This pic is from the small rosebush that John bought for me last weekend. Merci :)
February 2006
You know, I often think of myself as quite the world traveler. Not so. Check out the rather pathetic chart above…
I’m quite curious about how many countries y’all have visited. I suspect that maybe Caroline, Dora, Michael, or Mom are the most well-traveled….
create your own visited country map
Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose. You are a mystery novel dealing with theology,especially with catholic vs liberal issues.
You search wisdom and knowledge endlessly,feeling that learning is essential in life.
Which literature classic are you?
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“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main… Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
I’ve been meditating on this quotation today. Profound stuff.
A call to action.
–Railroad Maps (can you see the grin here? It’s ear-to-ear…)
—27 new species found in California. Amazing.
–Chicago has the coolest nicknames. My favorite didn’t make the list. It’s from Norris, he calls Chicago “The Great Grey City”. But “City of the Big Shoulders” and “Paris of the Prairie” are almost as cool.
–now I’ve got a great excuse if I ever get kicked out of a public building for smelling bad. “I spilled a can of fish on my pants yesterday.” Yah.
–a t-shirt w/my blogwords on it. too cool.
:)
1) My kids having enough homework to keep them busy until bedtime. Every weekday.
2) Eating the last of my valentine’s gummies.
3) Copy machines that are so smart that they decide how they’ll make your copies. Despite what you tell them about how you want to make your copies.
4) 7th week. ’nuff said.
5) Only junk mail today.
6) A sink full of dishes
7) Cat vomit. That E walked through on her way to the kitchen.
1) She has good candy (like reese’s pieces and belly flops)
2) She has a big fat soft man-kitty who leaps up onto my lap and purrs madly
2.5) and an awesome furperson w/dog breath named Pete
3) She cooks good things like beer-can chicken and rice krispy treats
4) She has a trampoline and the world’s best backyard that-is-really-the-side-of-mountain (complete w/2 greenhouses, meandering paths, and a den of skunks) that I’ve ever experienced.
5) She loves my kids
6) The free food lady that lives next door. This neighbor has some mysterious job w/a non-profit organization where she gets tons of donated food–more than the shelter can use–so it gets passed around my family. We came home with all the fixins for some awesome Remy nachos and enough mangoes for shakes all week long…
7) She has Chris around. And he’s just about as cool as Suz is.
This afternoon our family took in a movie at the headquarters of Trinity Broadcast Network. It’s one of those things we’ve been intending to do for the last few years, every time we drive by their very ostentatious facility off the 405.
We timed out visit so we could see an hour-long movie about the apostle Paul in their “Virtual Reality Theater” (VRT). They warned us ahead of time not to be scared when our seats shook–that it was all a part of the ‘experience.’
Well, the VRT was loud, but not as loud as John was. Poor John had eaten a large bag of sugar-free gummy bears earlier in the afternoon. He didn’t know that you are only supposed to eat sugar-free, saccharine-sweetened gummies in moderation, because they can upset your stomach. Well, in John’s case it not only upset his stomach, but it turned his stomach into a growling beast. A louder-than-the-earthquake-when-Paul-gets-set-free-from-prison (and converts his guard,the guard’s wife, and sweet-faced children to Christianity) kind of growling beast.
Ok, I can’t say much more because John’s going to write the definitive post on the TBN experience. Let me just say that if you’re planning to tour this place for yourself, eat lots of very sugary gummies beforehand (not the sugar free kind). Or, perhaps you may lose the desire for gummies altogether after you’ve perused the adjacent Gold, Frankinsence & Myrrh giftshop and found books like these to inspire you.
Part of my reply to this post:
Perhaps the best thing you can do is talk to your kids a lot about physical difference. But don’t perpetuate stereotypes about disability (that the disabled are helpless and abnormal). Have the kids try to imagine how they would do things if they needed to use a wheelchair, or were lacking an arm, or were hearing impaired. Teach them that all members of our world have a right to access public institutions. Have them imagine how we can do better to create a world that can accomodate people of with all types of abilities.
Ok, the yucky toe I wrote about in my last message is no longer just a yucky infected toe. It is really a yucky infected BROKEN toe. That’s why it’s been hurting so badly. Du-uh.
This experience has taught me that I just don’t appreciate my toes enough. Daily I praise and give thanks for my knee and ankle, but my toes have gotten short-shrifted. From now on, I will no longer take my toes for granted. I will give them the love and attention that they each deserve. Everyday….As soon as the current swollen and painful and BROKEN toe ceases to make my whole body ache.