That's so much better than the moment I usually have of

Oy.

My house.

Gotta say, this is where I am right now. Arrrrrrrrgh, house. We move in on Friday, and still have a huge amount of packing to do. I will probably have to take tomorrow off to pack, deep-clean Rose's new bedroom (where the ceiling collapsed), and finish painting.

Also, just heard from my parents that my grandmother is probably dying -- she had several small strokes recently and is now pretty much confined to her bed and hardly eating, so hospice has taken her on. She's 96 and has had a remarkably good run, with a steep decline in her mental faculties over the last few years, so this is neither surprising nor even especially sad (for me, anyway), but I will miss her all the same. And I'm really glad she got to meet Rose this summer.

Awwwww, Kate. I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother.

It was definitely comforting to me that both of my grandfathers were content with their amount of time on earth and were ready to go (they both made 90+). But I still miss my gramps, especially my Grampa Cranford, tremendously. Just last night I had to remind myself that he is still living, in my actions and thoughts. Every single time I have a generous moment? That is my grandfather, still living.

So today is the 15th anniversary of the death of Rich Mullins, the Christian rock musician who lived on the Navajo reservation, and whose vision sprouted our work. He wrote the song "Awesome God." At the time of his death, he was musical partners with Mitch McVicker, the musician with whom the SO toured this summer in support of our work. Rich & Mitch were in a car wreck that killed Rich and put Mitch in a coma for a long time.

Rich, when he was alive, was the kind of Christian you guys would have liked, politics aside probably. He was irreverent, unfiltered, and raw. He was offending the church all the time, telling them the difficult truth and challenging them.

He didn't take a (what could have been sizeable) regular salary from his music, instead he lived on the median income. That left a whack of cash in the bank when he died: through the generosity of his surviving family, that money funded our ministry for ten years, plus many others.

I only knew him peripherally. The summer before he died, the SO sat on a panel on Native missions with him at the big music festival we always go to, along with his then manager and some friends, who were also friends of ours. But after his death, his friends and family came together and wanted to continue the work he had been doing. They formed an organization and called us. Hope in Transit split off from that org later on.

His friends and family have been a huge and important part of our lives ever since, and they, too are an extraordinary group of people. I'm grateful to them for the opportunity they gave us, and to him for his work and vision that has informed so heavily what I do today.

And I'm sad he's gone, but I think of him every day, and I think the way he valued Native youth is the same way that God does, and I hope I can live that love out in my work.

I'm in the middle of rebaselining a $25M project right now. So much fun.

Yikes, SuziQ. That's ... yikes.

Hmm. Hey, I was wondering, can I maybe put someone in touch with you? My old division office got shut down by corporate HQ a few months ago--basically the guy who took over after my old boss left ran it into the ground, and corporate put the hammer down. They sent most of the staff to the Tt office in Uptown, including the woman who was the office manager for us.

She had been doing all the internal corporate financials and book-keeping and invoicing, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, all that, for over a decade, and was paid quite well (because she's both competent and a marvelous human being). When they moved her over, she got a 40% pay cut, and she's got two kids in college.

It's much the same kind of work you are doing, but I think she's feeling trapped and worried her skills won't transfer outside the company. I was going to catch up with her for drinks or lunch sometime soon, do you think I could give her your email maybe? Just so you could talk about how it all works at another firm?

Man, javachik and Liese, you both just made me sniffle a little. javachik, I feel the same way about my grandfather (my dad's dad) who died in 2005. He was an incredible person, and somewhat like Liese is talking about, he lived his faith in a genuine, loving, and generous way every day, and instilled those values in his kids and grandkids. I've talked about him on the board before, but I still think about him a lot and try to follow his example.

javachik and Liese, you both just made me sniffle a little.

Yes, to both!

javachik, you always talk about your Grandpa the way I remember my Grandma. So much of who I am (or more often hope to be) and of how I see the world is a direct continuation of her. Grandma was the entire reason I wept so very hard at Michelle Obama's convention speech -- her ethics, and her way of living them, her total optimism that the country really does stand for something great combined with a totally no-bullshit "it's not given to us and we have to work hard to make it come true" attitude reminds me so much of Grandma and so many other WWII-era immigrants I've known.

And Liese, Rich was the kind of person whose principles are made real; never mind if I would've disagreed politically, or that his faith wasn't for me -- he fully lived it, and you and DH do a great thing in working to continue it.

Oh, fucking allergies again.

It just seems appropriate that I already have gospel music in my head, thanks to last weekend's choir shenanigans.

I was going to catch up with her for drinks or lunch sometime soon, do you think I could give her your email maybe? Just so you could talk about how it all works at another firm?

Sure. Our group is finally getting some good management after being ruderless for a couple of years and they are finally realizing we need more bodies.

K-Bug is spearheading a full Persian meal this evening. We have cucumber yogurt, Persian rice, dolma (Persian style stuffed grape leaves), and kobideh (ground lamb and ground beef kebabs). I helped prep a bunch of stuff last night. Today she is rolling the grape leaves while I work. I hope it all turns out as tasty as it should. It is the first time we are trying to make our own kobideh.

Chik-fil-a Good News: [link]

(Also, whoa!)

Profits must've dipped.