Coming To A Close

Today is April 27, 2008. That probably does not mean anything special to most of you but what that means to me is I have exactly 10 days of teaching left before our latest batch of senior pagans leaves St. Joes. That's right, all of you at Freehold Boro HS and Immaculata HS, this boy just goes to work after that to schmooze! It is fitting because the last day of school for the seniors is my birthday. Doesn't get any better than that!

The Pope Sends His Love

It was a beautiful morning. Sun shining, blue sky, warm with a cool breeze. I went to St. Joes to await the arrival of the bus which would bring 55 of us to the St. Joseph Seminary at Dunwoodie, NY to see the Pope interact with the youth of the area parishes. Everything was great but we had one hitch. One young girl forgot her identification so we had to leave her behind. Security would be tight and she would not have been admitted without it. We gave her ample time to go home to get it but she never came back.

What a shame. This is a once in a lifetime chance for most people. We got on our way and arrived at Yonkers Race Track about 1 hour and 15 minutes later. That was where they were parking the busses. We were shuttled to the seminary after chanting and taunting other dioceses who had less of a turnout and after being interviewed by various reporters and tv commentators. When we finally arrived it was about 11:15. The day's activities were to begin at noon. It was mostly loud Christian rap and various types of popular Christian music. After about an hour and a half my head exploded! Then it came time to get lunch which was provided. Our whole group went up to the vendor's area and found the lines to be really long but that was the only option. We actually waited on line for 2 hours and 40 minutes in the hot son only to find out that the first step in getting food was to be handed a cardboard tray. Once we got the tray we went onto the food line and waited another 40 minutes to get a hamburger which was certainly used the previous night as a hockey puck in the playoff games. Unfortunately, this was the only place they had water so many of our group was getting a little dizzy and dehydrated because the sun was pretty warm and the water was hard to come by. We were not permitted to bring anything in. This helped time pass though and around 5:30PM (after spending time in a hospital tent with one of the girls in my charge) the Pope finally arrived. This is when everything turned around. The Pope spoke directly to the teens with warmth and was genuinely connected with them. The teenage girls said, "he is so cute. I just want to hug him". The guys said, "he is a really cool guy". Never thought of the Pope as cute and cool but there you have it from the mouth of babes.. More later

Does She Float?

Did you ever see the bit on Letterman, "Does it float?" Well we caught Kenyon looking at Maeve and that began to worry all of us at the Baptism.

We caught him just in time and made sure he did not do it. (I think she would have floated, do you?)

Snatched from Satan

On March 29 this beautiful young child was carried into St. Augustine Church as a little pagan baby. Because of the extreme holiness of the minister and the miracle of the water this little girl was snatched from the snares of Satan! The ultimate condition and disposition of the other four people in the picture is still in question. I simply cannot vouch for any of them.

Click to Hear Top Praise Songs for Jesus

Down Time

This past Christmas our lovely daughter, Bean, gave us a gift of a stay at the Queen Victoria bed and breakfast in Cape May. Cape May is one of our favorite spots for relaxation. We decided to go the day after Easter. At first the weather was supposed to be really bad but that worked out OK. Apparently, this is a great place for "down time". If you have ever been to Cape May in the summer season you know that there are horse and carts which transport people around the cape (for a fee, of course). I never paid much attention to the Hansom Cabs since I have seen so many in Manhattan. As it turns out, the hardest working creatures in the Cape are the horses. Well, just as we needed some down time after a busy run in school and Church, so do the horses. I realized that when I drove by a horse ranch and my wife pointed out something I have never seen before. If you look closely you can see it too! Just to the left of center, behind the fence, you can see one of the horses lying down, sound asleep. This is my assumption because I really don't want to think that I may have just put a picture of a dead horse on my blog.

For those of you who have been to the Cape I have added some other familiar images to help you look forward to your next visit.

IT IS EASY TO SEE WHY BRIAN IS SO SCARED

Hey, who is that kid in the SHAZAM shirt? It's Sargent Rich crime fighter! Brian is thinking, "Dear God, please don't let me grow up like that"! Meanwhile, Kevin is totally afraid to look to his right. He just puts on that smile with the hope that everything will be OK.