St. Simon’s on the Sound’s 31st Annual Arts and Crafts Fair. We really enjoyed this last year.

November 4 & 5, 2005

Friday, 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

Saturday, 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.

Sarah and I stopped by the local Rotary Club’s Oktoberfest briefly before we went to my parents’ house for supper. It’s little more than driftwood paintings, bead jewelry, and funnel cakes in a hot Winn-Dixie parking lot, but the beer at the Bitburger Pub is always refreshing. So, when late September rolls around next year, but you really want to start celebrating October, komm nach Niceville und hab un bier mit uns.

Ft. Walton Beach - the “small metro area” - that Valparaiso falls under in the classification of cities has been ranked by Forbes magazine as the #52 small metro in America. Obviously, this score reflects the nature of opening a business in the area, but it factors in some characteristics of the town that are important to people living here. For instance, we are ranked #136 of 168 for cost of living. That’s terrible! In fact, the cost of living here is only slightly less than that of the real Twin Cities, Mpls/St. Paul. (The Niceville/Val-P area has come to be known the Twin Cities as well.) Anyway, there are a lot of factors that go into cost of living metrics, but most of them make it costly for a young family like us to live here. The benefit of having my family close outweighs all that of course, but Sarah and I still like to rant about how terrible it is for young people to try to make it financially in this town. Anwyay, check out the Forbes list and see how your town fares.

(Note: We do rank thirteenth for the number of engineers per capita. Hurrah for the military/academia complex.)

Tim and David Bayly are two pastors from the Presbyterian Church of America that have driven to Pinellas, Florida, to speak out on behalf of the life of Terri Schiavo and against the wickedness of the courts. Updates are available at Baylyblog.