thirty-seven and ten

Well, I guess we'll have to wait for another incredible Suns' winning streak. The Suns lose to the Utah Jazz (31-17) at home. The Suns were down by 9 at the half, came back within five at the end of the third, and only lost by three, but it was still a loss. Raja Bell did not play, and Barbosa started in his place. It is going to be hard to keep up the pace if Raja is not fit. He brings in defense that the Suns need, as well as incredible shooting from beyond the arch. Nash had a double double (22 points, 10 assists), as well as Amaré Stoutemire (28 points, 10 rebounds). Another blow to the team effort, though, was that Marion fouled out (and had a technical) with only 4 points, 1 block, 1 assist, but he did have 8 boards. The Suns even had a better jump-shooting percentage for the game, but the Jazz took more shots and still shot well. Neither team did extremely well with the 3-point shot, and the turnovers weren't terribly mismatched, either (Suns 16, Jazz 13). The Suns have still not lost by double figures this year, which is a good thing, but we've got to win close games like this, especially against powerhouse teams in the West, with whom the Suns have only won one (last game, over the Spurs) of the eight or so games they've played. They go on to play the Denver Nuggets (23 - 22) on Monday in Colorado at 7pm AZ time. Iverson still has a sprained ankle, so I don't know if he will play, but the Suns will still have Carmelo Anthony to deal with come Monday. The Suns can do it, and it should be a great game. GO SUNS!

meeting christian

I met a Bahá'í man named Christian. I thought that was ironic. He's 50, but, man, he definitely doesn't look like it. He will hopefully become a great friend of mine, and I am praying for the Lord to do something that only He can: change Christian's heart. If you're a believer, please pray for Christian to be won over by the Lord, to have a changed heart, and to bring glory to the Father. If you'd like to know more about my discussions with Christian or what it is that he believes, I'd love to share with you my excitement about being able to share Christ with him. Just let me know.

friday night gift

My mom gave us permission to use 30 of their dollars for recreation/dinner together on our night away from Aidan. Aidan was staying with his grandparents (Ogles) so they could test run him staying the night with them this next weekend because Amy and I are going to Winterrupt (sm@ncc winter camp 07) for the weekend and childcare would not be provided for him. They are doing us a huge favor, and we got to use the test run to enjoy having no responsibilities. We got a little dressed up (a nice shirt and jeans for me equals a little dressy), dropped Aidan off, and then went to see if the dollar theatre had Eragon yet. They didn't. So we went to blockbuster to see if there were any movies we would like to purchase/rent. There weren't. We then went to Quizno's Subs and got dinner for $24 (yikes). It was great (we'd never go there unless on someone else's money, heh). We came home, watched half of Ocean's Twelve, then we went to the "build-your-own" sundae place just south of our house on 51st Ave. Man, were those 24 ounces expensive: just under $10 for just two bowls of ice cream with a few toppings (I would have topped the $30 limit, so I paid for that). We could have gone to Cold Stone for that much and had much better ice cream. It was good to try it, though, and Amy was on an ice cream kick, so that satisfied her craving (she's now on a doughnut kick, to which I said "no"). We came back home and enjoyed the ice cream (somewhat) and finished the movie. It was a great evening provided by both sets of (grand)parents. We are very grateful for the Ogles taking care of Aidan, and very grateful to the Van Liews for providing the money for a really good dinner (we love Quizno's, we just can't do it normally). We love you all.

racquetball with the president

Matthew du Mée and I went to play racquetball at the new Glendale Recreation and Aquatics Center that I am a member at. He'd never played before, so I gave him a lesson in brokenness/humility by just thumping him in all four games we played. Alright, so it was his first time and I should be a little more kind about it; fine, but we went downstairs to play some one-on-one basketball, and I couldn't keep going for five minute because I'm that out of shape! I'm sure he got a good chuckle out of that one; I know I did. That definitely put me in my place...with a little brokenness/humility. Matthew: it was a great evening. Thanks for playing and chatting with me.

quote

"I'm not lying, I'm instilling doubt."
~Nicole Blackford