Books And Bulls: The Week In Thanks

Last night was one of the best social evenings I've had in a long time.

Shrek had another sellout, a raucous crowd who sometimes started applauding before the end of musical numbers. A bunch of us walked to Dollar General for some mid-show snacks. Cast bonding went on throughout the night in the bowels of the theater. Then several went out to Applebee's for some more. It lasted until 1 am.

So when I woke up this morning before church and my voice was a little like hamburger, I was glad once again for the astounding ability of the body to self-correct. Within a couple hours, and with an appearance of suddenly around 11:30 after pounding a bunch of water, my voice snapped back to full blow.

The pastor at Epiphany church continues to impress me with his ease in front of a congregation. Today, for example, he was talking about the importance of sharing the message of Catholicism with an explorer-related analogy. "Dig your stake into the ground, and twist," he said. A pause. "And shout," he said in an awkward rock-and-roll reference. Without a flinch, he diffused it with another line. "That was a freebie."

The Honda Civic's running great throughout my summer adventures. It's the kind of reliability I'm going to enjoy after so many years of glad-it's-running performance from the Saturn. Heck, we might even be able to ride it to North Carolina in 2015.

Pau Gasol's with the Bulls. I like the way their summer is turning out. I posted earlier that Carmelo Anthony didn't seem like a good fit to me. Mirotic is coming from overseas, Hinrich is returning, McDermott was drafted, Snell is still around. I have a hunch that the locker room chemistry will be better by far than it would have been with Anthony's hype, with stronger leadership (or at least less controversial personalities).

I'm glad that Brazil lost in the World Cup. It hadn't lost a competitive match at home since 1975. Then it lost twice in a few days, yielding 10 goals in the process. It seems to boost the USA's chance of supremacy, or at least co-supremacy, in our hemisphere in my lifetime.

Dena's teamed up with her friend Carrie Parker for a Tuesday night Bible study. They've been a good pair and I'm glad for the outlet. She's also been out running pretty often.

A final note: Pixie Thompson, the veteran employee of the Normal Public Library, approached me mid-session with a tutoring student to ask for my card. A patron had asked her if she knew of anyone, and I came to her mind. That kind of reputation and connection is priceless.