It is once again a Monday, although I sit in my office shuffling paper and handling phone calls and faxes while my family enjoys a day off. I think it's either the Canadian Thanksgiving or Columbus Day. Darla gets so many holidays, I think her union has taken to importing foreign holidays to round out the 100 days a year of time off the social workers get. The boys are off from school for the same holiday, although the elementary school across the street is in session and the bell rings and there is the sound of children uncaged about every fifty minutes or so.

The Rose Cup has passed into another year of the perpetual cup escaping the grasp of the Diamond Oaks team. We played well in the four ball competition on Friday, taking a 21 to 15 point lead over our pursuers. All of our team played well, with our lowest point total of the six matches coming in at 2.5 points. My partner and I tied for first in our flight and took 3.5 points. We shot a combined 67. We enjoyed the prime rib dinner on Friday night, but I had to bolt down my food and run over to David's football game at seven-thirty. Saturday, saw a beautiful day, but the Diamond Oaks golfers struggled on a tough Billy Casper designed course and we had not one of our twelve golfers take a first place in any of their flights. I shot an 85 to take second in my group, but struggled with a triple bogey on one of my finishing holes to lose the chance to win my flight. We took third overall with 44 points and the winners had 51 points, with six first place finishes out of 12 to take home 35 total points on Saturday and retain the cup.

We had a great time and celebrated life with dinner at a local Mexican Food joint where the beer flowed and we all told our sob stories. On the triple bogey hole I had a plugged ball that plugged into the ground, but partially popped out of it's hole. Half the ball was in the plug and half out. It was covered with mud and the consesus was that it was NOT a plugged ball and I had to play the ball as it lay. I hit a screamer across the green and finished with a seven on the par four. Oh well, such is golf.

The boys played their cross town rivals, Roseville, in football this weekend. Daniel's team was up against an undefeated and very talented group of Freshmen players, but they were up to the task and came from behind to win 28-27 in an exciting and fun football game. Daniel played well and was involved in several plays where his name was called. That's always exciting for a lineman, who do the dirty work with little fanfare.

David's game was much more frustrating as the coaching staff took a very conservative offense and play calling into the game and we ended up on the short end of a 21-9 score against a team that had injury problems and hadn't won a game all year. They relied on their ground game and scored on three running touchdowns. We scored the first touchdown on a long drive which mixed up passing and running, but then went conservative with short passes and runs that bogged down and had us punting all game long. We were behind 21-9 with over six minutes on the clock and facing a 4th and 3 from Roseville's 39 yard line and we punted only to watch Roseville grind out a twelve play series that used up the clock and left the fans venting their frustrations on the coaching staff. It was a poor way to lose a game and we can only hope that the offense opens up a little this week.

I will have to miss Daniel's game on Thursday as I have an open meeting with the golf club. This is election time and I am up for the post of Vice President this year. I've enjoyed being the handicap chairman over the last year and a half and will further enjoy duties as the VP if I'm elected, which will include the newsletter.

Darla visited her brother in Sonora this weekend while I was off golfing and then we hosted Darla's cousin and her family for lunch yesterday. They were in town for a wedding with the other side of the family and joined us at church and then came over for lunch. It was Daniel's 14th birthday yesterday and he received a tennis table from us, which sits in the garage at the moment. Darla and the boys will clear a space for the table to sit in the garage in it's folded position.

Church was an inspiration as usual this week. The pastor shared with us the acronym B.I.B.L.E., which is Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Pretty right on. He also shared a story about a pastor who was concerned about the lack of biblical literacy in his church. (This will amuse those of you who know the Bible) He decided to sit in on the high school class and was shocked at the display of rowdiness and horseplay going on, especially by the boys in class. He strode to the front of the room and bellowed, "Boys, someone has knocked down the walls of Jericho!" The boys looked at him and squirmed in their seats. "Does anyone here know who is responsible for knocking down those walls?!" The boys all squirmed and wouldn't make eye contact with the pastor. "You, son. Do you know who knocked down the walls of Jericho?" The boy looked up and shook his head, "Sir, we didn't do it and don't know who did." The pastor turned to the teacher and said, "These boys are obviously missing something here in class and I'm going to get to the bottom of it." The teacher said, "Look, pastor, I've known these boys my whole life and if they say they didn't knock down the walls, then they're innocent." The pastor stormed out of the room and caught one of the Elders of the church in the hallway. "This church is falling down around us. I just sat in on the high school class. They were all goofing off and not paying attention to the lesson, so I went to the front of the class and asked the boys if they knew who knocked down the walls of Jericho. And all of them were so clueless that they swore it wasn't them and then the teacher joined in and defended the boys. What are we going to do?" The Elder grabbed the pastor and pulled him to the side. "Look, pastor, youre making a big deal out of this. We'll just take the money out of the general fund and get the wall repaired."

We teach the Bible in our church and modern churches have shied away from Biblical teaching just as the world is caving in around us. God bless Adventure Christian Church, a haven in a world of chaos. Ciao.