Frank Learned How To Swim This Week*

Hello All,

That's right! The above line is no joke: I did in fact learn how to swim just this past Monday evening. It is truly a random happening in my life, as I have always maintained that I had little or no interest in swimming. And as it happened, I actually learned to swim by a complete accident. I have been interested in the use of our pool for certain exercises that might be helpful to me. On Monday night, I was doing one of these exercises, when I tripped in the pool and unconsciously began, defensively, to swim.

I was taken aback, and actually a little embarrassed, even though I was completely alone. Somehow, watching my kids swim in this pool that only gets to 5 feet, has rubbed off on me. The motions were there and everything. So I decided to try to purposely repeat what I had just done. I did 5 feet, then 7 feet. I was very surprised that this was happening! It was almost too good to be true. So, tonight, I performed in front of my wife and kids, and they confirmed that I have entered into the world of people who can swim, though I will say that my swimming is confined to one pool in Ladera, and can only be exercised for about 7 to 10 feet. If I don't drown, I'll keep you "a breast stroke" on my progress!!! Swimming humor! I love it!

Some further randomness for this Friday, going into Saturday...actually, it's Saturday already as I write this.

First, I love the internet! Two sites that I have been enjoying this week especially are Hulu and Pandora. I was introduced to them by our staff, those young hipsters, back at the staff retreat. Hulu is a collection of old and new T.V. shows that can be viewed for free. The kicker there is that they have a few seasons of one of my all time favorite shows from the 80's, Alf. So for those who would like to drop on by and check it out, head on over here. Pandora is the same thing, except that it's involving music that can be listened to for free. All you have to do is set up a free account, enter in the name of the musician you want to listen to and you have a free sampling of music. If you have never been exposed to the music of Paco De Lucia, please do yourself a favor and enjoy some authentic, virtuosic flamenco music, direct from the area of Spain that we lived in for some time.

These sites might especially be fun if you are living in Spain and are disconnected from the world. I hope that they work for our dear friends there.

Oh, and the last cool internet find that I discovered this week is a device called the "Wordle." Pretty fun collage making software. I took my latest sermon, delivered just this last Wednesday for Kingsfield's High School group, found here, and copied the text into Wordle. I hope this works, but this is what it looked like:

I know: I am a geek! But so are some of you! You can make your own "Wordle" here. Hey preachers: It's fun to see what becomes of your sermons when they are entered in. Carlos, it might be fun to see it in Spanish!

Finally, a big Happy Birthday to my brother Mike. We tease each other a lot, as brothers will do, but, in my humble estimation, there are few men that I know who have the character and the godliness that my brother possesses. He is a true man after the heart of God and he has all of my respect and love. Today, I wish him the very best, and that the Lord would bless his every venture.Well, that's all for now...I have no idea why blogger gets so buggy sometimes, but the blue underlined font is not my idea at all!

Blessings...To Our Friends,
Frank Sanchez