EARTHQUAKE!!!

I was kidnapped, I mean invited, by Rose to the rectory today after mass. We had breakfast with the priests and I kind of “hung out” with Rose for several hours. It had been muddy and my Chacos were dirty; I was pretty much told I was going to wash them. Now the straps look blue and pretty again, rather than brown. Rose showed me a little of the grounds behind the rectory and we went into the computer room where we didn’t really do much of anything but did stay dry during the rainstorm.

For the rest of the afternoon, we ate lunch and watched the rest of the (seemingly endless) installation of a new Archbishop for Mwanza (on Lake Victoria in Tanzania). It continued to storm off and on outside so when the place shook a little, I thought, “Thunder shouldn’t make the house move like that…” We had an earthquake!!! The priests told me that’s what it was and we ‘only’ get about 3 a year. To me, that’s a lot and frickin awesome! I now feel like I live in the African Rift. Sweet! J J

It was raining when I was finally able to leave (~16:30, 4:30pm) so I wasn’t allowed to walk and was given a lift home. With my new electric hotplate, I tried making some of the popcorn I bought but it just turned dark brown/black and didn’t pop. I’m hoping it’ll work with my charcoal jiko and isn’t a bad batch.

Tonight was my biweekly phone call with my parents. They have a subscription through Skype now and have 60 minutes a month. We used 40 tonight but I got to hear about my dad’s trip to the Pinstripe Bowl to watch the Syracuse football team win their first bowl game in several years. He went with his roommate Al from college and sat only a dozen or less rows behind the bench, among many former Syracuse athletes. They were also directly behind the press section, of which many are Syracuse grads (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications). After the game, my dad said the players and some of the admin went into the stands. He told Daryl Gross, SU Athletics Director, he had one thing to say – pinstripe uniforms next season. We’ll see what they have next year (certainly can’t look worse than the past couple of styles).