Fetchez la vache!

So Patrick's church is entering a float in this year's Dutch Days parade. Since their Vacation Bible School theme was "High Seas Adventure" - kind of a pirate-flavored schtick - they are making their float look like a pirate ship, bringing back a bunch of their decorations, and Patrick built a low-velocity catapult with which to toss candy into the crowd of parade-goers from said ship.

"How big is this candy catapult?" asked I, "Like, big enough to fling a cow?"

Oh, it is.

Not a real cow, mind you. Just a stuffed one.

But oh, once I get a cow in my possession, it is so on!

Pictures may be coming soon. . .

In the meantime, enjoy Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Legovision. :)

It's a Small World After All

So here's a weird case of truth being stranger than fiction:

Thanks to the wonders of facebook, this past week I got back in touch with an old high school friend who was a fellow original orator.

That got me to thinking about the last time I saw said friend, which was over a decade ago, when we were in college, our coaches had us all over to their house for a little O.O. reunion dinner - a really fun night, still a fond memory.

That got me to thinking about our coaches and wondering how life has been treating them, whether they are still coaching, etc.

Then tonight, a different friend's picture popped up in the rotation in the "friends" box. This friend, Susan, was also in speech back in high school (though she was from a different town/school, and I don't think she was in O.O., so we didn't compete against each other directly), and she is also a fellow Ole. But I think it's fair to say that we were at best passing acquaintances in high school, and we knew of each other, moved in a number of similar circles, at Olaf, but we really became friends at Luther Seminary.

I thought to myself, "I haven't talked to Susan in a while, I'll look at her wall, see what she's up to."

And I notice her husband's name is the same as the son of my old O.O. coaches.

In the part of the world I currently live in, his name would be quite uncommon (it's pretty Scandihoovian). In MN, however, it would be much more common. His last name in MN is incredibly common, but, because his first name (Trygve) is not as popular as, say, Lars or Leif, his name overall is still somewhat unique.

So then I'm debating with myself: "Nah, it can't be. I've known her husband's name. I've looked at the wedding pictures she has posted. I would have picked up on this then, right?"

So I looked at the wedding pictures again, and sure enough: my friend Susan's in-laws are my old speech coaches!

I feel dumb for not putting that together sooner. And I think it's funny how the timing of everything came together this week, that I was just wondering this afternoon how they were doing, and basically got sort of an answer tonight - all thanks to facebook!

And I think it's kind of crazy, when you stop and pay attention - we really are all far more interconnected than we realize. . .

Peace out,
C