Surfing the Inner N8

A recap of this fun and busy weekend:

•  On Friday we went to Oxford, Pennsylvania to spend the night at Michael & Kristen’s house (Carolyn’s sister & her husband).  We hung out with them for awhile that night and ate some totally delicious cake that Kristen had made.
• On Saturday we went to Sight & Sound Theater to see Daniel.  It was so awesome!  Every production they do is great.  The script for this one wasn’t as good as the others, but the staging and special effects were by far the best.  Unbelievable.  I don’t know how they do that stuff!  Carolyn’s parents gave her the tickets for Christmas, and the seats were some of the best in the house.  They were so good that we bought the same seats for an August showing of In the Beginning.

• Before going to the show we stopped at BB’s in Quarryville.  They were out of coffee, but I stocked up on seltzer water that was discounted big time.  They even had some Perrier.  Nice.
• For dinner on Saturday we stopped at Grotto Pizza in Seaford.  Grotto’s has the second-best pizza on the Atlantic coast.  It totally hit the spot.
• Yesterday at CrossWay was week two of “Hollywood God.”  We used clips from Ratatouille to see how the Holy Spirit works in our lives.  In this way it was very different from The Pursuit of Happyness last week.  With Ratatouille what mattered was not so much the storyline; instead, it served as an illustration of how the Spirit works in our lives.  In a nutshell: Remy the rat could cook, but Linguini could not.  So they figured out a way for Remy to guide and control Linguini so that could cook together as a team.  Nobody could see Remy at work, but they saw the amazing results.  Our cooperation with the Spirit of God works in a very similar way.  The podcast will be up tomorrow.  (But, like last week, we’re editing out the video clips for copyright reasons.)  Next week: Rocky Balboa!
• After church yesterday, Carolyn and I ate lunch with her parents, then headed to their house to paint.  I’ve gotten to a very frustrating point in my painting pursuit.  I’m at the place where it’s time to add finishing details, and I just can’t seem to do it.  When Linda explains how to do it, it makes sense.  And I’ll even watch her do it.  But it just doesn’t seem to work for me.  Frustrating as it is, I’m going to keep trying because I really enjoy it.  Meanwhile, Carolyn is nearly finished with two beautiful paintings.  (She’s got the artistic genes!)  Both are from photographs she took in Tennessee.  One is a close up of a butterfly, the other is a scene from Cades Cove, with mountains, a meadow, and a deer.  (When she’s finished, I’ll see if she’ll let me post pictures of them.)
• Today is a day off for both of us (except for a meeting I have to go to).  Hopefully we’ll get to do some more painting.  I’m starting a third picture.  Yesterday I did the initial sketch.  It’s a close up from a Sports Illustrated cover, showing that amazing midfield fourth-quarter catch that the Giants made in the closing minutes of the Super Bowl.  (Carolyn’s dad, a big Pats fan, suggested that maybe in my painting the guy could drop the ball!)