joy day

I was looking for my long lost Apple® iPod Shuffle^™ this morning, and I found it in my briefcase. This was a great relief because I'm going to India in a few weeks, and there will be two 12-hour flights. So the day was off to a good start.

The younger teen and I drove to our church's north campus. I had an assignment to fill in for someone in the "connections center" who called in sick. We heard a great sermon, then I stood behind the table at the connections center....

"Is there anything here about the Guatemala missions trip?" someone asked. I knew I'd seen something like that...

"Ah-HA!" I cried, pouncing upon the stack of information sheets. "When somebody asks something and I actually know the answer, well, I tell ya, that's a good day," I said. We had a nice if brief chat.

A familiar face appeared. John, our senior pastor, was traveling almost-incognito. Well, he didn't have a mask or anything, but he wasn't wearing a tie -- not even long sleeves.

"Are you new here?" I asked.

He gave me a grin. "I'm new here," he said. Usually he hangs out at the main campus in Menlo Park.

"We've got a great sermon for you today," I told him. "I think you'll like it."

"I know there's a great one this week!" he replied. (John's wife, Nancy, gave the sermon this weekend.)

Carol was teaching something at the "main campus" (which is why she didn't come with us to the north campus). Anyway, we drove down to the main campus -- the younger teen drove (we are making good progress toward however many hours she needs in order to get licensed). She went to her strive group, and I went to hear Carol's training thing.

I sat with Carol on a couch while the first speaker did her part. It was about listening, and though she did talk a little about techniques, she first talked about how you have to have the DESIRE to listen, the COMMITMENT to do so whether you feel like it or not, and the PATIENCE not to jump in too soon with advice or whatever. We were supposed to do an exercise. The speaker wanted us to pair up, but she looked at us and said, "I see you snuggling over there; you can't be partners for this."

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

After a while, it was time to pick up the younger teen from her Strive group. We stopped by the store, where I picked up some meat. Last night we had 20-25 people over for an event. I put lots of rice (LOTS of rice) into the rice cooker, so I'm feeling the urge to use up the left-over rice.

We got home, and I cut up sausage, sliced some cabbage really thin, and made some fried rice for a snack. Here's the deal.

• Shred
  • ¼ head of cabbage
  and set aside.
• Take about
  • ½ a hot dog's worth of sausage
  and slice/dice/whatever. Make little pieces out of it.
• Pour
  • oil
  into a wok on high heat, then stir-fry
  • the shredded cabbage
  reserved above.
• Add the
  • chopped sausage
  and continue stir-frying.
• Break
  • an egg
  into the wok and continue stir frying.
• Add
  • cooked rice to taste
  (maybe a cup or two) and continue stir-frying.
• Sprinkle
  • soy sauce
  sparingly and continue stir frying until the fried rice is warmed throughout.

That makes 1-2 servings. Of course you can add whatever else you want. (You could use ½ head of cabbage if it's a small one.)

I ate some, and offered some to the younger teen. We finished it off quite nicely, thank you. I put some chili on, following two different recipes (I'm not going to reproduce them here; too lazy). Chili+rice is a favorite Hawaiian treat.

I can smell the chili from the kitchen. I have a beer in the fridge, my younger teen is here in the den with me, the lovely Carol is home (taking a nap), the older teen is coming home Wednesday evening, and my parents are coming tomorrow evening.

Happy day!