Midnight Radio

Meh

2012-01-30T10:54:00.001-05:00

Welp, I’ve got a bazillion [Microsoft says bazillion is a real word] things I should be doing right now but I don’t want to do those things. Besides, one of the bazillion was shifting the pictures from my phone, which I ought to do monthly but actually do quarterly. And I did that one thing! And now I can put pictures of my little boy on the blog!

Because he’s so cute. These are mostly self-explanatory…it’s called Being Two Years Old And Your Mom Has A Smartphone.

(kissing a relic of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton)

(this is not my son. this is the iris. it’s STILL blooming.)

10 Things That Aren’t A List At All

2012-01-26T09:03:00.001-05:00

There aren’t even ten of them. So there.

My child has eaten a dozen mini blueberry muffins this morning. No, wait. He’s eaten…14 mini blueberry muffins this morning. I’m trying to use the food in the pantry before I have to admit to myself that I’ve had it a whole year and it’s still just sitting there. So we had muffins for breakfast, and he ate…15 of them.

Yesterday I caught him climbing his bookshelf, which caused a huge altercation and day-long ordeal of sadness for a little boy who had ALL the toys and books and animals taken from his room. He took a really long nap. This morning, I caught him doing it again and figured out the motivation—he was after the DVDs on the top shelf. So. DVDs don’t live in there any more. Problem solved. If only I could get as clear a picture on motive every time he does something insane. There might be fewer epic sadness days.

It looks like it could snow any minute out there—overcast and dreary. You want to make hot chocolate, or get out a blanket, or something. Except when you open a door or window you discover that it’s 68 degrees and pleasant-feeling. Help.

Went birthday shopping this morning in the discount section of Amazon. The algorithm isn’t always flawless, however, and sometimes it’ll give you something that’s basically the opposite of discounted. No need for coffee now! I’m revved! I’m ready! My heart is MOVIN’, man!!

I’m down to one small paper (due Feb 26th, I think I’ll be fine) and one large paper (due Feb 26th), then I’m done with these two classes. The paper I wrote yesterday is good, but I wish I had realized just how good it was going to be. I would have used the topic for the large paper due next month, instead of having to trim and skip in order to keep to 10 pages for the current assignment. Oh well. It’s a good topic. One of the better ones I’ve chosen. One of the few I’ve chosen and not had to go, after researching for a while, “Well crap, I’m totally wrong in my premise. Now what?”

I have simultaneous desires for both a new car and an “office” space for myself. The car will come, one day, because we’re just going to need a second car. One was nice, but someday we might actually move to a real town or city and I’ll need to go places. So we research slowly, and put off decisions, and hopefully a car will wander away from home and end up on my back porch, and I’ll look for a collar and it won’t have one, and we’ll put up signs but the owners never come, and then I’ll just keep the car and call it my own.

And the office…well, that’s just silly all around. Because the whole thing stems from this big, white, overstuffed Giant Chair that I saw, that I would want in my office so I could use it for reading. And of course there would be a picture window, and an oversized desk, and shelves that match, and classily organized bins, and themed wall decorations of an artistic and academic bent. What kind of a retarded idea is that? White?

Yea, Though Epic Fail Followeth Me Wheresoever I Go

2012-01-05T09:19:00.001-05:00

Yet I keep the blog and act like I’m a blogger by reading everyone else’s work. Oh well. I’m alive! I’m supposed to be reading this entire book about Leyte Gulf by this afternoon…but I’m not. I’m putting up a link to my article at IGNITUMTODAY.

And also posting a picture. Who doesn’t like pictures?

Mild Relief

2011-12-05T07:33:00.001-05:00

This is going to be a good paper, I think. Typically, having it still on one’s mind, in a good way, after a night of reading and thinking and having weird dreams, is a positive sign. Now to write the proposal and move on to writing the next paper, which is actually due before the other one.

Seven Quick Takes

2011-12-02T08:05:00.001-05:00

Ah me. Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.

1. There are only 2 people left in the entire family that I have not gotten a Christmas gift for. Aaaaand, the gifts for everyone else are wrapped, boxed, labeled by state, and ready to head out the door. Aaaaaand all the Christmas cards are ready to go, except for putting a picture inside. I am ON, man.

2. Concentrating on two classes at once is harder than I remember. I think this is because Joseph was gone the last time I did two at once…either way, there’s an awful lot of reading for these suckers. The good news is, I did a great job lining up these as a pair, since they’re turning out to complement one another excellently. And I mean, “hey wow, I only have to read this book once and can write both papers!” If I had to blame something, I’d say blogging is suffering because of class.

3. Also cleaning is to blame. How did my house get so dirty? And why does it stay that way day after day? And how long have these clothes been in the dryer? And whose shirt is this?

4. With all the paperwork assembled at long last, Joseph can submit the law school applications [that have been sitting, completed, for weeks, while we waited for some third party documentation] and finish up his part of the job altogether! Yay! Meanwhile, the Marine Corps has decided whether or not he’ll get into the program, but perversely insists on not releasing the document telling us if it’s a whether or a not. So. We wait, and wait, hoping for the golden goose. There’s really no other way to put it.

5. With cruel abandon, someone demonstrated to me yesterday that the word “menopause” can be substituted for “Santa Claus” in just about any holiday song you choose. My brain fused, the season is ruined for all eternity.

6. There’s nothing I love more than watching someone I love love watching trains.

7. How did my house get so dirty? And why does it stay that way day after day? And how long have these dishes been in the dishwasher?

7 Quick Takes

2011-11-11T08:00:00.001-05:00

Howitzers Can’t Swim

2011-11-07T08:58:00.001-05:00

Many truths are self-evident, and I’ve always felt the above was one of them. Apparently not. My hero husband helper dude is all getting important and involved with a big amphibious exercise thing next year. Which, like I said, I’m pretty sure doesn’t sound like one of those things a cannon ought to be involved with, ever. We’ve got enough trouble with Marines being unable to swim, why go and put dangerous and expensive equipment near the water as well? You’d think it was what the Corps was designed for or something.

In other news, you should actually be serious and pray for both my uncle’s mother, who is dying, and for all the poor people involved in any way with the scandal up at Penn State. (If you don’t know what I mean, don’t look it up, because you’ll become sad and grossed out.) The world is a mess. Yesterday we stopped off to visit a couple of Joe’s relatives that I hadn’t really ever met before, and Aunt Jeanne was saying she wished that more groups of people looked out for each other. We agreed…but then again, if everyone was like that, Joe would be out of a job.

Finally, my two new classrooms opened this morning and I’ve been on already, overachieving and submitting my bio and honor code pledge at the crack of early. This way I have all week to put off commenting on the assigned article, which at 5 pages from the WSJ shouldn’t exactly put me into a sweat. These are going to be fun classes, but I can already tell it was asking for trouble to take two at once. First of all, what sounded like two similar linear subjects are NOT AT ALL so nicely laid out. In fact, we swan dive off the cliff of Western history straight into Napoleon (ech) within two weeks in Class A, but in Class B he’s the case model for consideration at the end of the course. Drat.

And I hate Napoleon. He probably couldn’t even swim.

p.s. My camera didn’t make it to PA with me, so you don’t get any pictures of our fantastically fantastic trip until one of my sisters-in-law shares her photos. I have gotten back on facebook for this express purpose. Also to get better and more current information on base construction projects.

Happy Birthday!

2011-11-01T06:58:00.001-04:00

Two years ago, my little guy turned Catholic. It’s handy, using easy and significant Holy Days of Obligation for your major family feasts. Hard to forget that way.

There he is, freshly exorcised, with Sancta Risus (who did get her phone call from the nuns!). Her baptismal day is January 1st, another Holy Day, so we’re trying to set a trend here and only baptize on unforgettable days.

What a sweet little baby. That was the day I was cantoring High Mass (less than a week out of surgery? why, yes, now that you mention it) and left my Magic Ibuprofen Magicalness at the house. So my mum had to run out at the Gospel and get it no matter what. In the rain. And the cold. And the wind. She did, and I got my fix, and no one had to see/hear me off the good stuff, and it just was in general a really good day. It was a much less frightening entrance into a family than the physical one had been a week earlier, that’s for sure. :) (It also got me completely hooked on the old rite of Baptism and already scheming to figure out where in the world I’m going to find a priest to do it here again in March, and not feeling very optimistic about the chances. I mean, starting outside, salting the kid, draping him in a stole to carry him in the Church…verily, it rocketh.)

Quick Takes Friday

2011-10-21T10:27:00.001-04:00

So, here we are, another week, another Friday. Another deadline, another miracle. :)

1. Finished the paper, like I said I would, and have spent the last 24 hours doing things on my to-do list like it’s going out of style. I’m proud of myself, doing some of the less-fun things like outside work, even though fall has re-arrived and it’s chilly.

2. Went to the library to get some movies to watch while my family is here next week. This is the perfect time to go to the library!! 7:30pm on a week night…no one is there, it’s quiet, there are no other children to fight with in the play area. It’s awesome. We had a great time. I love the library.

3. I need Christmas to come very soon so that I can give people their gifts and get this stuff out of my house. Is that terrible? Is that, like, completely lacking in charity and Christian thoughtfulness, that I’m most interested in giving the darn gifts already because I have them, they’re wrapped, and I’m tired of moving them from one place to another in my search for order and sanity in this house?

4. Blew another 2 hours this morning going through the music on this computer and trying to sort it again. Copying from iPods and other computers’ hard drives and CDs has mixed results. Lots of what copied didn’t copy properly, and lots of other things copied with no file information, so I’m having to listen to each thing and label it, name it, categorize it….bah.

5. Ultrasound yesterday! That was actually really fun. Joe got to come with, for the first time ever, and the tech spent a really long time with us. I’ve never had an ultrasound last more than 10 minutes before, and this was a little less than an hour. Baby was chillin’ somewhere amidst my liver and the woman couldn’t get a clear picture of the face…so she was trying all kinds of things to get some movement. When he finally did roll into view, he covered his face with his hands. Ha! But overall, a pretty chill little thing in there…not at all like the frenetic guppy I had a couple years ago.

6. Did I mention that I’m ready for Christmas?

7. I love the fact that I use Google Earth for school. “What is this bluff they’re talking about? Where on the river? Why didn’t they cross lower?” And I look on Google Earth, and I understand.

To sleep, perchance to have a drug trip

2011-10-19T08:24:00.001-04:00

Seriously, these dreams are not even remotely normal any more. For one thing, they’re continuous…all night, and then the early morning after I’ve just woken up. I can control the dream then, for about ten minutes or so if I stay still and the house is quiet. The “action” or plot of the dream freezes a little, but I can explore details or go look at things that I want to…like being in a museum exhibit of the dream I was having. And the dream content itself is…trippy.

But all that’s in the past. It’s daytime! And the paper is done…just finished it. My resident Nitpick gets home at noon and he’s going to take a look, then I’m turning that sucker in and working on NO SCHOOL AT ALL for three weeks. Then I start those two new classes. I hope they’ll be fun. I want to talk Nitpick into auditing one of them, because I think it would be fun to have him in discussion. Something tells me they won’t let spouses take classes together. Conflict of interest or something.

Other than that, not much going on. I decided that, after like a year of staring at the unfinished project on my counter (how bad is that, is sits on the counter and I still don’t get it done) I was going to finish the Montessori binders last night. So I did! They are printed, copied, punched, bound, labeled, and on the shelf!! I have two more to do, but they are both small and the instructor for the course hasn’t given us those materials so I’m not technically “done,” but I finished what was laying around my kitchen. It’s a race to check off an item from the to-do list before I add another item. (I lost.)

Somefink Wonderful

2011-10-14T11:20:00.001-04:00

They’re quick takes, but the theme of my day is just so colored by #1, that it leaked over into the title. Sorry. You’ll recover.

1. So, as of yesterday, our little family is officially school-debt FREE! Yay!! Not quite regular-debt free, there’s still some of that hanging around, but all of the dough shelled out for Christendom and its contribution to our lives is repaid in full to the grubby financial institutions to whom it was owed. (Thanks, of course, to the Marine Corps’ hefty contribution, plus selling my car and teaching piano lessons. Lol. Totally worth every second.)

2. When they say “Indian Summer” around here, they mean the industrial strength kind from the real India, in south Asia. We’re talking about highs in the 80s several days in a row, despite continuous rain, and a yard full of plants that are utterly consufed by their surroundings. Consufed. Irises, pear trees, azaleas, and lilacs all going “Hey, spring! Check out these flowers we made!”

3. Not wonderful, but slightly funny. This morning I was putting out glue traps in the upstairs,just in case that brown stuff Joe found was mouse poop, and the noise I heard in the attic really was mice and not the Biggest Roach On Earth.

I do. Really I do.

4. Making cookie dough to freeze today, as part of my plan to “use all the stuff in the cabinets” by secretly just re-purposing it into something fattening that either has to be kept frozen or eaten right away. The bonus is cookies, but the downside is a freezer that seems to stay full no matter how seldom I go to the grocery store.

5. Speaking of grocery store, one of the [embarrassingly] cheap thrills I get out of Joe being deployed, or in the field, or on duty, or anyplace else he tends to be, is the fun of seeing how long I can go between trips to the grocery story. My deployment record (not counting bananas and milk, which don’t exactly have a shelf life) was nine weeks. I’m almost to three weeks now (again, not counting milk which I bought yesterday). I love it.

6. My son said “Thank You” to me this morning, quite clearly and without any solicitation. There is hope.

7. Four pages and counting into this final paper, and I’m just typing out quotes so far. I haven’t gotten to nerve to go back and find out what the assigned length is for this thing…I almost don’t want to know. If it’s short, I have to pare down the amount of [stuff] I’ve got by A LOT. If it’s long, I have to say something intelligent in between all these quotes. What’s a girl to do? Like any self-respecting student, the first thing I did this morning when I hit a snag was to register for two more classes. Never do today what you can register for next semester.

Wordpress says Howdy

2011-10-13T07:14:00.001-04:00

When I’m logged in on Virtuouspla.net, wordpress tells me “Howdy.” That’s funny.

So yes, I’m up again over on the site if you want to hear me whine about how people with families (not just large ones!) get raked over the poo just for, uh, having a family.

Last night, it was an irate friend. “Does your husband ever hug you in uniform???” Yes. “Well, I just got told that I was headed down a seriously short career path if I wanted to be so gravely unprofessional in front of my Marines as to hug my wife.” Meh. Welcome to the club.

A couple weeks ago, we had a conversation about all the good reasons why we deserved to know when and where we were moving. Unfortunately, all our good reasons revolve around being pregnant, difficulty of traveling with a child in winter, how switching from base housing to BAH means eating an entire month’s worth of rent and it’d be great to move at the beginning or end of the month and not the middle, or about scheduling a move before (or after) flu season when staying in hotels and being in restaurants doesn’t end up automatically mean spending a week with Cousin Vicks and the Kleenex Band.

But those are dumb reasons. Unprofessional. Silly. So bad, we don’t even bring them up to our [ostensibly rational] chain of command. We’d get laughed out of the room. Dumb world.

Foto Friday

2011-10-07T10:23:00.001-04:00

Why not? I’m just sitting here otherwise…putting off working on the quilt. And the dishes. Besides, it isn’t lunchtime yet but I’m getting hungry, so it’s either sit here or go forage and be sorry for it later.

A momentous day for our “new” car. Where does the time go? Where do the miles come from?

At the horse stables…where cats are more interesting than horses.

Daddy’s first time on a horse (he did great!).

Baby playing with car, courtesy of V. (No, he doesn’t really get the concept. When Joe asks “Where is the baby?” his hip, stomach, behind, or whatever other portion of Joe’s body looks likely will get pointed at. When I ask, he usually points to my stomach, but sometimes…other places. Lol.)

The Sad Truth

2011-10-07T10:05:00.001-04:00

Sometimes, I’m sorry to say it, I just don’t get anything done when my husband is around. We spend so much time….I don’t know, living? That nothing else gets done.

High school band competition? Check.

Fully awesome Jewish acapella group? Total check. (Go watch the video, then come back.)

Christmas books out for practicing? Check.

Dishes done? Ha.

Schoolwork finished? Please.

Blog updated? Don’t make me laugh.

Soooo, here we are this morning doing all those things that don’t get done when Daddy is around. The school is caught up (and ahead!), the laundry is done, the dishes are…getting there. And here I am, bloggy blogging about nothing at all. Really, the whole aim this morning was to link to that video, which is (again) fully awesome. You have to watch to the end, too, because the last 5 seconds are really funny, if you know philosophy.

Tonight my man child and I are heading to the local homecoming football game. Because I am not the only one out there that really loves high school football, right? Of course right. After all, I spent 7 hours on Saturday sitting in the bleachers watching a high school band competition, so why wouldn’t I drag the toddler to a football game tonight? He likes balls, he likes the music, and there is seriously nothing else to do around here. Peace.

A Response

2011-09-20T08:31:00.001-04:00

Sheila wrote a great post at A Gift Universe, about her recent experience with taking a toddler to Mass, and how (to be frank) unwelcoming the community was. I started to comment, then kept commenting, and finally decided it was just rude to keep unloading in her combox. Soooo I moved it over and made it a new post. Lucky you!

Ahhhhh, yes. The anti-child pro-lifers. We've run into some of those! I hate that. Hate it. Out of the last eight Sundays, I haven't even been near the Church building past the Creed for three of them. Screaming monster child and I have already gone to sit in the car.

In the Church, interest in what's going out keeps him wanting to head for the front. (No, thank you Helpful Old Lady, sitting in the front does NOT help.) In the cry room, there are four dozen sick children all crawling all over one another and touching things. In the vestibule, there are pamphlets and holy water fonts and people with [silent] infants whom my child wants to touch. Out on the sidewalk, there's a STREET my child wants to run in. So, left with nothing but a writhing 30-pounder, kicking me in the gut and screaming in a genuinely disturbing fashion, I head for the car. Why not try to solve the problem instead of run away from it? Because I'll go to jail if someone sees me give my son the swat on the behind that he well knows means "knock it off." (A swat that works, if I'm able to just give it at the moment, then move right on. No such luck in public, hence Evil Child appears only in public.)

When I'm the only one home that weekend, we sit there in the car until I think the people coming out actually waited for the final blessing (i.e. Mass is actually over), then I drive off. When Joe is home, we wait for him to come out and then ask "how was Mass?" I'm sick of it, frankly, and utterly depressed by our inability to attend Mass as a family. We've gone through stages where we took turns going to Mass, which did bring each adult at least the chance for peaceful prayer, I hated that we weren’t “together.” Priests and adults I love and trust have told me not to worry, that this stage will pass, that we’ll all go to Mass together soon, that I needn’t worry, that this is the first child and the trials of behavior are much fewer with seconds or thirds, that daily Mass is an excellent option for taking my son since it’s short (not as a substitute for Sunday, but rather to give him experience sitting still), etc. But it still doesn’t mean I enjoy this stage, especially since the chance to “trade off” isn’t really an available chance every weekend.

And I REALLY DO NOT ENJOY going to Mass at an exceptionally holy [read = Latin] parish and being informed, variously:

“Of course, if he gets More Disruptive, you’ll want to move him away from the door so he doesn’t echo into the choir loft.”

“Well, thank goodness the Narthex is Quite Soundproof.”

“They do so much better when their parents are reverent.” (I wasn’t wearing a chapel veil.)

“Please remember this is a house of prayer, and reverence should be shown.”

Hmm. My mental vocabulary deteriorates in these kinds of situations pretty rapidly, to the point where it’s a good thing my kid is screaming so loud, or else people might here all the rude things I’m thinking. Believe me, mister, I’ve spent a lifetime sitting behind children 5-9 years old and being continually frustrated, annoyed, distracted, and disgusted by their antics. Game Boys, crackers, cell phones, Harry Potter books, gatorade, manicure kits—I’ve seen it all, entertainment trotted out for and by a class of children who are far and away quite old enough to sit still through Mass. I hate praying and being yanked from concentration by a voice clearly announcing, “I’m bored by this!” And the voice is not a toddler’s. Those children annoy me, those children are the ones whose maturity demands silence, and whose parents are gravely at fault.

But parents of toddlers? Crying infants? What makes us so annoying? Sure, that lady I used to see whose baby cried for the entire Mass, and she never left? That was a little annoying. After all, something was wrong with the baby! Maybe he was dirty, maybe he was hungry, but she sure didn’t do anything about it. I never used to leave Mass when V was a baby, unless it just went on and on and on (and usually ended up being a diaper thing). I’d stand up, rock him, hum to him, give him a toy, swaddle him up, nurse him…any number of things, and he usually ended up spending more time quiet than noisy. Once mobility became an issue, of course, that changed, but in general I still don’t leave Mass for reasons of noise. I leave Mass for reasons of Running To Altar Really Really Fast. (Then, when we’re someplace fun and I won’t let him play, the noise begins.) Oh well. I’m running out of steam and getting frustrated just thinking about it.

Life as we know it

2011-09-13T12:02:00.001-04:00

Ok, in concert with getting caught up on school and being back from the Last Great Trip Until Thanksgiving, I was also able to get the phone to cooperate, the internet to be functioning, the power to be on, and the keyboard to be fixed. All at the same time. This enables me to get the photos off my phone and into the computer, and share what’s been up with us lately. So. Some pictures! Happy for you!!

Enjoying a visit with cousin Rowan. (aka Last Peaceful Moment Of A Long Ride)

Rowan. Total cutie.

Lunch at Five Guys…after Daddy took Vincent to get his hair “trimmed”

Havin’ a pop.

Watching the trains cross in Q-Town.

Spotted at church in Stafford: Rodney Dangerfield.

Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium

Breakfast in Bed

At the Children’s Museum in Raleigh (during hurricane Irene)

Keeping Score

Ready for a wedding!

Something sweet. (Joe is the one swatting Mrs. Cole on the…behind.)

I love my men.

Fixed Links

2011-09-12T19:12:00.001-04:00

Ok. Here: http://virtuouspla.net/. Now go there and quit pointing out all my shortcomings.

That one works, I guarantee. I posted on the site today today, too, all about dressing nicely for Mass, and a whole bunch of other stuff that probably has nothing to do with the actual subject I supposedly had at hand. Oh well.

Also,I finished the paper this morning AND started defumigating Geist with no little amount of success, so it was a productive day after all. Next task is to get all the copies made for RCIA class, which starts tomorrow. The new pastor is very hands-on, and I hope that will translate into my commitment to the program being us a much less responsible nature…I need a break!

Finally, over on my sister’s blog she’s posted pictures of her latest retreat at the convent, as well as the exciting news that the Sisters officially gave her the packet to begin her process of “application” to join their community. I think she’s just a little excited.

7 Respite Takes

2011-09-09T09:32:00.001-04:00

I know I’ve been a nonexistent blogger lately, and there are quasi-real reasons for that, but! I’m going to do Quick Takes today, because if I don’t take a break soon I’ll explode. So, head over to Jen’s and read her fun and cool takes, then check VirtuousPla.net for more fun things. Here we go:

UNO ~ Writing a paper on Abraham Lincoln and his use of the “war powers” during the Civil War is proving extremely difficult. Paper is basically due in three hours, and I’ve put it off and put it off because I just don’t enjoy trying to make a hero of a man who, at least in the very long term, has done grave damage to the country. To remove the lens of modern experience and see him for “what he was in his own time” is nearly impossible—lauding his work in expanding public works programs, for example, is one of the chief ways his fans demonstrate what a truly society-loving humanitarian he was. Aack! No! Down with government social programs! Luke! It’s a trap! It’s a TRAAAP!!!

TWO ~ Irene came and went, we were in the mid-South for Lee and so got to enjoy that, Katia has handily dissolved herself, and now we’re watching Maria. Why do we all get this silly idea that hurricanes come in the summer? They never come in the summer. They never come when convenient, either. In the meantime, we’re so happy to have experienced so little damage, especially since none of it at all is a result of water. The news from further North is not pretty.

DREI ~ Grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast is completely acceptable. Especially since you refuse to go to the grocery store until all of the trips-out-of-town are over—aaaaand you threw out virtually EVERYTHING that was previously in the house because it spoiled during the first hurricane. Thank goodness for insurance, but I still refuse to go to the grocery store.

CUATTRO ~ Speaking of going out of town, we’re all very excited this morning to be leaving (uh, as soon as this paper is done…) for a wedding! Our dear ol’ buddy Andrew is getting married in [very inconvenient] Kansas City, MO. He’s a great guy, a faithful friend, and it’ll be fun to be at his wedding, since he was at ours all those long, long yeas go. Also inconveniently, we’ll be making our return flight on September 11th. Boo. So, prayers that travel is smooth and safe, please? Flying with a toddler under normal conditions is tough, but flying with him under “Sir, please don’t touch that” conditions might be considerably tougher.

CINQ ~ For those who did not go to VirtousPla.Net (see now, look how important it was and you just blew it off before) and read the [highly informative] bio my husband put on there, I am announcing to the blog that I am, in fact, again “in the family way.” Medical examination has unequivocally found that, in March, another Mazzara will grace the world with loud opinions, bad hair, and unwavering brand-faithfulness to Kraft and General Mills. I expect it will look a little like this one, only perhaps female (I’m determined to not find out this time…we’ll see how long I last):

SEKS ~ After a disappointing summer, it looks like Round #2 of my garden is actually going to be a garden, and not a petting zoo buffet. All of the plants now have either fruit or the beginnings of fruit (in the general sense, they’re actually all vegetables), including the two tomato plants “planted” by the creatures that came and stole Round #1. I think this is funny, that half the plants that are now bearing were put there by the animals who stole the whole stash back in June. So anyway. The overachiever of the plot is the Jalapeno plant, which is a little inconvenient. I’m beginning to see a pattern of inconvenience in my life.

ZEVEN ~ I’m back into the swing with piano lessons now. Only one family has not had their “first lesson back,” and when they’re in the slot I’ll have a full complement of 32 students. Yay! Now the task is to kindly and gently start sending them toward a new teacher, since I’m going to be done done done in six months. Also, Murphy’s Law demands that we will also move to a new duty station at the same time. Either way, no more lessons. I’ll be unemployed. I’ll be a useless drag on my husband and his single income. It’ll be fabulous.

Return of the Internets

2011-08-30T11:24:00.002-04:00

Irene was here, Irene has gone, we got internet back this morning, power back Sunday late night. The only trouble is that a tree crew has not yet removed the giant pine in the back yard, and the stand a good chance of undoing all the good accomplished by the utility company in the last three days. Not sure how they're going to slice and dice it without taking the lines or poles out of commission.

Aaaaaand so, even though we were in Raleigh with good internet until Sunday morning, I'm days behind on all manner of things. Should be doing school....playing Civilization instead. Should be putting the books, papers, clothes, appliances, and other chattels back where they belong...sitting around reading instead. Not a good start to the week.

Oh well. But we're here, we're alive, no damage to life,limb, or property, other than (naturally) a freezer and refrigerator full of spoiled food. :( And, also naturally, not a loaf of bread to be seen for miles.

WikiTime

2011-08-25T08:59:00.002-04:00

It's like normal time, except that it gets completely away from you as you cruise lazily from one article to the next. Grain-destroying beetles? Most invasive species on earth? Common house cat? Genetic mutation? Deafness research? How did I get over here? Where did those two hours go? Is it a function of statistics that the random article always seems to be about an obscure Eastern European person or play, or is the random button biased?

We used to try playing a game, where Joseph would choose two unrelated things and I had to get from the first article to the second in only six steps. I never lost, so we quit playing.

Lol

2011-08-24T18:07:00.000-04:00

http://xkcd.com/723/

Remedial TV

2011-08-21T18:33:00.001-04:00

Because we don’t have cable, or anything approaching it, the best I can do is take a quiet weekend and watch 5-10 years worth of programming, primarily National Geographic specials and hippie documentaries about the overpopulation problem.

As a result, my brain functions in only one direction at the moment, which is wondering how to still enjoy Olive Garden and Taco Bell while knowing where and how they get their ingredients. Ugh. Oh well.

Check me out again at VirtuousPla.net and hear me yak about this subject. Or, better yet, go read the stuff written by other contributors, which is interesting and well-written and diverse and such. And tell your friends! Make a daily check of content part of your routine. Become a slavish follower. Bow down.

7 Long Quick Takes

2011-08-19T11:22:00.002-04:00

-ONE-

These aren't "quick" quick takes at all, but rather really long diatribes that didn't seem important enough to put in posts of their own. They're also pretty much all political, which shouldn't surprise you considering the description of my daily life in #2...

-TWO-

I think my biggest obstacle to writing these days is titles. One of two things is going to happen. Either I think of a snappy title but have no brains whatsoever to write anything underneath it, or else I know what to write about but have no title with which to focus my efforts. Writing turns into either a Drudge headline or a epic novel about Something That Recently Occurred To Me. This is a problem if you want people to read your stuff, but it’s also a problem if you want to write at all. After a while, all-or-nothing syndrome makes you just want to throw in the towel.

In the meantime, I live life at the lowest possible ebb of individual effort. I teach four or five piano lessons a week (which is down from forty plus, so five feels like practically a negative number), I stay in bed until it’s just silly to do so any longer, I spend three hours a day just sitting on the couch listening to the radio because I “can’t do anything else while I’m listening,” and I occasionally will put dirty dishes in the dishwasher. This is the shape of summer at my house. It’s depressing, not really because the house has gone to heck, because it hasn’t, but more because I don’t feel good about how utterly unmotivated I am. If I felt like doing more, I would do it! But I don’t, so I don’t, and it ends up resulting in a cobwebby mental state that feels icky enough to be icky, but not quite icky enough for me to do anything about it.

-THREE-

I was fascinated to find, on network television, a paid and successful TV personality who appears to have a fairly pro-life outlook, at least on the “big issues.” Billy the Exterminator is an A&E reality series about a family who does pest control in Louisiana—and these ain’t spiders and voles, peeps. The guy jumps into lakes after alligators, traps possums, raccoons, armadillos, bobcats, exterminates wasp nests the size of a VW (not a joke), and all manner of Texas-sized animalia that are found in Louisiana. The show is “totally whack,” too, with the whole family in this weirdo semi-Goth style of dress and all the black-leather flair and ambiance that goes along with it. Joseph makes grand and royal fun of me watching this show. He’ll come in, stay long enough to see how disgustingly huge the latest infestation of roaches is, and say, “Oh, are you watching Billy Ray Cyrus Kills Bugs again?” No taste, that man.

Aaaaanyway. So, there’s a number of situations in the first three seasons where Billy goes into houses and the woman is pregnant. One of the company’s trademark things is how they use environment-friendly pesticides, which is probably not a bad idea when the nearest body of water at any given moment is 8-10 feet down the hill. Whenever he does his little voice-over for each job, he lists the products he’s going to use, and consistently says, “And these are much safer to use at this house, because they don’t pose any risk to Mary and her unborn baby.” And he always says “baby.” I like that! I like the show, too. It’s sort of Crocodile Hunter meets Dirty Jobs, messy and funny and sometimes you get to see a 23-foot snake. But anyway. I think it’s pro-life of him to speak that way, and I like that this is a prime-time reality show where people are hearing it. Certainly aren’t many other places you hear words like that in public.

-FOUR-

In politics these days, it would possibly be educational for “evil empire” anti-military Americans to consider what’s happening in Syria lately. As is traditional and normal in Middle Eastern locales, large scale infighting and violence is on the table, and no one is able to deny that the latest round is directly at the behest of the current ruling party in Syria, headed by Bashar Assad. We are, please note, not in Syria right now. Thousands of people are murdered and tossed into mass graves, including women and children (who are often targeted), and we are not there. Stop whining that we're "everywhere," when clearly we are not.

Iraq is not a shining beacon of peace and accord, nor was the war in Iraq necessarily just (I’m on the fence on that one, still). However, there are NOT still people being systematically killed with chemical weapons, not still entire towns being slaughtered because of their religion or tribe, not still mass graves being dug and filled weekly at the direction of the regime. We were in Iraq, and now there's no genocide. Now please, the very last thing I’m suggesting here is that we should go to Syria! That's a very bad idea. But I’d like for people to do two things: first, stop Chicken-Littling your way through life going, “Omgz! We’re totally like involved in EVERY WAR on EARTH!!” Because we aren't. Sit down and shut up. Second, think of piles of dead children, and tell me whether “interference” on the part of a wealthy and capable nation might not, in the end, just possibly, be a net gain for humanity. I’m pretty sure back when Ignatius sent missionaries to Asia, there were plenty of European Christians who were in grave need of evangelization and ministry, yet he left the immediate sphere of influence and responsibility and traveled out to help those who could not help themselves. Stupid Jesuits, going abroad when clearly they could have done so much more good at home, guarding the borders against the insurgent Protestant Bible Cartels in France and Germany.

-FIVE-

“God wants us dependent on Him, not dependent on the government.” That was Ryan Rhodes, the now-famous Tea Party member who made it his business on Monday to ask the President some pressing questions. Now he’s hit the big time, of course, with major news outlets searching for him, his name plastered across all the ubiquity of the mainstream media. Tuesday afternoon he made it through the lines of the Rush Limbaugh show, where he had great comments to make about individual responsibility, traditional liberty, the need for Faith. Once again, we’re getting to the bottom of all that is wrong with our country—people have abandoned God and faith (any faith!) and, knowing that their house must be build on stone, look for stability and protection from something else. Would the welfare state even exist, if our nation was still a people of Faith? I think not, or at least certainly not to the degree it exists today. Jesus said “the poor will always be with you,” but he didn’t say that “You should strive to always be poor and need someone else’s help.” We need to take back our country, be in charge of our own future, own responsibility for our decision. We need the resolve and determination to do so, for if “we the blessed” are no longer able to support ourselves or find prosperity, how will we find a way to help those who cannot help themselves?

-SIX-

We would do well, conservatives, in our quest to discredit global warming and combat Earth-worship hyperenvironmentalism, to keep in mind that “green” initiatives are not all bad. “Weatherization,” for example (upgrading insulation, improving heat/cooling retention) is not at all a hoax, nor a sham. It works. Insulate your house, buy expensive UV-reflecting windows, your energy usage goes down. Heck, put a windmill in your yard to power the well. It works! Use solar energy to run your water heater. It works. Recycle glass and plastics. It’ll save you three or four garbage bags per week, and those suckers are expensive. What we can’t do is replace a millions-of-megawatts-wide power grid with a thousands-of-megawatts-wide [and currently nonexistent] solar and wind grid. We won’t kill the planet in ten years by burning fossil fuels, nor will we run out of said fuels in that same time frame. We don’t need to sterilize humans so that the rain forests can live. There’s all kinds of nonsense out there, but don’t toss out common sense and actual money-saving investments just because they have a “green” label.

-SEVEN-

Be grateful I don't get riled up about all this stuff very often. Most of the time, I hear and observe political and philosophical wrangling and go "meh, I have a life to fritter away on the couch," but lately it's all coming to the surface again. Sorry. I've grown up around a very broad array of political opinions, I have extended family members who are quasi-racist, there are gay people in my family, there are people who carry guns in their cars in my family. I met all manner of nuts and normal people at work and at college, and now I live in a completely different social and political environment...probably the most uniform set of opinions I've seen in a while, but nevertheless different and hotly contested at the points of disagreement. NONE of those people, in all my life, have held their opinions because they're stupid, or because they shut their eyes to the truth (ok, well, maybe a couple). They either think as they do because they have always done so and are too lazy to reevaluate, or because they've been fed wrong information their whole life, or because some real, personal tragedy has driven them away from truth (and usually also Truth). It's offensive and frustrating to me, who has never made this assumption about others, to be assumed to be stupid merely because I hold firm to a political opinion that differs from someone else. That's the irritating part, and that's what brings out all of the loud, sarcastic, obnoxious, conservative in me.

Pennsylvania Outside

2011-08-16T13:32:00.002-04:00

This morning, one of the little boys I teach asked me, "Have you ever been to Pennsylvania? It feels like Pennsylvania outside." So cute. He's right, though, it's a pleasantly warm kind of day, nice for the pool, but not so hot that it makes you want to actually move to Michigan.

Also, today at Virtuous Planet, I hold forth on World Youth Day and other things Popish. There's also totally fun tailgating ideas for those who are World Youth Daying from home...

Virtuous Planet

2011-08-15T15:42:00.002-04:00

Ok, here we go! I mentioned a while ago that we met Stacy of Accepting Abundance while we were wandering amongst the wilds of Massachusetts. Thanks to that meeting, she decided that we were sufficiently verbose and Catholic to be part of a New Media project she was helping to start. A few weeks ago, Stacy asked both Joe and I to be part of a group that writes for this brand-new, utterly Catholic, fully awesome website:

It's geared at young adult Catholics, but of course everyone will want to read it. For one thing, we've got nuns. Who doesn't love nuns? As far as I can tell, there's nothing more fun or real that a good, faithful, Catholic nun. We have a priest, too, but priests don't knock each other down while playing soccer in dresses.

Also there's a number of writers on there who are professionals and already well-known in their own write. (Like, lol @ me, right!?!!!!!1!) It's cool to watch it come together, and here's hoping my own, blessedly infrequent, posts don't drag the bar down too low.

So, go check it out! Click around!

Deep Breath!

2011-08-14T20:04:00.000-04:00

Well, amongst all the other things I find to do with my life, I've been involved (remotely) in a really interesting project, which goes live tomorrow. (Look for a link and fanfare then.) Also, of course, we make random trips to Virginia, get caught in rabidly ferocious rainstorms, and sit for hours at train crossings hoping for a glimpse of a Choo Choo.

So. Anyway, the project has brought me a great deepening of my Faith. Again I'm taking a leap, crossing a bridge, stepping out blindly in service of my Savior. I'm learning [the amazingly frustrating and still so high-brow] WordPress.

Really irritated, so pardon my French.

2011-08-11T07:17:00.002-04:00

Before I begin, let me be perfectly clear. War is hell. We’re going to visit a young man this weekend who doesn’t have any legs. Any questions? Next time you do that, I’d be happy afterward to have a conversation with you about peace, war, and all the politics that surround those ideas.

In the meantime, it would be fabulously awesome if people would stop saying things like “if we’d just cut this ridiculous defense spending, our economy wouldn’t be in the toilet.” This irritates me, first because defense spending actually drives the economy in certain regions. Like, many of the major coastal cities in the United States. Kill the military, and you kill the economy and livelihood in a huge swath of the nation. (It’s already happened all around the country when bases are closed or downsized.) But more to the point, it irritates me because the military is experiencing (on average) a nearly 60% decrease in funding this coming fiscal year. Oh God, yes, let’s definitely do some more trimming there. Please. Let’s close more schools, end more bereavement programs, fire more chaplains, buy fewer helmets, and definitely stop spending all that useless, mindless money on intelligence. Let’s make sure our Marines and Soldiers and Sailors have to buy their own pens, pay for their own printers, and definitely pay their own travel needs to and from assignments. That would be a fitting sacrifice, considering how all they do right now is sit on their asses all day and occasionally drown kittens.

It would also be similarly fantastic if people would stop saying things like “all these useless wars,” “imperial aspirations,” or any of the other myriad, stupid comments I hear. What you don’t know about China, my peace-loving, innocent, insulated friends, might kill you one day. Last time you sat down and thought about the fact that 7^th-Century nomads are shooting down helicopters in Afghanistian, did it ever occur to you that someplace like, oh, Iran, just might be helping them out? There are people in this world that want to kill us. Once upon a time, we had a ridiculously castrated, weak, and ineffective president in office, and 30 Americans were taken hostage in Tehran.

The time after that, they put a bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center. The time after that, they tortured and desecrated the bodies of 19 American soldiers outside Mogadishu. And after that, they flew airplanes into buildings and killed 3,000 Americans. Clearly, the way to stop all this is to turn the other cheek. We’ve got a whole West coast they haven’t destroyed yet!

I’d love for you to learn Arabic or Farsi, take a leisurely trip through the Fertile Crescent, and unburden yourself of this notion that they hate us “because we’re over there.” Nope. They hate us because we exist. Every time we fail to take a stand, every time we back down, turn away, or grab our ankles, attacks on innocents and assaults on non-combatants take place. Our weakness is an invitation. Being over there might not make them happy, but no amount of obsequious groveling would make it better. They want our country, in its entirely, overseas or not, to rot away into nonexistence. Why do you think the highest approval rating for our President right now comes from American Muslims? The demise of Western society is their aim, their goal, and (if we back down) their next Christmas present.

In 2001, we said “We’re coming to get you.” Now, has a terrorist flown a plane into your town lately?

Cheap Thrills.

2011-07-21T18:33:00.000-04:00

So, I mentioned a while ago that I was watching The Office. You knew that. But it’s paused now (I still don’t understand the TV sitcom filming schedule, nor what the term “seasons” actually translates to in real life. Why are they all different lengths? Why don’t they start and end at sensible times?), so I have been watching other things.

Like Hoarders, on A&E. I mentioned that one before, too, about people who lose their minds and have a mental condition where they keep all kinds of stuff. It usually means a house piled to the ceiling with unworn clothing, unwashed dishes, un-fixed animals (which, according to the hoarder, inexplicably keep having babies? go figure), and garbage. This show grosses Joseph out. Like, he’d rather hear about people not washing their hands after using the bathroom. (I jest.)

But I like watching it, and unlike the shows that Joseph enjoys, there are no extraterrestrial and otherwordly, bizarre, imagination-based drug trips that can give a girl bad dreams at night. For example, what does Joseph watch? Star Trek: Enterprise.

Pretty good show, I enjoy watching it with him. It has this guy, Dominic Keating, who is sufficiently British and cute to make it worthwhile:

But it also has a goodly quantity of stuffed-shirt, totally square, annoying, self-satisfied, gratuitously curvy Vulcans. Like her:

So frustrating. So annoying. So…Vulcan. Oh well. But, it isn’t that I get bad dreams from the Vulcans. It’s the rock people. And the irradiated humaniods. And stuff like that. Unlikely things that originated in someone else’s imagination and are therefore easily able to find a home in mine. Ugh.

I prefer my own TV. Not scary. Who’s going to get nightmares about another person’s inability to throw away the garbage?

(image credits here and here and here and here)

An Obscure Inside Joke

2011-07-18T17:06:00.001-04:00

So, the other day, I passed a great big, tall, serious, granite-faced, hard-hearted, no-nonsense United States Marine. And he was driving…

wait for it

One of these.

And it was this exact color, too. Last time I checked, this was the rental car that Marines are given in Purgatory. (They get a pink one for keeps in Hell.) So, and Mr. Pete can correct me if I’m wrong, I suppose it was a Marine from Purgatory that I saw the other day.

Which means…I see dead people.

Trippy.

(image credit)

Virtually Reality

2011-07-12T08:05:00.001-04:00

So, clearly, blogging is not a priority of late. Sorry, dedicated masses of readers and adoring fans. I let you down.

Class started on Monday, which means when I actually get on the computer, I’m doing that. My husband has moved into his new job, which means he actually has things to do and works a more normal schedule (i.e. no more getting home at 3:45pm). We had all the nieces and nephews here for the weekend, because their grandfather was in the hospital on the coast. We were the closest peeps, so we helped out with entertaining them so they didn’t have to spend three days sitting around a hospital. Grandpa went home yesterday (I’m pretty sure, at least), so yay! We played playstation, Risk, charades, Cranium, we grilled hot dogs, we threw baseballs, we ate popsicles…it was a busy weekend.

Basically, what’s real and fun and awesome about my life has taken over, and the blog just gets left behind sometimes. :) I’m sure I’ll have things to say as this class gets really rolling, but for now it’s just getting through each day (am I teaching today? What time is your appointment? How many of these do we need to keep?) and enjoying being together at the end.

Seven Late Takes

2011-07-02T20:56:00.001-04:00

No graphic today, because I missed Fulweiler’s link party from yesterday. Oh well. I still have seven things, so here they are.

1. Yesterday we drove to State College, to spend the weekend with Joseph’s family. Thus the lack of Friday takes.

2. It is humid and gross in Pennsylvania, but God at least blesses the land with a breeze and a cool down in the late evening. No such luck back at home.

3. We got a notice that they might be digging up all the rest of the 80s-era oil drums that are buried beneath the houses on our street. They removed one on the corner this spring because it was leaking (these were for heating oil back when that’s how the the winter warmth was obtained), after a soil quality survey came back unsatisfactory. End of story—they moved the family out of the house altogether because the seepage was worse than originally reported. The notice on my door yesterday said that a renewed regimen of soil quality tests would be run to find out if other drums are deteriorating. Fabulous.

4. Class starts Monday, hurrah. There’s just one half left to go…plus either a dissertation or comps. Which would you do?

5. My son was mean and pushy with his 10-month-old cousin all day, until the last 10 minutes. Then he picked up the bottle when it was dropped, handed it back to the baby, and tried to cradle his head while stuffing the goods back in his little mouth. Awwwwww.

6. I need a nap. I have driven 1,978 miles in the last 20 days. Geez louize. I thought I was done with all that during the epic, 19,000 mile summer of 2009.

7. I feel a need to buy a lottery ticket. Is that meaningful?

Gross Motor Skill of the Day

2011-06-30T11:06:00.001-04:00

Removing one’s dirty diaper without removing or unbuttoning one’s romper.

Ergo bath.

New Tea Kettle

2011-06-29T09:25:00.001-04:00

I’ve been looking for a kettle that has only metal parts, i.e. no plastic handle or whistle. Its an ongoing search, since last fall when my mom’s kettle caught fire, and last night I finally found one. And it’s the same funky green color as my mixer.

So now they both live here, green and exciting (both look a little less yellow than this picture would have you believe…) and ready to make stuff. It’s raining here today, so I really ought to make bread. I really ought.

Gag

2011-06-28T06:46:00.001-04:00

We watched “The Fighter” last night.

Wow.

Don’t get me wrong. It was a good film, powerfully made, excellently acted, and all the rest. I “liked” it, as far as feeling like it was worth the time I spent. It deserved the awards it got. It wasn’t a waste of a movie.

But holy cow, the people, the story, the language, the whole thing…and that family. It’s like everything that I can’t stand about sports shoved together, shaken down, rolled up, magnified by ten, and packaged for all the world to see. Whole families going insane, using one another and anything else in reach to claw their way to the top of…a stinkin’ sport. Two guys, standing on an elevated mattress, using padded mittens to hit each other in the head.

Gross.

Bishops, Part Two

2011-06-27T07:27:00.001-04:00

I was going to answer Leila in a comment, and then I just went on and on and on and on. So I made it a whole new post. Make sure you read “Ha, Vindication!” before this.

-------

Oh, yes yes you can certainly agree with both! In fact, probably Mr. Nadal is more correct than I, if anything. His statistics are frightening, his points about the progressive decline of morality in society are completely valid. I've just been surrounded by bishop-trashing people since I went to Christendom. They are well meaning Catholics, I know, and they've been burned on stuff by liberal or lazy bishops in the past (nothing to do with the sex scandal, either, just "stuff" in general). So, these people absolutely refuse to give the bishops any credit for anything they do.

Thus is begotten firestorms like the one over John Corapi, where people rejoice in a man's leaving the priesthood because it will "stick it to the bishop" and hopefully "set a new precedent for priests who are unjustly treated by bishops and the flawed Canon Law process." What?? Since when is the Magisterium and hierarchy of the Church so worthless that we place a lone priest above it in our opinion? Oh, I know. Since the American Church started disintegrating in the wake of gross abuses following Vatican II. Perhaps I could refresh people’s memory on….say, the Arian heresy? Jansenism? Avignon? Times of distress in the Church are never times to abandon the bishops and say, “Puh, you hypocritical old sinners. Where have YOU been for the last 40 years?” Times of distress are times to search diligently for the faithful priests, to support them, to spread their words, to share with our tired brothers and sisters the news of a good bishop here, or a fantastic diocese there. We should give one another hope.

I don't blame people for being jaded, tried, irritated, or even for blaming the bishops, saying either they are hypocritical or else just clueless until too late. I don't blame them--you could ask Joseph how many times over the last year I've thrown up my hands and said, "Argh! Look at this mess! Why even bother being Catholic any more??"

But the minute we sit back and dismiss active good being done by bishops, we're nailing our own coffin. Remember, these are men, who need to be supported with both heart and voice. Praying for bishops and priests is the first duty of the laity in this regard, but they also need to see and hear that we support their message of Truth, whenever and wherever we find it! For 40 years, we’ve been letting marriage slip through our cultural fingers, with contraception, divorce, abortion, etc. True. America is in a mell of a hess. But when was the last time you actually heard a priest come out and say contraception was right? How many bishops advertise “free, easy, Catholic divorce” in their dioceses? The Church has stood strong on the rightness or wrongness of these basic issues, and it would be unfair to deny that fact. If somewhere, somehow, priests and bishops weren’t preaching the sanctity of life, then people wouldn’t be leaving the Church because of that preaching. Am I making sense?

I live in a pretty tight community, generally conservative, and I can easily say that half the people I meet “grew up Catholic” and are no longer practicing. Most of them are divorced. (Another 25% of people are still Catholic. That leaves a mere 25% of people in the armed forces who are not Catholic, nor have they ever been. This saturation of Catholics in the military, by the way, makes it just loud and clear to me that the Church very obviously does not teach that war/warmaking/national defense is wrong. I mean, can you imagine if a quarter of the abortion providers in the country were practicing Catholics? Yet people insist to me that the church says all war is wrong. Bah.) These people are out of the Church, no longer attending Mass, because they didn’t like the message they were given. They didn’t want to amend or adjust their lifestyle, so they left. If priests and bishops weren’t preaching the Truth, why would they leave? I think there’s a disconnect somewhere, and priests and bishops are being given the short end of the stick.

Buuut. All that said, I think Nadal has good points. I just feel like the tendency in general is to not give credit. Lots of people I know will read his article, hear only the “bishops are either hypocritical or are doing too little, too late” and then just ignore the rest. They want ammunition to tear down the bishops, plain and simple. Ah well. Enough for now.

Ha! Vindicated! Also, some cojones…

2011-06-26T11:24:00.001-04:00

‘Scuse my Spanish.

So, in this article, we find that even the secular secularists think that Catholic colleges are too secular. It’s like, totally, duh, man. This is a legal question, about whether labor unions can have a place at secular universities. I find it fascinating that the original intent of the 1979 lawsuit was to keep unions out of Catholic schools, because it made the institution subject to a third-party authority (thereby undermining the religious integrity of the school). In the last 15 years or so, Catholic schools have been worshipping at the altar of the federal government, seeking accolades such as “National School of Excellence”, in order to boost both their enrollment power as well as the ol’ changepurse. Bah. Now we’ve come full circle—unions are disrupting the ol’ changepurse, but the Church can’t keep them out because their institutions simply aren’t Catholic enough. It’s biting them in the behind. I TOLD you there were serious issues with these colleges, and that Peter Kreeft is a little on the wonky side.

On the brighter side of ecclesial life this weekend, we see the New York bishops firing max charges in the general direction of the [majority-Republican, spineless, gutless, money mongering] New York state legislature. (Just in case you’re wondering, there wasn’t any ambiguity about their statement, as a local, secular news source proves.) In Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s statement, he clearly states:

We strongly uphold the Catholic Church’s clear teaching that we always treat our homosexual brothers and sisters with respect, dignity and love. But we just as strongly affirm that marriage is the joining of one man and one woman in a lifelong, loving union that is open to children, ordered for the good of those children and the spouses themselves. This definition cannot change…

Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio went so far as to say that in legalizing same-sex marriage, Gov. Cuomo and the state legislature have "deconstructed the single most important institution in human history." Needless to say, all manner of rhetoric and defamation is being hurled at the bishops now. That comes as no surprise, and expectation of such is even part of Dolan’s text. But where I’m feeling disappointed is in Catholics themselves. Why is this not a MAJOR news story right now? Here we have a chance to see bishops in action, doing something positive, showing real fortitude and manliness and unapologetic strength for the faith…and this was on New Advent for two days, and that’s it. I know people who are probably sitting around going, “Meh. It’s their job anyway. If the bishops weren’t such losers, this wouldn’t even have been news at all.”

Come on, people! Support your bishops when they’re right! No wonder catechists quit, priests get burned out, bishops fail in their duties. You have to get fired up about supporting priests when they are in the right, applauding them for going above and beyond what society has come to expect. It’s counter-productive (and lazy) to sit there and grunt noncommittally, thinking “that’s their job anyway.” That’s like grunting noncommittally every time the fire department puts out a fire. “Meh. It’s their job anyway.”

Stop grunting.

7 Quick Takes

2011-06-24T16:08:00.000-04:00

ONE *+* Back home! What a trip…much fun, much happiness. Like I mentioned last week, we most certainly did meet up with the Accepting Abundance gang. Check out the pictures she posted! :) Coming from the deep South, it’s nice to see Catholics wherever one finds them, especially really cool blogger Catholics that one feels like one already “knows.” Now, if we could just find a good reason to drive to Arizona…

TWO *+* Taking a 20-month-old to see a movie is not a reliably good idea.

THREE *+* The nice theater guy who watched me walk up and down the hall during 65 of the 93 minutes of movie ensured some return business by giving me a refund. Chivalry is not dead.

FOUR *+* I registered for “The Civil War: Seminal Event in American History” this morning. The reading list is short, which makes me nervous. That means lots of online articles and snippets to page through in AdobeBookview. Yucky. On the plus side, there are billions of ebooks on the Civil War, for freeeeeee, and I can read those on my phone. Which is good, because it feels like playing with a toy instead of reading a book.

FIVE *+* Forest fire!

SIX *+* Angry Birds continues to be the death of me.

SEVEN *+* I’ve decided that society’s insistence that kids simply won’t control themselves in regard to sex, thus we must just prepare them as best as possible to battle disease, is both a crock and an insult to young people. “Here, you’re never going to be responsible, so here’s some protection.” That’s like saying to the dog, “Here’s some grass, because you’re never going to learn to pee in the toilet.” Two problems with that. First, I’m sure the animal people are going to jump all over me and say that dogs can be trained to flush. But that’s not the important problem, that’s the idiotic problem that arose when I tried to come up with an analogy for an idiotic train of thought.

The real problem is that people aren’t animals, they’re people, with rationality and free will and the ability to make choices for themselves. Who gives their kids $500,000, and says, “Here, you’re never going to go to class (or study) or go to bed at a decent hour, so here’s some cash to make sure you can afford quality beer, because I don’t want any kid of mind drinking that cheap American stuff.” Nope. Doesn’t happen. We expect our kids to success, to rise above, to beat peer pressure, etc etc etc. When they fail, we love them, we shake our heads at the culture that makes success for them so heartbreakingly difficult, and we withhold whatever kind of ammunition they want that would allow them to further fall into the pit. Right? Bah. Liberalism is bull.

Highlights from Boston

2011-06-23T11:24:00.001-04:00

Viewing Plymouth Rock…we were singularly underwhelmed.

Aboard the USS Constitution

Breakdancing at Papa Gino’s

Downtown Boston

In the restaurant “Top of the Hub” in the penthouse of the Prudential Center

St Joseph’s Abbey, Spencer (where our Fr Logan is from)

The Old North Bridge (i.e. Lexington and Concorde)

Feeding ducks at the Boston Public Garden

Make Way for Ducklings!

Viewing the graves of Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock

Solidarity through the Generations

2011-06-22T07:49:00.001-04:00

We stopped off in Arlington last night, to see my father-in-law before heading home for real (in mere moments, hooray). Last night, all three of the men in the family spoke with one voice. They were of one accord. Peace reigned, there was comfort, there was restful tranquility.

Papa Andy: “Schchchchchchchchchrrrrrrg---psssssssssssssssssssss. Schchchchchchchchchrrrrrrg---psssssssssssssssssssss. Schchchchchchchchchrrrrrrg---psssssssssssssssssssss.”

Joseph: “Chrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrch—ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff. Chrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrch—ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff. Chrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrch—ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff.”

V: “Pspspspspspspspspspspsps—hooooooooooooooooooooo. Pspspspspspspspspspspsps—hooooooooooooooooooooo. Pspspspspspspspspspspsps—hooooooooooooooooooooo.”

Tempus fudgy brownie.

2011-06-21T10:32:00.000-04:00

Three years ago (give or take a couple hours) I got married! It was a crazy day…the flowers came late, the sacristan put them in the wrong place, the priest who said our wedding (who was at that time in very poor health and quite old. He’s still old, but his health is much better these days) had fallen in his apartment the night before and pulled a bookshelf down upon himself in his effort to regain his balance and gotten pretty badly hurt, but he didn’t tell anyone until after the wedding.

But I got married! <3 I love my husband, too. Last year on our anniversary, we sat at home and ate pizza and watched Start Trek: The Next Generation on DVD. With V. And it was a blast. The year before that, Joseph took me out to Cheesecake Factory in Oklahoma City. :) It was fun…I bought a sexy pregnant lady dress for the occasion, and was rockin’ a pair of bright teal ballet flats. As many of you know, once you get to where you can wear maternity clothes (i.e. once you become pregnant), you discover that all kinds of cute clothes are out there, that you never saw before, because you weren’t knocked up. And the once you aren’t pregnant any more, you go shopping and find cute things, and 9 times out of 10 you have to say, “Ohhhh, man! This is a maternity dress! I can’t wear this! Darn!”

So then you wish you were pregnant again so that you can wear all the cute clothes that are stuck in a box in the attic. And then you’re like, “Seriously? But you’ll gain 50 lbs and have to drink a gallon of water a day or else get varicose veins!” And you look back at the dress and go, “Yup. Totally worth it.”

…

“Also, you get a baby at the end.”

Hehehe.

Happy anniversary, Joseph! Thanks for marrying me! These have been the greatest three years, and I’m looking forward to all the rest. (In or out of maternity clothes, too, which are on my mind because I’ve been window shopping all these high-brow stores for two weeks in the Deep North, and I swear all of the cute stuff is maternity. It’s not fair! But I don’t need cute maternity clothes to be happy I’m married.) Sorry for the stream-of-consciousness post on what should have been a thoughtful and meditative day…I realized that this is my first skinny anniversary ever, and that got me thinking about how much harder it is to get a cute skinny anniversary outfit that it was when I was pregnant (or last year, when I was just plain fat). Laughing. Out. Loud. This is the goofiest post ever. It’s going to seem even goofier when it posts, since I’m writing it a little beforehand (won’t say how many days) since we’ll be traveling on “the day.” Oh well. The many sides of me.

I’m not making this up…

2011-06-20T22:21:00.000-04:00

And now for Something Completely Different! Yet still troubling.

This is a quote from the info page for Boston College's chapter of Law Students for Reproductive Justice:

The Students for Reproductive Justice (LSRJ) at Boston College Law School promotes discussion, education, and advocacy on issues of reproductive freedom. LSRJ works on reproductive health and choice issues such as global family planning, comprehensive sex education, contraceptive equity and birth control options, safe, legal and accessible abortion, privacy regarding sexuality, and medical care for healthy pregnancies, among others.
We believe that individuals, not governments, have the right to make decisions about their reproductive health. Every person, regardless of gender, race, class or ethnicity has the right to choose whether or not to have sex, use contraception or have a child. LSRF, a chapter of the national organization Law Student for Reproductive Justice, is committed to educating, organizing and supporting pro-choice law students to ensure that a new generation of lawyers will be prepared to successfully defend and expand reproductive rights.

Like our dear Anthony said yesterday, “Hmmmm…. ‘Boston College: A Catholic Institution.’ An interesting place! Not really in Boston, not actually a college, and definitely not even a little bit Catholic!” He was right. I expected BC to be liberal, and I’m not one of those wackos who toss an institution out on its ear just because they happen to teach “women’s studies” or something like that. Peter Kreeft, in fact, teaches at BC, and said in an interview that, “When people ask me the question about how Catholic BC is, I like to say that it's Catholic enough to feel like my home but at the same time pagan enough to feel like a mission field.” (I recommend the whole article. I’m not sure I agree with everything this guy says, but whatever.") He makes some valid points. I used to get annoyed in high school (and at Christendom) in my history classes, because the pro-Catholic bias was just a leeetle too much. Basically, if a Catholic didn’t do it, it wasn’t covered. Huge swaths of Eastern history (and African as well) were just skipped in favor of focusing on Catholic history. That bugged me. We can learn about everything else, people! Cool stuff was done/found/invented/lost/broken/discovered/conquered by people other than the Holy Roman Empire! Also, for those who hold fast to the faith, a secular institution is more likely to give you a fair shake on your devout Catholicism than is a liberal “Catholic” college or university. Just sayin’.

Anyhow. We expected it to be a liberal place, but the Bumpkin Mazzaras were utterly shocked to find poster after poster, project after project, signboard after signboard totally wrapped up in preaching the need to be accepting and tolerant and approving of homosexuality, homosexual behavior, homosexual marriage, and the whole fam damily of associated topics. Wow! Gasp! We really were shocked. BC Law is a bastion of militant pro-gay sentiment! As Joseph said, “How have they not had the title ‘Catholic’ taken away from them?”

Kreeft says that a University in the modern era must necessarily “be pluralistic.” ‘Scuse me? Last time I checked, there was Truth, and then there was bat-stuff crazy (I have fallen in love with this phrase. Did anyone notice?). Pluralism demands that we set aside Truth as the only thing worth searching for, and demands that we dabble in all manner of bat-stuff just to check it out and see what might be interesting. I suppose that a well-grounded person can safely browse the Index as Kreeft suggests, and not be in any immediately grave danger. But what we saw on the walls of the law building was far and beyond dabbling in “what everyone else has to say.” Besides, your average American college student is utterly and completely NOT EVEN REMOTELY “well-grounded” or in possession of a solid philosophical background. Gad. What a mess.

So we were treated firsthand to a view of modern society bashing away at the foundations of the Church. Like they say (where did I read this?? I can’t remember!), it is not enough for Catholics to tolerate, or even stand in silent disapproval and inaction. We. Must. Condone. We. Must. Celebrate. Homosexuality. This is not pluralism. This is the point-blank, unapologetic rejection of basic tenants of the Faith.

BC gets an “F” in Catholicism, Dr. Kreeft. I think you might have been dabbling a little bit too long.

Jumping on the Corapi Wagon

2011-06-18T21:58:00.001-04:00

In his excellent and gracious comments, Father Z asks that we quit writing to him about John Corapi, and quit speculating/arguing/commenting/discussion/dissing/supporting/defending/harassing (or any other gerund) with regard to the subject. He’s very right. The discussion is precisely what Satan has in mind, the bickering and vitriol is part of his brilliant plan. He’s out to get us all. As Father Z said, “The Devil hates priests and bishops.”

On his blog, my husband posted this very funny video about the ruckus. It’s pretty much just quotes from Corapi’s own video, with some mildly snarky comments from a second character interspersed. It’s hilarious. It just makes the whole situation look like exactly what it is—a silly, silly, baffling mess. Father Z would probably not approve, as it does poke fun at John Corapi. I think it’s a great way to stick it to the Devil. Make the whole situation appear as dumb as possible, in an effort to get people to quit taking it all so seriously and just move on.

But it’s interesting nonetheless, and it’s on my mind. Joseph was so right to point out the prudence of a wonderful order of priests we both know. One of their number was on the Catholic conference speaking circuit for a while, and gave phenomenal talks. He really did. He was popular, he was well known, and then he suddenly stopped doing conferences. A family friend of ours got to talk to him some time later, and she asked why we never saw him giving any talks any more. With grace and humility, he told her that he had been getting too big for his britches. That his superiors thought it prudent to nip in the bud any “cult of personality” and keep both the priest from danger of ego and potential followers from the danger of “losing sight of the Creator as they focus on his creation.” That his place was as a priest of God, bringing Truth—not his great wit and snappy speaking style—to all hearers.

What a powerful witness! And that example is so perfect! Many of us now know the story and admire the priest for it all the more—but what one of us among his “fans” would reveal his identity, or set up the very cult that he and his superiors strove to avoid? By his example of humility, this wonderful and inspiring priest both preserved his own ego (meaning, preserved it in humility), protected well-meaning laypeople from misplacing their admiration, and at the same time gained a silent and powerful following of those whose actions remain cloaked in humility. For we strive to be like Christ, who spoke no word, and opened not his mouth.

Please pray for John Corapi, for he truly must be a troubled man. Go to Joseph!

Don’t Judge

2011-06-17T19:14:00.001-04:00

Yes, I changed my blog layout again. I’m done. I promise not to change it again for at least a week. I really liked the template immediately previous, actually. I like the colors and the feel of it, but when I was writing posts in LiveWriter (don’t get me started) I was typing directly onto the pressed-flowers background, and it was virtually impossible to read.

Which was annoying.

Annoying enough to make me change the blog. But but but! I saw a really neat button over on shabbyblogs.com that was a radio, and it says “thanks for tuning in.” So I want to get in on that action. Maybe I’ll eventually be able to tie in that radio theme thing after all. Just…gimme a minute.

Yawn

2011-06-12T22:01:00.001-04:00

So, poor Pony Boy (the dog) is out on the porch, asking to be let in. Evidently, a family of 11 eventually gets so busy being a family that the pup must wait his turn to be loved on. :)

Here we are, then, visiting the great Anthony in New England. It’s a lovely thing to spend time with a big, bustling, happy family (and their pup). V has enjoyed himself right into the pool already, which in Massachusetts in the face of a cold front might not be the best idea he’s had all day.

And so. Having drunk an entire glass of wine (don’t do that often!) and eaten my yummy curry-chicken-salad-sandwich dinner, I’m off to bed. The gang has V in hand and Joe is playing chess with Anthony. My work here is done.

Perspective

2011-06-06T10:49:00.001-04:00

A worried woman went to her gynecologist and said:

'Doctor, I have a serious problem and desperately need your help! My baby is not even 1 year old and I'm pregnant again. I don't want kids so close together.

So the doctor said: 'Ok and what do you want me to do?'

She said: 'I want you to end my pregnancy, and I'm counting on your help with this.
The doctor thought for a little, and after some silence he said to the lady: 'I think I have a better solution for your problem. It's less dangerous for you too.'

She smiled, thinking that the doctor was going to accept her request.

Then he continued: 'You see, in order for you not to have to take care of two babies at the same time, let's kill the one in your arms. This way, you could rest some before the other one is born. If we're going to kill one of them, it doesn't matter which one it is. There would be no risk for your body if you chose the one in your arms.

The lady was horrified and said: 'No doctor! How terrible! It's a crime to kill a child!

'I agree', the doctor replied. 'But you seemed to be OK with it, so I thought maybe that was the best solution.'

Happa-happa-happenin’

2011-06-05T14:30:00.001-04:00

Windows Live Mail on my laptop has decided that the “deleted items” folder is corrupt and unreadable, therefore I cannot delete any items. This is bogus. If I put things into the spam folder, empty it (into deleted items) and then empty the “deleted items” folder, it all deletes. One day, William Gates, you’re going to push me too far.

We had a great weekend up in Raleigh with the cousins and assorted adult figures. Two baseball and one T-ball game—and I loved every minute. I’m sure after an entire season the waiting and watching would get onerous, but this was just hysterical. The little 5-year-olds running around doing their thing, or not doing it, cracked me up. I got there a little late (had to pick up donuts) and by the time I got to the field the kids were out there in a line, “listening” to their coach talk. It was like a cartoon.

One was facing the wrong direction (i.e. backwards), one had his hat on backwards and was breathing through his glove like Darth Vader, two were conversing, the set of twin sisters were each fiddling with their shoelaces (at opposite ends of the line), and then two were actually facing the coach as he gave his spiel. I laughed a lot.

I’d go insane, trying to herd that bunch.

7 Quick Takes Friday

2011-06-03T07:59:00.001-04:00

ONE

Still irritated no end by this hard return = double space thing. I just can’t get past it.

TWO

I have a migraine this morning. I’ve never had one before. It’s kind of an unpleasant experience, much akin to a toothache. There’s nothing to be gained from the pain, no reward at the end, no reasonable way to predict when it will go away. It just hurts, until, suddenly, it doesn’t any more.

THREE

We had corn on the cob while all the family was here over the holiday. There’s been leftover corn all week, and corn on the cob is V’s favorite food. I (and the diaper pail) will be sooooo glad when all the corn is gone.

FOUR

My smallest niece turns three today, which is fun to remember because she was born just a couple weeks before our wedding. She came to the wedding, teeny, tiny, cute, and angry and having been stuffed in the car for three hours. Our first trip after the wedding was up to PA for her baptism. :) Sweet little girl. I made her something pink, purple, and with butterflies.

FIVE

I’m running out of things already! In addition to The Office, which I mentioned on here a few weeks ago, I also watch the A&E series “Hoarders.” I know, I know, a bunch of you people are just grossed out by that show. I think it’s fascinating, a totally foreign environment and situation than I have ever experience in my own life. Sort of like “Hookers for Jesus” (a real show, I promise, set in Las Vegas) only with junky houses and dirty stoves.

SIX

I bought Joseph some ties and a box for his cufflinks as sort of homecoming/father’s day gifts. Today we’re going out to get him some shirts. Should be fun…not.

SEVEN

Cinnamon rolls for breakfast! It’s nice to have my husband home.

One Thousand Free Dollars

2011-06-02T17:00:00.001-04:00

Meh. I listen to Dave Ramsey on the local FM station in the evenings, usually when I’m home and doing the chores. Certain times of day the little kitchen radio gets a decent signal—one of those times is 7-10EDT, so Dave and I chill together.

I’m not his biggest fan, and I don’t agree with everything he says. For example, we have sharply different opinions about the value of education and the inherent differences between a state school and a private one (he says there aren’t any). But nevertheless, I like him. He’s good medicine for a mind that wants to spend just for the sake of spending.

ANYWAY.

He’s giving away $1000 a day during the month of June, at his website www.daveramsey.com. Not hard. Name, email, and accept the terms and conditions. Just thought everyone might like a little dough in hand. You never know who might win…

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-01T11:25:00.001-04:00

Ha.

2011-05-31T11:38:00.001-04:00

First, V has developed a rash all over his body, that looks suspiciously like Chicken Pox, but which couldn’t be because the only children he’s been in contact with in the past month are all vaccinated children. Well, except for his cousins, and we know they don’t have chicken pox. So. Mystery there. I’m going to give him a bath in the upstairs tub tonight (instead of the downstairs one, which I had just recently cleaned and prepared for his exclusive use) and see if perhaps this is all caused by whatever cleaning product residue might be in the tub. Which is just a bizarre answer, but who knows. Any answer beats me giving in tomorrow and going to the Doctor to be told, “Oh, he has a rash.”

Second, yes, Joseph is home. Thank goodness all his family was here—people to fetch, carry, find, drive, watch, grill, wash, clean, and take one’s mind off all the emotional upheaval. It was a great visit, and the homecoming itself was awesome. I have pictures, someplace…under all the gear.

Third, as Joe mentioned, we’ll be going to a National Homeschooling Conference next week. Planning on piling even more books to our already-plentiful stash. I’m the first to admit. We have lots of books. We probably have too many books. There might not be a dumber thing for a military family to stock up on and haul from country to country. But. We have no motorcycle, no flat screen TV, no game system, no weight bench, no treadmill, no turkey fryer. The books stay.

Requiescat.

2011-05-28T22:02:00.001-04:00

7 Quick Takes

2011-05-27T07:59:00.001-04:00

OK, I missed a week because I was out of town. And I think I missed a week before that. Oh well.

TAKE ONE

I’m still very angry and frustrated that I can’t figure out how to change the default spacing in LiveWriter. I look like a bozo who can’t justify or properly use the hard right return button. But returning to Blogger to compose all my posts just seems like a terrible concession to make in the face of dumb programming. Ugh. I’m trapped. Help!

TAKE TWO

Last Friday I was in Philadelphia. Flying a delayed schedule with a toddler—not fun.

TAKE THREE

My piano tuner just called. He’s coming two hours earlier than he said he would. The problem with this is that I’ll be in town at an unmovable appointment until an hour after he wants to arrive. Not sure how to solve this problem.

TAKE FOUR

Had a friend’s little girl over to watch “Oklahoma!” last night…so much fun! Now she has me wanting to watch the 1999 version with Hugh Jackman, which is evidently a frame-for-frame remake, since she kept telling me what was about to happen next in each scene. And she was right.

TAKE FIVE

Bible Study at my house is every last Wednesday of the month, for the young adult group on base. We’re talking about 19-35 year olds, not highschoolers, and most are married and about half have kids. Unless we tell them that there’ll be food (or booze), they’re not really good at showing up to stuff. Thus, Bible study is often just me and the woman who runs the group. This week, it was me, Theresa, and Father Jose. He made it! Yay! But since there was no one else, we just talked about random stuff stuff. Like, questions we had for him, or whatever. Good times. California Pizza Kitchen “Barbeque Chicken” pizza is the bomb.

TAKE SIX

I found new homes for my cats a couple weeks ago. Don’t think that has been on the blog before…it’s a little sad, but also a big relief. The problem? Now my house is FULL of BUGS. I knew that the pest population would increase without the cats around, but good-ness. This is ridiculous. I hate bugs. If housing did something preventative about the issue, it might help. But no. They send you wasp spray if you see a wasp, ant traps if you see ants, and roach motels if you see a roach. How about CLOSING the BORDER and checking these bugs’ PAPERS, eh? Paco? Whatcha say?

TAKE SEVEN

My buddy Sarah got a new car, so now I’m thinking about cars again. Not good. I’m not getting a new car. Tell me I’m not getting a new car. Please, someone. Stage an intervention here. Stop my brain from going down the new-car-smell rabbit hole.

Q Quickie`

2011-05-26T08:19:00.001-04:00

Key Lime Pie Cheesecake

12oz package of Cool Whip

8oz package of cream cheese

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup of lime juice

Mix all ingredients. Pour into prepared crust (graham cracker or regular pie). Chill until firm.

Our Final Trip

2011-05-22T11:56:00.001-04:00

So, Daddy comes home in less than two weeks, so the sojourn in the north was the last hurrah for V and I. It’s been a long seven months! And lots of trips have been taken! We’ve put over 10,000 miles on the car, for sure, and that isn’t counting the flying and the trips in my mom’s car. Whew. But anyway. This week was good fun. We went to Valley Forge and stole wildflowers from the Federal Government:

And viewed some of the officers’ quarters at Washington’s home in the part (somehow this is too clean, neat, and orderly to feel realistic):

And played the practice organ at the seminary:

And hung with uncle Mike as he received his B.A. in Philosophy (on to the Navy now):

And, of course, spent lots of quality time with Gramma, who is the little man’s very favorite person:

Many Things

2011-05-15T08:00:00.001-04:00

It’s been three years (today) since my one and only broadway appearance as a bridesmaid. Ok, well…not really Broadway, but it was Christendom and that’s like the broadway of Catholic weddings. Happy Anniversary, Cass!

In other news, I got really busy this week! I worked, I taught, I cleaned, I got both V and myself to our regular checkups (plus vaccinations! I’m amazing!), and we managed to have it all together in time for a visit from a friend!

Then yesterday we went out shopping, and to dinner, and to a movie, and then we came home and she altered a dress for me so that I’ll have some to wear to Confirmation tomorrow night. Which is (surprise) where I’ll be the next two days!

Then I come home, teach for a day, then fly to Philadelphia to attend my brother’s graduation from college. I will post pictures from that one. So you see why the blog does *pfffffft* these days? Whew. Almost done.

Down with America?

2011-05-07T17:02:00.001-04:00

…where competent professionals are allowed to publish on mainstream media outlets, yet not required to be able to properly use the English Language. For example (from a FOX story today):

People tell me things they don’t tell other people. This happens in my psychiatry office, but it happens in gym locker rooms and social gatherings and business settings, too. Something about my wearing the mantel of “psychiatrist” gives people the idea that I’ll listen to most anything, without judging them, and they’re right.

Mantel?

Mantel?

MANTEL?

Quite Funny (as opposed to “almost”)

2011-05-07T15:22:00.001-04:00

Lol, peeps.

Thanks to Mark Shea, who is full of these gems. Where does he find them?

Immaculee Illibagiza

2011-05-06T20:55:00.001-04:00

I got to hear this remarkable woman speak in State College, PA, on Wednesday. Quite powerful, quite moving, and quite meditative (toddler notwithstanding). I knew her story, because I’d read her book before, but her live talk focused on the spiritual side of the story, specifically forgiveness.

Still trying to wrap my head exactly around how it all works. To forgive, while you still feel that the other person is in the wrong, is a difficult thing. Awfully difficult.

7 Quick Vacation Takes

2011-05-06T07:15:00.001-04:00

Take One

I’m too lazy to use bold, and usually also too lazy to use italics. Props to you people who do, thereby making posts more interesting and readable.

Take Two

Is anyone else out there utterly infuriated by the default double-spacing that all Windows word-processing software now employs? Especially the software that’s too beta to allow you the option of changing said default?

Take Three

Enjoyed our time on the beach immensely, and then the visit to family in PA as well. Did not enjoy the drive so much, mainly because it dragged on, but overall I was blessed with really great weather and fairly cooperative traffic. So I can’t complain.

Take Four

There are some real nutballs out there in the wide world, and unfortunately it seems like the vast majority of them (or perhaps merely the loudest among them?) are Catholic, or purport to be so. Howzat?

Take Five

My house is clean, but smells like only cats have lived here, in the stale air, for about a week. I’m sure this is because, well, only cats have lived here for about a week. As soon as the sun comes up I’m opening all the windows. Sometimes I think long and hard about not having a pet.

Take Six

There’s a case-lot sale at the Commissary today. I’m going over in a while, but the signs made me think of this post from a friend, from a while back. Too funny. My never-ending purchase of last year was blueberry muffin mix, but that’s hardly as onerous to “finish off” as a case of bologna.

Take Seven

Bah. Now I can’t think of a seventh thing. I’ll leave a picture instead.

Goodbye, Michael Scott

2011-05-02T21:33:00.001-04:00

Someone I love will probably be embarrassed to see that this even made it to the blog, but oh well. He was a dear and introduced me to The Office back in the good old days before I started teaching piano. I had a sick self, a sick 2-month-old, and a husband who could fix himself food—so he handed me the remote and very patiently listened to my synopsis of each season as he came home from work in the evenings. That was a week well spent. On the couch. Doing nothing but clicking “play next episode” and eating pop tarts.

Anyway. the final episode with Steven Carell aired on Thursday night, and it was sweet! I just finished watching it, since we don’t have TV I get on the internet and watch trailing episodes once every couple of weeks.

One felt for him! So sad, so bittersweet, so touching. :) It won’t be the same without him. I’ll miss you, Michael! But seriously, thank God there’s only like 3 episodes left and then the show is (rumored to be) done. I’ve got to quit watching…

Kinda Funny (to me, anyway)

2011-05-02T08:49:00.001-04:00

ADD

2011-04-30T20:23:00.001-04:00

So it’s been bothering me that I had to

squint

to read my own blog.

So I’m going with a more readable set of colors.

Less Meditative.

More comfy.

Mildly Irritated

2011-04-30T10:50:00.001-04:00

Perhaps I’m getting too big for my intellectual britches here, but everywhere I look I see all sorts of poor habits abounding in the realm of scholarly discourse. I mean, I know I’m not really an “anybody” as far as the study of history goes, but I’ve focused on how historians can go wrong, virtually from the beginning of the program. We’ve looked at the pitfalls, we’ve examined the bad habits, and we’ve definitely spent lots of time discovering just how awful amateur history can really be.

So, the historian is easy prey for a whole litany of dangerous errors. How much more so is the casual scholar (God forbid, one with an “education”) who doesn’t have a flaming clue as to how dumb they make themselves sound by utterly failing to properly contextualize their arguments. For example, saying “The Church Killed People in the Inquisition for Religious Reasons” and “Hitler Killed People in the Holocaust for Religious Reasons” are both sloppy statements. Both are a tiny bit true. Both are easily misused. And BOTH could be used properly and without error if you just took the time to drag a little bit of context out of the historical closet and use it alongside the original statement.

But alas. This takes time. This requires effort. And (worst of all!) this might actually unearth information that makes your point invalid. Dreadful.

Anyway, the latest mild irritant is all the fuss about the Royal Wedding, and (more to the point) all the fuss about the fuss about the Royal Wedding. Myriad Catholics on the web, all a-twit at our disgusting preoccupation with (a) the Monarch of another realm, and (b) anything that doesn’t have to do with the economy, planned parenthood, vaccinations, or Ron Paul.

“Hey, didn’t we fight a war to get rid of a King?” “Stupid Americans. So easily distracted by shiny things.” Well, yes, doofus. If it’s that simple to you, sure. We did fight a war for that one single solitary reason. [Cue above discourse on the need for context, and the dangers of anachronism.] But did we fight a war to get rid of pageantry, of decorum, of tradition, of nods to heritage? Um, no. If we did, then it’s time to wage a fantastic war against the Papal Tiara, vestments, incense, polyphony, lingua latina, and all sorts of other traditions, ceremony, and pageantry.

For goodness’ sake, people. Lighten up. Let America enjoy her TV time, enjoy the inspirational spectacle of “two young people standing up at the altar” (thanks, Cait) for what it’s worth. Stop naysaying the poor things on their wedding day! That’s tacky! And stop naysaying the simple Americans whose hearts are drawn to the glamorous and dignified.

Silly Catholics. Cranky as always.

7 Quick Takes

2011-04-29T22:05:00.001-04:00

(Hosted by Jennifer Fulweiler at ConversionDiary.com.)

Ok, these will be very quick:

1. I love my husband. Plain and simple.

2. Had a series of rockin’ awesome debates with peeps this week. I still think some of them are slightly nutty, and I still think that others of them are amusing, and I still think that even others (it was a lot of debates) are complete loons, but I had a great time.

3. I love the beach, and all its wet, ocean-y peacefulness, but would never ever ever ever want to live right on the coast. It wrecks your hair, your car, your home, and all the fabric in your house. Grossness.

4. Happy birthday to my mommy! She gave me Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals for my birthday (which, incidentally, happens to also be hers).

5. The big footlocker my husband sent home has arrived!! The end is in sight!! What a great feeling. :)

6. Got a thank you note from good buddy Tony, and was re-inspired to pray for him that he finds a mate. God, send Tony a mate! A nice girl, who can teach him to assemble furniture while he teaches her to cook. :) See, my husband remembers these things all the time. I have to get letters in the mail, reminding me of the people I forget to pray for. This is a bad thing.

7. I have the funniest child on the planet Earth. Just sayin.’. You should all mourn and weep every day that whenever I get the video camera out he ceases to amuse and instead wails to be allowed to hold the camera. Because if he’d let me video him a little, we’d be viral internet sensations. The internet couldn’t handle the funny.

Dull Blog is Dull

2011-04-28T07:07:00.001-04:00

I should have hung out a sign or something over here, “Gone to Beach.” ‘Cause that’s where I am, and then I’ll be heading up the interstate to visit the great white north one more time before summer arrives. So not much blogging. Besides, I’m getting sucked into all these other internet things, places to read and comment (great place to argue with athiests here), and places where others have kindly invited me to do an online book club (kewl!) or join a writing/opinion group (intimidating).

So there’s all that going on, plus my efforts to cut back on computer usage…it isn’t working, since being on the computer means a chance to chat with Joe for a couple minutes, but I’m trying. At least during the daytime we’ve stayed very busy, either vacationing or back at my house doing yucky chores like steam cleaning the carpet or assembling the last of the library bookshelves. A house is a never-ending project, even if (especially if?) it doesn’t actually belong to you.

7 Good Friday Takes

2011-04-22T09:35:00.001-04:00

I don’t think Jennifer is doing this over at her blog today, given the Holy Silence that many are (rightly) maintaining through Passiontide. But I haven’t blogged in almost a week, and some things have happened that are worth sharing.

1. I have turned in all my coursework! Hurray! This is as of Wednesday night, and of course I’ll be waiting for grades at least two weeks. Bring a bothersome new academic meaning to “watch and pray.”

2. My awesome husband was officially selected for promotion. :) While I realize that this is normal, it’s still fun to see it all in writing. I’m so proud of him!

3. My son, when undistracted and properly prompted, will point to the Crucifix when asked, “Where’s Jesus?” WIN!

4. I received further confirmation last night that, while capable help is better than none at all, I hate when it’s a group of mothers that have to organize and facilitate altar server training. Our situation is unique in the number of fathers available full-time, and I understand that it’s a reasonable excuse, as was the Chaplain’s reason for not being in attendance (Mass at the brig, and then confessions). But I do so wish for more educated and interested men to come take over the servers. See #2, above, for a good example.

5. Will be singing the Exsultet again this Easter. Something else I wish we had a guy to do. Where are all the Catholic men?? I could write a whole post on that. In fact, Father B asked me yesterday if I could send him a couple bullet points on why we needed priests on active duty. He got about eight paragraphs…and I was just getting started. I find myself quite eloquent on this subject.

6. Very sad story this week, about a homeschool family from Pennsylvania. I don’t know them personally, but my husband and his family do. Their 11-year-old daughter has been fighting a vicious staph infection in her lungs for nearly a month. The family’s faith and example of grace throughout the ordeal has been so inspiring—especially through this week. With medication failing and her poor little body slowly bleeding to death, the family made the difficult decision of pulling the ventilator and other machines which were keeping her body going. The little girl died on Wednesday afternoon. The nearly 3,000 people that had joined a facebook prayer group about her are still members, and many have posted that they (like me) check the page every day, no longer for medical updates, but to read how the family’s trust in Jesus has inspired them. Everyone has a message of thanks, or a prayer, or a word of admiration for this great example of suffering, acceptance, and hope in the Resurrection. Really beautiful story , in the face of such tragedy.

7. I can’t think of a seventh thing, again! Just that you won’t hear from me for a while, most likely, because I’m doing a little vay-cay at the beach with my peeps this week, then heading to PA to see my in-laws one more time before my husband gets home. Yay, travel! Oh, and I’ll get the car worked on while it’s up there. Sad that I drive the poor thing 750 miles in order to get the oil changed. But you know what? The difference in cost still beats the amount I spend on gas—even at $4.07 a gallon. How sad is that?

Dinner with the E-Trade Baby

2011-04-17T18:13:00.001-04:00

Aaaaaaand yes. That’s my bowl.

No dinner for mommy tonight.

As Calvin’s mom said,

“And my friends wonder how I stay so thin!”

Semper Fidelio

2011-04-17T10:58:00.001-04:00

For the record, I’ve got only two articles left to read for my paper, I still have 7 days before it is due, and I’m going to have the outline and introduction written before lunch. Therefore, I have time to blog.

Once a year or so, basically every time a bunch of new people start reading the blog, I es’plain why my name is Fidelio. When I go commenting on other blogs, lots of people think I’m a guy (unless they come look at my blog), since I have a masculine name. Occasionally, they’ll get the reference itself.

Beethoven wrote only one opera, and it was a bit of a comedy of errors. He re-wrote the overture four times before he got one he liked. During those early days, the opera was called “Leonore”—the name of the female protagonist. Beethoven based his opera on a couple of previous operas and plays of the same name. In the story, Leonore disguises herself as a man (“Fidelio”) and works at the prison where her husband is being kept wrongfully. She saves him from death at the end of the opera.

I thought it was really clever to use an apparently masculine name as my online name. Besides, I knew Beethoven, most of my friends were music people and easily got the reference, and it satisfied my mother’s concerns that my blogging (this was all several years ago) be secure and anonymous. Fidelio spent three years blogging in concert with roommates and friends on a group blog. :)

It’s retired now, as you see, but full of good memories. More later on how the choice of a screen name was fortuitous, and then (of course) how my current blog got its name in the first place.

Tornado watch issued | surf, advisory, high - Jacksonville Daily News

2011-04-17T07:37:00.001-04:00

Updated at 1:44 a.m.

An unknown number of base residents sustained injuries and nearly 30 homes were damaged following a series of tornados that touched down in the vicinity of the Tarawa Terrace II housing area Saturday evening, according to base officials.

One seriously-injured child is known to have been evacuated to Pitt County Memorial Hospital.

Of the damaged homes, five have been characterized as uninhabitable.

A temporary shelter has been opened at TT2 Elementary School to provide immediate care for displaced persons if necessary, according to a press release from Camp Lejeune. The base Emergency Operations Center has been activated to provide a coordinated response throughout the night and a local incident command center has been set up at the TT2 fitness center.

Updated at 12:11 a.m.

Base officials said there are unconfirmed reports of roughly 20 injured people from the Tarawa Terrace housing area receiving treatment at Onslow Memorial Hospital, two with reportedly severe injuries.

Base spokesman Nat Fahy said it is too early to characterize the nature of the injuries of the others.

Five homes at Tarawa Terrace II are confirmed demolished by Saturday night's tornado, and many others have been damaged, officials said.

Updated at 11:38 p.m.

A long day of tracking deadly tornadoes sweeping across North Carolina did not end well in Onslow County, where a twister touched down in multiple locations in the dark of night Saturday.

There were reports of heavy damage and injuries in the Piney Green area in eastern Onslow County and the Tarawa Terrace II housing area aboard Camp Lejeune. Details were sketchy as officials limited access to both areas while emergency teams moved in to assess the damage and help out victims.

Norman Bryson, assistant director of the Onslow County Emergency Operations Center, told The Daily News that a tornado damaged Holiday City Mobile Home Park and other areas along Piney Green Road.

Bryson said multiple homes were damaged and there were “several patients,” including some with critical injuries.

Military officials said base commander Col. Daniel Lecce had gone to base housing around 10 p.m. to inspect the extent of the damage left by the tornado. At least a dozen houses aboard Tarawa Terrace II were believed affected by the event, and possibly as many as 30, officials said.

Tim Strickland, spokesman for Onslow Memorial Hospital, said about 30 trauma victims had been received at the hospital by 10:30 p.m. as a result of the storm. Strickland said that number was expected to rise as people trapped in their homes were freed.

OMH was working with Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune, New Hanover Regional Medical Center and Pitt County Memorial Hospital. The hospital had received patients from Camp Lejeune and was working to transfer some to New Hanover and Pitt County so patients could receive care as soon as possible.

Brian Cullen, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Newport, said while the tornado remained unconfirmed Saturday night, it was likely that it was one tornado rather than multiple.

After a day of high winds and threatening weather, the full force of the storm swept through the Onslow County area around 8 p.m.

“More than likely … it was one tornado but until we go out and survey that we really can't say that officially but that's kind of what it looks like. A lot of times these long track tornados will have continuous paths,” Cullen said, explaining that the tornado would have touched down, lifted back up and then touched back down.

As if the winds weren’t enough, hail was also reported during the storm, some pieces of which were as large as a half-dollar, Cullen said.

Authorities were asking that motorists stay away from N.C. 24 and Corbin Street, across from the base areas impacted by the storm. Severe damage was done to the Coastal Dry Cleaners at that location, with clothes blown about and cars in the parking lot damaged.

After the storm passed, Piney Green Road was closed from Old 30 Road to Shefield Road, with multiple emergency-service vehicles exiting to transport storms victims from the area. Sheriff’s Department and Highway Patrol personnel were controlling the scene.

An eyewitness said he observed extensive damage to at least eight, and possibly up to 15, houses in the Piney Green area. He described the homes as “leveled.”

People at the scene confirmed multiple injuries, but there was no word on any possible fatalities.

The area was described as a “debris field,” with uprooted trees, a transformer and power lines in the road, and branches and pieces of shattered homes scattered about.

Patrick McCoy was playing video games with his uncle at grandparents’ Montclair home when the power went out, he said. He said his uncle recognized the sound of an approaching tornado.

McCoy said he then jumped to his feet and started yelling for everyone to get in the bathroom.

“I actually felt the pressure building up in my ears,” he said.

After the tornado passed, McCoy and his uncle went into the room where they were previously playing video games and there was a tree branch on top of the chair his uncle was sitting in.

“If he’d been sitting there, he’d have been hit,” McCoy said.

A large oak tree crashed in the front yard, hitting the roof, but the only part that entered the house was the branch.

McCoy said another Montclair home was destroyed and the roof was torn off another.

Nearly 5,000 Jones-Onslow Electric Membership Cooperation customers were without power as of 10 p.m. Saturday, officials said.

Brynn Marr Road and Piney Green Road had more than 2,000 customers without power, said Jones-Onslow spokesman Steve Goodson. Other outages were reported on U.S. 17, N.C. 24 and on N.C. 172.

Goodson asked that customers report outages to 910-353-7117 or 800-681-4146.

While Progress Energy reported more than 175,000 customers without power in the Carolinas late Saturday night, the company did not report a specific number for Onslow County. The utility services Tarawa Terrace II.

The high winds have resulted in many downed power lines, a Progress Energy release said. Numerous transmission structures and lines are down, as well as power lines within communities across the utility’s service area. Crews were assessing damage across the system and assigning resources to the hardest hit locations.

Due to damage that has occurred to several large transmission structures, some areas hardest hit by the tornadoes and severe weather may require multiple days to restore.

For one Jacksonville man, the damage began early in the day when a tree crashed into his home.

Jose Rodriguez was watching television around 2:30 p.m. Saturday when he heard a big crash and his Northwoods-area home shook.

A large tree crashed into the roof of the laundry area and garage of his house, he said.

Rodriguez said he’d heard the wind earlier and knew it was strong.

After spending hours trying to reach someone to remove the tree from his roof, Rodriguez went to an area hardware store around 6 p.m. to get a tarp to cover the hole in roof.

Carteret impact

Despite multiple damage reports in Onslow County, Carteret saw little more than scattered power outages, officials said.

“I haven’t heard any reports of major damage in Carteret County; just of damage in the surrounding counties. For us I’ve mainly heard of power outages,” Carteret County Emergency Services Director Jo Ann Smith.

Smith said the outages have been scattered, with reports from Newport, Morehead City and as far east as Cedar Island.

She said Western Carteret Fire Department had been called to assist with incidents in Onslow County.

Correspondent Raeford Brown provided reports for this story.

7 Quick Takes

2011-04-15T06:49:00.001-04:00

Ok, here I go again. This will be the first time I ever did a link party more than one week in a row. In fact, let’s just make that fact #1 on the list and keep moving.

2. V went to bed at 6pm last night, and woke up….I’m not sure when. It was definitely still dark, and it was definitely more than an hour ago. It’s going to be an awfully long day. I’m really interesting in finding out how to go back to Sunday, when he slept from 4pm until 8am.

3. Prayer requests about this week! For a friend and college professor who has been diagnosed with bone cancer; for my brother as he leaves college and discerns the next step in his life; for a little girl who is life-or-death struggling with lung infections as a bizarre result of pneumonia; for peace in the heart of a friend whose newfound Catholicism is putting her to the test, as old friends and old ways still seem to look so appealing.

4. I have the second garden box together now, which gives me a total of five containers (two large, three very small) housing the future Bounty From The Yard. I have to buy one more bag of dirt today, and then everything will be in the ground. Peppers (3 kinds), tomatoes, peas, lettuce, spinach, and herbs. Yay! And there’s room for something else, I just haven’t decided what.

5. Only one assignment of any sort left for school. Yes, it’s the awful terrible paper for Dr. Crankypants, but it’s only ONE assignment. I did everything else last night, including the extra responses on the last message board. Growing up, summer wasn’t so radically different from the school year that we looked forward to it rabidly—but now, I’m so excited for summer I can’t see straight. Cannot. Wait.

6. My college loan is paid off! That happened last week, actually, but I forgot to put it on the list.

7. Once again, finding seven things is impossible! I’ve already blogged about so much of what happened around here this week….

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Epic Calendar Fail

2011-04-13T21:52:00.001-04:00

I could blame it on my professor, since he fails to make use of the calendar that the school trained us all on back in January. I could also blame it on my life. Still, if the six other adults in the class could figure it out, I suppose there’s not really a good excuse for why I (an adult) missed the deadline.

But I did. By five days. Five days is five letter grades, which (at least in theory) means an F on the paper. Given the way its weighted, it would make my final grade in the class….a 90. By far the lowest grade I’ve gotten in the program so far.

So that sucketh a little bit. (‘Scuse the Francais.)

But oh well. I turned it in, did the course evaluation while the adrenaline was still pumping, and now just have to write the Evil Dr. Crankypants essay for my other class. Which, now that I’ve had a little perspective session, is not going to be that bad. After all, if I get an F on that paper, I’ll still get like a 90 in the course. These are the blessings of doing well on the forums. You can slack at the end and still not look like a total nimrod on transcripts.

Pro-Life! Pro-Baby!

2011-04-12T21:56:00.001-04:00

Met Abby Johnson tonight, the wave-making young woman who left a successful career at Planned Parenthood a little over a year ago after witnessing an ultrasound-guided abortion. Great speech, and of course a powerful message about the reality of abortion as the killing of a child—a living being that feels pain, that has an identity, that was created by God for a purpose.

All this, of course, for the fantastically good cause of supporting the Onslow County Pregnancy Center. I was so excited to find out that they’re always interested in donations of diapers, wipes, baby clothes, and all those other things that mommies with little babies need. Yay! Somewhere to take all this stuff we aren’t using any more (and the surplus that enthusiastic neighbors keep bringing to me—no WAY we’ll ever need this many clothes), somewhere that actually needs it. Abby was right. We need to own the fight for life, we need to make it personal and make our time and our treasure work for the unborn.

Properly Labeled

2011-04-12T07:39:00.001-04:00

To no avail.

2011-04-12T07:31:00.001-04:00

Drank a Dr. Pepper and ate dinner at 9:30 last night, thinking it was a good chance to work late on the paper. I can’t go anywhere this morning because I have to wait for the furniture to be delivered. Brilliant plan, right?

So I did all that. I got the book all typed. I finished the other two books. Aaaaaand went to bed at 10:30, completely as usual. No caffeine buzz, no sugar rush.

But I woke up at 0600.

Like Butter Over Too Much Bread

2011-04-10T18:45:00.001-04:00

I had wondered, fairly recently, at someone I know who appeared to have a mild nervous breakdown as the end of deployment approached. Really? I thought. That close, you would think she’d be happy and coming out of the dark, endless days of “the middle.” This should be a get-busy-and-become-joyful period.

Nope.

Here we are, seven weeks to go, and I appear to be having a mild nervous breakdown. I mean, not anything debilitating. It more like I’m just spoiling for a fight at any moment. Ready to spit at the drop of a hat. Honk at non-sentient objects in the road. Yell back at my toddler instead of telling him to speak softly. Swear at [non-present] professors who have their heads in their behinds when it comes to grading standards and assignment-expectations communication. Buy furniture. Regret furniture. Be happy about furniture again. Stuff like that.

Weird. Too bad V was a FLAMING ATTITUDE BALL on Thursday night and I wasn’t able to leave him with the sitter so I could go to the return & reunion brief. They might have explained some of this to me. But they do the brief once a month and I’ll miss the next one. Besides, at that point it’ll probably be too late. I’ll have figured out how to cope on my own by then, and the entire brief will feel like a waste of my brain cells like most of the briefs that I attend. Ah well. Better luck next deployment.

7 Quick Takes

2011-04-08T06:12:00.001-04:00

1. Up at 0500 this morning because someone I loved needed IT support from several thousand miles away. On the upshot, we had a nice uninterrupted conversation because no one else was awake to be clogging the server!

2. On the down side, our conversation was primarily about our stupid government and how military servicemen won’t get paid unless something is done, etc, etc, etc, etc. There’s a lot to this, and I realize that it’s much less simple than just “pass a budget!” but it’s still really irritating and annoying to know exactly what the future holds with regards to back pay, incorrect amounts, DFAS, and what an unholy mess it’s all going to be.

3. My mom is coming to visit!

4. Still on the Great Furniture Search. I found the perfect items, in the Pottery Barn catalog, of course. I added up all the things I picked out, for the bedroom and for an office, and the grand total was $11, 799. So. Yeah. Back to the resale store I go.

5. To the great joy of someone, I’ve started locking the cats out of the bedroom at night. I’m tired of listening to them play at night, especially when it involves crossing the bed at high speeds, or jumping up and clinging to the end of the pillow with a wild eye, before dashing off again in the opposite direction. I had intended to do this about a month before he got back anyway, but started early because they were driving me nuts. Now, of course, I get up and have a mental battle every time I open the door at night—is something out there that I can’t see? What was that noise? Should I take the pistol, or the big metal flashlight with me?

6. It’s still on my mind, so here’s more of why I’m really ticked off. Actually, this makes me madder than all the rest. Flagrant disrespect for the country he’s supposed to be serving.

7. Coming up with seven things is harder than it looks, especially at 0611 in the morning. Final thing, I guess, would be that I’ll have gone to the gym a record 4 times this week! I enjoy it, except for how we seem to bring home some kind of sickness from the playroom about every fifth visit. Once my punchcard for childcare runs out, I think I’ll quit going and just bike or run outside instead.

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A Song for Betsy

2011-04-07T16:51:00.001-04:00

I'm a little

and

Here is my

When I get all

Hear me

Me over and

3am Radio

2011-04-07T03:17:00.001-04:00

It’s getting to where I can almost guarantee being awake sometime before 2 and 4. It’s either me, V, a dream, the phone, the weather, a cat, or just “something.” I think this one was a dream, but now I’m stuck awake listening to him breathe the breath of the Congested. Not good. At first I thought it was the dreaded Barf coming to see us again, but it sounds like just sinus stuff.

I’m coming to hate the Barf. I know its coming, when he wakes up at midnight, is either very chipper or very difficult, stays awake at least a half hour, then going to sleep suddenly, only to (without warning) throw up in the bed almost immediately.

Tonight he never woke up, so I think I’m safe there. However, I am not feeling all 100% myself, and wondering whether one of the two of us is going to be sick is keeping me awake.

Did you really want to know all that? Why are you still reading this?

So naturally, I get on the internet to see if anything interesting is going on. Of course there isn’t, so I’m stuck wanting to be sleeping, wanting to be sleepy, and getting neither. Boo. Cry for me, Argentina.

Latest assignment (don’t be bored)

2011-04-06T19:41:00.001-04:00

As a manager, the second you have to counsel someone, you should realize you hired the wrong man. As a leader, the second you don't counsel someone, you should realize you probably aren't a good leader. When dealing with military life, I think dealing with personnel should almost always been on a leadership, and not a management level. According to MCDP 6-11, Leading Marines, Leadership is a “combination of the intangible elements of our ethos and the more tangible elements of our leadership philosophy.”[1]

It is a strong habit among historians, especially popular historians, to place emphasis on operational history—minimizing the significance of peacetime years. This is a serious mistake, since those peacetime years are the ones during which critical organizational decisions that will influence the prosecution of the next conflict are made. In the years of peace, “services recruit troops and develop new weapons systems, units conduct training exercises, enlisted men and officers receive education and training, and organizations write the doctrinal manuals and publications that will guide the conduct of future operations.”[2] Returning to 6-11, we read: “If Marines do not have the moral courage in peacetime to meet consistently the high standards and expectations of the Marine Corps, then they are not likely to have the moral courage to make the difficult decisions that may determine the outcome of a battle or campaign.”[3]

General Vandegrift I believe exhibited both traits, and would not have been overly offended by a reference to himself as a “manager.” The time he spent both during the interwar and postwar years in Washington were very much years of management—managing property, money, and the kind of organizational changes mentioned in the paragraph above. I think it is fair to say that one manages materiel, and leads men. Vandegrift certainly did both over the 33 years he spent on active duty with the Corps.

However, he is of course best remembered for being a leader, not a manager, and that’s how I think all Marines feel. According to MCDP 6-11, “The primary goal of Marine Corps leadership is to instill in all Marines the fact that we are warriors first. The only reason the United States of America needs a Marine Corps is to fight and win wars.”[4] Besides the fact that this line is almost a verbatim quote from what General Vandegrift himself said to Congress in 1946, it is an attitude easily seen throughout Vandegrift’s career. Spending 14 hours in the saddle every day, traveling from outpost to outpost in Haiti, just so he could speak to his men—that is leadership. Living in a tent, in the mud, and eating the same fare as one’s men while training (and the nearest comfortable city a mere 32 miles away, an easy distance) is not management, but a demonstration of the willingness to LEAD the men into battle, not merely tell them where to go. According to his aide, General Vandegrift was ever-present with his Division once they began preparations for deployment to the Pacific: “Responding to General Vandegrift’s constant scrutiny and supervision, the division advanced rapidly toward a state of readiness.”[5]

Finally, of course, General Vandegrift did not win the Medal of Honor of Guadalcanal for his management skills. To the Australians and British in Wellington, before the battle, General Vandegrift’s aide “tried, without saying so, to convey the impression that Archer Vandegrift was not a man who would bring a Marine division halfway around the world to surrender it to the Japanese without a fight.”[6] They were convinced—as were the Japanese and then the rest of the world soon after. This was a man who endured the hardships, took the brunt of the political heat and drama from the Navy, made the tough decisions, and was known and admired by everyone that served under him. No one follows a manager into battle.

1.Headquarters United States Marine Corps, MCWP 6-11, Leading Marines (January 1995, 30.
2. Damian Fidelion,THE ROAD TO FMFM 1: THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS AND MANEUVER WARFARE DOCTRINE, 1979-1989 (Unpublished Thesis submitted to the History Department of the University of Kansas, 2008), 21.
3. MCWP 6-11, 61.
4. Ibid., 93.
5. William Twining, No Bended Knee (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1996), 10.
6. Ibid, 19.

:)

2011-04-05T20:35:00.001-04:00

Moi, moi, moi

2011-04-04T21:40:00.001-04:00

New look for the blog. Much more…me. We’ll see how long it lasts.

Lunedi

2011-04-04T14:50:00.002-04:00

So, I spent the weekend with the cast and crew of Consoling His Heart, “helping” out with the big moving project. We took pictures, but they’re on Allison’s camera, so sorry about how I’m unable to just wantonly share photographic imagery of someone else’s private life. If you’re Nina, be patient. You’ll get an email. Just be patient.

This week and next will be mad-dash school weeks, as both of my major assignments to finish the semester are due on Easter, and Holy Week is going to be a total lost cause as far as academic productivity is concerned. So, basically, I have two weeks from today to get all this work done, and then I’ll be

half

way

there.

Ugh. Seems like it’s taking a lot longer to get this degree than the first one took, even though I’ve actually only been at this for, um, 10 months. So whatever. Grueling, challenging, and all that rot. Maybe it’s going so long without breaks in between that does it. Either way, I’m looking forward to summer like I never have before. The break from school, the relaxed teaching schedule, the total lack of RCIA classes (woot woot woot woot woot!!)…all those things.

Also Joseph will be back. Which, of course, means more work, but I think I like it that way. Workin’.

The Project

2011-03-31T20:20:00.003-04:00

Ok, this is what I've been working on all week:

THIS is the newest venture good ol' Kiah has gotten me in to, and everybody needs to haul tail over to www.free-the-oppressed.blogspot.com and (1) follow the blog, and (2) spread the word. There are many success stories out there of people who shut down abortion clinics in their hometowns, and those stories need to be told! Those who are still working, and it's an uphill battle, to save babies in their own towns--those people need the encouragement.

We're trying to gather lots of people from lots of places, tell them how we've already won battles, teach them how to win their own, and (which I probably should have mentioned first) keep in daily prayer this cause to stop abortion providers in their tracks.

I've said more than once that arguing with some people is just pointless--they either are so misinformed that conversation is impossible, or their hearts are so hardened that reasoning is futile. Prayer changes hearts, but TRUTH changes the world. So rally your community, and let's keep them from even opening their doors to begin with! Viva Christo Rey!

Sorry

2011-03-30T11:50:00.002-04:00

I know, I know. No new posts in days. I’m sorry. First, I was working like a fiend on school stuff, and still am. Then, I took Sunday off and had a really great time with V just chilling out. It’s probably been five months since I really did that.

Second, it’s crunch time with RCIA and things have become complex as the chaplain is out for the next three weeks.

Third, I’m working on a new project, which will of course be shouted from rooftops once I’m done with it. SO. Check back later.

Yuck.

2011-03-27T00:59:00.002-04:00

I hate this part. I hate the waiting. If he stays asleep (i.e. doesn’t vomit) for an hour, I know he’s good to go, I can lay back down and not have to worry about being woken by barf in my ear/hair/general vicinity.

Meanwhile, I try to quell the gross feeling in my own stomach—how do other people do it?—and convince myself that I’m not sick. It’s just something he ate. It was one of the non-normal things he ate at the party. I’m not sick. No need to be dramatic about it.

And I wait an hour. Ugh. Gross.

Odd

2011-03-26T09:34:00.002-04:00

Don’t laugh at me. You might think this is really strange, but I love talking on my home phone. Meaning, I like the actual experience of having a conversation on the land line, as opposed to talking on my cell phone. It gives one (like I said, don’t laugh) this feeling of belonging, of being in the right place. MY phone, MY house…and someone called me on it! They know where I live, they care about me. : )

Obviously I got a phone call today.

I also finished the project outside, except for the little “side yard” (aka “eyesore”) between the house and the garage. I’ve decided what I want to do with the area, and it’s in progress. I need about 10 more paving stones, but can only put 3-4 in the car at a time because they’re so heavy. Well, I could take more at a time, but usually I’m also getting other things, so I just get however many pavers fill up the extra room. Yay for the military discount at Lowe’s, though! I’m going to get 2 raised beds, an entire front/side landscaped (including plants), and the little eyesore all done for just under $300. Which, in yard dollars, is pretty good! And I feel much less depressed about the way my home looks.

New project: find a dresser for Joseph, preferably before he gets home and rediscovers the fact that his clothes don’t fit in the dresser he’s got (which, somehow, miraculously, we used to share? how did that ever work? the physics don’t seem to add up on that one). The easy part is finding a dresser. The hard part is finding one being sold by someone who is willing to deliver it. I’ve got 9 weeks left.

Tuesday, Tuesday

2011-03-22T10:48:00.001-04:00

So, Betsy does “Touch-Up Tuesday” on her blog, but I’m too lazy to type that much. However, I do have an overall favorite from the portraits I did on Sunday (no offense to family!!!), so here it is:

Is she not too cute? This is one of the few “good” shots I got that weren’t posed. And I was so happy with it! Then I used lightroom to make it even more…better.

Sunday, Sunday

2011-03-20T21:20:00.001-04:00

Photographed a “Daddy and Daughter” dance this afternoon. : ) Great fun. Some of the best:

Don’t Judge

2011-03-16T23:15:00.001-04:00

If it makes a sick baby happy, then it’s good for the sick baby.

Minor Progress

2011-03-16T16:23:00.001-04:00

Not that I don’t love them all, but I get so much more done in a day without students than I do when they’re here. Of course, I don’t get any teaching done, but that accomplishment isn’t really tangible even when I am “getting it done”—especially since whatever progress that gets made is packed out the door and home to practice for another week. I don’t see much of that.

But when they’re gone! Ah, me. I got food made, rooms cleaned, conversations started and ended in peace, and I’ve read nearly 80 pages of this dratted book for class. That’s a lot of stuff in the two hours that I would ordinarily have spent teaching. The reading alone is the work of an hour or more. Also I took a 20-minute nap.

And yes, I’m blogging about it instead of finishing the last 20 pages. But I needed a break for water, and am waiting for a check to show up in the bank so I can pay my LAST student loan payment. Rejoice with me, friends, for I have found my sheep that was lost!

Ok, not really, but you can rejoice that I’ve completed one of the top two deployment goals! The other one…well, I’m making progress, but we’re not there yet. More determination needed.

How come?

2011-03-16T03:35:00.001-04:00

What makes a toddler only be sick at night? Put a different way, why couldn’t he get all vomity during the daytime, or in the early morning, or right before bed?

More importantly, what makes him get sick in the first place?

Getting By

2011-03-15T12:22:00.001-04:00

Yes, as expected, the moment all the friends and family and company leave, time grinds to a halt. The Sun is motionless in the sky. The clock stops. Pretty sure it has been at least 10 months since my sister was here.

Oh well. It’s going to be a long week, you know? With lots to do, but not much I’m inclined to actually tackle. My room is clean, but not my desk. The kitchen floor is clean, but not the counters. The laundry is done, but not the dishes. Aaaaaand I’m going to have to call and get the carpet cleaned again. My little machine thing just can’t quite pull the weight of baby spills, potty spills, kitty potty spills, and piano student traffic. I need to call in the professionals.

On the brighter side, the season has changed and there are now many tall, fit men running around in desert utilities. Yay! My favorite time of year. Sleeves up, sun shining, lean mean summertime machines.

100 Percent Whole Wheat Loaf

2011-03-13T20:09:00.001-04:00

This recipe comes courtesy of the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion, my Christmas gift from the most fabulous man on Earth, and easily the best “cooking” book I’ve ever had, and it doesn’t even have recipes for “cooking” in it. Maybe I should call it a “kitchen” book instead. Anyhow, I baked this religiously according to the recipe, on a perfectly rainy, dreary, fully awesome baking kind of day, and it was perfect, first shot.

1 1/2 cups water

3 tbsp olive oil

5tbsp honey or molasses

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup sunflower seeds, chopped (ok, I didn’t follow the recipe, I used pine nuts because that’s all I had)

1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp instant yeast

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients to form a shaggy dough. (I use a mixer to make bread, so it’s like a 3-4 minute knead.) Let the dough rest for 20 minutes, which gives the flour a chance to absorb the liquids, then knead it for about 10 minutes, until smooth and supple. The dough will remain sticky.

Let the dough rise, in a greased, covered bowl, for 1 hour. (Now comes my top-secret ingredient—I put my bread in the dryer to rise. I let it run for the last 5 minutes or so that I’m kneading, then I stop it and stick the bread in. I shut the door but don’t latch it, so the heat gradually decreases and the bread doesn’t start to cook, but still stays nice and warm.) Shape it into a log and place it in a lightly greased 8x4-inch bread pan. Cover the pan and let it rise for another hour (usually doesn’t take that long), until it has crowned about 2 inches over the rim of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 350. Bake for about 45 minutes, tenting it lightly with foil for the final 20 minutes (very important step). Remove from the over, turn out of the pan, and let it cool on the rack. It’s still a heavy bread, but not bricklike (I’ve done a few white loaves that were nearly rugby regulation), and I love the texture with the nuts. Totally an awesome recipe.

Done! Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this book?? Well worth the price.

Landscaping Project

2011-03-13T12:27:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I finally gave in (again) and tackled another section of the outside of the house, this time the front/porch areas. There were these wretched little plants along the front of the house, which always look dead even when they’re leafing out, and I dug them up and moved them, then put new, happy looking plants in their place. Obviously, with much help, but I credit myself for ending the whining and deciding to do something for the poor exterior of this sad-looking house.

bredd skilz

2011-03-10T18:19:00.001-05:00

Ohhhhhhh yes. We made whole wheat bread today. And it is some kind of yumness. Some kind. If you’re sweet to me I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.

Meeting Demands

2011-03-10T13:54:00.001-05:00

People have imperiously stated a desire for more blog posts. Why, I couldn’t really say. But they did.

So, what’s up in the house today? Well, bread—way up, courtesy of the barometer’s very timely cooperation. Rainy days are for bread, thanks to science. There’s two loaves of regular bread in the oven, and almost all the parts for whole wheat on the counter. I don’t have whole wheat flour, though, which is something of a dealbreaker when making whole wheat bread. I was pretty sure I had some, but evidently not.

This morning I had to run into the mall and get new books for some of my students. In the process, I cruised the DVD section of Barnes and Noble, which I totally like never do. We found a bargain-bin deal, a whopping 4.5 hours of Richard Scarry’s Busytown, in 10 episodes, for only $4.99. So now I sit here bloggie blogging while V refuses to nap. We’ve tried everything, so I gave up and turned Richard on again.

And there you have it.

Ohhhh man oh man oh man

2011-03-06T20:06:00.001-05:00

So, quite recently, some nice people I love (check their blog while you’re at it—they’re looking for fabric scraps for a project) asked me if I would come up to their joint in a couple weeks and photograph a special event. Naturally, I saw this as a good excuse to buy some software…thus Friday being spent downloading trials and clicking around like a mad thing. Results? True, deep, everlasting love.

I can make this:

Look like this:

Orrrrrr this:

Look like this:

I heart myself. Also, obviously, the new update to Windows Live is allowing me to post photos directly from the writer instead of logging in to blogger. So. Thus my triumphal return to blogging, with new software and other magical tools in my arsenal. Yay for me. Aren’t you lucky you know me?

The Garden Box

2011-03-04T14:11:00.001-05:00

Behold, ye peoples, my project! I now have a dirtbox in the yard. Plants to come…

Testing [AGAIN] the photo tool….

2011-03-04T14:02:00.001-05:00

Isn’t this thing pretty? I miss doing papercutting.

Running

2011-02-14T10:15:00.002-05:00

So, on Friday, I finished my very first marathon ever. It only took me....three weeks.

Which is not so bad, considering before that I'd probably one the equivalent of one marathon in the entire rest of my life. Three weeks is pretty good.

My buddy Sarah got me started going to the gym, which I didn't want to do because (a) it means driving somewhere, (b) it means leaving V somewhere, and (c) it means going to the gym. Buuuuut she convinced me, and we went, and it has turned out to be a good thing for V. He enjoys going, and I get to know that he's interacting with other children. He does pretty well--he's an evil demon at home (stiff-armed a little girl into the wall last night because she tried to take the toy he had) but out at the gym playroom he gets along well. Plays, imitates, follows. All kinds of good stuff. So that's a success story. The drive still irritates me, but oh well. It's 25 minutes, which equals 50 minutes, which feels like a total waste of an hour of my day. I might get over it. I might not.

As for the third thing, I still hate running. Hate, hate, hate it.

Midnight Radio

Meh

10 Things That Aren’t A List At All

Yea, Though Epic Fail Followeth Me Wheresoever I Go

Mild Relief

Seven Quick Takes

7 Quick Takes

Howitzers Can’t Swim

Happy Birthday!

Quick Takes Friday

To sleep, perchance to have a drug trip

Somefink Wonderful

Wordpress says Howdy

Foto Friday

The Sad Truth

A Response

Life as we know it

Fixed Links

7 Respite Takes

Return of the Internets

WikiTime

Lol

Remedial TV

7 Long Quick Takes

Pennsylvania Outside

Virtuous Planet

Deep Breath!

Really irritated, so pardon my French.

Cheap Thrills.

An Obscure Inside Joke

Virtually Reality

Seven Late Takes

Gross Motor Skill of the Day

New Tea Kettle

Gag

Bishops, Part Two

Ha! Vindicated! Also, some cojones…

7 Quick Takes

Highlights from Boston

Solidarity through the Generations

Tempus fudgy brownie.

I’m not making this up…

Jumping on the Corapi Wagon

Don’t Judge

*Yawn*

Perspective

Happa-happa-happenin’

7 Quick Takes Friday

One Thousand Free Dollars

Wordless Wednesday

Ha.

Requiescat.

7 Quick Takes

Q Quickie`

Our Final Trip

Many Things

Down with America?

Quite Funny (as opposed to “almost”)

Immaculee Illibagiza

7 Quick Vacation Takes

Goodbye, Michael Scott

Kinda Funny (to me, anyway)

ADD

Mildly Irritated

7 Quick Takes

Dull Blog is Dull

7 Good Friday Takes

Dinner with the E-Trade Baby

Semper Fidelio

Tornado watch issued | surf, advisory, high - Jacksonville Daily News

7 Quick Takes

Epic Calendar Fail

Pro-Life! Pro-Baby!

Properly Labeled

To no avail.

Like Butter Over Too Much Bread

7 Quick Takes

A Song for Betsy

3am Radio

Latest assignment (don’t be bored)

Yawn