A minor

In case anyone's curious about Ellie's middle name, a big part of the inspiration for it, at least on my part, was the hymn tune, BRYN CALFARIA, which is Welsh for the hill (bryn) of Calvary (Calfaria). As it happens, I've mostly sung Psalm 80 (mp3 sample - I especially like the lines near the middle of this sample: "God, we pray, O, turn us, bring us back; make your face shine and we are saved") and one or two other hymns to the tune rather than "Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendor" (as good a hymn as it may be) - probably due to the fact that I grew up in church music tradition that was more Scottish than English. Of course there's also Bryn Mawr, which I'm sure is a great school, but we're not trying to sound "Ivy League" (or, technically, "Seven Sistersish"). We just like the name, and I've always liked the tune. I have a thing for minor keys, y'know. But I'm rambling and should probably get back to the hospital.

It's been a while. To update, three of my little brothers flew down (from Moscow, Idaho) to visit for a couple weeks. Parker & Christian went with me to the BH conference in Florida, and Hampton was kind enough to stay here in Monroe to help Hollie with the boys. We didn't take nearly enough pictures while they were here, but I'll try to upload at least one later.

As for the conference, on the original schedule, Peter Leithart was to speak on Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, but sadly Peter's mother passed away the day before the conference began.

Bill DeJong filled in with some excellent lectures on 1 Timothy, and Burke Shade gave a really lame talk on hair in the Bible, in which he argued against men having long hair...just kidding... he actually presented a good concordance study that fit nicely with Jim Jordan's lectures on Nazirite vows. Mark Horne gave several stimulating lectures from his forthcoming commentary on

Ephesians (in Athanasius Press's Through New Eyes Commentary Series). Blake Purcell spoke on the modern Russian Orthodox situation, on a few Russian Orthodox heroes of the faith, and on his mission as rector of the Slavic Reformation Society and Biblical Seminary of St Petersburg, Russia. And Rich Bledsoe spoke on everything, including triangulation. It was a good time and the largest conference to date - I think this was the 17th annual - held this year in the nice new fellowship hall of Trinity in Valparaiso.