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Friday, November 13th, 2009
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6:13 pm - Last Days of the Evil One
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Today, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) frostmuffin and xelona took our dog Miko to the veterinarian to die by lethal injection. The alternative was to let Miko gradually die of dehydration after losing the ability to drink.
Miko was a small black mix of cocker spaniel and poodle, whom we had obtained from the local county animal shelter after Melody died. Her nickname was "The Evil One."
Our other deceased dogs--Shadowfax, Melody, and Callie--had died without assistance. Shadow died of old age in her sleep; Melody died of cancer in her sleep; and Callie died of a stroke in the back yard. As a child, Frostmuffin had accompanied her mother to put a family dog to death, but this was the first time she was in charge of the decision. She has been crying on Xelona's shoulder and my shoulder.
Miko had been cheating death for a long time. When we picked her up from the animal shelter five and a half years ago, the veterinarian discovered that Miko had cancer and predicted that she would die during the summer. When Miko survived summer, the vet gave her a year. After that, the vet gave up predictions. Though Miko resisted the cancer, the strain aged her, and though we guess she was only twelve years old at death, she looked like an old dog of sixteen years. She had gone blind two years ago. That didn't slow her down her hijinks. Fortunately, she also lost the strength to climb stairs about the same time, so that we did not have to worry about her blindly wandering off the top of the stairs, except for the entryway stairs at amethyst_dancer's house. This spring, she lost enough mobility that she could no longer head out the dog door to poop, so she did it wherever it suited her. And in the last month, she lost the ability to walk, so she spent her days on an absorbent pad on the heated floor of our new bathroom. (We have been doing some remodeling since July.) Either she was having mini-strokes, or the cancer had finally reached her nervous system.
Death wasn't the only thing she cheated. She earned the title "Evil One" by being a sneaky greedy dog. She had brains and she used them selfishly. She often stole other dogs' food. She thought that annoying persistent barking at odd hours could get her whatever she wanted. She liked to investigate corners and tight places, which was not a crime, but it often lead her to unplugging Frostmuffin's computer. She piddled on the floor of grandma's house, even though she knew how to be let out to pee. Her worst caper--that we know of--was when she pulled down the kitchen trash can to get at scraps and then deliberately lured our other dog, young Kerowyn, into the area in an effort to frame her.
I'll miss her.
current mood:  grief
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| Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
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10:18 pm - Designing an algorithm
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Both my father and my wife's father were engineers, and so are a good number of my in-laws. I dapple in boardgame design. My wife is a church musician who loves to plan out worship services. One daughter is an artist, and the other daughter majored in theater stagecraft, the building of sets and props for theater. Thus, our family indulges frequently in building and design.
It should be no surprise that I treat mathematical research as an exercise in design.
( Math! )
current mood:  mathy
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| Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
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10:08 pm - God is What?!
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Next week in the evening I will be a storyteller at Vacation Bible School at our church. I am busy getting ready for it. The stories are set up as plays, with my character Old Storyteller as the narrator. These plays require one to four other actors. I don't have four assistants. On some days of the week, I won't even have one. On Wednesday, I won't be able to make it myself and someone else will play the narrator. So how am I going to put on a play without actors? This week I am making puppets.
I am also reading through the plays. Thursday's play is the one-actor play, Elijah acting out the scene from 1st Kings 19:9-13. Elijah was discouraged by King Ahab trying to kill him, so God told Elijah to wait on a mountain for the presence of the Lord. On the mountain there was a great wind that tore up the rocks and scattered them, but God was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but God was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. God was in the whisper.
The conclusion of the story, which I am supposed to get the children to recite, is that God is unpredictable.
What?!
Here is a lesson in which God shows his gentle side, that though he has almighty power and can be big and noisy and impressive, he instead chooses to visit us in peace. How does the writer get that God is unpredictable out of this? The writer means that God can be different from what we expect, that he does not fit our images of omnipotence. He made a mistake in saying "unpredictable" to describe this. We know from other Bible stories that God is faithful and steadfast, but unpredictable can mean the opposite: whimsical and arbitrary. I will rewrite that part of the play to make it match the Bible.
( More theology )
current mood: geeky
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| Monday, December 29th, 2008
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9:59 pm - Unexpected Purchase
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This Christmas vacation has been more surprising than most. The biggest surprise is that we bought a car, a 2007 Kia Optima, to replace our 10-year-old minivan. The rest of the details are more ordinary, except for the great variety in the weather.
( My Christmas vacation )
current mood:  surprised
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| Sunday, September 7th, 2008
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9:42 pm - Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons
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My dwarven paladin Gardain reached 3rd level in 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons this weekend. And I am retiring him. I start teaching Sunday School next week and I need the time I spend playing D&D to instead prepare my lessons.
I have now played 4th Edition long enough to have a firm opinion of it. The short version is that it has potential but is not yet ready for prime time. The long version is behind the lj cut.
( My analysis of 4th Edition )
current mood:  contemplative
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| Saturday, July 5th, 2008
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9:48 pm - June Travels, extending into July
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I am in Freeville, NY. Visiting friends (amethyst_dancer, her husband John, and bythecards) in Freeville for the Fourth of July is typical. The unusual thing is that we had been here just a month ago, for John's birthday party. The birthday celebration was at Paddy's Pub in Cortland, with music by Irish singer Marty Brandon (http://www.irishmarty.com). The six hours of that party was the longest I have every been in a bar.
When we returned home, frostmuffin, riverlark, and tempestborne went hiking up the C&O canal trail up the Potomac River. They were carrying everything on their backs, but the rugged independence image was marred by them occasionally phoning xelona to drive over on an errand for them.
Next on June 17, frostmuffin, riverlark, and xelona flew to Seattle, Washington. The main excuse for the trip is that riverlark is considering some universities in that area for graduate school (after another year at Valparaiso University), but they also wanted to meet some online friends from the ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) solluna_city community. They also visited friends and schools in Oregon, and toured the mountains and rain forests of Washington. They flew back June 27. Originally, they had intended the trip to Seattle as a cross-country camping trip, but those plans had to get simplified.
The girls and I drove up to Freeville on Thursday, July 3. frostmuffin had left early to help tempestborne with some remodeling beforehand. She and tempestborne reached Freeville only an hour behind us. We didn't do anything especially patriotic for Independence Day, unless good American traditions such as picking strawberries count.
I have been filling gaps in my time by reading up on Cascading Style Sheets. Our church has a web site, http://www.peacealive.org/, but has no-one to maintain it. It hasn't been updated since Easter, and Easter was early this year. xelona is probably the only member of the church with the skill to maintain it, but she is moving on as soon as she finds an internship. I am the second most qualified, and I am accustomed to volunteering. I just need for xelona to teach me about XHTML and CSS.
current mood:  frazzled
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| Friday, May 16th, 2008
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8:43 am - A Drive and a Haircut
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This week frostmuffin and I had to pick up our daughters from Valparaiso University in Indiana. Since we were driving all the way from Maryland to the Midwest, we decided to make a vacation out of it. Right now we are at Frostmuffin's parents in Arcadia, Michigan, and today we are driving down to see my mother in Caseville, Michigan.
On Saturday, May 11, riverlark picked up xelona from her Urban Studies program in Chicago. Xelona slept on Riverlark's couch for the next three nights. Monday night, we parents and the two dogs showed up, took the girls and Riverlark's roommate (I think her LJ is evilnel) out to dinner, and stayed in a motel ourselves. On Tuesday we packed up, had some runaround checking Riverlark out of her campus-owned apartment because the Resident Assistant was out, and drove up in two minivans to Arcadia.
In Arcadia we have been hunting for morel mushrooms, playing Frisbee golf, cooking meals, watching the History channel on TV, and playing Pinochle. I have been skipping the Pinochle games because I keep an earlier bedtime than everyone else. Our younger dog, Kerowyn, is having a ball here on the homestead where she can run all out without a lease. Our older dog, Miko, who is mostly blind, knows the area well enough that she can safely wander around on her own, too.
Also, I finally had time to stop in a local barber shop and get my half-bald mop of hair trimmed short.
Today, we are heading down to see my mother. Then Saturday morning, Riverlark, the dogs, and I are heading back to Maryland, while Frostmuffin and Xelona are making a side trip to see tempestborne on Long Island.
Riverlark is planning another trip for this summer. She, her mother, and her sister will pick up her roommate in Kansas, and go tent camping. As is typical for our vacations, they will be visiting friends and relatives on the way: Colorado Springs, Colorado; Placerville, California; and Seattle, Washington. They also plan on seeing Yellowstone National Park. I will be staying home to watch the dogs and earn the money. This camping is in addition to the hike up the C&O trail along the Potomac River that Frostmuffin plans for this June.
current mood:  relaxed
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| Sunday, April 13th, 2008
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8:47 pm - Games in Sunday School
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I have been teaching the Sunday School class for Third Grade through Fifth Grade since January, when the prior teacher stepped down to spend time on other church work. For three Sundays in a row, my Sunday School lessons have involved games. Before Easter, I mostly used crafts, making marshmallow caterpillars, origami butterflies, and paper palm leaves. The games seem to work better with the boys in my class.
( March 30: Doubting Thomas Game )
( April 6: Pokémon )
( April 13: Shear Panic )
( Looking ahead to April 20 )
In other news, since I have not updated this livejournal since 2007, my arthritic knee is doing much better and I no longer need a cane. I lost 30 pounds on my diet last year, but discontinued it because of signs of my fatigue illness creeping back. This year I have been exercising in preparation for combining a less extreme diet with exercise. frostmuffin has been on her own exercise routine in preparation for a summer hike along the C&O canal.
current mood:  creative
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| Monday, September 3rd, 2007
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8:00 pm - Bridgewalk
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Today Amy frostmuffin walked across the Mackinac Bridge. Accompanying her on the five-mile walk were her mother Pat, her brother Doug, her brother Hans, and her nephew Jeremy. Amy's father Gordon and I accompanied them to Mackinac City, but did not walk the bridge. Starting the walk took much longer than expected because many more people showed up for the bridgewalk than the 15,000 expected.
( Our Schedule )
current mood:  worn out
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| Friday, August 31st, 2007
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5:05 am - On Vacation
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I am on my summer vacation in Arcadia, Michigan. Amy and I are visiting her parents out on their tree farm. I hadn't taken a summer vacation for a few years between my illnesses and catching up on work. But this year, I had to be in Indiana August 25 and Michigan September 3. It was a choice between 32 hours on the road driving back to Maryland and back to Michigan or taking a vacation. So I took a vacation.
( Details )
Amy's mother regularly takes part in the walk across the Mackinac Bridge on Labor Day. This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the building of the bridge, so Amy, Doug, and maybe some of the kids are walking too. Amy has been practicing for the five-mile walk. I will skip it, because I am not sure whether my arthritic knee could hold out, and because I have not been practicing for a five-mile walk.
current mood: relaxed
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| Sunday, June 10th, 2007
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12:09 am - Saturday without Amy
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Amy (frostmuffin) and Sharayah are off in Ohio for over a week visiting Renee Alper. Last summer Amy stayed in Maryland due to a class, and vacationed in Michigan for a little while in the fall, but she discovered that that short of a vacation left her tired. This year she is making the most of her summer vacation.
Ironically, Amy had visited Renee only two weeks ago. But that was a working visit to help out when Renee did not have enough trained handicap assistants to cover all her hours. Amy had to spend her spare time resting up, so she did not have time to relax with Renee. This visit is meant to have the fun she couldn't have then.
Fiona stayed in Maryland with me.
Amy does not think that she will be able to access her e-mail from there, but she should be able to read this livejournal. So I am going to fill this with mundane trivia that only Amy would like. Sorry to bore the rest of you. I guess I should use a lj cut.
( Saturday )
current mood:  husbandly
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| Monday, May 14th, 2007
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8:05 pm - New Office
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Today I started in a new office. I still work for the same old government agency, but now a different part of it.
I transferred offices partly because after nine and a half years in one office, it was time for a change. And now that I have recovered my strength, I can handle the change. I hope to get back into more mathematics.
I transferred also because of a depressing event. Eight months ago, my bosses tried to fire me. Okay, I exaggerate a little. My team chief and branch chief had dropped a six-week evaluation program on me. If I had failed, I would have automatically been fired. For a year after I succeeded, I still can be fired if I was unproductive at any time (for as little as a single day, the representative from the personnel department said). My branch chief said he was forced to start the evaluation. Really, what forced him was his own carelessness. He did not check what all his options were, and he overreacted when I slowed down due to the July heat wave.
I didn't post anything to this livejournal at the time, because my management started this the Monday I returned from dropping xelona and riverlark off at college. I didn't want to post news that would distract them from their new classes.
I don't believe in karma, but sometimes God's sense of humor has a similar effect. The timing was awful--for my management. The heat wave had ended and I was back to full speed. I finished the six-week goals in four weeks. My performance since then has been unfailingly good, and my bosses admitted it. Due to my bad ratings on record, it took me a while to find another office that would take me, and then because my old office was in a desperate crush I stayed a little longer to finish up my current project. I have eight months of productivity to prove to my former bosses that they alienated a worker that it will hurt to lose. My former branch chief will probably lie to himself that nothing was his fault, but my former team chief is smart and honest enough to realize that he messed up.
My new office calls itself "the lab" and my new coworkers left a squeaky-toy rat, "the lab rat", on my desk as a welcoming gesture. I have known one of them for a few years, because he and I are in a group of lunchtime Magic The Gathering players. So I think I will fit in.
My fatigue illness has been in remission of fourteen months, making this the second longest period of remission so far. I have built up my stamina to pre-fatigue levels. My newer problem, the osteoarthritis in my left knee, is under control. I still walk with a cane, but that is now only a precaution to avoid straining my knee. I could walk without it, and I do so whenever I need two hands to carry something. I am losing five pounds a month on my diet, so I should down to a safe weight in a year.
Erin Schram
current mood: nerdy
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| Sunday, March 25th, 2007
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4:52 pm - As Lame as my Jokes
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I have developed osteoarthritis in my left knee. Now I walk with a cane.
It developed very gradually. I think the first sign was two years ago, when my knee started clicking when I walked. It was such a faint click that only I could hear the sound, conducted along my bones to my ear. Then this last summer, other people could here it.
This October, my knee ached like I had twisted it. I did not recall having twisted it, but I walked carefully to avoid straining it and most of the ache healed up in a week. Then it happened again. I talked to my physician in my regular December appointment, and he suspected arthritis. So he recommended that I take glucosamine supplements.
Amy offered me her Joint Support pills, but my throat gags when I try to swallow pills that large, so instead she purchase a liquid glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate supplement. The glucosamine helped my knee heal up faster, but it did not reduce the rate at which it hurt anew.
On Monday, March 5, the walk to and from the parking lot at work hurt my leg much more than before. It was a longer walk that usual, because my daughters were home from college and I was driving their minivan to work instead of Amy dropping me off. The walk from the drop-off to my desk is 8 minutes; the walk from the parking lot to my desk is 14 minutes.
The next day, I walked with my hiking staff to reduce the strain on my left knee as I walked. And the day after that, I asked Amy to switch back to dropping me off. I could use my calf muscles to hold my knee so that it did not get hurt any more as I walked, but doing so for a long walk overstrained those muscles so much that they cramped up.
On Tuesday, March 13, I had my regular March appointment with my physician, and he referred me to an orthopedic specialist. The earliest appointment I could get with an orthopedist was a week later. Fortunately, we had scheduled a vacation that Thursday and Friday to visit Cync and John Brantley. On that vacation, I stayed off my feet and my knee got a lot better.
The orthopedist took X-rays and declared that the cartilage at the end of my leg bones was wearing away. Since the cartilage is invisible in an X-ray, I treat his diagnosis with a little skepticism. The pain in my knee feels more like trouble in the meniscus cartilage that forms a support around the joint.
The doctor was against any surgical correction, because I weight 350 pounds and my knee would be under too much stress to heal well. He prescribed physical therapy and instructed me to lose 70 pounds of weight. I have a phobia against surgery so I was perfectly agreeable about physical therapy instead of surgery.
The day of my orthopedist appointment, my knee became significantly worse. I blame the double amount of walking due to walking out for that mid-day appointment. By Thurday evening, my legs were so bad that the 8-minute walk to the pick-up point took 40 minutes.
My first physical therapist appointment was Friday morning. The therapist mostly examined my leg to create a therapy plan. She did massage out some of the old cramp pain. She told me that tensing up the muscles as I walked was not necessary to protect the knee and only led to pulled muscles, so I should stop doing it. And she taught me how to walk properly with a cane. Amy and I bought a cane after that appointment.
Now it is Sunday, so I have had a day and a half off my feet, and the ache in my left knee has died down. I still have a lot of tension in my left calf. Back when I had muscle cramps from my fatigue illness, I learned how to unknot a charlie-horse cramp, but a pulled muscle is a different sort of cramp and all I know to do is let it rest.
I have three more physical therapy appointments next week, all in the late afternoon because I do not want to walk back to my desk after therapy. I dare not lose my excess weight by diet alone, because I strongly suspect that if my metabolism slows, my fatigue illness will slip out of remission again. So I need to lose the weight by exercise. But what is a good exercise for burning calories and keeping my metabolism going that does not strain my knee? The orthopedist recommended swimming and bicycling.
current mood:  discontent
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| Sunday, February 4th, 2007
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8:02 pm - Taking On, Part 2
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It took me two weeks to write up the second piece of this episode, which is a disappointingly slow rate. We finished playing the entire episode, and it will take about six pieces to post.
( Pilot Episode, Taking On, Part 2 )
current mood: geeky
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| Sunday, January 21st, 2007
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6:36 pm - Serenity Roleplaying Game
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Frostmuffin gave Tempestborne the Serenity Roleplaying Game, based on the Firefly TV show and the Serenity movie. And once Tempestborne read up on the system, Frostmuffin, Riverlark, and I made characters for the game.
Tempestborne lives in another city and Riverlark is usually off at college, so we are filling in parts of the adventure via correspondence. My seldom-used livejournal seems good location to display the results, after I rewrite it into one smooth piece.
The Serenity system has an emphasis on making the adventures seem like episodes of a Firefly spinoff series. So I think the adventures will re-tell fairly well. Now, on with the story.
( Pilot Episode, Taking On, Part 1 )
current mood: geeky
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| Monday, January 15th, 2007
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8:26 pm - Weekend Trip to Long Island
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Back when our friend amethyst_dancer used to live at Sound Beach, we traveled to Long Island fairly regularly. I haven't been back since she moved to upstate New York, though frostmuffin still visited on errands for tempestborne. In December, Tempestborne bought a house. He closed out his storage locker in Maryland and moved the items into his house. Not everything fit in one vanload. He left the excess with us.
So this weekend, Tempestborne invited us to see his new home. Frostmuffin, Megami, and I hauled his stuff up to him, too. We left Sunday morning. It was odd seeing the once-familiar highways again.
It is a small house, and the price for Long Island properly is astounding. Fortunately, it has a furnished basement to double its living space. We stayed overnight there. Tempestborne did not want our dogs upstairs , because he wants allergic friends to be able to visit too, but the basement is as nice as the upstairs. (Kerowyn is too aggressive a puppy to leave at home under a neighbor's care.)
We also played the Serenity role-playing game. Tempestborne is the GM for the game, but he wanted to play instead of direct, so I took over for a few hours. He derailed my plan by having his clever character stop the bad guys' crime too early, but I never run a tight plotline anyway, so I continued to see how his character handled the aftermath. He enjoyed himself.
We returned this afternoon, so that Frostmuffin could get to her evening class, and Megami could finish her work of preparing for Katsucon.
current mood: sleepy
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| Tuesday, September 12th, 2006
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8:57 pm - Voting
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1) I voted today in the primary election. The County Board of Elections messed up and I did not receive a sample ballot ahead of time. However, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has a nice web application that generated one for me. I like a list to make sure I research all the candidates before I vote. Usually, I get frostmuffin to do it for me, since we have similar political opinions, but she is out of town.
2) My project at work is on schedule.
3) Why am I writing now, after a hiatus of months? Well, I was e-mailing Frostmuffin daily reports while she was on vacation. She is visiting Reneé Alper right now, and she says it is easier to check livejournals than e-mail when she borrows Reneé's computer.
Erin
current mood:  productive
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| Friday, June 30th, 2006
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7:18 am - The View from MARS
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Today begins my third day at MARS, the Mathematics and Related Sciences summer camp at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. I am helping Bart and Wayne with the Advanced Problem Solving class, in which the students research an unsolved mathematical problem and write a short paper on their results.
The camp lasts two weeks, but I am here only three days. A few months ago, Bart approached me to find some good problems for the class. Then after I invented some, he asked that I participate for three days in order to present the problems. After I agreed to that, he asked that I do one of the evening talks.
None of the students chose the problems I created. They seem to be inclined toward statistical analysis of games and life insurance this year, except for the pair working on the Traveling Salesman Problem. So I have borrowed a computer right now to look up some basic statistical definitions to give a talk on statistics today.
The students did like my evening talk Wednesday on paradoxes.
After the afternoon session of the classes, I am departing MARS and driving directly to New York, where I will join Frostmuffin and the girls on their vacation.
Erin Schram
current mood: busy
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| Sunday, May 14th, 2006
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6:57 pm - Carpentry and Plumbing
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Neither frostmuffin nor I have updated in a while. Frostmuffin's excuse is that she was out of town at a liturgy conference. My excuse is that I was ripping up the bathroom to replace rotten floorboards while she was out of town.
Frostmuffin left by Amtrak on Sunday, April 23. I took Friday, April 28, off from work and started the carpentry on the bathroom. Step 1, remove the toilet. Did I mention that we have only one bathroom in our house? That is why I waited until I was the only one in the house for a weekend.
Replacing the rotten floorboards was made more complicated because I did not want to remove the plumbing: the flange and water intake pipe for the toilet. So the new floor had to be assembled in pieces that fit around the plumbing. That meant that I had to build a framework between the joists to support the pieces. I knew that ahead of time, which is why I knew the job would take more than a weekend.
However, I had hoped to build the framework that went under the back wall from the bathroom side alone. Nope, there was no way I would be able to reach the far joist from the bathroom side (the wall was parallel to the joists halfway between them). I had to open the floor on the other side of the wall too. That was the back of Fiona's room, underneath two bookcases. So I had to move the bookcases.
Then I discovered my real problem. My sleep apnea and fatigue illness are under control these days. That is why I am finally trying to catch up on my household repairs. Nevertheless, after several years of being too tired to exercise at all, I am badly out of shape. The simple act of cutting through the floorboards with a power saw would tire me out. Hammering nails or moving bookcases was worse. Time for rest put me far behind schedule.
So I was not finished on Sunday. I worked a half-day on Monday, and took Tuesday off. I was still not finished when Frostmuffin returned home Tuesday afternoon. At least I had warned her so that she had used a restroom before arriving home. She went off to her Tuesday night D&D group early so that she could use the restroom there.
The toilet was in place again Wednesday night. Its plumbing was not hooked up yet, but we could fill its tank from the bathtub faucet. We needed another shopping trip to find the proper parts to hook up the intake pipe. The ones I had purchased earlier did not fit (plumbing parts come in many sizes labeled in a rather confusing system, and the old parts used a system no longer in standard use). I finished the plumbing the following weekend.
I had worked several late nights that Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so it has taken me these two weeks to catch up on my sleep.
Now I just have to persuade Frostmuffin to write about her exciting time in Indiana. And put some flooring over the exposed subflooring of our bathroom.
Erin Schram
current mood:  drained
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| Sunday, April 2nd, 2006
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7:51 pm - I think I lost an hour somewhere in the rush...
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This was a busy weekend. frostmuffin decided to go back to Amtgard again. That is a live-action role-playing club. She was too sick to attend in the Fall while she had the sinusitis, and was reluctant to return becuase she was too out-of-shape to fight much, so she hadn't been there since September or October. She wanted me along because going with someone is more fun.
So I got up early Saturday and baked cookies for church and Amtgard. Frostmuffin had to find where she had left her court garb (that meeting was midreign, a more formal event with less fighting than usual). My court garb, a simple tabard, is used less than hers, so I knew exactly where it was.
At first, we thought that our Amtgard chapter, Barony of the Solstice, had invited another chapter to visit, because there were many people in medieval costume at the picnic area of Lane Manor Park. But we recognized no faces there, so we went over to the usual spot away from the picnic area. Turned out a totally separate LARP group, Daggerthorn, was also using the park. Solstice was familiar people with a few new faces. And Ben, Celwyn's toddler son, was taller.
After Amtgard, we rushed over to church for the Saturday service. Pastor Bill is juggling his household due to his engagement to Vicar Arwyn. Her service to a local church ended this weekend. She had to move out of the parish housing there to let the new pastor move in. Pastor Bill moved into an apartment and let Vicar Arwyn move into the parish house at our church. I can understand them not living together before their wedding in June, because pastors have high standards for respectibility, but we wondered why Bill was taking the apartment instead of Arwyn. The answer was that whoever gets the parish house has to take care of both pets--Bill's dog and Arwyn's cat--and Bill is allergic to the cat.
Today's Sunday School lesson covered Palm Sunday through Maundy Thursday. I do that lesson a week early because we have an Easter Egg hunt on Palm Sunday. I made new cards for the Apples to Apples game on a Holy Week theme, to get my students more familiar with the events. I thought I would have to make only a dozen cards to replace the green-apple cards. Frostmuffin pointed out that the green-apple cards were adjectives, and my Holy-Week events were nouns. I instead had to replace the red-apple cards, the nouns, which required four times as many cards. Oops. Making 48 cards took two more hours and I had to expand the theme to all the lessons I did in 2006 rather than just today's lesson.
The new Sunday School room was finished, so we moved into it. The youth room had been split into two classrooms by a new wall. That wall consisting of studs with panelling on each side, so sound travels through it easily. My class was all boys today, and we were noisy and disturbed the adult class in the other room. Gail said that the yelling she could tolerate, but the bouncing off the walls was too much. The new classroom also had a window facing the playground. During the Apples to Apples game, my students noticed another class out in the playground, and they wanted to go out too. I let them. At least the adult class had some quiet then.
Between modifying the Apples to Apples game and Daylight Savings Time, I had only five and a half hours of sleep, so I have been napping this afternoon.
Erin Schram
current mood: sleepy
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