And the Cubs walk off the Reds for the third night in a row. Amazing. #FlyTheW

Had a very encouraging mutual ministry review tonight with our vestry, rector, and deacons. I have been on difficult church leadership boards before. This is NOT one of them. Good, kind folks working earnestly to serve our community and each other. ⚓️

Today felt like the calm before the storm. Tomorrow and Tuesday: busy busy. Then: 2 days of driving, 3 days of graduation festivities, 3 more days of driving, 2 days of move-in, and then fly home. Will drive 2k miles in the next 2 weeks. Should just pre-schedule the chiropractor for when I get home.

2026 Reads: Accidental Pluralism America and the Religious Politics of English Expansion, 1497-1662 by Evan Haefeli 📚 Fascinating history, clearly written.

2026 Reads: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis 📚 Wasn’t too sure about this one but the last few chapters redeemed it.

Home after my week-long trip and seem to have picked up a cold. Was supposed to be at our vestry retreat this morning; sent my regrets instead. Time to rest.

Unbelievably, I have more leg room in this CRJ700 for the quick hop home than I did on an old 737-800 for the long haul from LAX.

It’s been a good and busy week in Long Beach. And now it’s 4:45 Pacific and I’ve been up for almost two hours already, sitting at my gate at LAX, ready to fly home. Let’s do this.

CID ✈️ PHX ✈️ LAX Getting an early start on the work week. Let’s do this.

2026 Reads: The Unmapping by Denise S. Robbins 📚 Interesting idea, bad execution.

Happy Perfect Date Day to all who celebrate!

It is the perfect Iowa spring day: 70F, light breeze, sunshine. Started this morning with a 10k+ run, then came home and mowed two large lawns. It is now time for the patio, a book, and some sports on TV.

It was way too late for this old guy to stay up for, but the highlights from the Cubs-Dodgers game last night are pretty amazing. Sparkling defense from the Cubs and then some big hits to seal their 10th win in a row!

Agree - great news. Full stop.

New from me: an updated book logging site to track my reading!: https://chrishubbs.com/2026/04/23/new-from-me-an-updated/

New from me: an updated book logging site to track my reading!: https://chrishubbs.com/2026/04/23/new-from-me-an-updated/

Well, the Cubs made it harder than they needed to, but showed good resilience. Walked it off in the 10th on a Dansby Swanson single. That takes the win streak to 9 and gives the Cubs a share of the NL Central lead!

This is so Wes Anderson, I can almost hear the affectless Jason Schwartzmann voiceover saying "My mother used to design undercover disguises for the Stasi"

Stoked to wake up and see that the Dallas Stars took game three in 2OT, in a game that didn’t end until almost 1 AM local time. Not starting the game until almost 9PM local on a weeknight is brutal for fans who would like to watch.

2026 Reads: Breakneck by Dan Wang 📚

Dang, I’ve never seen this quote attributed before. I wonder if my junior high Sunday School teachers who wrote a book promoting the Quiverfull movement had any idea they were quoting Nazis when they made this same argument?

Years of church music ministry come in handy: got to the high school for NHS induction ceremony and jumped in to diagnose why the sound system wasn’t working. Success!

Today in health insurance fun: the insurance company’s website has a 10x price difference for one of my kid’s prescriptions depending on whether you type in the drug name in ALL CAPS or all lowercase. Let’s hope the pharmacy can straighten it out.

I love this. (Most radical politics comes down to things like libraries and Girl Scouts and public schools and folk dance groups. Support public goods, not purity tests and punishment.)

After hearing enough chatter about the band Goose, I turned one of their albums on today, and I think… I could become a jam band guy? Though the cataloging and analysis guy in me is anxiously sitting here thinking “but that means I may only listen to a handful of tracks per day…”

The weather is just too nice… went out for my run over the lunch hour today. Ran my second mile in 7:43, which I’m pretty sure is my PR for a single mile. Fun to see my speed and stamina improving!

::Stares in math::

My programmer friends: screw up using a float: NaaN.

My MIL is coming from NC to visit us here in Iowa for a month or so. I’ll be out of town for work at least half the visit. (It’s not on purpose!) My wife knew her arrival timetable was a bit fluid but was surprised to find out she might be here by dinnertime tonight. Commence frantic activity.

Pick up the nearest book, turn to p. 42 and post the second sentence. Two Protestants were executed for heresy under the Protestants Edward VI; at least 280 under the Catholic Queen Mary; six under the Protestant Queen Elizabeth; and two more under James I.

Rewatching MAS*H and really struck this time by how much Alan Alda is doing his best Groucho Marx. In tonight’s episode (S2E16, “Henry in Love”), Hawkeye is introduced as “Captain Pierce”, to which he adds “the African explorer”. I mean, come on, that’s gotta be an Animal Crackers reference.

Ok, I don't care how fast he can run the bases, Scott Kingery with two horrible fielding errors at 3B in like 3 innings is inexcusable. Should've let MoB just run the bases instead. #Cubs

Yesterday after work the weather was nice to go for a run. I’ve been doing a lot of 3 and 4 mile runs the last several months, but yesterday I charted one at about 6 miles, and ended up running 6.5, and felt like I could’ve gone another couple miles. Wish I could bottle that feeling.

Between the Hungarian regime change and Russia's increasing economic difficulties I start to wonder how much MAGA funding will dry up, and whether the US movement will shrivel up without that revenue stream. Is that too much to hope for?

Leah Libresco Sargeant: "And Jesus, looking at him, loved him": https://chrishubbs.com/2026/04/19/leah-libresco-sargeant-and-jesus/

Well, Dallas is getting their butts handed to them by the Minnesota Wild here in Game 1. Not the start I was hoping for.

My #LastFourWatched: Man On Fire (2004) - not good Ikiru (1952) - amazeballs Project Hail Mary (2026) - meh Colossal (2016) - better than I expected

Went on a long run yesterday afternoon, stayed up too last last night, guess I shouldn’t be surprised to have slept past my alarm this morning. Oh well, it’s Friday, the home office is in the next bedroom over, the coffee is hot. Onward.

But wait, what’s this? If I launch Chrome from the command line like so it won’t enforce a minimum window width! "open -n -a ‘Google Chrome’ –args “–app=mastodon.online”"

Now I start asking myself questions like “how hard would it be to vibe code an app that just opens a dedicated URL in a web browser at a preset window size?”

I let Google Chrome update and now my Chrome web apps (deck.blue, Mastodon) have wider minimum widths?!?!? Blows up my whole desktop arrangement. Grrr.

I was raised to believe that Christian Universalism was a cop out for those who wanted to sin. Instead it’s about Christ’s victory over death being so complete that eventually everything is reconciled back to the wholeness of the source of light and life. Same ending, different heart.

*swivels a chair around and sits on it backward to connect with the kids* I think you should stop worrying about LOOKsmaxxing and start worrying about BOOKsmaxxing

Who Died And Made The Pope The Boss Of The Catholic Church, Anyway?

Love seeing conservatives argue for separation between church and state but only when religious doctrine conflicts with blowing people up

Bullet Points for Tuesday Lunchtime: https://chrishubbs.com/2026/04/14/114121/

Bullet Points for Tuesday Lunchtime: https://chrishubbs.com/2026/04/14/bullet-points-for-tuesday-lunchtime/

Hey Narthex folks, do you have any favorite resources to recommend for a lay person in discernment who wants to start learning how to write sermons and preach? I ask because my new priest in charge has said he’s going to ask me to preach, and I don’t feel remotely ready for that yet. 1/

2026 Reads: Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss 📚