Many things have happened since I last wrote. I will spare you a long blog and give you a few highlights. Christmas came quickly and I joined my pastor for the marathon of Masses starting Friday evening at 5:00pm and ending Sunday morning at 10:30am seven Masses in all; however, I took a short cut, which skipped me passed the Saturday vigil Mass and the Sunday 7:30 morning Mass. No sooner did Christmas come and go, the New Year had started and I had to report to the seminary for our week long silent retreat. I suffered through...prayerfull attended the retreat without saying a word to anyone until the end. Some may find that surprising, but it is true...honest. January saw much of what happened before. Basketball season continued and we have seen great success on the court at 2nd in our district. Also dealing with the sport of basketball: I have started playing basketball with the youth of the parish. So far, we have had a good showing of youth of both the public and Catholic schools. January 22, my niece/Goddaughter Brenna Elizabeth Rother was baptized in the Faith. This past Thursday a friend came down and we made a pilgrimage to the Spoetzl Brewery where the nectar of the gods is brewed...Shiner Beer. Being the special people that we are, we were even given a behind the scenes tour. It was awesome! And lastly, tonight, January 29, we showed our appreciation for our beloved pastor on his birthday, by having a pot luck dinner. The seniors and I even put on a skit that dramatized a funny event in the life of Father Bob.

Posted by Big Mike at 11:04 PM CST

Updated: Friday, 11 February 2005 11:38 PM CST

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Mood:  celebratory

Here is the promised pic of Brenna my new niece of two and one half weeks.

Posted by Big Mike at 9:32 PM CST

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Mood:  quizzical

I was recently preparing for a class presentation on the Kingdom of God when I found out that the word Kingdom is "sexist." What are we supposed to call them then, person-who-rules-dom? The actual quote is: "...in light of today's appropriate sensitivity regarding exclusive or sexist language, many prefer to avoid the word kingdom. The common practice today is to replace it with the word reign or, less frequently, rule."* I would argue the point that this is the common practice, maybe in his region. Furthermore, this, in my book, is plain lunacy. I have conceded to certain ideas like using "she/he" when talking about a general person, but this, I believe, is too far. Your comments are welcome, as they always are. Just click on the link below that says post your comments. You can even see what others have written and start a discussion on the issue if you so choose.

* (The revised edition of the Catechist's Guide of Confirmed in the Faithful Community: A Senior High Confirmation Process, Thomas Zanzig, Winona, Minnesota: St. Mary's Press 2001, p. 119)

Posted by Big Mike at 1:11 PM CST

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Mood:  happy

This blog is a month late but I want to share a beautiful event I had the esteemed pleasure and honor in attending and being a part of the wedding of good friend of mine from high school up north...North Texas. This is the very friend that used to put me through UIL Number Sense Boot Camp--Don't ask. I still twitch when I think about it. :-) The beautiful bride first requested my presence at the wedding as a server to assist the priest in the Mass, to which a graciously accepted. Not long went by when she contacted me again and begged for my "beautiful voice"--Her words not mine--to sing or chant the Responsorial Psalm. Again I accepted graciously. I was very happy to be apart of her (and her soon to be husband's) wedding. And finally, soon before the wedding date, I received one more email that requested that I do the prayers of the faithful. Yet, again my answer was positive. I wanted to do what I could to help get these two love birds hitched, as we say in Texas. I didn't mind, and was actually honored, to be the go to guy to pick up the slack as it were. Had I been able I would have married the two, but last time I checked this was not possible until my bishop ordains me and grants me the faculties. But then the bishop of Dallas would have to concede and all that good stuff, but I digress back to the join of Sandra and Will. The wedding went off with only one minor mistake. I chanted the response a little wrong, but fixed it because there was no way I could remember how I had accidentally done it the first time. After the wedding, the wedding party and the guests made their way to the hotel where the reception was held and great food, fellowship, and fun was had by all. Now for you girls who are interested in the decoration...and don't tell me you weren't wondering what the wedding looked like. Well in all my masculine, testosterone infested perception of d?cor, the decorations were very "Autumny." The colors were the color of the changing leaves...that is oranges, reds, yellows, not green then brown like most trees of the south. I had a true sense of what Autumn is in other parts of the country. Another, thing I thought was unique, at least to me because I have never seen it, was that the brides maids had one color dress, something like a redish brown, but very pretty and fit the "theme" of the decoration very well (forgive me Sandra the I don't know the color). The maid of honor had a cream colored dress, which set her apart from the other girls in the wedding part sort of in a place of honor as she is the maid of honor. Anyway, it was a very beautiful occasion and I am very happy and proud to have been present.

Posted by Big Mike at 12:01 AM CST

Updated: Wednesday, 1 December 2004 1:38 PM CST

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Mood:  celebratory

Yesterday morning at 8:00, I received "the call." When it came in I knew it had to be it, but my phone was not unlocked yet, so I couldn't answer it right away. I entered the code and received this message: "The access code is incorrect." Again I entered the code, and againg the message lit up the screen. Frustrated, I slamed the phone off and then back on to reset its stupid little brain so that it would accept my code. I finally got into my phone and saw that yep my brother did call, which gave more evidence that it was "the call" that I had been waiting for since early this month. I called him back as quickly as possible, and luckily got him before he returned upstairs where cell phones were not allowed. We talked and he told me what I thought he was going to tell me repeating much of it due to the "great" Shiner cell phone reception. Since he had to go and get back upstairs and I had to get on a bus headed for Houston's Holocaust Museum with the Catholic school's sophomores, we ended the phone call to be continued later or on Thursday in person.

Oh, in case you are wonder what "the call" was, my neice, Brenna Rother, was born at 7:01, Monday November 22, 2004!

[Pictures to come when I receive them from the proud new parents or grandparents.]

Posted by Big Mike at 12:01 AM CST

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This one is not for the faint of heart or who simply don't find bodily noises funny. You still may find it funny, but be warned. The longer...ha, ha...it goes on...ha, ha, ha...the longer I want it to continue...hee, hee, *snort*, ha, ha, ha...I can stop laughing...HA, HA, HA...

http://www.funnyjokes.com/humor/flash/stupidcat.htm

Okay, finally had the strength to click the mouse and get off of the page.

Posted by Big Mike at 12:01 AM CST

Updated: Wednesday, 24 November 2004 2:59 PM CST

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Mood:  silly

A maping software has predicted the next great flood that leaves San Angelo underwater. --Take heed people of the desert, the rains are coming.--

---

And in other news, I thought this was a cool picture of a baby.

Posted by Big Mike at 11:01 AM CST

Updated: Wednesday, 1 December 2004 11:50 AM CST

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Mood:  happy

Well after two weeks practice with the JV and two days practice with the Varsity we combined them into one team and took them to Ganado for the first game tonight. This afternoon before the game, many of the girls exclaimed their excitement to play. They showed how much they wanted to play by the way they hustled and swarmed the ball on defense and drove and passed well on offense. I was very proud of the girls performance, though our 36-19 (or there abouts) winning score didn't reflect how hard and well they played. I just thought you would like to share in my joy of the girl's "W."

Posted by Big Mike at 11:02 PM CST

Updated: Tuesday, 16 November 2004 11:12 PM CST

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This past Saturday was November 13 my 29th birthday. This year there was a record number of sweets all around me, yet I couldn't eat them all. Throughout the whole day I was surrounded by approximately 2,000 strudels and even made some myself. The parish strudel bake just happened to coincide with my birthday this year. For some of the parish this day started (not to mention the evenings of work during the preceding week) about 5:00am. Strudels started coming off the line about 6:30am and didn't stop, except for a brief apple run break, until 8:30pm. This was truly a group effort. Friday night there were two ladies separating the yokes from eggs, two ladies melting butter, two ladies mixing the yokes with milk, about six people mixing the dough, two ladies finishing up the kneading process with a machine, three ladies portioning out the dough for each strudel, three ladies wrapping the dough with saran wrap that two ladies were laying out for them and two ladies collecting the dough balls and counting them. Out in the gymnasium, tables had been set up, by the men, for the next days rolling of the strudels.

On Saturday, I found out how well oiled this strudel making machine really is. They had an apple corer and quarterer, which saved much of the time coring the apples. It just took three guys to make sure the seeds were out and to get the quarters ready for the two slicers. From the slicers, the apples made their way to the sugar/crumble station and then pre-measured to the many people rolling the dough and making the strudels. After the strudel was placed on foil and the foil folded it was put on beer flats, donated by our very own home brewery, and was ready for sale.

I must toot my horn and say I did pretty well making the dough Friday night, and then rolling the strudels Saturday. I ended up making about 17 strudels in about five and one half hours. If you want a strudel I can make it, but you have to pre-measure everything, because I do not know the portions per strudel.

Posted by Big Mike at 12:01 AM CST

Updated: Tuesday, 16 November 2004 11:07 PM CST

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I couldn't remember what happened that I wanted to blog about so I had to pray to St. Anthony to help me find the thought, though it probably was a St. Jude case. Anwho, the incident came back to my conscious mind...from where, who knows? Yesterday at the nursing home I witnessed my first anointing of the sick while able to hear a polka being played on the radio nearby. We had gone to the lady's room and it was only until the anointing was half over that I realized that my mind's foot was taping along to the polka in the next room. I couldn't help but smile and continue enjoying the polka while the anointing concluded.

Posted by Big Mike at 11:14 PM CDT

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