Can't catch a break . . . .

Bought a great bike on Saturday. Then bought an expensive u-lock Monday. Mounted the lock Tuesday evening. Had the bike stolen out of the garage sometime last night or today. (Sarah's bike, however, remains.)

Current question: why mine? Especially with a lock on it that they can't remove, because a) they don't have a key to the lock and b) the chord to the bike's seat is attached to it? And to top it off, the bike is actually registered in Wauwatosa!

What a great introduction to the neighborhood . . . .

The cop who took report told me to expect to never see it again, and then if it shows "which is a real shot in the dark," I can be surprised.

Thanks.

Check it out--Acorny Tale

My friend Sabrina is in the masters program for puppetry at UCONN . . .see her latest work. I love everything about it!

Happy Mother's Day

I absolutely adore my church. Like dating various types of men, I've tried different versions of Christianity--from conservative "non-denominational", to the charasmatic Assemblies of God, to the sort-of-pressing-the-norms Evangelical Covenant, to what I now find as my home (quite possibly for life): the United Church of Christ. Looking back, I see how experiences in each of the former institutions have led me here . . .and I'm thankful. It is good to know what one loves and needs, and to find both in one place is a tremendous blessing . . . .

Thank you, Dad, for bribing me with that free lunch a year ago!

Below is a poem that was on the front of our bulletin cover, titled For Love of the World.

For the love of a tree, she went out on a limb.
For the love of the sea, she rocked the boat.
For the love of the earth, she dug deeper.
For the love of community, she mended fences.
For the love of the stars, she let her light shine.
For the love of the spirit, she nurtured her soul.
For the love of a good time, she sowed seeds of happiness.
For the love of nature, she made compost.
For the love of a good meal, she gave thanks.
For the love of family, she reconciled differences.
For the love of creativity, she entertained new possibilities.
For the love of her enemies, she suspended judgment.
For the love of herself, she acknowledged her worth.
And the world was richer for her.

-Charlotte Tall Mountain

May your world be rich today.

First Post from the New Place

Greetings from Wauwatosa. I'm officially in my new place and am LOVING it. I'll get a mass email out soon with the new contact info, and then eventually pictures. I do have some of Matt hauling out a 25 lb raccoon carcass from the soffit of the garage (I won't go into details about the smell), but my inkling is that it doesn't make for good blog reading/viewing. Maggots and the whole nine yards. Funny and completely sick all at once, and having an aerial view at that . . . . Though in a moment of dignity, Matt did refuse to hold up the remains. My pleas for a picture of the proud new homeowner went unheard. Apparently we were not on a fishing trip . . . .

:)

I'm also preaching again at the end of the month and am mulling over what passage to go with . . .Proverbs 8 is jumping out, as is Romans 5:1-5. Wisdom is personified in the first, lending beautiful imagery. But then the savory and lingering words of endurance, character, hope, and peace with God tempt me in Romans. Wisdom seems to enable all of those, so I'll pull from both. Below is the verse I find most intriguing:

"and I [Wisdom] was daily his [God's] delight,
rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race."