'Tis Spring...

...and the thoughts of a young doe turn to "Why did I trust that handsome young buck last October? I haven't seen him since that night. He hasn't even called or sent a card."

In something fit for Cute Overload, a deer gave birth last night in our neighbor's yard to a pair of fawns. They're only about 15 feet from the corner of our house, but because of a tree and a rhododendron (and of course their great natural camouflage), we can't see them unless they get up and wobble around. No pictures yet, but I hope to get some in the next couple of days.

I'm busy prepping media for tomorrow, which will be my last Sunday at RLC. K and I want to be able to worship together and be part of a church community closer to home. And after 9+ years there, 7 of them creating and growing the media ministry, I decided it was time to move on. I'll miss the heck out of a lot of people, but I won't miss the late Saturday nights prepping things, and having to be there almost every Sunday. This afternoon there's a brief crew leader meeting for the Habitat build-a-thon next week, and I hope to get a little time in on the kitchen, so I need to stop fawning over the little deers in the back yard and get back to work.

Hammer Time

We have a new plumbing problem -- water hammer. It wasn't possible before because the pressure was so abysmally low, but now that there's 3/4" and 1/2" copper everywhere, the pipes rattle when a valve is closed quickly. I've added a hammer arrester for the washing machine since that was one of the worst sources, and been double-checking all the pipes are well secured, but there's still some work needed.

It's also hammer time in another sense. I leave Monday for Mexico to help take the youth group from RLC down to build a house for people in need in the barrios of Tijuana. We usually try to have the kids do most of the work anyways, but this year I need to be extra careful because my shoulder is still healing from the tendinitis. Supervising and translating are usually on my task list, but this year that's about all that will be on it. See you in a week or so!

Church Media

One of the things I do besides work on the house is create media for churches. Mostly it's media for the church I attend, Resurrection Lutheran in Dublin. But I also spend a lot of time on ChurchMedia.net (CMN), an amazing community of volunteer and paid media ministers and pastors from around the world. We share ideas, graphics and videos, and support one another in our ministries. CMN holds an annual convention to get together and help spread the word about this unique way to spread The Word. You can read more about the upcoming convention here:

In past years the convention has been on the other side of the country. But this year's is in Mesquite, Texas (between Dallas and Fort Worth), and the timing is such that I'm hoping to be able to make it. Even if I can't, I'll attend the convention 'virtually'. I highly recommend checking out the convention if you do church media, and checking out ChurchMedia.net, too.

Found Treasures

We're planning to use the same tile for the shower as we used on the floor in the new bathroom. It's a nice soft green (Katarina loves green), and is the same design (sort of a random wash of bits of darker stuff) as the sand colored tile we used in the shower surround in the old bathroom back when I redid that. That had a similar orangish version, matching bullnose tiles, 3x3 grid tiles (that I cut into 3x1), and a nice complementary set of accent tiles with different designs. The green version had the bullnose and the grid, but no accent tiles, and no similar color that went well with it. Despite the shower being unique (custom size, shelf because of the foundation, etc.), I was worried it would be a bit boring with just some bits of 3x1 at the edge of the shelf, but I went ahead and bought the tile for both the floor and the shower.

While I was waiting for the tile to be brought out of the warehouse, I looked around at what there was to see in the driveway between the tile showroom and the warehouse next door. Various warning signs, tile saw for customers to use for a few cuts, etc. Then I spotted something I'd seen before -- the tile scrap bin. Basically bits of cut and broken tile that aren't salable any more. I looked in it, and found 95% of a sheet of 1x1 glass tiles, in a nice mix of blues and greens. It was missing a few squares, and a few were chipped, but it was otherwise a lovely little bit of tiles, so I snagged it and put it in the car.

Today I figured out the layout for the shower tile, cleaned up some stuff, and started tiling. I think these little guys are going to make perfect accent tiles, and the fact they were free-99 and headed for the dumpster is all the better.

I didn't get that much tile put up, but got a good start and more than that cut for some of the odd-sized bits at the ends. Alas, tomorrow will be a busy day so no more tiling until Monday. First service at church to train the second service person on the differences; second service will be a joint service with the Baptists that share our sanctuary; the evening will mean a return trip for an organizational meeting for this year's Mexico mission trip. Easter is earlier this year, so spring break for the schools is, so the Mexico trip is, too.

Breathe

I feel like I've barely got room to. Breathe, that is. We got back from Mexico Saturday evening, short a vehicle (dead transmission; it was the one towing the equipment trailer) and I did a hurried job prepping the media for Sunday morning. After church I spent a wonderful afternoon with Katarina, talking, reading, playing with the cats, and generally relaxing. Deep breath.

I knew this week was going to be busy. Thursday through Sunday is Habitat for Humanity East Bay's big fundraising and building event, the annual Earth Day build-a-thon. I've missed it for a couple of years because it was the same week as the Mexico trip, but it's a great event and I've missed doing it.

This year I'm the chapter specialist for Thrivent Builds, helping to coordinate things between Habitat, Thrivent, and local Lutheran churches. Thrivent is now the biggest sponsor of Habitat ever, but the catch is that local Lutherans need to raise money and volunteer. So I knew I was going to participate, even if that meant *gasp* skipping the Mexico trip. Even though they didn't fall on the same week this year, as busy as I've been the last several months, I was seriously thinking about skipping the Mexico trip. But I looked at the calendar and figured three days of rest would be enough, and decided to do both.

Of course there were the little matters of prepping the media for Sunday (including a video slideshow of the Mexico trip) even though I won't be there, Oakland Firefighters Random Acts having their big fundraising event on Saturday (I'll be ducking out of the build-a-thon early to help), and the host of mundane details that fill up every day life.

Then Sunday night I got an email from Random Acts that a young man I knew named Irving had died. He'd been battling cancer for years, and had been near death a couple of times, so Random Acts, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Children's Hospital, etc. knew him quite well. A wonderful kid, always smiling and cracking jokes, and just wanting to be a normal kid, not a depilated pincushion. Miraculously he was doing a bit better and had gone home from Children's for a while, so this was a punch in the gut for all who knew him. I can't even begin to imagine what his parents and brother must be going through.

So it's time to fire up ProShow Gold and make YAMV (Yet Another Memorial Video) for the funeral on Thursday. I got a break from them a while back to do a video for my sister-in-law's 40th birthday, but I feel I'm getting entirely too much practice at the memorial kind. Say a little prayer for strength for me, and a whole bunch of prayers for Irving's family and friends. Vaya con Dios, Irving.

186 MPH

Sunday we hosted a steel drum concert at Resurrection Lutheran. A member of the CSM Panhandlers is part of our worship team, and arranged to have the band come and perform a concert to raise money for our annual mission trip to Mexico. We take the youth group down to the barrios of Tijuana to build a house for a family in need. The houses are very simple (we build them in 3.5 days), but a vast improvement over what the families are living in. Most common is a square made from four old garage doors, with two more for a roof, and a door cut into one side. And yes, that means a dirt floor and no windows. So a concrete slab floor, two windows and a real door, stucco walls, and a roof that doesn't leak is a big improvement.
As simple as the houses are, they still cost money to build, and it costs money to get us down there. That's where the fundraising concert came in. I built some extensions to the stage area so we could fit them all in, and so I could see the bass players (the "6 bass" players have six full-size steel drums, which takes some room), and borrowed a video camera so I could do a little IMAG (image magnification) and put the band on the big screen. We got a great turn out, and raised a big chunk of the money for the trip. Thanks, Panhandlers!

The band is a blast to watch and listen to. As the director said in introducing one of the songs, the tenor players move about 186 MPH and manage to get all the notes. They're amazing to watch. Here's a taste:

"Wow" doesn't even cover it. It looks even better when viewed directly on YouTube's site.