Monday, December 15, 2008

Christmas Caroling

What a great turnout! Thank you everyone for coming!

Yesterday was All Saints' annual caroling trip. Thirty people (including quite a few from our Twenties and Thirties group) met at the church, divided in to two teams, and carpooled out to visit homes throughout the city. We sang "Angels We Have Heard On High", "Silent Night", "Good King Wenceslas", "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", and other caroling favorites and we enjoyed cookies, punch, and conversation with the folks we visited.

I had a great time. If you couldn't make it this year put it on your calendar for next year (we usually go the week before Christmas).

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

All Saints' Twenties and Thirties Women attend Episcopal Church Women Annual Retreat


Last weekend was the Diocese of Texas Episcopal Church Women Annual Meeting and Retreat. Four Twenties and Thirties members attended the retreat: LisaDiane Etheredge, Misty Hopper, Lindsay Porter, and Lee Read.

The retreat is two days at Camp Allen, including fellowship, worship, and workshops. The weekend started with an opening service. Bishops Wimberly, High and Harrison were present. Also, Canon to the Ordinary Ann Norman and Bishop-elect Andy Doyle were at the service. There is a banquet on Friday night; during the banquet we elect new officers for the Diocesan ECW. I was nominated (prior to the meeting) to be Communication Chair on the Diocese of Texas ECW Board of Directors. Lee, Lindsay, and Misty were good enough to vote "aye" to elect me and the rest of the new board members.

We attended three workshops. Our first workshop was How can I keep from singing with Brother Gallagher of Holy Cross Monastery. We were not, in fact, able to keep from singing. We practically sang ourselves hoarse. We sang some songs we knew, and some we didn't, but we sang with gusto, and some of us sang with skill - I won't name names ;-)

Our second workshop was Top ten misconceptions about the Saints, led by the Reverend Mary Vano of St. David's Austin. The presentation was interesting, and there was some fun discussion. Among other things we learned that St. Clare is the patron saint of television.

The final workshop we attended was Walking the Labyrinth with All Saints' own Elizabeth Gibson. Elizabeth gave a great introduction about preparing to walk. We got to spend plenty of time on the Labyrinth, and I believe we were all touched by the walk. The workshop was very popular - lots of different people from different churches attended, but there was a strong All Saints' showing!

The final organized event of the weekend was the Closing service, Morning prayer, including the installation of the new Diocese of Texas ECW Board of Directors. at the time of the retreat, the existing Diocesan ECW President was Anne Hart Rea, also an All Saints' parishioner. Her three year term came to a close at the Closing Service. She did a great job serving on the Diocesan ECW board. Everyone spoke well of her, and I am sure she will be missed. I have some big shoes to fill when it comes to representing All Saints' on the Diocesan ECW Board of Directors!

Misty, Lindsay, Lee, and I finished our weekend with a walk down a lovely trail. Camp Allen has lots of pine trees, and the ground was littered with needles and pine cones. We collected some pine cones for the kids at All Saints' to use to decorate advent wreaths the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Austin Convocation Twenties and Thirties Picnic


We are organizing a picnic for young adults in the Austin Convocation. The event will be held at Northwest District Park in Austin on Saturday, July 19, 2008 from 11:00am to 1:00 pm. We hope this event will foster fellowship and communication amongst the young adults at the various parishes in the Austin area.

This is a family friendly event - children are welcome. Bring your family :-)

All Saints' will provide hamburgers, hotdogs, veggieburgers, and condiments. Please bring a side or dessert to share. We have the OK from the city for beer and wine at the picnic.

We have reserved Area C at the park. The park has a public swimming pool (small admission fee to swim), playgrounds, ballfields, indoor restrooms, and plenty of parking.

Click here for a Google map of Northwest Park.

Hope to see you there!

- Joey

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Eeyore's Birthday 2008

Hope, Diego, Trent, Billy, Lindsay, LD, and I went out to Pease Park on Saturday for the 45th annual celebration of Eeyore’s Birthday in Austin. It was a beautiful day to play outside - moderate temperature, cool breeze, bratwurst, and beer. We spent the day people watching, wandering past vendor’s booths and through drum circles, and cheering for the jugglers and the band.

I am glad we went out to the park early in the day. The park really started to fill up by 2:00 and I enjoyed walking through the park before the crowd got very big. Of course a big part of the fun is the crowd and there was a lot to see this year, but I was moving slow that morning and needed the time to warm up.

LD, Billy, and I met Hope and Diego at the bean bag toss at about 11:30. Trent joined us a few minutes later. I ate too much blue cotton candy and watched Diego decorate the world with sidewalk chalk. Tigger was on stage to hand out prizes for the kid's costume contest. Trent and I browsed through all of the booths but could not find honey sandwiches, honey cones, honey candy, or honey wheat beer anywhere at the party - this seems like a serious thematic oversight on the part of the vendors.


We stayed until mid-afternoon, but after the sack races we took one more turn through the big drum circle, past the "free hugs" sign and headed back up the hill and out of the park for an early raspa dinner at Casey’s New Orleans Snowballs (mmmm... more sugar).

See you there next year.

- Joey

Monday, March 24, 2008

Camping at Guadalupe River State Park

Hi all!

Don - thanks for posting your pictures from the trip. I like the picture of Brian and Ewan very much.

The TNT trip to Guadalupe River State Park was splendid. Early Saturday morning LD drove out with Lindsey and Don to stake our claim to some adjoined campsites (a reservation guarantees campsites but does not specify which campsites - like open admission at the ballpark). They chose nice sites - reasonably separated from neighbors, vehicles, roads, and each other by a screen of trees, yet close enough to each other to allow us to share one fire ring. From our campsite it was a short hike to the river and the amphitheater and it was just a brief stroll to the playground and the bathhouse (a campsite with electricity and hot showers - luxurious!). If I didn't say it over the weekend - Lindsey, Don, LD, thank you.

When I go camping I (as a general rule) do so with the intention of putting a little distance between me and other people. To facilitate this, I associate camping with backpacking. I am more familiar with packing for a backpacking trip than packing for a camping trip where the car will be no more than a few feet away. That said, I got a little carried away by the freedom that came with a car worth of space - I packed enough chairs, cookware, boardgames, and food to furnish and stock a small apartment. And I wasn't the only one. Don and Lindsey had more than adequately provisioned their van and Brian and Robert, who got to the park just before me, brought their own car-load of supplies.

I arrived at the park just in time to lock my car and join the others for a hike. We chose a well marked trail and headed off into the brush. The trail meandered through gold meadows and from time to time we caught a nice view through the trees to the river sixty feet below us. We followed the trail about an hour in a winding loop that led back to our campsite. There we we met up with Misty and Ewan and began to set up camp.

When the tents were up a few of us set out to find a way down to the river. The hillside was not difficult, but just before we reached the river we came to the top of a limestone embankment about twenty feet tall. After a few minutes search (and a superb clifftop jog - the cliff is out away from the trees and the sunshine felt good (maybe I just don't get out of the office enough)) we found a fissure down which we scrambled into a briar patch though which we limboed to reach a trail at the bank of the river. We walked a little way down the trail and came upon a group of anglers. Misty asked one of them for directions back to camp. She politely informed Misty that a trail wide enough to drive a truck on was only a few feet from where we were standing. We eventually used that trail to get back to camp, but I liked our way better.

We spent the night on traditional camping activities: roasting potatoes, sharing dinner (including Don and Lindsey's 'Hobo Dinner' recipe), making smores, drinking hot chocolate, and telling stories around the fire. It was nice to spend some free time with friends. It was nice to see the stars.


Fire Ring

Hobo Dinner




In the morning we had a big breakfast of rolls and fruit, bacon and eggs, tea and hot cereal. Don and I stayed at camp to play Pente while everyone else went down to the river and the playground. At lunch we roasted hot dogs, and cooked sauerkraut and beans over the fire. We broke camp a just before two o'clock and drove home in a gentle rain that began just after we left the park.

I am looking forward to our next camping trip. Maybe something in mid-summer to better accommodate swimming :-)
- Joey

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Camping Trip






On March 8-9, the TnT group went camping at the Guadalupe River State Park, and a fun time was had by all.

We spent the day hiking and enjoyed dinner around a campfire.

For those who missed it, enjoy some of these lovely pictures of the trip.