Yes, I'm at work

Kudos to Dan for posting perhaps the lengthiest blog this site has seen. Unfortunately, it seems to have had the unintended consequence of shutting things down, as perhaps people are wary of posting something that does not meet the high standards Dan set. I have no such qualms.

In Baby News, My friend Jackie, who was our secretary here a few moons ago, just had her first baby. Ryan Patrick Davis was born April 10th. So now we can add that to the list of my friends' babies. It is growing at an alarming rate. I am going to have to start praying for "my friends' babies" as a general concept, because pretty soon I'm not going to be able to remember all the names. I think Jackie is attending the wedding, so I think you will get to meet Ryan.

Easter weekend was pretty fun. I went to Good Friday mass with my mom around 3:00 PM, and then headed downtown for the Indians' home opener. If the 26-degree temperature and constant snowfall were any indication, I don't think God was very happy about the Indians playing on Good Friday in general, or my attendance at the game in particular. I did swell a bit with Cleveland pride as I walked into the stadium, though, which was almost at full capacity. I don't think there are too many cities that would turn out almost 40,000 people in such awful conditions for a baseball game, Opening Day or not. Cleveland Rocks.

The rest of the weekend was pretty calm. My parents had their Easter dinner celebration that evening so as to avoid conflicts with other families the next day. Then Hillary's roommates at her apartment came by Sunday morning for brunch after mass, which was glorious. I am continually thankful that none of you wanted the breakfast sausages I bought for New Years, because I have been enjoying them weekly ever since. One of the presents my parents got me was a book called Shots! I don't really do shots, but I thought it would look cool on my bar. As I was paging through it, my grandmother was looking at the different shots with me. Of the 50 or show illustrated shots, I am guessing my grandmother recognized and subsequently roared with approval for about 40 of them, many of which called for types of alcohol that I had never heard of. Go, Gram.

Unfortunately for her, Hillary decided to join me at Catholic mass this year, which would normally be great, except that the children's choir was performing at the 9:00 mass. Now I like children, and I even like singing children (like on Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" - those kids can sing), but whatever talents the children of Berea, Ohio possess, they do not in any way include singing. It is truly a challenge to find a sense of peace and holiness at church when your ears are constantly being bombarded by the cacophany of second graders shouting random notes (and sometimes words) at the tops of their lungs. Again, God's displeasure with my attendance at Opening Day on Good Friday was pretty evident.

Hopefully, all of you have received your wedding invitations. If you haven't, please let me know, maybe in a subtle way, so that I will have the ability to weasel my way out of the uncomfortable situation in the event you have been disinvited.

Also, if I haven't made this clear already, all of the groomsmen and ushers (and their significant others) are invited to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. In addition, babies and children (so long as they are not bad singers) are welcome at the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding, and reception. As yet, I haven't had any success in coming up with any group babysitting options for all of you, but I will let you know right away if I do. Finally, if you didn't see it on the save the date card, details about the wedding are available on our website at www.theknot.com.

Finis.