Being on vacation is grand! I’m really enjoying my time off this week–reconnecting with friends and family, shopping, running errands, having fun, and relaxing. It’s so nice. I could get used to this!

Tonight, I went to my second Mavericks game. I’m not a big Basketball fan, but when you get free tickets pretty close to the action, why not go?

The Mavericks getting ready to play the Golden State Warriors

Big screen at the American Airlines Center — tiny compared to the new TX stadium screens

Mavericks Dancers

My “date” for the evening

Let’s go Mavs!

The Maverick Maniacs, a crazy group of fans featured at the stadium

Tonight was military appreciation night, honoring the soldiers protecting our country.

During half-time, they had a re-enlistment ceremony. It was pretty cool.

They also had some games during breaks where they featured military members competing against each other to win Maverick’s jerseys. This one was Army against Navy and they had to assemble a puzzle. Army smoked the Navy.

Once again, I’m using my grainy cell phone camera to take pictures. One day, I’ll bring my real camera with me to these things. This was the Mavericks Man jumping on a trampoline and dunking the ball. He had some great aerobatic tricks, but the camera couldn’t catch the action.

Ultimately, the Mavericks lost in the final minutes of the game, but we still had a great evening. Tomorrow is vacation day #2…more fun to come!

If you’re planning on buying a car before the end of the year, you may want to stay out of the malls on Black Friday and head to the car dealerships instead. According to car pricing researchers from Truecar.com, the day after Thanksgiving is the best day to buy a car. These researchers analyzed day-by-day car prices over several years and found that Black Friday is the day that yields the largest discounts for consumers.

So, what should you expect to pay this year? Truecar.com expects the average new car discount on Nov. 27 to be 7.5% compared to 4.7% which is what buyers tend to receive on a typical day. If you are buying a Suzuki SX4 compact car, you can expect even higher discounts, up to 28% off sticker price! Truecar.com also predicts that Nissan Titan buyers can get 26% off and Ford F-150 truck buyers should receive a 20% discount.

Another factor that may sweeten the deal (or the discount) this year is the fact that Black Friday falls very close to the end of the month. It’s a crucial time for car dealers as they are trying to meet their quotas to receive manufacturer incentives and clear out 2009 models.

If you’re in the market for a new car, don’t wait for Christmas to buy it this year. Take advantage of the discounts and end of the month timing to get the best deal now.

Stress is a dangerous thing. In light doses, it’s bearable, but long-term exposure can be debilitating. Research shows that stress can be a contributing factor to illness, depression, and even serious disease. If you’re not careful, stress will creep in and sap the very life out of you.

Never before have I truly understood just how serious stress can be. Sure, I know it’s probably the main reason I have bouts of ulcerative colitis, and it’s probably why I get sick when I’m under pressure at work, but I didn’t realize how much it had actually changed me until I became free from it.

The past eight months have been some of the hardest months in my life. It was like the “perfect storm” that threatened to break me several times. Pressures on the job, demands in my personal life, ministry, and unrealized goals weighed heavy on my mind. The single biggest contributor to my stress, though, was a brutal work schedule that never relented — constant pressure with no rest, always in the back of my mind 24/7, sometimes invading even the sanctity of my dreams.

For now, the worst is over. I’m looking forward to getting back on a normal schedule with manageable levels of stress. Relief is flooding over me like a soothing balm. I knew things would be better after this tough period at work, but I didn’t realize exactly how much I had been affected by it. I feel like there was a part of me that was trapped inside this wall of stress and misery, unable to live, unable to thrive. But now she’s emerging. She’s seeing the beauty of the world again, and it’s a wonderful thing.

At the same time, something has been stirring deep inside my soul. I don’t know where it’s leading me yet, but I feel like I’m at the start of a new spiritual awakening. Tonight at Abundant Life Church, we had a service that we call “unscripted.” It’s a time when we get rid of the agendas and simply worship God from our hearts, allowing Him to set the schedule and the pace. It provided an amazing opportunity to interact with God in a deep, meaningful way. Words can’t adequately express how much I am in awe of Him. Whatever we need — grace, love, healing, strength, joy, freedom, forgiveness, peace — we can find. He is so awesome, and I can’t wait to see what He has in store for me next!

I’ve allowed stress to rob me of some of the most important things in life. I’ve been forced to make work my number one priority, but that’s going to change. I can’t honestly say it won’t ever happen again, but I’m striving to live a more balanced life again. After all, you know what they say about having too much work and no play. It’s not a good thing!

To celebrate my newfound freedom, I’m taking some time off from work before the Thanksgiving holiday. I’m going to relax, play, and spend some extra time focusing on God. I can’t wait!

It’s been a cold, long year, but here comes the sun!

I never considered this until I read an article about it tonight. What if Earth had rings like Saturn? The unique bands circling Saturn make it one of the most beautiful and interesting planets to view. Even witnessed through a small, amateur telescope, it’s a cool sight.

Imagining what the rings would look like around around our planet is fairly easy. I don’t think it would appear much different than Saturn does today, but the interesting thing to consider is what the view would be when you are standing on the ground and looking up into the sky. What would you see? Well, a new video depicts what the rings might look like from different cities and latitudes across the world. It’s a mesmerizing sight. Check it out.

 

Want to increase your vocabulary and stay hip at the same time? Check out the newly named “word of the year” and the finalists recently announced by Oxford American Dictionary researchers. Oxford annually tracks how the English language is changing. They review newly birthed terms and ultimately select one word every year that “reflects the ethos of the year and its lasting potential as a word of cultural significance and use.” Word of the year finalists included:

• Netbook: a small portable laptop
• Hashtag: The symbol (#) used on Twitter posts to allow them to be found more easily by other users
• Sexting: The act of sending sexually explicit texts or photos on a mobile phone
• Paywall: Blocking parts of a Web site to all but paying customers
• Intexicated: Being distracted while driving because of sending a text message.
• Zombie bank: A financial institution still operating even though its liabilities are greater than its assets,
• Birther: A conspiracy theorist who challenges President Obama’s U.S. birth certificate

…and the winner (for all of you Facebook and social media fans) is:

• Unfriend: To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace

According to Christine Lindberg, a language researcher at Oxford, “Unfriend has both currency and potential longevity. In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year.”

Now that you know the new word of the year, put it in use. Experts say that’s the best way to add a word to your vocabulary. Take each one of these words and use them in a sentence over the next few days, and you’ll be speaking the new lingo in no time!