THE BOOKSHELF.........

Tonight Cherith built a new bookshelf for us. I watched! Yes, you heard, i watched. I threw out the empty packaging and made sure the camera was pointed in the right direction.......



Truth is, i am crap at building things, Cherith is very good at it and loves the challenge. She insisted that i did not help!! The bookshelf is better off without my contribution, trust me!

Big shout out Sunday no 3...........

I guess my first 'Big Shout Out Sunday' perhaps should have been to my wife! Oh well, circumstances dictated that it wasn't so here goes on no:3! My wife Cherith! I think she was, at first, very skeptical of my blogging but as time passed and she saw the wonderful addition that a blog can be to one's life she felt the need to get involved in this beautiful web world! Its pretty cool to share that interest now and i have to say she manages to always find cooler and better web stories than i could ever imagine. As she scans through Google Reader i always respond to her viewing with "wow what site is that on" or "oh send me that link." It is rarely the other way around!! Check out one of her latest brilliant finds here, its hilarious!
My wife blogs via Tumblr. Visit Cherith's Blog here

Train adventure Tuesday..........

This morning we hopped on the train at 8am and sped to Belfast. Cherith went shopping and i switched trains to hit our warehouse for a web/online meeting. I may blog about that soon! Anyway i was done at lunch time so i zoomed back into the city and met Cherith for lunch and some shopping! Truth is, she had already shopped herself into the ground and i was tired and didn't see anything i wanted so we didn't hang around too long. We had a fun day anyway and the train ride was a hoot



Cherith will no doubt upload some pics of her purchases here, go take a look!

Disclaimer: 'Train adventure Tuesday' will not be a recurring post, maybe, perhaps!

Whats that on our coffee table.....

When i got home today my wife had one of these waiting for me!

The "truth" about the Internet........

The ongoing evolution of the web is fascinating, the possibilities seem endless and dont we all wonder how it works? the answer from The Hugh Grant Squid Test

"The internet is made up of millions of brass pipes connecting huge underground reservoirs full of facts, ideas and nonsense. Information is pushed around the system using enormous steam-powered pumps.
Although it has been around less than a generation, the internet is now more than three times the size of Jesus. It continues to expand at the rate of two a year.

Here are most popular things people do on the internet (not counting looking at naked people):
1) finding recipes for teriyaki salmon
2) hiding
3) downloading morris dancers
4) origami
5) changing foreign currency
6) learning about bats
7) making smells
8) posting photographs of holidays in Suffolk
9) conducting séances"

H/T ubercherryred

Dig Lazarus Dig part 2.........................

I posted the wonderful video for this album's title track here the other day. All i said was, that the album is great. So, i have said a few times that my wife has a great blog and yet again she has written a great post about how we ended up with this album and, well, go read it here. Also, in other blog news, today is our BlogFather who art in Tennessee's birthday, so Happy Birthday Randy! I should say in relation to Randy that when my Brothers were in Nashville at GMA, Glenn from Downhereintroduced stevo to Randy as "stephen simpson from ireland," to which Randy is alleged to have said "oh wow, you are supersimbo's brother," he then proceeded to twitter me to let me know he was talking to them! I love web 2.0!

My Wife...............

Sometimes my Wife takes great photo's



and often she writes a great blog

Embryo Bill...................

When we first heard about the Governments proposed Embryo Bill, Cherith jokingly asked who Embryo Bill was? That has been a running joke for a week or two now BUT the bill has yet to be passed and as expected the research has begun anyway. I was not surprised and would fully expect that this stuff has been going on for quite a while but the powers that be have just decided it was time to tell us what they were up to! So, at first when i saw this news story yesterday i thought it was an April fool's joke but apparently its not and anyway, the BBC wouldn't joke about this would they?
Well, here is the story; Scientists at Newcastle University have created part-human, part-animal hybrid embryos for the first time in the UK. The embryos survived for up to three days and are part of medical research into a range of illnesses. It comes a month before MPs are to debate the future of such research. The Catholic Church describes it as "monstrous". But medical bodies and patient groups say such research is vital for our understanding of disease. They argue that the work could pave the way for new treatments for conditions such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Heres the full story

So, what do we think? What is your position?

Cherith won.........

Click here

Death by Coffee..........

Sometimes i just do not know when to behave! I am not talking about drug binges or wild parties (yawn) but instead i speak of the drug commonly known as coffee. I'll paint the picture for you. This morning i had a sore stomach, this is not strange for me at all, in fact its a regular ailment along with my back trouble (im 30, not 60). So i figure the best way to counter a sore stomach and a rather "loose" bowel movement is to avoid coffee until i am feeling a bit more "solid" if you get what i am saying?
I went out to get a newspaper this morning and as i passed Starbucks i seemed to involuntarily drift in the door and within a few short minutes i was leaving with a Grande Americano! Weird eh! It tasted great as it always does. The stomach cramps that dominated my afternoon were not so good but did i say the coffee was great?
The best part is i came out of work tonight and told Cherith i had a jippy stomach and i couldn't figure out what had caused it! I genuinely had managed to convince myself momentarily that it was not the coffee, as i will do tomorrow morning when i say.....

"Grande americano with an extra shot & room for milk to go please......"

Sunday.........

I thought i would very simply describe some of our sunday routine in this post instead of my usual profound and monumental wisdom. We usually arise at around 9am on sundays, eat some breakfast and catch some of a BBC show called The Big Question. Each show is a Live debate on a few "Big Questions" that are current & topical issues. They usually include one "spiritual" topic. Maybe i will blog more detailed info on it another day. We then get ourselves gathered together and head off to Church & the 11.30 service. Our Church has 2 morning services in the winter months so we obviously choose the later of the two due to my inability to get out of bed before 9am on a sunday! Its a physical condition that restricts me getting up! We the arrive home, eat some lunch (today we had some pasta) and chill out.
This afternoon, chilling out involved watching a film called Zodiac which whilst a great movie was incredibly long, Or at least we thought so! At around 6pm we rock on out to Church again for the evening service and then come home, eat some food and hang out until bedtime! Cherith's parents were here this evening after Church so that was kinda cool to hang out with them.
And thats that really.

The most important thing for us about Sunday is that it is Sabbath. We are both off work and we go to Church twice and we get to rest and relax and spend time together. I think we manage to do all that Sabbath should include and for us thats good.

Over & out for now. What do you do on sunday?

First activities of 2008

The previous post is only a partial dive into my thoughts. I do not really believe that "nothing changes on new years day" but for the most part that is accurate! Nothing really does change that much does it?
We had a very relaxed Christmas together, just the two of us cooking dinner and chilling out. I was back to work on thursday and suddenly realized that it was going to be deathly quiet for a day or two. Our business drops to a near standstill for a couple of weeks as people get back to some semblance of normality. Anyway, lets fast forward to monday and new years eve! We had both been suffering from the cold and had decided that it was best to stay home. The invitation we had received was some close friends who as it happened were also feeling under the weather so it was best for everyone. I cooked dinner and we chilled! I made a remark on twitter the other day about how i always seem to be "chillaxin" and I'm starting to feel guilty about that! Its true!
Jools Holland's hootenanny was a little bit of a disappointment this year besides Paul McCartney performing with Kylie Minogue, that was pretty cool. Instead we watched a countdown of "Best Ever Movies of the 80's." It was cool to look back at some of the movies that shaped my childhood and laugh at how dated they looked. Back to the Future was no.1 on the list, it had to be didn't it? And then time drifted at the usual pace from 2007 into 2008 and in our home there was no dropping of any balls!!
Today we went to Tesco which was terribly quiet in comparison to this time last week, had some Starbucks and bought some food. Donna and John have just left, it was cool to see them and hang out for a couple of hours. During their stay i got a text message about John D (a different john from the one who was sitting in our house) to say that he was suicidal again, really bad. It was then that i felt guilty again, about chilling, relaxing and about my comfortable life. It breaks my heart about this guy, i can only pray but sometimes that feels so useless.
So, 2008 begins and i do feel again like all the fuss, all the fireworks and all the parties are such a false and pathetic way of life. Some people are still in the same crap right now as they were 24 hours ago in 2007. Their lives will not get better in 2008, they may in fact get worse. I feel like yelling really loudly, like i need to release my frustration with all this. I will gain some perspective in a few moments when i flip down my laptop, tell Cherith what i blogged about and then she will give me a good talking to. She tends to dish out the wisdom at the most vital moments.

And thats that! Tomorrow is another day, i hope John sees it and i hope that Grace and Peace abound in his life.
I hope that in 2008 i can be more creative than ever, less anxious than ever and that this blog can surpass all my expectations. I have none so that will be easy! Onwards and upwards, Happy New Year.