Well...it's been a very fun day. I got to hang out with Ricky this afternoon. We went to the Sock Shoppe and he bought a huge bib. I guess he got tired of Shout-ing out stains and stuff. After that, we went to the piano store to look into renting some pianos for our piano concert featuring 6 pianists, 3 pianos. We watched a little TV and then went to trivia night at Wings 'n' Things.

Trivia was a blow-out. Before the last question that has Jeopardy-style betting, we were up 260 to 213. We won!

After trivia, we watched American Idol. The show tunes seemed to give these folks some trouble. I'm not sure who I liked tonight. I thought Carrie did well, but was a little plain. I just don't know.

Now Ricky is forcing me to watch Nashville Star. I hadn't watched it before, and I know I haven't missed too much.

Tomorrow will involved me going to the church, having lunch with Ricky before he leaves, packing after lunch in preparation for my short trip to Cashiers, NC with the fam, then back to the church, orchestra rehearsal, choir rehearsal, then I'm heading to Dunwoody for the night to be able to leave early Thursday morning. It'll be a nice change of pace to head up there.

Well...I'm going to suffer through a little bit more Nashville Star with Ricky and then head to bed to recover from my brief stint of insomnia last night.

I'm not sure why I always think that when I drink a caffeinated beverage at lunch time that it will affect me any differently than it does any other time. Suffice it to say that I was up until 1:30am this morning.

In my caffeine-induced insomnia I have had a eureka moment about the way to eliminate the potentially messy papal conclave. All they need is a Sorting Hat. All of the cardinals could gather together and pass around the Sorting Hat. When the new pope is found, the Hat would say, "Pooonnnntiiiiiffff." It sounds feasible to me!

I see that I've only been posting about every six days recently. Sorry about that! There's just been so much going on!

Last week, I ordered a whole bunch of new music. It seemed much like a veritable cornucopia of music. Now the trick will be to get it all filed properly!

Today I had a meeting with some ministers from around Griffin to plan our National Day of Prayer service that will take place on May 5. We're trying to involve many folks from the community. I think it'll be a good service.

I also practiced the piano a little bit in preparation for the Piano Ensemble Extravaganza that we'll be having at church on May 18. That'll be 6 pianists, 12 hands, 3 pianos, and tons of fun. I discovered very quickly that my piano chops are not where they once were. I'm out of practice to say the least.

I'm planning on going with the fam to North Carolina Thursday and Friday. That'll be a nice little diversion.

The pump has been working really well. The biggest problem I have is accurately counting carbs in meals in which I'm not able to measure exact amounts of food. Eating out is very tricky! I've also been working on getting the amount of insulin in the reservoir exactly right so that I don't have to waste a whole bunch when it comes time for a site change or have to abstain from certain things in order to make the insulin last the right amount of time.

I was enamored with POPE WATCH 2005 this past weekend. It'll be interesting to see the direction the conclave goes when electing a new pope. There was an interesting quote from an American Catholic priest being interviewed after the pope's death. Larry King asked him if the pope would receive special treatment in heaven. His answer was something like, "no, things sort of level out up there." That got me thinking. A bit of logic: if there is no papal hierarchy in heaven and if we pray "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven...", then why have papal hierarchy on earth? That's just one more reason why I'm a free and faithful Baptist. I mean no offense to Catholic Christians, but that's just one sticking point for me.

I ordered a new Bible from Wal-Mart today. Dr. Sherouse, the pastor at FBC Griffin, uses the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. I've found it to be a good translation: it "makes use of the latest findings in biblical translation" and also uses gender-inclusive language when talking about people: "brothers and sisters" and "friends," instead of "brothers", etc. (See Romans 12:1 NRSV vs. Romans 12:1 NKJV.) The Bible I received at my ordination was NRSV, however, it was the Anglicized version and included the Apocrypha. As I later discovered, the Anglicized version is a reworking of the original NRSV, but with some adjustments made in light of common British English usage. They have removed all subjunctive moods in the translation (i.e. I wish there were [not was] more correct usage of the subjunctive mood); they have also changed all the numbers from twenty-four to four and twenty (why did that have to be the first number I typed???). Also, the Apocryphal books just confuse things since I never use them. When I was in Bible Drill as a kid, we always learned that the book of Psalms was right in the middle of the Bible. Not so with the Apocryphal books in the way! Suffice it to say that I ordered a new NRSV Bible in American English without the Apocryphal books. Wal-mart had it for about half the price the publisher was selling it and about $10 less than Amazon, so I felt like I got a good deal.

I'll be having an honored guest with me at trivia at Wings 'n' Things tomorrow night. My brother Ricky will be joining me. I feel sure that his knowledge of random facts will come in handy.

Well...I hope this lengthy update will suffice for a while. I do hope to return to a more frequent update schedule.