Winter's Gift

In the middle of the Christmas rush and just a bit of stress today, I decided that a trip to the children's book store was in order to set things right. I found a beautiful book called "Winter's Gift." After reading it, life looked much better.

A Christmas favorite

One of the best sounds in the world...children singing

Update

I don't usually "journal" on this site, but...wow, has it been a while since I've posted anything. So, I'll give a bit of an update. Life has been very full of late. I just started my new job in Advantage Health administration. Same company, different position, more responsibility...a move up. Hard to leave the coworkers I love, but it's a good thing and it's exciting.

Word of the Day for Saturday December 3, 2005

chagrin (shuh-GRIN)

noun: Acute vexation, annoyance, or embarrassment, arising from disappointment or failure.

He noted with chagrin how little hair clung to his head.
- -John Marks, The Wall

transitive verb: To unsettle or vex by disappointment or humiliation; to mortify.

Rich Moroni was earning $20,000 a year as a cook and was chagrined to discover that he couldn't keep up with the style of life and spending of his preferred reference group -- the lawyers and executives who shared his passion for squash and belonged to the same health club.
--Peter T. Kilborn, "Splurge," New York Times, June 21, 1998

Chagrined to find that her current boyfriend has become best pals with her ex-boyfriend Hank, she goes to her ex with the problem.
--Stephen J. Dubner, "Boston Rockers," New York Times, July 26, 1998

I'm never moving to Saudi Arabia!

RIYADH (Reuters) - Four Saudi women teaching in a remote village school have married their driver so they can live closer to work, Al-Watan newspaper said on Monday.

The newspaper said the women from Al-Baha province in south-west Saudi Arabia were impressed with the man's "good morals" and decided to marry him and live together in the village where they teach -- avoiding a tiring daily commute.

They were married in a short ceremony, and have agreed to pay the driver a share of their monthly salaries, Al-Watan said. Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, while men can marry up to four women according to Islamic law.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I kid you not...the first thing I saw when looking out my window this morning (other than snow) was a great big turkey at the feeder! This must be a Thanksgiving day tradition now because last year there were three out there just before we sat down to dinner. They must know that by this time our turkey is already in the oven and it's safe to come out and say "ha-ha, you didn't catch me!"

The Roar of Love

From an email I received today from Matthew Ward Ministries -

For all of you who are moviegoers, you’ve probably seen the trailer for the upcoming film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I can’t tell you how excited I am personally to see a work like this being offered to the public. My hope is that the Narnia film will be met with enough success to cause a whole new generation of people to look into not only the Chronicles of Narnia series (seven books in all), but also other writings by C.S. Lewis, much as the Lord of the Rings films did for J.R.R. Tolkien.

The singing group “The 2^nd Chapter of Acts” (of which I was a member) read C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. These stories had a very profound effect on all of us. It wasn’t long before we began writing songs inspired by the first book in that series, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Over a span of a few years, we had enough songs put together to complete this concept album. We decided to call the project The Roar of Love. This recording ended up being like nothing we had ever done. Instead of having the typical songs that, once they were over, would either end or fade, we decided to arrange the songs in such a way as to have them weave right into each other without stopping. This approach made the listener more apt to be drawn into the storyline, much as a great orator, reading the book aloud, might pull you in. The only time the music really stopped (this was in the days before CD’s) was when it came time to turn over the album or cassette!

The Roar Of Love was originally released in 1980, and it remains in my mind as one of the best projects “The 2^nd Chapter of Acts” ever recorded.
************************************************************************************************

I have this album! That's right...I said album. Still listen to it, too. It's lots of fun, especially for a fan of the books. If you go to the link you can listen to song clips...I love Are You Going to Narnia, Gifts From Father Christmas, Roar of Love and Something is Happening in Me. I just read "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" again this summer. Can't wait for the movie!

ar·dour (Variant of ardor)
n. Chiefly British

n 1: a feeling of strong eagerness (usually in favor of a person or cause);

"they were imbued with a revolutionary ardor" [syn: ardor, elan, zeal]

2: intense feeling of love [syn: ardor]

3: feelings of great warmth and intensity;
"he spoke with great ardor" [syn: ardor, fervor, fervour, fervency, fire, fervidness]

Word of the Day for Sunday November 6, 2005

verdure \VUR-jur\, noun:
Green; greenness; freshness of vegetation;
as, "the verdure of the meadows in June."

"A wide expanse of living verdure, cultivated gardens, shady groves, fertile cornfields, flowed round it like a sea."
--Motley

Quotation for Sunday, November 06, 2005:

"I am rather sick of the modern assumption that, for all events, 'WE,' the people, are never responsible: it is always our rulers, or ancestors, or parents, or education, or anybody but precious 'US.' WE are apparently perfect and blameless. Don't you believe it."

Letters to an American Lady

"To be interested in the changing seasons is...a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring."

- George Satayana, "The Life of Reason"



Ok, fine...I'll accept that summer is over already. After all, it was a beautiful fall weekend.

Quotation for Tuesday, October 25, 2005:

"Why don't they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn't lie and it is obvious she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth."

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
(C. S. Lewis)

Personal Mobility Vehicles...



Transportation of the future? We shall see.

Quotation for Friday, October 21, 2005:

"How could we endure to live and let time pass if we were always crying for one day or one year to come back -- if we did not know that every day in a life fills the whole life with expectation and memory?"

Out of the Silent Planet

Quotation for Saturday, October 15, 2005:

"All that is made seems planless to the darkened mind, because there are more plans than he looked for."

Perelandra
(C. S. Lewis)

Carnegie Hall, here I come

The latest news is...
In April, I am going to be singing in the Isaac Stern Auditorium...in Carnegie Hall! My friend, Jim, and I are signed up to participate in the MidAmerica choral concert series with none other than the famous John Rutter. We'll either be performing his "Magnificat" or a Mozart Requiem. Besides rehearsals and the concert itself, we'll do some sight seeing and go on a midnight cruise around Manhattan after the concert. And the family's coming along!

Word of the Day

effulgence \i-FUL-juhn(t)s\, noun:

The state of being bright and radiant; splendor; brilliance.

The purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues.
--Congressman Henry Lee's Eulogy for George Washington, 1799

The setting sun as usual shed a melancholy effulgence on the ruddy towers of the Alhambra.
--Washington Irving, The Alhambra

Quote of the day:

"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others, at whatever cost."

- Arthur Ashe

Word of the Day

This is definitely a new one on me.

gimcrack \JIM-krak\ noun:
A showy but useless or worthless object; a gewgaw.

adjective:
Tastelessly showy; cheap; gaudy.

Yet the set is more than a collection of pretty gimcracks.
--Frank Rich, Hot Seat

In those cities most self-conscious about their claim to be part of English history, like Oxford or Bath, the shops where you could have bought a dozen nails, home-made cakes or had a suit run up, have shut down and been replaced with places selling teddy bears, T-shirts and gimcrack souvenirs.
--Jeremy Paxman, The English: A Portrait of a People

Unctuous
adj.

1. Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness:
“the unctuous, complacent court composer who is consumed with envy and self-loathing”

2. Having the quality or characteristics of oil or ointment; slippery.

3. Containing or composed of oil or fat.

4. Abundant in organic materials; soft and rich: unctuous soil.


[Middle English, from Old French unctueus, from Medieval Latin nctusus, from Latin nctum, ointment, from neuter past participle of unguere, to anoint.]
unctu·ous·ly (adv)
unctu·ous·ness or unctu·osi·ty (n)

Synonyms: unctuous, fulsome, oily, oleaginous, smarmy

(These adjectives mean insincerely, self-servingly, or smugly agreeable or earnest: an unctuous toady; gave the dictator a fulsome introduction; oily praise; oleaginous hypocrisy; smarmy self-importance)

Well, the release date for Smashmouth's new CD has just been bumped back again. Bummer. I was planning on getting it for Christmas, but now it won't be out until January or February. Guess now it'll have to be for my birthday.

Hey, it really is a word!
But I do not think it means what you think it means.

nub·bin (nub' in)
n.

1. A small stunted ear of corn.
2. A small stunted or projecting part.

The King James translation of the Bible was completed in 1610...when William Shakespeare was 46 years old. If you go to the 46th Psalm and count ahead 46 words, you will find the word "shake." Now if go to the end of the Psalm and count back 46 words, you will find the word "spear." Could it be that Shakespeare had a hand in editing? Or maybe an admirer of his was one of the translators? Many believe it may even be a divine nod at the great dramatist.

Quotation for Thursday, September 08, 2005:

"... Jill said, 'I bet we sleep well tonight,' for it had been a full day. Which just shows how little anyone knows what is going to happen to them next."

The Silver Chair

Swimming

I love swimming.

I love the cool rush when first diving in. I love how swimming under water feels like flying and floating in space at the same time. I love the velvety-silky feel of the water through my fingers. I love the sun sparkling on the water and reflected on the leaves of the trees. I love swimming at night and watching the stars and fireflies twinkling above. I love the delicious feeling of floating.

Because of all this, I also love having a pool. Unlike some households where the pool is "for the kids," I use it more than all three of my kids combined (a fact I truly don't understand...I'm disappointed for them that they don't get out of it what I do). It's not uncommon to hear of empty nesters getting rid of a pool because the kids are gone (another thing I don't understand...and I feel sorry for what they've missed). I even get comments from people assuming that the only reason I would like my pool is for sunning. This is silly of course...people can "sun" themselves anywhere. A pool is for swimming.

Sadly, this is the time of year when I'm facing the end of my swimming season. In fact, many pools will be closing this week. I plan to stretch it out two more weeks if at all possible. After all, I have to wait seven and a half months before it'll be open again!

Quotation for Monday, September 05, 2005:

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken.
If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket -- safe, dark, motionless, airless -- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable...
The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of and perturbations of love is Hell."

The Four Loves (C.S. Lewis)

Word of the Day for Tuesday August 30, 2005

evanescent \ev-uh-NES-uhnt\, adjective:

Liable to vanish or pass away like vapor; fleeting.

"The Pen which gives. . . permanence to the evanescent thought of a moment. "
--Horace Smith, Tin Trumpet

"Every tornado is a little different, and they are all capricious, evanescent and hard to get a fix on. "
--"Oklahoma Tornado Offers Hints of How a Killer Storm Is Born," New York Times, May 11, 1999

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Three men trying to steal fuel from a New Zealand farm Monday ended up setting fire to their own car.

Police said the trio had siphoned diesel into a petrol-driven vehicle. When their car would not start, they examined the fuel pipe using a cigarette lighter.

One click, a boom and the car burst into flames.

"It wasn't a major whodunnit," senior sergeant Ross Gilbert told Reuters, from the small North Island town of Waipukurau, about 140 miles northeast of Wellington.

"Fortunately for them, there is no criminal charge for stupidity."

The men, aged 18 to 19, escaped injury but were charged with theft.

Word of the Day - courtesy of Jared

ex·trap·o·late
v. ex·trap·o·lat·ed, ex·trap·o·lat·ing, ex·trap·o·lates
v. tr.

1. To infer or estimate by extending or projecting known information.

2. In mathematics - To estimate (a value of a variable outside a known range) from values within a known range by assuming that the estimated value follows logically from the known values.

Fargo

I just watched one of my favorite movies: Fargo
Now, one important thing to note...I saw the TV version of the movie. In fact, that's the only version I've ever seen. As I understand it, the uncut version has pretty nasty language. I've seen this movie 5 times (all on TV) and I've never wished for more swearing or thought it would be better if it would just show more blood. That's why I've never bothered to buy this one. I just wait to catch it on TV. I like it that way.

The best part of the movie is Marge's monologue (to the killer in the back of the police car),

"There's more to life than a little money, ya know. Don'tcha know that?
And here ya are. And it's a beautiful day. Well. I just don't understand it."

Stars

Can't wait to get Switchfoot's new album "Nothing is Sound" - coming out in September. This is part of what the band has to say about it:

"I believe I've heard about a man who was exploited to sell everything from indulgences to the wars of men. And yet he offered only one bitter pill that was not easily marketed. Maybe that's what this record hopes to be: a simple bitter pill of truth that steps outside of our hamster wheel and looks up at the stars and beyond."

Maybe you've heard "Stars", the new release, on the radio. This is my new favorite song! I love both the music and the lyrics:

Maybe I've been the problem
Maybe I'm the one to blame
But even when I turn it off and blame myself
The outcome feels the same

I've been thinking maybe I've been partly cloudy
Maybe I'm the chance of rain
And maybe I'm overcast
And maybe all my luck's washed down the drain

I've been thinking 'bout everyone,
Everyone, you look so lonely...

But when I look at the stars
When I look at the stars
When I look at the stars, I see someone else
When I look at the stars
The stars, I feel like myself

Stars looking at a planet
Watching entropy and pain
And maybe to start to wonder
How the chaos in our lives could pass as sane

I've been thinking 'bout the meaning of resistance
Of a hope beyond my own
And suddenly the infinite and penitent
Begin to look like home

I've been thinking about everyone
Everyone, you look so empty...

But when I look at the stars
When I look at the stars
When I look at the stars, I see someone else
When I look at the stars
The stars, I feel like myself.

When I look at the stars
The stars, I see someone...

An Affair to Remember

I was surfing for something to watch on TV tonight and ran across one of my favorite movies, with a half hour to go. Mind you, I do own this movie (the letter box version...which is SO much better) but I had to watch it to the end anyway. I usually allow myself to watch "An Affair to Remember" once a year, but I haven't seen it in over a year and a half. Of course I cried at the end. Can't seem to avoid it. The tears start as soon as Nickie puts his hat and coat back down and looks around for the painting, then it intensifies when he see the painting and closes his eyes in realization (sigh...love that part). Then I just lose it through the last five minutes till the end. But this is a good cry...a heart-warming, renews-your-faith-in-mankind cry. I'll wait a couple of months, then I need to watch the whole thing - in letter box, of course.

Time flies

I was out for a walk the other day and saw a yard strewn with toys for younger kids, and I suddenly got a flashback to another time in my life that really doesn't seem that long ago.

I remember a time when I had the sweetest, most perfect baby girl...an adorable little girl in pigtails, with a laugh like a dolphin...and a charming, lively little boy with a buzz cut who was into dinosaurs and action figures. I remember rocking babies to sleep, walks with the stroller, puppet shows in the living room, picnics in the family room watching "All That" and reading stories at bedtime.

I happen to think the children are, for the most part, still cute and charming...just different now. Especially the older ones. (sigh)

xen·o·phobe
n.
A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.

xeno·phobi·a n.
xeno·phobic adj.

Quotation for Monday, July 25, 2005:

"Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal...As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time."

The Screwtape Letters (C.S. Lewis)

Mackinac Island

tar·ra·did·dle (also tar·a·did·dle)
n.
1. A petty falsehood; a fib.
2. Silly pretentious speech or writing; twaddle.

twad·dle
n.
Foolish, trivial, or idle talk or chatter.

intr.v. (twad·dled, twad·dling, twad·dles)
To talk foolishly; prate.

prate
v. (prat·ed, prat·ing, prates)
To talk idly and at length; chatter.

Never heard these words before. Probably because I never do any of it! :)

Tommy's New Favorite Lawyer Joke

A rancher named Clyde had a car accident. In court, the trucking company's fancy lawyer was questioning Clyde. "Didn't you say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine,'" asked the lawyer.

Clyde responded, "Well, I'll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favorite mule, Bessie, into the..."

"I didn't ask for any details", the lawyer interrupted. "Just answer the question? Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine!'?

Clyde said, "Well, I had just got Bessie into the trailer and I was driving down the road... "The lawyer interrupted again and said, "Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the Highway Patrolman on the scene that he was just fine. Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question."

By this time, the Judge was fairly interested in Clyde's answer and said to the lawyer, "I'd like to hear what he has to say about his favorite mule, Bessie."

Clyde thanked the Judge and proceeded, "Well as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my favorite mule, into the trailer and was driving her down the highway when this huge semi-truck and trailer ran the stop sign and smacked my truck right in the side. I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurting, real bad and didn't want to move. However, I could hear ole Bessie moaning and groaning. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans. Shortly after the accident a Highway Patrolman came on the scene. He could hear Bessie moaning and groaning so he went over to her. After he looked at her, he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes. Then the Patrolman came across the road, gun in hand, looked at me, and said "How are you feeling?"

"Now what the heck would you say?"

I found this picture of a Samoyed named George.

Makes me miss my Codyman.

Francis Langford died yesterday

Her trademark song was "I'm in the Mood for Love" and she traveled with Bob Hope entertaining troops. She was also known for her role in "The Bickersons" with Don Ameche.

hubris \HYOO-bruhs\, noun:

Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance

"During his long tenure in the financial world, Friedman has watched dozens of his competitors' businesses killed by hubris born of success rather than by unsound business decisions or adverse market conditions."
--Lisa Endlich, Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success

"This is the actor's hubris, to imagine the world possessed of a single, avid eye fixed solely and always on him."
--John Banville, Eclipse

"With dizzying hubris, Shelley elevated the vocation of the poet above that of priest and statesman."
--Peter Gay, Pleasure Wars: The Bourgeois Experience

Quotation for Wednesday, July 06, 2005:

"Both the children were looking up into the Lion's face as he spoke these words. And all at once (they never knew exactly how it happened) the face seemed to be a sea of tossing gold in which they were floating, and such a sweetness and power rolled about them and over them and entered them that they felt they had never really been happy or wise or good, or even alive and awake, before."

The Magician's Nephew (C. S. Lewis)

Word of the Day

prestidigitation \pres-tih-dij-ih-TAY-shuhn\, noun:

1. Performance of or skill in performing magic with the hands; sleight of hand.
2. Manual dexterity in the execution of tricks; sleight of hand; legerdemain.
3. A show of skill or deceitful cleverness.

"He was the man who had sat alone in a room for hundreds and hundreds of hours, his fingers manipulating cards and coins until he had learned and could perfectly reproduce every form of prestidigitation found in books of magic lore." -- Brian Moore, The Magician's Wife

"In his new work the magic is in the storyteller's prestidigitation as the stories pass from character to character and voice to voice, and the realism seems Homeric."--D. J. R. Bruckner, "A Storyteller For the War That Won't End," New York Times, April 3, 1990

"It all came about less through engineering skill than through political prestidigitation." --Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water

Quotation for Friday, June 24, 2005:

"I love the empty, silent, dewy, cobwebby hours."

Letters to an American Lady (C.S. Lewis)

Hey...me too!

nerd (nûrd) n. Slang

1. A foolish, inept, or unattractive person.
2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.

The word nerd first appeared in 1950 in Dr. Seuss's "If I Ran the Zoo":
“And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo, A Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!” (The nerd is a small humanoid creature looking comically angry)

Nerd next appears, with a gloss, in a 1957 issue of the Glasgow, Scotland, Sunday Mail in a column entitled “ABC for SQUARES”:
“Nerd - a square...any explanation needed?”

The third appearance of nerd in print is back in the United States in 1970 in Current Slang:
“Nurd [sic], someone with objectionable habits or traits.... An uninteresting person, a ‘dud.’”

I also found this definition from Webster:
Nurd: a person who is extremely interested and knowledgeable about computers, electronics, technology, and gadgets; also called nerd, geek

And from WordNet...

nerd
1. [mainstream slang] Pejorative applied to anyonewith an above-average IQ and few gifts at small talk and ordinary social rituals.
2. [jargon] Term of praise applied (in conscious, ironic reference to sense 1) to someone who knows what's really important and interesting and doesn't care to be distracted by trivial chatter and silly status games. Compare the two senses of computer geek.

I was recently called a nerd. After reviewing the above, I'm thinking...what? Me? Socially inept, a square, a dud? Ouch. But, if I may be selective, I'll take the part where it says "above-average IQ" and "knows what's really important."

I just bought this Jack Johnson CD on a whim the other day at the mall.
I like it.

Word of the Day

antiquarian \an-tuh-KWAIR-ee-uhn\, noun/adjective:
1. Of or pertaining to objects or relics from the past.
2. Dealing in or concerned with old or rare items.

Except to antiquarians and preservationists, silent cinema has little presence on the cultural radar screen, its landmark films unrented on video, its iconic images spotted only as fodder for video collage on MTV. --Thomas Doherty, Pre-Code Hollywood

Quotation for Monday, June 13, 2005:

"Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do."

The Silver Chair

(don't worry anyone...I didn't post this because I've been crying. Just liked the line.)

Almost here!

Smashmouth has now completed their new album, "Old Habits," and it's due out this summer. I plan to be first in line to get it when it's released!

And speaking of us evolving...

A quote from "My Sister's Keeper" regarding a subject I was not debating with a friend last week:

"...it's a huge leap from an amoeba to a monkey to a whole thinking person. The really amazing thing about all this is, no matter what you believe, it took some doing to get from a point where there was nothing to a point where all the right neurons fire and pop so that we can make decisions.

More amazing is how, even though that's become second nature, we all still manage to screw it up."

Monster Engine

Once again I'm borrowing content from the ever popular Jack. Check out this extremely cool site!

Word of the Day:

I just like the sound of this word. I definitely need to find a use for it soon!

agglomeration \uh-glom-uh-RAY-shuhn\, noun:
1. The act or process of collecting in a mass; a heaping together.
2. A jumbled cluster or mass of usually varied elements.

On flat farmland outside the town of Paulding, Ohio, sits an agglomeration of storage tanks, conveyors and long, rotating kilns that burn 60,000 tons of hazardous waste a year.
--David Bowermaster, "The cement makers' long sweet ride," U.S. News & World Report, July 19, 1993
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Agglomeration is the noun form of agglomerate, "to gather into a ball or mass," which derives from the past participle of Latin agglomerare, "to mass together; to heap up," from ad- + glomerare, "to form into a ball," from glomus, glomer-, "ball."

Quote of the day:

"Some books are to be tasted, some swallowed and a few to be chewed up and digested."

Sir Francis Bacon (1625)

I love this commentary by my good friend, Jack, about the griping some male race car drivers are doing over Danica Patrick's lesser weight.

Clear that desk!

I totally agree with this work flow concept shared on 43 folders. Without this habit, my work life would be chaos.

"A practice of clearing your workspace and your inbox every night does more than foster a clean desk; it demands that you evaluate your progress, review your immediate landscape, and then always find some kind of formal caesura to your work. The day must end at some point."

Now, if only I could be as good about that at home.

Word of the Day

lionize \LY-uh-nyz\, transitive verb:
To treat or regard as an object of great interest or importance.

"There is good reason to be wary, and to pay some attention to that man behind the curtain -- or, if anyone tries to sell you one, to be cautious about lionizing "some pig" -- however terrific, radiant, and humble -- in a poke."
--Marjorie B. Garber, Symptoms of Culture

Word of the Day

suffuse \suh-FYOOZ\, transitive verb:
To spread through or over in the manner of fluid or light; to flush.

Have you ever felt happiness suffuse all the cells in your body and a smile light up your face?
--Sarabjit Singh, "Queen of the Hills," India Currents, November 30, 1996

Like an angel or an earthquake, it isn't there and then it is; it doesn't steal over us and suffuse us with a festive spirit like the gradual effects of alcohol or good deeds.
--Barbara Peters Smith, "Gladness descends on her home," Sarasota Herald Tribune, December 27, 2003

Quotation for Wednesday, May 25, 2005:

"There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there's never more than one."

That Hideous Strength

Quotation for Monday, May 23, 2005:

"We have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people."

Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis)

Goodbye, Cody

I will miss you, my sweet, handsome boy. :(

First car

1980 Mustang Coupe

I don't have a picture of me with it. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

For Mother's Day, my son took me to see "Hitchhiker's Guide..." Lots of fun, especially since I loved the book. One caution: if you haven't read the book, you just might not enjoy the movie as much.
I recommend reading the book first!

Yes...weird is spelled weird

weird (wîrd)
adj. weird·er, weird·est

1. Of, relating to, or suggestive of the preternatural or supernatural.
2. Of a strikingly odd or unusual character; strange.

I know it may seem weird to some of you, but this is the correct spelling. I'm amazed at how many people are mistaken on that one. Just remember...weird is spelled weird. There.
Thank you.

Heaven's Little Angels

I'm so very, very proud of my beautiful, wonderful, amazing choir! They were incredibly fabulous last night in their concert. I just can't say enough about how great they are.

Did I mention I'm proud?

Word of the Day

intransigent \in-TRAN-suh-juhnt; -zuh-\, adjective:
Refusing to compromise; uncompromising.

He was intransigent at times, and almost playfully yielding at others.
--"The Decline and Fall of a Sure Thing," New York Times, September 10, 1989

Sometimes I was intransigent, and proud of it. At other times I seemed to myself to be nearly devoid of any character at all, timid, uncertain, without will.
--Edward W. Said, Out of Place: A Memoir

The dispute brewed through the summer as Nehru remained intransigent and U.S. officials confronted an unbending legal mandate.
--George Perkovich, India's Nuclear Bomb

Out of the Ordinary

It's all just a dream that You slowly reveal
And You promised You're making me Real

Now hope is the difference for all who believe
and hope gives me strength where I stand
The difference is coming alive in me
as all the days go by
How the time flies by

It's all just a dream that You slowly reveal
and I know that You're drawing me near
Isn't it right, and isn't it good
How Your love makes me Real

- Out of the Grey

Quotation for Friday, April 22, 2005:

No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time. We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home, but the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one's temper and give it up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us: it is the very sign of His presence.

The Problem of Pain
C. S. Lewis

Remembering Jeanne

It's been two years today that Jeanne's been gone from us.
I love you and miss you very much, my friend.

Shameless Commerce

I want this for Mother's Day!

Quotation for Friday, April 15, 2005:

"I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?"

Till We Have Faces
C.S. Lewis

Quotation for April 11, 2005

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell."

The Problem of Pain
(C.S. Lewis)

Life long friendship

An excerpt from "No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency,"

"You can go through life and make new friends every year - every month practically - but there is never any substitute for those friendships of childhood that survive into adult years. Those are the ones in which we are bound to one another with hoops of steel."

Sleeping Bear Dunes

I climbed the Sleeping Bear Dunes last weekend. You have to earn the view with a long, hard climb, but it's absolutely beautiful and worth the work.

Quotation for Monday, April 4, 2005

"For the believer there are no questions; for the non-believer there are no answers."

source unknown

(interesting concept...trying to decide if I quite agree with it)

Quotation for Friday, April 1, 2005:

"Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable. How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask--half our great theological and metaphysical problems--are like that."

A Grief Observed

Word of the Day for Friday March 25, 2005

pestiferous \pes-TIF-uh-ruhs\, adjective:
1. Bearing or bringing disease.
2. Infected with or contaminated by a pestilential disease.
3. Morally evil or dangerous to society; pernicious.
4. Bothersome; troublesome; annoying.

Quotation for Thursday, March 24, 2005:

"It is terrible to find how little progress one's philosophy and charity have made when they are brought to the test of domestic life."

source unknown

Quotation for Sunday, March 20, 2005:

"In a circle of true Friends each man is simply what he is: stands for nothing but himself. No one cares twopence about any one else's family, profession, class, income, race, or previous history...That is the kingliness of Friendship. We meet like sovereign princes of independent states, abroad, on neutral ground, freed from our contexts."

The Four Loves
(C.S. Lewis)

Is gender-based pricing fair?

Uh...NO! Of course not. Read on...

TORONTO (Reuters) - Most women, accustomed to paying more than men for goods and services like clothes and hair cuts, simply shrug it off as part of life, but an Ontario legislator hopes to end all that.

Lorenzo Berardinetti wants to brand so-called gender-based pricing a human rights violation and he has introduced a bill in the Ontario legislature to make the practice illegal.

Berardinetti said on Tuesday he was shocked when he and his wife took clothes to a dry cleaners and she ended up paying more for similar items.

"I get charged one price and she gets charged another price for virtually the same material," he said.
(click here for the rest of the story)

Word of the Day

fugacious \fyoo-GAY-shus\ adjective

Lasting but a short time; fleeting.

The fugacious nature of life and time.
--Harriet Martineau, Autobiography

---

Quotation for Wednesday, March 16, 2005:

"How difficult it is to avoid having a special standard for oneself."

Mere Christianity

Quotation for Sunday, March 13, 2005:

"No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good."

Mere Christianity

A Joke from the "Hope Springs Eternal" Department

An elderly looking gentleman, very well dressed, hair well groomed, great looking suit, flower in his lapel, smelling slightly of a good after shave, presenting a well-looked-after image, walks into an upscale cocktail lounge.

Seated at the bar is an elderly looking lady.

The gentleman walks over, sits alongside of her, orders a drink, takes a sip, turns to her and says, "So tell me, do I come here often?"

Good news for me

Yesterday my boss made the announcment: I've been promoted to Business Lead/Management Trainee

More responsibility, hopefully more opportunity and a small raise. Overall...a very good thing.

Smashmouth is in the studio

From the Smash Mouth site:
Smash Mouth has invaded Oakland's 880 Studios to bash out their fifth release. The new tunes are fast and rockin' with an aggressive sound that harkens back to Smash Mouth's multi-platinum "Fush Yu Mang".

Hurry up, guys!

Thanks, but no thanks

BERLIN (Reuters) - An apparently friendly motorist in Germany stopped to tow a broken-down car, stranded the owners as he sped away, crashed their car into a gas station and then drove off, police said Thursday.

"After attaching it, the man sped off so fast that the two hadn't even got into the car -- and were left gesticulating wildly," said police in Aachen. The man then drove toward the gas station, swerving his own car at the last minute.

"But the trailing vehicle went straight on and smashed into the air pump," police said. "The station attendant was roused by the noise and saw a man uncoupling his car from the battered vehicle before departing without further ado."

Police said there was no trace of the reckless driver.

Word of the Day

salubrious \suh-LOO-bree-us\, adjective:
Favorable to health; promoting health; healthful.

A physician warned him his health was precarious, so Montague returned to the United States, shelved his legal ambitions and searched for a salubrious climate where he might try farming.
--"Teeing Off Into the Past At Oakhurst," New York Times, May 2, 1999

For years, her mother has maintained that the sea air has a salubrious effect on both her spirits and her vocal cords.
--Anita Shreve, Fortune's Rocks

Finding Neverland

What a beautiful movie! I loved every minute. Much as I love Johnny Depp, my favorite thing in the movie was the little boy whole played Peter. He was fantastic.

Just so you know, I'm not the only one who liked it...Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 84%.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

Here's an excerpt from the book, "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss:
"Getting your itses mixed up is the greatest solecism in the world of punctuation. No matter that you have a PhD and have read all of Henry James twice. If you still persist in writing, "Good food at it's best", you deserve to be struck by lightening, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave."
(hence the subtitle of the book "A Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation")

If you'd like to test your own punctuation abilities, you can play the Punctuation Game by clicking here. See if you're a stickler like Lynne. Good luck!

Quotation for Saturday, February 19, 2005:

"The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it."

The Abolition of Man

Look, Jim...one of our favorite words!

perspicacity
(Pronunciation: pur-spuh-KAS-uh-tee) n.
Acuteness of perception, discernment, or understanding.

Definition:
[n] the capacity to assess situations or circumstances shrewdly and draw sound conclusions

Synonyms:
astuteness, judgement, perspicaciousness, shrewdness, sound judgement
See Also:
acumen, craftiness, cunning, foxiness, guile, insightfulness, intelligence, knowingness, slyness, street smarts

Quotation for Friday, February 18, 2005

This one's got me thinking. I don't remember this line from the book. I need to go back and read this in context to understand his whole thought process on it:

"You can't, in most things, get what you want if you want it too desperately; anyway, you can't get the best out of it."

A Grief Observed
(C.S. Lewis)

Today's new word

perfervid

adj : characterized by intense emotion; "ardent love"; "an ardent lover"; "a burning enthusiasm"; "a fervent desire to change society"; "a fervent admirer"; "fiery oratory"; "an impassioned appeal"; "a torrid love affair" [syn: ardent, burning(a), fervent, fervid, fiery, impassioned, torrid]

Happy Birthday to me!

I was born on this date in 1964. That was obviously the year of the Beatles here in the States...

• "Can't Buy Me Love" and "She Loves You" were hits in 1964
• John Lennon's book "In His Own Write" was released in 1964.
• Apparently there were no reports of juvenile crime in New York City the day the Beatles came to town....which proves I wasn't the only good thing to come along that year!

Heaven on Seven

Had a great Cajun lunch today. Definitely worth checking out if you go to Chicago.

Word of the Day

transmute \trans-MYOOT; tranz-\, transitive verb:
To change from one nature, form, substance, or state into another; to transform.

(Book Babes - you already know this one very well from "Bee Season")

intransitive verb:
To undergo transmutation.

"It now seems as if she no longer had the strength or will to transmute life into art."
--Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "Changes Not for the Better," New York Times, February 28, 1974

"Sand that once was rock becomes rock once again as it slowly sediments and compresses into layers of sandstone, which, in turn, transmute into sand."
--Lena Lencek and Gideon Bosker, The Beach: The History of Paradise on Earth

My gorgeous puppies

Cody
Daisy

Hot stuff

Erica had a Hawaiian party tonight, which got me interested in volcanoes.

Alarm Clock

Ok, here's my new invention (no fair stealing it and getting the patent before I do!). Instead of the radio or a buzzer sounding when the alarm goes off, this alarm clock spouts Bible verses...

On the first alarm (Isaiah 51):
"Awake, awake! Rise up!"
After one time hitting the snooze (Isaiah 52):
"Shake off your dust...rise up!!"
Hit the snooze again (Proverbs 6):
"How long will you lie there, you sluggard!!!"

Can't say I agree

This would be one of the few things I disagree with Jack Lewis about:

"...I cannot quite understand why a man should wish to know more people than he can make real friends of."

Surprised by Joy - C.S. Lewis
(I really do love this book, though, and recommend it for anyone wanting an inside look at how Lewis arrived at his beliefs)

Quotation for Wednesday, January 12, 2005:

"Sometimes, Lord, one is tempted to say that if You wanted us to behave like lilies of the field You might have given us an organization more like theirs. But that, I suppose, is just Your grand experiment. Or no; not an experiment, for You have no need to find things out. Rather Your grand enterprise. To make an organism which is also a spirit; to make that terrible oxymoron, a 'spiritual animal.' To take a poor primate, a beast with nerve-endings all over it, a creature with a stomach that wants to be filled, a breeding animal that wants to mate, and say, 'Now get on with it. Become a god.'"

A Grief Observed

Erica

It occurs to me that I've mentioned both Jared and Laura here, but not the baby!

Ella Minnow Pea

Loved this book! It's like nothing I've ever read before. It's clever, funny and full of great vocabulary. Just lots of fun with letters and words.

From a review on Amazon: "Not onlee es thes book a romp, but et es a soseeal kommentaree on the abuse oph power."
(you'll have to read the book to get that)

Pop Culture

Time for a new season of American Idol! Laugh if you like(you know you'll at least be curious about who makes it)...it's a lot of fun. Actually, I feel a little guilty laughing at some of the early auditions. After all, some of these people don't seem to be in possession of all of their faculties...much less any talent. Of course the editors purposely show only the most odd or sensationalist moments. But that's why it's so entertaining. I can't resist.

Happy Birthday, Laura!

Today my beautiful baby girl is 13. She's gorgeous...and about three inches taller than me. She's also sweet, understanding, fun, easy-going...and she sings beautifully.

Scary looking ahead to the teen years...but exciting, too. I just hope I get the parenting thing right. I love you, Laura!

Quotation for Saturday, January 22, 2005:

"To think that the spectre you see is an illusion does not rob him of his terrors: it simply adds the further terror of madness itself - and then on top of that the horrible surmise that those whom the rest have called mad have, all along, been the only people who see the world as it really is."

Perelandra

Jump, Jive and Wail!

I'm having fun with my latest CD, a Louis Prima collection. I love "Banana Split for My Baby," "There'll Be No Next Time" and, of course, "Jump, Jive and Wail!" Dig that swing, baby.

JARED RETURNS!

Jared came home from Bangladesh tonight. There will no doubt be many stories and lots of cool pictures to share, so will try to include them here as soon as possible.

Quotation for Saturday, January 15, 2005:

"We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow's end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the Future every real gift which is offered them in the Present."

Screwtape Letters

Bangladesh

Jared is now in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He's now been there about 24 hours. He had called from the hotel in Bangkok, but he probably won't get to call home from the orphanage. He returns next Monday, the 17th. Please keep him in your prayers this week!

Lyrics to love

I've always enjoyed these Dashboard Confessional lyrics:

My heart is yours to fill or burst
To break or bury
Or wear as jewelry
Whichever you prefer

Quotation for Tuesday, January 11, 2005:

"Very likely, what with enemies, and mountains, and rivers to cross, and losing our way, and next to nothing to eat, and sore feet, we'll hardly notice the weather."

The Silver Chair

Colon cancer screening underused

All sorts of evidence is out there that early detection of cancer through screening measures means a longer, fuller life. No one finds the idea of a colonoscopy appealing, but it really can save lives. Having lost a friend to colon cancer that wasn't detected until it was too late, I feel strongly about this issue. But my biggest beefs are:

- our health care system discourages responsibility by patients in the area of colon CA screening because only about half of the insurance companies pay for screening colonscopies (which can run $2000-$3000), and

- people just don't pay attention to eating in a way that keeps their system running right.

I don't have the answer for reforming the insurance industry, but I can say...eat your broccoli! Time for a healthy colon...yeah colons!

Jared's in Bangkok

My son has now safely arrived in Bangkok, Thailand. He'll be there for two days of seeing the sights before heading to Bangladesh to work.

NBC's 'Fear Factor' Sued for Rat-Eating Episode

"Watching contestants eat dead rats on NBC's gross-out stunt show "Fear Factor" so disgusted a Cleveland man that he has sued NBC for $2.5 million, saying he could not stomach what he saw."

When it first started, I liked the idea of "Fear Factor" because I thought it was a great way to challenge the contestants to conquer real fears people face: heights, tight spaces, darkness and my favorite - plunging into water strapped into a car with a baby to get out of a carseat in the back (a recurrent nightmare I used to have). Watching it caused me to examine whether I could face the challenge, and watching others face those fears made me feel that I just might be able to as well. Now, the show seems to be trying to entice viewers with only contestants who look like models (complete with wet tank tops) while grossing them out with the worst possible things to put in their mouths. To me, the only thing worth watching now is the cute host.

(While the idea of this post is to speak against the show, I realize that some of the above just may have the opposite effect!)

Quotation for Sunday, January 09, 2005:

"An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons -- marriage, or meat, or beer, or cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning."

Mere Christianity

News Is Free

Just signed up for a NewsIsFree account and it is indeed cool. But I can see that I'm going to have a test of patience in using it. The site is fraught with typos, misspellings and grammatical errors. Aaaah! There, I got that out of my system...for now.

Heading to Bangladesh

It's official...Jared is going to Bangladesh on Friday to work in an orphanage for a week. Lots to do to get ready before then, and some nerves to conquer (mine and his)...but it sure is exciting!

Smart girl!

A bit of good news about a bright girl who proved that paying attention in school can save your life.