A peek at the life, times and thoughts of John during his two-year stint in Knoxville.

The East Tennessee School of Preaching and Missions (that's where I go to school, of course) Lectureships are starting tomorrow! If you're in Knoxville between Sunday and Wednesday night you should stop by and see us. The theme this year is "Balance in an Unbalanced World."

The older I get the more I realize how unbalanced I have been. Wanting it is one thing, achieving it quite another. I have confidence the lectureships will be of great benefit to me.

We are anticipating visitors in light of the lectureships, and potentially folks perusing the house to see how construction came and how things look. That means some cleaning has been occurring and will continue to occur as the rest of the day progresses.

Yesterday was not a miserably productive day. It was set that way intentionally, though. A few of us got together and had a Madden '08 party. I was 1-2 on the evening. Both losses to the same guy, and I played better in both of those games than I expected. The last game of the night was a battle of Michigan and was won on a last second field goal! They were pass-happy in that game and lots of touchdowns were scored between Deion Branch and Randy Moss.

Why do so many cleaners now claim to have oxygen power? How does oxygen aid in cleaning? I've breathed on all kinds of things, and sparkly clean is not how they turn out.