Portuguese! Surprised?



Recorded a new episode of Verbal Surgery in the Brain Train tradition called “Vacation Station.” Lot of fun! Had a prayer time with my neighbor across the street from where I record. I’ve been praying for those ladies a lot lately. Good to make contact.

Released Verbal Surgery -487- “All Wrong Clocks!” A terrific episode on how to find happiness in your life.

Uploaded to server. Link on Facebook.
Fantastic time with Penelope today! Kathy is feeling better, too, but still can’t ride in the car comfortably.

I took Penelope over to McDonalds to play.
We enjoyed the ice cream!
We went to Stone Mountain. They had a Flower Show there. Of course we had to check that out.
I got her a balloon.
Interesting presentation with just a single cutting in bottles.
The special displays were cool, too.
I never see this carving in quite the same way since Charlottesville.
Pretty much the whole park was closed. But we still had fun. She was tuckered out afterwards!
Then fun with bubbles!
Interesting geometries.
The girls enjoyed the frozen treats I bought for the conference I’m teaching tomorrow at FBC Jonesboro.
Because of the conference, I have to get up super early, so I couldn’t watch Penelope this evening. I took her to Miles’ parent’s house! The other cousins met her there along with their dog, which Penelope loves! Good transition. I hate it when she’s sad when I leave. I’d much rather her be happy and me just exit stage left.

Came home to ride my bike 11.71 miles.
Watered my plants this evening. I found my bike glasses that were missing! I knew they were outside somewhere, but they were nearly invisible on the ground! All that looking for Dirty Money helped me spot them.
I like these better than my new ones. They’re thinner.

Trying to ramp down this evening. Need to try to go to sleep early. I’ll be waking up at 5:40am. I know a lot of people have to get up that early. It’s no big deal, I just expect a nap later!

I love teaching. I’ll do two sessions of Outreach Overdrive, and one session teaching Power Prayer, both are my passions!

Admin duties now.

Studied Portuguese this morning! Go Brain, go!


Recorded a new podcast! WOOT! This is a great one called, “Guide LIONS!” It’ll release in a week or so!

Spent most of my day getting supplies, cleaning and painting my deck. It turned out really well. Glad to have Jesse’s help.

What I hate most about painting? I leave my phone in the house! I don’t want it anywhere near that stuff! And a part of me feels like if I didn’t take pictures of what happened, it didn’t!

But here’s the finished product!

Went for a 15.46 mile bike ride! I saw this fantastic mushroom while I was cruising! I don’t normally stop unless I see something really notable! Massive!

Long way.

Tired, but productive!

Spent time this morning analyzing the schedule for this weekend. I found out how many people will be in my three sessions. I’m not a big fan of the buffet approach. Seems like we are all in competition, but both of my sessions will be recorded, so that’s good!

Studied Portuguese! Pouco a pouco!

Also reviewed verb forms. Easy to let that slip away without constant review. Same for Bible verses!
Recorded a new edition of Verbal Surgery! That always makes me feel better. “Rah, Rah, RAW!” is super enthusiastic. I need to have an extra six on reserve for when I’m out of town in the UK in November.

Worked on my slide show for the Equip Conference this weekend. Wow! It turned out a lot harder than I thought it would be. I had the “hard part” done, I thought! Which was the creating and putting the slides in order.

For some reason the projector was taking the slides and putting them in another order. I finally figured out that numbering from 1-23 doesn’t work. It goes from 1 immediately to 11, then 12 until 19, then goes to 2! Jesse said the way I had them is called “natural order” In order to make the numerals work they have to be number 01, 02, 03 . . . .

I made it work by using letters instead. I talked to Jesse AFTER I’d figured out a way to make it work!
I also needed to practice with the hardware to make sure I completely understood how to use the project, the controller and how to set it up.


I left the projector out. I’ll set it up and practice a couple more times just to make sure I have it completely wired in.

I’m still deciding whether to use slides for my prayer session. I probably will use props instead. May I may work on that tomorrow.

Gassed up my car. Still high prices.
Worked with the kids at the mission.
We had a volunteer today, so that was helpful.

I spent most of my time wandering around following after Penelope. She LOVES it there! SO many kids to play with and they all adore her!

I took the Kendalls out for Taco Veloz.

Then we had the boys help move the furniture in! Many hands, little labor!


We always have treats to say “Thank you!”

I enjoyed talking with my friend Pat Young today. It’s his birthday.

Worked on my presentation for the Equip conference Monday evening. Got the slides in order.

Saved the file as a PDF and put it on a flash drive.

Got the projector together with the power cord.

I will practice with the gear to make sure everything is working correctly.

Made a list of the things I still needed to get at the church.

Added tweets to my social media. My version of sermon notes.

I’m way ahead. I release five a day. They will run until January 3rd so far. I usually do about 17 days worth on a Sunday. So I keep getting further ahead. Although two of the last three weekends I’ve been speaking somewhere and didn’t add any material.

Studied Portuguese first thing this morning. Studying future tense.

Lots of days in a row!

Released a new edition of Verbal Surgery -486-“Falling in LIKE!”

Just click on the title and GROOVE!

Uploaded to server and link on Facebook!

You’ll Love it!!

Met with my friend John Cook this morning! Always a blessing!
Went to my storage closet at the church and to Walmart to pick up supplies for the Equip Conference.
To the mission to work with the kids!
GREAT to see my friend Johan today! He’s one of my original youth group from sixteen years ago! He’s back living at Azalea. Amen!
Went for a 6.88 mile bike ride.
Got some new glasses for riding. Still don’t know what I did with my other ones. These are completely clear.
Reminds me of me.

Studied Portugese this morning! Yeah!
Working on the future tense.

Paid all my bills. Filled out a form for serving on a jury.

Ashley brought Penelope over. Always great!

She loves my bubble machine!

We had fun walking her around the neighborhood.

Kathy and I took her to McDonalds. She ate well and enjoyed playing on their toys. A five year old boy named Ryan was SO glad that Penelope showed up. He was lonely. He took her under his wing and gave her the confidence to climb all the way to the very top of the play structure and slide down this three loop slide! Kathy and I were stunned by her intrepid spirit!

I tried to get her to take a nap, but she wasn’t buying it. After about thirty minutes, she jumped up and started playing on my electronic drum set!

Took her out to Stone Mountain to enjoy some fun.

She loves trains, so we were in the area whenever the train came by.


She really had fun climbing on the rocks.

I took Penelope swimming. The water was pretty cold, but we got used to it fast. There was NO ONE out in the pool. I was shocked by that. We had a private pool. Ashley and Miles had been working at Azalea getting the apartment ready to move in. She met us at the pool to pick up Penelope. “POP POP!!” She kept calling my name. She wasn’t happy to be saying goodbye! Me either! That’s why we have tomorrow!
I did the grocery shopping before I came home.

I liked this car!

Early morning! Got up around 5:30am. Dressed up in my blue Chinese shirt and went to pick up Ashley in Clarkston. We took a ride to Midway Church in Villa Rica, GA. Took about an hour to get there!
They had a dynamic music presentation!
Ashley and I spoke in all three worship services, starting at 8:00am! Between services, I caught up on my Duolingo. Always studying!
Cool architecture at the church! Kathy said it reminded her of Fernbank Science Center here in Atlanta!
We took our display.
I liked this graphic at their church.
We had fun with their missions team!
I took the Big Globe as a prop.
Pastor Todd spoke on building the body of Christ. Are you willing, faithful, thankful and prepared?
Fun lunch with Brent and his wife!
Came home to rest.
Then went out and mowed the front lawn.
Chopped ivy off the trees.
Blew the driveway.
Picked up sticks.
Weeded the front garden. Broke my hoe. Had to use a shortened version. Not zesty.
Had a dead tree in my back yard. Kicked it over with my mighty legs. Piled it up in with the rest of the yard waste.
Pushed and walked 1.36 miles doing the mowing and other yard work. Tired!
Enjoyed a nice chat with Jesse and Kathy this evening.
Admin duties now.

Studied Portuguese!

Gassed up my car! Gas really jumped with the hurricane in Texas!

Drove to FBC Doraville to pick up supplies for the road trip tomorrow to Midway Macedonia BC with Ashley! We’ll be giving a short interview in the three services.

Took a ride on Marta to downtown ATL to check out Dragon Con! It was a lot of fun, but super crowded. 77,000 people! I’d say at least 1/3 were really dressed up. Craziest people watching ever.





Went over to the mission at Azalea to check on the kids. They’re working on cleaning. Looked better!

Put up some signage for the hypnosis business.
Jesse helped me move my San Pedro cactus. It was getting so tall I was afraid it would fall over. Put it on the floor so I can support it at the top. It’s grown over 1.5 feet since I got it in 2015!

Rode my bike 4.87 miles.
Vaccumed the house.
Blew the porch.

Admin duties now.

Studied Portuguese early this morning–like 3am!

Printed labels for the newsletter!
Calculated my mileage. (Although I hardly ever cash a mileage check because our ministry has been so tight financially. I have over $2,000 worth of uncashed checks.)

Released a new podcast! Check out Verbal Surgery -485- “Mind Song!”

This one sounds GREAT! Just click on the title and GROOVE!

Uploaded to server.

Link on Facebook.

Doing research on accordian doors for the mission. Trying to get some privacy for the rest of the apartment from working with the kids.

Went to Lowes for more paint. Trim and kitchen/bathroom. Called “Northstar.”

Continue to make progress. No fast way to do it!

I like the color scheme Ashley picked out. Very modern.


We still plan on swapping out some faucets and light fixtures. Little changes make big changes.

Repainted the ceiling in the bathroom. The nails were rusting. Primed and finished the coat today. This is before the walls were repainted.

Ashley is covering over the hideous green tile with contact paper. What can’t she do?

I am always astonished by how good tempered Penelope is. To be around all that painting and be so patient is incredible. She gets a little anxious sometimes. But honestly, so did I!

We took a break from painting to do the labels and stamps for the newsletters. Penelope likes the stickers!


154 letters in the mail this month! Please give generously!

Finished up the painting, cleaned brushes and came home.

Productive day!