"The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself." - John Ciardi

No post last night because it was our monthly elder meeting and I didn't get home until after 9. In Sun City that counts as an all-nighter, and I was too whipped to post.

Michelle Bachmann was in Phoenix yesterday seeking the endorsement of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arapaio. If you don't know one of those people you can accurately assess them by that association.

I called Steve at VW Performance and he said he's putting the engine back together. It might be ready yet this week but probably the first of next week. If I don't hear from him by Monday I'm to call. That's OK. The second half of my week gets busy enough that I probably wouldn't have time to do anything with it even if I had it now.

In fact, in a burst of homiletical adrenalin I started on my sermon outline about 6:30 and had it done before 9 a.m. Sometimes I get downright exercised while I write my outline and that happened this morning. My attitude may be very different come Sunday morning but if it isn't, Katie bar the door.
Pastors can get very defensive for their people. Kind of like the she-bear bit a mother feels.

A brief clip from the President's last trip to Europe, greeting one of his homies.

Some people can slog away at the same exercise activity for decades without any problem. I get bored unless I switch things around occasionally. I enjoy riding my bike a lot but even that needs a rest a few times a year. Which is one of the reasons I had Josh put together this gym routine for me. It provides a mental break but also balances out my fitness. Besides, it's been too hot to ride anytime after sunrise.
At lunch last week Josh and Aubri were talking about jumping rope. They do "double unders," which means two complete rotations of the rope for every jump. I wondered out loud if jumping rope would be good for me - aerobic exercise - and they agreed it would be very helpful to my fitness level. Last night Josh brought an extra jump rope for me to use.
The plan is to take the jump rope with me to the gym so I can include that as part of my workouts. But before I try this in public I figured I should see how it goes in the privacy of my own garage. See, I never jumped rope as a kid - or as an adult for that matter.
Now I know why.
I'll be keeping the garage door down for this for the foreseeable future.

Brad Pitt says his first marriage, to actress Jennifer Aniston, failed because she "wasn't interesting." Gee, I'm sorry, Brad. But you're right; that bit about "sickness and health, richer or poorer" and the rest didn't say anything about intellectually uninteresting. So it's all good.

In the news you can use department I heard an interview on NPR with a scientist at some university who just published a study about exercise. He had his graduate students survey people who listened to music while they worked out - runners, cyclists, aerobics class participants and the like - asking how they felt with and without music during their workout. Amazingly, they felt better and worked out more efficiently if they listened to up-tempo tunes with positive lyrics. Who would have guessed??? Aren't you thankful there are people spending grant money to discover these amazing things?

So tomorrow morning I'll sneak out to the garage with the jump rope, turn up the Donna Summers and see if I can get my jump to coincide with the rope going under my feet.