Not long ago in a supermarket not so far away ...

Reposted for Mom and, frankly for me. I loved this.

Happy 21st Birthday, Hannah!

Where has the time gone?

From adorable little one to confident young woman ... all the time together has been a blessing to us. Even the tussles! Especially her gentle, loving spirit and sharp, intelligent humor (as evidenced in this superheroes series).

We will be going to Newport's for sophisticated seafood and for that all-important marker of being a legal adult, a cocktail in public.

I'm making a Doboschtorte, her favorite cake.

We're so happy that she is here with us this year and not already at college! (And we miss Rose, who is already in Chicago and we wish could be here with us for the celebration.)

I'm am repeating this viewing of the things she loves best, slightly updated ... simply lots and lots o' critters. (Don't just pick these up and pass them on, please. Click through on the links to check permissions, some of which I have obtained personally for this blog alone.)

Happy birthday , Hannah!

Cat Closeup

Owl

Goose

Colt

Mallard in Flight

Brown Hare

Pelican

Dinner Guest

Crystal River Heron

Hawk Landing

Pink Dolphin

Geese

How Long Has It Been Since You've Seen George Lucas in Love?

Reposted for Mom and anyone else who loves a clever homage melding Star Wars and Shakespeare in Love.

Well, pardner, that's too long.

Update: darn it, the video's been yanked. HOWEVER, the Tim Burton piece below this hasn't been. Apologies all 'round and here's hoping that you enjoy the Tim Burton/Vincent Price collaboration.



I had completely forgotten this until Rose brought home 16 American Short Films.

Hilarious!

It also contains a feature by Tim Burton, Vincent, narrated by ... you guessed it ... Vincent Price.

Weekend Joke

Found at Coffee Klatch.

Top 25 Signs You’re Part of the 00’s
(that’s pronounced “aughts”)

1. You just tried to enter your password on the microwave.
   
   
2. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.
   
   
3. You call your son’s beeper to let him know it’s time to eat. He emails you back from his bedroom, “What’s for dinner?”
   
   
4. Your daughter sells Girl Scout Cookies via her web site.
   
   
5. You chat several times a day with a stranger from South Africa, but you haven’t spoken with your next door neighbor yet this year.
   
   
6. You check the ingredients on a can of chicken noodle soup to see if it contains Echinacea.
   
   
7. You check your blow-dryer to see if it’s Y2K compliant.
   
   
8. Your grandmother clogs up your e-mail inbox asking you to send her a JPEG file of your newborn so she can create a screen saver.
   
   
9. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.
   
   
10. Every commercial on television has a web-site address at the bottom of the screen.
    
    
11. You buy a computer and a week later it is out of date and now sells for half the price you paid.
    
    
12. The concept of using real money, instead of credit or debit, to make a purchase is foreign to you.
    
    
13. Cleaning up the dining room means getting the fast food bags out of the back seat of your car.
    
    
14. Your reason for not staying in touch with family is that they do not have e-mail addresses.
    
    
15. You consider second-day air delivery painfully slow.
    
    
16. Your dining room table is now your flat filing cabinet.
    
    
17. Your idea of being organized is multiple-colored Post-it notes.
    
    
18. You hear most of your jokes via e-mail instead of in person.
    
    
19. You get an extra phone line so you can get phone calls.
    
    
20. You turn off your Modem and get this awful feeling, as if you just as if you had pulled the plug on a loved one.
    
    
21. You get up in morning and go online before getting your coffee.
    
    
22. You wake up at 2am to go to the bathroom and check your E-mail on your way back to bed.
    
    
23. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. :)
    
    
24. You’re reading this.
    
    
25. Even worse; you’re going to forward it to someone else.

Upcoming Changes to the Mass -- Get 'Em While They're Hot!

Or ... as the USCCB puts it ... ahem ...

This area includes information and resources for the assembly with implementation and practice of the new Roman Missal.

It's got a print button and a "share" button which says that you can post it to your blog, but the Blogger part can't find my blog. Perhaps they were thinking of people who had just the one blog?

So much for that.

Anyway, scoot over there to see a nice chart with old and new.

Via the indispensable New Advent.

Speaking of Books on My "To Read" List ...

... check out Ana Markovic.

Emerging from an alcohol-poisoned sleep that should have left her dead on the streets of Toronto, Ana Markovic slowly began to remember the dream that came to her while she was unconscious. Ana hadn't always been homeless. Once, she had a home and a family. And then there was war and all that she knew burnt to the ground. Ana came to Canada with her husband as a refugee of the former Yugoslavia and fell into a depression that led her into a self-destructive, alcoholic spiral. Eventually, she abandoned her husband and young child to live on the streets in a perpetual state of self-hate. But God was not about to let Ana fall to eternal perdition without a fight. While she lay passed out, St. Michael the Archangel, appeared before Ana to offer her a final chance to redeem her soul and accept her worth in the eyes of God. This story lays bare the struggle for salvation as it travels through the shattered life of one lost soul and beyond to the Garden of Eden, to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the redemption God's love offers every human being.

Author David Murdoch was born in Toronto, Canada and graduated from Queen's University in Kingston. David converted to Catholicism after having been raised as a Protestant. Ana Markovic was written as a means of sharing the gifts God has given him, and doing something with God's grace

Sounds painful but powerful, right? I'm really looking forward to this one ... which is en route, or will be soon.

Perry Como and Abraham Lincoln: you just can't make this stuff up

Tom was looking on Wikipedia at Perry Como's entry after I'd asked him about a crossword clue to one of his songs. He came across this reference which left us both laughing and incredulous.

In downtown Gettysburg, there are two statues in front of the house where Lincoln stayed the night before he gave the Gettysburg Address. One is of Lincoln with his left arm raised, using his stove-pipe hat to point to the window of the room in which he stayed. His right hand is on the arm of a "tourist", as if he's showing the tourist the room. The tourist depicted is Perry Como, in his famous cardigan sweater.

Wikipedia

It sure looks like Perry Como ... you can see the photo at Roadside America.

Wow, what a great smile!

Reposting this for Mom and, of course, anyone else who'd like to see it again!

A fantastic little film about validation ... and smiles. It doesn't hurt that it has my favorite cast member from Bones either.

Enjoy (thanks to The Anchoress ... hey, do you know how wonderful she is?)

Lost Gods Book Review

Kweku Anansi is just another down-on-his luck con man who preys on the more fortunate during the day and goes home to his loving wife at night. That seems rather a comedown for the African trickster god, which is his real identity. ...

My review is up over at SFFaudio as is the link to Podiobooks where you can get the book free.

Your mission: get Chad, Matt, and Rob to their twelve o'clock meeting without dying ...

Reposted for Mom, and anyone else who hasn't seen this video.



Enter The Time Machine, an interactive adventure. I loved those adventure/mystery books where you got to choose which action the hero would take ... and that choice would send you to a specific page and change the story.

Here's the video version from Chad, Matt, and Rob. Brilliant! Via the indispensable Miss Cellania. (Whose site, I am constrained to mention, sometimes has explicit material. Use your discretion.)

It's All Downhill from Here

An advertisement from Dr. Boli's Celebrated Magazine that should certainly make us all pause in uncertainty. (Click the ad to blow it up for easy reading.)

Klingon Night School. 'Nuff Said.

Another blast from the video past that I'm reposting for Mom ... and any other Trekkies out there.

Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | More Video Clips

Via SF Signal.

Two More Things from the Chicago Trip ... Or, The First Movie I Want to See When I Get to Heaven

Kurosawa's Gojira (Godzilla) Movie
Listening to Tank Riot's Akira Kurosawa episode we discovered that he was good friend with the Godzilla movie director. Kurosawa always wanted to direct a Godzilla movie but the studio was terrified of the monstrous costs that doubtless would be incurred. Rightfully so I am sure. Don't you know that if we worship God through our art, then Kurosawa immediately got to work with that Gojira movie?

Now I must add that I have never seen a Kurosawa movie (hanging head in shame) although I hasten to add that there are several on my movie list. However, upon learning that Kurosawa liked The Magnificent Seven so much that he sent director John Sturges a samurai sword, I thought that I probably had a little feel for his movies. I am going to begin actively looking for them at the library.

(Note about Tank Riot: this group podcast is a lot of fun to listen to on a variety of esoteric subjects. If you are touchy about criticism, however, beware as one of the guys has a problem with the Church and Pope Benedict and lets it pop out at unexpected moments. It was like a slap in the face that surfaced completely out of nowhere during the pirates episode, for example. Based on inaccurate info as well. Ah well. However, be that as it may, that is a small thing and is not usually intrusive enough to be a problem.)

"That sounds just like something on Happy Catholic."
Mom completely cracked me up with that accusation when I was commenting on some situation (I no longer remember what). I told everyone here that what you see is what you get (albeit a little toned down and more polite). What more proof do you need?

I Wanna Be A Zimmer When I Grow Up

Reposted here from the archives for Mom and, of course, anyone else who wants to watch. (Note: I see they've disabled embedding, but just click through on their link to watch.)

Meet "The Zimmers" - a rock band of 40 OAP’s with more aggression than Nirvana and more style than The Who.

I always have told Hannah and Rose that when I'm in an old folks home they'll play Rolling Stones instead of Muzak. Looks like they're already there. (Warning for the faint-of-heart ... some true rock and roll band behavior is exhibited in this video.)

When You Return to 776 Posts in Your Google Reader After 3 Days of Not Using the Internet, You Know You're Reading Too Many Blogs

Oy veh!

Overall the fast turn-around to get Rose to Chicago and get home again went well, but we will never do it that quickly again. The 16-hour trip is brutal when done back-to-back without at least a day of rest in between. However, we are home again safely and that is what counts at this point.

Highlights and tips:

• Who knew that the Illinois State Fair happened in August, just at the time we'd be driving through looking for a hotel room? And that it would overflow the town's hotels practically completely? We wound up at the downtown Abraham Lincoln hotel which was completely luxurious, especially when they upgraded the regular smoking room we would have settled for into a "club level" room. Oooo la la. Crabtree & Evelyn soap and shampoo in the bathroom ladies. And those fluffy bathrobes are quite nice. Yes, indeed.
• Tom and I daringly didn't make a hotel reservation in Chicago, having heard all those relatives tell their tales of "day of" reservations on Priceline getting fantastic discounts for a nice hotel. No such luck on our attempt. However, the downtown TravelLodge isn't too bad either price-wise or as a hotel, though it is fairly dumpy. But it was close to where Rose lives and just a block away from Grant Park.
• Let me highly recommend Thai Spoon. Highly. Really fantastic food. Also the price was actually inexpensive. Rose says that many Columbia College students like it because they can order a large meal and have leftovers for several days. We fed eight people, with three beers and a Thai iced coffee for $100 flat. In downtown Chicago. Absolutely delicious. Try it.
• After the Thai Spoon, Tom and I took a walk in Grant Park where we eventually wound up at Buckingham Fountain. We'd noticed a young couple taking photos of each other near us. The young man came up to Tom and asked, "Will you take our picture? And then will you keep taking pictures while I propose?" Can you see the smile on my face just thinking of it? It was sweet and romantic and we will treasure always being "that couple who took our picture" in this young couple's memories. Of course, she cried and laughed and said yes ... and had a huge diamond on her ring. I will be praying for them and their marriage every time that memory flashes across my mind.
• Finally we got to see the inside of Holy Name Cathedral for Sunday Mass, after having been kept away first by renovations and then by the fire damage. Overall it is absolutely gorgeous. It is too bad that someone came through in the 1970's (our guess) and replaced all the original stained glass and slapped on various other "improvements" that are all too indicative of the bad taste of the time. Those bits stood out like a bandaid on a Van Gogh. However, the original work is gorgous, as I said. Also, there was a wonderful girls' choir visiting from Germany. I thought that might be a little sample of how the angelic choir sounds.
• Stopped off on the way up to take Mom her new laptop and then on the way back to make sure it was connected to the wireless internet (woohoo! Hi Mom!) which is so much faster in their assisted living place than any sort of internet was at their house in the country. Now she can actually watch those videos I post. Also we went to lunch at Ocean Zen which is truly excellent and if you are near Springfield, MO, you should definitely try it if you've never been.

And now we are home ... ready to do those lovely mundane thing like clean bathrooms, grocery shop, and go to work (which I must do now!).

On th Road to Chi-Town

Taking Rose back to Columbia College. Perhaps time to blog then, but probably not as we're doing a two-day-up turnaround for a two-day-back trip.

We'll be stopping off to give my Mom her new laptop. This will give her time to try it out and figure out what questions she has before we stop back by on the way home.

More later ...

The problem with real life ...

... is that it leaves no time for blogging when you get really, really, really busy.

So, there you go. Apologies all 'round, but clients wait for no man and family likewise.

Check my sidebar for Google reader links of some great stuff in the blogosphere that is just waiting for you to discover it. I'll be back to more than the quote and photo of the day soon, I hope!

"Does going to confession make you feel better?" What I said. What I'll say next time. Hopefully.

My brother and nephew are in town for a couple of days. I have so much fun talking with my brother but every so often such a question arises as it did when we were out having a Tex-Mex family dinner. I had laughingly said that I needed to get to confession over something we'd been mentioning ... then said, "no, not really, though I've got to get there on Tuesday over something else."

Which raised that question from my brother, who is a nondenominational Protestant. Somehow, knowing the way he thinks and what he does for a living (which involves occasional mind manipulation), I always feel I've got to stand up for the Catholic way even if he is just phrasing it as a mild mannered question. Which probably says more about me than anything else.

I answered, "Yes."

Then thought, "well, not always sometimes yes and sometimes no. But this time I am really looking forward to it and so I probably will feel better."

By which time he'd said, "I understand."

I said, "No you don't understand."

He said, "Yes, I understand better than you'd think."

You have to understand that I'd had most of a nice strong margarita by then and anyway am not nearly as good at explaining myself when speaking as I am in writing. Also, I didn't suddenly want to dive into the depths of discussing confession as a sacrament in the middle of a restaurant at a family dinner.

Swirling through my head were thoughts of how to explain confession as a sacrament, feelings versus truth, and that when I go to confession I have thought and prayed about my offenses so that I already have gone to God personally about whatever it is. And the fact that "feeling better" makes it sound like a substitute for therapy, which it is not. The one thing I did know was that I was unequal to that task at that moment.

I let it go.

This, hopefully, has prepared me better for another time. Then I might be collected enough to answer, "Sometimes I feel better and sometimes I feel nothing. But it's not about feelings. It's about the reality of the sacrament of absolution from sin and reconciling myself to God."

If it carried on, we could go into how telling a doctor my symptoms might make me feel better sharing the burden, but it would be the medicine itself which would effect the cure. About how a sacrament is a visible sign of spiritual reality.

I am a poor apologist in person. But there's always next time. Hopefully.

Heads Up! The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri FREE @ Christian Audio

This is where it turns out handy that friendly pagans like Jesse at SFFaudio have an interest in the Divine Comedy as the first fantasy novel.

Check it out and note Jesse's careful instructions for receiving this free audiobook.

Thanks Jesse!

First Friday Fast to End Abortion

I haven't forgotten but just hadn't posted it yet ... for those fasting for an end to abortion, it's First Friday!

By the way, listening to this episode of Philosopher's Notes helped me go into this cheerfully and purposefully. He's not kidding when he says, "99% is a b***h; 100% is a breeze. You can listen, download, or read the transcript there.