Red-faced apology with an update

It's been an extremely long time (nearly three months) since I've posted to my blog. I'm so sorry to have let me loyal fans down.

I won't say directly that there have been a lot of things going on because I seem to say that in every post; however, I've had little spare time recently!

In reviewing my last post, I remember that I was about to take part in the Piano Ensemble Concert at church. That went extremely well. Given that it was a Wednesday night, the 300 people in attendance was quite a crowd. Mark your calendars for April 26, 2006 for the next presentation from this ensemble.

I also saw that I had mentioned going house hunting. That's been pretty slow going, but I guess there's no hurry. There were a couple of houses I saw that I really liked and am still considering, but I'm not going to rush into anything too quickly.

This summer, I got a season pass to Six Flags. I've been three times this summer. The first two times were great: the weather was perfect (overcast, but not raining) and the crowds weren't too bad. The last time I went, it was much hotter and more crowded. I'm sure I'll go again before the season pass expires.

Over the summer, I've been doing lots of planning for the beginning of activities at the church for the fall. Public schools in Griffin-Spalding began August 1. That really pushed us to get everything going so quickly. I would have preferred that we begin after Labor Day.

Our Wednesday night activities now include youth choir. Our first rehearsal on August 3 had about 25 kids there. I was pleasantly surprised. We've got a long way to go as an ensemble, but it's nice to have such a large group with which to work, especially considering that we had about 8 regulars last year.

Last Sunday we had a Music Ministry Appreciation Banquet after morning worship services. It was really just a time for participants in the Music Ministry and their families to enjoy fellowship with one another and to enjoy some entertainment. For the entertainment, we booked Charles Marshall, Christian comedian. He was quite good; his program was exactly what one would want at this sort of event: hilarious and encouraging. That same Sunday marked the one year anniversary of my being at First Baptist, Griffin. I got some very nice notes in the mail and phone calls from folks congratulating me. The Sanctuary Choir even got me a cake to celebrate (even though I had to share it with the people whose birthdays are in August). The "happy anniversary" celebration was fun.

I've just come back from a vacation in Black Mountain, North Carolina. I was able to take the whole week off and spend time with my family. It was great fun eating, sleeping, reading and playing games: a perfectly ideal vacation if you ask me. I've posted a couple of pics below. The top one is a game of Taboo with the fam. The second pic is a little DDR at the Asheville Fun Depot. We played arcade games, including DDR, played putt-putt and drove Go-Karts. If I can figure it out, I may even be able to post a couple of videos.

Coming up in the next few months are some interesting events. In September, I'm going to be auditioning for the CenturyMen: a 100-voice men's (Grammy Award-winning) choir made up of full-time Baptist ministers of music. I'll have to sing "The Lord's Prayer" by Malotte (the version everyone knows) and another piece of my choice.

I'm also going to be a part of a planning team that will put together a youth choir festival for CBF of Ga churches. I was looking forward to it before, but now that I've got a decent-sized youth choir, I'm looking forward to it even more. There are many details yet to be worked out, but I'm sure it'll be a good first venture.

In October, I'm going to be playing cello for the Griffin Music Club. They've made me an honorary member. (I can't usually go to the monthly meetings because they're at the same time as Deacons' Meeting.) I'm not sure yet what I'll play, but I've got a little while to decide. I do know that I'll need to get my cello's endpin fixed before I can work on anything.

I've still got a couple days of vacation left, so I'm going to be visiting with my grandmother on my dad's side in Augusta and my dad's sister and her family. My grandmother's church is having a homecoming thing, so that should be pretty good. I may try the mobile blogging from my cell phone while I'm there. That could be interesting.

Well...I guess I've put a lot in this post to make up for lost time. I know I haven't covered everything, but I've tried.

I hope you'll forgive me for my absence and will at least get something out of my renewed commitment to posting more regularly.