Well, best things first. I am now the proud uncle of a lovely little girl named Reagan Claire. She was born on Wednesday while I was at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. I can't wait to get back to Arkansas to meet her and start working my way into the slot of favorite. (It will be so.)

I also got to hang out this week with a great group of youth and sponsors from Mesquite, TX. I had a lot of fun with them, and I really appreciated that they kept such good attitudes about the working and the walking all week. Two days of Art in the Park and a couple days of Kendal County Fair plus some church, a bonfire, and some Chicago touring later, it's bittersweet to see the last group of summer volunteers go.

This week I've been reading The Shack by William Paul Young, and I must say that my cynicism about Christian fiction has been slightly abated. I realize that the plot in action here is mainly a skeleton to support the author's musings on theology, but I'll allow it, because his musings are completely and totally worth it. Reading this book (which I probably wouldn't have done without having to do it for work) has been a really great way to push me out of my complacency and back into the fracas of search and honesty and wrestling and (dare I say) surrender that is where I should be.

I've also been indoctrinated into dorkdom by watching Battlestar Galactica from the very beginning in the past week or two. I'm only a bit into the first season yet, since the beginning tv movie took a long time to watch in its entirety. I must say that this show is fascinating me far beyond the reach of Star Wars or its ilk. More on that as it comes.

T