We stick around closer to home this morning, going to St. Joseph’s rather than the Cathedral. We ride our bikes. There’s no choir here, but we do get an organist and a cantor. But they seem have some sort of issue(s) between them. The organist dives right in and starts playing when the cantor is trying to tell us which hymn and hymn number it is. Happens pretty much every song. It’s funny and frustrating all at the same time.

Afterwards we ride over to Renee’s, only like five blocks away. She’s having a New Year’s Open House, one of two that we’ll be attending today. We end up having a funny conversation with her husband Jim. Renee wants Jim to take ballet, to be able to dance together as a married couple, a la Dawn and Edward. Jim’s having no part of it, although there does seem to be some deal on the table where if Renee will go golfing with him then he’ll take ballet with her. Sounds like a good deal to me, but Renee won’t do it. Guess she hates golf that much. This reminds me that I had a similar deal with Dawn, that I’d take ballet if she would … do … oh, I don’t remember what.

I discuss this with Dawn later. She remembers no such deal, although she does remember that it would have been that she’d go camping with me. If there was such a deal. Which there wasn’t.

In the afternoon we drive out to Silver Spring to Barbara Eames’s house for an afternoon open house. I like that for open houses you don’t have to knock. You just walk in. At least we do anyway. We take open house pretty literally. Just generally chatting I come to find out that Barbara’s husband Charlie is a high school teacher. At first I assume he teaches at Montgomery Blair just up the street, but, no, he teaches theology at a Catholic school.

So then I’ve got some questions for him. First is the Emmanuel/Jesus naming thing. He confirms for me that they’re the same thing. Then I try to get the scoop on the schism in 1052 [actually 1054. I was close though.] over the filioque. He loves this one. He gives me good stuff on proceeding with versus proceeding through. Oh yeah, he’s a big fan of filioque.

Later Charlie tells great stories about working at a fish market in NYC, whence come he and Barbara both. And another story about when he was first a teacher, but the union wouldn’t accept Catholics, but the Teamsters would, so they joined the Teamsters.