The Attack of the 40 Foot Timeline

My church, St. Andrew's UMC, just celebrated its 40th anniversary. For our celebration I created a 40 foot timeline showing events in our history. These photos document each panel except two I somehow missed. They'll be added later, probably. Maybe. If I feel like it.

The only way I know for the images to be readable is to upload them full size. Readers can then open the image in a new tab and zoom and slide to read what you want. I did that with the first one. If my enormous fan base wants to see them all close up, let me know and I'll edit this post.  

Holiday Humor of a Different Sort...

This pushes my fun-button in several ways: diversity, humor, holidays, and choral music. The Seattle Men's Chorus singing the Dreidl song.

Hat tip to Velveteen Rabbi.

Christmas in the South

How to tell you're celebrating Christmas in the South: The central air keeps blowing out the advent candles.

I'm Speechless!

Florida Woman Says Former Church Plans to Make Her Sins Public

Irony alert: The name of the church in question? Grace Community Church.

Here's a link to the church's letter to their former member.

Merry Christmas!

Our White Christmas Came Two Weeks Early

An odd thing happened today ... Baton Rouge got snow. It happens once every five or six years, but rarely does it stick. Today, not only did it stick, but it's staying through the day. Elizabeth has been playing in the snow all day long, and discovering that people who live in snowy areas don't use the same cold-weather-clothes that we do. She has to keep coming in and changing clothes because everything is getting wet.

It's around 3 PM, and the snow is still on the ground. It's soggy and slushy, but it's still around.

It's odd that we get to see snow as it falls.













Our Japanese Magnolia Tree by the edge of the carport
















Our house-guest-dog, Sally, with snowflakes on her back. She was really confused!















Elizabeth and the Snowman she made with a neighbor.

Our neighbors still have their temporary fence up until they can repair the damage done by Hurricane Gustav.

























The rosebush, wondering what happened.

YAY!!!

We're so relieved that it looks like Ike is going to visit somewhere else this week.  There are still parts of Louisiana that don't have power, and there's LOTS of debris still piled up along the streets. Another storm right now would be more than we could handle.

Since we're not in Hurricane Prep Mode, I'll fly out tomorrow on my previously scheduled trip to San Francisco. It's a work trip, but my definition of a vacation, this trip counts. Vacation means two things: first of all, I can drop a towel on the floor in the morning and when I come back in the afternoon, it's gone. Second, there's no Pat Shingleton on the TV. I like Pat Shingleton, it's just that if I'm close enough to Baton Rouge to watch Pat, then I could theoretically get home and scrub toilets, do my accounting, or call clients. No Pat means no way I can get home to do those things, so I might as well enjoy myself.

So today is full of washing, packing, printing out the information for the shuttle from the airport to the hotel, refilling prescriptions, and getting the house organized before I leave. Normally I'd do this over two or three days, but I didn't decide to go until last night.