Ordinations and happenings

I have been meaning to reply to Dad's message about Bryan's ordination. I meant to write a full message instead of a 'reply' to his post, to catch all the people who don't go looking for replies. But, I didn't seem to get around to it. One reason was that the 'other' cub scout district called me on Sunday night to see if I would help their camp being held this whole past week in the evenings. I already had some things scheduled some nights, but spent the other nights at their pool.

Another thing keeping me busy this week was an unexpected announcement at work. You may have seen in the news that Nokia and Siemens are forming a Joint Venture. My division is involved. While there is no immediate work to do on behalf of that business, of course we had to have emergency meetings on the subject to communicate that fact to everyone, and limit illegal contact until the merger is approved and closed. So, one night this week I got home at 10 from the pool, worked until 1, when I had a meeting with Finland (9am their time), and got to sleep at 2:30. Then my next meeting (also with Finland at the other end of their workday) started at 8:30. So, the schedule has been off!

Bryan was ordained a few weeks ago now. It was pretty uneventful, as these things can be. The YMP wanted all the YM to see the ordination (all 8), so we all trooped into the bishops office. We brought Shona in from Primary, and it lasted about 4 minutes. It's been fun to see he and Patrick pass the sacrament. He doesn't look as nervous as Patrick did. I was talking to the Deacon's Advisor the other night and commented how my sons formed half his quorum...and that's only because last week a deacon moved in from Utah for the summer. Otherwise we'd be 2/3rds.

OK...long update for such a short medium. I'll try to keep it shorter and more frequent next time.

John

Summer Schedule

Shona and I sat down the other day to plan some activities for the summer. I am flabbergasted by how quickly our time is filled. I can't imagine how things would be if we BOTH had to work...

The reason I am writing about this is that swimming lessons start next week. After they are over, I'll be taking a few weeks off. We don't plan on going anywhere, I'll probably just work around the house getting things done that have stacked up on us. We need to save resources for our European Vacation this winter :)

However, we were discussing the possibility of going to Tyler for a few days. I know that some of you have camped during the summer fairly recently. Any suggestions? Is the national forest or state park still a nice place to camp? Does it get super hot there (ie unbearable at night)? What activities do you suggest. etc.

I was so glad to get comments about the waverunning, that I am hoping I get some good suggestions this time too. Look forward to hearing from you...

John

How to break bad news

At dawn the telephone rings.

"Hello, Master Carlos? This is Arnaldo... your country house caretaker"
-- "Ah yes, Mr. Arnaldo. What can I do for you? Is there a problem?"

"Um, I am just calling to advise you, sir, that your parrot died"
-- "My parrot? Dead? The one that won the competition?"

"That's the one."
-- "Darn! That's such a pity! I spent a small fortune on that bird. Oh well...what did he die from?"

"From eating rotten meat."
-- "Rotten meat? Who was so mean as to give him meat?"

"Nobody. He ate the meat of one of the dead horses."
-- "Dead horse? What dead horse Mr. Arnaldo?"

"Why, those pure breed ones that you had, sir. They died from all that work pulling the water cart."
-- "Are you insane? What water cart?"

"The one we used to put out the fire."
-- "Good Lord! What fire are you talking about, man?"

"The one at your house! A candle fell and then the curtain caught on fire."
-- "What the...!!! But there's electricity at the house!!!! What was the candle for???"

"For the funeral."
-- "WHAT FUNERAL???!!!!!"

"Your mother's! She showed up one night out of the blue and I thought she was a thief, so I shot her."

HELLO??? ... hello?? ... lo?

ECHO!!! ... echo!! ... ko!

Is anybody there?

I had a fun week at cub camp this week. I managed to stay away from sunburn, and keep my Jr lifeguards relatively burn-free as well. No accidents at the pool, so I am happy with the results. The District Execs asked if I could help with another camp in 2 weeks that will run in the evenings...we'll see.

Have you ever been on a wave runner? I went to work yesterday and had a meeting with my warranty repair colleauges. Then we went to Grapevine Lake and rented a pontoon boat and some wave runners. We had races to see who could navigate a course the fastest. It was my first time on a wave runner...HARD WORK!! I never imagined that it was so hard to drive fast. Of course, it was getting up to 55mph and jumping the wakes & stuff, but I am SORE today! I thought I found all my new muscles with the lifeguard training. Evidently there are even more out there.

I look forward to hearing from you...any of you...

John

How's the recovery coming?

It's been almost a week since our marathon reunion...have you recovered yet? I got back into the office to find 400 emails waiting. Once I cleaned out the garbage, it was down to a very manageable 150 or so. As of 5 last night...back down to 8 active items. So, a productive week.

I haven't seen pictures yet...I am anxious to post them to the website. Of course, that means taking some old pictures off. So, let this be a warning to you...now is the time to copy them to your hard drive if you want to keep them...I'll likely remove the oldest 2 or 3 sections. Carrie, if you want to, you could edit your favorite photos down to 800x600 and zip them to me in groups of 3 or 4. That way our emails will still be happy with us. I'll post them up for you. Or, just burn a CD of all of them and I'll get it from Chris one day...

Thanks, everyone, for spending time together. It was fun.

John