Let all those who do justice and give mercy say "amen!"...

Listen to the full speech, but here are the bits that moved me...


... deliver us from the explotation of the poor, or the least of these, and from favoritism towards the rich, the elite of these, ...


help us ... work for that day when nations shall not lift-up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors...


help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back,
when brown can stick aroun',
when yella' will be mella',
when the red man can get ahead man,
when white will embrace what is right.

Let all those who do justice and give mercy say "amen!"...

Scouting weekends

Saturday was the Pinewood Derby for Ben's scout pack.

Ben made his car last weekend (with a smidgen of help from his dad), Tuesday was the weigh-in - all cars must be 5oz or less (Ben's was 5.1oz so it had to be bored out to loose a little weight) and Saturday was the race.

Naturally it was very competitive and naturally Ben didn't come anywhere near the leaders, but thankfully he didn't do too badly. He managed to get past the first round of eliminations into the last 40 (I think).

Oh well, at least he knows what the competition's going to be like for next year. Not too bad for a first attempt.


Today (Sunday) I had to prepare for Tuesday nights Den meeting where I am lumbered with the task of running the Den meeting. Don't know why I ever agreed to it. I've decided to help the kids get their weather belt loop. They need to make a weather station, learn about The Water Cycle and monitor something meteorological for a week.


This is two weekends in a row that I've had to devote considerable time to the damned scouts. I knew there was a reason why I said he shouldn't be joining.

Working on the vineyard

Well, I was forced by the wife to do a spot of garden clean-up today, so I took the opportunity to relocate my three grapevines into the sunny side of the garden.

I've moved them into a nice straight line, along side the 'arbor'. I've also adjusted their spacing so there's a good 5 or so feet between them. Now I can put some wires up and get them trained into a proper grape configuration:

OK, The cat's out of the bag ...

Palm Pre: First Impressions (from CNET)



Apparently people like the new Palm Pre!

Happy new year

Got back to the ol' USA on Saturday afternoon, but didn't get back home until Sunday lunchtime. 

The plane from Chicago to SFO was overbooked so we volunteered to spend the night in Chicago (at United Airlines expense).  Got a free flight out of it for later in the year and they payed for the hotel.  We were too knackered to do any sightseeing, so we just chilled in the hotel, had a shower, grabbed some food.

Back to work and school today.