Weekend stuff

Awesome weekend with one little GLITCH.

Saturday we ran with LA Distance Club on Santa Monica. Nico behaved great on the run and the morning was BEAUTIFUL. The ocean smelled GREAT!!! To end the run off, we went for Crepes on the Promenade!!!

We organized and looked up bike trailers on craigslist the rest of the day until we found one!

Sunday we went to Mass at St. Mark's Church. We hadn't been to Mass since Nico's Baptism in Colombia--It's not a BIG church but they had a really cool baby cry area right next to the alter. We were really happy that with the church, and it was pretty close to our place....BUT then, something happened. The thing that keeps a lot of people from going to church, the thing that makes Peter REALLY NOT LIKE going to mass, the thing that REALLY BOTHERS ME. After the homily, the head pastor of the church came out from no where and started giving his own little homily. At first I was like, aww how nice, he's talking about how we are all a Family and we are all here for each other...but as he kept going, I started suspecting that he was up to something. And thats when he dropped the M-bomb. He asked to MONEY in the MIDDLE OF MASS!!! For about 15 minutes (did I mention-in the middle of mass), he asked people to not be indifferent and just give $1, he asked for people to have their donation be a reflection of WHO THEY ARE-what does that even mean? He asked people to not just give a dollar. He asked for the equivalent of a gallon of gas ($3 minimum per person). He said that the church was our family and we had to give a percentage of what we have. However he was nice about it, he gave us until next week to "think about" how much we really can afford to give. At this point I almost wanted to walk out.

I'm pretty sure God, upstairs, wasn't too ecstatic that his MASS TIME was being used to GUILT people into GIVING MONEY. I'm pretty sure Jesus was all about GIVING, NOT TAKING!

I'm sorry if I seem angry with all the CAPS and exclamation marks, but REALLY CHURCH, is there a need to do it in the MIDDLE of mass. Because it's not like this Pastor guy didn't ask for MONEY at the end of mass. At the end there was another GUILT TRIP for all the parishioners

Fortunately we went on a long Bike ride with Nico in his new TRAILER and had a great time. I was able to put the MORNING behind me. We had lunch on the Promenade with Charlie, who joined us on the ride. We made a couple stops but ended up riding 15 miles, Not bad for Nico's first day out RIGHT! What a champ!