When we moved to San Marcos, I was a bit disappointed that there was so
little riverfront property available in the city. After finishing my
explorations of the city parks that adjoin the river last night, I’m no
longer miffed. The southernmost park is probably the most lovely, with the
elephant ears that line the river continuing, but also augmented by several
enormous cypress trees along the water’s edge. There’s a dam that spans the
river with a large sluiceway in the middle, which the crowds of kids were
taking advantage of. The whole scene is overlooked by a nice little
restaurant with a deck. Wonderful spot. I concluded the evening’s
adventuring with a trip to the supermarket and some time in the kitchen
trying a new salsa recipe. Good, but not my favorite, and too much work.

This week Kathy is taking the kids to Vacation Bible School in the evenings,
which gives me a couple hours after I get home to dispose of as I please. So
I’ve decided use this bit of extra freedom to avoid my usual evening
activities in favor of things I usually wouldn’t choose to or be able to do.
Yesterday I vacuumed the pool, mowed the yard, and then sat out in the
freshly mowed grass leaning against an old tree with my guitar singing
loudly and amusing passing joggers. Tonight I plan to go exploring San
Marcos more thoroughly.

I must admit that I’m a bit of a sucker for summer blockbusters. With that
in mind, I enjoyed MI:2 quite a bit. (Though I’m a bit annoyed by the
studios’ tendency to link little abbrevations to the title of movies. At
least MI:2 makes sense, which is more than one could say for Independence
Day/ID4.) Kathy and I saw it as part of our anniversary date, and both were
favorably impressed with it. Though there were a couple of points that
stretched suspension of belief a bit far, and the script did rely on ripping
off masks rather too heavily, it was plenty of fun, and worth seeing on the
big screen.

Today marks our 5th wedding anniversary. It snuck up on both Kathy and I this year, embroiled as we’ve been with moving, pregnancy, family weddings, etc. I’m amazed on one hand at how quickly the time seems to have gone, but on the other hand have a hard time remembering what it was like before I’d met the wonderful woman I’ve had the privilege of sharing this time with. We’ll be celebrating with a trip to San Antonio for an extended date night.

You know, I used to really like Michael Crichton. Back when he wrote novels (The Adromeda Strain, The Terminal Man, The Great Train Robbery), instead of movies in prose form (Sphere, and most aggregiously, The Lost World), his were among my favorite works. After listening to Timeline this week, I’m about ready to give up hope entirely. Though it’s a servicable adventure story, the science was so flawed that it was hard to pay attention to the rest of the story.

Those of you with baby experience will recognize the “What does the critter say?” game. Adult: What does the cow say? Baby: Moooo! Adult: What does the dog say? Baby: Arf! Arf! Now, as an avid Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan, I’ve created a small variation on the theme. Sean: What does the killer shrew say? Liam: Ai yi yi yi yi yi yi!

I’m just back from our sonogram appointment, and it looks as though we’ve got a little girl on the way! It was fun to get to point out to Emily, who came along, all the little baby parts that were coming up on screen. I’m afraid I muffed the explanation of how sonograms create cross-sections, rather than 3D images, though. The only way I could think of to help her visualize it was to say it was like slicing the baby in half, which understandably didn’t go over well. Anyway, everything seems good, and we’re on course for a due date about a week into October.

We helped Steve & Rene Johnson move into San Marcos this weekend. They’re the second family to arrive who will be participating in “The New Church”. Steve is an excellent musician, and will be spearheading that side of the ministry. They got a nice house on the south side of town with a full acre of land — plenty of room for the kids to run amok.

I listened to the audiobook version of Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind last week with very mixed feelings. There seemed a certain inconsistency in his message, as he was convinced that there was such a thing as absolute truth and that it could be arrived at by reason, but hailed the salutory effects of religion even though he didn’t believe its tenets to be true. His deification of the University is also a bit difficult to swallow, though he does point very perceptively at some of the things that have hampered the American student’s ability to learn. All in all a worthwhile read, though it would be difficult to imagine anyone getting through the whole thing without saying “No, no, that’s not right!” at some point.

When my friend Darren Drake was married (in Houston) a few years ago, we released butterflies. Unfortunately, there was a flock of birds in the area at the time, and they were hungry. Within seconds of opening the little pouches, the whole flock was swooping and diving over the crowd, and more than half of the butterflies were consumed before we even knew what was going on.

It was carnage. Three years later, it’s funny. At the time, it was a little sickening.