Weekends with Friends

I've been preoccupied or pooped, and the blog has suffered. But I want to remember how we spent the last two weekends.

The FOUR-Day Weekend: Labor Day

Our four-day weekend began Friday afternoon when Wendy Wagoner came to see us. She did laundry, and we ran out to supper, followed by a stop at the Cone on the way home.
Evelyn made pumpkin-pecan pancakes for breakfast, accompanied by a bowl of fresh blueberries and raspberries. Better than First Watch!
Saturday afternoon we mowed grass and I did some other yard work.

Then we got cleaned up and left home by 5:30 for dinner and a movie. I had a Groupon for Kenwood Theater, so we saw the film Boyhood after a delightful visit to Dewey's pizza, just a couple of doors away from the theater.

I'm glad I saw the movie, because it achieved something unique, filming the same cast each year for 12 years, with a script to portray the life of a boy from ages 6 to 18. The film was well-acted, I guess, and the premise was unique enough to keep us watching. But I'm not sure I'd go so far as to recommend it. 

For one thing, there's a lot of rough language, especially in one particular scene featuring a circle of teenage boys trying to impress each other with how crass they could be. I'm not a prude about such things, but it did get wince-worthy more than once. 

And then there was the message of the film. Or the lack thereof. The main characters in the movie lived generally hopeless lives, battered by their poor decisions and those of others around them. I figure it's very true-to-life, at least life as many people live it, and so I guess I should say, "See the movie and then go love your neighbor." But many of the non-Christians I know aren't as messed up as these folks were.

Sunday I led worship in the Classic Service and was really blessed to get to do so. Not only by the chance to plan it and recruit a couple of volunteers to take a special part in it, but also by Trevor DeVage's hope-inspiring sermon about Heaven, the last in our 31-week journey through The Story.

Sunday evening we met Dave and Carol Ray for supper at First Watch. We met at 5:00 and had to be kicked out when the store closed (early on Sundays) at 8:00. We stood on the sidewalk and parking lot still talking till after dark, and then a young, thin woman accosted us with a long story about being pregnant and kicked out of the house where she lived and she could stay at the Days Inn for $52, but she had only $24 and she swore she wasn't lying and she really didn't want to lose this baby and could we please help her. Evelyn and Dave and I gave her cash, and on the way home I think we all had "buyer's remorse." One side of me wished we had offered to follow her to the Day's Inn and pay for her room for her. I wonder if she would have let us.

Monday was a rainy day and a quiet day around the house. Jennifer called us late in the afternoon (a nice visit!), and by then it was raining steadily off and on. Instead of cooking on the grill as we had planned, we ran to El Rancho Grande for a quick Mexican fix. I was surprised to see a big crowd there on a holiday evening.

The plants always look prettiest in the morning. The light rain made them seem even healthier.
By Labor Day some years, the pot garden is looking pretty scraggly. But I was taken by how
nice it looked this year, first thing, on Labor Day morning.

Last Weekend: Road Trip
Once or twice or three times every year we get together with Todd and Lyn Dillon and Terry and Shirley Wuske, usually spending overnight Friday at one of our homes. This weekend we picked up Wuskes at 4:00 on Friday and headed to Dillons' place in Plainfield, Indiana. (I took off the whole afternoon so Evelyn and I could enjoy a long lunch with Bob and Sue Willson who were in town for a quick visit. We sat at McAllister's with them for at least 90 minutes.)
Todd and Lyn are the consummate hosts, and we couldn't have enjoyed more sitting around their table with them Friday night. Lyn said she bought all the food already prepared, and it was yummy. The laughter and the talking were even better.
We chose this weekend for the visit because Saturday was the Penrod Arts Fair, a one-of-a-kind event meeting on several acres of the grounds surrounding the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It is a juried show. The presenters of painting, pottery, leather work, metalwork, leaded glass, woodwork, handmade jewelry, and more are all top-quality. Add three areas of eclectic food offerings plus several performance stages featuring everything from bluegrass to ballet and you have a day more than worth the $15 admission--especially when you can browse the grassy aisles with good friends. (We arrived midmorning after enjoying breakfast treats--yogurt parfaits created by Shirley and homemade cinnamon rolls baked by Evelyn--along with healthy portions of coffee and conversation.)
Actually the grass turned to mud in several spots, because it rained hard overnight and drizzled off and on all morning. We wore long sleeves and carried umbrellas (we only actually used them a little), and weren't daunted at all by the weather. Actually it was nice to have a cooler day without beating sun.
We were back at Dillons for a wonderful supper of cauliflower soup and chicken salad croissants. It was pleasant to enjoy the meal on their screened-in back porch, and again the good food was enhanced by the good conversation.

It's wonderful to be able to laugh hysterically as well as talk about deep issues that concern us, all with the same group. It's an experience that provides encouragement and accountability, a sharing of Christian fellowship that can't be manufactured or programmed.
We left after 8:00, drove to Wuske's house to pick up our car and were home well before midnight. It was a short night because Evelyn and I had volunteered to be at the new Starting Point (replacement for the old Welcome Center) for its trial run at 8:30 Sunday morning.
Sunday afternoon included grocery shopping, bill paying, and a nice phone visit with Geoff.
Two great weekends--too nice to forget.

Visiting the Amish . . . and Other Folks

Today was our full day in Amish country, and we enjoyed it. But our only contact with Amish folks was one nice man with whom we discussed the weather on the porch of his store; about two dozen nice ladies taking money and waiting on customers at the craft, furniture, linens, antiques, and other doodads stores we visited; and several horse-drawn carriages clip-clopping down the tourist-crowded main street of Berlin, Ohio.
We're staying at the Inn at Honey Run, a remarkable hotel  about 3 or 4 miles outside Berlin. I bought a  Groupon to this place on a whim this winter, and Evelyn and I picked this weekend to come use it. I don't know if we'll ever be able to afford the place without taking advantage of a special, but we'd love to come back. Everything about the place is perfect for the location. It's nestled into a woodland environment, surrounded by five-story-tall trees, with an elegant but comfortable atmosphere and friendly service.
Part of our package was breakfast served in the room this morning, and it was wonderful--elegantly presented and every bite tasty--far more than we would normally eat for breakfast. In fact, we wrapped up the scones to enjoy later.

It has been raining or threatening rain all day, but we did pretty well at dodging the raindrops during our browsing/shopping binge. We were back to the lodge by about 4:00 or so. We took books to the overstuffed chairs in the lobby and enjoyed a cup of coffee while we read for about an hour. Then back to the room to relax and get ready for dinner at 7:00.
I had decided we'd have one really nice meal on our trip, so I made a reservation at the lodge's
restaurant. We weren't disappointed. Not only was the food served with a gourmet flair, but the setting was beautiful. We were seated by two six-foot-tall corner windows looking out on the woods surrounding the lodge. By the time we were finished, the rain was coming in torrents, and it was beautiful to sit inside with dessert and watch it pelting the leaves of the maples and pines.

We'll Always Remember Mentor

We'll always remember our day in Mentor . . . and we liked it enough to consider coming back someday.
Had a nice breakfast at the Residence Inn and then drove to the James Garfield Home just after it opened at 10 a.m. We were there for at least a couple of hours. The home is beautiful. His heirs donated it and its furnishings to the local historical society, so most of the items we saw were originals, not reproductions. It is a huge, beautiful home, made larger by Garfield's widow after his assassination. He had lived there himself, of course, managing the huge farm where it sat and also running his campaign for president from there.

The James Garfield home

We learned a lot about him. "He is a forgotten man," our excellent guide told us. It seems certain he would have been a great president had he lived. He knew six languages and had fluency in five of them (English, German, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew--the last was the one he knew least).
He was the first (and, I think, only) president to be elected from the House of Representatives.
He was the first presidential candidate to conduct his campaign by going directly to the people instead of working through spokesmen. He greeted scores of students and other citizens who came to hear him speak from the front porch of the house we visited.
His wife created a presidential library with all his papers and books here after his death. It was the first such presidential library.
He was a brilliant man, an accomplished and competitive student. In his lifetime he worked as a farmer, professor, preacher, politician, and more. The house and grounds surrounding it are shaded, cool, and beautiful, and we really are glad we made the visit.

The naturalist pointed out the swallowtail butterfly and
encouraged me to get a picture of it.

In the afternoon we went to Holden Arboretum, a 3600+ acre spot a short drive away. We were led in a
tour through the butterfly garden and then took a walking tour through many of the trails surrounding the visitors center. We saw fields of blooming perennials and many bushes and trees that were new to us. It was an absolutely beautiful day, sunny but not too hot--the perfect day to spend so much time outside. We were there from about noon till almost 3:30.
Then we drove to a state park on the shore of Lake Erie and walked across the sandy beach to stick our feet in the water. We spent more time cleaning the wet sand off our feet back at the car than we spent on the beach, but at least we could say we had sampled Lake Erie.
From there we drove a few minutes to Brennan's Seafood House, a restaurant I had researched ahead of time. It's certainly not a fancy place--all wood paneling and sailing kitsch. But it is a local and tourist favorite, and we enjoyed it. We split the Fisherman's Platter--shrimp, scallops, perch, whitefish, and a crab cake--and then split a piece of key lime pie to finish it off. It was a huge amount of food, and we were glad we shared it.
We had done all of that by 5:30, so I suggested we catch the first evening showing of Helen Mirren's new movie, The Hundred-Foot Journey. We really enjoyed it. In spite of a few implausibilities in the plot, the acting was wonderful, as was all the attention to food! We'd recommend it.

Back again . . .

I remember several years ago when I decided to visit the dentist after at least a couple of years not having regular checkups. "I'll come see him again if he promises not to holler at me," I remember telling my wife.
I did go back, no one hollered at me, my twice yearly checkup routine has been restored, and I haven't lost any teeth.
I feel sort of the same way about this diary. I'll start writing it again if no one hollers at me for skipping more than a month of posting. And if anyone will read it again. (I've always said I don't care if anyone reads it, but deep down, I like it when people comment.)
The only way to start over is just to jump in, without guilt for events not recorded or pictures not posted. I may be able to do some make-up, but I'm not going to take on that burden.
I will look back at least one weekend, though, to record that Evelyn's brother and his wife, Ken and Susan Aulen, came to visit last weekend. We had a great time. The Reds were in town, and we went to the game Friday night. Got there early enough to show Aulens the new park on the riverfront before the game. Ate supper in our seats at the game, and enjoyed a beautiful evening. The Reds lost, but it was still a great evening to be there, especially with Friday night fireworks and a first—the Cincinnati Pops was there to accompany the fireworks live! The fireworks were remarkably synchronized with the music, and our cheap seats were perfect to see them. It was fun!
Saturday we had a long time of chatting and coffee drinking at breakfast. Evelyn made a favorite we haven't enjoyed for a long time, Breakfast Dutch Babies. We went shopping in the afternoon and grabbed lunch at the food court at Kenwood Mall.
We went to Raja India for supper and then on to Mason Middle School where Mason Community Players were staging The King and I. My work colleague, Elise Kaplan, had the role of Anna, and I was eager to see her perform.
She has a beautiful voice, and we enjoyed the whole performance. I'm so glad we got to see it.

The sets and costumes were beautiful too.

Sunday we went to the 9:00 service and then on to Mimi's for brunch. Ken and Susan visited awhile longer after we got home, and then we relaxed (and I did a bit of work) in the afternoon and evening.
This weekend has been very good so far. Last night we grabbed supper at Chili's and then drove across the street to shop for an automatic dishwasher at Sears. When we moved into this house more than 11 years ago, Joy Norwood, our realtor, took one look at the dishwasher in the house and said, "You'll be getting rid of that."
Well, we haven't gotten rid of it, but now it's time. It's corroded in the bottom, and we suspect some small leaks. We found an excellent mid-priced model on sale, with a promotional discount on delivery and installation. The new one will be humming along (and I do hope humming instead of the roaring of our current model) Thursday evening.
This morning Evelyn went with me to the West Chester Farmer's Market, and we enjoyed some of our purchases for supper tonight--corn on the cob, lettuce greens with vinaigrette, fresh tomato, and breaded, fried zucchini. It was great.

Soon we'll adjourn to the family room to watch a live stream of the symphony's Lumenocity performance. We weren't lucky enough to get tickets for musical laser show, but at least we're not fighting the crowds to see it in person.

Busy Times, Fun Times, Inspiring Times

Here it is Tuesday, and I'm just now finding time to write a brief rundown of the weekend. This has been a busy week since then.
Jim and Diane and I have been busy with several new and out-of-the-ordinary tasks associated with the creation and introduction of the new Christian Standard app that we hope will be live on the Apple Newsstand in another week or two. It's very exciting, and once we get it established (learn how to use the interface and establish the print/digital integration), the month-by-month work on it will not be nearly as consuming as this journey up the learning curve.
But I really think it will create a digital version of the magazine that many will find attractive. We plan to push it at the NACC; I'm hoping for a slew of downloads during NACC.
Last night I met with Dales Reeves and a bunch of other members of the Christ's Church at Mason writers group he's formed. The church is planning an all-church study of Thom Rainer's book I Am a Church Member, and members of our group are writing devotions for all six weeks of the study. Dale runs a good meeting, we have a fun group, and I enjoyed the time with them.
Now about the weekend:
Friday night Evelyn and I mowed grass, and I did several lawn tasks. Then we ate pizza and salads from LaRosa's on the deck, enjoying a beautiful, sunny but cool evening.
Saturday I read the chapter in The Story for Sunday morning, paid bills, enjoyed breakfast, got the car washed, and went to the grocery. About 1:30 Bill and Verna Weber arrived from Indy, and before 2:00 we drove to Bill and Joni Baker's house for a pleasant meeting and picnic-style meal they had prepared.
The occasion was to hear a progress report, consider next steps, and pray for Victoria and Joshua Baah-Binney, Ghanaians studying here in preparation for ministry when they return home to Africa. We learned a lot, laughed a lot, ate a lot (!), and praised the Lord a lot for the Baah-Binney's commitment and his provision for all their needs. There will surely be more needs to come, though, and we will probably be involved in some way to help meet them.

 We left Bakers after 5:30 and drove to Riverbend to enjoy a concert by Cincinnati Pops. We sat on the
lawn (we'd brought our sling chairs) and visited in the hot sunshine till the program began at 8:00. (We were there when the gates opened at 6:30.)  After the sun set, I was actually chilly. But it was a fine program of orchestral spectaculars, finished off by the 1812 Overture and cannons, and then a wonderful fireworks display before we went home.
Webers spent the night, and we lingered over breakfast the next morning (Evelyn's raisin bread, granola, and fresh fruit). All of us left before 10:00; they for LifeSpring and we for CCM. We enjoyed visiting with friends in the lobby and snuck into the 10:30 service for inspiring singing and a wonderful sermon from Trevor, centering on the return of the Jews to Jerusalem and their failure to finish rebuilding the temple as God had commanded (Haggai and Ezra were the main texts).
Trevor painted the word "SURRENDER" in bold letters on a white flag on the floor as he began his sermon, but we didn't see what he'd written till he drove home his final point at the end: "The secret to a life with meaning is surrender. . . . The day I found freedom is the day I raised the white flag."
We grabbed lunch at Noodles and Company and then came home to tend to desk-type tasks, in between talking with Katie and Byron and later Geoff about our upcoming visit all together to New York. We're looking forward to a wonderful time together.

Mulch and Memories

"It's our red, white, and blue breakfast,"
Evelyn said when I came in from the yard
to enjoy breakfast.

I spent most of yesterday, from before 8:00 a.m. till after 4:00 p.m., working in the yard. I took a break mid-morning for a wonderful breakfast of homemade waffles and fresh, fruit and another break about 2:00 for peanut butter crackers and a Coke.
I planted flowers and tomatoes in the bed beside the driveway and then mulched it all. (I had cultivated it Sunday, so it was ready to plant.) I started there because that side of the house is in the shade in the early morning.
The next door neighbor offered me a whole garden cart full of mulch. He'd bought too much and gave it to me free for taking it off his hands. So I cultivated and planted flowers in the front flower bed in time to use his mulch. He gave me enough to cover the whole bed!
The day grew warmer and warmer, but after my lunch, I planted a hosta in the flower bed behind the pine trees and then spread a bale of pine needle mulch to cover the bare spots all around the trees in the back of our yard.
Through it all, I used RoundUp on weeds and got several shovels full of compost from our compost bin in the back of the yard.

Aided by the chilly days and nights of
late spring, my lettuce patch has really taken off!

We cooked pork chops on the grill (from the freezer, part of our Omaha Steaks Christmas gift from Ken and Susan) for supper, and went to the Cone for dessert later in the evening.
It was a perfect, productive day, the third warm and sunny day of this three-day weekend. And it gave me the chance to make a lot of progress in with my list of spring chores.
Sunday we were at the Welcome Center at church, and I "hosted" in the Classic Service. I came across a headline in The Wall Street Journal that gave me the idea for the Communion meditation and the column I needed to write for christianstandard.com (It went live this morning). I worked on the column at the kitchen table for awhile after we got home from lunch and errands. And then, as I mentioned above, I worked in the yard.
Saturday evening we went to RiverHills Christian Church to enjoy a wonderful dinner celebrating the seminary graduation of George and Zina Dababneh. George is from Jordan; Zina is originally from Iraq, and after hard work and sacrifice, they received their degrees a couple weeks ago at the CCU graduation.

Zina and George are as attractive on the inside as they are good looking on the outside.

While we were there, we got acquainted with another international couple, Miguel and Allejandra Lara. He was an IBM salesman in Venezuela when he was converted to Christ through the ministry of Johnny Dye. Now he and his young family are living in Price HIll, and he is in graduate study at CCU. We discovered that they are attending Christ's Church at Mason, and in fact, the next morning we saw them at church.
Two inspiring couples who will one day use training received in Cincinnati to take the gospel to difficult foreign fields.

This Weekend, and Last

The road to blog oblivion is paved with good intentions. I have pictures for my blog, but I haven't been

Isn't this a beautiful pie Cindi made for us?

posting them or writing descriptions. Here's a little make-up with a rundown of last weekend and this weekend.
Last Friday we planned to go the Reds game; they were promoting a special buy-four ticket offer in addition to Friday night fireworks. But when we got closer to the day and realized we'd be sitting in about 55 degrees with a breeze, we decided we weren't that big of fans.
We had the plans with Dan and Cindi Cooper, but Cindi offered to bring dinner to our place, and Evelyn and she decided we'd rent Captain Phillips, the Tom Hanks movie about the ship boarded by pirates off the Somali coast. We had seen it at the theater, but the Coopers hadn't, and we were game to see it again.
Cindi brought a wonderful homemade chicken pot pie and a tasty apple salad, and Evelyn bought some Graeter's to go with her homemade cookies (peanut butter with mini Reese's cups melted inside).
What a nice evening, and I enjoyed the movie as much the second time a the first!
Saturday I got up early to get a haircut at 8:30, and then we met Bill and Verna Weber at 10:45 for brunch at Bob Evans. (They were in town celebrating Ruby Weber's birthday with Donovan and Jocelyn and Nora.) From there we drove to Hamersville, Ohio where we attended the memorial service for Tom Friskney at the Church of Christ there.
Mr. Friskney had been our professor at CBS in undergraduate school. I learned much of what I know about page layout from the yearbook class he led and I attended three semesters. His son Paul was Evelyn's supervisor and colleague all the years she taught English, and we're friends with Paul and his wife, Sev. It was a wonderful service. Jon Weatherly's tribute, as so often happens at funerals, taught us aspects of Professor Friskney's life we hadn't known and challenged us with his qualities that we had known but might have forgotten.
The Hamersville church building was packed (we stood at the back); at least half of the congregation were Hamersville locals who had known the Friskneys through the decades they've lived there. Perhaps the most memorable part of the service was the singing: "Wonderful Grace of Jesus" and Mr. Friskney's favorite hymn, "I Know Whom I Have Believed." The room reverberated with the voices of the enthusiastic singers. It's been awhile since I've been in congregational singing like that; it was thrilling.

 Saturday night we fired up the grill for the first time this year: chicken and vegetables, so good.

Sunday morning I heard the same sermon twice; Mark Sullivan preached it in the first service in the

Mark Sullivan preaching in the 9:00 service.

auditorium, and Trevor preached in the Classic service at 10:30. I was hosting there and chose to attend that whole service too. The message centering on the tragic lives of Rehoboam and Jeroboam told the story of the division of the kingdom of Israel. One quote to remember, referring to the effects of Solomon's sin toward the end of his life: "We make decisions, and those decisions turn around and make us."
This weekend on Friday we tried to eat dinner at Dewey's in West Chester, but by the time we got there at 6:10, they were already standing outside waiting to get a seat. So we slipped over to Friday's and had a nice meal splitting a side salad and sharing three small appetizers. We drove up to the outlet mall one exit north on 75 to pick up at item Evelyn needs and then back down to Kohl's to spend Kohl's cash, a $5 reward coupon, and to use a 20% discount coupon. We bought a couple of picture frames, and believe it or not, even with all those discounts, we still owed a little money.
Saturday was rainy much of the day. I paid bills and managed finances in the morning and then went to

the grocery store. Later in the afternoon, when the skies cleared, I drove to Home Depot for mulch and some bags of top soil (it was about the third trunkful of the week) and came home to spread the top soil and trim one of our hydrangea bushes before coming in to take a shower. I grilled a second time, a variation on the chicken and vegetables theme. This time the meat had a fajita marinade, and we ate it in soft tacos with grilled peppers and onions. It was very good!
Terry and Shirley arrived at our place about 8:30 to spend the night. They'd been on vacation all week at the Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan (all their stories and descriptions and pictures made me want to go some year!). They brought us a pie they'd bought at a bakery up there: chocolate pecan. Oh my goodness!
We all rode to church together this morning (Trevor's challenging sermon to put our "issue" on the altar

and pray for God to consume it like he did with Elijah's offering), and then returned home to enjoy Mother's Day brunch together. I had said I would cook, but the longer Evelyn and I talked about it, the more we decided she should fix her favorite Amish Breakfast Casserole and her wonderful cinnamon biscuits. I made the fruit salad and poured the orange juice!
Terry and Shirley left early in the afternoon, and I spent much of the rest of the day spreading mulch in the courtyard in front of the house. Jennifer called in the middle of the work, which gave me a welcome break, and later I drove to Home Depot since I was about one bag short for completing that section. I got another trunkful (8 bags), which should take me around the side of the house whenever I get to that.
I took a shower and Evelyn made nachos for supper--we were still pretty full from lunch! Geoff called while we were eating. It's always a good day when we get to talk to both of the kids.
Two good weekends, too good to forget, which is why I wanted to make these notes while I could grab the moments to do so.

The tulips I planted in this pot last fall made a beautiful display on our deck this week.

A Nice Weekend

Pictures of the Day:
A highlight of the weekend was the concert by the Purdue Glee Club at Christ's Church at Mason Saturday night. More than 500 made a nice crowd in our auditorium to see the uniquely energetic and entertaining show/concert performed by this stage full of young men singing in tuxes. Their repertoire covered the gamut: sacred, classical, Broadway, gospel, pop, and patriotic. Always with strong voices, sometimes with complex harmonies, varying their stage presence from formal rows to seemingly unchoreographed interactions with each other and the audience, their performance was a joy to watch as well as hear.

We made an evening of the outing by inviting the Webers and the Friskneys to join us for supper at

The singers filled the aisles with song more than once, this time
to serenade ladies they chose from the audience.

5:00 and then go to the concert with us. We enjoyed the meal and the laughter at Mimi's and got to the church by 6:15 or 6:30 to get good seats for the 7:00 concert. Afterwards, Evelyn was one of the volunteers serving trays of homemade cookies to the crowd that lingered in the large lobby area outside the auditorium. Several of the singers had nice reunions with family members made more pleasurable by our church's hospitality.
Bill and Verna stayed overnight with us and left about 10:00 Sunday morning to worship at Lifespring Christian Church and spend the day with the Webers 2.0. We decided to go to second service at Mason Sunday morning; the net effect was two long, hashing-out-life visits with the Webers: Saturday night till almost midnight and then again over a leisurely breakfast Sunday morning. (Evelyn had made our favorite coffee cake--yum!)
Friday night was a typical Big Night Out for Evelyn and me: dinner out (Macaroni Grill --and that was special!) and a shopping trip at Costco's followed by Evelyn snagging this quarter's sale at the Clinique counter at Macy's.
Sunday we sat with our friend Alan Guttman in the Classic Service at 10:30, ate lunch quickly at McAllister's, and then returned home for a productive afternoon. Evelyn graded papers, and I worked a couple hours in the yard (trimmed all the rose bushes). It was a sunny 60-degree day, and I went with Evelyn on her walk after my yard work. Then I came in and did something I haven't done for a long time on a Sunday afternoon. I took a nap--a long nap! Evelyn was afraid I wouldn't sleep that night, but I managed to quit waking to see the alarm clock by about 11:00 p.m.

Quote of the Day:
"We think obedience is fine for kids and dogs. But we don't celebrate obedience in our culture. . . . Obedience puts us in our place. It's God's wisdom and strength we can't outgrow."
—Trevor DeVage in his excellent sermon in our The Story series, this week on King Saul's sorry pattern of disobedience.

Weekend Update

Quote of the Day:
I've reached retirement age. And I don't need to see any more depictions of the crucifixion.
—Evelyn Taylor, after we saw Son of God Friday night.

Picture of the Day:
A so-so picture of Dale Reeves preaching a mighty fine sermon this morning at Christ's Church at Mason. Our three preachers were each speaking at different venues this morning, and Dale spoke at the Classic service in the chapel.
We were attending that service so we could sit with Alan Guttman who had promised to come back to church this morning, for the third week in a row. He sits with Lloyd and Shirley Bradshaw, but Lloyd is in the hospital with a serious infection (he's been there since last Sunday and won't go home yet for several more days). I told Alan at our Thursday-morning group that Evelyn and I would sit with him today if he wanted to come back to church.
It was a nice service, and all three of us agreed that Dale did a good job. We ate breakfast/lunch with Alan at Bob Evans (he treated!) after church.
Wendy Wagoner came to visit us Friday. We ate out at El Rancho Grande before catching the 7:40 showing of Son of God. I enjoyed it, even though most of it we'd seen in The Bible miniseries on TV last year. The crucifixion segment was the second-most graphic depiction I've seen (after Passion of the Christ, of course.) Evelyn served us scones for breakfast Saturday; Wendy left to visit her friends the Carters in Springfield about 10 Saturday morning.
Evelyn and I took a walk in the glorious spring-like sunny afternoon. Later  I visited Lloyd in the hospital along with getting the car washed (had to get all that winter salt removed), picking up Despicable Me2 at Redbox, and grabbing a few groceries. We had egg salad sandwiches and tomato bisque soup (from Costco) for supper. I did some reading and planning in The Story and then fell asleep in the middle of the movie before we headed for bed to get a full night's sleep before Time Change Sunday.
Today we were away from home by 2:45 and in New Stanton, PA by 7:10, the first leg in our trip to see our kids with friends for a spring break vacation this week.

Sunday, Workday, Funday

We attended the 9:00 service this morning. Drew Sherman, minister at Compass Christian Church in Colleyville, Texas, was our guest speaker. He ministers where Trevor DeVage was associate for 11 years, and I know Trevor was delighted to be with him this weekend. We were pleased too, because he brought us a WONDERFUL sermon on the life of David, challenging us to allow ourselves to be used by God as David was.
We had breakfast at Marie's Scrambler. The food is fine, but in spite of the fact that the place is always packed, I just can't convince myself that it's a place I really like. It had been a long time since we'd been there, so I decided to give it another try, but my feelings about the place haven't changed.

The proof page for our November cover. Scott Ryan designed it, and
we think it will attract attention.

Mostly what I did this afternoon is read the proof for the November issue of Christian Standard, which goes to the printer Wednesday. For some reason, I've gotten a little behind this month; it's been awhile since I've read proof on a Sunday afternoon.
The November issue will center mainly on missions; we'll distribute it at ICOM in November. There's some really good stuff in it! :-)
I was at it from about 1:00 till about 5:00, with a nice break to talk with Geoff on the phone somewhere there in the middle. Jennifer called not long after I was finished, and we had a nice visit with her too. They're each involved in meaningful and important things. Geoff is editing his doctoral dissertation proposal down to the right word length before emailing it tonight. He and Lisa have found a new, larger apartment they'll move to on October 16. Matt and Jen are making final preparations for a 10-day trip to India to speak at a huge youth conference sponsored by Central India Christian Mission. They leave October 7.

Evelyn and I ate butternut squash soup from Costco for supper and watched the season premier of "60 Minutes." If we can stay awake, we'll watch PBS's "Foyle's War" at 9:00 before bedtime

.

A Saturday at Home

Woke before 7:00 and padded out to the living room about 10 minutes before Evelyn was up. It was gray and rainy outside, and we stayed inside reading and eventually eating some coffee cake and peaches for breakfast. Wendy had said she could Skype "later morning" for us, so I went to the grocery store about 9:00 since it was chilly and damp outside but the promise was for a pretty day in the afternoon.
We talked to Wendy for 90 minutes or more. She told us the harrowing (that's actually not too strong a word for it) story of her tending to the delivery and ultimately (after more than 24 hours of labor) Caesarean birth to a minister's wife who had come to the center with him for the current training session. Wendy was up and working for 30 or 36 hours. Evelyn and I were talking about it at supper, and we agreed, "Only God and adrenaline gave her the ability to do that, because she just isn't a stay-up-all-night kind of girl."
We ate after we talked with her and then headed outside to clean the garage. I love the kind of day when you can jump into a project and work at it for as long as it takes, without worrying about a time deadline or a schedule. Evelyn and I spent the rest of the afternoon working in the garage--I hosed off my potter's bench and a set of plastic bins/shelves, rearranged all the stuff on the utility shelves, helped Evelyn decide where to put what in the white cabinets and what could be donated or thrown away. Evelyn swept and Shop-Vac'd the whole floor, and since the Shop-Vac was out, I swept out my car and then washed the windshield and back window in and out. It was cool outside, but the sun was warm. It was a great day to do this work, and I feel really good about it.
After a shower, I cooked some hamburgers on the grill, and Evelyn made cole slaw and heated up a can of Bush's baked beans. It has been a good Saturday! We're adjourning to the family room to watch a movie before we go to bed.

Before

After--actually the picture doesn't really show
how much better this looks!

Weekend Update

This daily diary is turning into a weekly (or less) update! Let me record our activities at least for last weekend.
Friday Evelyn and I went to Relish Modern Tapas for a wonderful supper. We tried a couple of their larger portions, main dishes (she the fish tacos, I the salmon) along with hummus and pita bread and later some lettuce wraps filled with quinoa salad. Very yummy, and different from the usual and mainstream. Then we hopped across the street to the Regal Cinemas to see Lee Daniels' the Butler. Our verdict: the acting was superb, especially by Oprah and Forrest Whitaker, despite the much-publicized departures from actual history. We enjoyed it.
Saturday I was at the BMV at 8:05 to get new plates for my car. I stood in four lines throughout the morning and was finally out of there by sometime after 10:00. Line one: to pay the sales tax and transfer the title. But that can't be done until the folks next door do a VIN check. Line two: Grab my number out of the machine--I was 31, and they were serving number 2--sit and read the newspaper till I'm called to do my VIN check. Line 3: take the VIN check form back to the title transfer lady, pay the sales taxes (the second largest check I've written this year), and get my Ohio Title. Line 4: go to the Returning Customers counter where I am called ahead of all the people in the room with numbers and escorted to the counter where I can buy new plates.
I stopped to buy two new tires for the car (the rear tires were waffled and wobbly-sounding) and had just enough time to stop at Auto Zone to buy bolts to attach the plates to the front (I bought the car in Kentucky, where they don't require front plates) and browse the garden section at Wal-Mart.
Then off to lunch with Dave Faust to brainstorm with him some ideas for replacing Shawn McMullen who plans to leave the editorship of The Lookout to become senior minister at Lifespring Christian Church.
I paid bills and cleaned out a drawer in the afternoon after I finally got home. (Dave and I enjoyed a LONG lunch at Seasons 52, a place I definitely want to return to!) Then we had a pleasant and fun evening with Terry and Shirley Wuske at their place. They fixed a steak on the grill and we ate on their patio adjacent to their spacious, park-like backyard. Brandon was in for the day, and we enjoyed visiting with him too.
Terry drilled holes in my front bumper, and we installed my shiny, new Ohio license plates.

Sunday was worship at the 9:00 service, breakfast at Cracker Barrel, Skyping with Wendy, a trip to the grocery store followed by my daily watering, some desk work inside (wrote a draft of my column that goes live Tuesday--tomorrow--morning at ChristianStandard.com), chicken tacos and some TV in the evening. A pleasant day!

Weekend Update

Got home yesterday around 2:00 after driving from Nashville all morning. It rained most of the way till Louisville, which slowed me down a little, especially driving in the unfamiliar, rental car.
Made a salad for a late lunch and went to the grocery store for Evelyn. Checked e-mail, read the mail, changed clothes, and joined Evelyn and a houseful of folks at Dan and Cindi Cooper's place for a baby shower for Jeremy and Cara Lawson. They're expecting a boy, just a couple of days after Cara finishes teaching this school year.
We enjoyed visiting with Tom and Joyce Lawson and three of their kids, plus Ryan and Andrea White (Dan and Cindi's daughter) and JP and Chloe Glenn and a gaggle of preschoolers on the floor and on laps and between legs. Like I said, it was a houseful!
Cindi made wonderful lasagna. Evelyn made her favorite romaine and mandarin orange salad. And Cindi and Joyce made desserts.
It was a pleasant evening--lots of laughter and catching up with each other as well as all the good eating.

Jessica Lyons rehearsed with the
worship team before
the 9:00 service.

This morning I hosted in the 9:00 service; we grabbed breakfast at Frisch's, and I ran by Lowe's to gawk at their flowers and plants and buy a big jug of Roundup. It started sprinkling as I was leaving, and it rained off and on the whole afternoon. Evelyn and I sat in the kitchen and dining room and did work. She graded term papers and finished 'em--the last research papers of her college teaching career! She's very happy about that. I wrote a draft of an editorial, rewrote some marketing copy for our website, sent some e-mails, brought the checkbook up-to-date, and made some phone calls.
At about 5:00 we drove over to Ferrari's Little Italy Bakery and Restaurant where I'm hosting a small retirement celebration for Evelyn and some of her CCU colleagues May 18. We had pizza and salads there (wonderful pizza on homemade focaccia-like crust) and met the manager, Sandy. We enjoyed visiting with her and choosing the menu for our dinner, which will be just a little under two weeks from now.

A Wonderful Weekend

Friday was my birthday, but we decided to cut grass instead of going out for a big dinner! Afterwards we went to the Raja India restaurant in West Chester and had a wonderful meal.
Saturday morning I was up early to get the oil changed. Then I met Dave Lautzenheiser for breakfast (he treated--at First Watch) before driving to the new Natorp's Garden Center on Snider Road. They have 3-1/2 acres under roof, resplendent with perennials, rose bushes, blooming annuals, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and herbs and more, much more. We spent at least 90 minutes there oooing and ahhhing over the beautiful, bountiful displays. Checked out some bushes and trees outside too. I didn't buy anything Saturday, but I will be back!
Evelyn and I rode to Indianapolis about 2:30  to join a family-and-friends celebration of Peggy Sweeney's 60th birthday. Peggy is our daughter-in-law's mom; she and her husband, Ed, have been friends almost since the time Geoff and Lisa started dating. We've been with them on family vacations at least twice, and they hosted us at their time share in Hawaii once; and we've been with them unnumbered other times for family gatherings: recitals, weddings, and other times.

Shannon and Lisa ALMOST got
through their sweet tribute to their
mom without crying!

Lisa and her sister, Shannon, and Ed planned a surprise birthday party for Peggy and invited us and the Webers, who have become mutual friends, and Shannon's in-laws, and two dear friends of the Sweeneys from Taylor University.
We were waiting for them at a private room at the Meridian Restaurant in Indy when Geoff and Lisa ushered Ed and Peggy upstairs. I think Peggy really was surprised, which was the first delight of a wonderful evening.
 The food was remarkable. The laughter and fellowship was special. The testimonies offered by Lisa and Shannon and Ed were tender as well as funny. And all of us around the table offered tributes to Peggy. (I even wrote new words to an old tune: "P is for how pleased we are to know you; E is for your energy--you glow! G is for the giggles we've shared with you. Gee, we've had such fun together on the road. Y is for the youthful way you've lived dear: hiking, biking, boating--you have done it all. Put them all together, they spell Peg-gy. Happy birthday, we think you're a doll!")

After dinner we adjourned to Shannon and Craig's house for more visiting, coffee, and a mini birthday cake for me! (Yesterday was the third anniversary of MY 60th birthday!)

Shannon and Craig Lewis's house was the perfect place for picture-taking!

Evelyn, Peggy, and Verna catch up

Lisa, Geoff, and Bill stopped to pose in the middle of a serious conversation.

Larry and Betsy Lewis, Shannon and Craig Lewis . . . and Binkley!

The Sweeney girls, with their handsome husbands and wonderful parents.

We stayed overnight with Bill and Verna, and then the Webers and we and almost the whole party from the night before met at the church where Shannon is events coordinator: College Park Church on the north side of Indy. It was an inspiring worship service, wonderful in every way.

Shannon gave us a tour of the large building, and then the Sweeneys, Shannon and Craig, Geoff and Lisa, and we drove to Taylor Creamery for a superb brunch. The restaurant is tucked into one corner of a huge, working farm. The food is organic and fresh. The time together was as special as the whole weekend had been. Lisa showed me some tricks for using my new camera. 

Two fine and fine-looking people!

We stopped by the little dairy store that's a part of the complex, and then stood in the parking lot and visited for another 30 minutes probably. We were on our way home by 2:00 and arrived here by about 4:00. Just the right amount of time to rest a bit, gear up for the week ahead, and have a nice, long phone visit with Jennifer. We ate popcorn and split my mini birthday cake while we watched an On Demand episode of "Elementary."

Weekend Update

A fine weekend, it was. Sunny, but cool. (Yesterday was chilly, but the temperature today got to the mid 60s.) Here's the line-up of our activities:

SATURDAY
Started slowly, as usual. Facebooking, bill paying, coffee drinking. Enjoyed some of Evelyn's
homemade raisin bread toasted and homemade granola with yogurt and fruit.
Ran the Corolla to Toyota for an 8:40 appointment to have some little recall repair done.
After we got home, I continued with some e-mailing etc., and we waited for Wendy to get home so she could Skype us. We had a nice time visiting with her. It was nice to see her smiling, and I entertained her by showing her my new camera and its handy-dandy flip-up LCD screen to make taking self-portraits easier.

While we were talking with Wendy, Toyota called to say the car was ready, and by now it was almost 11:30. Evelyn had a $5 gift certificate to McDonald's she had received as a thank-you for sponsoring a group at Community Service Day at CCU last week, so we used it for lunch on the way to pick up the car. (I can't remember the last time Evelyn and I ate at McDonald's.)

After we got home, I went to the grocery, and after that we talked with Jennifer. It was her birthday, and she had been out a lot of the day having a wonderful time alone, doing things she likes: shopping, browsing antique stores. Matt had baked her a cake, and the four of them were going out for dinner to celebrate.

Evelyn and I got ready and drove to Dan and Cindi Cooper's to pick them up for supper and the Cincinnati Pops. We saw Mandy Patinkin (he's much older than this picture). He is an amazing performer, with a remarkable vocal range. He sang everything from Irving Berlin tunes written in 1918 to Steven Sondheim Broadway hits. I'm really glad we got to see him (although I might not make an effort to see him again). We ate dinner at the Bistro in Josepth-Beth's on the way downtown, meeting a couple there. Cindi works with the woman and had arranged for us all to eat together.

SUNDAY:

I hosted at the 8:30 service, and Evelyn decided to just get up early with me and go with me, especially since the bell choir was playing for the service. Brad Wilson preached and had a fine message on "Greater Than My Sin." I really appreciated his transparency when he spoke about the brokenness we all experience  because of our sin. A quote I jotted down: "God can use our broken pieces when we give him all the pieces" (D.L. Moody).

The bell choir had a nice arrangement of "Holy, Holy, Holy" with "The Revelation Song" and accompanied some of the hymns.

We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel (used up the remnant of an old gift card) and got home early. I did 

some e-mailing for work, and about 1:00 slipped on my jeans to play weekend warrior for the afternoon. I mowed a little grass (Evelyn finished it; that's number 4.5 for this year--she mowed the front Thursday and then gave up because the yard was so wet). While Evelyn was mowing, I  did the following:
1) planted a Knockout Rose I had bought at Costco this week.
2) dug up a big clump of daylilies growing beside the deck.
3) planted some of the daylilies behind the rosebush (this is the spot where our white pine was before it died).
4) gave the rest of the daylilies to two neighbors who were out working in their yards too.
5) edged all the sidewalks and driveway in the front of the house.
6) cleaned up the huge mess created by the edging and the mowing.
7) planted two pots of herbs from plants one of the neighbors gave me in exchange for the lilies.
Around 5:00 I came in, took a shower, and then flopped down in the armchair to check Facebook--and fell asleep, just for a few minutes.
We had a wonderful vegetarian Boboli pizza for supper while we watched "60 Minutes" (more Boston coverage).
A fine weekend, all-in-all.