The Tomb

Happy Birthday David!

Happy birthday son!

Moonbows and French roast

5:30 AM isn't a time of day I normally enjoy and 0 degrees with winds made it less so. Moonbows greating me as I came out the door made it actually a happy morning. The moon is full and this morning there were 22 degree partial moonbows on the right and left of Luna. Not a perfect halo and not that incredibly rare but a nice winter treat.

I got to my client way too early this morning and thought I would risk the Caribou across the street. It was one of those barista moments I wish I could have caught on tape. The coffee of the day was French Roast. Me, being the coffee snob I am, just jad to ask: "What is your French Roast". Of course this is Caribou so the answer was "It's our French Roast." Yes, I'm sorry, I mean what kind of coffee is it?" Answer: "It's French Roast." By now both baristas are completely flummoxed and staring at me like I'm insane. "I'm sorry, I mean what kind of bean is your French Roast made with." Answer, as you would expect: "Well French of course." With that she got a tip just for providing entertainment with my coffee.

Goshen College Choir

The concert was very nice last night. Mandi and I went and also attended the dinner before hand (thanks to Marilyn and her team!). I was concerned about attendance with the weather but it was not too bad. I didn't get a head count. I'm sure it was lower than could have been but it was a reasonable turn out given the weather. The choir put on a spirited performance in any case. I think there were 5 non-ethnic Mennonite names in the choir and 2 of those were from Korea. They had a nice multi-cultural selection of tunes with one from Haiti and a couple encores of what I guess was West African origin. Emily Swora soloed on a spiritual and showed us again why we miss her so much. All of the pieces were pulled off convincingly with a great (yet properly reserved in a Mennonite sort of way) enthusiasm. The organ at the church had a minor role and it showed some promise but was hardly given a chance to open up and show its real potential. There seemed to be some struggle with balance among the voices and I would attribute it to the acoustics of the room for some unexpected reason. I suspect they were standing just a bit too far back into the apse Hopefully, there may still be some programs floating around the sanctuary this Sunday. In all a great performance.

Flogging Molly

Rebels are we, though heavy our hearts shall always be
Ah, no ball or chain no prison shall keep
We're the rebels of the sacred heart
I said no ball or chain no prison shall keep
We're the rebels of the sacred heart

Flogging Molly at the Myth night club in Woodbury, MN. See below for a brief review.

A new ancestor

Hi kids,

I think we found your great-great-great-great grandfather. You may remember that we were stuck on George Franklin Sawyer who was born in Cambria, PA in 1840. George Franklin had a brother named Peter. Well I was doing some searching and I think that I found their dad. His name was also Peter and he seems to have been from Philadelphia. We don't know much about him yet. My lead came from an 1840 census record and a city directory listing in Philadelphia in 1805. I can tell though that there were a bunch of Sawyers in the Phili area going back before 1776.

Peter Sawyer (about 1790 - 1862)
George Franklin Sawyer (1840-1898)
John Alden Sawyer (1892-1931)
George Joseph Sawyer (1914-1974)
George Joseph Sawyer II (1936- )
George Joseph Sawyer III (1968- )
George Joseph Sawyer IV, Sarah Louise Sawyer, David Stephen Sawyer

Flogging Molly

G4,

Meredith noticed that Flogging Molly is playing here on Monday. I hadn't heard. Mandi and I are going to go. You and I will have to compare notes after the concerts.

Time Passes

I've been aware that I've been neglecting my personal blogs here. The past few months have been a whirlwind of activity with the incorporation of SawyerTraining and routine life stuff. I haven't even had time to download Xmas pictures from my camera to post here. The past couple weeks have been hectic with classroom teaching on top of marketing/sales for SawyerTraining. I hope everyone has had a chance to get to our new website and see all the content on the wiki. Mandi and I are in the process of working with a designer on the corporate image and I'm busy with content. For fun this weekend I'll be attending some sessions at SBL's (Society of Biblical Literature) Midwest meeting. And maybe a little Valentine's day dinner. Then back to work. Keep in touch :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi kids. Happy Thanksgving. I love you.

Quilt Sale Success

I'm sitting at the debriefing meeting for the quilt sale this year. The sale was great fun again with beautiful quilts and tasty traditional food. Verenika and borscht and zweiback and peppernuts, mmmm. I was on stage for much of the live auction and felt horrible as I saw so many quilts go at a fration of their real value. However, the numbers at the meeting today are definitly encouraging. Attendance was up significantly with many new people this year. We were up to around 950 from around 830 last year. Even though the quilts fetched far less than I would have hoped the amount we are able to contribute to MCC world relief will actually stay the same and might be a little higher. The folks in charge of the sale have done a great job of management and increased efficiency. Next year we are looking forward to even greater attendance and are working on some big events to help publicize the sale. See the photo section for some pics from the sale.

Apple Butter Time

Fall is apple time. One of my favorites is apple butter, the most labor intensive of all the tasty joys of the apple. We started at about 1:00 PM and didn't finish until about 10:00 PM. Out of it we got just over 1.5 dozen pints. Well worth it though. See some pics here.