November 26, 2008

HAPPY THANKSGIVING



Tomorrow is the big day! It's going to be a little different this year. H1/DIL1 are staying in Houston this year, and KenEllie will, I expect, spend the better part of the day with her parents. MD/DLG and young'uns will be here, as well as H2/H2GF, although they'll probably be worn out from getting the NEX ready for Friday's big sales.

This year Ian will be doing "service hours" by helping give out food to the needy/elderly on Thanksgiving day.

Last week Linda and I went to "Grandparents Day" at Bridget's school. It was very nice, and I think Bridget was happy to have us both there. It was nice to meet her teacher face to face, since we've "known" her for nearly twenty years by sight only. She used to attend our church, and we watched her and her family grow (from two children to, I think, five) and grow up, one Sunday at a time, known only as "the blonde family" or "the blonde family mom".

Mick and Bev are in town for the holiday. We were able to see them Saturday night, when a group of us gathered at Lil G's Cajun restaurant, and then again last night, when just the four of us went to dinner together. It was great to see them again. We really miss them since they moved to Colorado!

I'm still trying to wrap up the semester. Only two weeks to go! Then a short break over the Christmas and New Year holidays. Yay!! I'm still on track to finish up next fall, if I can keep the grades up. Prayers are welcome!!

Y'all be good now, and take it easy on the "bird" tomorrow... leave room for some pie!

God bless you.

November 23, 2008

I MIGHT WALK A MILE FOR THIS CAMEL

H/T to The Deacon's Bench
And for any Stephen Colbert fans out there, a belated Happy Feast of Christ the King from Shrine of the Holy Whapping

November 21, 2008

DO THEY REALLY SUCK?*

*the "vamps" or the books, your choice.

For all the family Twilight fans, here are some book reviews via Amy Wellborn over at Charlotte Was Both. How about some reviews of the reviews?

November 20, 2008

ANSWER ME THIS

If the pre-November Democratic controlled Congress had a 12% approval rating, how is it that the same Democratic controlled Congress was voted back into office, with additional Democrats added? Just how dumb are we, the American populace?

November 19, 2008

ANYONE REMEMBER CHILLY WILLY?


This is cute!! H/T to Big J!

IS IT TOO EARLY FOR WISH LISTS?

We haven't had any "lists" on the family blogs in awhile, so I thought I'd kick it off. And, since birthday and Christmas are on the horizon, here are some things I am interested in:

  • Windows Vista Home Premium edition


  • Enya - And Winter Came


  • Enya - Amarantine


  • The Companion to the Catechism of the Catholic Church


  • Craftsman 10 piece Air Tool Set


  • HP DVD Writer


  • Donations toward any of the above



  • So there you have it. Hopefully you get an idea of some areas of interest. And hopefully we'll be seeing some more lists from other family members soon!

    November 18, 2008

    IF YOU GOTTA RAP, MAKE IT "RHAP"SODY

    Truly, music to my ears! What a unique performance of Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue"!!

    WHO'DA THOUGHT?


    Thanks to Fr. Z.

    HOW OBAMA GOT ELECTED

    This would be HILARIOUS if it wasn't so sad.

    November 10, 2008

    NO BIAS IN MSM?

    Four years ago:
    Popular vote: Bush 51% Kerry 49%
    MSM reports: "Americans divided"

    Last week:
    Popular vote: Obama 52% McCain 48%
    MSM reports: "Sweeping mandate for change"

    Huh?!?!?

    November 7, 2008

    GOTTA LOVE OUR BISHOPS!

    From Most Reverend Robert W. Finn, Bishop of Kansas City - St. Joseph delivered this homily on the eve of the election:

    Friends, the poor do not hate their children any more or less than the rich. The poison of which abortion is the most dreadful manifestation is the sinful suffocation of selfishness, and it can and does affect all strata of society. Woe to those, particularly Catholics, who dare to try to convince us that their “choice” of a radically pro-abortion leader is within the parameters of conscience. God have mercy on those who exude freely this salve for their partisan cooperators. I fear that they will bear a greater responsibility than most. Against them will come not only the cry of millions of human lives savagely destroyed, but the souls of those they have sucked down with themselves. This is the very definition of scandal, and the reason that so many have spoken out with such urgency to announce the authentic teaching of the Church.


    Read the entire homily here. It's awesome stuff!! A tip o' the hat to Fr. Z at What Does The Prayer Really Say?.

    November 5, 2008

    IF I WERE A MUPPET

    OK. Time to cheer up!! So-o-o-o, in case you were wondering...


    You Are Dr. Bunsen Honeydew



    You take the title "mad scientist" to the extreme - with very scary things coming out of your lab.

    And you've invented some pretty cool things, from a banana sharpener to a robot politician.

    But while you're busy turning gold into cottage cheese, you need to watch out for poor little Beaker!

    "Oh, that's very naughty, Beaker! Now you eat these paper clips this minute."

    A REFLECTION SHARED

    If nothing else, the election of Barack Obama has triggered powerful emotions from all sides. Another H/T to Red Cardigan for these emotion-filled, thought-provoking observations:

    Do you remember when the Jeremiah Wright story first broke, and the Reverend Wright's inflammatory preaching made the news? Excerpt:


    An ABC News review of dozens of Rev. Wright's sermons, offered for sale by the church, found repeated denunciations of the U.S. based on what he described as his reading of the Gospels and the treatment of black Americans.

    "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."


    Today, Rev. Wright's prayer has been answered.

    Never before in the history of America have the nation's citizens selected as their leader a man so steeped in the support of evil as Barack Obama. Never before has America so sullenly turned her back on God and on His laws as she did this day; never before has America so unquestioningly played the harlot to the new false gods of modernity and relativism. Never before have Americans so blindly chanted slogans while secretly lusting after their neighbor's goods; never before have Americans been so naked in their covetousness, their demand that the federal government feed them and clothe them and wipe their snotty noses in times of illness--all to be paid for by the open theft of the honest incomes of other men, who now have no incentive to work hard and strive for success, since that success will be stolen from them and used to line the public coffers.

    America was once a great nation, conceived in liberty, forged in the belief that all men were deserving of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Now America stands for nothing but materialism, bread and circuses, and the notion that only lives that we decide are worth protecting shall be protected--all others may be dispatched the moment they're no longer convenient to us. And our fellow citizens have worked for this, and hoped for this, and even--God spare them!--prayed for this.

    There is no turning back from this evil hour. There will be no hope, now or ever, that a truly great America will return. I fully expect to see our borders opened, our sovereignty derided as unimportant and given away or sold to the highest bidder; I fully expect to see Christian values defined as "bigotry" and hatred of Christianity mainstreamed as "normal."

    Abortion will be ubiquitous; the avenues of dissent will slowly be closed, and pro-life citizens marginalized and silenced. Gay marriage will become the law of the land, and will be made into a weapon to be used against all religious people who don't agree that our children must believe that Bob and Bill are "married" or that Sue and Liz are "married." Slowly it will become impossible for us to interact in any way in this brave new society, because we will have to hide our beliefs and even deny them in order to have access to jobs or businesses or any livelihoods whatsoever.

    I don't know what God thought of Rev. Wright's prayer, but to all intents and purposes He has answered it. America is, if not damned, at least doomed. Perhaps someday on some distant shore we will teach our children's children about the great nation we once knew; but the slide into total degradation has begun, and unless God chooses to provide us with some miracle or other, there is nothing we can do to stop our once-great nation from becoming a rotting corpse, a whited sepulcher, a ghoulish and licentious shadow of her once noble self.

    It's a cold comfort to me at this hour that I did do the one thing I could have done to prevent this evil from taking place; that is, I voted for McCain--but it is a comfort. I can say before God and man that I rejected this evil to the fullest extent possible to me, and I know that many of you can say the same. Perhaps together we can find a way to survive the coming onslaught against our liberties and our religious freedoms, or at least to help each other to minimize the worst effects of these things. We will no longer be at peace in the land of our birth, though, and the efforts made to end our two-hundred-plus years of religious liberty will be unrelenting and vile. It's time to start preparing for that reality now--there is nothing else left for us to do.

    The Future?



    H/T to Red Cardigan at And Sometimes Tea

    CONFLICTED

    I am struggling with conflicting emotions regarding the events of yesterday. On the one hand, I think it is a wonderful thing that the United States has progressed to the point that an African American can be elected President. On the other hand, I'm really sorry that it had to be Obama.

    It's time now to pray in earnest. Pray for the safety of our President elect. Pray for the United States. It appears to be headed in the same direction, politically and socially, as that which is already a reality in Europe. Pray for those unable to pray for themselves.

    We are being blown about by the winds of change. What exactly that "change" will be remains to be seen. Hopefully our experience with riding in on the waves of an undefined change turns out to be better than it did in Germany, Cuba, Nicaragua and elsewhere.

    Take care, my friends. May God bless us with faith, hope, and love in quantities great enough to get us through whatever lies ahead.

    November 4, 2008

    GOODBYE TO "LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS"

    I cannot adequately express the extreme disappointment and discouragement I am feeling. I had held out hope that the American people would, in the end, reach for more than empty rhetoric and slogans. I mourn the continued erosion of basic rights, such as the right to free speech, which was so strongly curtailed during the past several months by the Obama supporters and the main stream media. I fear for our country, which is in the process of giving away our system of "checks and balances" by turning over all three branches of government to the Liberal establishment. I feel sorrow for the Catholics who have chosen abortion over life and who have now put the salvation of their immortal souls into such jeopardy. And they will continue to receive the precious Body and Blood of our Lord while in a state of mortal sin, with no remorse for their actions. I pray for them, that they will realize the grave consequences of their choices and be brought back, in humility and true repentance, into the bosom of the Church.

    May God stay the evil which has now been unleashed on the innocent unborn in our country. And may God have mercy on us all, and bring us peace.

    Goodnight.