I was in the UK for about two weeks with the choir. We did evensongs at St. George's, Windsor, Christ Church, Oxford, and Canterbury Cathedral, along with some necessary touristy stuff. I'll say this:
1) I have a whole new appreciation for the choir and how hard they work.
2) I will not be going on an organized tour of anything for a very long time if I can help it, particularly not with an intergenerational crowd. Some people actually want to sit on a bus for hours and would rather see from a bus than walk. Maybe I'll understand one day, but at this point it's unfathomable to me. I would rather spend a small amount of time in one place walking around rather than see a whole lot.

I'm about to leave again for a preaching conference and for "vacation" with my dad and parts of his family. I'm nervous about the latter, as it'll be my stepmother and all her various and sundry offspring (two adult children and some of their kids). It's very weird for me to see my father relate to a child as his grandchild that I feel no connection to whatsoever.

Book update:
Book #25 Inhuman Bondage. A book on the history of slavery. Excellent. Singular complaint: I listened to this book while driving. The reader said "hueman" New-Jersey style, a pronunciation that makes me crazy for no good, but some very real, reason.
Book #26 Those Preaching Women! 4th ed. Pretty good sermon collection, as far as sermon collections go.
Book#27 Ladies of Liberty, Cokie Roberts. About influential women during early presidencies, not including Martha Washington. Pretty good. Grammatical errors in book, which annoy me. Do your job, editor.
Book #28 : Predictably Irrational. I really liked this book, probably because I majored in economics and always wondered if assuming people behave rationally is the best assumption to make.
Book #29 : Suite Francaise. Thought it was really good. I feel like all I hear is French Resistance this, French Resistance that, when, clearly, most people just rolled over.
Book #30: Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White. Wu is a lawyer, through and through, and writes as if he is one. I enjoyed the book but don't know that I was looking for as much depth as he gave.
Book #31 : A Briefer History of Time, Stephen Hawkings. A parishioner gave this to me after I preached on Einstein's theory of general relativity. It's good, though still hard to understand, even though it's supposed to be easier to understand.
Book #32 : Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, Amy Rosenthal. eh.

Side Note: On this England trip, I discovered my mother basically no longer reads. This disturbed me to my very core.

Other side note: The thought of fiction has left a bad taste in my mouth as of late(besides Suite Francaise). I think I've had some traumatic experiences...? .