Mon May 20 08:02 EDT 1996
Weekend Update, May 16-19

It has been a busy week at Lake Woebeus.  Well, that's actually a
misnomer because we are not in woe and the only lake we can point
to is our above ground pool in the back yard.  Anyway, you'll need
a cup of coffee and a 20 mintue break to wade through this flood
of update in the lives of the Metcalfe (and extended) family.

The Crawford Clan descended upon us this week for an event that will
be repeated with different players from now until eternity it seems
with our families: graduation.  Thomas Henry Scheuermann Junior
graduated magnate come lately (magna cum laude) with a BS in Biology from
Gordon College.  He spent one of his years studying at Oxford England
(not to be confused with Oxford, Maine) so his Bio-chem training
extends to brewing a proper cup of tea.  But I get ahead of myself.

On Thursday, because we know Pop C likes to play so much, we invited
some friends over for a mini Toonerville Rook Tournament.  It was
relatively unremarkable, except for the fun and good company, which
is standard at our home.  Going into the last round, I was in first
place (so I circled a 1 next to my score).  But in the end, I was
pronounced as being in the middle of the pack.  I gave it no thought
until my mother-in-law said that Pop got 355 and I got 360.  That made
no sense since I had 85 to his 95 in the last round so I should have
come in ahead of him.  So we discovered then that the 1 I put on the
page had added 100 to my score and only after everyone left did we
find out who the true winner was. (Me.)

On Friday, Hope and Tom stopped in for 10 minutes with instructions
to bring every available vehicle to Gordon so that we could cart the
kids' stuff back to my place to store it until Tom Sr. could return
from Vermont to pick it up.  (We needed a van just for Charity's shoes,
who gives Imelda Marcos a run for her money.)  The house was being
shown that afternoon (it's up for sale for those of you who forgot),
so we took a drive.  The Parkers (Faith and John) arrived before the
house hunters.  we hope they pretended to like the house to spark more
interest in the hunters.  [I also attended the church softball game
to watch the team win another, but I'm cutting the description short
because of the other events of the weekend.]

On Saturday we awoke to the strains of "Oh what a beautiful morning"
from the original movie soundtrack of Oklahoma. We sent the Caravan
down to Gordon for the festivities.  There we were met by Erin,
the graduate's betrothed, and her mother, Maureen (guest recipient of
this Weekend Update!).  I shot the video and settled in to endure the
speaker of the morning, fully expecting to  hear "yadda, yadda, yadda"
come filtering into my ears for 20-30 minutes.  Instead, this speaker,
the Provost (Gaeda) at Gordon was superlative!  He spoke of Christ's
ideals in such a way that left politics and religious differences
unimportant; ideals that Christians SHOULD be showing to the world,
but sadly haven't done a very good job at doing.  Stop looking for
the solutions to problems and start addressing the part of the problem
on which you can have impact.  He also spoke of how we (in politics
and in parenting, and in everything) like to control the outcome of
things and we scheme and strive and then God does what He want to do
and all that matters in the end is whether one did rightly in the eyes
of the Lord (referring to 1 and 2 Kings).  A PHENOMINAL "speech" of
Truth.

After the ceremony, we picnicked on the grounds but the buffet had
nothing that I would eat.  Fortunately, I found a Coke machine and
the bookstore was open so I had a Butterfinger to tide me over until
later.  Tom Sr. Packed Pop C's Van (sans seats) with Tom and Charity's
college stuff.  He packed so well that the rest of us only had people
in our cars.  Faith and John wisely headed straight for home (as did
Maureen).  Rather than cause Erin and Tom to part that afternoon,
we brought her home with us to stay overnight.  So the Metcalfes,
Mom and Pop C, and the Scheuermann's stayed overnight at our house...
except for Tom, who talked Grandpa into borrowing his already jam
packed van to cart the stuff to Vermont.  Tom was back by 8 am the
next day, probably getting as much sleep as Dr. Dan Biggs on call.

On Sunday, Erin needed to be back to her dorm to move her stuff to
summer housing.  She and I piled into the car around 8-ish and went
on our way.  A half hour into the trip she interrupts my droning
"yadda, yadda, yadda" and exclaims, "I forgot my coat! It has my money
and my keys in it."  We turned around and after a few phone calls,
decided that Erin would spend the morning at church with us and
have lasagna for lunch.  The morning church hour was the same as
it has been in the past, except that it was our final Sunday at
the Windham Church.  There's a lot of story around that but for
this update I'll just say that whatever God leads is going to be
for the best.  Joy and I drove Erin back to college in time for her
to avoid being fined for getting her stuff out too late.  We're
very happy she will be spending next weekend with us climbing
Mount Manadanock (weather permitting) and whatever we decide to
do.  (Incidentally, Maureen, we like you too, and were very happy to
have met you.  We hope it won't be the last time, including the wedding.
I'm still working on Trombone Voluntaire!)

On Sunday night after church, I invited several people up (and then
asked Joy if it was okay).  I figured that we had left-over graduation
party food and wanted to share it.  Among the guests were the
Quatroccioci's and the Bickoms.  The Q's got married a few months
back.  Some of you know Pam Quatroccioci as Pam Duschene, nee Mum.
Now you can know here as Pam Mom again because PST (Pretty Special
Tom) and she make three now!  (PST and she make three!)

Now all that is the abbreviated version of the weekend in review.
I am sure I've forgotten some details (including my newly made-up
joke). But we can chalk it up as nothing really ot of the ordinary in
the life and times of the Metcalfe family.

Mark
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