So today, for the first since I can remember, I watched a movie after I read the book. Over the years, I've heard so many people say, "The book was much better than the movie." Take Lord of the Rings, Hunt for Red October, and Pelican Brief to name a few (I'm sure you could name a whole lot more). So I figured I'd finally give it a try. After reading Grisham's, The Firm, I rented the R-rated movie (funny, the book wasn't R-rated) from Blockbuster's and ran it through ClearPlay. Yeah, they mixed characters, developed it too quickly, and radically changed the ending.

So, with regard to The Firm, the book was indeed much better than the movie.

Currently Watching (with ClearPlay!) The Firm By Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman

Kathy and I returned from our latest trip to Covenant College. On our way there on Wednesday, we had a blowout and Kathy managed to steer the car safely to the emergency lane. At first we thought the sound was due to the road but then it became really loud and we knew something was wrong. The tire was shredded. I figured it was as good a time as any to try out our emergency roadside service so...I called All American Roadside and timed their response. The operator was very nice and didn't hang up until she had a truck sent our way. She said they should be there within an hour but in actuality, it took only 20 minutes. The guy wrestled with my spare tire underneath the van and had to get one of his tools to finally free it (boy, was I glad I made the call). After he got it out, he checked the air pressure of the spare and had to add some more. We were on our way shortly thereafter and headed for a nearby tire shop. Over four hours later, we were finally on our way again. I give All American four stars for their cordial and timely service.

Rachel's orthodontic visits are numbered now. Hopefully, she'll have her braces off by May. Many thanks to the folks at First Southern Seminole for hosting us for the week. We were able to replace her broken refrigerator with the money we saved.

Last night, after a scrumptious Pizza Hut dinner with Rachel and Michael, we were able to see a couple of other Sonnenites, Daniel Gorrell and Andrew Tebbe, along with the rest of Wheaton College's Glee Club while they performed at Lookout Mountain Presbyterian. What a small world. The concert was great and it was so good to see the guys again. As we were leaving we overhead some of them praying out front giving thanks for the warm weather (17 degrees) in Georgia. We were freezing but to them, it was a whole lot better than below-zero Wheaton. I suppose weather is very relative.

additional pics of interest

Currently Watching Red Eye (Edited) By Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy

For those of you who play Mah Jongg (not the computer matching game), I finally won a game with a concealed hand. No small feat for moi.

Currently Watching The Road to Guantanamo By Riz Ahmed, Farhad Harun, Waqar Siddiqui, Afran Usman

For those of you interested in cleaned-up movies, there's a new website that rents the latest movies: www.familysafemovies.com. I'm using their trial offer and so far, so good. They're not on par with the company formerly known as Clean Films but I'm not complaining. I just appreciate having this option.

Currently Watching (using ClearPlay!) Flyboys (Widescreen Edition) By James Franco, Scott Hazell, Mac McDonald

I'm plugging away at my second fictional book this year - John Grisham's Bleachers. My New Year's Resolutions targeted 7 fictitious readings this year; no small feat for me especially when I have these really cool nonfictional books clamoring for attention. Regarding all the other resolutions...I don't want to talk about them...yet. Overall score: 1 for 7.

Sudoku fans: 'just wanted you to know that USA Today has weekend Sudoku now. You can find the daily puzzle at http://puzzles.usatoday.com/sudoku/?POE=UCNSK

I was pleasantly surprised by the movie listed below, Facing the Giants. Even though it was a low-budget film, the poignant moments struck their target. My nephew Stevie and I watched it together; hopefully, it'll give us a springboard for future conversations on faith.

For Christmas, I gave Rachel some speakers for her computer. As she was hooking the system up, she reached underneath her bed and got a splinter under her fingernail. It was too tough to remove so after a couple of days later she went to the doctor's to have him do it.

Care to guess his bill?

Let's just say that the good doctor could have bought his kid one of those really nice ipods. You know, the kind with music, video, pictures. Almost $500 for a splinter removal...hmmm...so what's the state of our healthcare system?

Currently Watching (with ClearPlay!) The Fugitive By Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward

Currently Watching (with ClearPlay!) Firewall (Widescreen Edition) By Harrison Ford, Paul Bettany, Virginia Madsen,

Back in the day, I remember buying Adobe Acrobat so I could create PDF files; it wasn't cheap. Nowadays, you can also lay out some big bucks for Acrobat or you can download Primo PDF for free!  There are no annoying ads and registration. I've tried it and found the PDF files generated to be of high quality; yet space-saving. PDFs sometimes resolve the hassle of trying to get document margins to print correctly on various printers; unless you own a Mac. They're also great for emailing your document using the fonts that you intended to display and not relying on a different computer system's native fonts.

If you're at an Internet Cafe, you can always use an online PDF creator like PDF Online. It's free and they'll email your PDF document to the email address you specify.

Hey, that's two tips for the price of none.

Congrats to the Colts for their win in this year's Soup-er Bowl. Yeah, the rain kept falling for most of the game.

The post game interviews showed just how classy both coaches were. Both gave thanks to God for the opportunity. Too bad someone had to lose.

Currently Playing: Colts (14-4) vs Bears (15-3)
Super Bowl XLI in Miami, Florida

Here's my prediction of tomorrow night's game:

Super Bowl XLI:  Bears 38 Colts 14

You can take that to the bank or nearest ATM.

My what a difference a few hours makes. If you go outside right now, all you'd see are blue skies on a beautiful day. Rewind the clock to 12:30 a.m.,  and you'd see massive lightning bolts against an ugly backdrop. The wind was howling, the rain pelting, and the sky thundering during a 6-hour tornado watch. You keep listening for the sound of a train because then it's time to crawl in to a bunker. We're grateful that the storm blew over us but we do pray for the communities that were hit about 30 miles away. Tornadoes aren't the big thing in Florida, hurricanes are...that is until last night.