Been Busy...

Ok, again, I have been a bit busy... not too busy, but what can I say, I just can't get myself in the mood to write sometimes; I also haven't been able to get myself to clean my room either... you know it is bad when clean laundry is sitting on your floor for over a week. Anywho, things are going well, I had a little bit of a cold about a week ago and had a great visit from Bill two weeks ago where we went to the Rutgers-Navy game in Annapolis and played a round of golf at Pine Ridge, by far the nicest municipal course in Baltimore. It was freezing though at the end of the round and we stopped after 15 since the people ahead of us (mostly twosomes too which was weird) were playing so slow. Both Bill and I forgot our camera, so no pictures of that :(. The Navy game was awesome, a 34-0 shallacking (speld rong?) - we had tickets on the hill since the game was the largest in Navy history, but it was still a good time. Here is a picture from the end of the game when Navy and RU listened to each others fight songs ... total class Also, went to Padonia Station to watch the RU - Pitt game last week with my buddy Vic, great atmosphere and awesome wings... I may like it even better than Bill Bateman's to watch sports. This week we try and tackle UConn arguably our biggest rival in the first visit back to Piscataway since Sept. 28, I think it is going to be a madhouse on Sunday night and just hope there is not a let down... although this team is different than past Rutgers teams and I am sure they will be well prepared - then in little over a week what will be the biggest game in RU history... but let's not get ahead of ourselves, GO RU, tame the Huskies!

Also had the St. Mary's Golf tournament on Monday, the teams were named for NCAA conferences and I was a proud member of Team Big East - two Syracuse guys, the rector (who likes UConn at least for basketball) and myself. This is a picture from the end of the day on the 18th, we again played pretty late and it was getting chilly, but the sunset and the fall foliage, just made this an awesome shot.
Since it was a long weekend we only had two other teams - team ACC and team I-A Independents, and thanks to the fantastic play of the Fr. Leavitt, our team finished at +1 and won the tournament. I had a total of four drives taken (we played best ball and a team needed to take two drives from each person, and although I was inconsistent, I was happy with the way I played... I also hit a really nice long putt to give us a birdie on the back nine when we really needed it. Any day of golf is better than working though and my favorite hole was definitely the 19th.

Classes are going well, I have a huge paper due next week for my Johannine class, which most of the research is done for, just need to type it up, so it shouldn't be too bad. Also it is now getting to be time for midterms and I have one each of the next two weeks. So, don't be surprised if I disappear for a while again. We actually had a pretty short week, with a number of classes cancelled and not having Monday classes this week for alumni day, but I have been taking care of a lot of things that needed to be done... shopping for the Donnelly Halloween party, getting a haircut, and eventually cleaning my room ;) I will post pictures of the Donnelly Party, cause I think it is going to be awesome, I had lots of fun getting stuff for it, so we will see how everything works. I am just happy that I have finally found a barber here in Baltimore that doesn't mess up my hair (not like my haircut is that difficult, but three different barbers I visited two years ago didn't do a very good job)... I was content though going back to Jersey all the time, until this year since I haven't been there since the middle of August and won't be back until Turkey Day, I just couldn't deal with my hair being that long for another month... I needed to give in. Thanks to Dan for pointing out a good place for me, Gennuso's Barber Shop.

Well, it is getting kind of late, so I better hit the shower and then off to class, hope all is going well wherever you are, and will be talking to you soon. Until then, here is your Site of the Day Hope you like a little Jazz... for some reason I find this peaceful. Enjoy!

Be a blinking light!

I got a wonderful compliment the other day... when we get voicemail on our phones in the seminary there is a light that blinks to indicate that we have a message. Well, I was told, that when people see the blinking light and here that it is a message from me they smile since that usually means there are free drinks in the Donnelly for a special event. As I have said before, it's the little things that matter, so I encourage others to be that blinking light for someone else today. On a funny note, my light is burnt out, so I need to pick up my phone to know if there is a message or not.

Boy am I tired today, I have an exam to study for on Friday and another paper due on Monday so I don't think things will be getting any easier, but all is well. A couple of the Syracuse guys are running in the Baltimore Marathon this weekend, and I really have respect for them. I ran this morning on the treadmill for almost an hour and totalled 5 miles and can only imagine what it would be like to run five times that much, especially since I didn't use the hill function today so it was all at 0% incline. I would like to do what some of the guys are doing, splitting up the marathon into four parts and running one of those parts - I think that would be cool and it wouldn't take too much more work to get my stamina up that far to complete it. Of course that is just completing, not competing... I am sure the others are much faster, but it would be more of a thing for me to do.

I got to visit another primary care facility yesterday and run a Eucharistic prayer service and visit the rooms of some of the patients who could not come to the room where we had the service. There really are some beautiful people in this world who do not get enough time to share part of their story with all of us. I met a number of people who were over 100 years old, some very sick who could not have a coherent conversation but still prayed the Our Father with us, others who started to talk about their experiences in life and concerns for their family members who they don't get to see all that often. I am so happy that I get to spend a few hours a week with these people, since they are always so pleasent to you just for being there.

On Tuesday, we had our annual Dunning Lecture in which Dr. Craig Evans spoke about the Gospel of Judas, which has been in the papers very recently and the talk was interesting, although a lot is still left to be discovered. Probably the most amazing part of the story was the amount of damage that the original document went through from the time of discovery... it was sold once and that person tried to resell it, but when he did not get the amount of money he desired he put it in a safety deposit box in New York where it got moldy and then he decided to deep freeze it in order to preserve it, which failed miserably. So, if you are ever in Egypt and find some old manuscript don't do what this guy did! (Actually there are rules now in place to prevent this from happening again). If you have any questions feel free to ask, although there is no guarentee that I will be able to answer it.

Before I forget, which I did on Monday, happy belated Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends, hope you guys had a great one!!!

The site of the day comes from my friend Chris, who sent this link. Which is kind of funny, since whenever I go home I usually call Bill on the phone and wish that we would just figure out teleportation so I wouldn't have to drive three hours back to Jersey. Anyway it is a pretty cool site in general if you just want to learn a little bit more on how stuff works...

Speaking of work, off to study and do my Latin homework... until next time, as Sylvester Stallone (and everyone else just about) in Demolition Man would say "Be Well!"

Weekend Update

The Mets win!!! Glad to see the Amazin's back in the NLCS and awaiting the winner of the San Diego - St. Louis series. I guess I am pulling for San Diego, in any case I would like to see the series go 5, as it can only help the Mets. Sad to see that the Yanks didn't pull it off, they looked horrible (no offense), and I wonder what will happen during the offseason. Rumblings are already that Joe Torre is getting fired which would be a real shame in my opinion. I also think this means the Yanks and Mets might be getting into a bidding war for Barry Zito this offseason... but let's worry about that after the playoffs.

I did get to watch some college football yesterday, and I have to say for the most part I was not impressed all that much with some of the top teams. Ohio State and Florida were quite impressive and they are my #1 and #2 teams if I were smart enough to do a top 25. With the weakness of USC, the tough games pitting unbeatens Ohio State vs. Michigan and Louisville vs. West Virignia in November, and not some other difficult games for Michigan, Auburn and Florida, there is a possibility (even though I tried to convince on of my friends otherwise yesterday) that Notre Dame could still play for the National Championship. Other than USC, ND should win the remaining games... I have not been overly impressed by the Irish, but the Catholic in me needs to root for them :). By the way... GO RU!!! Sink Navy this week!

I am so glad that autumn has finally arrived, it is still not perfect, as the leaves haven't really begun to change colors, and the temperature is just starting to drop. But a couple of days ago I did wake up to a nice chill and the smell of burning leaves off in the distance. Here is one of my favorite pictures of a nice hike in fall.
The picture was taken at Garrett Mountain (Rifle Camp Park) also known as "the Cliff of Clifton", well that is what I call it at least, so let's see if it takes off. I hope to get some time after an exam this week to go out and hike a bit, we apparently have some beautiful trails around here that I have yet to visit.

We had a good Oktoberfest on Friday - lots of brats and sauerkraut and some really decent German beer, I am a big fan of Einbecker, Mai-Ur-Bock if you get the chance and like darker beer, try it. I was really happy with the turnout and it seemed like everyone had a pretty good time. Golf tournament is coming up next, geez my job is tough, isn't it? ;) Well, speaking of my job I better get going, off to the parish this morning and visiting some homebound. Hope to hear from you all soon!

Almost forgot... the site of the day... This is pretty addicting! I have only gotten about half way through!

Rutgers Bye Week

Wow, it is going to be tough not to have Rutgers football on this weekend, oh well at least there is plenty of articles to read on the team! I especially liked this one ... for a long time Rutgers fans have been waiting to "Awake the sleeping Giant" that is RU Football and I hope that this just continues... In any case RU fans will still have that Jersey sense of humor to look back on as attested to in the article about the new state motto. For the record I voted for "Jersey: hey at least were not Delaware" (I apologize to any Delaware readers out there).

Good news, my poison ivy is just about gone and I finally got back into the gym which is great cause I was really off in scheduling, studying everything, I am hoping that this will bring a good balance back. It seems weird that after a week and a half I would be so sluggish, but at least I am back on the horse. Actually I feel pretty great considering it is six in the morning and I just finished running three miles.

I also got a chance to go to a primary care facility on Tuesday with Fr. Bert, which is part of my pastoral assignment. It went pretty well and the people there were so happy to see us, it is really a blessing to realize how much just a little bit of time can mean to someone. I am really looking forward to getting involved in the prison ministry as well, but it will take some time for me to get through the proper paper work. With the amount of times that my background has been checked and finger printed along with the line of work that some of the companies I used to work for, I must be on some government watch list somewhere... guess I shouldn't take a class on fundamentalist religion quite yet or I might have some one come to my door!

I had a latin class last night so I did not get to watch the entire Mets game, but I did get to see THIS (sorry, best I could do was a link to ESPN's Motion video, just click on the Mets-Dodgers highlights). I couldn't believe that they got two guys out at the plate... amazing. Looking forward to game 2 tonight. I can't imagine what traffic must be like today in NY with both teams playing and being home. Hope there is another Subway Series though!

My friend Jitesh sent me this email which was just too funny to not share with other people. Now don't forget I was an engineer at one time, so I have a soft spot for Math humor and as you know I also have one for stupidity. So, here goes:

OK, now for the site of the day... nothing extremely funny this time, but a great diversion during the day if you want a small challenge... Daily Puzzles and Brain Teasers

Happy Founders Day!

OK, so I finally got the opportunity to write again, what can I say I have been a bit busy... life is good though... classes are going well as is my placement at Immacualte Conception up in Towson. Today is Founder's Day here at St. Mary's and in the spirit of the brave men who came here to start the first seminary in America, I am attempting to overcome my difficulties and post once again. I have found it very difficult to keep in touch with so many people at the same time and I was hoping to avoid making ANOTHER Blog site here, but it seems like this one is going to be pretty permanent so hopefully I will be only using this in the future. I still need to go onto Bebo (for those of you interested to read my old blogs, they are still at my bebo site ) and tell people that this is going to be my new site but it is blocked from here... I am actually going to try to make this also more like a traditional blog, not only telling you all about what is happening in my life, but also linking to some sites that I have come across in my recent times... amazingly there are people out there with way too much free time, case in point - I left my Jello in (the shape) of San Francisco . I bet your asking: Keith, where do you get such strange places on the internet? A variety of ways, but most of them are just links from friends who think I will enjoy them. Send me whatever you think is cool (and hopefully it will not get blocked from the firewall here) and I will be more than happy to post it if it is worthy of the randomness that I do call my life.

HOW ABOUT THEM RUTGERS SCARLET KNIGHTS!!!! Ranked #23 (and 24) in the country and 5-0! OK, talk all you want on how they haven't played a tough schedule and such, but hey I have been through a number of years that they couldn't beat those teams, so I will definitely take it. The team was really excited too! Maybe it is there year, but right now I am just really looking forward to going to the RU-Navy game in two weeks down in Annapolis. The game is Navy's homecoming so there are only seats left for the grassy knoll, so pray for good weather. It'd be awesome to win another road game and become bowl eligible the second week of October! While I don't believe RU is ready to challenge West Virginia and Louisville for the Big East crown I do think that they are a legitimate top 25 team, since everyone after the top 10 have some kind of serious flaw, so RU's glaring weakness of a passing game (or lack there of) is no worse than anyone else's weakness, in my humble opinion. One more thing from sports - LET'S GO METS!!! Baseball playoffs start tonight and while the Mets don't play until tomorrow, I am hoping for another subway series this year - of course preferably with different results this time around.

Not sure what else people would like to know, since I haven't talked to you all in a while. Classes haven't really started to get papers due quite yet (even though my first one is due today - don't worry it's done :) ) and I am a little concerned since I have quite a bit of reading to do in the classes now and wonder if I will be able to keep up when exams and papers are due... but hey, I will manage. I am taking Pastoral Catechetics, Intro to Pastoral Theology, Sexuality Celibacy and Marriage, Johannine Literature, Christology and Latin II, for a description of the classes please go here (there will be a little surfing on your part, sorry, but that is the best I can do). All of my classes are pretty interesting thus far and I feel like I am being well prepared for the future. But, as most of you know there is also a nice social aspect to Seminary life as well and we just had an awesome Bocce Ball tournament! I didn't win :(, actually Edmund and I lost in the first round, so much for Team Metuchen.

Lots of stuff happened to friends recently and I want to congratulate Mike and Mel on their first child, John's wedding, John and Dave (not to each other) on their engagements, and Kim on her first pregnancy! I do feel like I am forgetting something, so my apologies if I am... Wow, guess I am getting older, huh!

I am just getting over a small battle with Poison Ivy, so I am glad to finally be over (for the most part) the annoying itchy sensation - it is actually kind of funny that after all the years I spent with the Boy Scouts camping and hiking, the two places I get poison ivy (or sumac or oak, don't know which) was here at St. Mary's at the Grotto and pulling weeds at McDonald's in Little Falls, NJ. Usually when people find out you have poison ivy they ask what the best remedy is to cure it... well let me answer that - DON'T GET IT IN THE FIRST PLACE! I am always such a help aren't I?

Well, I guess that is all for now, please feel free to send those links to me, entertain the world without forwarding! And now for your moment of zen.