Dogs, dinner and ministry

I'm trying a two collar system with Isaac. If he somehow breaks through one collar he should remain attached to the other. There is lots of shade and water by the tree that he is attached to. I hope he calmed down and chose to rest under the shade of the tree. He was calm when I left. I hope he does not get too excited by the activity next door.

If Isaac does manage to break through both collars I think he will stay in the yard since he did not see me leave.

I did not want to leave him in the kennel this afternoon because the weather is gorgeous and I will attend a meeting immediately after work so I will be late. At least tethered to the tree he can interact with Loki and have a visually stimulating environment.

I need to find out if Isaac needs to attend adoptions.

After work, I will attend a question and answer session with Rev. Posa. Why is it called question and answer? I've never heard of a question session. All questions, no answers. Some would say that is a great UU slogan. I would say to them that your understanding of UU is a bit shallow.

Went to dinner last night with the Board and Eric. Discussed church issues and governance. Finally explained the players and their positions. The other Board members - the ones staying next year did most of the discussion and that was appropriate. My only issue, which I failed to communicate, is that the church has incredible potential but only a vague notion of how to unleash it. I believe the UU church can transform the Brazos Valley in a positive way. I'm interested in using technology as an aid to that transformation. Technology as part of the church's ministries. A part - not the whole. I want to focus my "ministry" to the church in updating, revamping and unleashing the church website as more than a mere informational tool next year.

I have a vision. I have lots of visions but have difficulty with implementation.

Learned last night that reasonably portioned meals are quite expensive. Missed the opportunity to test whether or not asparagus really does alter the smell of one's urine. I only had two stalks so that may not have been sufficient to test the theory. Sniffing my own urine was not a top priority last night.

Tonight, I will post, at the church, the list of church members eligible to vote at the upcoming meeting. We get to vote for our minister. We have 100 eligible voters and need 30 to show up to the meeting on Sunday. I'm sure at least 30 will show up for something this important.

Softball and Church

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences interdepartmental softball tournament has been cancelled because of the lack of teams. COALS has 15 departments aand the organizers of the tournament expected at least 25 teams. I guess the larger departments would field more than one team. 9 teams signed up.

Damn, there goes my opportunity to show off my non-skills and an excuse to purchase a glove.

The candidating week continues to go well. I'm making that assumption based on the lack of angry phone calls, irate e-mails and wrapped bricks through my window. Everything that I have heard so far has been positive and my own experiences have been positive. I found Rev. Posa's first sermon personally relevant. I enjoyed the social time and interactions so far and look forward to further opportunities to meet with Rev. Posa.

I would love to sign the ministerial agreement this Sunday.

Running Log and Sports

This week I ran 18.22 miles, burned 2,092 calories and weigh 171.7 pounds.

Monday: 3.26 miles in 35:00
Wednesday: 2.29 miles in 25:00
Friday: 4.24 miles in 45:00
Saturday: 5.94 miles in 65:00

Tomorrow, my church's ministerial candidate will conduct the first of two services. Next week will be filled with meetings.

Next Saturday I will have the opportunity to demonstrate my low level skills at softball. The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is holding an interdepartmental softball tournament. I agreed to play on the Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences team. Not only do I have the opportunity to show off my low level skills but I get to do so in front of my co-workers. I did tell the person organizing the team of my skill level. I'm in it just for fun.

I played intramural sports in college. The teams I played on competed in the Co-Rec C league. This was the league for those teams just having fun. Co-Rec means that the teams had to be coed. The team I played with treated these sports as an opportunity for fellowship and sharing our faith. We played other teams representing various religious and service groups.

One year Campus Crusade for Christ's team almost got thrown out of the Co-Rec C Flag Football (not soccer) league for being too rough. They tended to grab more than the flags.

All this was over a decade ago.

I'm sure I'll have fun next week. At least I won't run the risk of being manhandled by Campus Crusade for Christ.

Ministerial candidate blog

Rev. Eric Posa's blog

The blog of our ministerial candidate. Check it out, post comments.