First day of VBS

Chatty blog entry tonight. Five months until Christmas - Merry Christmas in July!

Earlier this week the rabbit trap I borrowed from my boss to protect my garden caught a juvenile raccoon. I let it go in the woods couple miles from my house. The trap has still not caught any rabbits. The Peoria area has been sacked by Japanese beetles this year. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_beetle. I have been them in previous years in the yard but not known what they were. Our foliage has been relatively unscathed, but some places like our church have gotten hit hard. I remember on the 4th of July in downtown Peoria being amazed by all the dead leaves on the ground with nothing left but veins. The scourge is predicted to pass soon.

Tonight was the first night of vacation Bible school at St. Anthony's. Karen has reprised her role as leader of the preschool area - she does a wonderful job with it. Kristine is helping her this year - she is a little old to be on the other side of things. Katie is also in the preschool class. She is one of the younger participants. and had some listening issues, but otherwise did OK. I was asked to lead the video segment for the second time. Last year the video clips were short that I brought in vaguely related science demos to kill time (they were a big hit). This year the segmant has been redesigned to the point that tonight, anyway, I had not time to spare. I don't mind so much, I still have my demos in reserve and we are doing more Bible related stuff.

Somebody gave Katie a cute dress that reminded us of Minnie Mouse, so Kris got Katie into costume.

This afternoon the movie "Real Genius" was on TV. I never saw the full 1985 movie, but saw more of it today. It actually used some somewhat realistic laser terminology. Kris was mildly amused. The closing song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears reminded me of when my family visited Green Bay in 1985; we were living in North Tonawanda, NY. We did not have cable, but we stayed with my grandparents, who did have cable, so we watched MTV. Back then they played music videos, and that song was in rotation. Then I also remembered watching the Live Aid concert on that trip. It kind of blows my mind that was 25 years ago this month.