Allen suggests that living with a clear, uncluttered mind is the best way to live a relaxed life and get things done efficiently and effectively. He goes further and suggests a system for unloading everything from your mind so that it doesn't pull on your focus at inopportune times.
It all might sound hokey and new-agey, but it makes a ton of sense when I think about getting busy and what it does to my relationship with God or with Donna or with people at work. If my mind is clear, then I can focus more completely on relationships instead of worrying about forgetting to do something.
There's a lot I still have to hash through, but it's a work in progress.

Game Over...

Never Always...

I've decided that I'm never always on time. Every once in a while, I'll be there when I say I'm going to be there, but that's been the exception rather than the rule lately.

uyk8uyk (Donna just typed that.)

gbhgn (and that)

ftgfnjhthgbfnh (guess who)

sdfakjlkjfdaskdfsjaklj;dfskjl;dsklksdkkjjkljkljnnmfjklgdklj;dfa
(Okay, that time, Donna mashed my fingers into the keyboard, so I'll take responsibility for that one.)

At any rate, punctuality is gifted to some; to others (like me) it is a strategy that must be honed into a skill with practice. Or maybe I just need to employ a little creative time-keeping.

Chainsaw On A Stick...

Everything is better on a stick. Steak, ice cream, chocolate. But nothing is more inspiring than seeing Tom from Tom's Landscaping hack at our mesquite tree with a chainsaw at the end of a 4-foot pole. Rad.

*Update: The pole is an extension pole! Tom just stretched that thing to 10 feet!

Death To Thorns!

Donna and I have both shed blood in the battle against our evil backyard mesquite tree, but we are having the last laugh. Well, the second to last laugh. Tom and his crew cut most of the tree down, but storms and fatigue kept them from finishing the job. Tom even took a thorn in the foot. Cursed tree. Hopefully, by the end of this week, it will all be nothing more than a memory and a bloody... er... sappy stump.

One for the General...

Apparently, there are some unwritten blogging rules out here on the World Wide InterWeb of which I am not aware. Fortunately, Amy is out there, keeping everyone on their toes and compliant. At the top of the list is this very important guideline:

Update your blog frequently. Or daily. Or hourly.

Well, I probably won't be able to keep up that kind of pace, but I will throw this out there:

Bionic Pants.

Robots and The Husbands Who Love Them...

Robots in our day and age are generally taken for granted. Not only do they serve very valuable and noble purposes in our society, but they also pose a very serious threat to our existence. That's why Daniel H. Wilson's book How To Survive A Robot Uprising is so pertinent to our day and age. I mean, really, how many of us know how to recognize and deactivate a rebel servant robot, if necessary? This book is both informative and hilarious. Keep an eye on that Roomba, Grandma.

Settle It Up...

Donna and I just found an online version of Settlers of Catan. It's actually called Xplorer, but it's just like the board game, and it includes the Cities and Knights expansion and lots of other crazy maps. You can find it at this website, and after you register you can click to your choice of game. The site features real-time games with humans, or games against robots (bots) if you want to play a quicker game. Look out for jz and donga512, maybe we can play a round or three.

Start Spreading the News...

A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight...

Introducing the newest addition to the Flying Zehring Appliance collection:

BBQ Grillware GSF-2616

Three main burners, lined up vertically for extra tasty steak and burgers.

Here is the Consumer Reports Synopsis, in true Flying Zehring style:

Overall score	Evenness	Grilling	Convenience
76.

RECOMMENDATIONS & NOTES A CR Best Buy. A fine medium-sized grill with lots of features at a low price—a CR Best Buy. Impressive searing. Space required (HWD): 49x64x26 in. Claimed output: Main burners 42,000 Btu/hr; Side burner 12,000 Btu/hr. Warranty: castings, 1 yr.; burners, 10 yr.; other parts, 1 yr.

Size	Medium
Number of main burner controls	3
Long-warranty burners	Yes
Bare cast iron grates	No
Coated cast iron grates	Yes
Coated steel grates	No
Stainless steel grates	No
Side burner	Yes
Rotisserie	No
All or mostly stainless	No
Side shelf material	Painted steel
Igniter type	Rotary
Wheels and casters	2 wheels only
Fuel gauge	No
Natural gas version available	No
Propane tank included	No

It's a bird, it's a plane...

It's the Zehrings!