We've had some sickness at our house this week. Joanne, Emily and Madeline all took turns with a 48 hour flu that pretty much laid them out flat. Madeline took a shower, wrapped up in her towel, and laid on the floor in the bathroom.
This was a big week for me professionally. After six and a half years at Washington & Jefferson College, I was eligible for tenure. On Friday night, the Board of Trustees voted to approve my case for tenure, and Joanne and I were invited to a banquet with the trustees. This is a photo of the faculty procession at commencement the next morning.
It was a rainy day for commencement, but it didn't dampen the graduates' spirits.
On Sunday morning when I woke up to get ready for bishopric meeting, there was a dense, low-lying fog. Because our house is up higher on the hill, the fog was below us. The scene was very surreal, and the picture doesn't really quite do it justice.
On Sunday afternoon, I went for a long motorcycle ride up to Pittsburgh to attend a fireside given by Vernon Law. Vern is a member of the LDS Church, and was the winning pitcher in games 1 and 4 of the 1960 World Series against the New York Yankees. He pitched against Yankee greats Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Whitey Ford in the series. He was the starting pitcher in game 7 of the series, and worked to a 4-1 lead by the middle of the fifth inning. Trusting his bullpen to protect the three run lead, Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh pulled Vern Law from the game, and the Yankees promptly went on a scoring burst to take the lead. The Pirates won the world series in the bottom of the 9th inning when Bill Mazeroski hit the only game 7 walk-off home run in Major League Baseball history. 
If you know anything about me from when I was growing up, you know that I loved playing baseball, so I was content to sit and listen to Brother Law for as long as he wanted to tell baseball stories. Afterward, I had my picture taken with him. One of his stories was so fascinating to me, I thought I'd write it down and share it with you:"Early in my career, I was approached by Marlboro Cigarettes to endorse their product. I was dumbfounded, because I had always been very open about my beliefs, my being a member of this church, and about how I felt about the Word of Wisdom. At first I said, 'I can't endorse a product I don't use.' But they said: 'Sure you can. We have all kinds of athletes that support us who don't even smoke!'
I could see that being passive wasn't going to work. So I said 'no' more bluntly. Then they said, ' Look, you only make $5,000 a year playing ball. All ballplayers have to make up the difference here and there.' I didn't tell them that unlike most of the other players, I was married and had a family so I needed the money even worse. That would have just encouraged them.
Finally they gave up and asked if there was anybody else they could talk to. I said, 'Well, I've got one teammate that smokes, but he already endorses Camels, so I don't think you'll be able to get him. And besides, when he signed with Camels I told him if you smoke one, you smell like one."
Shortly after that, I got a contract to endorse Isaly's Ice Cream, and I never regretted standing up for what I believed in.
