I find it humorous that an album titled More Mellow Sixties would include “Something in the Air” by Thunderclap Newman.

So you might recall that before I left for GenCon it was announced that we’d be getting a new associate pastor.  Father Bob was supposed to be introduced at all of the masses the week I was in Indianapolis.  Well the following weekend our pastor and the other priests who preside over masses were all out of town, leaving him the whole parish in only his second week.  What a sudden amount of responsibility, but he seemed to be doing well under the pressure when I saw him at the Sunday evening mass.  He said a wonderful homily as I recall, even if I don’t recall the content these several months later.  It definitely tied into the narrow gate from the gospel reading.  I recall that much.

In the meantime he has been settling into the parish life well.  It turns out that both Fr. Bob and Fr. Milt went to the University of Notre Dame.  In his homeland of Uganda he used to celebrate mass in Parliament once a week, and was even the spiritual director of the nation’s VP, as the nation’s first Chaplain to the Catholic Parliamentarians.  So, as you can imagine, Uganda and Indiana did not prepare him for Phoenix’s heat.  He’s so good natured, however, that he really appreciates the luxury of air conditioning, pizza, and cheese cake. 

Two weekends ago he was similarly left the parish all to himself when all of the other priests were once again out of town.  The deacons were kind enough to assist him, and he did really well again.  Because Father Milt usually handles the Sunday evening mass he was really stressing the lack of EMs before mass.  I tried to assure him that the Sunday evening mass is always (even since I can recall) short on EMs.  They’re scheduled, they just either don’t show up or show up late, so the mass requires a lot of last minute substitutes.  (It’s bad enough that after two years of requests, my mother & I finally caved in and took training to become an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist myself.  I haven’t needed to substitute yet, but I’ve only been trained for a month and I’ve been lectoring every other week for the past few months.)  He wasn’t assured until we filled all of the slots with substitutes.  He gave an excellent Right to Life homily, brilliantly tying in the words of Habakkuk, Paul, and Luke with the special collection for Respect Life Sunday.

So, thank you God for bringing our parish another associate pastor.  Fr. Gene isn’t getting any younger.  He keeps discussing retirement more and more each year.  We may not be the biggest parish in the diocese, but we can certainly use a younger priest to assist our pastor.  God Bless Father Bob.

Thanks to septentrio for the quiz:

“Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past.” ~ Dora
“If that’s true, then wisdom is knowing that you’ll be an idiot in the future.” ~ Marten
“And common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot NOW.” ~ Faye
Questionable Content #976: “Dora Dharma” by Jeph Jacques

Charity Raffle to benefit Make-A-Wish is a great deal for Star Wars fans and Make-A-Wish fans everywhere.

And we continue from our thrice-interrupted narrative…

I did find an awesome, unexpected deal at a booth selling sleeves, deck boxes, and box cases.  For $20 I picked up 8 plastic card boxes from Steel Squire, 3 steel card boxes from Rook, and 1 carry bag from Rook that fit all of the boxes with room for more.  When I got back to the hotel room, my friends couldn’t believe how great a deal that was.  There’s always that amazing Sunday afternoon deal or two available from a booth that doesn’t want to have to bring anything back home. 

I stumbled across a booth for the Rephrase game that Kim owns.  I expressed my surprise to them that their game had a booth at GenCon.  They then started to give me the spiel for their game.  I tried explaining to them that I’d already played tho of their sets, and they countered with the fact that their game wasn’t out yet.  I countered back that it had to be out, because I’d played it several times already.  It turns out, after several minutes of polite disagreement, that their were only ten stores nationwide that carried the game already.  Five of those are in the Phoenix metropolitan area, and they didn’t expect to run into anyone at GenCon who had already played their game. 

Steve called me when I was near the end of the Exhibitors’ Hall, wondering where I was.  I told him that I was doing my run of the Exhibitors’ Hall.  He told me that when I was done, they’re were planning their Sunday evening dinner for whenever I returned.  Just then, they announced the close of the convention.  So I never did get to see the Wizards of the Coast booth that was in the far corner of the hall.  That was really stupid on their part.  In the old days, the WotC booth was in the center, so you saw the booth every time you walked into the hall.  You were bound to walk through several times, and walk around it several times more.  With it in the far corner, you only heard about it from others.  I did catch a glimpse of it from afar a few times, when I was in the right row or column.  I think they had a large Gleemax, and some sort of overhanging walkway.  Oh well, it’s their loss.

So, as they were tearing down the hall I stopped by the Flying Buffalo booth to say goodbye to Ken and Rick.  After that I returned to the hotel, where I met up with Bill, Steve, and Troy.  Steve gave me an NSDM chocolate bar with an NSDM in-joke printed on the wrapper.  After that we had diner at Champps, which was OK.  Back at the hotel Troy and I busted open his Mother Sheep game and played it.  It was fun, I’d definitely play that one again.

The next morning we all had the hotel breakfast buffet before checking out.  Then we went to Circle Centre Mall to catch Superbad.  It’s a good thing I didn’t take Len upon on the advanced preview tickets, as Steve was not going to let us see anything else.  It’s not a movie I would pay to see a second time, even if I did see it for free the first time.  The United Artists’ Theatre was amazingly in bad shape in comparison to the rest of the high end mall.  Some theatres have sticky floors in the seats.  This place had sticky carpets between concessions and the theatre.  That’s pretty bad.  It’s almost like the top floor of the mall is in a different ZIP code or something. 

Bill drove us to the airport, where we said our goodbyes to him.  We ran into Mike, who was waiting for the same flight.  On the flight we played some more Settlers of Catan.  Due to lightning within one mile of the airport, we were stuck aboard the plane on the ground for some time.  We eventually took off, and they promised to burn extra fuel to make us less late for Phoenix.  During the flight, they got permission to make a short cut, making us even less late.  Also during the flight they were offering two different snack packs:  the vegetable and cheese one was gone fairly early in the coach part of the cabin.  People were turning down the candy one left and right.  Eventually we landed and the three of us parted ways:  Steve to wait for his flight home, Troy to the parking lot shuttle pickup area, and I to the curbside.  My mother had been waiting in the stage and go, and so we had a chance to chat while she gave me a ride home.  Once home, I welcomed my cat, did laundry, and packed my lunch for the next day.

Thanks to jada_marnew for the quiz:

Your Brain’s Pattern

Your brain is always looking for the connections in life. You always amaze your friends by figuring out things first. You’re also good at connecting people – and often play match maker. You see the world in fluid, flexible terms. Nothing is black or white.

“Constant and determined effort breaks down all resistance and sweeps away all obstacles.” ~ Claude M. Bristol