Saint Patrick

Hi kids!

Sorry for the extended break.  I have been doing a lot of developing over the last few weeks.  For starters, I am working on a series for the blog that is like a life story.  I have been reading Tim Russert’s book, Big Russ and Me, and I am inspired to do a little writing about myself.  

Second, I am in the process of moving my WordPress account from the basic web-based to a domain-based platform. That will allow me to pay less for my e-mail and play around with some ads to play for the thing.  I am hoping to have that rolled out in mid to late April.

Today is Saint Patrick’s Day.  I remember when I was working at Wyndham Consumer Finance some folks in accounting were throwing a Saint Patrick’s Day party.  They were looking for trivia questions, so I gave them a few that were Catholic based.  The primary organizer got a somewhat distasteful look and and stated, ‘I think we should leave Catholicism out of this.’  To which I replied, ‘Then you shouldn’t be celebrating ‘Saint Patrick’s Day, should you…’

It’s somewhat comical to me, that in our increasingly secular society, we loose sight of the fact that so much of our history is based on religous ideas and people.  The two largest cities in California, as well as its capitol, are named in honor of Mary, St. Francis of Assisi and the Blessed Sacrament.  

Los Angeles: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de la Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porziuncola).  ’Our Lady’ being the Blessed Virgin Mary.

San Francisco: Saint Francis 

Sacramento: The Blessed Sacrament

As you enjoy your beer and beef (or in my case, beer and yummy raw food something.  I don’t know yet), try to give some thought to those who went before you and try to consider the impact you will have on others.

And so it goes.

f

Happy New Years!

Well, tonight we say good-bye to a rather tumultuous year, at least for our clan.  We saw the loss of a job, an unanticipated move, the gain of a job, the blessing of a better place to live and the great blessing of another child.  There were also the incidental victories.  I got my second Bag ‘o Crap from Woot and I and won my fantasy football league. 

Looking back at the year, I feel the same way a forest must feel after a fire.  The fire hurt, but now there is room for growth and renewal.  In 2009 Sammy will start kindergarten and Mary will start pre-school.  I will continue (God willing) in my new job and Casey’s Speech-Pathology practice serving the Catholic Schools will grow.  We will wrap up the year with our first Christmas in Boise and our first Christmas in Idaho since Casey and I were married. 

We lost our dog, Cassie this year.  She was a good dog.  A good dog.  Noelle started wearing an eye patch to help with her Anisometropic Amblyopia.  For each day she wears her patch, she gets a gold dollar to use to buy a hamster.  The hamster won’t live as long as the dog (at least I hope not.  I don’t want a 16 year old hamster).

We are going to strive to cut our current garbage output from four bags a week to three bags.  We have cloth diapers for Leela and Mary will be potty-trained this year.  We tried last year, but it just didn’t take.  Too much going on. 

We replaced our dinner table one that will allow us to seat all six people and keep food on the table.  That may not sound like much, but it is really a huge deal to us.  Ralphie and Steve were nice enough to provide the table. 

Ralphie was able to spend a month with us while Leela finished cooking.  The kids loved having Grandma Ralphie around for so long.  So did we.  Mary is still asking, ‘Where did Ralphie go?’. 

This year my blog enters its third year and I will pass the 100 post mark.  I don’t know if that is really a big deal, but hey, I am running out things to say.

I hope all of you have a wonderful 2009 and that it is full of the Lord’s blessings.

And so it goes.

f

A New Day

Hi Kids!

Well, the election is over and we have a good idea of what the leadership of the country will look like for the next 2-4 years.  

There was one issue, which in my opinion, was the big looser for the night and that is the issue of the life.  For those of you who don’t already know, I am very pro-life, womb to tomb.  I believe that every person has the inherent right to life and that all other rights must follow the right to life, for there is no other right that can be exercised that is not dependent on you being alive.  

There were four ballot measures being considered this year:  

South Dakota had a measure that would ban abortions for most reasons.  It did not succeed.  

Colorado had a measure that would have defined a person to “include any human being from the moment of fertilization,” which would have applied to sections of the Colorado Constitution that protect “natural and essential rights of persons.”  It did not succeed.

Washington passed a measure allowing assisted suicide.

Michigan passed a constitutional amendment to allow embryonic stem cell research as long as the embryo was created for infertility treatment and was less than 14 days old.  

These measures tell me that we have a lot to do in the world to promote a culture of life.  To that end, I will be volunteering my time in the coming year with groups that promote life in a respectful and charitable manner.  

On the abortion specific side, that sad fact is that since Roe v Wade, there have been between 40-50 million abortions in this country, depending on who you look at for sources.  Absolutely regardless of how you feel about the practice of abortion, the inescapable fact is that there is an entire generation of Americans not here right now.  Some of these would have been my friends and collueges, but I will never know them.  

This is an issue that must be faced with absolute love and absolute compassion.  Name calling and finger pointing will not help the women facing the problem of a pregnancy, only love and support will do.  I believe that the main cause of abortion is fear.  It might be fear of how this will impact her life, or fear of how her friends will veiw her, or fear of an abusive spouse, or fear of going hungry because she has a baby to feed.  We need to address those fear head on and make sure she is loved and supported.  We must be pro-woman, pro-life.  

As to the point of views that hold that woman has an natural right to an abortion, I will confess that I don’t understand.  Every explaination I have received has been somewhat comabative and condesending, pointing out that since I am not a woman, I cannot fully understand.  I am still very open to hearing the logic for abortion, and I am very sincere about that.  

That is all for now.  November rolls on.  Hopefull I will have time to blog more this month.  Leela Joy is well on her way, not a moment too soon for Casey!

And so it goes.

f

Pity Whiskey

I’ve mentioned pity whiskey before.  This is the bottle of Makers Mark that my mother gives me when she comes over.  It is usually disguised as a poodle.  Long story there.  On April 18 she gave me a 1.5L of it.  You’re probably wondering what happened.  Here goes:

There have three large events of late.  One seemingly bad, another seemingly just as bad and the last seemingly bad depending on your perspective on life.  And I literally mean your perspective on life. 

Let’s start with the big one.  On April 18, my curent employer decided that they wanted to be my previous employer.  I can’t say I was very surprised.  One day I will tell you all that sorted tale.  So I got to come home and tell my wife that I had gotten the old heave ho.  My feelings were (still are) mixed.  I was not really thriving there.  I was little more than a junior analyst who was supposed to pound the round peg into the round hole.  Not at all what I was told I was going to be doing.  Nine months of that had a fairly predictable toll on me and out I went.  That 50’s heart-throb knows what happens when I get bored of a project.  HI-YA!

That is all I have to say about that.  More later.

Next, the house we are living in is about to become the house we were living in.  The lady we rent the house from decided to put it back on the market.  With our blessing.  Of course, that was before I had lost the ability to prove an income.  Ouch.  Cue Phillip J. Fry from Futurama: ‘Do refridgerators still come in the those big boxes?’ Bender: ‘Yah, but the rent is outrageous!’ 

I’m being melodramatic, but I just lost my job and my home!  (Sighs with the back of his hand on his forehead)  Honestly, I am not as concerned as maybe I should be.  What I seemingly take so lightly is a real problem for a great number of people.  It is times like this that a faith life comes in really handy.  Really, really handy.  I have taken the the opportunity to participate in Eucharistic Adoration, which is something I have longed to do for some time.  I have time to really look around and understand how lucky I am.  It could be worse.  I could have ALS. 

So finally, the third thing.  I know.  You are sitting there cringing.  What else happened?  Who died!?

No one died.  Someone lives.   I don’t if it is a he someone or a she someone.  I’ll let you know ’round mid-December. 

So here I sit, drinking my pity whiskey. 

And so it goes.

f