U2 Recap #1

Let me just prepare you all for numerous blogs about the U2 concert I just attended. Bear with me...I have much to say.

Here's the set...

City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
Electric Co.
The Ocean
I Still Haven’t Found
Beautiful Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride in the Name of Love
Where the Streets have no Name
One
The First Time
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
Angel Of Harlem
With or Without You
All Because of You
Yahweh
40

Well, I'm going to see U2 tonight. Hope they don't sound too much like Tomlin.

Just a little note...PBS is running one of my favorite shows from last season on Friday nights now. It's called Spy and it's amazing. On Houston PBS, it's running Friday nights at 10p.

I was driving to lunch with Kristen and Jonah today and I noticed one of those produce signs. You know the ones I’m talking about; those hand-painted pieces of plywood with giant stenciled letters. In this particular case today, the sign was on the side of the street headed south on Timberland right by a bank:

P E A S

Now here’s my question. What sort of information is this sign supposed to communicate?

Where are the peas?
Who is selling them?
How much do they cost?
What kind of peas are they?

Normally, you see a sign like that on the side of the road, you at least can see the weathered old man sitting under an umbrella on his tailgate. You have a location at least.

But not today, just

P E A S

Okay, so I totally lifted this off Danielle Beck's blog, www.daniellebeck.blogspot.com. It was too great to pass for those of you who may check this blog, but not hers. She's got some other pictures that are just as great, so go check out her site.

Although I don't have a lot of free time, I have been especially glad to spend some time on songwriting the past few days. I have a song I wrote a few months ago called "You Gave Sight" that I just did an acoustic/vocal demo on. It's a really simple recording of a really simple song. I've done the song in worship some, but it's never gone over that well. However, I LOVE singing it. It sounds really good in E 'cause I can wail on it, but I've dropped it down to D for congregational reasons.

Hopefully, I can link you all to an mp3 soon and you can tell me what you think.

There are some other songs in the works, many with promise unfulfilled. Can't wait to finish them and pass them around!

Spent about thirty minutes learning and charting Andrew Peterson's Labor of Love for a Christmas performance. What an unbelievable song. The more I listen to this record, the more I love it. This could be one of my top five records of all time. It's that good.

Seriously, guys. If you read this blog, you should go out and buy Andrew Peterson's album Behold the Lamb of God. It will not disappoint.

Here are my top five records of all time.

5. Allison Krause and Union Station - So Long, So Wrong
The best acoustic guitar tone recorded on disc to date.
4. U2 - The Joshua Tree
My awakening - realizing that, in fact, The Edge was what I had been looking for.
3. Paul Baloche - God of Wonders
Most creative worship songs Integrity's ever put out.
2. Andrew Peterson - Behold the Lamb of God
Inspires me to worship like nothing I've ever heard.
1. Steven Curtis Chapman - For The Sake of the Call
This record made me want to be a songwriter.

So, what's your five?

Todd's Top Ten Lance Burch Moments

10) Missing the stake at prayer rally around loop

9) The fight with Eddie Bostick

8) Lip-synching when he didn’t know the words (“Girl, You Know It’s True”)

7) The Dance (getting shot in “Girl, You Know It’s True”)

6) His seething hatred for cockroaches (slinging a sandal across the room)

5) Wearing a gas mask and stepping through the ceiling

4) The Spontaneous Game Song

3) Going into McDonald’s dressed as an astronaut and actually standing in line behind someone
who worked for NASA

2) Elephant Battle Royale

1) Verbal rape

How is it that Kenny Loggins got the nod for the big single on the Top Gun soundtrack? I mean, has Kenny Loggins ever been a rocker? The only thing I've ever heard is that Pooh Corner junk.

Update on Krist

Kristen went to her ob/gyn this morning. Unfortunately, they want her to stay on bed-rest. I appreciate the fact that we're going to continue to be cautious, but this will cause some restructuring of our lives.

Please pray that God will help us in scheduling folks to sit with Kristen FOR THE NEXT four and a half months! This will also create a bit of financial strain on us, but we know that God is faithful!

Kristen Update

Saw a fetal medicine specialist today (Dr. Brian Kirshon.)

At this point, Dr. Kirshon believes that the elevated protein levels are being caused by Kristen's kidneys, NOT the pregnancy. This could either be a "fluke," or a symptom of a renal problem that will need to be addressed after the baby is born. (Our ob/gyn in Lufkin holds the same theory.)

To address the kidney issue now would require doing a biopsy on the kidney itself which is something nobody wants to do on a pregnant woman. In fact, Dr. Kirshon said that even in a non-pregnant person, it's still a pretty tricky procedure.

Thursday, Kristen will take another 24 hour urine collection to have a more accurate of the protein levels. Dr. Kirshon said he was "cautiously optimistic" that Krist will be able to carry the baby up until the 37th or 38th week, but both he and Dr. Suiter here in town plan to watch her like a hawk.

Krist is still concerned, due to the fact that the last doctor we had said she was going to be fine and then she had a seizure. (Upon hearing Kristen's story this afternoon, Dr. Kirshon told us we were lucky that both Kristen and Jonah were alive.)

At this point, Kristen in on temporary bed-rest until the two doctors can consult each other. However, we were really glad to hear a positive report today.

Thank you for praying. We believe that God truly stepped into our situation today and protected us all. Please keep praying as our lives are still going to be a bit topsy-turvy over the next few months.

Sunday 10/9/05

Sing to the King (Foote)
You Are Welcome Here (Foote)
King of Mercy (Wright)
Beauty of the Lord (Anderson)
Come Ye Sinners (Hart)
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (Whoever wrote that...)

Pretty good set. King of Mercy to Beauty of the Lord didn't work out. Piano didn't hear drums count off, so it was weird there at the beginning. Also since they were in E and A, I probably could have run them back to back. I try to do the praying thing, but scripture might have worked better.

Update

Well, we've had an exciting couple days around the Wright house. Here's the basics:

On Thursday, Kristen's doctor called and said she was concerned about the amount of protein in Kristen's 24-hour urine test. (Sorry, Krist...gotta' let folks know.)

This is typically a sympton of pre-eclampsia. As most of you may remember, Kristen had some eclamptic symptoms with Jonah back in 2002, which jumped from maybe-eclampsia to a full blown eclamptic seizure on New Year's Day.

Krist's doctor has been great - watching her like a hawk, being overly cautious, the whole thing. So, when she called Kristen, Dr. Suiter said we needed to go to Houston to see a fetal medicine specialist on Tuesday.

High blood pressure and protein in the urine are typically signature signs of eclampsia and if the doctor in Houston believes it so, it's possible we would have to take the baby early. This early in the pregnancy that could be bad, perhaps fatal for the baby.

It's also possible that Kristen's elevated ANA levels are causing her kidneys to do weird things and throw everything off. (I have no idea what this means. That's just what they told us.)

Nonetheless, Kristen is on bed-rest indefinitely and we're headed to Houston on Tuesday. Here's what we're asking for in the way of prayer...

1. Peace - Kristen and I are both very concerned. Our doctor here is probably being overly cautious, but the fact is that there's a 90% possibilty that caution is warranted. Pray that our sleep will be sound and our mornings filled with hope.
2. Healing - Our hearts ache for this little one to be okay. We believe that God is sovereign and that His power is more than enough to heal both Kristen and the baby. Pray that "my girls" will be spared through all of this.
3. Support - If Krist is put on exteneded bed-rest, she will have to quit the job at the school. This will be a financial strain. Secondly, with as much time as I put in at the church, this will require numerous volunteers to help prepare meals, care for Jonah, etc. Pray for organizationa and peace in our home.

Thanks. I'll try to updated everybody Tuesday evening.

Questions

1. Is it just one big experiment, as Jack believes? Is somebody trying to see how long a person will “push the button?”

2. We know that Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez) was at the airport (shared a drink with Jack,) but we don’t know for sure that she was on the plane. Perhaps she’s some sort of watchdog/observer?

3. When Desmond is gathering his gear to leave, there was a quick shot of a book on his bed. All I could make out was “The _____ Policeman.” What was that second word? And maybe it’s the poor quality of my screen, but I could have sworn I saw the words “plane crash” as a subtitle on the cover of the book. Anybody else see this?

4. Have a friend who said the wealthy industrialist/munitions baron (can’t remember name) looked like Locke’s father. I didn’t think so, but does anybody else have a theory?

5. I had a theory all last season that Jin knew English! Anybody agree?

6. So, are the people of 815 ALL there for a reason or have they accidentally stumbled onto something?

7. Any theories on the medicine that Desmond took with him? Does he need it or does that keep him nuts?

So Daniel Rowe thinks that Alias kills Lost, huh?

Listen, I totally understand the Jennifer Garner thing. Believe me, I understand. Totally.

My wife and I used to keep up with Alias. We loved it. But here's where Alias went wrong. You can't try to drop a gigantic bombshell every two episodes. Hey, we all like the big season finale where somebody isn't who they say they are or the bad guys kill the hottie, but you gotta' space them out.

Oh, Sydney's pregnant. Oh, Vaughn's not Vaughn. Oh, dad is really Arvin Sloane who really is Dixon's long lost homosexual lover.

Give us the action. Give Garner. But quit trying to make us gasp. That's already being handled by Lost.

Once again, www.larknews.com has brought much needed laughter into my life. Best part of this month's issue...the Rod Stewart ad at the top.

What's In A Name?

Hi. I just want to throw this out there. Not necessarily because any of my readers have done it, but what good is a blog if you can’t get a little made every once in awhile, right?

So here it is – here’s the big lesson. Here’s the big tip from Todd to the world, okay?

The next time you ask a mother or father-to be what they’re going to name their child, you say you like it. Even if you don’t.

Don’t look at us disgusted. Don’t simply repeat the name and change the subject. Don’t sit there in complete silence.

If you’re a parent, you know this. You spend hours thinking about names, trying your best to discover who this child is. After all of that reading, all that remembering of family names, all that discussion between a husband and wife about how excited they are to have a child, you want people to celebrate with you. You want people to respect you.

Do you know how many stupid names I’ve heard over the years? Hundreds. One time a friend of mine decided he was gonna’ name his kid “Jotham.” Yeah, Jotham. Ever heard that one? Well, me neither. But you know what I did when he asked me if I liked it.

I said yes. Why? Because having a child – creating a life – is one of the most wondrous experiences a person can have. Who am I to criticize how a person chooses to celebrate one God’s most amazing gifts?

If you’re prepared to ask what names we like, then be prepared to lie.
If you’re not capable of that, mind your own business.

What’s the lifespan of a suit?I don’t wear a lot of suits. In fact, the last suite I wore was two years ago for US District jury duty.

But as I walked into the courthouse the other day, I wondered about it. I was walking behind this man in a light blue suite with tiny white pinstripes. I never saw the front of the outfit, but it seemed pretty old.

Now, we all know old men wear old stuff. But for guys my age, how long to you keep a suit in the rotation? What are the guidelines for pulling a suit from the roster?