An update

Well I've gotten out of the habit recently of doing a weekly update. In hindsight the ended up being mostly filler. If something interesting happened I'd post about it, not wait to do an end of week review. So I'm deep sixing that and just going with periodic posts about anything that I think might be interesting.

Reading a new author, at least to me. Susan Howatch is an author I've heard a lot of fellow Episcopalians/Anglicans talk about usually in glowing terms. (There's always a grump or two). I've been taking to wandering the stacks of the library looking for something new to read and stumbled on "Glittering Images" the first book in what's called the Starbridge series. It's the story of an Anglican priest in the 1930's and his spiritual, physical and familial struggles. To be honest the first couple hundred pages I kept thinking "Why am I reading this?" But the writing was good and the characters interesting so I kept on and now I'm hooked. I was almost late getting out the door this morning because I was engrossed in the reading.

I find it interesting as well because the main character is struggling with some of the same issues I am at roughly the same age (he's a few years younger). So the story is speaking very strongly to me. I'll be interested to see how the rest of her work goes.

Starting exploring a new movie thread too. Got a series of Harold Lloyd films from Netflix. I've never seen any of his work, which is highly regarded by film buffs. What surprised me was how long the first one was, 1928's "Speedy", 86 minutes. I know I went in with the mindset of movies from 5-10 years earlier that only ran a couple reels but I was still surprised. This is also a very high quality movie, great photography and action scenes. But the really amazing moment is when Lloyd "flips off" his image in a mirror! It's unmistakable that he offers the classic one finger salute quite clearly. Apparently this slid through because it was before the hated Hays Office was created. I ran it back just to make sure I had seen it. Oh yes, to yearn for more innocent days!

Not much else going on 'round here.

Peace

Oh to catch up a little

Wow, it's been an amazing couple of weeks and I'm way behind. So here's the synopsis:

CREDO- wonderful. I promise I'll have more to share soon.

Came home, hit the office for a day and a half, did a meeting at D House, had lunch with the bishop, tried to bring some order to the office (epic fail), went to the funeral of a great gentleman from our church, then headed off for a long weekend to tour the wine country along the Niagara Escarpment. The Niagara Wine Trail was a lot of fun. The wines varied widely from very sweet fruit wines to one winery that only does Pinot Noir (and is very clear in their belief that this is the only varietal vine that grows properly in the area). We found lots that we liked and virtually all of it is made from local grapes. All but one of the wineries did really great jobs of presenting their product and chatting with us. Several of the showrooms were spectacular, most were very nice. We decided to try a lot of wine and ended up coming home with 19 bottles (from 11 wineries). The real find however may have been the Lockport Inn and Suites. Really, really nice quality rooms (flat screen TV, nice furniture, outstanding cleanliness)for less than $80 a night. And basically right in the middle of the wineries. We had a great time.

So now back to work. Lots to do and I'm plugging away at it.

Meanwhile the kid is off on her grand tour. She flew (rather circuitously) to Shreveport Louisiana to visit with family on my mom's side for a week. Then had to take another rather roundabout trip to get out to Burbank California to visit with middle brother and her two cousins. She'll spend a week there then fly on to Pittsburgh to hang with her cousin on her Mom's side of the family. So we'll see her after about a three week absence. Cell phones, twitter and Facebook make it easier to stay in touch with her. So far she's done very well. She'll hit no less than 11 different airports by the time she gets home. (The Burbank to Pittsburgh leg goes Burbank-Phoenix-Boston-Pittsburgh. Don't ask, I have no idea)

I'm looking forward to Memorial Day weekend.

Peace

Weekend Update April 20

The Week That Was - Really rather a quiet week. There was the Louisiana trip fiasco (see below) I'm sure to be hearing about that for years from the family. The car decided to act up (something is going wrong with the fuel gauge. Looks like $300 for parts and 3 hours work. It can wait).

I had a new experience in church! I was an usher for the first time ever. They were short handed so I got drafted. Got several double takes. I also discovered that releasing people from their pews to go up for communion is slightly more complex than I'd thought. It's all a timing thing and it changes the further back you get. Very educational. I don't seem to have brought church to a screeching halt.

Other than that I just plugged away. Did some cooking, fresh spaghetti sauce, spicy peanut chicken soup and a beer and cheese soup. First two were fine, last one needs work.


The To Do List - I've started trying to bring the to do list under control. Right now it's mostly camp prep and some spring visitations I need to arrange. Anyone want the youth missioner to come visit?

What Am I Procrastinating About? - Actually doing pretty well at this.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To?Just finished "Mainspring" by Jay Lake. First of his I've ever read and really liked it. An alternate history kind of fantasy - England stills rules the Americas, but God is in actual fact the great watchmaker and the Divine mechanism isn't running quite smoothly. Our hero has to go fix it. Interesting stuff.

Next up is "The Ayatollah Begs to Differ-The Paradox of Modern Iran" by Hooman Majd. This takes a look at Iran and it's culture through the eyes of an Iranian American. Raised mostly in the U.S. Majd helps bridge the very different ways of looking at the world. This book is a joy to read and a real eye opener. I'm enjoying it immensely. More people should read this book. It gives a much more 3 dimensional picture of who and what Iran is.


Movies - Finally! "The Grapes of Wrath" John Ford's Oscar winning movie of John Steinbeck's classic look at the Dust Bowl years. The acting style is a little dated but Henry Fonda, John Carradine and Jane Darwell are worth the ride all by themselves. It's an interesting movie to watch in today's economic times as well. We still have a lot to learn about caring for one another and accepting the stranger among us. This was a great movie

Music - OK I just "discovered" Todd Snider so I know next to nothing about him. I like his sound and this song just put me on the floor. Please note that I do not condone his pro-psychedelic drugs comments (which are probably tongue in cheek) at the start of the video. Skip by them and groove to "America's Favorite Pastime" a song about one of the weirder moments in the history of my favorite baseball team.

Todd Snider "America's Favorite Pastime" @ Yahoo!7 Video

Next Up CREDO week. I'll be going to Florida for a week in early May. It's a program underwritten by the Church Pension Fund for clergy and lay employees of the church to help us find a healthier place to live and minister mentally,physically, spiritually and financially. I'm excited a little nervous.

How Am I Doing I'm OK at the moment.
Peace

Weekend Update April 13

The Week That Was -
I have no idea what happened this past week. It was like three short weeks all at the same time. I've commented on our experience at Jesus Christ Superstar. My lady wife and I checked out the Abstract Expressionist show at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo. Who knew that Buffalo had played such a pivotal role in cutting edge art back in the day? Very interesting stuff. Then we went to the Aquarium of Niagara. It's very small but pretty cool. Kind of a starter aquarium (they'd probably HATE that description!) experience. Then picked the kid up from college for Easter break. Kind of took the rest of the week easy. Did some work, Good Friday off, helped the kid clean her room, Easter Vigil, Sunday Easter service (almost 300 people, very cool. Single service) then figure out that we CAN help the kid go on a big trip after school ends. Plane tickets for a round the nation trip are really cheap (three legs for around $300 total). Nothing else really exciting going on. Did have a long talk with the kiddo about her current book project where I totally messed up her plans then helped her figure out how to make it work.

The To Do List - The to do list crisis continues. I need to get away from the office for a while and just whip it into shape.

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

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To?Kind of stalled with the books I'd been reading so I jumped ship and read Sue Grafton's "A is for Alibi". It was the perfect thing to read for a long weekend. I liked it a lot. Not sure if I'm going back to the books I was reading.

Movies - Nothing this week. Really didn't have much time

Music - No time for much music either. I did download a batch of free tunes from Paste magazine but haven't had time to unzip them yet. Did get a new set of speakers for the computer. Hope they sound good, they should.

Next Up Camp planning, working on an idea for a one day spiritual retreat, Credo prep, spring work around the house

How Am I Doing Feeling a little down but have decided I'm not giving in to it.
Peace

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

Weekend Update March 16

The Week That Was - Last week seemed very busy. I have the class I lead at one of the local YMCAs on radio techniques. That's going well although we're stuck in transition mode. Not all the new equipment has arrived so we're trying to generate excitement while we still work with the old stuff. Doing video taping of a mid-week noonday service for broadcast on local access cable. After problems the first week that's gone much better. And then planning for our planning retreat. Which went mostly well I think. I got at cross purposes with one of my young adult leaders (we really weren't as far apart as it seemed and both of us got upset. Sorry Sammi!) and generated a ton of negative energy right at the end. I think we got that set (mostly) to right and came away with some excellent goals and objectives for the next three year cycle. Stayed at a nice Catholic seminary for the retreat (Christ the King). Love to go back and see it when the trees are in leaf and explore a little. Just a shade too chilly for much walking around. But I've been very tired since we got back. My lady wife was off at a vestry retreat at the same time so we haven't seen much of each other. We got to sit together at worship (a rare occurrence), then went out for lunch and held hands and spent the afternoon together. It was kind of nice. We're looking forward to taking a little vacation together sometime in the next couple months. We need some marriage time together.

The To Do List - Yes there's still the video and camp and all the rest of that. It's becoming clearer to me that what NEEDS to be on my to do list is a spiritual retreat. I find myself a little jealous of Marko who has made these kinds of retreats a regular part of each year. I'm trying not to covet my neighbor's spiritual retreat but I think I need to work on that. A good idea has already arisen on how that might be made to happen.

What Am I Procrastinating About? - I'm still stuck with my rocks and piles problem. Have I ever explained that saying? We use it in my family. All the tasks you have each day are represented by rocks. And all those rocks are stacked in piles which make up a larger pile that is your life. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the size of the pile and not know where to start. So you end up not doing much of anything. So the reminder to me is "Just pick a rock!". Start anywhere just to get started.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? Still working on "Soul Graffiti". Finished Jonathan Kellerman's "The Conspiracy Club". Really enjoyed it. Nice mystery story with a medical setting. Now I'm reading Scott McClellan's book "What Happened - Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception". An interesting read so far. Can't imagine the Bush fan club like it much. But then he's not making many friends with Clinton fans either so I guess you can say that's fairly balanced. Seems to be pretty up front about the good and the bad. Something different to read. It'll be interesting as a lead in to the next book on the pile "Jesus for President" by Shane Claiborne!


Movies - Watched a part of "Wedding Crashers" and then ejected the disc. Yawn. Sophomoric. Vulgar. Predictable. I really do have better things to do with my life.

Music - Finally listened to the Damnwells and liked them a lot. Indie rock with a kind of folk feel to it.
Also grabbed an old disc that's been sitting on my desk and popped it in. Little Feat "Ain't Had Enough Fun" from 1995. Little Feat have been around forever it seems (since '69) doing their blend of rock, blues, R&B, country and New Orleans funk. The band is one of those ones that are revered by many folks but were never a real hit. This particular album is long after they had waned as stars but I like every single cut on this album. Must be why I keep it around.

Next Up Finally can put the camp application at the top of the list. Got the last price and can move forward now.

How Am I Doing I'm hanging in. We'll see how that goes.
Peace

Weekend Update March 2

The Week That Was - The week was pretty quiet but the weekend got hopping. I dropped two more pounds on the weight loss program which was nice. It'll be interesting to see tomorrow's weight since I had a lot of "road work" this weekend and had to figure out how to eat properly. I think I did OK.

Bishop's Ball went well. Numbers were more "normal" than last year. Two of the local school districts had dances the same day. Whattya gonna do? The folks who showed up had a good time. The bishop and his lovely wife both looked tired by the end of the evening. Many thanks to the very hard working volunteers at Calvary!

I've taken to spending the night of Bishop's Ball at a hotel simply because 1: I'm tired, 2: it's a 90 minute drive home and 3: you can't trust the weather in February. So I got up Sunday morning at went to church at St. Paul's Harris Hill. Wonderful folks, very welcoming (but we do need to talk about how they integrate kids into the worship service).

Then I had some fun. I've picked up an extra little job mid-week (which is an "extra" day off for me since I'm at 80 of full time)and I'm doing some video taping for a Lenten program with our ELCA brothers and sisters. It's going to put some extra, non-budget money in my pocket which my lovely, intelligent and graceful lady wife (who spoils me whenever she can. Love that woman!)told me I could use to buy my very first digital camera. I've been a hobby photographer for more than 30 years and it's clear that digital was something I needed to get. So the kid and I hopped in the car and went window shopping (My lady wife doesn't like window shopping. She shops like a man - know what you want, know where it is, get it, buy it, go home). I knew what I wanted (at least 8 megapixels, 10x optical zoom and under $200) and low and behold I found it! The Fujifilm Finepix S1000. 10 megapixels, 12x zoom and on sale! I have LOTS to learn now! Very exciting.

The To Do List - Video project( how much longer can I put this one off?), prep for our planning retreat in two weeks, hopefully get the camp brochures out, just the usual mad rush.

What Am I Procrastinating About? - Apparently I haven't stopped procrastinating about the video project! Maybe this is the week.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? Still working on "Soul Graffiti", finished Angels and Demons. I've started a Ray Bradbury book and I've completely forgotten the title!


Movies - None
Music - Nothing new

Next Up First and foremost is the planning retreat. I've got about 12 days to work that out.

How Am I Doing Still feeling frazzled. There's just so many things I want to get done and I'm kind of stuck in neutral. I just need to grab and rock and go.

Peace

Weekend Update February 15

The Week That Was - Well after a wild week it was a busy but still quiet weekend. Saturday off to Happening Board hoping that we have enough kids for a team (we don't, quite). So much talk followed by the decision to go one more week. We'll see if we can rattle the last few members out of the rafters. The lack of concern about deadlines around here is just maddening.
The rest of Saturday was pretty quiet although my lady wife and I were very proud of ourselves. We ate out, at a fast food restaurant and stayed completely legal on the diet! And even enjoyed the meal! More on the diet in a minute.

Sunday was Youth Commission. Nice turnout, we whipped through the items to be considered and went home early. A great group of people! That night we checked out some episodes of a favorite BBC show called Lovejoy. Gotta love Netflix! You can get almost anything!

Diet is doing fine. I've been losing around a pound a day (yes I've been weighing in every day. Very bad form, I know. But it's just so cool to see that number fall day after day. I'm not going to do it again till my Tuesday weigh in) and my lady has lost almost as much. That's with virtually no work outs by me and none by her. We hope to fix that trend this week. We are fairly bored with the offerings however. The book makes no excuses that Phase 1 is simply to be endured. We've had a couple things that weren't half bad. Something very close to a Chicken Piccata was quite tasty, as was the steak. So far asparagus and eggplant haven't been big hits.

Then we looked ahead at Phase 2! Almost looks like heaven. The return of BREAD!!!!! And the glass of wine. Sigh. There is a reason to keep living.

On the whole the boredom has been the worst part. We're accustomed to eating more interesting food than this. So I've begun adapting and examining and creating things that are legal but are much more interesting.

The To Do List - Video project, follow ups with people, Listening Day follow up, Happening, all on-going projects, just the usual mad rush.

What Am I Procrastinating About? - My video project. I just need to make one and see how it looks and learn as I go. But I want all of them including the first one to be perfect!

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? Still working on "Soul Graffiti"

I'm having some trouble getting stuck in on this book. Don't know why, I get all kinds of raves about it. Just need to get to it.


So I read an old favorite - Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke and just started Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. If I could be someday compared to any writer I'd choose Bradbury. More than any other author I've read he leaves me thinking "How does he do it?"

Movies - None. Watched several episodes of "Lovejoy" with my lady wife. Good fun.

Music - Checking out a new group called the Damnwells. Like the name!

Next Up

How Am I Doing

Peace

Weekend Update February 9

The Week That Was - Wow, what a week! Had a very interesting meeting on a project I'm working on with our local Arts Council, I had a terrible week for exercise and diet, I was part of a diocesan Listening Day on youth ministry issues, and saw my daughter's first foray into theatrical direction. It was interesting in the extreme. To work backwards the play was wonderful! She did a great job and got a great grade (it was also her final in her Directing class and her last big fling as a Theater major. So a pretty awesome curtain call). This gave my lady wife and I a chance for a little time away too. We made it a weekend and got a motel room with a hot tub (Wink, Wink, nudge, nudge, Say no more, say no more!)

I'm waiting to hear back from the other Listening locations. Mine had a very small attendance but I think came up with some really good stuff. Hope the other locations had more folks.

The exercise and diet fiasco has been interesting. I was between gym memberships (fixed now) so I go NO workouts in and my diet was pretty awful. We're going on the South Beach Diet tomorrow and I indulged. Well I feel AWFUL!!!! Bloated and logy and my guts all a-rumble. I hit the gym this morning and I feel better already. This South Beach thing is going to be interesting. I'll give it a post of it's own later this week.

So I was on the bounce. The Arts Council thing is a project we will be doing with the Boys and Girls Club and the YMCA. It uses radio/podcast techniques to help give young people a voice and improve their communication skills. It can be fun when the kids get into it. And it's a few extra dollars in my pocket too!
The To Do List - I'm not even sure. I need to get in touch with our camp partners and get prices and contracts.

What Am I Procrastinating About? - I've been trying to nail down my chaplain for one of our summer camps. So far I'm not getting a response to letter, phone message or e-mail. And it's bummin' me out. And messing up my planning. But I'm avoiding the confrontation. Sigh. I should see him in person on Thursday.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? I really liked Orson Scott Card's "Treasure Box". This had more of a Stephen King feel to it but I really got into it. I've passed it along to my lady wife (who is a MAJOR King fan so we'll see). Good story telling, well written. Just a good read. I'm actually reading parts of the South Beach Diet book at the moment. Can't find anything else just at the moment. Gotta head off to the library.

My Tuesday book group is reading Soul Graffiti by Mark Scandrette. I just got my copy so I haven't really ready anything yet but my friend Tara from Uphill Idealist (who is a member of the group)is really excited about it. The intro is by Shane Claiborne and he's an interesting guy. I haven't read or seen a lot about him but I find all of it interesting. Yes I'm excited about a book because of who wrote the foreward. I'm weird.

Movies - None. Haven't seen a one.
Music - Sigh. None. Last week sucked in so many ways.

Next Up Well today's my birthday, then two meetings in Buffalo, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday.

How Am I Doing I'm a little up in the air. Don't know about this birthday thing, or this new diet. But basically OK

Peace

Weekend Update February 2

The Week That Was - Last week was pretty quiet, just moving forward on projects in the office. I did have a CROP Walk meeting with the local ice arena. Turns out they have priced themselves out of our reach. So we're back to square one. And my LCLC meeting was postponed by bad weather. Lovely. Saturday was a total goof off (I mean I only did a little shoveling and vacuumed the carpet. A total slacker). Then Sunday! Went to watch the Super Bowl at the rector's house. What a great game! I said all week we needed to control Larry Fitzgerald (which we barely did) and we needed someone to step up. Thank you Santonio Holmes. When the game was on the line he wanted the ball, he got open and he made the catches. I was a very happy camper.

The To Do List - I'm not even sure. I need to get in touch with our camp partners and get prices and contracts.

What Am I Procrastinating About? - I've been very good at work about NOT procrastinating. Not so good at home. Don't tell the kid but the guitar practice...not so much. Which is bad cuz we have a deal. And rumor has it she's keeping her end better than I am.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? Just finished this one David Ellis's "Jury of One". Liked it a lot. Spent most of Saturday curled up with it. Kept me guessing to the end. I'll have to look for more of his stuff. Just started Orson Scott Card's "Treasure Box". I think I've liked everything of his I've ever read so I'm looking forward to this one. This is part of his expansion as a writer into the mainstream although the main character feels a little like his classic SF character Ender to me. Not sure I can say why.

And I finished "The Shack". I know this is controversial in some quarters but I'm not sure why. Is this the best written novel I've read recently? No. The early portion especially limped for me and portions later on struck me as rather cloying. Some folks get really upset because the God presented in the book doesn't spend enough time talking about judgment and divine whup-ass. Is the book perfect theologically? No. But I would suggest that no theology is perfect. I found the story interesting, the theological discussion interesting and the writing adequate. I find arguments that saying Jesus is the "best way" to approach the divine is incorrect because he is the "only way" to be overly legalistic. I enjoyed the book. I doubt it's one I'll come back to read again but it's not bad at all.

Movies - Rocky Balboa - gotta be honest, I didn't have high hopes for this. Stallone has become a parody of both himself and his characters and the Rocky movies have gotten worse and worse. And I was pleasantly surprised. This is not a bad movie at all, in fact it may be the second best movie of the series (after only the original). The fight scenes were Rocky-esque, meaning they involved our hero taking a beating that would in real life kill him two or three times over. But I thought the characters were mostly nicely fleshed out. The exception was Mason Dixon the bad guy. In reality other than Apollo Creed all the baddies in these movies are cardboard cut outs. Stallone did a nice job with a nice script. The perfect coda to the series.


Gotta mention some music. I just got Springsteen's newest Working On a Dream. I really, really like it a lot especially the title track, My Lucky Day, Kingdom of Days. Several others are growing on me. Just classic stuff.

Next Up Buckling down on my projects at home, getting camp stuff taken care of. Oh yeah and my birthday.

How Am I Doing Not too bad all things considered, not too bad.

Peace

Weekend Update - January 18

The Week That Was - The week was dominated by the news from the blood test. I did get our first camp DVD prepared and mostly in the mail (ran out of labels so the last batch go out tomorrow). Youth Commission met on Sunday and we had a very good meeting. I'm still processing all that stuff I wrote about earlier. Otherwise it was a week in the office. Ho Hum.

The To Do List - Wow, the mailing is done so what's next? Prepare for camp stuff, make reservations for our spring planning retreat, settle a date for the CROP walk (PLEASE!!!!) then figure out what needs to be done there. Oh and figure out the event I'm supposed to co-planning with LCLC. So nothing much. Yeesh.

What Am I Procrastinating About? - I'm really slacking on my ELCA responsibilities. Mea Culpa. Nothing personal, I swear!

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? I'm kind of reading two books, actually supposed to be reading a third. I've joined a book group at church to read "The Shack". So far I haven't read a word. The other couple books just aren't' grabbing me. I'm hoping to get rolling again soon.

No music or movies to report either.

Next Up Finish the mailing project, nail down a couple other things.

How Am I Doing I'm still processing the changes to come. I'm starting to get comfortable with the ideas so hope is starting to reassert itself.
Peace

Weekend Update January 13

The Week That Was - Running behind, which appears to be the theme for this week. The weekend was quiet and utterly unproductive. In a completely unsatisfactory way too. Had a Happening Board meeting which went fine. Late last week I met with a group to fund and plan the work I'm doing with the YMCA (radio/podcast techniques with a mostly Hispanic population of teens). I'm not sure where that one is headed. The difference there is that we HAVE funding we're just not sure how to use it. The opposite of the ministry stuff. If I could only merge my two worlds, sigh. Discovered the wind had almost torn the back screen door off it's hinges. Something else to repair. Just lots of little stupid things. Haven't heard back on my blood test yet. My weight loss is minimal and the stupid Carolina Panthers messed up my week in the playoff football pool. Like I said lots of little stupid things.

The To Do List - Must get the DVD project basically done this week. We'll see. Then a mailing to the congregations.


What Am I Procrastinating About? - Not so much procrastinating as just overwhelmed a teensy bit.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? Kind of between books at the moment. Didn't watch any new movies either. Re-watched "Princess Bride". Only music I've listened to was a collection of music from "The Godfather" films. This should give you a pretty good idea of my mental state, lol!

Next Up DVD production, mailing related stuff (printing, folding, stuffing, carting to the Post Office)

How Am I Doing I'm a little down. The kid is having an existential crisis and it's interlocking with the remains of my previous one. I think I see a solution but it's not going to make either of us totally happy. I think it might be workable however. We'll see.

Peace

Update January 5 2009

The Weekend That Was - Well 2009 is off to a dumb start. We had some kind of accident just before New Year's. There was a bottle of wine in the wine rack that had been opened and then re-corked. Do it all the time. Well either the cork slipped out or one of the cats gave it a whack. When I walked into the kitchen my first thought was "What the heck did the cats kill?" Looked like blood spatter everywhere. Very CSI. Took a while to clean up. Then on New Years we discovered an old bottle of spumante. When we opened it it was the color of maple syrup. Not good. Down the drain it went. Spent a quiet night at home New Year's Eve with my lady wife so it was good. Then on Saturday I managed to completely miss my first meeting of the year. Just slept right through (the meeting site was about 2 hours away, I woke up 45 minutes before. And figured it out about 30 minutes before) The rest of the group was very gracious about it (THANK YOU!) The football pool came to an end and I didn't manage to climb back into the top 10. I missed by less than 10 points though. So not bad.

The To Do List - Started putting together the first list of the year. It's ENORMOUS! I so do NOT want to go back to work! I just need to bump things off and not let them linger.


What Am I Procrastinating About? - Nope still on vacation till I get to the office.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? Finished "Wish I'd Been There", pretty good. Then hit "The Fifth Elephant" by Terry Pratchett. This is part of the huge Discworld series (depending on how you count there could be 30 some books). If you're a fantasy fan you probably already know the name of Terry Pratchett. If you've never read any Pratchett would be an interesting place to start. He has a bizarre sense of humor, takes regular swipes at the "rules" of fantasy and fills the books with all kinds of word play. The primary recurring character is Death who is an interesting person. As always I enjoyed this one too.

Not a lot of movies this week. Watched a classic '50's horror film "Them" I was really expecting a cheesy flick but I was impressed. A pretty impressive cast (James Whitmore, James Arness) and it is a Warner Bros. film. The script is quite good as well. They kept the special effects to a minimum and that helps too. It was a nice pick up.

Watched the last of the Christmas videos for last year too. "The Homecoming", the first time America met the Waltons. Still love it. Got me started thinking about Walton's Mountain. I'll probably post about that sometime this year.

Also caught Batman - The Dark Knight which was quite good. I could have done with a bit less blowing up/crashing/booming stuff but a tour de force performance by Heath Ledger.

Next Up I have a multi hour blood test on Monday. Part of my doctor's quest to determine if I'm headed toward diabetes or not. My other test was fine but this one tests something that she thought was borderline. This one really freaks me out. Not the test but the possibility of diabetes. I'm not likely going to get that diagnosis, even my doctor admits I'm just in a borderline place and she's afraid it's headed the wrong way. Still freaks me out.

How Am I Doing Other than the blood test and the monster to do list I'm feeling pretty good.

Peace

Weekend Update - December 29, last one of the year!

The Weekend That Was - Ah Christmas weekend! We went to the midnight service where for the last 20+ years I've done a narration of the service on one of our local radio stations. Originally the script called for me to talk during every single part of the service EXCEPT the sermon. I've scaled it way back since then. But this year a variety of technical problems knocked us off the air so I got to just be a worshipper mostly. It was very cool. Christmas was wonderful and leisurely. My favorite kind. Yes, I got cool presents. My favorite is probably "Think Like a Chef" by Tom Colicchio. Looks like fun. Then down to Pittsburgh to visit the in-laws (good visit), my lady wife's only brother (and the kid's only cousin on that side of the family)(another good visit) and then go see some of my side of the family (also a good visit). So it was fun. Sunday was a little shopping with Christmas money. I got a history of comics on sale. Should provide many, many hours of enjoyment.

The To Do List - I need to work very hard at not working. My office is closed (as are all our diocesan offices) until the New Year. I need to spend family time, and me time right now.


What Am I Procrastinating About? - Not procrastinating, just not doing things at the moment.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? Knocked off "American Lightning" by Howard Blum. It's the story of the first "Crime of the Century" of the 20th century, the Los Angeles Times building explosion. It involves Clarence Darrow, D.W.Griffith and William Burns (the "American Sherlock Holmes"). Domestic terrorism, labor unions, and the birth of Hollywood. I thought the Griffith connection was a little bit of a reach but only a little. Well written and fascinating history especially in view of recent politics in this country. The first 20 years of the last century can be extremely educational when it comes to looking at what's been happening in the most recent decade of American life. I'm working on "I Wish I'd Been There, vol 2". Historians are asked what historic event do wish you'd been there to witness. This book focuses on European history so it's been the writing of Magna Carta, the firing of Handel, Hannibal crossing the Alps. Pretty good stuff so far.

Caught a few more Christmas classics. Watched the complete unedited version of "White Christmas" but haven't been around to watch too much more recently.

Next Up New Year's Eve which is a yawn around here. The kid will be away with her friends so it'll just be my lady wife and which is really the way I prefer it. If we get a really interesting invite we might go but it's unlikely. Much more fun, just the two of us! I'm refusing to think about anything beyond that.

How Am I Doing I'm feeling much cheerier. I hope I can carry that through into the new year.

Peace

Weekend Update December 22

The Weekend That Was - Well I wanted an "off" weekend and I got it. Weather shut things down on Friday, I had nothing planned for Saturday and then another storm canceled my meeting on Sunday. So I totally goofed off. And it felt GREAT!!!!! The weather has been a bear and the worst is still to come it appears. I'm doing this late on Sunday evening and we may wake up to well over a foot tomorrow. Gotta wait and see. But it's been nice to relax this weekend. We did Britten's Lessons and Carols at church this morning which was pretty cool. Great sermon that sounded like it was aimed right at me. Don't you love those? Excellent work by our associate rector as always. But MAN IT'S COLD OUT THERE!!! Temps are in the single digits and wind chills are around -1. Lovely.

The To Do List - Worked on a few more small projects, worked on some stuff for a Youth Commission retreat next year. Need to follow up with some folks on some other things before Christmas break starts.


What Am I Procrastinating About? - Not too much at the moment. Kinda strange.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? Ripped through "Tried By War - Abraham Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief". Really enjoyable and I think pretty even handed. Points out where Lincoln made political compromise, made mistakes and got things right. Really recommend it if you're into American history and military history. It was a great break from everything I've been reading recently. The book is shorter than I expected because it has a couple dozen pages of footnotes.

No music but a couple movies. Finally watched "The Truman Show" with Jim Carrey. This was a really fun movie. It's funny that Carrey can do such good quality work when he takes the shot. An interesting concept, well written, acted and directed. I really enjoyed this one. I probably would have seen it sooner except so much of Carrey's work is just stupid. Not this one though.

Plus watched a Christmas movie "It's a Wonderful Life" A classic. I don't care if people think that Capra is naive and not cynical enough. Thank God for that. I forget how much fun it is. And I love the styles. Why did men ever stop wearing great hats like this? And any movie that stars Jimmy Stewart is worth watching.

Next Up Christmas! What more do you need in a week?

How Am I Doing Still trying to find my way. It's great to know that I have friends and support in this struggle. It's a little brighter and that's a pretty good feeling.

Peace

Weekend Update December 15

The Weekend That Was - Still running around on weekends! Yeesh. The diocesan staff Christmas party was Friday night at the bishop's house (fun as always) then we stayed the night at a local hotel since we were picking up the kid the next day. Did a little Christmas shopping and then home. Up Sunday to lead our adult forum. We're doing an Advent series based on hymns. My "topic" was the second coming. Not too many land mines there, lol. The discussion went well. Out for lunch then home to watch most of the Bills fiasco and the first half of the Steelers game. My football pool is going to get hammered. I picked lots of winners but the Redskins, Titans and Cardinals just killed my point total. Sigh. Baked some cookies and a small fruitcake (never done a small fruitcake before!). Then watched a movie (see below). I just want a "not doin' nuttin'" kind of weekend!


The To Do List - Bumped off a few small projects (Yay! and there was much rejoicing) I'll be attending a meeting of whatever remnant exists of a congregation that has left TEC. It's our first in WNY, so the bishop and several members of the staff will be there. There might be more of us than them but we'll see. Then some more small projects still in my sights.


What Am I Procrastinating About? - Would it surprise you to discover that this is my LEAST favorite part of this post each week? Procrastination is part of my lifestyle. I actually have some phone I should have made weeks ago that I need to report on come Sunday. So I better get my butt in gear.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? Finished the Brautigan and moved on to the new Jan Karon book "Home to Holly Springs". I love the Mitford books and this one (which doesn't take place in Mitford at all) is absolutely wonderful. I only have one small grump with it (Fr. Tim runs into one of his old buddies in a rather unlikely way). It's one of the few books I've read recently that I just wanted to keep on reading till it was over. It was fun. I needed that. I think I'm going to work on a book about Lincoln as Commander in Chief. Curiously, given that he spent more time on that aspect of the presidency than any other there are virtually no books written about it. Given my affection for both the president and military history I think I'll like this one.

Not much music again this week. Listened to some music the kid played on the college station. One song really jumped out at me "Girl's Not Grey" by AFI. Really like that cut.

This week's movie was - Minority Report. Sigh. I really wanted to like this movie and it's pretty good. But it makes the mistake so many sci-fi movies do, sacrifice story for special effects. In the last 30-40 minutes they abandon the high visuals and actually dig into the story and the movie gets MUCH better. A really good story idea (well, duh it's a Philip K. Dick story) with a fair to middlin' cast. Cruise is his usual rather brittle 'droid but in the right roles it works. And I think it was fine here. But it could have been so much better.

Next Up The meeting in Tonawanda, Youth Commission and then CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! Oh, which reminds me,need to do some shopping!

How Am I Doing Feeling a little disconnected spiritually right now. Probably a good time to really get into Advent.

Peace

Weekend Update December 8

The Weekend That Was - Ok my weekends have gotten way too busy! Looking forward to a nice quiet weekend at home sometime soon. Let's see Friday I wandered down to the Christmas party for our local Arts Council low power FM radio station (WRFA) where I volunteer and record a short media commentary program. We had a Christmas parade in downtown, in the bitter cold. Temps in the mid teens. Chatted with some folks, listened to a few minutes of a short live concert from 10,000 Maniacs (which was very cool)and then went home. Saturday was an organizational meeting with my Lutheran friends then off to college to take the kid out to dinner for her birthday followed by a concert with Trans-Siberian Orchestra. TSO is a major hit with the ladies in the family. I enjoy them. But we didn't get home till about 2 AM after driving through some really nasty snow. So I slept in on Sunday (and yes feel the tiniest bit guilty). Did a lot of snowblowing and a lot of cooking (marinara, red pepper hummus, spicy chicken peanut soup and baked some bread). Watched a little bit of the Bills looking wretched, most of the Steelers looking fairly bad (till the end), watched a movie (see below) then called it a night. Didn't feel like much of a weekend break, really.


The To Do List - No change from last week. Which is bad. "More little projects, dubbing DVDs so they're ready for the January mailing, camp stuff, revitalization team. Oh and attending a meeting for the faithful remnant left after members and clergy of one of our congregations departed TEC. And a doctor's appointment." Sigh. Yet I actually did get some stuff done last week!


What Am I Procrastinating About? - It has become apparent to me that I need to regress to my youth. I need to have "homework time". Time when I'm not allowed to watch TV or do other fun stuff till I get my work done. So I'm going to set aside 7-8 PM every night as homework time. Yeesh.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? I bumped off two Goldsborough written Nero Wolf books "Death on a Deadline" and "Silver Spire" then jumped into another Richard Brautigan book "Trout Fishing in America". Brautigan was a strange guy but I'm really enjoying his stuff. I know some of his critics hammer him for his naivety but I find it charming and a wonderful change of pace. In case you're wondering this book really isn't about trout fishing. Although trout fishing does occur. My favorite chapter so far was the trout fishing in America terrorism incident in the 6th grade. Just delightful.

Not much music this week. Jammed out to my "radio" mixes on my ipod. Music that spans ZZ Top to AFI. Got some serious work done to it.

Great movie last night - Elizabethtown with Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Susan Sarandon and Alec Baldwin among others (oh, gotta mention Bruce McGill (D-Day from Animal House). I just really enjoy seeing him in stuff). A warm, funny romance about small towns and family. I really liked it a lot.

Next Up The to do list is getting LONGER instead of shorter. Argh.

How Am I Doing Feeling a little disconnected spiritually right now. Probably a good time to really get into Advent.

Peace

Weekend Update - December 1

The Weekend That Was - We call this a "Run-Go-Look-See-Do" weekend in our house. And they're not the ones we enjoy the most. It's a long holiday weekend so we started with the kid home from college, then the 3 hour drive down to the in-laws. Things there went well, no arguments with the FIL which is always to be avoided. We had a nice stay and came home on Friday. Very glad to see that no significant snow had been added to the piles. Saturday was Happening reunion followed by a meeting of our youth ministry revitalization team. I'm trying to remain just a team member but I may have been a little overly involved in leading this meeting. I worked very hard to just ask questions and try to keep us all on task rather than making statements. I think I succeeded. I reminded them again that they can tell me to shut up at any time. We did some excellent work in laying out our goals for the next year. Ambitious but still within reasonable grasp. All of this in Buffalo so that was all that PLUS 3 hours round trip. Sunday was church, where I FINALLY caught up with Kaitlin and Paul (Kaitlin is a former youth, now married to Paul. They live in England where Paul is a curate up near Newcastle if my English geography doesn't fail me). Kaitlin is the oldest daughter of a long time friend who is now my friend as well. Oh and she informs me she reads this blog. Hi Kaitlin! I'd missed them the Sunday before and they're headed back early this week. Then lunch with the kid before she heads back to college, grocery shopping, volleyball practice, then home to do a bit of cooking (spaghetti sauce, excuse me while I go give it a stir..........OK I'm back). My lady wife and the kid got caught in the post Buffalo Bills football game traffic on their way up to college. So it's going to be a long day for my lady.

But it was a pretty busy weekend. And that revitalization team has given me some more stuff to do!


The To Do List - More little projects, dubbing DVDs so they're ready for the January mailing, camp stuff, revitalization team. Oh and attending a meeting for the faithful remnant left after members and clergy of one of our congregations departed TEC. And a doctor's appointment. Sigh.


What Am I Procrastinating About? - I have what amounts to a simple accounting project at home that I need to get done before Christmas that has been sitting on my desk for a couple months now.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? I've given up on the Kerouac. I'm just not in the mental state for it right now. So I'm going back to something familiar. Robert Goldsborough took over the Nero Wolfe "franchise" and has done a very nice job with it. "Death On A Deadline" is my current comfort read. I'll grab some new books at the library this week.

Watched an edited version of "White Christmas" Saturday night. Decided that doesn't really count so I'll have to do my annual viewing later. The editing was dumb too.

Listening to some familiar stuff, mostly 10,000 Maniacs, checking out some contemporary folk music on Pandora, the free internet radio station (I'm becoming a big fan) and OH YEAH! Listening to WNIA, the radio station at Niagara University, where the kid is now a DJ. She's on Tu and Th 9-11 AM (all times Eastern)and Saturday 4-6PM. They stream the station so everyone can listen in. Her air name is DJ Phoenix (oh these kids). Yes, the apple hasn't fallen very far from the tree.


Next Up It's a little frightening to realize that December is here and how much I REALLY need to get done before the new year. No more messing about. Gotta get down to it.

How Am I Doing Feeling pretty good. I gained only about half a pound over Thanksgiving which is a miracle! The rest of life is looking OK. I feel pretty good (shhh,let's keep that between just us. Don't want to jinx it!)

Peace

Weekend Update November 24

The Weekend That Was - Well most of the snow came before the weekend so I'll just ignore it. I may have some photos soon (I seem to be missing a cable) No, the real excitement of the weekend was with our cat Zaphod. Z is still enough of a kitten that she lives life at warp speed. Well Saturday she went into hyperdrive. Racing around, then stopping and giving the look of panting for a couple seconds, then racing off again. Then she'd hide under the furniture, then start all over again. She was obviously in distress but we couldn't figure out what kind. She didn't want to be touched (in fact she took a good shot at me and drew blood. She's never done that before) So after about 45 minutes we called the vet. Any new liquids/solids/stuff in the house (no), new lights or electrical cords (no), any new flea treatments (no), is she alert (yes), seizures (no), the running around would seem to eliminate heart or lung problems. Hmmm, well try wiping her fur down in case she'd gotten something on it (she would occasionally groom frantically)and see if she calmed down. If not call back. I've no problem with that response from the vet. As they said they best they could do under the circumstances would be to just observe her any way. We can do that at home for free. So we looked around. The only unusual thing was the very hot pan that had the Christmas fruitcake cooling in it. Our theory is that she licked the pan and burned her tongue. By this morning she was back to normal.

Then today she jumped up on the toilet seat just as I sat down. Surprised the daylights out of us both. No one injured. So it's been an interesting weekend for her.

Yes, I bake fruitcake for Christmas. It is 3.5 pounds of candied fruit soaked in brandy and held together with a very minimal amount of cake. It's delicious and it's not Christmas till I have a slice. I will wrap it in brandy soaked cheesecloth for about a month and then send it some to each of my brothers. Do not compare this with any fruitcake you buy in a store. I do not permit that wretched stuff into my home.



The To Do List - Still whittling down those little projects. Need to start thinking about summer camp issues very soon. Yes, seriously. Plus I have some absolutely cool reading that just arrived (details soon)


What Am I Procrastinating About? - Mostly doing those small projects. Silly. I could knock off a most of them in the week and be done with them.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? Working on Kerouac's "On the Road". I'm still early on but it looks interesting. I really want to finish it before the holiday so I can get to two new books that I'm really excited about.

Finally saw "Unbreakable". Gotta admit that Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson are on my list of actors I'm willing to watch in just about anything. The movie may be absolute garbage but they're just fun to watch. This is the second M. Night Shyamalan movie I've ever seen (Sixth Sense is the other). I don't remember if he did it that movie but he spends a fair amount of time early in this one with cutsey camera angles and stuff. It gets irritating. And it's unnecessary because his basic directorial style is pretty good. The Hitchcock influence is a bit heavy handed though. It's like the difference between Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy. Pryor used obscenity for a purpose and Murphy just decided to crank it up. Which totally misses the point. A really clever/artsy shot should lead back into the story and then disappear. A lot of these don't.

Otherwise I really liked the movie except for the end which felt contrived and dumb.


Next Up I need to plan out a sprint through to the end of the year to really set up next year. That means getting the little projects done, and laying some ground work. This next stretch is usually very quiet for me so I don't have many distractions.

How Am I Doing I'm in an OK place right now and I have some very cool things within sight.

Peace

Mid week update

Well it's cold.
And there's still a lot of snow on the ground.

But then that pretty much describes the next 4-5 months. That's what I think the folks who leave comments about how much they miss the snow miss. Every now and then would be fun. We can literally have as much as 6 months of this nonsense here (Mid - October to mid-April is absolutely NOT unheard of in these parts)and 5 months is a virtual guarantee. Oh and I live in a snowbelt that normally gets 100-150 inches of snow (with 200+ on a bad winter). So expect no heart felt paeans on the glory of the white stuff.

My weight loss program took a small backward step. I gained a pound. Bleah. I just got into a snacking mode. Can't do that.

Volleyball - we played really well and lost two of three games. Sigh. I served really well (took the final 7 points of the game we won on my serve), the rest of my game was OK. Managed to tweak a muscle in my left thigh going too hard for a ball. But the best part was being told by the best player on my team that she figured I was a life long jock! (Those of you who have known me for a long time are rolling on the floor in laughter. Better let everyone else in on the joke) I was a nerd. Awkward and a little clumsy. So for someone to think I'd been a jock may be the high point of my very mediocre athletic "career". (For the record I played a year or two of Little League, four or five years of slow pitch softball, about 10 years of recreational league indoor soccer and now about 5 weeks of rec league volleyball. That's spread over 50 years. I was not a star in any of those leagues. I was below league average in the first two, league average in the second and probably still below average right now). So pretty cool.

Car news - time to buy new tires for the rear of the SUV. Except it's got an oddball tire size (it's like owning an original VW bug again, sigh!) so the tires are expensive and hard to get. We had to try three different brands before we found one in stock. All told a little under $300 for two tires, mounted balanced and installed. Yeesh. If this weren't such a great car...

Well I've had a fairly productive day so far. Got the Contemporary Folk channel up and running from Pandora which is something of a breakthrough for me. Since my first career was in radio I used to work with music playing all the time. When I took this job I didn't play much because: 1) I didn't want to disturb the folks here at the parish house (I am a guest), and 2) I wasn't sure about the whole "Bishop's staff" "working for the church" thing. I don't much like praise/contemporary Christian music. I do play some classical music but when I need to just crank out the work I need "my music". Well, finally this past year I thought "Heck with it, this is who I am. I need my tunes". I'm feeling much better. Plus with the office move a year or so ago the sound doesn't travel to the other offices very well - I'm at the end of a hallway all by myself next to the bathroom. So while I don't exactly rock out unless I know I'm the only one in the building.

So back to bumping off some of these little projects.

Peace