OK, the weekend of insanity has finally come to a close. I will try to re-cap, but please forgive me if I leave out a thing or 3.

Friday afternoon, we went to the house where Michelle nannies, and hooked up with the kids. Mom and dad were on their way out the door, headed to Connecticut. We hung out there for a while, and then left for Nashville to go to the Valentine's party. I thought the party started at 6:00, but it started at 6:30, so we were way early. This wasn't too bad, because I was able to talk with the musician (one-man jazz act) for a while. He was really cool. He played a huge Epiphone 6-string electric, similar to the axe Brian Setzer of the Stray Cats plays.

We enjoyed a decent meal, and some great company, and the party. Unfortunately, Michelle did not enjoy herself as much as she could have, because she was really worried about the kids. We had left them with their older brother, and we weren't real sure of how that was going to work out. We stayed for about 30 minutes after dinner, and then left. It was sort of weird being the first there, and the first to leave. I gave the musician a wave as we exited, and he tried to wave back, but was in the middle of a song, so it kind of messed him up. I got a kick out of that. He plays regularly at a club in Nashville, although I forgot the name of it. I remember he said it is behind Jim Reed Chevrolet on Broadway, so it should not be too hard to find. We will have to check it out. A friend at the party said that club has the best veal in the city, which is kind of weird, because if you remember from Godfather I, the restaurant where Michael Corleone killed the police captain was reputed to have the best veal in the city as well. I found it strange my friend, who is a minister, would say the same thing about this jazz club. Hmmm.

Anyway, we got back home to find everything was OK. We put the kids to bed, and tried to relax a bit.

Saturday found me up before the rooster. I had a meeting in Nashville at 9:00, and I had to meet one of my youth at the church to pick her up. Fortunately, she and I were both early, so we got off to a good start. We stopped for coffee, and she combined her cappuccino with a bag of Cheetos. Very strange. It was kind of neat to be able to see the sun rise as I was leaving Clarksville. There was a time in my life when I saw plenty of sunrises, but unfortunately I was usually coming home from a night of heavy drinking so I was not able to fully appreciate them.

The meeting was rather long, but we got a lot done, so I guess it was productive. We were planning the spring youth retreat for this March. I will be giving the message on Friday night. It will kind of nice to get the bulk of my work out of the way early, so I can better enjoy the weekend. On the Saturday during recreation time, I will be coordinating a ping-pong tournament. That should be a lot of fun. There is also a craft project during that time, and I think Michelle may end up helping with that.

After the meeting, then lunch, I came back home. Michelle was not feeling well, so I hung out with the kids while she took a nap. I squelched a couple of arguments, and we all had fun during the afternoon. The cable guy showed up to install high speed internet, and he was sort of a goof-ball. He got it installed, but only after eating half the cookies Michelle and the kids had made earlier. LOL.

Saturday night, we went to Toys R Us, then Chuck E. Cheese's. James (one of the kids) had been named "Star of the Week" at his school, so we promised him some special treats. He and his sister got some stuff at TRU, including a set of Star Wars light sabers. Needless to say, there have been some epic battles in the past couple of days. We also had tons of fun at Chuck's. We parlayed our tickets into two whoopee cushions. One of them developed a hole before we got home, but the other one is still blowing, if you get my drift. LOL.

Sunday, we took all three kids to church, and they were great. Unfortunately, these kids do not attend church regularly, so it was nice to be able to do that for them. Elizabeth had an important question for the minister after the service. She asked "If God made everybody, and everything else, WHO MADE GOD"? I thought that was really neat since last summer at Junior Camp (4th-6th graders), a kid asked the same question. Elizabeth is in Kindergarten. WOW. Anyway, I told her that before God made everything, he made himself. She said that didn't make any sense, and wanted to know what really happened. I told her that I wasn't smart enough o figure that out, and that since she is smarter than me, she could work on it. She liked that idea, and then went to play on the playground. LOL. The kids had a great experience, so that was nice. It turns out that Parker, the oldest kid, (16 years old) is hanging out with some of the kids from the Clarksville church. It was cool to discover that. I think he is going to come to the retreat, so that is awesome.

Overall, I felt the commercials were collectively among the worst ever. There were only a few that I actually liked, and several that made me want to puke. Sir Paul's halftime entertainmet was excellent, if not a bit understated. I think the NFL severely over-reacted to Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction. The commericals and Paul's show were as sterile as a hospital room. I think the NFL has missed the boat, and I think the fact that the viewership being down about 5% from last year is proof of that. People want to be entertained, and they do not want some group from on-high to tell them what do and do not want to see.

After church, we had dinner on the grounds, as our denomination celebrated its 195th birthday on 2-4-05. The meal was nice, and afterwards we headed home.

I tried to relax a bit before the game, but that was impossible. Phil Mickelson was in the lead of the golf tournament, and since Tiger wasn't in the field, I wanted Lefty to win. He is Kent's favorite golfer. He won the tournament by 5 strokes, so that was cool.

I grilled some steaks (not without some technical assistance from my dad) for dinner. I had never used a gas grill, and I had never grilled filets before either. Everything turned out fine, and with the vegetable medley Michelle whipped up, we had a great dinner. We watched the game, and I almost predicted the score correctly. I was glad the Pats won. They are a tremendous team. The team of the decade so far, without question. It's funny how football has had teams of the decade, going all the way back to at to least the 50's.

40s: Bears (4 championships)
50s: Lions and Browns (3 championships each)
60s: Packers (1 championship and 2 Super Bowl wins)
70s: Steelers (4 Super Bowl wins)
80s: 49ers (4 Super Bowl wins) (with the Redskins close behind with 3 SB wins)
90s: Cowboys (3 Super Bowl wins)
Oughts: Patriots (3 Super Bowl wins)

In the hub-bub Sunday, we forgot that our engagement announcement was in Sunday's newspaper. My mother told me that several people at her church had clipped the picture, and that was touching. We stopped by the paper's office today to see if they had some extra copies of yesterday's paper. When we were at the front desk, it didn't look like we were going to get anywhere with the secretary until Ruth Stryjewski came by. She worked in my dad's area for a long time, and she introduced me to the secretary as "Mike Winn's son". As soon as she said that, the secretary changed her tune, and all of a sudden it was closer to "What may I do for you today?", and suddenly there were about 5 copies of yesterday's paper in front of me. LOL. I don't think I was going to drop my dad's name, so I was glad that Ruth did it for me. LOL. Anyway, we got five copies of the paper to distribute to those who may have missed it.

Today, we ate lunch at the Front Page Deli. I had won a certificate worth $20 on the radio, so we ordered nice food like it was considerably cheaper food. We had a good time nonetheless.

After lunch, we me the kids at home, and helped them with their homework. James went to Sylvan later, and he must have done well, because he won a prize. We celebrated afterward with Michael's pizza. As we were eating, the parents got home. Everyone was glad to see them. After we briefed them of the weekend's events, we went home to recover. It is safe to say that we are both physically and mentally exhausted. LOL. Please shed a tear for us...LOL.

Tomorrow, we are going to the gym to work out some stress.

I hope everyone has a wonderful evening. Peace...