Weekend Update April 6

The Week That Was - This was a strange and varied week. Beginning with the bad news on Monday morning, it moved on to be frantic and fun and wonderful. So it was an interesting experience. Because I was on a short week getting the first two batches of camp apps had to be a priority. And against the odds I got them out. I should get the final batch out first thing this week. But it was fold, fill, fold, close, address and stamp over and over and over. When that was done I moved on to the Province II youth ministry network meeting in Buffalo. It was the first time the network had met here and I wanted them to enjoy the city that has become very special to me. A great group of folks - Pat Mitchell from NY, Ron Rhodes from Long Island, Kep Short and Debi Clarke from New Jersey and Roger Speer from the Virgin Islands (Kai Alston from Newark is also a great person but couldn't be with us). So we got our work done (we're looking at some leading edge stuff as goals), had meals at great restaurants (Anchor Bar with Bishop Garrison, Towne Restaurant (greek) and the Pearl St Grill), checked out Niagara Falls, got some walking in and shared lots of ideas and stories. Everything you could hope for from the group. Drove home on Friday feeling like the Queen City had be well represented (and the Diocese of WNY too)

Saturday was a great feel good day. I went out and bought some new clothes - in a SMALLER size!!!! Dropped a size in the waist and the old pants were just hanging on me. So 3 new pair of pants, new shorts for the summer and a new swim trunks. I'm not really that into clothes but the smaller size just made it feel great.

My lady wife and I scoped out a new restaurant just up the road (Sapore in Westfield) and came away very impressed. Palm Sunday at church, home for the Formula 1 race in Malaysia and a quiet evening the rest of the way. Baking some bread, movie night. Very relaxing.

The To Do List - I'm in a To Do List crisis and I need to confront that. It's been a month since I updated it and I'm losing track of projects. Seems like as soon as I sit down to work on the list I draw a blank on what needs to be added. Bad sign. I know I need to add the program stuff for Senior High since I will be leading that this summer.

What Am I Procrastinating About? - The To Do List mostly.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? Stephen King's Duma Key, is now done. An excellent read, I really enjoyed it. Plus it's made me thinking more about creativity issues again. Now I'm working on two books - Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne and Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations by David Warsh. The first is a radical, new, faith based way of approaching politics that is very different from the current faith based approach. The second is a history of economic theory. I'm reading it on a bit of a whim but it got pretty good reviews. I'm trying to fill in some gaps in my education.

Movies - Nothing this week. "Grapes of Wrath" is up next and I'm told I MUST watch "Say Anything". Been watching old Lovejoy episodes and the first installment of Ken Burn's "The War"

Music - Been hearing a lot about the group "The Decemberists" and got a chance to hear a little bit. Sounds like very much my kind of stuff. I'll have to dig around some more and find more to listen to sometime soon.

Next Up Final camp mailing, To do list update, some other camp related stuff and start thinking about Credo (less than a month away)

How Am I Doing The visit with the P2 folks was a great balm for me. I'm doing better. And that feels really good.

Peace