Another busy weekend is over. Saturday, we had the annual Luau party with the youth group. The day started out cold and windy, so we expected attendance to be poor. But the wind died down at the last minute and the couple hosting the party had their pool heated up to a cozy 95 degrees F, so everything turned out well. We had around 30 people there including all the kids that will be coming into the Jr. High group this fall and several teens we haven't seen in a while. We didn't have as many parents as last year, but we still had quite a few. In any case, it made for a long day, but it was a blast.

Sunday was Sunday with nothing really out of the ordinary. I sub'ed for the regular sound guy to give him a week off. But other than that, nothing special. That sounds bad, but anymore, Sunday is work with the occasional week that is a lot of work. I'm getting a feel for how pastors must feel. The whole thing is emotionally and physically draining. I don't know how anyone can do it as a full-time occupation.

Anyway, that's about it for the weekend. I was late getting into work this morning because I had to drive the snow plow an hour in the opposite direction to get it all fixed up for next winter. I thought the place opened at 7am, but I had to hang around until 8am for someone to show up. It was 9:30 before I finally hit my cube. I'll make it up over the next couple days. I have to leave early Wednesday to take the youth group out to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. The gym floor is being refinished this week, so we were more or less kicked out of the church building for Wednesday night. We will be meeting another youth group there that is lead by one of the guys in my college study group. It should be interesting. I hope the weather holds.

Science:

Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne hit the 100-kilometer mark this morning and landed safely. This flight is a precursor to the shot for the X-Prize of $10 million. That flight will have to take three people to the 100-kilometer mark twice in two weeks with the same hardware. There are several other contenders, but Scaled Composites looks to be in the lead. If NASA stays out of the way (meaning, does something NASA has never done before), the private sector will finally deliver what NASA has been promising for 30 years: routine access to space.

On the subject of inorganic organics (so to speak), astronomers keep finding organic compounds that are certainly not organic in origin, including glycine, ethylene glycol, and glycolaldehyde. The evidence that organic from inorganic is not just possible but common keeps piling up.

Well, that's all I have time for.