So I’m back home (yay!) and Alexis and I are lounging around in the living room on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Alexis is busy looking up information on Nottingham, UK, where we are going to be next week on the first leg of our multi-farious vacation (see our trip details link for complete itinerary).

She is reading out various bits of interesting information out to me as she’s browsing, including this gem : “Nottingham is where lace was first produced, and is the site of the Nottingham Lace Museum!”

Which made me think…

… Scene: a dimly lit room in the Museum. Enter, stage right, a GROUP of TOURISTs. They amble along the chamber, gawking at various exhibits. Enter, behind them, ETHEL P. WOODBRIDGE, senior tour guide at the Museum. She dates from the Industrial Revolution…

ETHEL : “And heah we have some fi-iine English lace, worn by Robin Hood himself during special night dances in the forest with his merry men…”
TOURIST 1 : “Uhmm, you mean by Lady Marian?”
ETHEL : “No, young man, by Robin Hood - his merry men all rather took a fancy to him in lace, dontcha know?”
TOURIST 2 : “Errrr, perhaps over his leather jacket, like, you know, how an armored knight has chainmail over his shirt, like that kind of lace?”
ETHEL : “Well! Aaa-ctually, Robin rather preferred wearing JUST lace… that’s what his merry men wore as well, see, just lace.”
TOURIST 1 : “So, wait a minute, Robin and his merry men spent their time dancing in Sherwood forest wearing just lace?”
ETHEL : “Tut tut, it wasn’t called Sherwood Forest back then, we locals knew it as Sheer Wood Forest!”

Nottingham, here we come!

Alexis and I were recently in Austin, Texas, and we visited a “small” church there for Sunday services. The church service was held in a high-school gym, and as we were leaving I noticed that there were a lot of people in the back of the room who had been sitting on the bleachers during the service.

This got me thinking - how about a “bleacher creature” section in church?? That would be the place where there would be plenty of beer, banners, beachballs, and tailgating parties before and after service! Complete with a concession stand selling peanuts and hot dogs! That’s where most of the guys would be, I bet! Imagine - during service they could start chanting : “Saaaaa-tan… Saaaaaa-tan… Hey Satan, YOU SUCK!”

And, when the sermon gets too long, you can count on the bleacher creatures to start a wave!

Of course we would have to shut off the alcohol in the seventh inning…

One strange thing about American culture - there’s a magazine for *everything*. Usually more than one! For, of course, the educated consumer MUST have reading choices!!

And it is frankly ridiculous how many bizarre specialty topics have their own magazines - you want a magazine exclusively about sofa covers? I betcha there is one! With its own catalog, monthly contest, special promotional posters and mugs, and traveling bikini wet-tshirt team!

I have an idea - how about a magazine called “modern terrorist”? Of course the title would have to be all lower case, you know, to give it that chic post-modern look.

Imagine …
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I decided to add another category to this blog to provide an outlet for my lighter side

Yes, oh you friends that know me well, that does not bode well for the world - for you know just how twisted and dark my “lighter” side is

Or maybe you don’t know… and don’t want to know either…

HA! TOO BAD! MUAAHAAHAAA!

This year, recklesspassion has been my outlet for discussing and wrestling with observations on spirituality and what I like to call “applied philosophy” - i.e. not just about big ideas, but about actually applying said ideas to practical living.

One thing I have observed is that many people seem to be in constant conflict with who they really are, especially who God has gifted them to be.

Well, I recently realized that I am no different - one area I am constantly in conflict with myself about is my sense of humor : somehow I feel that to be funny is a silly thing, not worth much, and that to be valuable means to be serious and to contribute seriously.

So… here goes - I’m going to set aside this section of reckless passion to let myself go recklessly in the area of humor This is where I aim to write down all the humor that occurs to my twisted mind - with very little filtering.

Like I said… MUAHAAAHAAAHAAAAAHAA!

So the next several weeks are going to be quite busy, leading up to our megatrip vacation in November (details here : Vacation trip details), here’s what’s going on:

• Mon, Oct 9 - Fri, Oct 13: I’m teaching classes in Natick.
• Sat, Oct 14: Alexis and I leave for Albuquerque, NM.
• Sun, Oct 15: Sightseeing Albuquerque, NM
• Mon, Oct 16 - Fri, Oct 20: I’m teaching in Albuquerque.
• Sat, Oct 21: Sightseeing Santa Fe, NM
• Sun, Oct 22: Alexis and I fly to Chicago. From there she flies on back home to Hartford, while I fly to Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
• Mon, Oct 23 - Fri, Oct 27: I’m teaching in Cedar Rapids.
• Fri, Oct 27: I fly back to Hartford.
• Mon, Oct 30 - Wed, Nov 1: Working in Natick.
• Thu, Nov 2: Alexis and I leave on our six-week megatrip!
• Fri, Nov 3: We arrive in London, visit my sister.
• Sun, Nov 5: Travel from London to Cairo, Egypt.
• Mon, Nov 6 - Thu, Nov 23: In Egypt with my parents. Pyramids, Nile cruise, Red Sea resorts, Suez Canal, Alexandria, etc!
• Fri, Nov 24 - Sun, Nov 26: In Dubai, U.A.E., with my parents.
• Mon, Nov 27 - Sun, Dec 17: In India, visiting family in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and then relaxing in Kerala.
• Sun, Dec 17: LONG travel day, from Chennai to London, transfer planes, then London to Chicago. Staying overnight at the airport hotel in Chicago to recover.
• Mon, Dec 18: Flying back to Hartford from Chicago. We’re back!

We’re putting together a prayer letter that we’ll post on kumarmail.com - please do keep us and our families in prayer as we embark on a 40-day trip