Panda-monium!

     Last weekend we had friends over to play our new favourite card game (Wizard) and then on Saturday I went to the Waterloo Air Show with dad. It was a nice day and the highlight was getting to hear David do the announcing for the demonstration by the T33 Mako Shark that he has been involved with through volunteering at the Jet Aircraft Museum. He did a great job!
     Monday night we had a canoeing meeting for the guys who are going on our Labour Day interior camping trip into the Frost Centre region (east of Huntsville). This will include a bunch of friends and David, Josh and Joel are all able to be there. We're looking forward to a great time - hopefully the weather is a lot better than last year, which was very cold and rainy.
     Wednesday afternoon I went golfing with the Vanwyck boys and Josh at Beaverdale golf course. In preparation for that I finally broke down and bought a set of golf clubs, which I've been thinking about for a few years now. It will be good to have a decent set around for the boys to borrow too, whenever they need them (as long as I'm not using them, that is). However, I began to doubt the wisdom of investing in the clubs after losing about 8 or 9 balls while playing on Wednesday. Kind of frustrating, although I was actually able to par one hole!
     A fair bit of time this week (at least a few hours each evening anyway) was spent helping out at Westheight's Kid's Camp program. I worked as a small group leader (with 4 children) and Beth was in charge of the snack time. We were both very impressed with the high quality of all aspects of this event. Many people invested a lot of time and energy in reaching out to our community - there were about 80 volunteers and 120 children had registered. We were reminded again that there are many great people at our church and I was glad to get to know, and become friends with, my assistant leader Jared.
     Our nephew Ashton came out to the kid's camp for most of the week and ended up staying at our place a couple of nights. It was neat to have a 7 year old in the house - he has a great sense of humour and can entertain himself very well. Ashton came over to help me at the school for a bit (I got over there a few times this week) but didn't last very long at the job I gave him. He and I had fun swimming together on Thursday at Harry Class pool, where Alison works.
     This week I downloaded (from Chapters) and read Mark Steyn's new book "After America". He has an interesting take on how our social/political world works and is a very creative writer. However his vision of the future sure is pretty bleak. I also read through Brennan Manning's "The Ragamuffin Gospel" which I thought might be on my list of 20 books I should read every year but now I've decided it just doesn't rate (repeating 'live by grace' over and over just doesn't cut it, even though it's great advice).
     Music listening: Lost Dogs - Old Angel (awesome!), Kerosene Halo, Kerry Livgren - Collector's Sedition, Prime Mover (bears relistening with lyric sheet); Bill Mallonee (one of the most prolific songwriters) - WPA Renderings, Cabin Songs, Dear Life, Dear Outtakes EP, Fetal Position, The Who - Tommy (Movie) Soundtrack
     Went to see Conan 3D, desperate for some entertainment/escape I guess, because I don't really like going to 3D movies. Beth and I went to see The Help with Ali on Thursday - now that's a great movie! I used Josh's Netflix account to watch the original Planet of the Apes and District B13.