How come I am the shortest?

Here is a picture of me and my brothers. Eric is in the middle and it was his wedding that got us all dressed up.

Me and Katie in the San Diego Sun

Here is a picture of us at my little brother's wedding in San Diego, December 31, 2005.

In Memory of Molly

What can I say about Molly (shown here with Katie's Uncle Ned)? How can I pay tribute to my favorite dog ever? I first met Molly on December 25, 2003. After an early morning flight from Seattle to Sacramento, finding out my luggage was lost, then driving from Sac to Pleasanton to have my first Christmas with Katie's family, I was greeted upon arrival by Molly. Her bark of greeting, curious nature, excellent hosting skills (always on her best behavior when guests were present), deep brown eyes and perfectly cuddly fur were a great comfort and always a highlight of a visit to Uncle Ned and Aunt Judy's house. From that moment, through yesterday when she went to meet her Creator on her 14th birthday and on until I see her again, Molly has been, is and will always be my favorite dog.

Molly was a reminder of God's love to those of us lucky enough to know her. God used Molly to bring smiles to a lot of faces during her 14 years on Earth. And while I am sure that the place where she is buried in the backyard will be watered with a few of our tears, the smiles she produced will last forever-literally.

When someone we love dies, we are suddenly consumed with the wideness of God's mercy and grace and we hope with all that we have that we will see them again someday. I haven't yet been to seminary. I don't know what proper doctrine is regarding animals in Heaven and I certainly don't know what you, the reader of this blog, believe. What I do know is that dogs and humans were created on the sixth day together. And after creating the animals God "saw that it was good." And so I hope to see her again someday and picture her right now running through the only backyard that has more beautiful roses than the one she explored here on Earth and hearing all kinds of beautiful sounds and joining in the praise herself.

We miss you Molly-dog!

Someone I Like Saying Something I Agree With

Ira Glass (host of PRI's This American Life) on TiVo:

"Married people always want you to get married, people with kids always think you'll be happier with kids, and TiVo owners always believe your life won't truly begin until the day you get TiVo. God knows I believe that. I love TiVo. We actually have two TiVo boxes in my house, hooked up to our one TV. TiVo is based on an idea that doesn't sound so radically life-transforming when you first hear it. You tell a machine what TV shows you like, and it records every episode of them for you. Then when you come home at night, there's a whole list of episodes of The Family Guy you can watch, there's last night's Daily Show, there's every episode of Celebrity Poker Showdown. TV itself is transformed, from a blur of channels you flip through – most of them lousy – to a concise and hope-inspiring list of shows you actually enjoy. Which means that every time you turn on the TV, there's something good on! Always! Every single time! That dramatically changes your life for the better, in ways my sad TiVo-less friends can't even imagine. I'm such a corny and boosterish TiVo user that I've bought it as a present for friends and family. I shouldn't be here endorsing it at all. Yes, they're our newest sponsor but they didn't ask me to write this and they're not paying me for it or anything and actually, I think it's sort of unbecoming for a public radio host to endorse any product. But here I am. I love TiVo. You're nuts if you don't get one. That's what I truly believe and I'm happy to tell the world." – Ira