Jonathan's blog

From an article titled "News - Some churches replace services with service" by Tamie Ross in The Christian Chronicle:

Across the nation, some congregations are replacing traditional Sunday night or Wednesday night services with projects designed to serve their communities, the Chronicle found. Steve Sandifer, pastoral care minister at the Southwest Central church in Houston, refers to Sundays as class time. Wednesdays, he says, are lab. "It's a time to put into practice what some of us have been learning for 20, 30, even 50 years," Sandifer said of Café Grace, which is "open for your spiritual refreshment" from 6:30 to 9 p.m. each Wednesday. Immigrants come to the church not only to sip fresh cups of coffee, tea and lemonade, but also to study English as a second language - part of the congregation's effort to reach out to its community. "Café Grace started as an experiment, but now is our answer to a mid-week slump," Sandifer said. Looking to stem attendance declines blamed on work-weary commuters, tired young families and those otherwise crunched for time, many congregations are looking for ways to make Sunday and Wednesday nights more relevant. Some say the solution is replacing services with service.

From an AP article of the same title on MSNBC.com:

A former handyman has won more than $400,000 in a lawsuit over a penile implant that gave him a 10-year erection. Charles "Chick" Lennon, 68, received the steel and plastic implant in 1996, about two years before Viagra went on the market. The Dura-II is designed to allow impotent men to position the penis upward for sex, then lower it. But Lennon could not position his penis downward. He said he could no longer hug people, ride a bike, swim or wear bathing trunks because of the pain and embarrassment. He has become a recluse and is uncomfortable being around his grandchildren, his lawyer said… Lennon cannot get the implant removed because of health problems, including open-heart surgery, his lawyer said.

On July 20 Lisa and the boys went to Bay City for the arrival of the tall ships.

On July 15 we were invited over to Ann H.'s house to swim.

In early July, Jonathan spent a week at a conference in Blaine, WA: Foundations of Molecular Modeling and Simulation 2006. He flew into Seattle on Sunday afternoon and stopped at a mall to have lunch and watch the end of the world cup finals: Italy vs. France. The weather in Blaine was rainy on several days but pretty nice on others. The conference was enjoyable, especially meeting old friends. The many events with open bars was good for fostering interactions between attendees but not so good for the waistline. I took a red-eye flight home Friday night/Saturday morning.