You asked for it. More photos of our wedding from the incomparable Huy Nguyen.
Some Wedding Photos
July 21, 2011 By 5 Comments
Well, I’ve been married for a week. So far so good.
Our brilliantly gifted wedding photographer, Huy Nguyen (named one of the Top 10 Wedding Photographers in the World) has posted a few preview pics of our wedding on his site. Here’s a taste (click the photo to see more):
copyright Huy Nguyen
On Ending a Little League Season
July 17, 2011 By 2 Comments
Like thousands of other teams across the country, the Little League team on which my son plays — and which I coach — was engaged in a season-ending tournament this weekend. We won our first game yesterday on a soupy field, and the boys were flying high. In our second game, against the best team in our division, we played as well as we have all season. It was a back-and-forth game, as we exchanged the lead with the other team. But, alas, as the time limit came up and other teams waited anxiously to take the field, we were behind.
And so our season ended, not really as a baseball game should, decided by a clock. But the boys held their heads high, and there was nary a tear. I think that’s because they knew that they had played their hearts out and that they were poised to defeat a superior team.
I’ve been a youth pastor, directed camps and retreats, coached teams, and led a Cub Scout den, but never have I experienced such a wonderful, unified, joyous group of kids. Plus, I coached with two other dads with whom I got along famously.
It was an honor to be their coach, and I will miss them.
(Re)Marriage Vows
July 6, 2011 By 13 Comments
I’m getting (re-)married next week, and I’ve been looking for inspiration in the vow department. When I was a pastor, I virtually disallowed couples to use self-written vows in ceremonies that I was officiating. The reason: they were entering into a covenant that has been entered into billions of times by billions of people. They weren’t making this up — singing solo — but were instead joining a chorus of people who’d done this before. Further, a recitation of traditional vows gave every married person in the congregation the chance to squeeze their spouse’s hand and, in a way, renew their own vows.
But as a divorced person, I cannot avoid the fact that, though I truly meant “until death do us part” back in 1997, by 2008 that commitment had unraveled. So I, and other divorced persons, are left with a quandary:
Stop Using US Bank
December 21, 2010 By 46 Comments
The past year has been financially hellish for me with a home foreclosure resulting from divorce. And no entity has been as unhelpful downright evil as US Bank. Personnel from US Bank have been consistently unhelpful and unwilling to work with our situation. Just this morning, I was literally yelled at by an employee named David Bishop in the loan recovery department. When I ultimately asked to be transferred to his supervisor, he transferred me to a fax machine. When I called back and asked for his supervisor’s extension so that I could call her directly, I was given a dead extension.
US Bank has scuttled two short sale offers on the house because they were unwilling to take less than was owed to them on the home equity loan, even though Bank of America, holder of the mortgage, approved the sales and stood to lose a lot more.
They call me nearly every day, but when I call back, no one returns my calls.
And now, as I try to work out an agreement that would allow me to begin to rebuild my credit and actually get US Bank about 25% of what they are owed on this loan, Mr. Bishop shouts at me and tells me no deal.
So, all I can think to do now is notify all of my social media networks that US Bank is a no good company, and you should not do business with them.
And when you take your account away, tell them it is because of the way that their employees like David Bishop treated customers, and because their policies trump common sense financial solutions to problems.
The Best $15 I've Ever Spent
November 29, 2010 By 1 Comment
I was outside the other day, chucking the tennis ball to Albert, and I thought to myself, “This ChuckIt is the best fifteen bucks I ever spent!” Why? Well, watch the video to see.
What’s the best $15 you’ve ever spent?
In Praise of My Parents
November 26, 2010 By 1 Comment
Andrew Jones, Ted Sampsell-Jones, CJ Johnson, and Yours Truly
When my parents retired, they didn’t throw in the towel. Instead, they took in a underprivileged African-American boy to live with them. Over the past few years, CJ has become part of our family. My parents, in their late-60s, now spend many evenings at high school sporting events and parent-teacher conferences, surrounded by parents who are the age of my brothers and me.
This week, our local paper — possibly with visions of The Blind Side — ran a story on CJ and my parents:
Johnson previously attended school in Hopkins, but before ninth grade he moved to Edina to live with his “grandparents,” Doug and Sarah Jones.
They have encouraged him in sports and academics and provided a stable home life.
The Joneses are not Johnson’s biological grandparents, but they have opened their home to the young scholar-athlete, who was basically without a stable home when they met him.
Sarah Jones, who served 13 years on the Edina School Board, provided a home for Johnson’s aunt during the time the aunt attended Edina High as an ABC student.
ABC is a program that offers minority students with a passion for academics a chance to attend Edina High School. One day, the aunt told Sarah Jones about her nephew.
“What raised my attention was the fact that C.J. was advanced in math,” said Sarah Jones. “He attended Hopkins West Middle School when he first came to live with us. When he started high school, he began attending Edina. The main emphasis in our household has always been academics, and C.J. accepted that.”
Read the rest at: Minnesota Local News – minnlocal.com > Edina > Sports > Edina athlete stays busy year-round
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
The Foreclosure Freeze Isn't All Good News
October 15, 2010 By
Bank of America made big news last week when they announced that they were indefinitely stopping all foreclosures and the sales of foreclosed homes because of the robo-signing scandal. In the press, this has been universally hailed as good news, taken to mean that families who are under water on their mortgages have more time before they’re kicked out by the sheriff, and may even have time to work out a deal to save their homes.
But I don’t see it as good news. I see the current freeze as more bad news for me and my family.
Among all the other things that go wrong in someone’s life during a divorce, finances become tighter and tighter. Take a sluggish economy and add a second household worth of rent and expenses, plus legal and other fees, and you can see why divorce often results in foreclosure and bankruptcy.
In our case, falling behind on our mortgage to the point that I was unable to make up the difference led to our house being foreclosed upon. All of Obama’s well-intentioned programs for loan modification didn’t work for us because qualifying for them amount to getting a camel through the eye of a needle. In the end, foreclosure was the only option.
So there’s a nice house in a nice neighborhood that’s been sitting empty for months. There’s a couple who has had a standing offer on the house since last February, but Bank of America and U.S. Bank (holder of the home equity loan) just can’t seem to get around to approving the offer and moving forward. They meant to delay the sheriff’s sale, but the person who works on the Pacific Time Zone didn’t get to work in time to call the person who works in the Central Time Zone (seriously), so the sheriff’s sale happened, even though there’s a buyer willing to pay what the house is worth. Three realtors and I have each spend literally scores of hours on the phone trying to get the banks to let this house be sold, all to no avail.
Meanwhile, I just want the house sold. Not only so that my old neighbors can get a new family on the street and not have an untended, empty house on the block, but also so that I can begin the long, arduous task of rebuilding my credit. This has already been a long, horrible, humiliating, and financially devastating two years. Bank of America and U.S. Bank’s continued ineptitude is only making my family’s journey through foreclosure longer and more painful.
No Ducks? Albert Doesn't Mind
October 8, 2010 By 3 Comments
Took a couple of long-range wing shots today, but the bag is empty. Albert didn’t seem to mind. I’ll try again this afternoon, after we take out the docks and shut off the water to the smaller cabins.
Duck Hunting in Minnesota
October 1, 2010 By 4 Comments
This weekend marks the opening of waterfowl season in Minnesota. Due to soccer, baseball, and Irish dance with the kids, I won’t get up north to hunt until the middle of next week, and it’s likely that there won’t be many ducks left. Sure, there’s a cold front coming over the weekend which will push ducks south, and once ducks have been shot at, they tend to get pretty skittish about landing into a group of decoys.
But the bigger reason is that ducks don’t migrate through Minnesota anymore. There was a day when tens of thousands of ducks that summered in Canada would fly south along the Mississippi River — what’s called the Mississippi Flyway. But no more. [Read more...]
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