Skate Date

For our anniversary, we dropped the girls off with the neighbor friends and drove out to Skateland in Mesa to roller skate.  Bobbins had one of her ubiquitous groupons and talked me into it as a special present.  She had gone many times in her youth but never with a boyfriend.  The DJ played a little too much Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber for our taste, but he did give a shout-out to us and our little celebration, which was hugely cheesy and appropriate and hilarious.  Bobbins was graceful as ever, and by the end I had picked up some speed.

         

Mighty Mud Mania

Yesterday morning we drove over to Scottsdale for Mighty Mud Mania, basically a bunch of mud pits and wet sand for kids and adults to play in.  More of a thing for boys, which our neighbor friends' son proved, but MM had a little fun.

       

       

          

      

      

A colourful light

I found these candle sticks  at a Goodwill in Scottsdale.

I found the first two and thought if there were two more I'd get them. Well there were two more and so I bought them. Of course brass fits nothing in my house and usually does not fit anything in any ones house, not matter what you might think, so I found a pretty colour and voila'!

                              

Doug's not to happy about the blue spot on the grass but it will eventually get cut =)

Churches Going Retro

GREAT article in the National Catholic Register about new churches trending toward traditional.  My home parish is mentioned.  Couldn't agree more with this movement, which is from the ground up by laypeople.

AK's 21st

Last night we drove out to Tempe to celebrate AK's 21st birthday at her favorite restaurant, Red Robin.  I enjoyed being the first person to buy her a drink (legally), and MM enjoyed the whipped cream on the free hot fudge sundae.

       

         

We love and appreciate you AK !

Golf and BBQ

Sat. morning two colleagues from work, my uncle, and I played in a Knights of Columbus charity golf tournament at Stone Creek Golf Club.  I had never played there before and enjoyed it.  And we actually won, in a weird handicap format.  Our gross score was 63, eight under par, which would've tied us for second, but with the handicap our score was 55, enough to win by 2.  We all got $25 gift cards for more golf.

After a jump in the pool with MM, it was time to get ready for the neighborhood BBQ in our backyard.  Bobbins had done most of the work already, and the yard and decorations looked fabulous.  More importantly, the chicken kebabs and strawberry lemonade looked fabulously delicious:

      

Three families came over and the kids had a blast playing bocce and the other toys (and the pea gravel...).  It was a nice evening of food and conversation.

      

      

Now They Were Brothers

In the truest sense of the word.  What a lovely story: twin brothers who were also Franciscan brothers for over 60 years, about 50 of those living and working together.  God brought them into this world together and called them home together.  From the story:

From the moment of their birth in Buffalo 92 years ago, twin brothers Julian and Adrian Riester rarely left each other's side.


They played together, went to school together, as young men traveled cross-country together -- and, in their 20s, joined the Franciscan order together.


And on Wednesday, after 65 years as identical twins wearing the identical brown robes of the Franciscans -- mostly at St. Bonaventure University -- Brother Julian Riester and Brother Adrian Riester died together at St. Anthony Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla. Julian died Wednesday morning, followed by Adrian in the evening.


What a piece of history, especially the fact that their father observed surgery on President McKinley. And sad to say, you rarely see that kind of selfless service to society in this country these days.