Two stories

At church I'm in charge of entering the week's contributions into our computer system. Any checks that are not for the general fund have something written in the memo line that tell me where that money goes. This week at church a brief presentation was given by a pastor from a Kenyan church with whom our church has been partnering for years. The church in Kenya runs an orphanage called the Shangalia Orphanage, but the church has a different name that I can't remember. They meet in a shack on land that they do not own, and they're trying to raise support so that they can purchase the land and the building where they meet. So this week I got a lot of checks labeled "Kenya church project," "Kenya land project," or just "Kenya Church." My favorite was from someone, apparently a bit confused, who wrote, "Shangalia Land." I laughed because it sounds like a fictional fantasy world you'd find in a video game, or near HonnaLee.
(That's the end of this story)

The other night Elizabeth and I went to a Rockies-Giants game at Coors Field. We had free tickets, and we debated skipping out on the game because it was supposed to rain all night long. We decided to go anyway, and fortunately for us the rain stopped right as the game started, and not another drop fell all night long.

The game lasted 5 hours and went 14 innings. The Giants had scored a run in the first inning. The Rockies tied it in the 5th. Then no one scored... for a long time. It was still 1-1 heading into the 14th inning, and by now most of the fans had disappeared from the stadium. After the Giants scored 3 runs in the top half of the inning, another mass exodus of fans left the place pretty sparsely populated. With a 4-1 deficit to overcome, the Rockies loaded the bases. Their pitcher (the 5th or 6th of the night) came to the plate. This guy hadn't had an at-bat all year (and for all I know, never in his professional career). The Giants pitcher walked him on 5 pitches. A run scored. Now the Rockies are down 4-2. Rockies outfielder Ryan Spilborghs was up. He hit a grand slam.

We made fun of all the people that had left the game early.
(That's the end of that story)