I Say Again Rejoice!

Tommy Blaze gives us the Reason . . .

Shhhhhh!

I finally found the perfect Christmas gift for my friends at Korrektiv, but don't tell them. I would hate to spoil the surprise.



Pax

Gentle Reminder

This has adult content, but thanks to Paul and Storm a funny look at the rush to begin the Christmas Season.

Remember kids, we don't decorate until the third Sunday of Advent, the Same Sunday that we begin the O Antiphons. Anticipation is everything.





Pax

This is the Best Week Ever!!!

I am having a very Spongebob week.

Each time I think my week can't get any more surreal, something new happens that makes it just that much more strange and not ordinary. It all started on Saturday when the old adage that a good deed never goes unpunished was proven to be true when I cut my thumb trying to open a box while I was volunteering at the concession stand at the IU game. It was a pretty bad cut, and I thought it needed a butterfly, but the kitchen only had a first aide kit so I put a band aid on it and went back to work, but an hour later after having had to change the band aid twice I finally found the First Aid station in the stadium and the nurse there put a butterfly on it and that was exactly what it needed.

Then by Sunday when I took the gauze off it looked as though it was pretty bruised, and by Tuesday the bruise looked even bigger and I just felt wrong. It turns out that I have a pretty bad infection in the cut. Had the kitchen just sent me to the First Aid station in the first place I probably would have avoided the whole trauma and drama of the infection and antibiotics and all that mess.

Then on Tuesday we found out that my daughter lost her new cell phone. She swears that it has to be somewhere in the house, but she can't remember if it was in the pocket of her coat when we were shopping on Saturday. So we have to deal with that.

In the rush to get to school after spending all the time looking for her phone I forgot to bring a package with me to Indianapolis that I was intending to deliver to my supervisor to save on mailing it. It turns out that she was even at lunch that day and I could have hand delivered it to her. Each day since then I have forgotten to mail it too, so I still have that to do this week before I forget.

Then Tuesday in the middle of the night the same daughter got sick and woke up Wednesday with a sore throat which with all the H1N1 panic, meant she had to stay home from school and she was terrified that it meant that she might have to miss a week or more of school. She was really upset, and I couldn't console her because I didn't know the extent of her illness, because at the time she was just sick, but no fever which was a good thing. Still no fever, and a bit of a cough but I doubt since she has no fever that she has anything approaching H1N1. She doesn't even have the sore throat anymore, so I am thinking if she wants to go back to school tomorrow I will let her since she feels so much better today.

Then on Wednesday, while I was getting ready for my presentation for the RCIA in Terre Haute, the strap of my favorite purse broke. So now I have to go shopping, which is about my least favorite thing to do, so I can replace that purse because the ones I have in the closet are way too big for my needs anymore.

And my dear loving husband only gets to come home for the weekend before he has to fly back out for another meeting in Maryland, so I get to see him for less than 48 hours before he will be gone again. the last two times he has traveled this has happened and he was supposed to be traveling less now.

Oh well, the phone will either be found or we will replace the sym card and she will use her brother's old phone. I am tolerating the mega dose antibiotic pretty well without too awful side effects, and I will get to see my hubby for the weekend, so as the balance sheets go I am doing pretty well.

As my pal Spongebob says: This is the best week ever!.

Pax

These go to 11 in Leggos! . . .

Pax

Will it Never End?

CNN reported that the Taco Bell Dog Died!


Next we will have to endure speculation from "Gidget's" family that her death was not natural causes but she was in fact murdered by her"handlers" who were after her estate.

And then there will be endless stories about the fate of her children.

There will be speculation about whether or not Congress will vote on a proclamation citing Gidget for her worldwide caninitarian efforts to make the world a better place.

And of course there will be endless speculation about the whole female dog with a male voice over controversy.

Will it never end?

Pax

Two-For-One

Today (as it happens every seven years ) mrangelmeg gets a two-for-one Super Special Holiday bonus in which he gets to celebrate both his birthday and Father's Day on the same day. The kids gave him a really cute Father's day card and added a Happy Birthday message.

Mrangelmeg has had greying hair for a few years now, and his hairline is a bit further back than it was when we first got married, but he still doesn't "feel old". The problem is, people look at him and make assumptions about his age that are quite unflattering. He has more often than he cares to admit been offered the "senior discount" at fast food restaurants. He used to get upset, now he just takes the drink or whatever it is without arguing.

He works with a man who is twenty years older than he is and has a similar look but to someone at all observant they look nothing alike, yet they have been mistaken for each other by shop owners when they are on travel together.

Anyway all of this is enough to make any younger man feel at least a little discouraged. But he shouldn't. He will always be a big kid at heart. He will always have a juvenile sense of humor. He will always be the guy I love, whose smile makes me go weak in the knees.

He is on his way out to play some golf and then spend the rest of the day with his dad. Oh, I forgot about that, someone mistook him for his dad's brother once. If he didn't have such a great sense of humor he wouldn't be the man I married.

Happy Birthday/Father's Day my love, may you have many, many more.

Pax

He Understands Women

I have always liked Denis Leary as an actor. Some might say he makes some seriously flawed choices in roles, but he has done some amazing work. Check out this performance which I think is the best movie he ever made, and by the way has some of the best performances by the other actors as well. To really get to know the man you have to see this video as well, it pretty much explains everything you need to know about him. He is a darn fine comedian, warning though, the video is not for children).

Anyway, I was waiting, for hours, the other day as they worked on my car, and without any good reading material I was stuck reading "women's magazine's" but it was my lucky day, because right in the middle of one was an interview by Lindsey Palmer in Redbook May 2009 with Dennis Leary. It proved that he is as interesting in person as he is on screen.

This quote stood out for me:

Q: What is your diagnosis on why men have trouble figuring out what women want?

Men have three things on their minds at all times: sex, sandwiches, and blowing stuff up. Women on the other hand, have really complicated brains that are involved in so many emotions and intellectual curiosity. We don't match up. So ladies, if you want something, you have to spell it out for us.

You have to love a man who understands the differences between the sexes that well. Maybe that can be chalked up to the fact that he has been happily married to his wife Ann for over 20 years. Having a good wife can do that for any man. (in my not so humble opinion.)

Pax

Twitter is where its @

Do you Tweet? I decided to give it a try a while back because some of my blogger friends are on twitter and it seemed like a harmless diversion. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, Twitter is a social networking platform that is more like a constant stream of Facebook status updates (none of the other distracting stuff that clutters up Facebook like quizzes and games and constant junk, AND no adds which is what I like about it.)

Anyway, I have been on Twitter for about six months and for most of that time had about 15 people following my updates which were sporadic at best (maybe one or two a week if I remembered. Then about three weeks ago I stumbled upon a new app for twitter called TweetDeck which I really love and unfortunately I have it running all the time in the background of my computer and every time someone sends a twitter update my computer "tweets".

I started out just following my blogger friends like Rufus and Patrick Madrid and Adoro, and Curt Jester, but then I realized that I could follow some of my favorite celebrities. Now I follow Wil Wheaton, and Kevin Pollack and Stephen Fry and Dr Will Miller (from the Bob and Tom Show). Sadly, I even got sucked into the twittering juggernaut that is @aplusk (ashton kutcher) who has pretty close to two million followers which is really ridiculous.

Suddenly, and I am not quite sure why, but I think maybe it has something to do with adoro calling me out last Friday, I have gained nearly 30 followers in the last week! I am gaining four or five followers a day?!?!?!!????? I am humbled and chagrined at the same time. I feel compelled to say witty or profound things and I have nothing witty or profound to say. So I just keep saying what I normally say. If they follow me it is what it is.

Twitter is sometimes fun; I have had a total blast following Ethan Suplee (Randy from "My Name is Earl") and his family on their trip to England and Ireland, he is quite funny and engaging as he tweets about how his daughters are reacting to English food and culture.

Twiiter is sometimes educational: I have been pleasantly surprised that Matt Damon is interested and supports ethical stem cell research. In the past two days he has posted links to articles on how to get stem cell lines everywhere other than embryos. Go Matt!

On the other end of the spectrum, Will Wheaton is a huge hockey fan so stick by stick tweets of each play-off game have been more than I could take. The rest of his tweets are fun to follow-- usually. Thank God there is some time before Hockey season is back on again.

Oh well, if you enjoy social networking, you might want to give Twitter a try.

Pax

Friday Fun?

In an effort to "warn" everyone about the disturbing web content that is out there I bring you this-- I am not sure what to call it.







I found it disturbingly funny. Which either shows that I have some serious mental issues or a very miss-spent youth. I think I will leave that to my loving and compassionate God to untangle.

h/t to a newly reconnected childhood friend Mark at Oldman's Boobishi for the link.

Pax

Obamanomics

I received this in an email from my sister who like me is a staunch conservative while our brothers are the Liberal Democrats in the family:

Father/daughter talk...

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a liberal Democrat, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words, redistribution of wealth.She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked, 'How is your friend Audrey doing?' She replied, 'Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She's always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over.'

Her wise father asked his daughter, 'Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.'

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, 'That's a crazy idea, how would that be fair! I've worked really hard for my grades! I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!'

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, 'Welcome to the free world.'

Pax