This weekend the teens of our church are participating in World Vision's 30 Hour Famine. Raising money to fight world hunger, serving in their communities, having a fun time together and not eating the entire time - sounds like a bunch of Good News in my book. To help raise money this year, Jess started the fundraiser at church simply titled "The Golden Toilet." The premise is simple: if a giant golden toilet is in your yard, you can donate $10 to have it removed and placed in the yard of your choice. Afraid of gaudy golden toilets? Perhaps you'd like to purchase "Toilet Insurance" from a teen-aged insurance salesperson for $15. All money goes to fight hunger, people get their pictures taken with said toilet in front of their house - its a win-win!
Spray painting the toilet wasn't too bad - I even used some primer as a base coat. It looked nice sitting in the church lobby : ) The week before we started this though, the whole idea sounded rather shady. I felt like a mobster back in the '30s asking people if they'd like to pay for insurance for a problem I was willing to create.
"Yo! Maybe you'd be int'rested in buyin' some toilet insurance?"
"Why?"
"Well, let's just say it'd be a shame to have a giant golden toilet in your front yard, knowwhatimsayin?"
"Does that happen around here?"
"I can be arranged. Stranger tings have been known to happen."
"Would you do that?"
"I's not sayin' I would, I's not saying I wouldn't. You gonna pay up or what?"
"Fine, here's your donation."
"Forgeddaboutit."
Thankfully we go to a church where the youth group coercing donations for good causes is not frowned upon. It is almost expected! Over 90% of toilet recipients called up with a smile, and I'm assuming a grin after they chose the next destination. Nothing like the look on a fellow parishioner's face when a gold toilet appears in their yard : )
Hopefully the toilet will survive its tour de Church and we'll see more of it in the future. The tank cracked during a delivery on Sunday afternoon, but nothing that can't be fixed. The thing is so stinking heavy that carrying it around has been the one drawback to the whole experience. Golden non-heavy things will be a good idea for next time. Only a few more days of toilet worries for our church though, the real fun starts on Friday!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Non-Obvious Expectations
This marks the first of many weekends without football. I guess we'll be OK, but it's a different type of relaxing while you're watching a game than, say typing a blog (did I just break the 4th wall?). Most weekends would have me taking it easy catching a college game on Saturday or a NFL game on Sunday (rarely both). Last weekend we watched the Super Bowl with some friends, and the expectations are a little different at The Big Game. Instead of reclining alone on the couch, we were surrounded by friends requiring extra seating. Instead of finding a meager assortment of snacking foods in the house, we were surrounded by more food than could be eaten in a single night. And instead of actually watching football, which is sometimes a novel task with Hugh and Melvin anyway, we watched the commercials! It is as if we were there for the wrong reasons.
The commercials this year were pretty good. The same typical products were advertised (though I don't think I've seen a focusonthefamily.org ad before, a la Tim Tebow tackling his mom), with a majority of the ads from America's favorite past-time - drinking beer. A lot of ads, even beyond GoDaddy.com, followed a sensual advertising strategy and most of the adds were pretty funny; top-notch stuff in 30 seconds. Oh yeah, and we watched a game too. The Saints played a good one, and it was pretty exciting to watch. That's the biggest problem with the Super Bowl, with a good game and good commercials, when do we have time to use the bathroom?!!
Even though it was a football party, I'd say at least half the people could care less about about the game.You may not have guessed at first glance, but it's true : ) Slightly less obvious was a kid at youth group this past week. Jess is the youth director at our church and every five weeks, after four weeks of some topical studies, we have a game night. Well, six weeks ago a young kid came who really liked game night and kept coming the next four, asking before each lesson, "Are we going to play games now?" Game night was last week and he had a really great time, asking Jess before he left, "Can I have my birthday party here?!!" Hilarious. There was no hiding it, that guy was here for a reason! At least one of us was focused, though I bet he missed half the commercials during the Super Bowl - it was time to watch football.
The commercials this year were pretty good. The same typical products were advertised (though I don't think I've seen a focusonthefamily.org ad before, a la Tim Tebow tackling his mom), with a majority of the ads from America's favorite past-time - drinking beer. A lot of ads, even beyond GoDaddy.com, followed a sensual advertising strategy and most of the adds were pretty funny; top-notch stuff in 30 seconds. Oh yeah, and we watched a game too. The Saints played a good one, and it was pretty exciting to watch. That's the biggest problem with the Super Bowl, with a good game and good commercials, when do we have time to use the bathroom?!!
Even though it was a football party, I'd say at least half the people could care less about about the game.You may not have guessed at first glance, but it's true : ) Slightly less obvious was a kid at youth group this past week. Jess is the youth director at our church and every five weeks, after four weeks of some topical studies, we have a game night. Well, six weeks ago a young kid came who really liked game night and kept coming the next four, asking before each lesson, "Are we going to play games now?" Game night was last week and he had a really great time, asking Jess before he left, "Can I have my birthday party here?!!" Hilarious. There was no hiding it, that guy was here for a reason! At least one of us was focused, though I bet he missed half the commercials during the Super Bowl - it was time to watch football.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Road Trip!
Hugh was a traveling little man this weekend. Four states plus our nations capital! This was Hugh's first road trip and I think he had a good time. Plus he didn't have to drive or pay for gas and slept most of the time, which is good in most everybody's book. Driving with Hugh has some new obstacles that Jess and I never had to worry about before, mainly too much sleeping (which leads to not sleeping at night) or the potential for sad baby in his car seat. Granted, it's not rocket science, but adds a little more planning to our trips.
This trip required a fair share of planning anyway. A wedding the was the official invitation down to northern Virginia, but when we're close to the D.C. area it was vital to send out some self-invitations for places to eat and sleep. We ate at two restaurants, Han Sung Oak and Hollywood Diner, and Hugh thought they were both awesome enough to stay awake at both. He was right, but I think the days of having a sleeping baby while dining out are coming to an end, though he slept great in a lovely new home, and we'll take two awake meals to a full night's sleep anyday.
The drive to the wedding was awful. Snow in northern VA is like strawberry jam on a raccoon - pretty uncommon and just plain messy. Us Yankees say things like, "People 'down south' just don't know how to drive in the snow," but after living through it this weekend (pun completely intended), I don't think its the southerners. Not a single plow or grain or salt could be found on the roads, and these were major highways! There really wasn't a good way to drive through that, though Hugh found a way to sleep, which was probably more relaxing than driving. I'm telling' ya, he knows how to travel.
This trip required a fair share of planning anyway. A wedding the was the official invitation down to northern Virginia, but when we're close to the D.C. area it was vital to send out some self-invitations for places to eat and sleep. We ate at two restaurants, Han Sung Oak and Hollywood Diner, and Hugh thought they were both awesome enough to stay awake at both. He was right, but I think the days of having a sleeping baby while dining out are coming to an end, though he slept great in a lovely new home, and we'll take two awake meals to a full night's sleep anyday.
The drive to the wedding was awful. Snow in northern VA is like strawberry jam on a raccoon - pretty uncommon and just plain messy. Us Yankees say things like, "People 'down south' just don't know how to drive in the snow," but after living through it this weekend (pun completely intended), I don't think its the southerners. Not a single plow or grain or salt could be found on the roads, and these were major highways! There really wasn't a good way to drive through that, though Hugh found a way to sleep, which was probably more relaxing than driving. I'm telling' ya, he knows how to travel.
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