Thoughts from 4 Miles Away

It takes me about 12 minutes to drive from our house to Washington University, so it was semi-surreal watching the Vice-Presidential debate held here in St. Louis Thursday night. I thought both Joe Biden and Sarah Palin did well, but would give a slight edge to Palin for holding her own (though little more) on [...]

Hurricane Ike Hits…St. Louis?

The remains of Hurricane Ike blew through the Midwest late last night and early this morning, downing a tree limb in our backyard, taking out power at our church (we worshipped by candlelight), and flooding the basement of the building that houses the More Than Carpentry ministry our church helps support in Wellston (to answer [...]

NKOTB

They’re coming…and I’m as excited about their music as I was the first time around.
(That is, not very.)

“…to serve musicians, to serve artists, to renew the city…”

Our associate pastor, Greg Johnson, just forwarded a review of the art show going on at The Chapel, the “sanctuary for the arts” run by our church. We’re thrilled about the good press, especially coming from The Vital Voice. Here’s an excerpt:
“I must confess that when I got there my mood was as wrinkled as my slept-in [...]

Summer 2008: Closed

This weekend marked the official end of summer for us, and none too soon.
Thursday saw the start of school at Westminster, and that made for a couple of overwhelming (but still enjoyable) days. I have 106 students (mostly freshmen and sophomores) this year in three sections of Biblical Ethics and two section of New Testament, [...]

Retail Therapy

In honor of Missouri’s sales tax “holiday”, I actually looked at – lo, even tried on – hangers full of “upscale resale clothing and accessories” this weekend at both locations of St. Louis’ Scholar Shop (caution: clever homepage, though a bit naked).
After a family trip Friday night to the first store (in which Megan took [...]

Saying Thanks

As part of my Sabbath today, I wrote thank you notes all afternoon – to family who helped us buy and furnish our house; to friends who watched our kids and helped us move; to new neighbors who have been, well, pretty darn neighborly. In doing so, I realized I hadn’t really offered any thanks to you, [...]

Top Ten Ways to Frighten the New Neighbors

10. Introduce yourself…with psychoses.
9. Spread out all your crap stuff across the backyard and explain that, just for fun, you’re re-creating the plane crash set from LOST.
8. Recruit high school students to help you move so everyone thinks you have 17 teenagers.
7. Ask if you can borrow a roll of toilet paper, and then ask [...]

Taking a Break from Boxes Linkage

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted some linkage, so in light of it being Friday, here you go:

We’re still in need of about $1,000 for our home closing (in four days), so if you’ve yet to take advantage of our $10 Gets You 15 Songs deal, now is the time.
In case you’re wondering, [...]

It’s Hard to Soar Like an Eagle When You’re a Turkey

In case you didn’t know, Founding Father (sounds like a band name) Ben Franklin thought the turkey should be our national bird instead of the eagle. (I first learned this when I was doing the show 1776 – I played Richard Henry Lee – back in 1990 at the Jacksonville Theatre Guild.)
Though Franklin argues his [...]

Remember Not to Forget: Update

On Monday, I told you about my idea to offer 15 of my songs for $10 to raise the $3,000 Megan and I need to close on our house this month. Here’s an update on how things are going:

Good news: So far, we’ve received $286.24, which is almost 10%. Several folks have given (all cheerfully, as far [...]

$10 Gets You 15 Songs (and Us This House)

Six weeks ago, I posted an entry hinting that we were trying to buy a house here in St. Louis. The good news is, we’re no longer trying; we’ve bought a house, and it’s pictured above.
Neat story: after our offers for the initial house got shot down (twice) by the bank, we decided to let [...]

Summer Plans

My friend, Ed, asked for a post on what summer holds. Here it is.
1. I’m one of seven Westminster teachers taking 28 high school students on Summer Seminar to South Dakota for two weeks in June. Over the course of a 12-day trip to and through the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota, students will explore [...]

A Degree of Transition

A reader named Kevin recently left a comment inquiring as to my reasons for transitioning from a Masters of Divinity to MA degrees in theological studies and educational ministries at Covenant. As I just wrote my official transition request letter to the seminary faculty a couple of weeks ago, I thought I’d post it here [...]

Play Ball!

The Cardinals officially open their season at home today against the Colorado Rockies. I’m interested to see how much all the off-season changes (and there have been many) pay off, particularly the much-mentioned bringing up of “homegrown” players from within the system. We still have no pitching (a starting rotation of five righthanders?), but it’s [...]

When Renting Has Its Advantages

Even if you don’t live in St. Louis, you still might have heard about all the rain the Midwest has received of late. Though we don’t live near any overflowing riverbanks, here’s a shot of our own little tragedy as a result of the rain: as of early this morning, Cair Paravel is no more.

The [...]

Coming to St. Louis

Here are two interesting events coming to town this week and in March:
A Conversation on Denominational Renewal
Tuesday-Thursday, February 26-28, 2008
Memorial Presbyterian Church
“What are our hopes for the church? In one sense, this is a deeply intimate question because it evokes the possibility of both disappointment and delight. And in another sense it is a [...]

Shooting Sadness

Well, St. Louis (namely Kirkwood) made the national news again for all the wrong reasons.
Sigh.

The New Main & Main?

In yesterday’s Post-Dispatch, “we” (that is, Westminster) made the paper in an article highlighting the school’s plans for upcoming expansion and relocation in 2010. Despite an email from our development director voicing his enthusiasm for the piece (as well as Megan’s assurance that it seemed okay to her), something about the article struck a weird [...]

Not Like Fall at All

No, this isn’t our yard or leaves, but I wish it/they were. Megan took this shot of our oldest during their trip to visit my sister three hours north in Illinois.
Here in St. Louis, our trees have the majority of their leaves (still green), and our yard just keeps growing. We had 80-degree temps this [...]