The Augsburg Convention

Last week I had a printer scare -- it just would not print the Sunday bulletin sheet for church. So we did without one that week. I did a little internet shopping to see what is out there for printers, and really, I like this one. It does what I need and has a card slot for the camera card to download the pictures into the computer without me having to get down onto the floor and plug something into the USB port. So I took it to town to the one place that had a Yellow Pages ad in the phone book under printer repair, and $15 and a new ink cartridge later I was headed back home with a functional printer again. Now, I DID consider that to be the problem, but both the ink cartridges I had here apparently have a problem. The one was on its third refill, so I opened the new package I had in reserve, and it didn't print either. It was, of course, not an HP original cartridge, so when one buys those you are not quite sure how they will work -- this is the first one that didn't, as far as I can remember, so still not a bad record. I will probably go back to this place for ink and printer fixes, but hope it won't be soon. When one uses the computer and printer as much as I do, two days without it was putting a real crimp in my style.

Lou had not met Thea yet so we went on Saturday to Kirkland to visit everyone at the Hall home, help celebrate Dayna's birthday, and stay overnight somewhere closer to the airport prior to our 7 AM flight on Sunday. It was a busy day there and I'm pretty sure Danelle was exhaused by nighttime with visitors all day -- Jacob and Elizabeth, Jason and Rachel, and us all visited that day. Sidewalk chalk, Chinese food dinner, Ring-around-the-Rosie, doughnuts for breakfast and cake for after dinner -- a 2-yr-old's dream day. Dayna had a good birthday, I think, even taking a few hours off in the middle of it to hostess a wedding at church.

Sunday morning we got up early (having said our goodbyes the night before) and departed at about 5 AM for a fast drive to the airport -- makes for a fast trip at 5 AM on a Sunday morning down I-405. Destination: Odessa, TX for the Augsburg Lutheran Churches annual convention. Lou was elected executive chair of that organization at last year's meeting, so he conducted the business parts. Augsburg is a small group but their theology is right on and they are people who enjoy each other. The church ladies were (as always) very hospitable and many of them are now planning to attend the one in El Paso in 2009. We had good workshop sessions, the business meeting parts were pretty straight forward and short, and the "after hours fellowship" back at the motel was a riot with stories of church life, mis-spoken statements, and other funny stories and YouTube videos.

I had never been to Texas before. This part of the state is quite dry, even more so than here in E. Washington, and hot. And flat -- you can pretty much get lost by not having any landmarks to keep you straight, or at least I can (the sun isn't enough for me). We had dinner one night at a nice steakhouse, and one other night at a more "local" spot, Tex-Mex food. I always thought Chico's in Moses Lake had low overhead ("not much to look at but the food is good" I tell folks) but this one was pretty interesting. It obviously was a car repair shop and/or service station at one time; there are still the big bay doors in one section and wrenches hanging above a window; corrugated steel roofing on the ceiling, open beams, etc. There was to be a Mariachi band but they weren't there for some reason. All the better because we were pretty loud in that section as it was, trying to talk all at once and be heard. I am sure the people who seated themselves at one of the tables that was probably supposed to have been reserved for our group probably wondered what they were into when we broke out into the Doxology for table grace before we were served -- when 30+ people stand up and sing in a restaurant, people wonder what that's all about. The pastor went to them afterward and introduced himself, reminding them of the article the local paper had run last week about the church convention that was coming to town -- "that's us" -- and likely inviting them to church next Sunday...

So I am back home, with a couple days to catch up on banking and mail and then get moving on some more wedding preparations (only 22 days to go) -- pay off the cake, arrange a few flowers, figure out how to build the gazebo shades, and line up some food service.