Peony Moss: February 2003 Archives

Peony's Friday Five

1. What is your favorite type of literature to read (magazine, newspaper, novels, nonfiction, poetry, etc.)?

My special favorites are novels and essays, but I'll read almost anything.

2. What is your favorite novel?

Emma, by Jane Austen

3. Do you have a favorite poem? (Share it!)

I haven't read a lot of poetry lately. I enjoy light verse.
Here's a link to G.K. Chesterton's Variations on Old King Cole.

4. What is one thing you've always wanted to read, or wish you had more time to read?

Thomas Aquinas, or at least a good beginner's guide.

5. What are you currently reading?

Friends of God by St Josemaria Escriva
Death of the West by Patrick Buchanan
Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles by Mary Kurcinka

thanks to Davey's mommy for the link

I, too, wish I could write as well as Lileks...

Check out today's Bleat on the war.

BOOMERANG....TOOMERANG....SOOMERANG!

I see I may have to start a chapter of the Society for the Appreciation of Lady Elaine Fairchilde. I thought she was the best!

From Mr. Roger's own website:

Lady Elaine is the curator of the Museum-Go-Round, a revolving building containing collections of everything from A - Z. This mischief-making impish woman is always getting into one thing or another, but that's often because she worries that she's not very lovable and needs attention. As an outspoken, opinionated character, she is generally the only one in Make-Believe who stands up to the King whenever he has made an unreasonable demand. And she often brings a lot of humor to Make-Believe.

She's organized. She's erudite. She's vulnerable, yet she stands up to tyrants. She speaks her own mind. She's witty. What's not to love?

If my nom de blog weren't Peony Moss, perhaps I'd want to be Lady Elaine....

Mr. Rogers dead at 74

Read his biography here.

I have a lot of respect for Mr Rogers. Sure, the show is slow, but it's meant for very little children. Mr Rogers thought about very little children -- what their needs were, what they were thinking about -- and took them seriously.

My favorite Mr. Rogers story: ever notice that, when he feeds the fish, he always says "feed the fish!" or something like that? He does that because of a letter he received from a father that roughly ran, Dear Mr. Rogers, please help me. My little daughter loves your show. She is blind, so if you don't say that you're feeding the fish, she doesn't know you're doing it, and she is afraid they'll starve.

I also get a chuckle when I see the show because the neighborhood (the "real" one, not King Friday's domain) is based on the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Shadyside, near where my husband went to school. (That's why it's so hilly.)

Here are the lyrics to one of my favorite Mr Rogers songs.

When Hambet sees the show ending, he always waves and says "Bye bye Wogers! Bye bye!" Bye bye, Mr. Rogers.

New to our links:

Pansy's reference to the Domestic Church reminded me of Catherine and Peter Fournier's website Domestic-Church.com . It's packed with articles, essays, ideas for rearing your little darlings and instructing them in the Faith, fun activities tied to the liturgical year, a section on stewardship (i.e., housekeeping)....

UPDATE: Added a link to Pro-life guy's blog. Also, the Supreme Court ruled today that RICO can't be used against pro-life clinic protesters! Woo hoo!

Thanks, Pansy, I needed that too.

Going to Mass with our two-year-old has been nothing but painful for months now. He simply cannot stay in the pew -- he can usually last through the Gospel, but once the homily starts it's all over and he wants to roam in the aisles and disassemble the poor boxes. (It's not the money he wants, it's the shiny brass knob.) Or he is commenting on the candles at the top of his lungs: "CANDLES! CANDLES! HOT!"

We've tried the saintly picture books and the kiddie rosary; they are flung aside. We've tried pointing out the statues of Jesus and Mary; he likes them at home, but at Mass they don't catch his attention. Our whispered play-by-play of the Mass ("look! look at Father! see, he's getting ready to read to us about Jesus!") is equally uninteresting

Our parish does not have a cry room, and it doesn't have much of a vestibule, either; only a small unheated space to wipe your shoes and shake out your umbrella. So even removing him is not a good option.

So we've been attending Mass in shifts and bringing Hambet less frequently. It's not our ideal solution, but it's the best we can come up with until he's a bit older and able to sit still longer.

I share your disdain for cry rooms, by the way. The last one we went to was dark and smelly. I usually see four- and five-year-old children running wild, while their parents sit around (or even chat with friends) as if they are luxury-box spectators at a sports arena. The infants are usually the best-behaved Christians in the room.

Nunc et in hora nostrae

Carol Kennedy writes on the hour of death in Sixty Seconds of Fear.

I first thought seriously about this a couple of years ago, when I saw The Perfect Storm. I couldn't get the last scenes of the crew out of my head, showing the Andrea Gail flipped and flooding, and the fishermen standing chin-deep in water, knowing they were about to die. After September 11th, when we all learned about the last phone calls of the victims, I was thinking about it again.

How would I react in that situation -- knowing that my death was not to be in the hazy, far-off future, but was to be in the next sixty seconds? Would I be frozen with fear?

In The Spiritual Combat, Dom Scupoli warns of the temptations to despair that can come at the hour of death. Would I have the presence of mind to make a final act of contrition and to trust in the Divine Mercy?

Virtual Adoration? uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....

There's a very good discussion of the pros -- and serious cons -- of "virtual Adoration" over at Envoy Encore. (Click "Current Encores" to catch up with the comment box.)

I'm not crazy about this idea at all. To me it seems well-intentioned, but a bit on the gimmicky side. If you are homebound or otherwise prevented from attending Adoration, there is nothing stopping you from making an act of Faith and a Spiritual Communion, using a photograph of a Monstrance as a reminder if you wish -- and you don't need a computer.

Don't miss...

Father Sibley's pithy reflection on the contraceptive mentality.

Wondering, are we not open to Jesus Christ because we are not open to children? or are we not open to children because we are not open to Jesus?

thanks to Davey's Daddy for the heads-up.

My Weather Pixie seems to be pretty accurate!

I see the snowflakes falling in my Pixie's box just like the ones falling outside. Apparently the roads are very icy, so I have scrapped all my planned errands for the morning.

Yesterday when I was out, I was thinking about skipping the grocery store and just heading home, but I heard that "little voice inside my head" saying, "No. Go this afternoon. Don't put it off. Go now." I'm glad I listened.

New:

Weather Pixies! Pansy's is a good likeness; mine would be better if she wore eyeglasses and a plus size. But if she did, I guess she wouldn't be a pixie.

We are expecting more snow tomorrow and Thursday. The grocery store this afternoon was pandemonium.

I hope our comments come back.

As long as I'm making a list....

if there's anything you'd like us to blog on, or blog more often on, please drop us a note.

I need to sit down and 1. make a list make coffee. 2. Make a list of the lists I need to make: things to do, places to go (Confession, Target, bookstore, grocery store), things to buy at those stores. 3. Make a list of my backlogged books (booklog?) and read them before I allow any more books into the house.

I am attending a wedding this weekend and I need to choose a present. I might go with a pizza stone; that seems to have been well-received at other weddings... maybe a recipe binder to go with....

Technical difficulty

For some reason, Blogger doesn't seem to be posting our user names. I've checked our template and the field is still where it's supposed to be. I don't know how to fix it. I am perplexed.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Maybe our readers could look at this as a fun guessing game, until Blogger's working properly again?

--Peony

Two Sleepy Mommies Two HMS Blog Vichy Fan-girls

I see over at Heart, Mind, Strength, etc, they are welcoming a new contributor today and expecting two more to join next week.

Pretty soon, we'll be the only people who won't be blogging for them.

But then again, we link to them so often, are we de facto colloborators?

How do you say "let's get a grip" in French?

I am not really feeling personally offended or marginalized by this "boycott France" fad, although if someone still wants to send me a big pile of money, that would be okay.

That being said, I don't like it. During the First World War, some Americans really did attack other Americans of German descent, and there really were absurd excesses of "patriotism" that brought us "liberty cabbage" as the new patriotic way to say "sauerkraut." And we all know what happened to Americans of Japanese descent the second time around.

Right now, the "boycott France" idea seems to be closely associated with radio stations and talk-show hosts, who will toss any idea around -- no matter how inane or irresponsible -- to get people worked up, tuning in, calling in, and driving up ratings. What annoys me is the assumption that if a nation's government doesn't agree with ours, we should get back at them: "Nanny nanny boo boo! I won't buy my wine from you!"

Let's save it for when if we uncover other, less... noble reasons for France and Germany's oppostion to military intervention in Iraq.

New to our blogroll

Flos Carmeli

Someday I hope to read more of the writings of the great Saints of Carmel. But I have the feeling St Teresa would say something like, "Little daughter, imitate Therese and get the darn laundry done!"

UPDATE: Today Mr. Riddle posts St Josemaria's Seventeen Evidences of a Lack of Humility.

Now, back to the laundry.

On the tarot quiz

Shelly notes that there's nothing inherently sinful about the tarot quiz. I know I mentioned over at Karen's that I was going to sit this quiz out, but I just want to clarify a little bit.

Drinking coffee is licit, and some people are able to drink coffee without any problems. When I was younger, though, I drank waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much coffee and I developed a caffeine habit. I've since kicked that habit and switched to decaf. But if I drink "regular" coffee -- even in moderate amounts -- for more than two or three mornings in a row, I start getting headaches and jitters if I'm late getting the joe.

Same thing with the tarot quiz. When I was a fallen-away teenager, a friend of mine and I dabbled with horoscopes and tarot cards. I may never know in this life just how much damage I did to my soul. But I'm not going to risk making that damage even worse.

I don't think that the people who did take the quiz are on Screwtape's payroll, and I'm not scandalized by their having some fun with a silly internet quiz.

I appreciate the consideration of those who did not take the quiz because they wished to avoid giving scandal.

I am a victim.

As the descendant of German-speaking immigrants, I am personally offended by the rise in France-bashing. This intolerant attack on all things French is reminiscent of the national hysteria over all things German during the First World War, when frankfurters were renamed "liberty dogs," places with German-derived names got new, more "patriotic" names (for example, Saratoga Street in Baltimore used to be named German Street), and Americans who were German-speaking or even had German surnames were maligned as spies or even attacked.

Because today's France-bashing, or frog-ism, reminds me of our country's past German-bashing, or kraut-ism sentiment of the past, I feel personally marginalized.

I am therefore entitled to a public apology and a big pile of money.

Back to the routine

Weekends should be longer, especially birthday weekends.

The birthday on Saturday was pretty quiet. I had hoped we could go to the zoo, but the weather was cold, rainy and nasty, so we just went to Home Depot. But that was a still a thrill for Hambet -- he likes "riding" the lawn tractors, watching the ceiling fans, and looking at all the loaders and ladders.

I did make a cake with a picture of the Count -- I finished it Saturday afternoon -- and I'm pleased with it for several reasons:

• the cake itself came out well -- it rose nice and evenly, no cracking, and it came out of the pan in one piece
  
• the icing came out well too, smooth and tasty
  
• I successfully transferred the pattern onto the cake
  
• I did not ruin the cake by accidentally sticking my elbow into the border
  
• Hambet did not succeed in sticking his fingers into the border for a "taste"
  
• the finished cake looked good, tasted even better
  
• I got my supplies cleaned up promptly

Hambet did manage to get a peek at the cake, and commented, "Painting of Count." (Where did he learn about paintings, I wonder?) I hope to have a picture up by the end of the week.

The ultimate sign of the cake's success was the big grin on Hambet's face when we brought in the cake, both candles ablaze.

Hambet's favorite presents are probably the Fisher Price Little People cement mixer and truck his grandmas sent him. He did like the musical instruments, although we will probably supervise him for a few more months so he does not poke a hole in the tambourine.

New to our links:

Davey's daddy has a blog too!
Catholic Light
Dinka
Karen Hall of Disordered Affection has a new blog on writing

Okay, back to mixing icing.

The number of the day is.......TWO.

Hambet is two today. He has no idea of the momentous occasion, but he'll like the part about the presents and cake. No special plans. At first I was thinking about the zoo, but the weather outside is really sloppy, so no zoo today. Having Daddy home is a huge treat in itself -- they can play "tent", "chase", and "cars" as much as they like. I'll make a special birthday hat.

I ended up choosing marching band instruments for him, by the way (tamborine, jingle sticks, rhythm sticks, maracas, and a triangle, which he will love: "Twiangle!") He knows there is a cake involved; I baked it last night and he has been after it ever since. I still need to decorate it -- I am planning to try a picture of the Count, from Sesame Street. (Hambet loves the Count's daily segment.)

Happy birthday, Hambet!

An illustrated guide to Fast and Abstinence

Disputations has helped us all with these illustrated guides:

Get Ready for Lent: Fasting
Get Ready for Lent: Abstinence

Thanks for the link, Kathy!

Tech help needed

I am looking for a way to host pictures so we can post them on our blog.
I've been trying to use the web space provided by my ISP. They offer no support. I know I have to use FTP, but I don't know how to set up my files so that when I drag them over to the server side, my URL reveals a web page instead of a directory list.

Also, is there a way to set up the img src code so that posted pictures cannot be copied or linked?

*sigh* blogging really is like crack.

Pansy, it's just you.

You are the only person who thinks that Michael Jackson is looking weird these days. I bet you think that he is not telling the truth when he says he only had two plastic surgeries. And I'll even bet that you think his family situation is weird too, with those surrogate mothers and the kids with the veils over their heads.

How much wine did you say your husband gave you?

I do have all the answers

Pansy, you are frustrated because you are buried under 200 inches of snow PLUS you told the kids not to lose the glue and they lost it anyway and now they're asking mommmmmeeeeee, where's the gluuuuuuuuue?

Why we fight

Over at HMS Blog, Woodene is encouraging prayer and fasting tomorrow for a peaceful resolution to the current crisis.

More on Friday abstinence

I posted earlier on our obligation (in the Latin Rite) to abstain from meat (or, in the U.S., perform another penitential or charitable act) on Fridays not only during Lent but all through the year.

Richard Chonak graced our blog with a visit and noted,

...that Ordinaries have the authority to dispense from the Friday obligation. In Boston this is done if St. Patrick's day (one of the patronal days of the archdiocese) should fall on a Friday. This allows his devotees to eat corned beef and cabbage.

Do you have to prove your ethnicity to get the minority discount?

Pansy, the students hosting the bake sale did it to point out the absurdities of the University of Michigan's affirmative action policy. The bake sale was not put on by the University itself, but by students of The Michigan Review (which I would bet is an independent student newspaper.)

Don't try to hide behind that First Amendment stuff! Think of the children!

I just opened today's issue of our diocese newspaper, which is usually a quick read: a cute or touching picture on the front page, usually of a schoolchild or of the congregation at a big Mass... Cardinal McCarrick's column... Georgetown parish or University hosting heterodox well-known author... Catholic Information Center hosting booksigning by famous best-selling author... local students complete service project... letters to the editor... Events Around the Archdiocese... Senior pages... Knight of Columbus plan spaghetti feast... obituaries...

I sure got a jolt today, though, when I read His Eminence's column. He starts off by briefly alluding to the sexual abuse crimes committed by priests, and the Archdiocesan policies on sexual abuse; part of the reason we trust our priests is because we have confidence in the Seal of the confessional...BUT (emphasis added):

Unfortunately I must tell you that bills have been introduced in the legislature of the State of Maryland that would make it a crime for a priest to be faithful to that solemn sacramental obligation. These bills would require a priest by law to report what he heard in Confession if any kind of abuse of a child is mentioned. I am not condemning the legislators who are promoting this bill. I am presuming that they are only interested in helping children and not in attacking the Catholic Church and any other religious body which would have such protection for spiritual conversations. However what they are proposing is a grave violation of our Church's Canon Law, and I must oppose it with whatever authority I have, and you, dear friends, need to know this.

If this bill were to pass, I shall instruct all the priests in the Archdiocese of Washington who serve in Maryland to ignore it and to indicate they are acting on direct orders from me as their archbishop and religious superior. On this issue, I will gladly plead civil disobedience and willingly - if not gladly - go to jail. Please understand that I write this to you as your servant and your friend and as one, who however unworthy, in the mystery of God's providence, is called to be your bishop. I cannot allow three state senators and eight members of the House of Delegates who are the proposers of this legislation to force our priests to violate the sacramental seal of Confession. If there is a gauntlet involved in this process, then I throw it down now.

While there is still time to prevent this attack on the sacramental seal of Confession, I ask you to write or phone your own state legislators in Annapolis and tell them how you feel about the proposed law and how it affects your rights as a Catholic American and a citizen of this state of Maryland. If in spite of all you do, it gets into law, I'm happy to assure you that, even behind bars, I'll be thinking of you.

Maryland is the birthplace of Catholicism in the English-speaking colonies. How can they do this?!

Political grandstanding, that's how. Never mind your constituents' First Amendment rights!

The Standard gives the bill numbers as SB 412 and HB 823, designated as "Family Law -- Child Abuse and Neglect -- Reporting by Members of the Clergy." The Maryland Catholic Conference website has information on finding and contacting state legislators, and links to the Maryland General Assembly.

Go, Cardinal McCarrick! GO!

Ideas needed. FAST

I have all kinds of things I want to blog on, including discussions of three or four books, but I am looking over the calendar and realizing that we have a major family holiday on Saturday -- little Hambet is turning two -- and it's Thursday.

So, gentle readers, any ideas for presents that might please a two-year-old?

I am so bad about planning for holidays. For example, I have noticed that, every year, Christmas falls on December 25 . The only way that I can make sure that I get presents shipped on time -- and have something to put under our own tree -- is to sit down with the calendar in July and start marking off reminders, starting with October: "Start shopping for presents." "Check to make sure there's enough tape and gift wrap." "Wrap presents." "Do you have enough packing material?" "Pack presents." Call UPS."

I need to do this with every holiday. For example, February 12 is probably too late to buy Valentines if they need to be mailed. And I need to build in plenty of lead time for things like snow, sick children, etc.

Why Young Catholics Leave the Church and How to Bring Them Back

thanks to the Accidental Choir Director for the link. I just noticed that he is only 27! How I mourn my wasted youth!

More HMS Blog recaps.

Catholic talk show host Al Kresta is seriously ill and needs prayers. HMS Blog is putting together a spiritual bouquet for him.

I was going to comment in my previous post that it was the perceived hypocrisy of the Church -- "nobody really believes this, they're all just going through the motions" -- that drove me to reject the church in my high school and early college years. It was the reality of the Mystical Body of Christ -- of our ability to help each other through our prayers and sacrifices -- that helped bring me back.

Time to go offer up the ironing for Mr Kresta.

For those who are just now emerging from their duct-taped, plastic-sheeted basements...

A quick recap (and, in the spirit of G.K. Chesterton, a little short on details...) Sisters of Mercy, running a high school in Michigan someplace, have a charity auction to benefit the school. One of the prizes was lunch with Governor Jennifer "I'm a good Catholic who thinks it's immoral to force my views on abortion on others, thereby allowing others to force their views on everyone else" Granholm. Under pressure, the Sisters nixed the award. Now it's back on again. HMS Blog is coordinating an effort to let the Sisters (and Cardinal Maida, who has declined to intervene) know how ...distasteful ... this "prize" is.

Greg Popcak also links to this scathing reflection on episcopal passivity.

Oh, and it snowed last weekend in some parts of the country.

Do not eat or drink while reading this latest offering from The Curt Jester..

Comments: a haiku
(in the style of Kathy the Carmelite)

Wow! More comments --
but no, Enetation's down.
I knew this'd happen!

The Siiiiiiiimp-sooooooooooooons................

Victor links to this article on The Simpsons. Everybody seems to agree that the show has lost its touch, but somebody must be watching it....

I was a sophomore in college when The Simpsons got a regular spot on Fox. I was living in an off-campus dormitory (next door to a mental hospital.) Sunday nights were pretty grim -- all these carless sophomores who'd drawn terrible room lottery numbers, sitting around looking at each other because the bus didn't run to campus on Sunday nights and, no matter what they promised, your friends were never coming to visit you.

At 7:55 PM on Sundays, one of the guys on the first floor would climb on top of a table and start twiddling with the rabbit ears on the hall TV. A couple of other guys would stand in the stairwells and bellow SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMPSOOOOOOOOONS!. The doors would start opening and slamming shut as dozens of sophomores scurried down to the first-floor lounge toting popcorn or whatever else they could come up with in the way of snacks. I must sound like I'm about a hundred years old: hall TVs...rabbit ears...TV lounges.... Anyway, the show seemed fresh and daring then, especially to a bunch of sophomores, and watching it with forty other people was a treat in itself.

So now I'm an old married lady. My husband and I had been complaining about the decline in The Simpsons since around 1998 or so, but kept watching it out of loyalty, until the infamous Frank Grimes episode. I thought it had finally hit its low point, until they killed off Maude Flanders.

We did catch the 300th episode last night. It was a "guest voice" episode, where they shoehorned Tony Hawk into a plot involving a skateboard competition. *yawn* The next episode was sharper -- I particularly liked the Seven Sisters dream sequence, although the Sapphic joke could perhaps have been omitted (there are people who allow their children to watch the show.)

My favorite episodes are "Twenty-two Short Films about Springfield" and "Homer Goes to Clown College."

Digging out

Well, we got about two feet total, and that is a lot for us. My husband and I have been taking turns shoveling out. He went out twice yesterday during the day; during the evening we threw some business to the kid next door. Today I took a turn and was able to clear the sidewalks and about half the driveway. Our biggest challenge will be dealing with the snow mountains that the county's plows left at the base of the driveway. They are about four feet high, and too close together to let our car back out.

Tomorrow I might take Hambet outside and let him chip away at the snowbanks with his little shovel and pail. So far he seems unimpressed by the mounds of snow.

Fast and abstinence outside of Lent

Those helpful folks at EWTN laid it all out for me. (Follow the link to "General Questions", then "Fast and Abstinence.") I should have consulted them before I thawed out those steaks on Valentine's Day (emphasis added):

Canon 1250 All Fridays through the year and the time of Lent are penitential days and times throughout the entire Church.

Canon 1251 Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless (nisi) they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

...On the Fridays outside of Lent the U.S. bishops conference obtained the permission of the Holy See for Catholics in the US to substitute a penitential, or even a charitable, practice of their own choosing. They must do some penitential/charitable practice on these Fridays. For most people the easiest practice to consistently fulfill will be the traditional one, to abstain from meat on all Fridays of the year. During Lent abstinence from meat on Fridays is obligatory in the United States as elsewhere.

Now I know.

Bloginality

My Bloginality is INTJ. This lines up with when I took the full Myers-Briggs at work.

Thanks to Alicia for the link.

From the mailbag:

"Great blog! Are you going to have comments?"

"I love your blog. Ever thought about adding comments?"

"You need comments."

Please comment away.

WHOA.

We have about six inches of snow this morning and it's still snowing hard. (On a whim, my husband went out to look for the newspaper -- it had actually come! Good thing he went out when he did, or we might not have found it until spring.) Cardinal McCarrick and Bishop Loverde have a joint reminder that Sunday Mass is not obligatory in cases of grave inconvenience.

The birthday party last night was a lot of fun. The hosts (the children of the birthday lady) had rented the parish school's cafeteria for desserts and dancing. They were very pleased to see Hambet. The hosts had a clown there to help keep the children entertained. Hambet was very interested in her, and she was so good with him -- she allowed Hambet to approach her instead of falling on him with a "WELL HELLO THERE LITTLE BOY!" or something like that.

Last night Hambet did something new and very interesting. He likes playing with the remote control -- nothing new there, except that when he's done playing with it he doesn't always leave it in an obvious location. Last time he hid it, it was gone for four months.

So when we noticed the remote was missing again, we started looking in all the usual places -- sofa cushions, under the chairs, under the TV stand. Hambet watched with interest as we asked him, "Where's the clicker? Where did you put the clicker?"

Finally he announced, "Clicker" and pointed to the VCR. Posco reached inside the slot and sure enough, there it was. So should we be exasperated that Hambet fed the clicker to the VCR, or be relieved that he could finally remember where he put it and tell us about it?

Updates

I added a blurb with an email policy (Welborn protocol.) We're so gratified that people have taken the time to write in -- thank you so much!

Also added permalinks to blogs After abortion and The SICLE cell. They're in their own little section above the St Blog's links.

Ashli's story infuriates me. There is so much that is unknown about women's reproductive health, yet when self-styled women's advocacy groups talk about "women's health," all they're talking about is contraception and abortion.

I have polycystic ovary syndrome and consulted three or four doctors before I finally got a diagnosis (not counting my husband's correct diagnosis -- which he made by comparing my symptoms to the ones listed in a newspaper article.) Last year I consulted a "conventional" reproductive endocrinologist about treatment. He offered a great deal of eye-rolling when I proffered my NaPro charts, and went on to discuss the various Pill options (yuk), Clomid (morally acceptable, but it makes me queasy), and IVF (double yuk). Some choice! He then went on to tell me that there wasn't anything he could do for me while I was breastfeeding, so I should come back after Hambet weaned.

A Snowy Saturday

We have about three or four inches of snow, and the weather frogs are predicting more for tomorrow. We've spent the day puttering around the house. My husband has the driveway nice and clean (the sidewalks too -- thank you sweetheart); I finally finished filing the backlog of filing on top of the file cabinet. Next time I'm tempted to plop a paper on top of the cabinet "for later", I will have to remember what an odious chore it is to file through a six-inch-high stack of paper.

We are invited to a birthday party this evening. I checked in with the hosts earlier today, and they said it was on, but it's snowing again so I'm not sure what we're going to do. The party is for a lady we know from our previous parish -- she is turning 80 -- and I suspect she would be tickled if Hambet attended. She has informed me on several occasions that I need to get out more -- and of course, leave Hambet with her!

I don't get it.

Take the test, by Emily.

I have never seen Veggie Tales! but I suppose that won't last too much longer.

My husband stayed home today (previously planned, just for a break) so we had a nice family day together. Slept late; made waffles for breakfast. First time I've ever made them, so I was pleased when they came out edible. Hambet seemed to like them, even though he called them "awfuls."

Took Hambet to his "tiny tots" class; tears through the first half of the Hello Song, and clinging through the second song, but afterwards cheerful participation. He seems to be growing to like the class. Lunch, and then a trip to the grocery store, where the sample lady was cheerfully offering bites of chocolate cake while the pre-snow panic swirled around her. Back home. Puttered around the house. A nice dinner (steak, twice-baked potatoes, sorbet for dessert.)

Hambet came out with a couple of sentences today, his longest ones yet. When he woke up this morning, I had already gone downstairs, so he asked his daddy, "Show me Mommy?" Later, he told us, "I want draw picture." "I want juice." At dinner, when daddy asked him what he did in class, Hambet was able to tell him, "Kids! Trudi [the teacher]. Songs." This is the first time he's had an answer to "tell daddy about class" (or about whatever we did that day.)

Hambet's first word was exactly one year ago today: "Daddy."

Brutal.

This vocabulary test made my brain hurt. Ouch.

Link thanks to Pdawwg, who did not post her score. (Mine was 177.)

A must-read:

A reality check on surviving Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological attacks posted by Woodene Koenig-Bricker at HMS Blog.

Tried again to buy bottled water today; out of luck. We are expecting a winter storm tonight, too, so that just added to the mayhem at the grocery store.

The Curt Jester warns us about Blogger Addiction Disorder

Of course, I only post this as a public service, not because I am afflicted with this disorder. I can stop any time I want to.

Housewife stuff: Peony's turn

Got the car seat cleaned, reassembled, and reinstalled, but that was the only thing I got done before we left this morning. I still forget sometimes to tack on an extra 20 minutes to capture Hambet, change his diaper, make sure the diaper bag is stocked, capture Hambet again, etc.... Happily, traffic was light and we were on time to our friend's house at ten.

By happy coincidence, a local car dealer's car seat check was today (you just drive up and get your seat checked. Convenient, and free. He's got my business for life!) So we drove over and let the technicians reinstall the car seat. I didn't feel so bad about my poor job when I saw these two big guys struggling to install the stupid thing (one of them was practically sitting in it.)

Back home. Read the mail. Made some mac and cheese for lunch. Sorted the laundry and started a load. Pending: loading and running the dishwasher, and making supper. Still want to make cookies some time this week.

I still have some outstanding items on my grocery list, but I think I'll go to the store tomorrow. I went last night, leaving Hambet home to play with Daddy. Apples -- check. Evaporated milk -- check. Raspberry-flavored coffee (quick, write it on the list so I can check it off.) Yogurt -- check. Bottled water...bottled water... uh-oh. Nothing on the shelf except for a few bottles of San Pellegrino.

That was so depressing I forgot about the vinegar and checked out. As soon as I stepped in the door, I heard Hambet's voice singing "Mommeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" He had been playing happily with Daddy, but he still flung himself at me as if I'd been gone for thirty-two days instead of thirty-two minutes.

Like Pansy, I don't understand people who despise motherhood and its little pleasures.

a busy morning

This morning I need to be out of the house by 9:30. Before we leave I need to (in no particular order) reassemble and install Hambet's car seat, assemble and dress Hambet, have some breakfast myself. I would also like to assemble three Valentines for mailing (they are already late) and read for fifteen minutes. Can I do this? Probably not and blog too.

As I was thinking about my to-do list this morning in the shower I asked Hambet's guardian angel to help him sleep very, very late. I opened the door of the bath to find a sleepy headed toddler standing in front of me, rapidly waking up and ready for breakfast.

Oh well.

An Atlanta-based cable company said Tuesday it plans to launch a 24-hour news channel aimed at black viewers late this year or early in 2004.

According to the article, the planned network is going to be called, "MBC News: The Urban Voice."

(A quibble -- the assumption underlying "urban voice". What about all the black people who make their homes in the burbs and in rural areas?)

New link:

Added a link to the article Human Devlopment and Morality, by Pansy's dad, Deacon Gerald DeMauro. It's also permalinked there on the left.

True Confessions

I actually have been skipping breakfast a lot lately, which is strange for me. Or I've been eating weird food, like Triscuits or Hambet's leftover scrambled egg.

No wonder I've been under the weather a lot.

And no, I'm not pregnant.

More on parenting and the capacity to respond to God

One of Mark Shea's commenters suggested this article, The Psychology of Atheism.

Peony's granolacon credentials

At present I do not own a pair of Birkenstocks; when I'm carting around a little person I am afraid of tripping on the sandals or having the clogs fall off. When I was doing direct patient care in the hospital (I am a nurse) I wore white Birk clogs. The last pair did not fit well, so that put me off them for a while. Right now I wear cheap shoes from Target. My next pair of shoes may be Birks or an equivalent.

For breakfast I usually eat Kashi Good Friends cereal, which makes granola look like Cookie Crisps, or store-brand Cheerios.

Let's pray for Martha Stewart too, while we're at it.

After I wrote the last piece I poked around in Rod Dreher's archives and found a nice one on poor Martha. In my list of "Five Guilty Pleasures" I did not include "leafing through the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living" because I don't feel guilty about it.

I also liked his article on Granola Conservatism, by the way.

Pray for Ted Turner

Sometimes after dinner, as I enjoy a glass of wine with my husband, taking in the evening news as our little son attempts to scale the television set and adjust the antenna plays at our feet, I see a news item that prompts me to speculate how I would address a problem or deal with a nettlesome celebrity, were I running the proverbial joint. (This usually involves me being a dictator of some kind and handing down a sentence of time in the stocks, public flogging, deportation, etc..) And a sure way to get me thinking along these lines is a news story on the lastest theological reflections of Mr. Ted "Christianity is a religion for losers" Turner.

But I was very moved by Rod Dreher's column this morning on Ted Turner and faith. (Thanks to Father Tucker for the link.) Although the column mostly dwells on the young Turner's loss of faith as stemming from despair over his sister's fatal illness, Dreher also notes Turner's father's "emotional abuse."

That reference to abuse really caught my attention. I almost become frightened when I reflect on how strongly our relationships with our parents can affect our ability to have a relationship with God. It's not just parents modelling good habits of virtue and piety, though of course that's important. It's the basic psychic groundwork of little children knowing they can really count on their parents -- associating the words "mother" and especially "father" with warmth and love instead of ambivalence or even fear. Saint Therese of Liseux had a terrific relationship with her parents, and I wonder if that didn't give her the ability to express so beautifully the idea of spiritual childhood and trust in God the Father. So many little children grow up begging for bread and getting rocks instead (maybe expensive stones , but still just stones) -- are they going to even know that bread is out there, and that they're not fools for wanting it? Will they trust the One who offers it?

As far as "how can a good God permit suffering and evil", that is a serious question that I freely admit I can't answer. But it's also one that, when I was younger and flirting with atheism, I never really asked. I had the impression that if God existed, He certainly didn't owe me anything.

Rod Dreher closes his article with a saying I want to tape to the fridge, a saying attributed to the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria:

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle."

De festae amoris et dieibus poenitentiae

well, not really. This is kind of a quibble post that I could turn into an eloquent meditation on being a Christian living in the world, obeying the laws of the Church without being priggish, noting how our earthly pilgrimage is both feasting and fasting, etc, but my toddler is swarming all over my lap. And he's got a pencil.

My entire childhood catechesis can be summed up in two phrases: "The Church is a family!" and "The seven sacraments are Baptism, Reconciliation.... etc." So it wasn't until in the last couple of years that I learned that we are still supposed to be abstaining from meat on Fridays -- and even then I don't know what the letter of the law is. (Is it a recommended option -- "you don't have to abstain, but it's a really good idea?" Is it in canon law? Can we freely substitute a different mortification -- for example, giving up coffee or chocolate?)

And what to do when a day of fast conflicts with a day of feast? Which one trumps? Specifically, Valentine's Day falls on Friday this year. Let's say that nothing says "love" to my Valentine like a nice steak. Should I fix lobster instead? well, lobster isn't exactly penitential....seems like that's adhering to the letter of the law and not to the spirit. Should good little Catholic boys and girls sit out the school Valentine's Day party this year?

The general principle, of course, is that the Church calendar comes first -- for example, when planning New Year's Day celebrations, Mass is the first consideration.

What this all boils down to, of course, is that I want to licitly cook a Valentine-pleasing meal on Friday without "cheating." I do want it both ways! Is cooking "fancy" fish an authentically Catholic way of rendering to Our Lord what is due Our Lord, and to Cupid what is Cupid's? (Kind of like the Italian tradition of the Christmas Eve fish extravaganza?)

P.S. Yes, yes, yes, 99.99% of the celebration of Valentine's Day is secular and has nothing to do with the holy bishop and martyr. But we don't have to reject secular fun merely for being secular. Reject it for being immoral or whatever, but not merely for being secular.

In quizzibus veritas

I see that Kathy the Carmelite is both "a Grasshopper cocktail" and "heroic couplets." Obviously a woman of taste and erudition.

And yes, I know that quizzibus is not even pig Latin, but I don't have my Latin dictionary handy. I read once that there is a Latinist at the Vatican whose job is to define how newly coined words (computer, fax machine, blog) shall be rendered in Latin. I would love to be on his mailing list.

The Basilica of the National Shine of the Immaculate Conception is building a new Oratory to Our Lady of Ephesus

I love the Shrine. When I was working nearby, it was practically my home away from home. I am trying to figure out where in the Crypt this oratory is going to go. To me, it looks like it's full, but they keep on producing new little nooks and crannies for new oratories, chapels, and mosaics. I wonder what this is going to look like when it's all done? I have to admit, the image shown in the link doesn't do much for me. Is it just me, or does it look a little dated? Some of the new oratories and mosaics at the Shrine are lovely, but some of the other new installations are really weird looking not really to my taste.

Queen of Peace, Our Lady of Ephesus, pray for us!

Pansy, be happy, terza rima is the verse form of Dante's Divine Comedy!

We had a friend over for dinner last night and we all had a good time. I was so grateful that he was understanding of my being a sleepy mommy hostess and Hambet's being a fussy, busy toddler.

Dinner turned out well. We had spaghetti carbonara, salad, and a nice Chardonnay (Columbia Crest 2000.) (pause to let serious wine drinkers stop guffawing) Mango sorbet for dessert.

I have been making spaghetti carbonara since around 1989; it's been a big favorite all through college (Episodes I and II) and the years after. My company always seems to like it. I tried a new recipe for it last night and I was very pleased -- even though I didn't follow it down to the last detail (Last night I finished the spaghetti too quickly and it was just sitting there waiting for the other things to get done. Then I just drained the bacon and scattered it over the spaghetti. Note to self: next time, cook the bacon first, use less oil, and pour the mixture over the pasta like the recipe calls for.)

Back to the routine: Monday musings

A grey Monday morning. Snow falling outside. The "drip drip drip" of our leaky shower can be heard through most of the house, like some kind of Poe story involving a plumber.

Little Hambet has had no more problems since last Saturday night, so I am hoping, hoping, hoping that the worst of the tummy bug predicted by the pediatrician has passed us by.

Anytime I take one of those personality tests (the serious ones, not the ones involving movies or cocktails) I always get to that question about introversion -- the one that runs something like "Are you always the first one in your circle to hear news, or are you the last one to find out about something?" -- and I laugh and mark "STRONGLY AGREE" to "last to hear about anything." I am always out of the loop, the last tendril on the grapevine. And my posts seem to reflect that.

Hurray!

A Saintly Salmagundi is back!

More quiz results:

I took the "which poetry form are you" quiz (thanks to Victor for the link)

My number one result was the sonnet:

I was also pleased to see that my number two result was the heroic couplet:

I am tickled by these results because back when I was a high school senior dreaming of literary glory, I always tried to write sonnets but never quite made it. I did do a bit better with heroic couplets.

toddler update

more sickies last night, but he seems perky again this morning. Tried offering him some medicine, but it comes in a brown bottle like the hated baby vitamins (note to self: find some good tasting ones) so (music cue: "Hoe-Down" from Rodeo) we had a chase scene this morning.

The New Look

Just wanted more room for our posts. I may fool around a little more with the fonts and colors. Are the green links too hard to read?

Baby Hambet is looking a little perkier tonight and kept his dinner down, so perhaps he will be spared this stomach flu.

Five guilty pleasures

5. Maintaining a secret stash of chocolate.
4. Catalogs for luxury goods you'll never buy
3. '80's music
2. The Fox Sunday night lineup is one of my guilty pleasures, too
1. Blogging

a nod to Oblique House

Hoist the yellow flag

...of quarantine, that is. Poor little Hambet is poorly this morning. I called the pediatrician and she suspects a stomach flu that's going around. If she is right, the next few days sound like they're going to be really unhappy. I have a good stock laid in of diapers and zinc oxide; I may need it.

misc

Twiddling with the template. Added Karen Hall's rockin' good blog Disordered Affections to our permalinks. I am eyeing that box on the right, where currently our archives link and Blogger button reside. I would love to move that box to the bottom of the left-hand column and widen the box where the posts go, but since I'm a total novice to HTML, I'm a little nervous about attempting it.

Little Hambet loves to climb. Up to now I was able to use a playpen as an island of safety but today he learned how to vault over the side (it's incredible, he is so flexible he can get his foot up almost to the level of his head.) Today he also dragged the cute little baby sized rocking chair I got at the secondhand store from his room into ours, the better to climb up to our dresser and start examining our things. Great.

This Saint Sabina's blurb sounds weird.

St. Sabina is a Word-based, Bible teaching church that believes in the power of praise and worship. We are a spiritual hospital where all are welcome and invited to “taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” Our purpose is to nurture and develop spiritually mature Christians who are not confined by the walls of the sanctuary, but can penetrate the world in order to present God’s way of living as a divine option.

Doesn't that sound more like one of those mega-churches in the suburbs? If you belong to Life and Light Faith Bible Church, you kind of have to make a little paragraph explaining who you are and what you do (since there are no other Life and Light Faith Bible Churches around.)

I poked around a little more on the website. Plenty of "worship services", but when is Mass? When is Confession? The only place the pastor is referred to as "Father" Pfleger instead of "Pastor" Pfleger is on his biography page. For that matter, I only found the word "Catholic" twice (once on the pastor's bio page and once on the parish history page.

Does this parish really identify with the global Catholic Church, or just with their St Sabina's identity?

Snow day!

I think part of the reason the Washington area falls apart when there's snow is simply because we are grabbing at an excuse to kick off the usual routine. We've had enough snow this winter, though, that people seemed to know what to do with the 6-9 inches we got last night.

But it was enough to close the schools and make everyone late to work. The whole family got to sleep in late, so I am a seriously perkier mommy today. My husband was able to shovel the driveway (and the sidewalks too -- thank you, dear) and is catching Seven Little Monsters with the baby before he heads to work.

Unfortunately, since the schools are closed, so is the tiny tots class Hambet is taking through the county. This would have been his third class. During the first two classes, he cried all the way through the Hello Song, but last week his little tears dried much more quickly, and he was talking about class during the week. So I was hoping he was growing accustomed to it.

The class is a manageable size -- around ten toddlers with their grown-ups -- but even so, ten toddlers make a lot of noise, and after forty-five minutes I think everyone is ready to sing the Good-Bye song before the ten toddlers all disintegrate. If I were a toddler in day care, listening to that constant commotion all day long, I think I would go mad.

seriously sleepy mommy today

I have some kind of flu-like affliction. I hurt from head to foot, so much I had to use a jar opener to get into the bottled water. And of course, my toddler is feeling just fine and is full of energy.

and they're expecting snow tonight. ugggggggggggggghhhhhhhhh. At least I am well stocked with milk, bread, and TP....

De bello

A friend of mind has a brother-in-law who is stationed in the Middle East. I recently spent a long time on the phone with her as she poured out her fears for his safety -- "He could return home a vegetable, and for what? What do you think of all this, anyway?"

I didn't know what to say. At the time I suggested that she immediately turn off the 24-hour a day news networks that she was listening to, and to carefully consider the motives of any commentator. (It seemed like dumb advice at the time, but she said it helped her....)

But I still don't know what to think. On the one hand, I have found some of the anti-war sentiment illogical and distasteful. "Hell no, we won't go!" (Did we ask you to? Last time we checked, we still had an all-volunteer force.) "No blood for oil! (Even if this were only about oil, would you really be okay with watching our economy go down the tubes if the price of oil were to double or triple? Your organic hummus puffs probably come to the store in a truck, don't they?) "Bush doesn't care about innocent lives!" (Oh, please.)

More serious objections: "We should try sanctions." (We did, and what have they done besides punish innocent Iraqis? and why are we so enamored of sanctions anyway? they've been sooooooo effective in driving out Castro....) "The inspectors need more time." (For what? Iraq is not submitting to the inspections in good faith and has been shown to be in material breach.) "Iraq has not been shown to be tied to Al Quaeda." (So the other terrorists are okey-dokey?) "We need another resolution." (What for?!) It seems to me that if the UN is going to make resolutions they had better be prepared to carry them out, promptly. Otherwise, they are as effective as those model UNs in high school (the ones where your geeky political junkie friends got to dress up and get out of class for a day) or those parents who threaten "NO TV FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE EVER I REALLY MEAN IT THIS TIME SO HELP ME etc"

Ok, so the UN's not going to back up its resolutions. How about we just blow off the existing UN resolutions and rely on containment and good ol' Mutual Assured Deterrence?

Well, we could. But on the other hand.... last night my husband and I were watching Frontline's show on Gulf War One, and we found ourselves stumped trying to decribe Saddam Hussein. He's not crazy, but he seems like he might have a swirl of dangerous romanticism in there ("Technology will never win a war!, etc") He's not stupid, but is he reckless and impulsive? a poor judge of others' resolve? He's not operating from some Grand Obsession like Hitler (unless you count the personal aggrandizement and enrichment of Saddam Hussein as his Grand Obsession). He is an aggressive and unpredictable enemy. Can we count on him to even care if Iraq is threatened with a retaliatory attack? Another consideration -- for many countries, the "mutual" is missing from this equation. Should we just blow them off?

And are we REALLY WILLING to accept that Saddam might strike first? What if the Administration is correct -- that Saddam has a weapon of mass destruction, and that his long-range delivery system is Al Quaeda? What if they get a dirty bomb into the US? Is that an acceptable risk?

I wish I were an Aquinas scholar and that a little of the Angelic Doctor's precision of thought could rub off a little. Meanwhile, I look in my copy of The One-Minute Philosopher and find, on one page,

"Patience: The willingness to wait for what is good...Anything difficult in our lives requires patience...patience also requires courage."

versus, on the facing page,

"Passivity: The unwillingness to act for what is good...passivity is close to despair. Snce I am indifferent about the value of anything, I conclude there is nothing worth doing...passivity lacks hope and may also involve cowardice....Common enterprises will fail if their member are passive."

What is the correct course of action?

Ars gratia artis

My husband just wandered up to the kitchen and told me about tonight's Law and Order episode: "A vigilante priest kills a notorious drug dealer in the name of God."

He observed that usually they take their stories from the news, but this was the first time he could remember that they had turned for inspiration to King of the Hill.

Light blogging today, waiting for the plumber.

I would like to thank St Anthony, my Guardian Angel, and any other involved intercessors for an enormous favor this afternoon: preserving my purse from disappearing when I stupidly left it behind in a shopping cart in the parking garage of the Big Bullseye Box Store.

I discovered it missing when I pulled into the parking lot of my next errand, so I turned around and went back (muttering pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease under my breath.) Hooray! It was exactly where I left it, untouched.

Woo hoo!

Maybe we should permalink this.

Rubbermaid Sippy Bottles Replacement Straws

The Ballade of Liquid Refreshment (by E.C. Bentley)

Last night we started with some dry vermouth;
Some ancient sherry with a golden glow;
Then many flagons of the soul of fruit
Such as Burgundian vineyards only grow;
A bottle each of port was not de trop;
And then old brandy till the east was pink
- But talking makes me hoarse as any crow,
Excuse me while I go and have a drink.

Some talk of Alexander; some impute
Absorbency to Mirabeau-Tonneau;
Some say that General Grant and King Canute,
Falstaff and Pitt and Edgar Allan Poe,
Prince Charlie, Carteret, Hans Breitmann - so
The list goes on - they say that these could clink
The can, and take their liquor - A propos!
Excuse while I go and have a drink.

Spirit of all that lives, from God to brute,
Spirit of love and life, of sun and snow,
Spirit of leaf and limb, of race and root,
How wonderfully art thou prison'd! Lo!
I quaff the cup, I feel the magic flow,
And Superman succeeds to Missing Link,
(I say, 'I quaff'; but am I quaffing? No!
Excuse while I go and have a drink.)

Envoi

Hullo there, Prince! Is that you down below
Kicking and frying by the brimstone brink?
Well, well! It had to come some time, you know,
Excuse me while I go and have a drink.

More on the Patrick O'Brian books... I think one of the saddest things about our society is how many human skills seem to be atrophying. We see the men and women of the nineteenth century driving horses, playing music, writing letters, putting on impromptu plays and dabbling in poetry, keeping journals about the wildlife in their back yards.... now, yes, yes, I know, it was the leisure class that was doing all this, not the poor people toiling in the factories. But we have so much leisure now, and what do we have to show for it?

...a grand work of literary companionship, a savvy guide that nudged me to look in all sorts of unlikely directions. Over and over, the novels seemed to chide me gently for my timidity, my lack of civility and my inability to sometimes look more closely at the meaning of things....

A nice essay on the Aubrey/ Maturin novels in Sunday's WaPo. I am about a third of the way through the series myself (most recently: The Ionian Mission; favorite: The Mauritius Command.) There's something very consoling about these books. Perhaps it's being in the company of characters who are so human: who love, who hate, who have interests and skills and little fads, virtues and vices; whose intellect, strength, and courage were daily put to the test.
Sometimes I think Patrick O'Brian would have made a great deathbed convert. Perhaps someday we'll be pleasantly surprised.

Hambet was rearranging the furniture in the kitchen today and accidentally knocked his high chair down the stairs. I took it as a hint. So this afternoon off to the Big Giraffe Emporium to buy a booster chair. We'll give it a test run for supper.

Back to the routine

Weekends should be longer. We mostly spent ours celebrating my dear husband's birthday. My husband loves driving around aimlessly in the country, so we did just that. Passed through New Market, Maryland, which bills itself as Maryland's antiques capital. He had a used bookstore in mind, but it was closed, so we just walked around. Browsing around in antiques stores when you're penniless can be fun, but browsing around in antique stores when you're penniless and carting around an inquisitive 23-month-old is penitential. On the way home we stopped by a different used bookstore that we'd never visited before. We'll definitely be back. I had a good take: Green Eggs and Ham, a blue Nancy, Karl Keating's Fundamentalism and Catholicism, and -- the big find -- Illustrissimi by Pope John Paul I.

When I came out with my full bag, my birthday husband asked, "Oh, did you buy me a present?" "Uhhh, sure, dear, of course! Happy Birthday!"

Our parish did the blessing of throats after Mass. Baby Hambet, who is obsessed with candles, was speechless with delight. Our deacon gave the blessing in English and the Sign of the Cross in Latin; thought that was pretty cool.

The birthday cake was a Black Forest cake. This wasn't too difficult to make, but next year -- note to self -- start calling around early to look for Kirsch for the filling. Make the filling a day early so it has time to set. Oh, and cook it longer so it's not runny.

Pansy, apparently you weren't the first to be taken in by that deceitful kangaroo; on Friday I was hearing on the radio that there have been many other complaints from parents suckered in in exactly the same way. Apparently the makers of this digitally animated bait-and-switch scam tweaked and snipped and twiddled until they got that PG rating. The MPAA ratings are such a joke.

Over at HMS blog, Duncan Maxwell Anderson explains Candlemas customs --which include Groundhog Day! Who knew?

So, why does Candlemas fall on Groundhog Day? Groundhog Day comes from it. In Catholic Europe, they say that if Candlemas is clear and bright, there will be six more weeks of winter. In Germany, this idea became, "If the bear comes out and sees his shadow, he will grumpily go back into his cave, and winter will last another six weeks." Then this feat of prediction was ascribed to German badgers. And since badgers are not found in the eastern U.S., German immigrants to this country were obliged to depend for meteorological guidance on a species of marmot called by the Indians "weejak" or woodchuck, also called…the groundhog. This Sunday, if Punxatawney Phil sticks his nose out, you tell me if he isn't carrying a candle-holder. He's Catholic, you know.

Go read the whole thing, it's really interesting.

Pansy's Bishop's statement on those living with AIDS

I would be interested in seeing more details about some of those statistics. For example, Hispanic men aged 35-44 -- that doesn't seem like a big age bracket. What's first, car accidents/ trauma?

I am certainly not trying to shrug off the suffering of those who have HIV/ AIDS.
But the little I know about statistics makes me a little suspicious when numbers start flying around.

communities of color are particularly at risk for HIV/AIDS.

Um, doesn't being at risk for HIV/AIDS involves a bit more than merely being a member of "a community of color?"

Just heard the news.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.