Darryl's Blog
September 2005 Archives
It would be so much better to send a message to me in the past, like, "Buy these lotto numbers" or "Don't eat the chili before you go to bed," or, "Don't buy that dog." For now, I'll have to settle for sending messages to my future.
Via Lifehacker
eHub is a constantly updated list of web applications, services, resources, blogs or sites with a focus on next generation web (web 2.0), social software, blogging, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, location mapping, open source, folksonomy, design and digital media sharing.
Some cool stuff here. (Via Seth Godin.)
I'm checking out Trumba, an online calendar. I'll let you know what I think. If you want to check it out, you get 60 free days. Enter TrumbaFriend as the promo code if you decide to buy, and you'll get an additional account for free.
My friend Sandy is raving about Pandora:
I can't remember when I've been so excited by a Web tool, or so willing to pay to keep it. I paid the $36 required for a year's subscription, and spent the afternoon listening to my personal radio channels.
I'll have to give that a try too.
The Gospel Witness, publication of historic Jarvis Street Baptist Church in Toronto, has published an article on the Emerging Church by the senior pastor, Glendon Thompson. The article is not as negative as I would have predicted.
News of the emerging church may not be welcomed among evangelicals, tired of the endless stream of suspicious theological and ecclesiastical movements. But there are at least two reasons that advocates of the emerging church deserve a hearing: (1) they are anxious for a reformation of the church, a strong desire shared by many well-meaning Christians; (2) they have managed to return an all-important question to the forefront of the church's agenda: how should the church respond to our postmodern culture?
Thompson critiques the emerging church along three lines: it is driven by cultural relevancy; it overemphasizes conversation and de-emphasizes objective truth; and emphasizes experience and emotionalism.
The article concludes with a call to relevancy ("Let's make every effort to translate biblical truth into the language of the day") and authentic Christian living.
Not a bad little piece in all. It's another example of the appreciative but somewhat wary stance toward the emerging church taken by some in Reformed circles.
You're 50 now so it's probably time to settle down and pop the question.
Jesus always seemed to be doing two things: asking questions and telling stories. Christians always seem to be doing two other things: giving answers and "preaching." (Becky Pippert)
I'm speaking on Luke 4 this week. The passage is about Jesus stating his life's work: to bless those we don't expect, those in the margins - the poor, the oppressed, the very people that religious people tend to overlook.
I pulled out my friend Rick's book because it is bang on.
After years in the church, I began to see that underneath those shiny suits and happy smiles were people just like me who were broken and sinful and desperately in need of acceptance and love and forgiveness. But for the first ten years of following Jesus, I tried to fit in with this consumer church culture, and it just didn't work. I was still a marginalized kid. I was the redheaded cousin nobody wants to take credit for: I made it into the family, but only on a fluke.
...[Jesus is] a friend of sinners. He's there in the margins with the average Joe, with people whose lives are broken and tattered and sinful. People who have had horrible things happen to them and done horrible things back.
It's a great book on what it might look like to follow Jesus into the margins. I'll be reading it again tonight.
Update: Rick is speaking at Mosaic, a church planting conference in Toronto in November. This from a guy who swore to me he would never come to Canada. We're planning on taking him out for beaver and maple syrup and all the other food he thinks we eat up here.
Thanks to Brian for the idea.
A prayer by Tozer:
Help me to remember that I am prophet not a promoter, not a religious manager, but a prophet. Let me never become a slave to the crowds. Heal my soul of carnal ambitions and deliver me from the itch for publicity. Save me from bondage to things... Lay Thy terror upon me, O God, and drive me to the place of prayer where I may wrestle with principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world... Teach me self-discipline that I may be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
I accept hard work and small rewards in this life. I ask for no easy place. I shall try to be blind to the little ways that could make life easier. If others seek the smoother path I shall try to take the hard way without judging them too harshly. I shall expect opposition and try to take it quietly when it comes. Or, if, as sometimes it falleth out to Thy servants, I should have grateful gifts pressed upon me by Thy kindly people, stand by me then and save me from the blight that often follows. Teach me to use whatever I receive in such manner that will not injure my soul nor diminish my spiritual power. And, if in Thy permissive providence honor should come to me from Thy church, let me not forget in that hour I am unworthy of the least of Thy mercies, and that if men knew me as intimately as I know myself they would withhold their honors or bestow them upon others more worthy to receive them. (A.W. Tozer, The Prayer of a Minor Prophet)
(Via CampOnThis.)
We attempted to tackle the question "What is church?" In order to do that we broke down multiple elements of the church. Elements like...worship, teaching, fellowship, evangelism, facility, etc.
I challenged their thinking on why and how they go about these church tasks. Here is a brief synopsis of the tasks and my challenges that we discussed.
Get Smart TV star Don Adams dies:
Actor Don Adams, best known as bumbling spy Maxwell Smart in 1960s TV spy spoof Get Smart, has died at the age of 82.
My love of gadgets just might have been started by this guy. Of course, most of them work about as well as the Cone of Silence. Those of you too young to know what I'm talking about (hello Matt!) just missed out.
TORONTO - Buddy the dog has lost a crucial ally in his losing bid to stay at the Dash house.
Josiah Dash announced his decision yesterday by drawing a picture of Buddy on a blackboard, and marking a giant X through the picture.
The defection followed another incident in which Buddy broke free from being tied up in the backyard, and got into bags of garbage in the driveway.
Buddy currently has two votes in his favor, and two votes against. Although the vote is a deadlock, the most powerful member of the Dash family, Charlene, still has thrown her support behind Buddy. Even she has shown signs of wavering, however.
The lowest-ranking member of the family, Darryl, has consistently voted against Buddy since an earlier incident. "At this point, the only reason he's still here is because I lack power, and because I hate to be outsmarted by a dog," Darryl said. "But I'm kind of getting used to it."
Signposts has a good series of posts with updated versions of Geoff Bullock's songs. Why the new versions? Geoff explains:
The main reason for the rewrites is to simply take the focus from "what we do for God" to give us a sense of spiritual affirmation and placing it firmly on "what God has done and is doing for us". I am convinced that what I think, do or say about God will always prove my inability to be anything else but grace dependant. However, what God "thinks, does and says" about me is a miracle that can never be fully grasped. It is simply too wonderful. How could we ask this of the Creator of the universe. Thinking about it just spins me out. God.. do we really understand the enormity of those three letters...God reduces himself to humanity so we can know and say:"You have walked my path,
You have run my race
So I may never be the same again."I just cannot say or sing it the other way anymore. I am totally stuffed if I do the walking and running.
There's nothing to celebrate about my actions...but, what God does...can't stop celebrating.. just blows me away, and I have to ask myself whether we really understand it at all!!!
I have so struggled with the songs and even more with the culture of worship. It really makes me cringe, and then I realise that I am terribly responsible for this "Jesus is my Boyfriend, lover, alternative husband..." rubbish. I have seen marriages fall apart as one partner starts to have an obsessive emotional relationship with their "Heavenly Boyfriend". It is in this awareness that I find it impossible to appreciate anything that has gone before...the songs reveal a shallow, guilt ridden experience that always needed an emtional hit in order to maintain any sense of "spirituality". My songs are still in that culture. I am not. This is why I have rewritten the lyrics. I hope that it explains who the real Geoff Bullock is rather than his shallow stage persona. It has been a long journey, and a very strange life. I find it all so overwhelming. I am just an ordinary man that got caught up in something that I so regret...and yet the postcards from my life are still being read...mmmm, does this make sense?
Some great rewrites here. I appreciate Geoff sharing so openly.
But I can't forgive him for this about Macs: "The list keeps getting longer and longer. Makes me glad I never switched."
When the kids are away, it's a good opportunity to get some...extra sleep. What else would you do?
I finish a week's vacation tonight. The idea was to take some time and do some of the stuff around the house we didn't have time to tackle this summer. After a week, I've finished about 25% of what I hoped to accomplish. I can see how people stay busy even if they don't have jobs.
The biggest job we got (mostly) done was a good cleaning of our cold room. A lot of stuff in there hadn't been touched in the 14 years we've lived in this house. It got so bad that you couldn't even walk into the cold room for the past couple of years. It feels good to get that done, but it's also depressing. How did we accumulate so much junk? The other problem is that it's not something you notice unless you go into the cold room. It's like cleaning closets. When the door is closed, who even knows if it's clean or not?
Still lots to do around the house. I think I'll have to work a little bit harder at tackling things on Saturdays and odd times here and there. Maybe I'll even get to listing the tons of stuff I have to sell on eBay.
They celebrate ten years at Spiritwood tomorrow.
One of the critiques of preaching is that it is an abuse of power; that someone gets up and speaks while everyone is stuck listening. What makes that person's contribution so important? Why does everyone have to shut their mouths and listen to the preacher?
I don't think preaching has to be one-way communication, but the fact remains that someone usually takes the lead. What makes them so special?
That question assumes that it's a bad thing for someone to take the lead, and I'm not sure I share that assumption. The issue isn't if someone is leading; it's what type of leader they are.
One type of preacher gets up and pontificates. They act like they have it all together. They dispense their knowledge and your job is to take it in and listen. That type of preaching can easily become an abuse of power. I'm rarely attracted to this type of preacher. (I've noticed there are bloggers like this too. I read a few of them regularly to keep me grounded. Soon I may have to quit because of my blood pressure.)
Another type of preacher is a wounded healer, to use a phrase from Henri Nouwen. They aren't preaching because they are the alpha male or female. They are preaching because they are good at communicating, and if it was an open discussion they would emerge as having some of the best things to say anyway.
Most of all they are not dispensers of knowledge, as if they were the source, as much as co-learners. Their invitation isn't "learn from me" as much as it is "learn with me". They are growing but open about their weaknesses.
I'd listen to that type of preacher any day.
Another quote from The Complex Christ: Can Anyone Tell Me What Preaching Is For?:
If we were serious about discipleship, would we have sermons? Clearly not. No discussion. No interruption. No comeback. No further comment.
Heh, it's almost as if we preachers were produced at a factory somewhere! I guess they are, sort of.
It's here that I remind myself of Haddon Robinson's assertion that there is no such thing as a sermon form. Haddon defines preaching as:
the communication of a biblical concept, derived from and transmitted through a historical, grammatical, and literary study of a passage in its context, which the Holy Spirit first applies to the personality and experience of the preacher, then through the preacher, applies to the hearers.
Not a bad definition of preaching. It's an academic one that you can (and he does) unpack.
The point I want to make is that the definition says nothing about form. It doesn't have to be a lecture and it doesn't have to be from a stage. You can have discussions and interruptions and comebacks and further comments. It can use stories and songs and the lead article from the newspaper. Jesus ran clinics on how to use imagination in preaching.
All this to say I'm not sure if Kester is faulting preaching, or how boring we've allowed most preaching to become.
Too funny - just came across this picture of me (when I had hair) getting my Bachelor of Theology Honors degree in April 1991. Talk about a kid, newly married, everything so new. That's Hal MacBain awarding me the degree. Hal now attends Richview and puts up with me. He almost gave me a doctorate that day when his tongue slipped, but he caught the mistake in time and I walked away with the right degree.
Is it just me, or is LT posting less frequently than before he got married? What is he doing with all of his time?
Kester Brewin asks this question. Doug Pagitt asks similar questions in his latest book Preaching Re-imagined. I wrestled with this question before enrolling in the preaching D.Min. program a couple of years ago.
Not a bad question, but I think there is a good answer. A lot of times when people ask this question, they are taking issue with the form that sermons take. The thing is, there is no such thing as a right sermon form. You can do away with three-point sermon outlines and twenty-minute lectures if you find a better form. There is room for creativity and two-way communication in preaching, and almost anything else you can think of.
The other issue that comes up is the authority of the one preaching. What right does he or she have to get up there and lecture? This is something I question a lot as I prepare. I am not the sort of person who craves being in front of a crowd. Every week, I have to remind myself that there is power in the Word and not in me, and that my job is to let that Word speak and get out of the way. That is the job of any preacher.
The way we're wired, somebody has to take the lead to make this happen. It can be a different person every week if you'd like. Even in a group of two people, someone usually takes a lead. It doesn't have to be a power thing if they see themselves as a facilitator.
So it's not the form and it's not the preacher that are the issues to me. You can change both of these and it's fine by me.
What's at the core of preaching is something far more important. When we come together in whatever we call church, whether it be in a home or a cathedral, we need to hear God's Word. How it happens is much less important to me than making sure it happens.
At one time the sermon was not as important as the Scripture reading. It was more of a response to the Scripture reading, unlike today in which the Scripture reading is seen as a preliminary. If you ask me what preaching is for, I would answer that it's about God's people listening to his Word and responding to it. As for the form or who preaches, those are far less important to me.
One last question remains: whether preaching works. I think it does, but I've experienced some good preaching. I have a feeling if we discover some forms that really work, stop the lectures, decentralize the preacher, and let the Word speak for itself in creative ways, we will see that it works much better than we thought it could.
But I have to pick up Pagitt's book to wrestle with this question further.
The carpet's been fixed. The carpet repair guy said that a lot of their work comes from damage caused by pets.
Now I either have to steam clean the rest of the carpet or walk over the new patch until they are the same color.
Me: Josiah, I'm glad you're my son.
Josiah: I'm glad you're my pastor.
Me: I'm your Dad!
Josiah: You're my pastor!
Me: I'm your Dad!
From here it got silly like all conversations with a six-year-old boy.
Charlene and I spent lunch with Don Crawford again today. Don is lead pastor of Lambrick in Victoria. This is the second time that we've met now. The first conversation was a formative one for me.
Part of wisdom is opening yourself up to quality people who are walking on a similar journey. I can learn and intuit more in a conversation with Don than I could in two weeks by myself. I have another lunch appointment next week with some pastors trying to figure out how to be more missional.
Maybe Don will just have to move back to Ontario.
Bono supposedly made an appearance at the Pearl Jam concert last night, meaning that he stayed in Toronto longer than anyone thought.
That means U2 were in Toronto two Sundays and they didn't show up at Richview. I'm offended! This could have happened.
(Good quote from the article, actually: "[Bono] told the congregation that he stopped asking God to bless his own work and started to do the work that God already has blessed.")
If we are to live our lives fully and well, we must learn to embrace the opposites, to live in creative tension between our limits and our potentials. We must honor our limitations in ways that do not distort our nature, and we must trust and use our gifts in a way that fulfill the potentials God gave us. We must take the no of the way that closes and find the guidance it has to offer - and take the yes of the way that opens and respond with the yes of our lives. (Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak)
It seems that we spend part of our life unaware that we have limitations, then we spend another part discovering and fighting them. Gradually you get to a point where you learn to embrace your limitations and honor them as part of who you are.
Paul speaks of this when he wrote about embracing his thorn in the flesh. You see echoes of this all the way back in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve aspired to break past human limitations and share in God's limitless knowledge.
I'm certainly in the phase when I've realized that no matter how hard I fight, I'm stuck with certain limits. Its humiliating to realize that my limits are not a problem for other people - they can do with ease what I can't.
This Saturday, I was exhausted and ended up going to bed early. I've had to check to see if my shingles were coming back (don't think so! yes). After a crazy week, I pay for my lack of rest.
It's freeing to stop fighting this and other limitations and to begin to embrace them instead, realizing that we were made to live within limits. When you honor those limits, life takes on a whole new sense of wholeness.
And what a Sunday it was:
- The normal Sunday morning service
- A two-hour meeting with worship leaders
- A hospital visit downtown
- An induction service for a local pastor
- A "house blessing" complete with some great curry dishes
With days like these, you can understand why I need a little extra help. For the record, I deny everything. My trainer told me it was just cold medicine.
And now I am on vacation for a week, with my good friend Brian Mullins speaking next week. Time to catch up on some work around the house. It feels good to take a break.
During one of the low points in my ministry, I'd start working on sermons at the very last minute. I'm still not done as early as I would like (my goal is Wednesday afternoon; this week's sermon was still taking its final shape yesterday), but I would never want to return to the days I was scrounging for something to say at the very last minute.
Since installing mint, it's been interesting to watch how many referrals I get from people looking for sermons. I'm getting hits even this morning. Kind of scary.
Passion Toronto is happening on November 22 @ Ricoh Coliseum. Saw this and a Gaither Homecoming (!) advertised at the U2 concert.
How to Go From Introvert to Extrovert
But is introversion really a character flaw that needs fixing? Don't think so.
(Via Life Hacker.)
I heard that a pastor-friend of mine was at the U2 concert the other night. You have to understand my denomination to know that this didn't used to be kosher behavior for a pastor. Maybe it still isn't.
Yes, I understand that this is still an area of debate for some people. I respect that. But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a little fun with my friend, so I sent him this e-mail of concern:
Subject: Licentious behaviorx:
It grieves my heart to have to rebuke you for going to licentious entertainment last night. What would happen if the Lord came back while you were there?
Come out and be ye separate.
You'd never catch me doing something like that. Okay, I was there but just to hand out tracts.
His reply:
Pastor I thought I was going to a game, I never did find what I was looking for. Have a blessed Bloody Sunday.
Made me laugh.
I had forgotten until today that the unforgettable U2 performance at the 2002 Superbowl XXXVI was at - the Superdome in New Orleans.
As I drove the kids to school today, we came across two kids fighting in the middle of the road. One kid was pummeling the other, and the kid being beaten was crying. I stopped, just as another motorist did. Words were exchanged and I threatened to call the police. My words seemed to be enough; I wasn't looking forward to physically breaking up the fight in front of my own kids.
Driving away, I felt despair for those kids, who seemed to be brothers. I don't know what leads a couple of kids to fight in the middle of a main road on a Thursday morning, but my heart breaks for what their lives must be.
Well, last night was my first big-time concert. My mother, who once protected me from such things, baby-sat our kids so we could go (does that make her complicit?). The crowd was remarkably tame, split between kids and old folks. I belonged to the second group. At one point we spotted a stretcher waiting by an exit, and Charlene mentioned that she hoped it wasn't for me.
It's funny to be in a public place and to smell marijuana smoke for much of the evening. If it were tobacco, they probably would have had the guy in jail by now.
Not many bands can play to 20,000 people, but U2 did. The concert started out a bit flat - Vertigo seemed off somehow. It got better and by the end, we didn't want it to end. Unfortunately, it was twenty minutes shorter than Monday night's concert. Some fan reaction here.
I spent a lot of time enjoying the design of the tour. Great use of multimedia, great transitions and set design. These guys know how to put on a show.
I thought I might be tempted to buy a t-shirt - we even joked about buying my mother one to thank her for babysitting. I'd love to see her in a U2 t-shirt. But at $45-65 a shirt we overcame the temptation.
Great night; fun to share it with Charlene.
Update: A review from Buffalo here. They thought the first song was okay. Flickr pics here, and the official U2 account here.
Every so often, when I'm swamped by e-mail, I think back to when I first went online with a Compuserve account and a dial-up connection. Those were the days that I thought my Compuserve address would stay with me for life.
I only knew one other person with e-mail. I remember being so excited when I got one from him. Sometimes we e-mailed for no other reason than the novelty.
Every so often, as I'm trying to clear my inbox before it fills up again, I laugh about the early days. Remember getting excited when you got an e-mail?
A funeral took place yesterday for Paul Croutch, a homeless man who was murdered in his sleep in Toronto on August 31 in an unprovoked attack.
Ontario's Lieutenant-Governor James Bartleman spoke at the service:
Bartleman says he remembers “a well spoken man, obviously a person who was well read and very likeable”.Bartleman has made improving the lives of mentally ill one of his goals as lieutenant-govenor of Ontario. He says that Croutch’s murder means that all Canadians need to ask themselves, "Who and how society failed Paul Croutch."
Croutch's former wife also spoke:
"Unfortunately, he refused help at every turn," said Ms. Howard, who urged people to treat the problems of homelessness and mental illness more seriously."We need to talk about these [mental health issues]," she said. "We shouldn't pretend we don't see these people. Look them in the eye and say 'hello.' Just try to elevate people's lives. One person can make a difference."
All of this hits home as I've just been studying Micah 6, where God launches a lawsuit against his people who are going through the motions in worship, but are showing no concern for justice and mercy. Justice deals with the systemic issues that let people like Paul Croutch down. Mercy looks them in the eye and treats them as people.
One of the things that is striking about the Gospels is how much Jesus gave dignity to those that society overlooked. My heart is broken by this savage murder, but I'm encouraged that our Lieutenant-Governor gets it. And I'm hoping that people like me catch up pretty soon.
Ten hours to the U2 concert. It's finally here!
I saw the nano. I loved. I ordered. I think I even got $50 off due to an error by Apple.
I put my ipod mini on eBay. Today it hit me: what am I doing? What's wrong with my mini?
I cancelled my order and it felt kind of good. I'm recovering from my addiction to the latest and greatest.
(Just got a call from my nephew who was going to bid on the mini at the last second. Sorry, Jacob!)
The new Micah Challenge website is now live. We focused on the Micah Challenge today at Richview and it was pretty challenging to me. There are some great resources at the site.
Some facts:
The world is enjoying unprecedented wealth, and yet more than one billion people live in abject poverty, struggling to get by on less than $1 a day. Each day, 50,000 people die from preventable, poverty-related causes. 850 million people go to bed hungry every night.
Today, 15 million children are orphans because of AIDS. One in six AIDS-related deaths is now a child.
Every 3.6 seconds, another person dies of needless poverty.
Today, the richest three people in the world own assess that exceed the combined economic activity of the world's poorest 48 countries.
If the world had 1,000 people, 600 of those would live in a shantytown.
A woman in sub-Saharan Africa is 200 times more likely to die in childbirth than a woman in North America. That's 1 in 16 in that part of Africa that die in childbirth.
Closer to where I live, the disparity between rich and poor neighborhoods in the city of Etobicoke is increasing. There has been a 69% increase in poor families in Toronto over the past twenty years. The community in which I live (lots of apartment buildings) has moved from moderate poverty in 1991 to high poverty in 2001, according to the United Way.
I should have known something was up the other night when Charlene greeted me with a smile at the door. Turns out she was trying to break the news to me gently. At first I thought she had finally realized how lucky she is to have me.
Nothing in life is as good as it seems.
After the destruction caused by our dog on Wednesday, I seriously considered taking him back to the animal shelter. We have a two-week trial period and can get our money back until tomorrow.
He's taken some paint off the laundry room wall, broken my toolbox, chewed my Coke pillow, destroyed a computer monitor, keyboard, mouse, and some wires, as well as a carpet and a large crate.
One thing I've learned since Wednesday is that my story is tame. I've heard of labs breaking through drywall, doors, trashing entire houses. Great dogs, but "destructive when left to their own devices" is what I've read.
I had a lot of support for taking him back. The only problem was, none of my supporters belonged to my family. We all know who wields the power in my family (hint: not me).
It's important to know one's place. I may be the guy who walks the dog morning and night, buys the dog food, and fixes all the damage, but I'm not the guy who makes the decisions.
I could have insisted that he go back, but instead I decided to leverage return policy and declare martial law:
- KIDS must take care of the dog
- The anti-barking collar that was verboten the other day is now a requirement when alone outside
- Best of all, Buddy is now an outside dog, at least in the good weather while we're at work.
Someone gave us some Canadian Tire gift cards a couple of months ago that have been sitting around. They were just enough to get something called a 30-minute Kennel that took me about 90 minutes to put up.
The good news is that Buddy stayed in there today and didn't destroy anything or even bark (zap!). Yes I'm cruel but remember, it's martial law.
The only problem is that the kids didn't look too bad in the kennel either...makes me think... (just kidding, kids!)
I've never paid much attention to statistics and referrals to this site, but I've just installed Mint. Fascinating results. Who knew that someone came to this site after searching for "luther fornicate"? (I'm number three on Google for this search.)
TSK tells us that the mission-shaped church is now available (free!) as an ebook (PDF). Well worth reading.
When we got Buddy from the animal shelter, we weren't quite sure why he had been abandoned. He was found as a stray without a collar or tag, and he's not the type of dog to run away.
I think I now know. By the time we came home, he had chewed through a bar of the cage, destroyed the rubber mat, carpet, and underpad. He also bit through a few computer cables that were a good foot from the cage, and destroyed a mouse. Probably a good $2,000 damage. (Makes the Coke pillow he destroyed yesterday seem pretty minor.)
I'm running out of ideas on what to do with him while we're out during the day. Not sure Buddy is going to make it until that dog show I talked about!
Andy Stanley apologizes for the size of Northpoint:
I'm writing to aplogize for the size of North Point Community Church. When six of us gathered to think through the idea of beginning a church we had no idea that it would become so large. For this growth I am truely sorry. I realize that the size is intimidating.
Fascinating comment thread. If you blog about a megachurch pastor, he just may comment himself. Found via Steve McMillan.
Following our earlier humiliation at a dog show, we have drafted a new dog to compete for us next year. Here is our new dog Buddy.
We must be completely insane. I didn't mean for us to get a new dog; it just turned out that way. I'm mostly enjoying him, although the fact that he destroyed a Coca-Cola pillow yesterday didn't win him any points. He is also good at breaking out of cages.
But we might stand a better chance of winning the dog show next year.