Day 11

My nephew Ben is recovering slowly from the skiing accident which happened eleven days ago. He went through a really bad patch over the weekend when his lungs were infected due to a nick that happened during a procedure to place a feeding tube when he first got to the hospital. Now he is awake, breathing on his own and talking to his parents.

There is a Facebook group Praying for Ben Smith that has 613 members already of friends of Ben's and friends of ours and friends of friends all pledged to help by praying for him. This just shows the power of prayer to uphold Ben and his family in their time of need. Ben has a long road of recovery ahead of him, but with that much prayer support backing him up, he has what he needs to get stronger every day.

Thanks to all of my friends who have pledged their prayer support for my sister Jeanne and her family as they live through this precarious time.

Pax

Because a Scooby Do Ending Makes Everything Better

And because I know you want more, click on the cartoon to get to the Doug Savage weblog of sticky note fun.

Pax

A Few Reasons Why I Didn't Give up Facebook for Lent

There has been a huge push among Catholic Facebook users to give up their Facebook presence for the 40 Days of Lent as part of their Lenten Sacrifice. They see this as a way to strip away the "distraction" that Facebook may have become in their lives so that they can redirect that time toward God.

I did not join them. There are a few really important reasons why and I wish to share them with you:

Most of my extended family; all but three of my siblings, most of my nieces and nephews, my cousins, their husbands, wives, and children are all on facebook. As we have grown older and become separated geographically, Facebook is an immediate and very fun way to communicate and keep in touch with my family. I probably reply to my Cousin's daughter whom I have never met, but who is a college student in Texas every day. It is really nice that I have gotten this chance to get to know her. I would hate to give that up.

My nephew was in a skiing accident last Saturday and I have been able to ask all of my friends on Facebook to pray for him, and to connect them to his Facebook page Praying for Ben Smith where they can post prayers for him. There is such power in this for his family who are dealing with a long road to recovery. I have great friends and they are really stepping into the breach to show my sister and her family the power of Christian community on the Internet via Facebook.

I am also posting a snippet every day from the book I have chosen to use as my Lenten Reflection: Quantum Grace by Judy Cannato. The obedience of doing this every morning is helping me to stay faithful to my reflection on the book and has the ripple effect of sharing a bit with others (Catholic , non Catholic Christians, and non believers ) who are friends of mine on Facebook. To me this is a way for me to evangelize.

So, you see, I will be staying on Facebook. I will be posting daily updates about my nephew's progress as he heals of his injuries, and I will be posting my own progress as I move through the season of Lent. Oh and I will be posting responses to other people's posts in my normal, sarcastic, humorous style, because God gave me a sense of humor and I am pretty sure She doesn't want me to give that up for Lent.

Pax

What He Said!

Everyone seemed to universally love the Doritos ad at the Superbowl that depicted the "tough" little boy. Everyone thought it was hilariously funny. Well I didn't, but my objections ran much deeper than that. I was livid after seeing that commercial, and for exactly the reasons spelled out in this wonderful article by Dennis Prager.

my favorite excerpt is this:

Those who argue that the boy was just defending his mom may well be right. But that only further reinforces the point of what a dysfunctional scene the ad was portraying: A leering man, a mother dressed in a sexually provocative way, and a sexually aware child who essentially serves as man of the house at the age of five.



Read it here.


So, call me a prude if you want, but give me the Betty White ad any day of the week.

Pax

Bye Bye Bayh

from the Senate anyway.

Evan Bayh is going, going, gone baby gone from the Senate as of the end of his current term of office. Why did he decide not to run again when he had $13 Million already socked away in his reelection war chest? Maybe it was just that he took a look at what has been happening on the political landscape and decided he would rather bow out gracefully than lose, which is something he has never had to face as a political candidate in his three runs for office.

I can't say I will be sad to see him go, but this will make our Senate race all that more interesting depending on who runs as a Democrat against Dan Coates next year.

Pax

The Truth Will Make You . . .

Slow?

So, I was reading a few Mini Marathon training message boards over the weekend and one of them was discussing the Nike + training module which happens to be the one I use to help me track my progress when I train. There is a little computer chip in my shoe that connects wirelessly to my IPod and it keeps track of my distance and pace and stuff like that so that I don't have to think about it.

What the message board was saying was that NIKE + has a real problem with calibration though and if you aren't careful can really get off track. So just to be safe I did three- one mile calibration walks on the track at the YMCA today to calibrate my NIKE+.

The good news is that the miles were no problem at all, I wasn't winded and my IT problem in my leg didn't flair at all even when I went full out for the middle mile just to test how fast I could really go.

The bad news is that each of the miles was a little bit off; meaning when my IPod said I was done with my mile I wasn't quite done with the seventh lap on the track. so when I completed the seventh lap I had to hit the calibration button each time to make it right. The first time it was way off. The last time it was actually a little bit over a mile.

So I finally think I have it right, but with the calibration being that touchy, I wonder just how accurate it really is. It added back all of the time I thought I had gained in my per-minute splits, so maybe I am not really getting as fast as I thought I was and what I was doing was not quite walking as far as I should have been.

Oh well. now that I know that about the IPod NIKE + I will just have to be more dillegent about calibration, especially when I start training outside on the road in the spring.

Just goes to show, you keep learning new things when you start a new activity.

Pax

Champions for Life

This Video is Awesome:

Champions For Life from American Life League on Vimeo.

It's Time to Show Your True Colors . . .

And Bleed Blue!

I may have mentioned that THE COLTS ARE IN THE SUPERBOWL on Sunday.

I am so excited I can hardly wait. I am again having the fashion dilemma of how to pair my official Jeff Saturday Jersey with dress slacks for Mass. Because I have to support my team.

I also have a huge amount of admiration for this team and the way they have acted. They don't trash talk, they are very humble about why and how they got to where they are, and they really deserve to be in this game.

Another thing that has always impressed me about this team is that they have a team of Chaplains to support the spiritual needs of the entire team, not just one guy who is a figure-head for show. I have had he privilege of meeting the Catholic Chaplain on that team, and I know that he takes his job very seriously as the "surrogate pastor" for the ten Catholic players and their families and the Catholic support staff.

You can read all about him, and his impression of the team in this article.

Fr. Pete has been blessed to have a great job doing what he loves for a team he loves.

I just hope that no one gets hurt on Sunday, and if they do their best the Colts pull out one more Victory this year and we bring that beautiful trophy home again.

Pax