Thursday night, the Bisons defeated Henderson State 73-60, evening their GSC record at 4-4. They needed to win that one, since it’s arguably their easiest conference game, and the schedule only gets tougher from this point forward. Kevin Brown and Trent Morgan each had 19 points, although Morgan required 18 shots to get to his total. Steven Barnett had one of his strangely typical-for-him 2 point/9 rebound/8 assist/5 turnover games, but the Bison defense was strong enough to overcome whatever offensive troubles they may have encountered. The Bisons’ poor 51% free-throw shooting didn’t cost them this time around, although it’s certainly worth addressing. The Reddies shot just 30% from the field and also lost the rebounding battle.
That’s an admittedly short summary, since my weekend was rather full. My church held a men’s retreat on Friday evening & Saturday morning, and on Saturday afternoon, Melissa and I went to Atlanta to pick up some shelves for our basement and to shop at Trader Joe’s.
Aside #1: We would do all of our grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s if we could afford to drive an hour-and-a-half to Atlanta once a week, but right now we only make it a point to go there when we go through town for some other reason, like buying Elfa shelves and eating a pre-Valentine-avoid-the-crowd dinner at Ted’s (nothing says “romantic” like a delicious hamburger). Those were our reasons on Saturday, and they made sense to me. I’m seriously hooked on Trader Joe’s instant oatmeal, salsa, and spaghetti sauce, by the way. Just not all at once.
Aside #2: So how’s the basement coming, you ask? I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but we’re finishing it into an office/den open space, which you might also call my “big boy play room,” “man cave,” or “serious fire hazard.” All but one of the walls is now painted, and we’ve bought the material to hang our drop ceiling. We lack carpet and baseboards (and hardwood for the entry way), and we still have a windowsill to finish, but that’s about it. I’m hoping to have it all done in time for March Madness.
On Sunday, we hosted our small group from church, which required us to do a little extra house cleaning beforehand. Our group is getting to be pretty large for a “small” group, so it’s not a small task to cram everyone into our living room, but we do enjoy it. Because of our size, we may actually split into two smaller groups pretty soon. I’ll be leading one of those two groups, so that’s an exciting prospect for a number of reasons. Lately I’ve been thinking about that a lot, and I may devote a few posts to small group ministry and related topics when that new group gets going.
In other news, it’s probably Monday as you’re reading this. Hope your week is off to a good start.
jfwiii.net 
The Oatmeal and Salsa are both good, indeed. I highly recommend the Trader Joe’s Baked Cheese Crunchies. They are much healthier than Cheetohs and one of the tastiest things they sell in my opinion.
There’s honestly not much I’ve had from Trader Joe’s that I haven’t liked, and it’s amazing that they sell everything at competitive prices. I’m going to have to bring you some Virgil’s root beer next month, if you haven’t tried that.
Haven’t tried Virgil’s RB. They make a black cherry soda that is really good though.
In a way it is a blessing that TJ’s is so far away. Otherwise, my grocery bill would be significantly higher than it normally is.
Rainn Wilson mentioned TJ’s on Twitter yesterday. It’s good to know I’m on the same wavelength as Dwight.