respublica

It's been a while

Mattresses 50

Ladders 41

Latest update which includes last week

A whirl wind

The past week has been packed with a variety of things, so many things going on I haven't even looked at the computer since Thursday.

Call Day-two services with a dinner with the district presidents in between. Two days and one night of grandparents day for 3 boys in 3 different schools. Lizzie put into the hospital, still there unless we hear otherwise today. Lots of drives out west on I-44. And the huge flower order for the campus was delivered and mostly sorted.

This week is stacking up to be another one of those weeks without the drives.

This and that

Yesterday was the first of 3 grandparents day events at our grandkids school. They all go to Christ Community Lutheran School but are in 3 different campuses. Yesterday was Connor at Webster and today is Christian at Kirkwood and then Nick at Crestwood. Last evening Connor's school put on an operetta which featured 4th grade. It was an amazing sight, at least 200 kids in first thru fourth grade singing with such enthusiasm. Connor got to play the part of a pastor. He had a clerical shirt ahead of time but at the last minute he was shy about wearing it so put the clerical collar on a buttoned down shirt.

Their Texas grandparents came in this week and got to be a part of things.

 

Boo the Woo

I was excited to see this story in the Riverfront Times because I realized we aren't the only ones who find this trend at sports events irritating. The WOO has now infected Busch Stadium.

Certainly if you watch Cardinals baseball on tv or listen on radio you've heard background WOO-ing by people in the stands. Actually this WOO-ing is going on in many stadiums and even hockey rinks. According the the story:

"Complaints about fans' WOO-ing erupted on Twitter during the Cardinals' April 9 game against the Milwaukee Brewers, with some stating that the noise forced them to mute their TVs or turn off the radio all together. Reds fan Patrick Gray tweeted to Post-Dispatch sportswriter Derrick Goold, "I get annoyed hearing it to the point where I mute the TV... I watch baseball to watch not to hear that." 

Here is a funny tweet from a Cardinal fan about this wooing stuff. "If the Masters can ban patrons who yell “dilly dilly”, maybe the Cardinals can eject fans who yell “wooo”. Can anything be more annoying? That trend will cause people to leave game or turn off the tv."

So it isn't just me.

What's for dinner at the White House

 The president of France will be honored at a state dinner at the White House tonight and the menu intrigues me mainly because Dale and I are hosting a seminary version of a state dinner tonight with all the LCMS district presidents here for Call Day. Our dinner will take place between the vicarage assignment service and the Call Night service and I had something of a hand in choosing the menu.

Here is the menu from the White House:

Starters

Tomato Jam
Buttermilk Biscuit Crumbles
Young Variegated Lettuces

Main Course:
Rack of Spring Lamb
Burnt Cipollini Soubise (onion sauce)
Carolina Gold Rice Jambalaya

Dessert:
Nectarine Tart
Crème Fraîche Ice Cream

Frankly this is nothing like what we have planned, not that the White House food won't be expertly prepared and taste wonderful. I pause at the "Burnt Cipollini Soubise". I don't know what that will look like and I've always thought we should use the word "burnt" carefully when talking about food.

Anyhow, here is what ours will look like.

Beef Tenderloin on dollar rolls with horseradish sauce

Asparagus spears drizzled with olive oil

Caprese Salad: sliced tomatoes with olive oil and basil

Assorted breads and cheese

Something else I've forgotten

Brownie/cookie variety table

Wine, beer, coffee, iced tea, water

 

Replanting the forest

Last year a Chilean forest was nearly destroyed by a fire and in the aftermath, someone came up with a great idea for restoring it. They are using Border Collies with seed packs strapped to their backs like saddle bags. The bags have openings in the bottom so that when the dogs run, the native plant seeds fall to the ground where they will hopefully take root.

This is one of the best stories I've seen, certainly Border Collies love to run and love to have a job and could do it all day long.

Why not try it?

Meanwhile in some American city....

Busy week

This is one of our busiest week's of the year, not quite as busy as graduation week, but close. Tomorrow is Call Day, the day when second year seminary students will receive their one year vicarage assignments during an afternoon service. Following that will be a dinner we host for all the Missouri Synod District Presidents in from all over the country for Call Day. In the evening our graduating students will be part of a service where they will receive their first call into the ministry and find out where their first church will be. The campus is already filled with visiting parents and grandparents.

Holy Cross in Collinsville will be getting a vicar for next year for the first time in a long long time. It's pretty exciting. The church also has 3 other seminary guys who will be getting a vicarage and one who will receive his first call. Good for Holy Cross.

The last two days of this week is grandparents day at our grandkids schools. The conflict here is that they are in 3 different schools which is going to be some kind of rushing around from place to place. Plus the addition of the annual operetta Thursday night. Then Ahner greenhouses from New Baden is going to deliver all of our campus annuals and vegetable plants which is a sizeable amount. My job is to help unload, set out, and take the money from all the orders.

Today is finish up the loose ends for tomorrow night's dinner.

But honestly, what I have to do is nothing compared to what our seminary staff people have to do. They are true troopers.

Daffodils we have Daffodils

One great thing about this never-ending cold spring is the flowering bulbs which just keep staying and staying. Blooming trees are the same and of all things, we may even have tulips in full bloom on the chapel beds for Call Day on Tuesday.

Look what we were behind

Yesterday we had to drive out to Sunset Hills to sign our tax forms before they were electronically sent off to the money hungry IRS. At a stoplight we saw this and I decided it was too good a picture to pass up and Dale, being very patient, let me bump into him a bit.

This is how these things fall onto the roads. This ladder was so long we had to stay back a few more feet than normal or it would have come close to our windshield.

Protest buffer zones

With a 9-15 vote,the St. Louis Board of Aldermen yesterday defeated a proposal which would ban protestors within an 8 foot radius of Planned Parenthood's driveway. This proposal called the area ban a buffer zone. Frankly I'm glad they defeated this. We've watched protest after protest recently where streets were blocked businesses blocked, and in any number of cases protestors went into buildings. But let people congregate outside of Planned Parenthood and protests are a problem?

Here is a photo of a protest in a Starbucks over what some believed was an unfairness by the company to African Americans.

They came into the coffee shop and bull-horned the workers. Certainly we've seen a lot of news video of protestors doing such things for various reasons all over the country. To think Planned Parenthood is a sacred cow is just wrong.