In other news

(Before I disappear back into the last few weeks and final six projects of the semester...)

Izzy and I have managed to keep our lives updated to a few folks via Facebook and LJ status updates. We've spent time with friends this semester in Bible Study, at the Called & Gifted Workshop in Greenville, and with a little group that watches British TV series on Sunday nights. We're finishing Brideshead Revisited next Sunday.


More old married people @ the C&G workshop


She's sweet on him.


Big G with Big Gnome


(On-call during the conference)

Izzy and I took a couple of Saturdays to be irresponsible and head out of town to see friends for just a few hours. We sat in a tavern in Asheville with a friend and his three year old, who enjoyed the chalkboard (normally used for scoring games of darts.) We headed to Florence for diner with friends who were on their way to Myrtle Beach for a family vacation. I got new boots out of that trip.


Asheville


Asheville


Asheville: selling lemonade at political rally. Look behind her...

I accompanied Izzy on a field trip to a model UN in Boone, NC. I was the female chaperone, with no responsibilities other than to share the cabin room with a dozen or so girls. I think Tigger slept (OK, mostly bounced) on the bunk above mine. It was fun watching the kids be themselves. Izzy and I actually had some quiet time together in a student lounge between sessions. How unexpectedly nice. We also caught up, briefly, with a young lady who used to hang out at our house in Durham with her twin sister and their best friend.


Looking professorial in Boone

Update in six sentences. We've had a three recent family bday gatherings, photos of which appear at Flickr. There appears to be an impending family divorce. One niece and one nephew are in college. I don't think anyone is pregnant. I carved another fun pumpkin for Halloween. We're rented a beach house for Christmas.








Mom (a great-grandma now)



Today is the feast of my patron saint: Elizabeth of Hungary. She is known for her philanthropy, her nursing of the poor and is one of the few medieval married saints. She worked through, and around, her husband to care for those with nothing. I admire her fortitude, even as I struggle to find time for those times of prayer and devotion that will leave me better prepared to serve those whom God brings my way.

And at this point in the semester, He'll pretty much had to bring them to my office or to the house. There won't be many more non-work trips to anywhere until I finish up. Oh, except that this Saturday we're headed to Charlotte to go hear Jason Harrod, another friend from Durham, church and Bible Study.

So, we're not quite as busy as before, but after reviewing the photos I've taken recently, I'm feeling less like a hermit.

Gotta go create PowerPoints now. I'm giving two presentations at a statewide nursing conference Thurs & Fri. I'll be in Chucktown without Izzy. It just seems wrong.

Back on Thanksgiving? Maybe before? Let's hope.

Breaking Radio Silence

It's been a while since I've had anything to day at the time when I had time to type it. I get great blog ideas while driving, but after seeing Gashwin's adventures in blogging via Jott, opted not to try that. Besides, the Jott would probably pick up the talk radio I tend to listen to whilst driving about our fair city.

We've had an election since I last posted. I opted not to blog the election - my friends pretty much knew my concerns about the Democratic Candidate. I never wanted to be a one issue (abortion) voter, but it seems to have happened. Bitter experience and the cynicism of my no-longer-ingenue status tells me that few promises related to tax cuts, tax increases, great new health or retirement or jobs-for-all plans will happen the way a victorious candidate promised. I hear the same old arguments in debates:

• "My plan will cut your income taxes by 30% and give you a free puppy, while my opponent's plan will merely lower your taxes by 25%"
• "Oh, yea? Well, we've also lowered the tax on puppy food by 13% and will be mandating that all employers supply workers with two puppies."

I don't want a puppy and I know that the Congressional grandstanding (many, many hearings so each congressman can get camera face-time) will delay my eventual 5% tax cut and my $100 tax credit to be used only for fish food.

1916 Successful Campaign motto: Woodrow Wilson: He kept us out of war.

So, the presidency comes down, for me, to two things he can do that no one else can:

1. Nominate Supremes
2. Nominate/Appoint Cabinet Secretaries who then appoint, without
   oversight, under-secretaries, department heads, etc.

If you don't know, the real work of government is done much lower down the chain than the level that incurs campaign debt.

This brings me to my vote: FOCA scares the bejeebers out of me. It purports to offer freedom for reproductive choices to women, but looks as if it will repeal critical amendments that protected the occupational freedom of choice for health care providers.

I am very concerned about the diminishing capacity of public health nurses in our state to refuse to prescribe/dispense Plan B to clients. Just because a client requests a therapy, doesn't mean that any provider anywhere is obligated to offer it to her. I know that reasonable people can argue over whether Plan B is [always] an abortifacient. Reading the company's material identifies 3 possible mechanisms of action. One of these, making the uterine lining inhospitable for implantation of the fertilized egg, answers any questions I might have had. As I continue to argue for freedom of choice for our staff, I have relied on the Hyde-Weldon amendment, etc. Protections that may go away, as may many of our staff. Clients can get Plan B lots of places -- they can't get newborn home visits or free school shots or TB testing or even STD treatment from those places.

So, my exercise of my franchise became making my tiny voice heard about FOCA. Let's hope that the many layers of civil servants, hold-overs from several administrations, write guidelines and funding rules less draconian than what is being discussed.

Picture source.

Voting Booths?

Heard on the radio, as the local drive-time guy was trying to address the differences between what we might espouse out loud and what we might actually do when it comes time to vote:

When you find yourself in that ballot box...

I'm thinking that if I could get into the ballot box, I might try to change those votes that couldn't be changed ahead of time by affecting hearts and minds.

Of course, I'm not sure how this will work with electronic voting.

Humor at the HCC

1. Phone call

My youngest brother, B3, called Saturday. He and his 2 youngest kids were at the airport retrieving luggage. [Apparently, what flies to Vegas stays in Vegas.] Our conversation, in part, incuded this exchange:

B3: So, where's Izzy?
Me: He's in Cheraw for the Jazz Fest.
M3: Cheraw has a jazz festival?
Me: Yea. Turns out, that's where Dizzy Gillespie was born.
B3: Get out!
Me: That's what Dizzy did.

2. Izzy, who was watering down the head cold bugs trying to get established, was sitting on the couch opposite me. He'd been napping and may have been particularly susceptible to the absurd.

Me (starting to tell a story about something I saw on the Late, Late Show): The other night, I was up late and ...
Izzy: [laugh started, then the choking up, then a more subdued laugh, then more choking ... pattern continues for 2-3 minutes.] The other night? Thanks for a great laugh.

If you don't get that one, you've not been here between 2&3 AM lately. If you are here, you'll see me mostly doing homework. I've just finished tonight and thought I'd write this stuff down before I forgot it.

Someday, I'll want to recall I had a tiny bit of a life during this time.

Another candidate for "Don't that beat all"

Link to picture (@ NRO Online) came from the Drudge Report.

Supposed to be Obama, per the NRO story. Hard to tell, but the original does have those ears...

If it is, is this sacrilege or tacky (collectible?!?) kitsch?

Cute Baby Contest

The Littlebarns are pretty sure they've got the cutest baby on the planet, and Lil Miss herself certainly does make a convincing case, ...this young lady not withstanding...


One of my nieces, about 6 weeks old in this photo

However, I'm pretty sure I'm related to the cutest toddler around.


Out for ice cream tonight.


A little taste to see how cold it is.


Bday pic -- we're three.


Blowing out her three candles, one at a time.

Your cute fix is available @ the Flickr site.

10,003 Pictures

Last evening, I passed the 10,000 mark in photos up on Flickr. Most, you'll not be surprised to know, are likely of pediatric relatives of mine. (This is different from the rest of the interweb, which seems to consist of pictures of cats with cute captions.)

Photo 10,003 was one my favorites from the lovely evening at the Olympic love nest of Waldie & Baldman.



See the rest of the set here.

Fiscal True confessions

As the financial apocalypse gets ever closer, it's time to fess up to some ignorance (but I'm looking for others like myself.)

Am I the only person who didn't know until a month or so ago that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Reserve were NOT parts of the US government?

Bible Study

One more other note before I retire for the evening:

We're excited about a small group of folks from this side of town (or close enough) who have begun joining us on Tuesday evenings to read and discuss the Scriptures. We are reading 1st Peter. Each week we read the entire epistle, listening for a particular theme. We discuss that theme, spending a lot of time on application, and discussing the really interesting questions that folks raise. I much prefer reading the scriptures themselves to reading someone else's opinions and discussing the opinions. However, we do use the commentaries, notes, etc., to see how others have addressed issues we are interested in exploring.

Afterwards, we spend time sharing and in prayer for one another.

Who knows how long this will last? I hope through the rest of the school year, at least. It's been a literal God-send for us. Izzy and I really felt the need to spend more focused time in the Scriptures and in prayer, especially prayer for others. I'm looking forward to seeing how God works in our lives through this small group.

Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious: coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious. You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Not at the Fair

Warning: politics-free post.

It's an absolutely lovely evening, the sort of which might have been fun to spend wandering around the state fair. I've always liked the crowds and lights and energy -- Izzy not so much. Not sure if we'll go this year -- I doubt that there are many (any?) low-carb choices in the fried food on a stick category (other than the stick itself.)

So, since they didn't go to the Fair, what on earth DID the O'Cayces do this evening? Glad you asked. Izzy started a load of laundry, and the washing machine finished it well before the clothes were rinsed/clean/drained. This is an older machine that we got 5 years ago for $50 (plus dryer) courtesy of BiL who gets these things 2nd hand when the prison system is done with them. Izzy had already spent $25 buying a new motor for this one last year. He tinkered a bit, but couldn't see the obvious problem. We thought about it for a while, and decided that we'd gotten our $75 worth. Time for a new machine.

So, we drove northwest into deepest, darkest Harbison on a Friday evening just at the end of rush hour. To the mall. The mall. Izzy at the Mall (!) The fine people from Sears will be delivering a new front-loading, high efficiency washer sometime Sunday afternoon and hauling off the old one. We'll get the sopping wet, soapy clothes out before they arrive.

I'm anticipating that we'll start looking at dryers soon. Not that there's anything wrong with our current prison surplus free one, (well, anything more than the fact that it's a free, prison-surplus 20+ year old dryer), but because of the height issue. Like everybody else, we use the washer dryer as extra prep space. I think the several inches difference will seem awfully inconvenient.

At least, that's the argument I hear myself trying to make as I contemplate blowing the savings cushion on an appliance.

In other news, I'll be heading off to bed well before 2:30 AM tonight. Nice change after a long week of school on-call for work, etc. Tomorrow -- I'll do stats while Izzy gets convivial with the Slow Food Columbia people at an Waldie & Balman's home.

Later Saturday night, I'm seriously looking forward to spending time with Waldie & the Baldman in their Olympic Love Nest. We'll be a few blocks from the fair -- might be as close as we get this year.

One other note: can't close without saying that Izzy's pasta sauce is oh-so-good. Ditto the baba ghanoush he made for me yesterday, and the shake with carb smart "ice cream" and his homemade Kahlua. Good week for eats here at the House of Chez Casa.

Did I hear that right?

Lately, my non-school/non-work time has been mostly confined to church time and drive time. From time to time, I hear interesting things on the radio that I mean to remember to blog -- time and opportunities get away from me, though.

1. We've just finished Bible Study (yay! time to spend with friends and the Lord -- I'm so glad Izzy has pushed to get this started!) and I cracked open a text book and the Internet to work on a class assignment. In the book for my nursing leadership class, I read these objectives for one of the chapters:

• Describe the six steps in the communication process
• Describe at least two ways to deal with hostile-aggressive people
• Diagram complementary transactions
• Plan at least two strategies for dealing with a sniper.

Did I read that right? Not sure if this is what I thought I was signing up to learn.

2. At the beginning of the Glenn Beck radio show, in the intro music, I swear the voice-over basso-profundo is saying "immense imperial goat." I finally got around to googling it, and was quite surprised that as I typed immense imp... the Google toolbar filled in the rest of the phrase. Turns out it's Orson Wells saying "immense ethereal gulf." Not nearly as fun -- the goat makes a much better blog or band name.

3. Speaking of bands (and this may cross a line somewhere). Almost two weeks ago, there was a tragic plane crash in our area that killed four people and injured two others. The injured persons were two artists who had just performed a free concert in our area: DJ AM and Travis Barker.
On the radio reports for the first 2 days after the crash, as everyone used the same news copy, we heard the following::

The crash killed four people and injured two musicians.

Musicians, not people.

Time to go read. Back on the blog next month.

Everyone in Mandrake falls is Pixilated

Had a web cam meeting earlier. Since I was the host (meaning that my speakers got to echo more than the rest of the group's), I spent a bit of time on the site before the rest of the group arrived. I discovered fun (waste of time?) features on the camera and took a screen shot. It's amazing how my eyes rearrange these blocks into something I recognize as my face.

Took awhile and Izzy's vast knowledge of old movie lore, but now I remember where I'd heard the quote: Everyone in Mandrake falls is Pixilated.

The quote comes from Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, which starred Gary Cooper. I'm posting the quote dialogue here so I'll have it for later reference.(from the imdb)

[Two shy sisters testify at Deeds's sanity hearing]
John Cedar: Do you know the defendant, Mr. Longfellow Deeds?
[long pause]
Jane Faulkner: Oh yes, yes, of course we know him.
John Cedar: How long have you known him?
[Jane whispers to Amy; Amy whispers back]
Jane Faulkner: Since he was born.
Amy Faulkner: Yes, Elsie Taggart was the midwife.
Jane Faulkner: He was a seven months' baby.
John Cedar: Thank you, that's, that's fine. Do you see him very often?
[Jane whispers to Amy; Amy whispers back]
Jane Faulkner: Most every day.
Amy Faulkner: Sometimes twice.
Judge May: Must we have the echo?
John Cedar: Suppose you just answer, Miss Jane. Now, will you tell the court what everybody at home thinks of Longfellow Deeds?
[pause; then Jane whispers to Amy; Amy whispers back]
Jane Faulkner: They think he's pixilated.
Amy Faulkner: Oh, yes, pixilated.
Judge May: He's what?
John Cedar: What was that you said he was?
Jane Faulkner: Pixilated.
Amy Faulkner: Mm-hmm.
John Cedar: Now that's rather a strange word to us, Miss Jane. Can you tell the court exactly what it means?
Board member: Perhaps I can explain, Your Honor. The word "pixilated" is an early American expression derived from the word "pixies," meaning elves. They would say the pixies had got him. As we nowadays would say, a man is "barmy."
Judge May: Oh. Is that correct?
Jane Faulkner: Mm-hmm.
Amy Faulkner: Mm-hmm.

Later...

Longfellow Deeds: Are you happy there?
Jane Faulkner: Oh, yes.
Amy Faulkner: Yes indeed.
Longfellow Deeds: Now, uh, Jane, a little while ago you said I was pixilated. Do you still think so?
[Jane whispers to Amy; Amy whispers back]
Jane Faulkner: Why, you've always been pixilated, Longfellow.
Amy Faulkner: Always.
Longfellow Deeds: That's fine, hm, I guess maybe I am. And now tell me something, Jane: who else in Mandrake Falls is pixilated?
Jane Faulkner: Why, everybody in Mandrake Falls is pixilated - except us.
Amy Faulkner: Mm-hmm.

Gonna need a bigger sock

Looks like the best place for any $$ we have might be in a sock under that mattress. With the threat of multiple bank closures, we might all need bigger socks.

Or patience -- we survived the Savings & Loan disaster in TX in the early '80's. We got royally screwed, tho, when our S&L was bought by the same guy who bought the Dallas Cowboys and fired Tom Landry. Bum Bright, the aforementioned owner, must have needed extra ready cash -- the "bank" started floating payroll checks. For two weeks. You can guess the havoc that played with our payments. 7-11 sends bounced checks back to the bank 5-6 times each....

Digression aside -- here's hoping the panic ends soon. I don't have a good understanding of high finance or economics, but it seems like these houses of cards should have been identified long ago.

My Patron's Baby Daddy

Pulled from a friend's Facebook Saint of the Day feed, which I decided to check out when Blackboard went down and I couldn't finish my homework.

Today is the feast of Blessed Louis of Thuringia, spouse of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, my patroness and the reason for the blog name.

BLESSED LOUIS OF THURINGIA

This German prince lived during the last part of the twelfth and first part of the thirteenth centuries. He married St. Elizabeth of Hungary when he was twenty-one and she was just fourteen. The marriage had been arranged by their parents. This was the custom. But they both loved God, and he gave them great love for each other. So it was that they were very happy together. Their joy increased when God sent them their three children. The youngest was Blessed Gertrude.

Louis helped his wife in her many works of charity for the poor. He also joined her in devout prayer. Time after time, the people saw their handsome prince and his lovely wife helping the poor. It is said that once Elizabeth brought a leper into their castle and nursed him in their bed. For a moment, when Louis saw that, he was angry. Then, suddenly, instead of the leper, he saw our crucified Lord lying there. After that proof of how much Jesus appreciated Elizabeth's charity, Louis had a hospital for lepers built.

One long, bitter cold winter, Louis had to be away from his land. When he returned, Elizabeth was overjoyed. The next year Louis left on a Crusade to free the Holy Land from the Muslims. But on the way, he caught malaria, and soon was dying. Because he had always lived in close union with Jesus, the brave ruler felt no fear of death. He received the Last Sacraments and died peacefully in 1227. Let us pray today for married couples, that their love for each other will help them grow in personal holiness.

The bit about "helping his wife in her many works of charity for the poor" makes him sound a lot more benevolent than he was at first. Like any good husband, he was concerned with Lizzie started feeding the many beggars at the gate. She was once headed down to feed some poor people and needed to carry loaves of bread past Louis, who she knew would be upset that she was again giving so much away. As she passed her husband, God touched Louis' vision so that he saw his wife carrying armloads of roses. Neat, huh?

Now that her secret is out, my medal is free to show her carrying bread.

BTW: The friend who had the saint feed dropped by the House of Chez Casa this evening with a darling book about a dinosaur who was peculiar and a lovely other dinosaur who was a free spirit and especially keen on shopping. They loved each other very much as they grew old together. We took a break from my studies and his grading to read it aloud to each other, as we sipped scotch (him) and tawny port (me) and thought mushy thoughts. Like the dinosaurs, we're older and still very much in love (not all the time, but we're so grateful when God gives us those periods of intense mushiness.)

Painting is the wedding of Louis and Elizabeth, Rijks Museum.

School Registration Form

I just realized that I've not posted anything* since August 23. Wow. School really has taken over my life.

Found this on the NY Times OpArt website today: it's a registration form for an imaginary, but oh-too-close-to-life private school.

nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/08/opinion/20080908_opart.html

Credits: Bruce Handy, Stephanie Chen.

Amongst the brilliance:

Greetings Parents.

We're sure you're every bit as excited about the new school year as we are. (Sigh.)

Please take the time to fill out the following registration form.

Send it in on the first day of school with your fully innoculated, adequately medicated, lice-free son/daughter.
.....

4 / For this year's auction I plan to donate:
(a) Two tickets to Super Bowl XLIII
(b) Dinner for eight prepared in the winner's own kitchen by Mario
Batali.
(c) Something sad and inadequate that will be discussed in bemused tones by the more attractive mothers at pickup.

Click the pic to view larger.

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* That should read "anything here." I've certainly posted plenty on Blackboard for classes. There's also microblogging, available via LJ.