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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Thunder and Rainbows


...that's what I drove to work in this AM. How cool (the rainbow) and scary (the lightening) at the same time with us coming into fire season. Not much rain during those lightening hits either, which is why it was scary - though I should be grateful, traffic was hellish enough with people even THINKING it might be a downpour. Trust me, first heavy rain of the season, smart San Diegans call in sick. to avoid the hell on the roads. Lest you think we are sissies:

Take 9 months without any appreciable rain fall. +
9 months of oil and grease build up on all freeways +
A lot of people who don't "get" basic physics and why you should not tailgate, particularly in wet weather when grease has had a chance to build up that long.

Do the math. Stay home. Or go in at 3 am or 10:30 am, after they've cleared all the fender benders.

I like to think the weather was St. Michael's doing - having a battle out in the heavens.

Hope my two cousins Michael S. and Michael K. had happy feast days.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Touchdown Jesus


Notre Dame 38, Perdue 21

Ah...one of the pleasures of fall. Every Catholic's favorite team, next to his own, unless his own is, of course, Notre Dame.

Is there a Catholic alive who would not take delight in scores like:

Notre Dame: 49 SMU(Southern Methodist U.): 3

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Female perks

1. We got off the Titanic first.
2. We can scare male bosses with the mysterious gynecological disorder excuses.
3. Taxis stop for us.
4. We don't look like a frog in a blender when dancing.
5. No fashion faux pas we make, could ever rival the Speedo.
6. We don't have to pass gas to amuse ourselves.
7. If we forget to shave, no one has to know.
8. We can congratulate our teammate without ever touching her rear end.
9. We never have to reach down every so often to make sure our privates are still there.
10. We have the ability to dress ourselves.
11. We can talk to the opposite sex without having to picture them naked.
12. If we marry someone 20 years younger, we are aware that we will look like an idiot.
13. We will never regret piercing our ears.
14. There are times when chocolate really can solve all your problems.
15. We can make comments about how silly men are in their presence because they aren't listening anyway.

Starving a dog is not art

Most facebook ads are boring or irrelevant, but this one caught my eye.


See this link for more details.

Nobama relaxes after debate


...nice to know B. Hussein NObama really puts pre-
school education high on his priority list in these troubling times.

Have we reached a critical mass of "stupid" yet? Nobama wants to make sure "No child is left behind" in the mind control experiment.

And Jim Lehrer is an idiot if he thinks we don't know PBS is trying to give Nobama a "gimmee" in wasting a portion of the foreign policy debate on domestic issues.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Confession, Texas Style

I was musing last night, about what going to confession in Texas must be like.

I can see where a penitent might have "issues."

Useful Website

...I'd run across this web site on the Catholic Hierarchy before, but forgot to note it. Very useful for figuring out who was bishop of what diocese when, statistics etc. Worth a look.

I thought my own diocese of San Diego was bad enough with just under 3 thousand Catholics per priest - but Las Vegas is nearing 6000 Catholics per priest. Both dioceses have roughly 30% of the populace as Catholics.

Personally, I say my Sunday rosary for all priests, and a Saturday rosary for more vocations. I hope others join me.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Post Turtle


Someone sent me this one, and it pretty much sums up the way I feel about Nobama:

"While stitching a cut on the hand of a 75 year old Texas rancher, whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Obama and his bid to be our President.

The old rancher said, "Well, you know, Obama is a 'post turtle'." Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post turtle' was. The old rancher said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a 'post turtle'."

The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain. "You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he is up there, and you just wonder what kind of a dumb ass
put him up there!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Birthday

..I think I'll just be done with it and go for the Red Neck B'day cake.


Okay, I'm older than Fathers Tim, Sean, John, Owl and Erik, and younger than Springtime. On the other hand, I'm only 34 in hex. That's geek speak. This is when geek speak is good. Fathers Tim, Sean, John and Erik are geek enough themselves to be able to 'splain to Fr. Blake* and the rest of you non-geeks. (Ha-ha, Mac and AA and Monica are geeks too, but I won't blow your covers. AA hid his plastic pocket protector, Mac is affecting the ditzy blonde thang and doing it to perfection, and Monica has a hard time concealing that slide ruler, but sometimes she gets away with it)

I just hope I don't have "issues" with the fire department later today.

*Though come to think of it, Fr. Blake might be the biggest covert geek of all - given the level of desperation he had last year when he couldn't connect to the internet, but still managed to figure out he COULD connect *if* he was willing to put his laptop on the upstairs sink if he really, really had to. Maybe he's just cooler than the rest of us.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Exaltation of the Cross

Here is the 5th station of the cross in my parish, which is named after the Patron Saint of the United States.



I've always been glad that these particular stations are carved out of stone and it's easy to tell what they're supposed to represent! ["Feh" on Modern Art stations that are "primitive art."]

In the sacristy, we also have a document which essentially allows for these stations to be put in our church. The document was dated in 1938, and signed by then Bishop Buddy. Don't know *what* they were using for stations before that. I must retake this photo as it's somewhat fuzzy. You can click the pictures to enlarge.



I wonder if there was a Latin "standard form" that the bishop ever sent out that said something along the lines of: "Are you kidding, I've SEEN those proposed stations. No, you may NOT put those in your church, or pawn them off to any other church in the diocese. Matter of fact, take them out back, bust them up with a sledge hammer, and don't ever think of putting something like that in a church again, or your next assignment will be in the outer boondocks." Oh, for the days when a bishop could rattle a saber over something like this.

It seems to have been given to satisfy some requirement come up with in the 1700 hundreds

Dude! Facebook *finally* "gets it"

Mind you, this took a few weeks of marking Nobama ads as "obscene" -


...ditto rejecting "find the perfect stud muffin" ads. These are supposed to be guys you can take home to mother. Ha-ha. The cleverest of sleazy guys would probably sign up for this one.

A while back there was an article that said the pope's parents met through a lonely heart's club ad. His dad posted what was almost literally: "Wanted: hausfrau who can cook, clean, mend my socks and has own money." Apparently, in spite of all he'd written she WAS very smitten. ♫ (hi Stephen!) I think it's miraculous the pope was ever born! [Although he had to place the ad a few times. Even given the relative lack of men around after WWI I'm stunned anyone replied.]

Friday, September 12, 2008

See it before it's gone

Almost posted this once before but it was soon gone. Use your pig latin for the rest:
igotGay, layedpay ybay ackieJay leasonGay, is a mute. In this scene he tries to explain God to the young daughter of a prostitute. I'm very sorry this film doesn't seem to be on DVD or film. It is occasionally seen on movie channels, and well worth a look.




I heartily recommend a visit to this youtube channel for more. Do it before it's gone.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Procession for Holy Relics


Fr. Blake had been asking about prayers, etc. used when relics are carried in procession. I scanned in and uploaded the Latin texts that would be applicable. Hope this helps. The Roman Ritual I pulled this from was published in 1944. Document is 15 pages long. It's not a lot of translating to do, really. Most of it is psalms in Latin, which you can look up easily if you get stuck.

You can download the .pdf here.

Hope this helps.

How do you miss an error like this?!


From: the known problems with Google Chrome page

"If you encounter a blank white page when trying to access Gmail in Chrome, and also when accessing iGoogle or other Google sites, you're likely encountering a known issue with Google Chrome. While our engineers are investigating this issue, you can access Gmail with another browser, such as Mozilla Firefox."

You gotta be kidding me. You worked on an application for two years and you're just NOW figuring out that one of your company's applications DOESN'T work in your own browser correctly? Excuse me?

Makes you wonder who has to do the morning Starbuck$ run for the next year.

7 years on



The gift that keeps on giving....


SC Democratic Chair: Palin’s Chief Qualification is She ‘Hasn’t Had an Abortion’


Classic:

"South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler reportedly lashed out at Sarah Palin Wednesday, saying the Republican vice presidential candidate’s “primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.”

Politico.com reports that Fowler, wife of former Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler, said that John McCain’s decision to choose an abortion rights opponent would not boost his candidacy among many women."

Landslide?

Can't wait for Nobama to defend the "lipstick on the pig" thing some more either. Yes, yes, the phrase has probably been used since George Washington's day .. but given Nobama's covert Muslim background, it's surprising he even says the word "pig." Not even the self-referential "pig in a poke." Nice try, Nobama. We'd have given you a pass IF you had used the phrase on the campaign trail BEFORE Palin was on the ticket. Back to the drawing board, skippy.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Three things meme


Tara tagged me on this one. [And I agree with her Rob should start a blog too - we know him as rjw in our comboxes.]

Three jobs I have had in my life: cashier, sales, programmer

Three places I have lived: Emmaus, Pa., Nashua, New Hampshire, Roanoke, Va. (among many others!)

Three shows that I watch: Got me here. I generally don't make a point of watching any given TV shows...HOWEVER, that said I will watch the original Law and Order [I hate it without Lenny Briscoe], movie channels, and if there's one show I'm up to watch specifically, it's the new series of Project Runway. [I'm a sucker for that one.] So kill me, I'm a fan of Tim Gunn. To quote Santino "Tim Gunn, Tim Gunn, when he says your name you're done...." To quote Tim Gunn "Okay, but just be prepared to defend to Nina why [your model] has a big fat ass."]

Three places I have been : Florence, Italy, Hilo, Hawaii, Freeport, Maine (it's not the end of the earth, but you CAN see it from the rooftop of LL Bean - everyone should make at least one pilgrimage.)

Places I have been this week: My parish in Old Town, Escondido, library in Mission Valley.

Three people who email me regularly: No one, lately...what is this, "let's not write Karen back" month? Nobody sent me the memo!

Three of my favorite foods: perogies, lobster, prime rib

Three places I'd rather be right now: NYC, London, kickin' back in Lahaina, it's all good

Three friends I think will do this meme: hell's bells, hardly anyone's emailed!!! If you like this meme, go for it!

Three things I am looking forward to this year: losing weight (I have been but I won't if I start scarfing Carl's Jr. Prime Rib sandwiches like they were going out of style), making more money, going to the theatre, any theatre will do I just want to sit in the dark and watch other people pretend to be somebody else...normally, they'd throw a net over you for wanting to do something like that, but somehow the theatre beckons. [Are you reading this, Teresa S.? That's some nutty profession you want to get into! Quelle fun! Do the French have a word for "fun?" To judge by my 6th and 7th grade French teacher, they don't.]

(The photo is taken of our house in Nashua. A typical late spring day in '68 or so.)

Dad


Today is the 7th anni-
versary of my father's death. He'd died just before 9/11 and I was glad he didn't have to see that.

I think it's a bit poignant that we often don't understand our parents, dads in particular I think, until we are much older. When we're young, we see them come home from work, tired, tight lipped, often times not much communication beyond: "Hey, honey, get me a beer out of the fridge."

We don't really understand until we grow up and go to work ourselves and have to deal with "the boss" who essentially controls our being able to pay the bills and put food on the table. You understand now why "the old man" didn't want to bring any problems from work in the house. He sucked it up. He worked long hours. Kept a roof over your head, kept you warm, and fed, and gave you pocket money. You never had to worry about paying the electric bill or your tuition bill. He did. And he never pointed it out to you. Not once. [Well, other than your parents yelling at you "TURN OFF THAT LIGHT WE DO NOT OWN STOCK IN THE PP&L!!!" - Pennsylvania Power and Light, to the uninitiated. It was always them that we didn't own stock in, even well after having taken up residence in Virginia, New Hampshire, and California.]

Dad came from coal miner / farmer stock from the hard coal country of Pennsylvania. I got my sense of humor, patriotism, love of sports, any sales ability, and competitive spirit from him. I was totally out to lunch receiving the "quick mental math" gene both parents had - though I did make it through freshman calculus - thanks be to "the god of partial credit."

My dad was a convert to the faith, and I have to say he was more of an Easter/Christmas Catholic - especially as I got older. However, he was still a man of basic integrity. When I was about nine once, we'd eaten in a restaurant somewhere in North Carolina on our way back from a vacation. For some reason I'd lingered at the table that time, and had noticed 2 bucks left on the table. I had not known about tipping yet. I just thought dad had accidentally left change behind. Well, I picked it up, meaning to give it to him. I got distracted, but about 10 miles down the road said: "Hey, dad, you forgot your change." Well, in the mid 60s, two bucks was a decent tip at a roadside diner. Dad was very nice about it and didn't yell at me, but explained about tipping. We drove back and he made sure the waitress got her tip. "Never stiff the working man / woman." His gesture was all the more impressive, because I knew we'd be unlikely to stop there again.

My dad did have a wicked sense of humor. One Sunday, my mother had out done herself laying on a first class dinner after she'd knocked herself out in the kitchen all day. His favorite pot roast with all the trimmings, the best china, the whole nine yards. After he was called to dinner, he grudgingly tore himself from the football game he was watching and plopped himself down at the dinner table, wearing a seen-way-better-days undershirt. Mom took one look and yelled at him "ED, JUST ONCE COULD YOU MAKE AN EFFORT TO DRESS NICE FOR SUNDAY DINNER?!" Wordless, chasened, he got up and went to change to make my mother happy. He came back and sat down - wordless. He'd put on his best silk tie ... and was still sporting the ratty undershirt. You wanted to kill him, but you were laughing too hard.

This picture was taken in Rome in the spring of 1974. My dad did a lot of travel for his job, and sometimes he was rewarded with getting to take us on trips for fun too. This was our first time to Europe.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Show of Hands please


...how many of you... particularly women, remember when women and girls were more or less socially forced to wear a freaking Kleenex on their heads to enter a church if they didn't have a hat or a veil?

I noticed some of the younger women doing blogs seem to get a charge out of veils. Listen, if it floats your boat, do it, especially since you don't *have* to.

But for me, there is an inner core which strongly says: "Not only NO, but HELL NO."

I wonder if there is a divide on this subject between women who are old enough to remember having to put a freakin' paper nose rag on their head with a bobby pin in preference to going bare headed. My guess is women under a certain age have no such cultural baggage against veils in church, while older women tend to resent memories of that.

One friend of mine who is about 12 years older than me told me that she had a small head and always looked bad in a hat. The subject came up in her convent school and the nun (well pre-Vatican II) told her "there is no canon law that says you have to wear a hat." Next Sunday she went in without one ... an usher actually chased her up the aisle with a Kleenex and she told him, in a nice way, to go chase himself. She said after that OTHER women also decided they didn't particularly like it either, and also stopped wearing hats/veils.

Frankly, I've always had to force myself to read Paul. Not the saint I want to meet first. Or particularly 2 millionth and 1st. I bet I talk to the guy whom Paul made chop off his foreskin before I talk to Paul. "So...was he as big a jerk as he makes himself sound?" Just because someone's a saint doesn't mean I have to like him or her!

Just saying.

[BTW, you guys can feel free to kibbitz too. But I warn you, it may be stepping into a "Honey, does this X make my butt look big" kind of thing.... wise men may fear to tread.]

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

What-where-when meme

...Mac tagged me on a cool meme.

1. President Kennedy's Assassination - 22 November 1963

I was in second grade at St. Francis of Assisi School, and lived in Allentown, Pa. I had seat on the aisle closest to the windows. Our nun, Sister Angela, had been called out of the room and was out for a few moments. She quickly came back in and said "President Kennedy's been shot." She ducked out in the hall again for a minute or two, and rejoined our class and said said "We don't know how bad it is. Fr. Walters [the pastor] was listening to the radio and heard the report, he was in Texas." I remember wondering "what was he doing in Texas?" None of us cried, but sat there in stunned silence.

We had a scheduled bathroom break, and as usually we filed upstairs it two by two in silence to the rest rooms. When we came back downstairs, we assembled in the chapel. [Which served as the parish church, as the new church building had not yet been completed.] We said prayers, and were informed that the president had died. Shortly afterwards, school was over for the day [I lived in Allentown, Pa. at the time.] I can remember walking home and turning on the news, and the coverage was the equivalent of 24/7 now on all networks. I remember that whole weekend like it was recent. He was killed on a Friday. The next morning I remember walking to the church to light a candle. It was the first news story I really followed. I'd watched the news before - but it was something that happened a child that young could grasp. I saved pictures from the paper. Had I been slightly older, I would have saved the articles too. I was cutting out pictures for a scrapbook which I'd made, and when I saw Jack Ruby shot. I remember calling out to my mom, who was in the kitchen to tell her what had happened. I have to say I was glad at the time that Oswald had been shot. I did feel sorry though for Marina Oswald and her kids, and Officer Tippett's family, I always wonder what happened to his wife and children. The only time I cried was the night of the assassination, as I was going to bed and thought about Caroline (who was a year younger than me) - it made me feel awful that her dad was killed like that. Jackie Kennedy was considered heroically stoic and dignified throughout. I have to say that during the Kennedy Administration you NEVER heard about "Camelot" -- that was all propagated by Theodore White AFTER the assassination. You'll find NO reference to it prior to the assassination.

2. England's World Cup Semi Final v Germany - 4 July 1990

Blissfully unaware. I was having a good summer. I'd returned from vacation in the south of France in May of that year ... and was working on documenting and straightening out the batch files for the computer jobs that ran overnight which produced the work plans for Tomahawk missile factory floor assembly at General Dynamics. Good thing too, because it came in damn useful in August that year - as that's when Kuwait was invaded.

3. Margaret Thatcher's resignation - 22 November 1990

I can remember watching the news reports with my mom. We'd thought it was tacky the way the "old boy network" stabbed her in the back when she was out of the country on business. 10 John Majors weren't worth one of the Iron Lady. [Sorry Stephen!!!]

4. Princess Diana's death - 31 August 1997

It was late afternoon and I was going to a baseball game that night. I had been coming out of Old Town onto highway 8 and I flipped on the radio that night and heard the initial reports. She'd been taken to the hospital but had not yet died. The report said there were at least two deaths and two badly injured, including her. When I went to the game that night, many people had had their radios (and quite a few people normally took to the games to listen to the commentary. You could literally SEE the news of her death pass in waves through the stands. When we got home from the game that night, the TV cameras were trained on the removal of the Mercedes from the tunnel. I wrote to an English friend of mine about it, and it turned out I was the one who informed him of what had happened. Because it happened in the wee hours local time, many of us in the US knew about it before those in the UK and elsewhere. My friend, Tim, had not yet flipped on his radio before he'd read his email. Every now and again I see one of the princes photographed riding in a car without a seatbelt and I want to scream "put your seatbelt on, you MORON!"

5. Attack on the twin towers - 11 September 2001

I must have been one of the last people in North America to know. My father had died on Sept 8 in Pennsylvania, so I'd come back east for the funeral. I'd flown out on Monday the 10th and was staying with my aunt and uncle the night before and was to be "passed on" to my dad's side of the family around noonish that day for the drive up to the coal region. About an hour away. I'd had a nice sleep in and woke up about 8:25, and gone down to greet my aunt and catch up on family news...my aunt had had the TV/Radio on, but had turned it off when I came down. We chatted until shortly after 11 eastern time. We'd then put my suitcase in the car to go meet my dad's sister and her husband. I was seated in the car, when a neighbor from across the street had hailed my aunt. She was gone for a good 5-10 minutes and I was starting to get antsy, when my aunt told me "the twin towers have been hit and destroy, the Pentagon's hit, and there was a plane crash in Pa." And I said "Who are at war with - they're going to get it." I did not cry at the time, I was stunned and angry, and when I'm stunned and angry I don't cry. I *almost* shed a few tears at the 21 gun salute my dad received, but not quite. I was glad my dad didn't have to live through that time, as ill as he'd been. For two months until we retaliated I woke up angry. I have never felt like that before. About that same time I was fussing around with photograph doing up albums, and had come across a photo one of my uncles had taken in the NY harbor when he'd taken my young cousins to see the Statue of Liberty. He'd caught a photo of my cousin perfectly framed with the twin towers in the background. And I finally cried for about 10 minutes.

6. The election of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to the papacy - 19 April 2005

I'd walked down to a liquor/deli shop for lunch. They had a nice sidewalk eating area, with television. As I walked into order my usual Italian sub sandwich, the news was showing the crowds cheering the announcement that a pope had been elected. I said to the counterman "who's the new pope?" He said "I don't know ... some German name..." abd I said "Ratzinger?" And he said "yes, that's it!" So by pure serendipity I got to see and hear his first address as pope to the public. I can remember thinking "Benedict XVI huh?" Yeah, like he thought of THAT on the spor of the moment. Just once it would be nice to have an unconventional name in modern times. I await "Pope Bubba." Digi, put the word in your boy's ear.

This was a fun meme, so if it strikes your fancy, feel free.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Labor Day - I didn't

...unless you count kicking back, watching movies, eating chicken and watermelon, and futzing around with the computer "labor."

I saw The Right Stuff, Gosford Park and Millions this afternoon and evening, and the Godfather this morning.  Some of my favorites.  I have to say Sept. 1 is always a little melancholy - mentally the summer comes to a close, even though we've got a few weeks to go.  But out here we really think of it as "Fire season" - I hope this year isn't hellish like it was last year for fire.

[To my British readers, we don't "do" May day. Too many communists dancing around May poles.  So our Labor day is always the 1st Monday in September.]

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