No, these photos have not been digitally altered.

Fall is falling and it is becoming fall and here is a leaf to prove it. Everything natural in Vancouver is supersized, of course (notice the size of my feet). Here is a run-of-the-mill Vancouver leaf. I love this place. Below this picture is a duck one, because I also wanted to show you the synoptic ducks, joined by John today.

I am not thinking clearly enough to be very intelligible tonight. I'm afraid Christine is coming to visit me in a mere 4 days, and this prospect I find thoroughly distracting. I was thinking about it at church, on the bus, while I walked. She is my best friend and we are going to have the best of times. Actually, she is one of the best-kept secrets on this planet. Oh the things I wish everyone knew about her! I'm so excited to be with her again that I might not even get through this post. I'll do my best.

Thanksgiving was good - I accompanied Sam and Cindie to a meal at the house of a couple from their church. Other than a brief directionally-challenged moment (I got lost on the way to their house and had to call them from a car repair shop), the evening was great. I really appreciated their hospitality. And their homemade pumpkin pie. And I mostly appreciated Sam and Cindie not bringing up the directionally-challenged moment. Ha. I'll just blame Danice's directions.

I spent this past weekend in the town of White Rock, with Shauna Milner. That is where she works now. You should see her office - it's huge! Anyway, I did a guitar workshop for some people in her church, and in return, she bought me gelato! This gelato stuff is incredible; I don't know why I never tried any in Europe. It's like ice cream times 50. 50 times everything ice cream is. We saw some ducks (Shauna, I checked my book - they're called surf scoters), and, of course, the famous White Rock of White Rock. I'm not sure what the story is behind this rock. But I suppose it's worthy of naming a whole city. It was really fun to hang out with Shauna and meet some people in her church. Plus I didn't even have to cook.

I returned to Vancouver to "audition" for a worship guy at St. John's Anglican church. I suppose I passed, because I get to play at their evening service once or twice a month. I'm stoked. After my "audition", I had some time to kill before the service started, so I took the bus downtown and wandered around for a while. Guess what I bought? You'll never guess. Nope. Try again. Nope. One more guess. Yes! You're right! An umbrella! It's not quite what I wanted as far as originality. But it was cheap, and it's purple. That will most likely cheer me up when it's raining. It was, needless to say, a momentous day.

So I've realized that the world is small. Or, at very least, the Baptist Union world. In the past week alone, I've met Carie Timm's youth pastor from South Africa, a good friend of Andrew Milton's (who met me briefly at camp four years ago), someone who went to seminary with my dad in Kentucky, and someone who stayed with Patrick and Ria in Belgium for a couple weeks (where I lived for 8 months). These things are rather scary. But fun. Oh great, now I have "It's a small world after all" in my head.

Well, it's late. I should get to bed. I'd like to read 2nd Samuel, 1st Kings and 2nd Kings tomorrow. That would be nice. When I write you next, I will have truckloads of pictures and adventures with CK to share.


Beth

P.S. I like Jordan's name - the bald eagle is hereby named "Theobald".

P.P.S. Some people have been expressing concern about the rather large starfish I approached and whose picture I took for my last blog entry. I wanted to notify you that the situation seems to be worsening... check out this rock...