weekend update

at 08/03/09 11:41AM

Katie and I decided to have a very fast vacation last weekend. We were both off of work by 3:00, and we left Pittsburgh around 6:00 and headed to Cowans Gap State Park, which is about an hour west of Gettysburg. After a successful night's camping, we headed to Gettysburg to do a tour of the battlefields. We've wanted to tour Gettysburg ever since we moved to PA, and we weren't disappointed. It was very impressive and moving, and I think I could easily spend another full day looking around. We walked around with our paperback copy of The Killer Angels in hand so that we could follow the progress of the battle and see which skirmishes happened on whatever place we were visiting. It was quite something to stand at the top of Cemetery Ridge (the Union position) at sunset and look out over the open fields that the Southern army had to cross during Pickett's Charge.

We went back to our campsite that night and decided to build a fire. After about 20 minutes of lighting, re-lighting and scrounging for kindling, we got the fire to start--and then, 10 seconds later, the rain started. It's funnier in hindsight than it was to me then.

All in all, it was a great mini-vacation. It was nice to get away from the two papers I'm supposed to be writing and spend some QT with Katie. The weekend also doubled as an anniversary trip that we took two weeks early. Next on our wish list: DC, NY, Niagra Falls.

14-33 of 33 comments « prev 1 2 next »

Happy Anniversary, son. Got your card in the mail a day late, so it won't be there today. Sorry.

by harbermama at 08/12/09 8:33AM
I love Gettysburg. They have a whole 9 mile trail you can hike as Boy Scouts and if you complete it you get a patch. I think I hiked it two or three times. Very cool.

by nickomundo at 08/12/09 10:02PM
That gave me chills just reading about it. I hate that battle.

by ramman111 at 08/20/09 7:59AM
Actually, I had a dream the other night that I was having 6 ... so 5 would be an improvement. :)

by wifelet at 08/25/09 8:44AM
Gettysburg is a pretty interesting- and sobering- place.

by mjintexas at 08/25/09 10:15AM
i don't think you understand; i smack the kitten around and yell at it to purr until it darn well purrs.

by justcallmejoe at 08/27/09 9:30AM
gettysburg rocks.

by justcallmejoe at 08/27/09 9:30AM
So I pretty much love your parents. And their house. And your mom's cooking. But mostly your parents.

by nerdosaurus_rex at 08/30/09 9:53PM
...because he was doing the dutiful husband/father thing... :)

by mamap at 09/01/09 10:51PM
What a nice weekend away... very glad y'all did that!

Good to talk to you for a nanosecond the other day :) We love ya!

by jesspico at 09/04/09 2:59PM
I have indeed. Lots of great people and great teaching there, from what I've seen in my handful of visits!

by nerdosaurus_rex at 09/07/09 11:50AM
Stinkin' J.E.B. Stuart...great vacation choice though Matt, haven't been to Gettysburg yet.

by soccer_warrior04 at 09/15/09 3:38PM
Yep. That's how I ended up with the duplicate copies of Thessalonians and John.

by ward at 09/29/09 6:17PM
Although, we did verify yesterday that she has a brain, so she can't resemble Matt too much ... :)

by wifelet at 11/10/09 3:38PM
Your comment gave me a good laugh. Those were good times at the Jeremiah study! How've you been, brother?

by rundrummerrun at 11/15/09 3:29PM
i don't blame you... i wouldn't either.

by ashlee at 11/19/09 8:38AM
You're right! Obama must be the Messiah!

by tom_bombadil at 11/26/09 10:30AM
I wrote it to the tune "Calon Lan"; however, if you would like to write music to it, I'd much rather do that. Let me know if you want to do that; if so, I'll send you a copy reflecting the most recent changes.

by jabberwock at 01/28/10 7:23AM
Yeah. I must have sung it to your tune about a hundred times today. Us preachers, we can be on the clock and do stuff like that.

by jabberwock at 02/04/10 9:46PM

Your score: 15 out of 16

at 07/19/09 11:19PM *

I just took a quiz for my online graduate Bible course. Here was the final question:

Some of the Thessalonian believers were not working because:

A. They were waiting for Christ to return
B. They were lazy
C. They couldn't find jobs
D. The stratified social conditions were oppressive

The following excerpts are from the textbook upon which my open-book quiz was based:

"The development of eschatological fanaticism and disruptive laziness prompted his writing."

"Paul urged the Thessalonians to avoid a habit of idleness"

"The fact that laziness was a serious shortcoming by the time 2 Thessalonians was written suggests that already the seeds of sluggishness were sprouting in Thessalonica."

Like a fool, I picked B.

**UPDATE** The professor did in fact give me credit for this question. You can all rest a little easier now.

Where are you going to Grad school?

by thepoeticmadman at 07/20/09 4:33AM
Tsk tsk tsk. Overthinking. Btw, I sent "Maranatha" to Mark Coulson to sing at SS this year. I wasn't sold on the rhythm changes originally, but I changed my mind.

by jabberwock at 07/20/09 7:02AM
They're just trying to remind you that you can't trust everything you read. :)

by benb at 07/20/09 7:45AM
Glad I could do a valuable service for Katie. :) Matt makes so much fun of me for it. I tell him he's just jealous.

by wifelet at 07/20/09 12:17PM
Ahh, gotcha. I just hadn't been aware you were doing the gradschool thing, so I thought I'd ask. I'm starting Amridge this fall. What classes have you taken, and what did you think of them?

by thepoeticmadman at 07/22/09 11:42AM
Yeah, I can understand that. I always revel at an excuse to buy more books... I'll have to figure out how to manage the time as well. Here's hoping it won't be too terrible -- especially since I'm taking the Grad version of two classes I've already taken...

by thepoeticmadman at 07/23/09 10:03AM
I hate that it took me 10 minutes to figure out who this was, because A) Pleo 3 took away the "friend names" page (killin' me), B) I don't know your forehead that well (it looks similar to Justin Mock's), and 3) Context clues in comments were 2 or more posts back. Good to hear (see) from you! How are things in Pittsvegas?

by rundrummerrun at 08/05/09 3:06PM

overheard today

at 04/25/09 7:58PM

Pre-teen Girl #1 to Pre-teen Girl #2: "Yeah, it keeps, like, whatever-ing!"

3-22 of 22 comments « prev 1 2 next »

A little part of my brain just died.

by tom_bombadil at 04/26/09 8:08AM
Now try saying it with a Mexican accent. That's my life every day.

by dwatkins at 04/26/09 8:14AM
I hate it when things whatever.

by jabberwock at 04/26/09 10:00PM
That's deep.

by mjintexas at 04/26/09 11:24PM
ooooh that's bad!

by snoopy at 05/06/09 11:35AM
people between the ages of 2 and 19 are so obnoxious. (Yes, that includes me.)

by emmylou at 05/11/09 7:59AM
ha, my b was upside down.

by ashlee at 05/18/09 11:24PM
Sadly, it doesn't stop when they hit the teen years.

by dr_corndog at 05/21/09 5:34PM
....thanks.

by emmylou at 05/30/09 8:12AM
you're funny. :) (Katie will probably want to kill me for encouraging you. ;) )

by hanban at 05/31/09 6:59AM
remember when i wrote you and you took forever to write back and then i took even longer to respond. response is coming soon. get ready for it

by canabar at 06/07/09 10:54PM
hahaha

by rosemary at 06/08/09 12:16PM
I agree; it was not at all what I expected!

by lastoflakewood at 06/11/09 10:11PM
Our family got quite a kick out of this. :)

by motherofall at 06/15/09 5:59AM
Yeah! Sorry about that! Hopefully we can get together next time!

by lilsis at 06/15/09 11:37AM
I wait all year for that. Thanks.

by jadyc at 06/17/09 9:19PM
I haven't seen it, it sounds like a need to! but I love that Katie thinks I'm prettier, ha! What I really need to do is visit ya'll though... or you could always make a trip to visit the great meca of Lewisville, texas!

by jenniferlyn at 06/25/09 6:05PM
So I hear! I'm hoping to come up and stay with Katie and Kyle on Tuesday, so I'll see you and your Katie at church!

by nerdosaurus_rex at 06/26/09 9:53PM
just transferring to a starbucks up there while i'm in school. i just didn't know until yesterday that there would be one that had space for me.

by micah at 07/14/09 10:46PM
In a weird sort of way, your profile picture, or avatar, or whatever that is called now, makes me miss you. And your funny note on his blog. Love you!

by harbermama at 07/19/09 9:41PM

add new weblog entry

at 04/02/09 11:37PM

Katie and I have now been in Pittsburgh for 7.5 months, which seems hard to believe. We miss everyone in Tampa, but we are very encouraged to be up here with such a great group of Christians (and Kyle Fisher too!). Katie and I are both taking a couple of classes in addition to working, so there's always plenty going on. I just finished teaching a survey of the OT, which was beneficial (for me, at least). Katie is teaching the children's class (and is very excited to learn that one of the new members has a felt set!).

We had the opportunity a couple of weekends ago to spend a few days with my family in Nashville. A few notable cameos included Jady Copeland as Aaron Neville, Micah Bingham as Tickle-Me-Elmo, and Micah & Hannah Rice as the Newlyweds. Great weekend, great singing, great Settlers of Catan initiation, semi-great opening-round NCAA tournament. They turned my bracket into a NEWT! (It got better.)
Just before that, Katie's mom, sister and other sister were finally able to come see our home up here in Pittsburgh, which was very cool as well. Unfortunately, Katie and I had the Black Lung Death Walking Whooping Cough Plague (or "flu" for short), so they ended up doing as much nursing as sightseeing. Still, we had a very good visit with them and were sorry to see them go.

Sunday was a moving (i.e., emotional) day as my family's congregation in Nashville appointed two additional elders, including my dad. We're very thankful for his willingness to serve, and we're thankful to God that the brethren there have two more dedicated shepherds to guide them.

This Saturday, we will be going to Altoona, PA with several members of our group to participate in a young people's study. We're looking forward to an encouraging day spent with the Christians over there as we study and sing together.

Let us know how you're doing. We enjoy hearing from people.

Enjoyed your update...So glad we were able to be there for the "appointing". Wish it could have happened while all you "kids" were there the previous week. Would sure love to have seen you! Glad things are going well there..We miss you guys!

by mamap at 04/03/09 1:21AM
BTW, who is the guy in your picture up there?? ;)

by mamap at 04/03/09 1:21AM
did I miss you at Broadmoor 2 Sundays in a row?! I need some advanced notice when you guys are going to be in town and I'll try to stay put for the weekend!

by jamilo at 04/03/09 3:59AM
really, matt? really.

by micah at 04/03/09 7:23AM
Flannel Graphs rule.

by jabberwock at 04/03/09 7:52AM
Glad to hear that things are going well...minus the flu, of course :) We're back in TN now. Let us know when you're back in Nashville.

by desi at 04/03/09 8:32AM
I didn't know about your dad. Glad you're enjoying PA!

by aj1210 at 04/03/09 8:49AM
Aaron Neville?

by ward at 04/03/09 9:08AM
We're doing well, and so is Benj, since I know you probably won't hear from him. :)

by mjintexas at 04/03/09 10:39AM
I don't think I could take anyone who lived in "Altoona" seriously.

by jadyc at 04/05/09 4:10PM
Sounds like good times! Glad everyone is well again.

by lastoflakewood at 04/05/09 7:43PM
Nice update. I don't recognize your pictures anymore..."You've changed!"

by harbermama at 04/06/09 12:12AM
Excellent update. Glad the move has gone well (Black Lung Death Walking Whooping Cough Plague aside).

by jlmanager at 04/07/09 9:28PM
Sounds like you're busy! That's a good way to be. If you ever need a break, Chicago is beautiful this time of year (aside from the occasional snows).

by wifelet at 04/08/09 8:45AM
yeah it has been a long time! If you let me know when you're in Nashville, we can hang out sometime!

by lilsis at 04/08/09 10:40AM
I happen to like nice men...

by ice_queen at 04/09/09 8:51PM
...either we're on Olive's brow, or a giant is about to squish us all...

by dwatkins at 04/13/09 11:31PM

02/11/09 11:35PM

Fish--and houseguests--stink after three days, as they say.

According to Katie, so does my blog.

What can I tell you? Life goes on in the outside world, much as it has this past age, scarcely aware even of the existence of hobbits (for which I am very thankful).

Everything's fine here, situation normal. We've had a slight...weapons malfunction...but we're all fine here now, thank you.

How are you?

Wow, yours and Katie's blogs have just been so profound lately.

by lastoflakewood at 02/12/09 12:35AM
three days? You mean months? wait, no, that's five months...

by mjintexas at 02/12/09 10:02AM
Houseguests stink after three days. What are you trying to say about me? I thought I had bad BO, but I did not think it was that bad!

by steroid_steve at 02/12/09 10:34AM
we're sending a squad up

by bryanboyd at 02/12/09 4:38PM
Boring conversation anyway.

by nickomundo at 02/12/09 8:43PM
Uh, oh. We stayed longer than 3 days, didn't we?

by harbermama at 02/13/09 9:11PM
At least you got a Star Wars quote in there. That at least makes it worth a scan. :)

by jlmanager at 02/14/09 7:12AM
Hi from Jerusalem!!

by mamap at 02/23/09 1:13PM
Rats. The Star Wars quote has already been responded to.

by dr_corndog at 02/23/09 9:39PM
i agree with you matt, he has not been good on anything. conan was pretty similar back in the early 90's though. he almost got kicked off the air a couple of times due to low ratings, and just being bad.

by natethegreat at 02/28/09 9:23AM
this made me smile; i'm well, thanks and it sounds like you are too!

by rosemary at 03/03/09 7:28PM

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weekend update

Your score: 15 out of 16

overheard today

add new weblog entry

02/11/09 11:35PM

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