English Teacher's Nightmare

From Bizarro, a comic whose sense of humor closely matches the one here at the House of Chez Casa.



BTW: We once met Dan Pirarro, and asked him about what we thought we familiar landmarks in some of his drawings. Turns out we'd been neighbors in Old Oak Cliff. (Link for Izzy: the park that was just behind our little Oak Cliff Love Nest.)

View Larger Map


(The Google Map embed doesn't seem to be working. Click the words "View Larger Map" for an interactive map if you'd like to see how much the street has changed, and not changed. It will take a second to load the somewhat familiar view of the 1990-1992 HCC.)

Baby Eliza

NC friends from our previous church and a teacher colleague of Izzy's just had the experience no one should ever have: Their little daughter died this morning.

Eliza had been terminally ill since her birth nearly three years ago. Izzy and I were blessed to attend her first birthday party, which was cause for a community-sized celebration of God's goodness and faithfulness to her family. I no longer ask why some children are born with terrible health problems or limited lifespans. Instead, I understand that God has His reasons for making all of us the way we are. In His providence, some of these babies are placed "on loan" to families like the "DixieJax," whose grace and trust and impassioned fierce love show us a glimpse of the love the Father has for all of us.

Click the link above or in the sidebar to read Eliza's entire story (have a hankie handy.)

Then say a prayer for the repose of the soul of Baby Eliza. I have no doubt that angels are already quickly winging her to her rest.

Done

Five minutes ago, I submitted my final assignment for this semester. (yay!) I read it over a couple times, even ran spell check (ever tried that on SAS output? Very interesting...) and decided I wouldn't improve it any by spending another day checking the results. Time to be done.

The course is listed as Pass-Fail. I need to score an 11 (actually 10.2) on this exam (20% of the course grade) in order to get an 80% for the course and thus pass. That, my friends is an example of the serious statistical analysis I've done this semester. I learned more about stats and SAS and research, but even now I can feel it all leaving my sleep-deprived brain.

Off to bed now. Time to celebrate the Immaculate Conception of Our Blessed Mother, and begin seriously keeping Advent.

BTW for those from our fair city or its environs: Our priest lost his father late Friday/early Saturday. He learned of the death just before time to celebrate a wedding Saturday afternoon. He flew back home Sunday afternoon. Prayers for him, his family and the repose of the soul of his father will be most appropriate.

OMGoodness, it's December 2 already!

I have two more assignments left. An essay on the role of the DNP and a stats test. Almost done, with semi-normal bedtimes looming in a week. The blackboard program will be down from the 20th of December to the 5th of January. There won't be any way to get bogged down in preparations for next semester over the Christmas break. What a great gift!

I experienced grade inflation this week, I think. I completely could not answer half of one of the 5 questions on the stats homework from two weeks ago. I even commented on the paper that I just didn't understand it. Got a 96 on the assignment. I don't think it's theft, so I don't think I have to confess it.

Speaking of such, I wanted to blog just before I headed off to bed so I'd recall the date. I went to confession this past evening at our little tiny parish. There was a small crowd at the beginning of the communal penance service. I noticed a few folks arriving to join the lines after the service part was over. Kinda nice to see kids coming out for confession.

There had been some tension on a class project earlier, and that actually helped me put a lot into perspective before I went to confession. Doing the examination of conscience and talking with my confessor gave me ideas to frame an apology email, which I hadn't originally thought I would need to write.

I hear it over and over that we should avail ourselves of the sacrament of reconciliation more often. I believe it, I just don't often act on it. Maybe that's the new year's resolution I have some hope of keeping. I'll keep you posted.

Brideshead Completed

Just about an hour ago, Izzy and I with Miz M finished the BBC series Brideshead revisited. we've been watching 1-2 episodes on Sunday nights this fall. I had seen the series in the '80's and had only remembered the mostly dreary color scheme and Sebastian's backside. (But then, I seldom recall much from movies, etc.)

This time it was very different. Watching it as a Catholic convert changed everything. I wanted Charles to understand the Flyte's religion -- to see how it permeated their lives when doing good and when behaving badly. The tragic resignation to damnation that they felt they were headed for, even as the Church, embodied by the everlasting nanny in the attic called them back. Duty, honor, valor -- it's all there. What a great series -- even if often depressing.

Gorgeous writing -- I guess I'll need to add this book to the pile for after school.

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.