Thank you

...to all the veterans and those currently serving in the military. I appreciate your sacrifices, be they large or small.

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
and then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of Taps one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.

Freedom Is Not Free - Kelly Strong

EDITED to add: Go read this. Don't you dare get the fo0d out for the BBQ or turn on the TV or whatever before doing so.

The cross stands empty

Christ is alive! No longer bound
to distant years in Palestine,
but saving, healing, here and now,
and touching every place and time.
Words by: Brian Wren
Arranged by: Jane Holstein

My father-in-law ROCKS!!

Bulleted

Mood: sleepy
Hair: probably a mess due to the two-hour nap in the recliner
Eyes: tried, dry and not fun
Listening to: Football (Eagles @ Vikings)

Since I have few coherent, lengthy thoughts, I'm throwing what I do have at the blog. Cuz I can. Y'know?

• Beast ran the sound and light at church today, so he had to be present at both services. He called after he arrived for first service to warn us (me) that the roads were dangerously icy, especially in our subdivision. They were insanely bad, but we all made it there and back safe and sound. About half an hour ago--5 p.m. or thereabouts--the road crew came around and salted our streets for the first time today. Nice. Thanks, guys, for being right on top of that.



• Worship this morning was the first time I've been 'at church' on Sunday since...uh...Thanksgiving? And I would manage to pick today: the first week of every month is Communion Sunday, so that lengthens the service, plus today was a baptism, which means more time. I don't begrudge the time usually, but I was awfully antsy today. And then, suddenly, as the pastor held the baby and swept water onto her head, I couldn't stop crying. I didn't leave, but I really wanted to for a minute or two. Nathanael would be two now. (And no, the mom did not breastfeed in public this morning: the baby slept through the entire service.)



• None of the teams I want to see in the Super Bowl are winning this year. Our big three main teams--Packers, Browns, Broncos--are out of the running already because they didn't make the playoffs. (Denver fired Mike Shanahan--WTF?) This weekend's games were either two teams we cared nothing about or the 'wrong' team won, not that we care that much. The one that is going on now isn't boding well for the team we sort of want to win. Next week doesn't look a lot better. The Super Bowl could be a giant Who Cares? on February 1. I may end up cheering like a girl: for the best-looking team/quarterback/coach. Oh, well, thank God for the ads!!



• I haven't decided what my 2009 Word of the Year should be. That's why it hasn't been changed in the sidebar. Maybe I'll pick one tomorrow, once the holidays are really over and school has restarted. Stay tuned.



• BIG HUGE THANKS to Betsy for passing the word on Jango!!!! I frickin' LOVE it!! And it's free. Why was I spending money on Launchcast?? 'Course, now that LC is going, Jango will probably start charging too.



• Speaking of technology, Meebo--the IM consolidator I use--recently added Facebook to the IM sites it supports. MySpace, too, if anyone cares. I can now log in to Meebo and chat with anyone who is logged into Yahoo!, Gmail, or Facebook, or looking at any of my blogs. It's not perfect, but when it works, Meebo is one of my favorite things evah.



• We had Greek burgers last night, courtesy of DinnerByDesign. They were excellent. I need to start eating better, and less, and get back on a regular scheduled meal schedule instead of snacking on junk all day every day. Then there is the whole exercise thing. Ugh. I can't tell you how much I hate pointless tasks with no immediate payoff.... Apparently, there are no WiiFit games to be had, so I'm stuck with Sports for now.



• Anybody got a good lead on a job for Sparky? Yeah, this is the perfect time of year to be looking, right? And the perfect time in the economic cycle, too.



• Speaking of which, I'm already 100% ready to eliminate the word "economy" from the language. I'm tired of hearing it, saying it, discussing it, blaming it, worrying about it, prognosticating about it. It's only going to become more omnipresent, I know, so it's not a good sign that I'm so fed up with the subject.



• We were going to take the tree down today and put away all of our Christmas stuff...but changed our (my) mind when we remembered that it's still 'officially' Christmas until January 6, Warren's birthday. So I'm not sure when we'll pack it up. Sometime this week, I guess, maybe in pieces.



• Everyone gets back to our regular schedules tomorrow: it's a full work and school week for all of us. Yuck.

I think that's enough. I should probably get myself sorted out for dinner and maybe work on the Christmas card filing.

---

Urban Word:

Presponse: To respond to a question before it is finished, often confusing the asker.

The whole concept of presponses confuses Beast. He'd rather finish one thought and spoken sentence before moving on to the next thought and speaker.

FINALLY--

HAPPY
HAPPY
2009
!!!!

Nibbled to death

A great day. No, seriously, it was. Keep that in the forefront your mind, because much of this post is straight, full-on vent.

Wonderful company in Beast and Sparky, FIL, Gerb, and Alan. And then there's Katherine--my only blood relative besides Sparky in the house today. She needs to be spanked. I had high hopes for her this holiday. When she and Alan arrived yesterday she was in good spirits and generally was pleasant company. That continued for much of the morning today...until mealtime.

I am generally aware of the emotional currents in a room but not always clear where the whirlpools are developing until they have become riptides, but damn if today I didn't visibly watch Katherine commence with her poutiness. When Sparky reminded us, rather late in the visit, that we were going to play Scrabble, her eyes lit up (she L O V E S board games) and then she and Alan disappeared upstairs to pack up their overnight bags so they could take off for his mom's. There was glaring; she wanted to stay, he wanted to get to his mom's. I think the issue was that we should have mentioned game-playing earlier so she could participate. Her parting shot to Sparky was something like, "I'll play Scrabble with you next time, and I'll win" followed by a comment about being told not to be falsely modest about one's talents. And they were out the door.

Stunning.

Clueless.

Floored.

I realize that we all have one relative that we want to keep in a closet, but she was unbearably rude to our friend today and not much more than civil with FIL, especially as the day wore on.

A telling moment was when she mentioned that the two of them (Katherine and Alan) have had couples' counseling as part of the adoption process they are going through, and she thinks the therapist is crap because "She keeps bringing up the same things over and over." Well...DUH! I bet I know which ones, too (it would be a guess--Katherine didn't share that much!).

We had a wonderful, fairly relaxing day spent with some of the people we love the most in the world, talked to most of our out-of-state family on the phone, were cheered by and cheery with them, got quite the haul of good gifts ... yet all I want to do is call Katherine tomorrow and read her the riot act for having the grace and tact of a shit-covered rock pitched through a stained-glass window. I am not fond of the concept of family feuds, but I'm rarin' to go on this one; I am so TIRED of her behavior. She is nearly 37 years old, a professional with an advanced degree, was raised by parents with some semblance of a clue as far as social behavior--and every time I spend time with her, I want to strangle her by the end of it. It's probably good that I work tomorrow, and we have electronics to set up and Thank You notes to write over the weekend so I'll be too busy to call. Cooling off periods are good.

To end on a happier note, the doorbell rang in the midst of yesterday morning's snow and I found on my snowy porch a delivery man with flowers. Thank you, Jenny. I love you, and I am grateful every day for you.

I don't want to brag or make the rest of you envious, but I have to say that my two best girlfriends are the BEST friends ever.

Because I love this story

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Busy busy

Mood: good
Hair: blown out and that's it so far
Eyes: sleepy
Listening to: the toaster ticking

This was a big weekend, one of those when there were at least two things going on at all times, choices to make about where to be and which option to choose.

Friday was my sister Ellen's 59th birthday. That can't be right, but it is. That means I'm the age now that she was when the cancer started growing in her. Signpost.

Saturday when I got to work, I found confirmation of some big news. No: HEE-YUUUUUGE news. 2009 is going to be...interesting. And I cataloged 100 books on the same day I was at the Reference desk for nearly half my day. Not that I did the cataloging at the Ref Desk...hell no! It was just a pleasantly quiet day; no drama, no freaking out. Some of the people at MPOW can function as adults when faced with upcoming change.

Yesterday was Church Activity Day Times a Billion. It was Music Sunday at our church, and there was a Congregational Meeting to confirm the nominations for next years' slate of Elders and Deacons, and it was the last Session meeting of the year, which traditionally is when the old and new Session members and Deacons mingle and eat together. As Clerk of Session, it was a big day for those last two reasons.

However, the Clerk wasn't there. At the time of the Congregational Meeting, the Clerk (with the Chair of the Nominating Committee and ten other people) was on a train with a lot of people wearing blue and orange and heavy winter clothing. At the time of the luncheon/meeting, we were exiting a Really Fancy Church and getting ready to hit the streets. Actually, most of us pretty much stuck around here, although some braver souls ventured to neighboring shopping emporia like Borders and the Hershey Store. By 3:30 we were on the bus back to the train, where we rode with some of the same blue- and orange-dressed people we'd seen in the morning.

This is an annual tradition for our church's youth group, one which we inherited from previous leaders. It's important because they (we) get to experience a worship service that is Presbyterian but wholly different in tone from our church. Many of the kids over the years have noted that they've never 1) ridden the train, 2) taken a city bus, 3) been to the Big City to the East...before this trip. These are high school kids--that boggles my mind. By the time I was in high school I was riding the bus in Denver, and had been all over the place outside my little area of the universe. I'd even ridden a train, though it was a tourist thing, not a commuter.

In any case, Beast and I spent the afternoon in the Borders cafe after purchasing puzzle books for each of us to work on. That's the extent of the shopping I did.

It was a fun day.

Coming up this week: printing off the dreaded Xmas letter and address labels, putting up the tree, etc., wrapping the presents I have and figuring out what I still need to buy (and maybe even shopping for 'em!), sending the parent letter out about the mission trip... Yeah, the fun just never stops around here.

---

Urban Word:

Mass Merchanditis: The hazy feeling one gets after spending too much time shopping at large chain stores including but not limited to Walmart, Home Depot, and Bed, Bath and Beyond. Characterized by a headache, dry eyes, blurred vision, blank stare, sore feet.

We were fortunate yesterday not to have the opportunity to experience mass merchanditis, though there was a small outbreak of "where's the exit?!" from one group trapped in Macy's.

Gobble Gobble

HAPPY
THANKSGIVING!!

Day off

Mood: OK, sugar high helps
Hair: Braided
Eyes: OK
Listening to: Last night's CSI

What I did today:

• Got up (ta-dah!)
• Sent Sparky off to school--he wanted to go, I wanted him to stay home one more day...
• Checked Bloglines
• Memed
• Opened candy bags and arranged them for Trick of Treat tonight
• Washed assorted non-dishwasher-safe kitchenware
• Cleaned off and wiped down counters, stovetop, etc.
• Logged on to work computer: downloaded orders from yesterday and finished them
• Did October stats and emailed them to my boss
• Tried on new shoes....

• Cleared the pokey dead stuff from the bushes near the porch to make us look less like an abandoned house
• Dug up enough iris rhizomes to fill a plastic Target bag--that's about half of what needed to come out. Guess I should do this a little more often.
• Swept off the front sidewalk
• Helped Beast tie down Charlotte. The spider. On the porch. Get your mind out of the gutter!
• Scrubbed my hands clean, pulled out several splinters. Guess I should wear gardening gloves
• Ate lunch
• Played Bejeweled
• Updated my work blog
• Updated my book blog
• Started handing out candy, and started a list of costumes

---

WordSpy Word:

burqini: n. A swimsuit that conforms to Islamic dress code, particularly one that covers the entire body, except the face, hands, and feet. Also: burkini. [Blend of burqa and bikini.]

Well, so far this Halloween, I haven't seen a burqini on anyone, though there was a little girl in a 'genie' costume that was pretty close.

Grab Bag o' Weird Sh...Stuff

• Our entire neighborhood got tagged a couple of weeks ago. Remember, I talked about finding some grafitti in the street in May? And I mentioned that it was an odd color of pink? Well, it was an odd color...because it was landscaping paint, not regular spray paint. Last month (two weeks or so ago), one street in our subdivision awoke to find paint on the streets, on cars, on houses, everywhere. No more "Killah" stuff either. There was a lot of 'fuck' and 'bitch' stuff. Luckily, because it's landscape paint, it most came off pretty easily. The stuff on the street took some scrubbing but it's gone now, after a couple of rainstorms. And we hear that the little miscreants have been caught.



• Roomba is spinning in circles. It's discouraging; we can't figure out why. So we have a call in to the iRobot people in hopes they can diagnose the issue and fix it without having to hork around with shipping back and forth. We still love Roomie, but it's annoying.



• I had every intention to do several different kinds of shopping today. Unfortunately, I neglected to ascertain the location of my purse before I went to bed last night. Beast took it to work with him--in the glovebox of his car. So that fubar'd my day completely. I went and picked it up...but instead of continuing on the way to the shopping, I ended up coming home and going to bed with a headache again. Stupid allergies.



• I've bailed on a large number of books lately. I think my attention span and patience have left completely. Or I'm picking crappy books. Possibly both. My standards, I know, are pretty high. However, right now I'm reading Elizabeth George's latest, which is back to the main characters. I didn't get past page 25 of her last book. This one is better.



• Sparky has decided to try out for his school's golf team. This should be interesting. That will send this year's registration fees over $300. Ish. How can people afford more than one kid??



• While I don't wish Cranky on anyone, it is somehow comforting to know that I'm not the only one who gets tired of listening to Cranky Me, that others also get tired of hearing their own Cranky Voices. It makes me feel less like I'm crazy when I realize that everyone feels that way sometimes.



• So, I watched Jon & Kate Plus 8 today. Damn. Shoot me first, please. I really do love kids, but...just...wow. That much whinage, plus potty training, and general mayhem...24/7/365...wow. I wouldn't recommend this show except for its birth control potential. The parents seem like nice, normal, sensible people. It'll be interesting to see them when all 8 kids are teenagers.
  
  
• This year's bombings in the neighborhood--i.e., illegal fireworks--seem to have been slightly more contained, less scattered, and reasonable. Reasonable, that is, if you don't mind three straight nights of 9:00-10:00 p.m. fireworks shows 100 yards from your house. There were those occasional afternoon explosions, too, but in comparison to past years, it's been pretty calm. We'll see. The party usually continues all bloody summer.



• Tomorrow, it's back to the mines. Whee.

---

Urban Word:

Fourth of July: The day people light things on fire, and blame it on loving their country.

I don't think John Adams really anticipated us all blowing the roofs off our neighbors' houses or setting our own on fire on the Fourth of July.

Dazed

I have neglected to mention a startling occurrence from a few weeks ago.

Sparky and I were walking out of Wal-Mart (hey, it's the only gig in town that sells lettuce, men's black dress pants, and Benadryl!) when a tallish, geeky-ish strawberry-blonde wearing glasses came running at us. Well, running at Sparky, really. She threw herself into his arms, squealing his name from ten feet away. "I miiiisssss you!!!" Mind you, school had been out of session for, perhaps, two days at this point.

What's a mom to do? Sparky looked at me apologetically over her shoulder and when she finally let him go he said, "Mom, this is [Dazy]." She barely glanced at me, may have mumbled "hi." So, not good with grown-ups. They chatted, I fidgeted a little, we eventually left. Sparky was clearly as uncomfortable with the situation as I was, and I pretty much let it drop.

Last Friday when I was waiting to pick him up at school after his driving practice, he rounded the corner of the high school with [Dazy] bouncing along beside him. She really does move a lot like Tigger. Anyway, she needed a ride home: she'd been driving (in a separate car from Sparky's) and apparently her folks had told her they couldn't come get her so she had been bumming for a ride.

So, we crammed into the cab of my pickup. She barely spoke to me, thus cementing my impression of 'not good with grown-ups.' It was weird though: I took her to the local flop-hotel, but I think her family manages it judging by the unit she told me to stop at. And once she was out of the car I quizzed Sparky a bit more. She has a boyfriend, she doesn't interest him 'that way'--"Mo-ommmm!"--she's in the anime club. I didn't go too far, because I had a sudden memory of my sister picking me up from college freshman year and commenting for what seemed like forever on a guy who had been there when she arrived, a guy friend. It was ... icky.

While I was in California over the weekend, I had to use Sparky's cell phone. As I was waiting at the gate at the airport, I got a text message: "I luv u" from [Dazy]. I just remembered. I guess I should tell him about it, only a week later.

Who says our subconscious doesn't rule things? I had rather forgotten about [Dazy] until I woke up this morning with the vision of short strawberry-blond hair and geeky glasses in my brain.

Oh, and
HAPPY FOURTH
of JULY!

Fasting

It's supposed to be good for the soul. Some people swear it's also good for our physical health to fast once in awhile.

It used to be really easy for me to fast. I could easily go without eating for a day.

It has gotten harder to do over the years, which in itself is probably why I should do it more often. The difficulty isn't in the spiritual sense (though this year is particularly hard) so much as in the physical sense. There are just so many different times in my life that I eat out of habit--rather than hunger--and today has really been an exercise in noting those times: while on the computer, while watching TV, when bored, while running errands.... There really is NO reason to eat while doing ANY of those things.

I'm really looking forward to Easter breakfast this year, even if it is just a piece of buttered toast! Maybe I'll splurge and put some honey on it too.

Love is...

...frequently mistaken to encompass only this sort of love:That's just a part of what love is, though. It's more than just Valentine's Day, jewelry, pink and red flowers.

Love is family...

...even before you know what you family looks like. Love is possibility, hope for the future, excitement about the present.
Love is friends. And warmth; so why is Valentine's Day in February? Maybe to remind us that winter will, someday, actually, truly END!
Love is sometimes 'inbarsing' but all the better because of that. Who cares what people think about those we love? At least we have a hand to hold!
Sometimes love is lonely and distant and quite difficult to see. Sometimes it feels like we'll never arrive at the destination. Sometimes, love just bites.
We may not always be able to explain why we love those we love...even to ourselves. The mere fact of love's presence, though, makes explanations unnecessary.
Sometimes it's all about depending on someone. And other times, it's about having someone else rely on us. Love makes us feel important, needed, comforted.
...although it may look funny from the outside:
Trying to capture the one we love in a photograph isn't always possible. We can't, after all, take a picture of someone's heart. But we can take a picture of their eyes, and if we know them we know what those eyes are saying when you look into them:
Or maybe it's not the eyes. Maybe it's the tilt of their head, or the twitch of a lip, or a flick of a shoulder. Maybe it's the hands.
When things aren't going well, an arm around the shoulder can be worth a million dollars. The bonus is that it can make both feel better:
Learning to share is important too. Learning to support others is critical in fact.
So are wet, sloppy kisses, wherever and whenever they are found.
After all, the world is a dry dusty place, and we aren't really here for long.
Above all, love is the sweetest thing.
Happy Valentine's Day to all of those I love, and who love me.


[all images from a Google Image search on "Love is"]

Loot

So, yeah, I got floors for Christmas...in November. But there were prezzies under the tree, too.

Here's the list, in no particular order:

• A laptop "desk"
• A blouse (mine is grey)
• A book
• A photo picture frame
• A CD
• A calendar
• A necklace similar to this
• A necklace/earrings set
• A flash drive

Also a check, some candy, and another "regular" calendar that I'm too lazy to find.

All in all, a satisfactory haul.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!


God bless us, everyone.

Dreamy weirdness

What a weird night of dreams!

I woke up early from a dream that I was reading an email from my brother announcing that he and his wife were expecting a baby. How did I know this had to be a dream? The email was in my gmailbox, which Del doesn't know exists. Also...just...no, it's not happening.

The rest are now a full jumble in my head, with only the waking thought of "WHAT?!?!" to remind me of how confused I was. At some point, maybe as a result of the weirdness, I turned off my alarm, so I woke up 45 minutes late. Good thing I'm not working today!!

No, instead, I'm setting an appt. for Dbd, and ordering a bunch o' stuff from Amazon.

Speaking of Xmas--the Amazon order--my niece's mother-in-law called me, at work, yesterday to ask if I had any ideas for her son and daughter-in-law for gifts. WTF on so many different levels:

1) calling me at work (my own extended family doesn't even do that more than twice a year, if that!)
2) calling ME to ask about gifts for her family
3) asking, or starting to ask, for an explanation of a person--female--in a photo her ex-husband took and posted on his blog. I was in the photo as well, so therefore I would 'know'. Even if I did, it's not likely that I'm going down that road with her.
4) asking me if Katherine is 'depressed' since she's tired all the time (uh...Genderal Dipshit Alert)

And now I'm logging off here. Happy Thursday!

It may be too early for this

I'm not totally sick of Christmas crap yet, but some of you may be. Here's a link for some of the most hideous nativity scenes, and other giftes.

Happy Hanukkah, everyone!!

Also, happy birthday, L.E.S.

Tannenbaum

The tree is up. I'm tired. Actually, we're all tired. And we have too many ornaments--the main tree is full, Beast is putting up the tiny tree downstairs with all the Trek ornaments, and we still have a half a box of unused ornaments!

It's sleeting right now. We are NOT going to Beast's party tonight, mostly because of the weather. (We are chickens.) Actually, the major concern is that we could get stuck an hour away from home, and if the power goes out at home, that would leave Sparky home alone in a house with no power during an ice storm.

I think the trip to the city to go shopping is in danger of not happening. I really don't want to deal with snow, wind, and ice tomorrow as well as teenagers and Christmas shoppers. We'll see.

Now I'm going to go put all the random empty Christmas boxes away, except for the one with the Christmas cards in it. The good news? It's not even Advent even, so we are WAAAAY ahead of things!