Thanksgiving Week in Review

Evan and I spent Thanksgiving at home this year. I cooked a complete holiday dinner for the first time; although most if not all of the fare was not complicated, it was rather satisfying. Nothing like green bean casserole, you know. BTW, if you like garlic, Campbell's also makes a Cream of Mushroom soup with roasted garlic in it. It makes the casserole that much better.

Prior to starting dinner I helped to deliver Thanksgiving dinners as part of Canyon View Vineyard's efforts to feed over 800 shut-ins and others in need of a meal that day. As was the case last year, the logistics of this effort appeared to go off without a hitch.

Sunday I attended church at the Downtown Vineyard, in their new location at the Avalon Theater. I'm still getting used to going to church in the same theater where I saw Towelhead, but the message is what matters, not the venue. And the message is a good one.

Pastor Paul Watson gave an excellent message around the concept of spiritual gifts, and how they can take hold of a church community to such an extent that the unifying and love-centered message of Christ can be corrupted and forgotten. This was the main theme of 1 Corinthians 13,
where St. Paul admonished the church at Corinth about the value, or lack thereof, of gifts such as prophecy or faith in the absence of love.

On the way out to the car I noticed the familiar red plastic bags covering the parking meters, meaning that the city has waived feeding the meters for the holiday shopping season. While I understand that the City and the Downtown Partnership want to do everything they can to encourage downtown shopping during what will likely be a lean holiday for retailers, I still feel that an opportunity was missed to provide better services for those without homes, or unable to provide for themselves or their families. I wrote about this earlier in the year. I hope they'll think about this for next year.

During the service my cell phone messaging kept going off. Afterward I read about the senseless killing of four police officers in Washington State. My prayers and thoughts go out to those affected by this tragic and truly evil act. In the context of this, and the fickle nature of the 24-hour news cycle, shame on those media outlets that made a spectacle of the misadventures of a billionaire golfer.

This week my co-producer Linda and I recorded 93 more students for the Words program. This was our second trip to the school in the last 2 months, and we got to see some of the fun that our first group of kids had with being part of the experience. A large wall display in the 7th grade section of Grand Mesa Middle School heralded some of this excitement.

It's been a good few days working with these kids. Speaking to them about their interests and favorite things to do, and helping to craft an experience that reflects who they are, has been enjoyable and rewarding in an intangible way for the last 3 years. The staff at KAFM has been supportive and accommodating as well.

Airfares are interesting things to track. Sometimes all it takes is something to do in Denver to create an opportunity that is met by a favorable price. I have an interview in Denver on Monday, but have managed to parlay that into a long weekend in Pittsburgh, thanks in part to jetBlue and Southwest Airlines.

As a result, I get to see Leslie for a few days, and may try to get some cheap seats to see the Pens on Saturday night. I would like to see one more game in the Igloo before it goes away next season. The Pens host the Avs tonight. Enough said; there are still people around here that are a little sore over the Steeler victory in Denver almost a month ago.

Have a great weekend.