it's the end of the world as we know it.

open invitation?

We've told most all of our friends that if they'll come visit us in Cullman, we'll take them to the All Steak. We haven't had many takers yet, but we did entice the great Kennard Craig Smith up (as well as taking my parents and grandma). We're excited about any opportunity to go, as it's quite good.

We might, however, have made the invitation a little too broad. I'm sure that I've said previously that I'm a friend of nature (I'm not sure exactly when, but I'm sure I have).


Well, apparently Ahab the armadillo considered the invitation to show up at our front door as being open to him. We pulled in this evening after going for a walk in the park only to find an armadillo running off of our front porch into the yard. It's an image that I can't stop laughing at, having seen armadillo as highway shoulder decorations throughout America but only alive in New Mexico.

Thought we'd share the latest from Cullman.
Peter

another Sunday down

Well, another Sunday down. Dad and Grandma Young came up to hear me, so that was nice to see them. Our lay leader came and helped out with a lot of the service, doing the prayers and concerns, offertory prayer, and greeting. It was definitely nice to have another week to get comfortable with everything without having everyone depending completely on me for direction. She came to talk about that last week, and one of the guys in the praise band made the same offer that they could help me get more comfortable with everything.

There was an article in the Birmingham News about Cullman and other "micropolitan" communities. I just thought it was interesting for anyone wanting to know more about our new home.

i'm famous!

Well, I'm now famous. I was the lead story in the Religion section of the Cullman Times. My favorite part of the article - "Von Herrmann quickly rose to the peak of the organization, serving twice as its president. The foundation proved to be a dual blessing, as he met his wife, Amanda, at Wesley." I thought Ken Smith was the peak of the organization. Oh well, I guess president was the next best thing.

It's kind of bizarre, opening up the paper and seeing your face in it and an article about you. I guess it's a similar weirdness as picking up a bulletin and seeing myself listed on it. First I get a job, then I get in the paper. Man, this growing up stuff is running up on me quick.

lost in translation

Well, I got a reminder yesterday that I've got to learn the "language of the people" or I'm gonna end up looking pretty daggum stupid.

Well, the whole thing started out with me being stupid on Friday night. We drove Amanda's grandma, Maw Maw, up to Huntsville for her birthday and to go to Macaroni Grill. When we got back to her place, I unlocked the door and put the keys in my pocket. The problem was, they were her keys and not my keys. So when I got back to our place, I realized that I had her keys to her house.

So, I called Maw Maw and told her what had happened. I originally offered to bring them over for her and take her out to eat for lunch. What I thought happened in the rest of the conversation was that she said, "no, y'all should come for dinner," so I told her that we'd call her before we left.

I always thought that we ate dinner pretty early at the von Herrmann house, usually around 5:30 or 6. So we left around 4:30 so we'd have plenty of time to talk with her. When we got her on the phone, she said "well, it'll be cold, but come on over anyway."

Come to find out, "dinner" is the second meal of the day in Holly Pond,usually served from 11-2, whereas "supper" is the later meal. So, needless to say, we were just a tad bit late for dinner at 5 pm.

We still had a good time, but I felt pretty dumb for completely misunderstanding when she wanted us to come. From now on, we're gonna set a time to avoid this mistake again. Dinner=lunch, Supper=dinner. I've just got to repeat that to myself and make sure I know what folks are talking about before making myself look dumb again.