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Monday, December 31, 2018

Blog end answers and other statistics

Harold Bijoux loses his magnet
Blog-end Statistics
As we complete our (self-appointed) challenge to visit a new church and bar every week, this is probably a good time to try to quantify what we’ve accomplished since we started writing about churches at the end of 2014. We were a little surprised by some of the numbers we found.

If you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram (and you might as well!), you already know that while we won't be visiting new bars or churches on a regular basis, you can still follow us at deanandmindy.com and moviechurches.com  Over the next month or so, we'll be doing some renovations around here so you can find all our bar and church adventures in one place. Who knows? We might even have a few more books to tell you about!

Until then, these are the statistics you're looking for:
Dean at the door of the church in High Noon

Churches
Churches and worship services visited and written about since November 2014: 221 (There have been 216 Sundays)

Ministries or church-related activities: about 50

Times we were late for church: 2 (here and here)

Times we showed up at the wrong church: 1

Weeks we didn’t go to a new church: 8

Worship services one of us went to alone: 7 (usually due to travel or work schedules)


The Barbershop near Austin, Texas
Bars
Number of bars visited and written about since January 2016: 139 (156 weeks since we started visiting bars)

Number of bars Dean made up for an April Fool’s day post: 4

Bars where we didn’t order alcohol: 2 (one by accident)

Weeks we didn’t walk into a new bar: 20 (since January 2016)

Number of people who didn’t want to tell us what made a good bar or a good church: 4 (a couple other people answered the bar question but didn’t want to answer the church question)


Answers to questions you didn't ask
How many blog posts?
Dean and Mindy go to church -- 460, started September 2014
Movie Churches -- 323, started 2015 (spinoff from Dean and Mindy go to church)
Dean and Mindy walk into a bar -- 192, started November 2015
Dean and Mindy -- 60, started February 2018

Total -- 1,035 (average of 6 posts per week since September 29, 2014)

Dean and Mindy, Niagara Falls
How often were we asked not to take pictures2 (possibly 3)

How many full-time jobs since September 2014? (Mindy) 5, (Dean) 4 

Where did we live  (and work) when we weren't on the road?  
Healdsburg (2014)
Santa Rosa (2015)
Fresno (2017)
Seattle (2018)

How many nights were we on the road since starting the blogs? around 400, plus a couple of weeks Mindy visited family in Indiana and Washington.

How many miles did we travel for the blogs since November 2015? about 80,000 by car and 20,000 by air (current odometer reading on Harold Bijoux is 230,323). Most of those miles we were together, although Mindy had a couple of airplane trips alone, and we’ve both driven alone to churches.

If you want more about our 2016 adventure, you can read all that year's posts (they begin here and here) or get Cheers and Amen, our book about it. Find it here!

Monday, December 17, 2018

All the posts: December 9 - 15

You're busy. Christmas Eve is a week away, you're not done with what you planned to finish by today, and events (and people) need more than you have. Or am I the only one?

That's why today's post is very short. Just some links that you can read now or later. I hope they're encouraging (or at least amusing), and that you're able to rest, even today. May you have quiet moments of peace with enough light to go on with. God bless you.

The links!





Monday, December 10, 2018

All the posts: December 2 through 8, 2018

As we approach the end of our church- and bar-going days, you might be wondering if we'll be posting here after the end of 2018.

We will! This blog will be the place to go for any and all book releases, travel announcements (we do hope to keep visiting new churches and bars, just not on a weekly basis), and links for movie (church) reviews. Dean's got something new in mind as well, and we'll announce that here too.

In the meantime, we're visiting churches and bars in and around Seattle for the rest of the year. This week, we ventured to a cathedral for a worship service based on ancient prayers and to a tiny bar where conversation with strangers was easy. At Movie Churches, Dean explained why he wouldn't be reviewing one Christmas movie -- and then he reviewed another one a day or so later.

Cheers and Amen, a 50-state adventure by Dean and Mindy Anderson
Oh, you want links? Here you go!

Evening worship in an imposing place

Not a review. Nope.

Dean didn't expect to review this Michael Keaton film

By the time we left, everybody knew our names

And since there's still time, why not get a copy of Cheers and Amen for your pastor or your bartender for Christmas? It's on sale through the end of the year! (If you'd like an autographed copy, let us know. We have a few copies available for immediate shipping)

Monday, December 3, 2018

All the posts: November 25 through December 1

About four years ago, we started sharing posts about churches (both real and reel) at Dean and Mindy go to church. Almost three years ago, we walked into a bar and wrote about it for the first time. I suspect this month, December, will be pretty nostalgic as we anticipate completing our church and bar journey at the end of the year. (Dean will keep watching and writing about movie churches, though! He already has most of his 2019 viewing planned).

In the meantime, we're coasting into Advent, looking forward to Christmas, and celebrating the year's adventures. Over the past week, we celebrated Thanksgiving one more time, miscommunicated about the bar we were going to visit, and watched an end to Robin Hood's story. Check them out:

Grateful Lutherans

I don't think this will end well

Which bar did we mean to visit?