respublica

More convention images

I am home after many days in Houston.  Here's a couple of my favorite images.

Matt Harrison was elected president and attended a reception in the evening put on by the two seminaries.

Dean Wenthe of Fort Wayne, Matt Harrison, Dale

Lutherans overload the system

Dale Howie and Tim of Lutheran Church Charities.  My favorite picture.

LCMS presidium election results

President           Matt Harrison

1st V-P              Herb Mueller

2nd V-P            John Wohlrabe

3rd V-P             Paul Maier   

4th V-P             Daniel Preus

5th V-P             Scott Murray

Why pdf?

Does it seem as though too many websites are overusing the pdf format?

Much of the time what comes up (slowly and awkwardly) as pdf is not worth the effort to read.  Most of the time you just have to wonder why the material was deemed pdf worthy in the first place. 

Concordia Seminary just re-did their website.  The feeling was everyone who was submitting items for the site felt the need to pdf them.  That has been put to rest now, thankfully.

I was looking at the LCMS convention Today's Business link this morning and of course it's in pdf. 

PDF is a memory hog, slow to load and all around irritating to navigate.  It often looks horrible on the screen.  It could be argued that some material should land in pdf form, material that needs to be protected, but not every blasted thing.

Dog day at the convention

Yesterday Dale did 14 video interviews in the exhibit hall at the LCMS.  Most were with synodical people like the college presidents and such but one was with Howie, one of the Lutheran Church Charities Comfort Dogs.  These interviews will eventually end up on Concordia Seminary's iTunes U page.

This video, I can't wait to see.

Ferdie at camp

While we're in Houston for the LCMS convention, Ferdie has been vacationing at Kennelwood Village.  Two friends of ours went to Kennelwood to visit him yesterday.  He was brought to the lobby.

I can see his tail is wagging at the Kennelwood employee while he sprawls on the couch.  My feelings are sort of hurt that he would feel like wagging while we're gone.

Thanks Ruth and Mary!

Sunday in Houston-LCMS Convention

The convention opened for business this morning with a defeat of a motion to amend the schedule to allow for the election of the president.  The vote was 51% to 49% to keep the election on Tuesday afternoon as set in the convention workbook.

The delegates then spent the rest of the morning listening to the restructuring presentations which will go on for two more days.

I stayed in the hall until lunch break and then took a walk around Discovery Green, the very user friendly downtown park next to the Hilton.  There is a lot going on today, including a colorful set up for people to watch the World Cup Championships.  Houston has a huge international soccer fan base.  The employees of the Hilton have the game on all over the lobby and paying attention like we pay attention to the Cardinals when they're in the World series.

Here's a picture of the soccer watching area before the fans came.

In the shadow of the Love Boat, aka the George R. Brown Convention Center.  The big screen was on showing soccer highlights and the beer tent was being stocked.

And then when the crowd came.

It's really hot in downtown Houston today, making watching the fans in South Africa bundled up and freezing sort of disconcerting.

This guy dressed up as an insect looked really hot.  Lots of kids were sitting on the grass blowing on Vuvuzela horns making the same droning noise that blares during World Cup games. I was looking around to see if any tent was selling them, but no luck.

Kids and parents love this outdoor water feature in the park.

The water pressure goes from low...

To high

Meanwhile, back at the convention exhibit hall

The two seminaries, St. Louis and Fort Wayne share a corner of the hall.

And, Howie joined the other 3 Comfort Dog Goldens.

Love those Comfort Dogs

Before the voting

The Columbus Indiana Republic has a story of President Kieschnick which was written by Tim Townsend of the Post-Dispatch.

The election for president of the LCMS, Kieschnick versus Matt Harrison is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon although there is a behind the scenes effort to move the voting to this afternoon (Sunday) as has been the tradition.  We'll know for sure by mid morning today.

A peek at the opening worship rehearsal

For the LCMS convention opening later today.

Finally, the LCMS convention begins

Everyone is here, the downtown Houston Hilton is crowded with Lutherans, the elevators are filled and the convention center across the street is set up. 

The George R. Brown Convention Center is locally referred to as the Love Boat because the design looks like a cruise ship.

The Discovery Park which fronts the Brown Center is an amazing green space with water fountains, putting greens (!), flowers which are lush and colorful, benches, walking paths, and a small dog park.

Dog park

The park is used and user friendly.  People are encouraged to get into one of the fountains and play.  It looked like day camps van in kids just to play. 

Minute Maid Park-Cards Astros

Last night we went to see the Cardinals play the Astros at Minute Maid Park in Houston.  We were joined by many other Lutherans who are attending the LCMS convention.  The ballpark is about 3 short blocks from the Hilton where most everyone is staying which made the trip to and from the game as easy as anything could be.

I took this shot from Discovery Green, a terrific park just across from the Hotel.  The ballpark is on the right.

Minute Maid Park's 3rd base/left field side is all glass.  There is a retractable roof which was closed and made for one of the most comfortable baseball games we've ever attended.

There were lots of Cardinal fans at the game, many from the Lutheran conventions, but many others who just made the trip to Houston for the game.

The Astros' mascot is a rabbit of some sort.

The game was great, the Cards won and the Texans sitting around us were congenial and fun, not minding at all that we cheered for St. Louis.  The one thing we quickly became aware of was that Astros fans leave their seats to go out and get food-constantly.  I'll bet the people in front, next to, and behind us went out 5 or 6 times. 

The food was much better than found at Busch.  I've whined before about how the food at Busch is not hot, pre-cooked and wrapped.  Not at Minute Maid.  They grill on the spot and the full size batting helmet was filled to the brim with popcorn at a decent price.  Plus, the variety of concessions was fantastic, including Mexican and barbque.