some major catching up

Okay, so there has been quite a bit that has transpired since the last time I posted. Instead of having this turn into a huge-long post I think I'll just summarize what's been happening and then put up some pictures. First, after the L'Abri conference I spent an extra week in Minnesota with our friends Denis and Margie. Good times were had and Margie and I were able to prepare for our talk on tattooing. While I was there they got somewhere around 14'' of snow. I actually like snow though so I enjoyed going out shoveling and snow blowing. We ended up heading back to St. Louis a day early to avoid another blizzard that was coming through. After we left, Rochester was hit with another 10'' of the white stuff. Last Friday Margie and I gave a talk entitled, "Art for Living, or Living Art? Tattoos and Tattooing in a Post-Everything World." This talk was a part of the Friday Nights at the Institute put on by the Francis Schaeffer Institute. The talk went okay. Margie was great but I didn't feel like I came with my "A" game if you know what I mean. I also wasn't thrilled with the venue. It was a really cool place and would be an awesome place to sit and have a beer while watching a small concert, but for a talk I think it turned out to be much less than ideal. Anyway, as soon as the talk was finished I hopped in a rental car and drove to Huntsville, AL. I encountered several crazys on the road, nearly died in a head-on collision once, and finally arrived at our friend's Eric and Susan's place around 4:30 in the morning. The weekend was spent experiencing my first missions conference as an actual missionary. Overall it was a good weekend. On Monday I drove down to Birmingham to have lunch with the Missions Pastor of a church there that might support us in New Zealand. Then I hopped in the car and drove back to St. Louis and arrived just before midnight.

So now I'm back, recovering from travels, and enjoying seeing my beautiful wife again.