Twenty-five?

Well, I have somehow survived for a quarter of a century.  While this does not look like the most interesting birthday I have had (which is a good thing), it so far has had its moments.

• The alpha draft of Sunday's worship service is finished.  I have also decided to lead the time with children myself.  Hopefully, this decision will not blow up in my face.  At least I get $125 for this, since the church doesn't officially have a pastor as of tomorrow.  Also, those who want to are more than welcome to attend.  Just let me know soon so that transportation and lodging arrangements (if necessary) can be made.
• Lots of time spent with people.  Saturday with the family, yesterday with college friends, and this evening with grad school friends.  At some point I am going to have to get the two groups together.
• Apparently, the boiler that heats the water at my apartment building died on Saturday.  This means no hot water until Tuesday at the earliest.  It would have been nice to let us know so that we didn't have to call it in.
• Something is wrong with the AC at my apartment.  It cools, but actually makes the air more damp.  This has been remedied with a dehumidifier, although I think the humidity is reaching an asymptote of 65-66 percent.
• Less than two weeks until reunion weekend!  It has been a while, so I think I will be doing some drinking that weekend.

Okay, back to reading math and physics books.

Frederick County Three Times in a Week

The title says it all.

After going home for church on Pentecost and my pastor's last service, I found out that I will be going back on Wednesday for the council meeting in addition to going back Saturday to celebrate my birthday with my family.

Wednesday night, the church council is meeting with the conference minister who will be helping the church find a new pastor.  Yesterday, the council president asked me to attend this meeting.  I also found out that as of now, the council has not lined up anyone to preach this summer.  I'm thinking Wednesday's meeting is to get approval to let me preach at least once this summer.  In fact, I have all but been asked to do so.  I believe the final answer comes Wednesday night.  Stay tuned, as I may be asking people if they want to attend if I preach again.

Here's to hoping the church's search for a new minister goes well and quickly.

Free Time? Who Needs It?

I just made my summer more interesting.

Not only do I have that research thing to do to prepare for my preliminary exam in the fall, a trip to St. Mary's in June, a wedding to attend in July, a Hersheypark trip probably in August, and the potential for serving as a preacher for the better part of the summer (the church council still has to get back to me on what they need me to do), but today I added helping with the new student orientation for the incoming first-years to the list of things to do.  Oh, and I decided to join a Bible study group with a few other math people from UMD.

I could have said, "I passed my qualifying exams last summer, so I can take it easier this summer," but instead, I decided to give myself more work to do.  It'll be good for the CV, at least.  I hope.

Again, I have no idea why I volunteered for this.  Maybe I'm subconciously trying to put off something else.

Really, NASA? Really?

Surprise, surprise, the shuttle program will go on past September.  Scientists have decided to change some magnets in an experiment on the space station to longer-lasting ones.  Thus, Endeavour's launch (STS-134), originally scheduled for July, has been pushed back to November to accommodate the changes.  This does three things.  One, it pushes the shuttle program past its scheduled end in September.  Two, it robs Discovery on STS-133 (yes, the numbers are out of order) of the honor of flying the last shuttle mission (unless something goes wrong with the Endeavour mission and Discovery has to fly a rescue mission).  Three, because Discovery will have to be on stand-by for a rescue mission, its delivery to the Smithsonian probably will be delayed.  The second point is especially bad since the crew for Discovery's last mission is supposed to consist of the more senior astronauts at NASA, giving them the honor of flying the last mission.  (In fact, the commander for STS-133 is the senior-most American astronaut.)

In more positive news, the semester is almost over.  I am actually finished with all my assignments for the semester, so I just have a couple of meetings and six more classes. And, I get to go to a wedding in July.

Oh, and no word from the church yet.  I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.