JOHNIEB!!!!!!!

Here’s hoping your birfday is THAT good!!! Heeeee!!!

Go wish the man a happy day, and raise a toast to him…while he’s still sober enough to notice!! Heeee!

Mwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Warriormare pointed this out to me - Hire a Hero is looking to get 1 Million Thank Yous sent out to our service men. The campaign is running between Independence Day and Veterans Day, and at this point, they only have 947 messages. (Click on Hire a Hero - the links on the blog will bring you to a login area that isn’t necessary to post a message!)

Regardless of how you feel about the war, our servicemen are there doing a job, as they are directed, and putting their lives on the line each day. Let’s let them know we support their efforts and their sacrifice. After all, it’s the officials we elected that got them there…

Thanks!

I totally stole this from FranIAm…

Pickles, electricity, forks, a rubber band sling…Don’t try this at home.

And don’t hurt yourself with the laughing that will ensue after you watch it!

Because, you know..I have soooo much free time, I’ve signed on to another multi-author blog - this one for unorthodox, heretical type christian-types, called The Crowded Handbasket. Yeah - hell, handbasket - we’re all going. Check us out, and give us a link if you like what you see. This is the brainchild of Kay, from Songs of Unforgetting, and features some bloggers in my blogroll, and some that are new to me.

Also, my friend Grace is feeling lonely at her blog Jesus Wept. She’s had a rough time in jolly old, find a Christian church big enough for her and her new husband - her last employer, sadly, wasn’t big enough. El Sucko when you work in the religious trade indeed. Go visit her, and check out her blog. I met her through the Mad One, and she’s a great supporter of all things social justice oriented!

It also seems that my pal Kirstin has had a bit of good news in her cancer treatment. It seems that she has finally gotten a new oncologist (with whom she can actually communicate) and will have her dreaded interfuron treatments halved, to keep her liver from getting too toxic - an option not even considered by her former doctor. So, she is still suffering with the interfuron - but hopefully not as much - and she will be able to continue these treatments that will help to keep her body free from cancer. Thanks be!

It seems that Mark Harris has a new blog where he is aggregating all things Anglican Communion related - I ran across it when visiting Johnieb’s place - it’s called Anglican Communion Redux, and he’s got up an excellent article on the roles of women in the early church. Check it out!

Finally - my blog buds Allie and Luiz (I luf Luiz) are both acting as Lambeth Stewards and are blogging about it at Tales from a Lambeth Steward and Eikon. Allie is telling all about what it’s like to be at Lambeth from the perspective of the function of a steward, and Luiz is going to be creating art works inspired by the conference. Visit their places and give them luf!

Johnieb’s birthday is in seven (7) days…

HEE HEEE HEEE!

more cat pictures

The story is here.

Missy tagged me for this awhile ago, and I’m just getting to it now. Here are the rules:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

Here goes:

Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean and Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough - my kids have been on an MJ kick, and so…that’s what we’re listening to.

Zac Efron’s - Bet On It from High School Musical Two - for basically the same reason.

JoJo’s Leave (Get Out) - I just like it.

Death Cab for Cutie’s Cath - I’m diggin’ it!

U2’s version of Night and Day - mmmmmm. Get’s under my skin…

No Doubt’s Simple Kind of Life - I just love this song - makes me sing it. And also think of Jude Law for some reason, but I think that’s a personal thing.

So…I tag Episcopollyanna, Episcosours, PJ, Kirstin (if she’s up to it), Klady, David H., and Jarred - and/or anyone else who feels like playing. Noncompliance will not be dealt with.

Iona: Images and Reflections

An excerpt from the book: When Did We Make You Mechanical?

Last week I knelt
and received you,
a perfect
flat disc, the surface, neatly
embossed
with what passes,
week by week,
for a cleaned-up cross.

This week someone
good took a knife
and cut you into perfect
cubes of
manufactured bread.
I held out my hands
and square, tidy
and tasteless
it was you I received.

On an island I know
they stir you and scrape you
and knead you, and raise you,
and beat you
and bake you and then
in a boat, with friends,
they break you.

When did we make you mechanical?
And each of us pulls
at your flesh, pulls
with our bare
begging hands.
For you never come to us
as perfect circle,
or perfect cube.
You are not
a cardboard cut-out
or a mechanical tube,
tamed into
distilling life
on demand.

The gull descending
breaks the air.
With a wing beat
crumble me too.
Alison Swinfen

As I arrived home after teaching class last night, I was greeted by my son, who called me down to his room to “talk to me about something”.

Upon entering his room, he proceeds to tell me a convoluted tale about some markings that “appeared” on my 19 year old neighbor’s vehicle after a supposed visit to a “haunted” location. My son was thoroughly freaked out, having seen the evidence (some kind of cross and writing on the car), and was crying, because he was so upset and scared of the spooky tale. It apparently had something to do with the criminally insane, and murders, and hauntings, and the word Phantom. As the story was incoherent, I’m vague on the details. I tried to calm Jake down and suggested that knowing Andrew (our neighbor) it was far more likely that his car had been vandalized by a friend or enemy than that it had been the victim of the supernatural, and that even if said supernatural had occurred, that it didn’t happen at his house or our house, and that we were all safe and sound and snug as bugs in a rug. More tears and hanging on to me for dear life ensued after the light was turned out for bed, and I suggested that Jake say a prayer, maybe a Hail Mary, as I often do when I need comfort, and to remind me that God is with me, and that Jesus was very agreeable to listening to requests for comfort from his mom, etc. He seemed to calm down.

Not to be upstaged by her older brother, I entered my daughter’s room to say good night finding her propped up on her pillows, with her eyes closed, corpse style.

“You sleeping already?” I asked.

“Nah. I was praying cuz I’m scared of that story, too.”

“Oooooh. Were you praying to Mary, too? Jesus loved his mom, like you love me, right?”

“Yep, and he loved his father, too right? Cuz God’s up in the other heaven too, right?”

“What other heaven?”, I asked.

“You know…God made everything, and then he died and went up to heaven.”

“Well, God never really died. So, there is only one heaven.”

“Well…he did die, right? I mean Jesus died, right?”

“Well…yes. He did. He died, but then, he was resurrected and became divine again. Plus, you know, God is God, and Jesus is God, so, really Jesus is his own father….”

Totally furrowed brow and look of absolute confusion…

“Listen…there’s only one heaven, and God is with you, and you don’t need to be afraid of Andrew’s vandalized car. Just get some sleep, I love you, k?”

Nothing like the Trinity to make you feel like a totally inadequate parent and noncommunicator.