So I’m usually recognized as being the geek in the house, but few people know that my beautiful bride is quite a geek herself — and I’m not just talking about her penchant for spreadsheet and budgets. She was the one who got me into watching Stargate, and one of our first conversations together before we started dating was about Star Trek.
She isn’t a gadget hound like me, although she’s been very tolerant toward my attempts at streamlining our life with technology — even giving up her beloved PVR full of JAG episodes so that we could switch to Internet-delivered TV content. But she does like Harry Potter — which I definitely do not.
At home she used to go with one of her best friends, Megan, to see each movie, and she’s read every one of the books. Well tonite the latest, and I gather final, book in the series is being released at 12:01, and like I checked out, then got in the line up for, the iPhone, Nic is going to go down to our local Border’s to see if she can snag herself a copy. I couldn’t quite persuade myself to indulge in this particular geek-fest, so Shannon is going along. Benjamin’s eaten his last meal of the night, and hopefully will sleep through it, because the girls just left to see the latest Harry Potter movie at the theater before they hit the bookstore at midnight.
Although I can’t share her excitement for the young wizards (I made an honest attempt to watch the first movie, but I fell asleep during that game they play chasing a ball around in the air on their broomsticks) but I do appreciate the need to geek out every once in awhile. In fact, I myself plan on watching Sci-Fi on our Internet-connected TV tonite until I pass out…

– I hate July. This is the most useless month ever. I haven’t spend so much time sitting on my hands since we moved here and didn’t know anyone. There’s nothing to do but work, and spend half the month missing my wife and son, and I hate it. Work is empty and meaningless. I miss student ministry, and I can’t wait for August.
– They opened our mail… Yesterday we received a much delayed letter from friends of ours who live in Malaysia — missionaries, in fact. It was an update newsletter, completely innocuous and certainly in no way subversive. Nonetheless, it came from a Muslim country, and we are foreign nationals. So they cut it open, apparently examined the contents, then delivered it to us — they didn’t even bother hiding it, or re-sealing it. It was like an ominous warning in our mailbox.
There was no suspicious white power around the edges. It wasn’t a parcel or package, and it wasn’t ticking. It was pictures of their new baby, and stories of their ministry to people in need… But somehow, that was worth looking into. We’re here legally, working legitimately on an American Visa, and we spend our spare time volunteering at church. We have nothing to hide, and they’re welcome to read all our mail — they can pay our bills too, while they’re at it. But it kinda makes you wonder if things are getting better or worse…