Rachel, weeping

Important enough to quote in its entirety, from National Review:

Iraq’s Holy Innocents [John F. Cullinan]

Spare a thought — and perhaps also a prayer — for Iraq’s beleaguered Christians, who yesterday observed the somber Feast of the Holy Innocents. Perhaps nowhere else does this particular occasion cut closer to the bone: In Iraq, Christians mourn their friends, the most recent martyrs for the faith, on the same day that Christians around the world are called to remember the Church’s very first martyrs, the infants slaughtered en masse in Bethlehem on Herod’s orders after the birth of Jesus.

Today is also an appropriate time for all Americans, believer and unbelievers alike, to consider their moral responsibilities toward an invisible minority caught up in a forgotten war. After all, one of the unintended — and unacknowledged — consequences of Iraq’s liberation in 2003 was the swift and ongoing demise of Iraq’s ancient Christian communities. While this tragedy was unforeseen, it was by no means unforeseeable, if only U.S. policymakers had paid due attention to Iraq’s complex religious landscape and recent history. Worse yet, U.S. officials have deliberately refused to take any steps to safeguard Iraq’s persecuted Christians — or even to acknowledge their plight — for fear of being seen as aiding unpopular and unfashionable religious minorities.

This policy of malign neglect helps explain why so few Americans are even aware that Iraq still remains a rich ethnic and religious mosaic beyond the simple tripartite division of all Iraqis into three warring tribes: Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds. Fewer still are aware that Christianity in Mesopotamia dates from the mid-first century, when local tradition holds that the Apostle Thomas (the same doubting Thomas who appears in John’s Gospel) founded what became the Church of the East, the only enduring Christian community formed outside the borders of the Roman empire during apostolic times. Thomas’s mission predates the arrival of Islam by six centuries and serves as a needed reminder that early Christianity was an essentially Eastern phenomenon.

Today, the vast majority of Iraqi Christians share common roots in the Church of the East, which split into two branches in the 16th century, one Roman Catholic (Chaldean) and the other essentially Orthodox (Assyrian). Both churches worship partly in Arabic and partly in Aramaic, the same language that Jesus spoke. Smaller Christian denominations include Syriac Christians (mainly Roman Catholic, but also Orthodox), Latin Rite Roman Catholics and other historic Middle Eastern churches (mainly Orthodox and Armenian), and some Protestants (mostly Anglicans) and Evangelicals.

It was not so long ago that Iraqi Christians belonging to all these churches played a unique and vital role in the common life of modern Iraq. Their contributions, both institutional and individual, once formed an irreplaceable part of the fabric of Iraqi life. And their contributions in turn played a wholly disproportionate role in relation to their actual numbers in an overwhelmingly Muslim society.

On the one hand, there was a web of church institutions — schools, hospitals, clinics, and orphanages — that served all Iraqis regardless of faith. Of these, none was more prominent than Baghdad College, a remarkable Jesuit preparatory school for boys that turned out a disproportionate share of Iraq’s political and cultural elite between 1931 and 1968. As with most other church schools, fully half the student body were Muslim. Even today, 40 years after the American priests and seminarians were expelled and all private schools nationalized in the wake of the Six-Day War, Baghdad College’s legacy endures. In the December 2005 parliamentary elections, three of the four leading candidates for prime minister (all Muslims, of course) were former students. So too are many other distinguished Iraqis, such as Kanan Makiya, whose 1989 classic Republic of Fear shattered the wall of silence around the Baathist dictatorship. Yet this one school’s splendid example is by no means a strictly Iraqi or purely historical phenomenon, as Christian schools continue to educate an outsized share of local Muslim elites in places as diverse as Egypt (Gamal Mubarak) or Pakistan (the late Benazir Bhutto).

On the other hand, there was and remains individual Christian witness to values that are in notably short supply in Iraq nowadays, especially respect for one’s neighbor regardless of faith and willingness to resolve disputes without recourse to violence. These particular values are ones their Muslim neighbors most often acknowledge and admire, as I learned while living and working as a Catholic seminarian in Jordan a decade ago. And they are precisely the same ideals Pope Benedict XVI cited in his annual Christmas message on Saturday:

How can we forget the troubled situation in Iraq and the little flock of Christians which lives in the region? At times it is subject to violence and injustice, but it remains determined to make its own contribution to the building of a society opposed to the logic of conflict and the rejection of one's neighbor.

Yet these same values have made Iraqi Christians easy targets for Sunni and Shiite extremists and common criminals in the utter collapse of law and order that followed the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. Unlike their Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish neighbors, Iraqi Christians have no private militias, no powerful foreign patrons — and no fighting ideology like the political Islam of the Muslim Brotherhood or its Shiite counterparts. They are thus the only group in Iraq without blood on their hands, holy innocents caught up in an unholy war.

Last year, I wrote about how practically every Christian neighborhood, parish, or family was repeatedly forced to pay protection money (jizya) to avoid exile, murder, or forced conversion to Islam. These evils were universally justified by their perpetrators on the basis of the same Koranic verses dealing with subject peoples, but they were seldom if ever publicly denounced as a perversion of Muslim faith by Iraq’s influential Muslim clergy.

This year, Iraq’s dwindling Christian communities are still being targeted on the basis of their faith. That is especially the case in Mosul, long the most lawless and violent place in Iraq. By an unhappy coincidence, Mosul is also located in the ancestral heartland of Iraqi Christianity, and is thus the last refuge (short of exile) for Christians fleeing targeted violence in Baghdad, Basra, and other places.

Mosul is therefore a target-rich environment. In December alone, at least seven churches, convents, and schools have been bombed, claiming dozens of lives, including the latest holy innocent, an eight-day-old baby girl. Iraq’s central government deserves credit for dispatching some 3,000 additional police after a similar spate of bombings and attacks in October, but their presence has brought little improvement as Christians continue to flee Mosul for overcrowded and underdeveloped villages such as Qaraqosh in the adjacent Nineveh plain. Meanwhile, the situation around Kirkuk, also in northern Iraq, remains nearly as dire for Christians caught up in the Arab-Kurdish struggle for control of the area’s oil fields.

While the Iraqi government has belatedly taken some modest steps to ease the suffering of Iraqi Christians, the U.S. government’s consistent policy of studied and shameful indifference forms rare common ground between the Bush and Obama administrations. It is an indelible stain on American honor that two administrations did nothing to assist, much less protect, a beleaguered religious minority. Such was not the case in the Balkans a decade ago, when the Clinton administration came to the aid of embattled Muslim minorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo with decisive military force in similar circumstances. In Iraq, however, America’s unmet moral obligations were and are the direct consequence of the security vacuum arising from the American-led destruction of Saddam’s Republic of Fear.

When pressed by religious-freedom advocates, Bush-administration officials invariably ducked responsibility by claiming that overall security improvements, beginning with the 2007 surge, would trickle down to Iraq’s most vulnerable and helpless minorities. The Obama administration takes the same hands-off approach in October’s annual State Department report on religious freedom: “The ‘surge’ by the Multinational Forces in Iraq, in coordination with Iraqi Security Force operations, reduced the overall level of violence in the country; however, significant effects were slow to trickle down to the country’s minority communities.” But the real reason for inaction, as several senior Bush-administration officials admitted to me off the record, was that being seen to help Christians was simply too controversial at home and in the Muslim world. It was a matter of scarce political capital better spent elsewhere, I was told.

A couple of weeks ago, a Chaldean-American friend of mine raised the issue of American responsibility for the plight of his brothers and sisters at a public forum convened by a mid-level State Department official. According to the Detroit Free Press, this official “said he couldn’t comment on whether Iraqi Christians were hurt by the U.S.-led war.” “I can’t answer that,” he said. “Let’s leave that to the historians.”

On the same day that my friend was try to get a straight answer from the State Department, more than 120 Christian leaders met in Baghdad to issue yet another urgent plea for targeted security assistance and development aid. Similar pleas for equally modest measures have long fallen on deaf ears, not least in Kurdish-controlled areas, where the treatment of Christians seeking refuges leaves a lot to be desired.

Meanwhile, the plight of Iraq’s surviving Christians worsens. In churches around the world today, Christians will hear the passage from Matthew’s Gospel (2:13-18) that recounts the slaughter of the holy innocents and ends with these words of the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah:

A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and loudly lamenting:
it was Rachel weeping for her children,
refusing to be comforted because they were no more

The time is fast approaching when Iraqi Christians are no more.

Merry Christmas!

Santa came! We got lots of neat things and are going to start our Christmas lunch pretty soon--Dziadzi sausage, YUM.

Eldest Daughter even came up with a stocking for me--one of her socks, clipped to her wall shelving. I got a phaser!!!

A very merry Christmas to all, both near and far away. We love you tons and tons.

Happy birthday to me!

I am in the City Too Very Far Away to spend Christmas with Eldest Daughter. Today we went to a needlework shop where I spent too much money, then out for turkey dinner. En route to the restaurant we passed Santa. He drives a blue Neon.

When we got back, we decorated her tree.


Something scary is under there, though...

House from the time of Jesus found in Nazareth

According to the Israel Antiquities Authority:

An archaeological excavation the Israel Antiquities Authority recently conducted has revealed new information about ancient Nazareth from the time of Jesus. Remains of a dwelling that date to the Early Roman period were discovered for the first time in an excavation, which was carried out prior to the construction of the "International Marian Center of Nazareth" by the the Association Mary of Nazareth, next to the Church of the Annunciation.

According to the New Testament, Mary, the mother of Jesus, lived in Nazareth together with her husband Joseph. It was there that she also received the revelation by the Angel Gabriel that she would conceive a child to be born the Son of God. The New Testament mentions that Jesus himself grew up in Nazareth.

In 1969 the Church of the Annunciation was erected in the spot that the Catholic faith identified with the house of Mary. It was built atop the remains of three earlier churches, the oldest of which is ascribed to the Byzantine period (the fourth century CE). In light of the plans to build there, the Israel Antiquities Authority recently undertook a small scale archaeological excavation close to the church, which resulted in the exposure of the structure.

According to Yardenna Alexandre, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, "The discovery is of the utmost importance since it reveals for the very first time a house from the Jewish village of Nazareth and thereby sheds light on the way of life at the time of Jesus. The building that we found is small and modest and it is most likely typical of the dwellings in Nazareth in that period. From the few written sources that there are, we know that in the first century CE Nazareth was a small Jewish village, located inside a valley. Until now a number of tombs from the time of Jesus were found in Nazareth; however, no settlement remains have been discovered that are attributed to this period."

I went to Nazareth in 2008 with my mom and Youngest Daughter. We toured a site called "Nazareth Bible Village" that was a re-creation of a first century farm and town very much like what would have been in the area when Jesus lived there. Just for some perspective, here is a map of Nazareth showing the location of Nazareth Bible Village (large red oval on the left) and the excavation site, which is near the Church of the Annunciation (smaller red oval on the right). That amounts to about a 15 minute walk.


Makes me want to go back!

Snowflakes even at the doctor's

So I called my doctor's office on Monday to make an appointment. Here's the conversation that ensued:

Appointment lady: When would be a good time?
Prof: I live here in HomeCity but I work in UniTown. So I could come to an appointment either Monday mornings, Thursday afternoons, or all day on Friday.
Appointment lady: Hmm. Let me see....(sound of clicking keys)...Oh! How about 10 a.m. Wednesday the 6th?
Prof: No, that's a Wednesday and I will be in UniTown. Is there an opening Monday morning, Thursday afternoon, or Friday?
A.L.: Oh, okay. Let's see---ah, yes! I have an opening at noon on the 13th.
Prof: Ma'am, that's still a Wednesday.
A.L.: Oh, okay. How about Friday at 7 a.m.?
Prof: I'll take it! Now, can you re-order my prescription? I will run out of it by Thursday. Please send the script to the HomeCity Pharmacy on Main Street.
A.L.: Oh, not the Pharmacy in UniTown?
Prof: No, the one on Main Street in HomeCity.
A.L.: Okay, I have their fax number. No problem.
I hang up, happy to have that all taken care of.

Cue ominous music...

So I sent my spouse to the pharmacy Thursday to pick up the medicine. No medicine. Friday morning, I called the doctor's office again, and asked what happened with the prescription. The lady said they had inadvertently sent it to UniTown but would immediately fax the script to HomeCity Pharmacy.

This morning I went to HomeCity Pharmacy. Guess what?

Thankfully, the two pharmacies are owned by the same company. The nice pharmacist at HomeCity called UniTown and got the prescription faxed here, and I finally have my medication.

Time for a new doctor.

Sad news

One of Spouse's fraternity brothers from our undergrad years passed away at the end of November. We found out yesterday, via a hurriedly scrawled note on the back of another frat brother's Christmas card envelope. I went searching for DW's obituary online, and soon found it.

Since his sole remaining relative, a sister, lives down south there will be no funeral anywhere within driving distance. No formal way to say goodbye. So, we seem to be having an e-mail funeral as the news travels from friend to friend.

I am ambivalent about funerals. I think they end up being terribly expensive, as the families tend to choose options out of grief and not financial prudence. On the other hand, when Spouse's father died, it was a great comfort to the family to see the long line of cars escorting their dad to his final rest.

Spouse and I will not get the chance to escort D to his final resting place. We will not get the chance to formally say goodbye. So, I will do it here.

Godspeed, D. Thank you for the funny and fond memories we have of you. May you rest in peace in the arms of a loving God.

Ack! Training! and Home (or not) for the Holidays

For the past two days I've been in all-day training sessions run by federal and state agencies. OH MY LORD. Can these sessions run any slower? Can the material be any more boring and simple? Can we all survive without massive doses of caffeine to keep us awake?

I am not totally sure that it's possible to live through three days of this training. One more day to go. If you hear a big explosion somewhere in the vicinity of the frozen North, that would be my head.

So--Christmas. Sigh. This Christmas is the first time we will not all be together for the holiday (and my birthday). Eldest Daughter doesn't have any time off, as she just started her new job. Son doesn't have enough time off to justify traveling from way down South to the frozen North; he has to be back at work on December 26th. So, this is how we are handling the holiday: Youngest Daughter is flying down to spend her Christmas break with Son so he is not alone. I am traveling to the City Too Very Far Away to be with Eldest Daughter. Spouse is staying home to watch the cats, the house, and to generally keep from getting too far behind at work. Thank God for webcams, as that is how we will all "see" each other Christmas Day.

Am I okay with this? Well, it doesn't really matter, does it? There's no way to get us all under one roof, for this one day of the year. Airfares are horrible anyway. Last time Son came north for Christmas, it cost us nearly $500, mostly because he had to be back the 27th. At least we saw him at Thanksgiving, and we were all together then. We can deal with this.

On the job front, things are still chaotic at my work thanks to the increased requirements for externally funded research. At Spouse's work, the state budget crisis will mean he will most likely go down to four days a week for 8-10 weeks. We don't know when that will start, but isn't it wonderful to have that happen right at the holidays?

Progress is slow on the embroidered fan, although I have started the upper edge (the last embroidered part--then comes the silver!). When I get the padding in for the satin stitch I will take another photo of it. Silk is so slippery--I dropped my needle the other day, and none of us could find it. Dad got one of his magnets and swept it over the sofa, and we finally found the missing pointy sharpy thing this morning. Whew!

On the political front--I've sent a multitude of e-mails to my senators and representative asking them not to vote for Obamacare. Finally I am getting a response that acknowledges that I do not support the bill. Previous responses have thanked me for my support of the bill. Argh! Of course, I have Mr. Liberal as my senior senator, so I have no illusions that voicing my opinion will sway him at all. Still, I had to try.

Revealing Faith

Plimoth Plantation started a project three years ago to recreate a 17th century embroidered jacket. I've been following it for about a year, and today they revealed the completed jacket, which they have dubbed "Faith".

What a beauty! More photos here.

Another snowflake, already.

1. I post the syllabus for the online classes a week before the quarter starts (Online Learning makes us). It says in the syllabus that lectures are posted on Tuesdays, and that assignments are listed on the last page of the lecture. So, therefore, nothing will be available until the Tuesday of Week One. I have a general discussion area which also is open a week before classes start, for questions about the textbook, and other administrivia--including a place where I require students to post that they have read and understood the syllabus. On Monday of Week One, CluelessStudent asked where the assignment was for the first week. She said she has looked for it in the content area of the course management site, and in the syllabus. I refrained from remarking on her reading comprehension (as she has already posted that she has read and understood the syllabus) and pointed out that it was not yet Tuesday. I also was overly kind and told her there's no collected homework due this week.

2. Part of the requirement of this online course is that students must post a minimum number of times per week. I provide discussion questions for them in each lecture; they have to answer the question themselves, and then respond to their classmates' answers. CluelessStudent posted her response on Tuesday and it was just a tad off the mark. It's now Friday. I just looked at the report of who has accessed what, and found that CluelessStudent has neither read the lecture nor looked at the handouts that accompany the lecture.

What is up with this person? In her post she complains about being a single parent and having to juggle schedules, so she's not the typical undergrad snowflake, but apparently she's a snowflake nonetheless.

Weird, just weird. Yeah, I am REALLY looking forward to this term. Not.

Computer woes

Last week, while Youngest Daughter was using my laptop, the doggone thing shut down unexpectedly. Nothing would revive it, and of course it was the day before Thanksgiving so nothing could be done about it.

Monday I brought it in to work, and the Nice IT Guy picked it up in the afternoon. Next morning he e-mailed me and said that it seemed to have been in some sort of "super-hibernation" but it booted up on AC power. Then later in the afternoon he wrote and said it shut off on him too. So, now it has to go back to IBM and the motherboard needs replacing. It won't be back until next Thursday. Sigh.

So, I've been on my little mini-Dell that I got last summer. Just a couple of weeks ago I was thinking that I really don't use it much, and maybe I shouldn't have gotten it--but now I am so thankful I did! Nice IT Guy installed the software I need and hooked it up to our department printer, so it's meeting my needs just fine.

I've not done a lot on the fan since the new quarter started, but I should get somewhere this weekend with it. Weekdays are too busy, evenings I am too tired. I'd like to get it done before the New Year. We'll see.

We get a $750 bonus this month, in lieu of our annual raise. Looking forward to whatever the tax man doesn't take out of it!

More fan and bleah, cleaning

The worst part of cleaning isn't the actual scrubbing and stuff. It's figuring out what to do with the little bits and pieces of things--papers, key chains, mugs, baskets, plates--stuff that you don't want to throw away, but you don't know where to put them.

I have seven boxes of that stuff to go through. Ugh.

So far, the kids' bedrooms and the dining room are done. Of course, that means that most of the stuff I don't know what to do with has ended up in the living room, sunporch, and my bedroom. Argh. I guess I'd better get at it, time's a-wastin'.

Youngest Daughter comes in tonight around 11:30 on the dedicated bus from her uni. Eldest Daughter comes in tomorrow afternoon, and Son's plane lands at 5:30 tomorrow night. Can't wait!

In the meantime--I've been anxious to get to the silver part of the fan work, so I've spent more time than usual working on the silk embroidery part. Here's an update--1 pansy finished, two padded, one not touched yet. When the pansies are done, then I have to do the satin stitching on the top of the fan, in ecru. THEN I can start putting the silver on. Fun!

Fanning

Okay, here is where I am right now, sort of. I have one pansy finished except for its green leaves and yellow center. You can really see how shiny the silk is.

What I did was split stitch around the pansy leaves, and padded with long stitches inside the leaf perpendicular to the direction I was planning to satin stitch. Then I satin-stitched over the padding. In this photo, I've only finished the satin stitch on the bottom leaves, and the top leaves show the padding.

Things I wonder about

• Why is it that the furnace starts blowing just as I begin to put my contacts in? The air flows right in front of the medicine cabinet door.
• Why is it that when I am in a hurry to get dressed, there's inevitably a piece of lint on one of my contacts?
• Why is it that when I walk past people who are partially blocking a hall or aisle, the one with his back to me moves toward me, so I have to dodge him or put out my hand to stop him from backing into me?
• Why is it that the local Jehovah's Witness people try to open my front door instead of knocking when they stop by on Saturday afternoons to proselytize?
• Why is it that Kitty Son walks in front of me just slow enough that I am nearly stepping on him?
• Why is it that the local Russian Orthodox church always has their bazaar when I am between paychecks and have no money to spend?

I'll take two!

Even if I don't like shrimp...

Fan progress

I'm getting along fairly well on the silk fan; had to re-baste the backing fabric and the silk moire together last night, though. Many years ago I bought a Kenmore sewing machine and Best Friend taught me how to sew. I made lots of clothes for the kids, some Christmas presents, and some shirts for myself on it (and pants for A).

When I started engineering school I just didn't have time to sew any more, so in a fit of generosity I gave the machine to my sister-in-law. She had an old Singer that was temperamental and didn't have a free-arm. She loves the Kenmore, which is great. But, after a while I realized---I needed a sewing machine to fix stuff. Duh! So I bought a HuskyStar, which wasn't as nice as the Kenmore.

The HuskyStar hasn't been used much, and I've lost the manual (duh, again). The big problem is that the bobbin tension is WAY off and I can't seem to get it adjusted. So when I used it to baste the backing fabric and moire, it just didn't work. It held together for a little while, but last night the basting was nearly all pulled out. Pewp. So, I basted it together by hand using some DMC floss (couldn't find any regular thread!). Once I get everything cleaned up and in its proper place in the sunporch, which is where my sewing center is, I'll take the machine apart and adjust it properly.

But, in the meantime, here's the fan so far. I finished one lavendar panel yesterday as a break from cleaning and reorganizing the long kitchen cupboard.The project is the first one I've worked in silk, and now the regular floss feels thick and coarse in comparison. Oh, and working through a backing fabric--I think I should have used a thimble, because I have a messed up finger now from poking the needle through two layers of fabric.

Student follies, again, and work stuff.

My little mutiny was short-lived, once they saw the multitude of comments and corrections on their presentation. They actually apologized. Wonders never cease!

Then, Thursday night I gave a final in my graduate level class. Stanley Snowflake, who was already in deep doo-doo, walked in a few minutes late and, after looking at the exam, called me over to tell me he forgot his book in the car (it's an open-book, open-notes exam). I told him he had to just use his notes then.

Fifteen minutes later, he got up and pulled out his phone, then walked out of the room. I went to the door and looked up and down the hall but he was already out of sight. About 3-4 minutes later, he strolls back in carrying a cup of coffee. He sat down, picked up his pencil, and then looked around on his desk. Where was his test? Hmmmmm.

So, now he is saying that he has always been able to go out and go to the bathroom during tests, and he doesn't understand what happened, and what is he supposed to do now--drop out of school--and he has no clue what I thought he was doing....yah, dude.

On the advice of a colleague, I pre-emptively e-mailed his department chair and let him know about the situation. I await the other shoe.

And here's some good news--I got appointed to a highly visible board where I am the ONLY junior faculty (ooh, scary!). The dean says he wants to move me into positions with more responsibility. Coolness!

We had the Army ROTC guys come talk to our class on sieges Wednesday night, and they were fabulous. The sobering thing was the map of Baghdad, with huge swaths of Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods but this little tiny rectangle representing the single Christian area in that city of 6-8 million people.

With profound thanks for your service: Veteran's Day, 2009

Andddddddd

A little mutiny, wot?

One of my adult snowflakes has posted a question on his team discussion board, and I don't think he's forgotten that I can read it too:

"How does everyone feel about the grade?"

What I would love to post in return: "Well, shucks, bucko, I am guessing you don't like it, and are trying to -- exactly what ARE you trying to do?"

The team got a 17 out of 20 for their presentation; they lost points (earning 1 of a possible 3) for the lack of consistent format and many grammar errors, including at least one incomplete sentence that just hung out there in plain sight. They lost the other point only because I couldn't figure out what they meant by one of their recommendations. So if they look just at the points awarded for content, they got 16 out of 17, which is pretty darned good.

Sigh.

The Berlin Wall

Congrats to the City of Berlin and the German people on the 2oth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It's a shame my professor, Herr Lentze, didn't live to see that day; when he spoke of the Wall, he always had tears in his eyes.

Thank God for Ronald Reagan and his steadfast faith in freedom and democracy.

Today's tasks--in no particular order

• Grade essays from class
• Read U's proposal
• Work on grant
• Write out a timeline for responding to reviewers
• Go to the bank
• Pack up extra kitchen stuff and dishes, and take them downstairs
• Scan book for Dad
• Do laundry
• Find books for winter class, since the original book I wanted was out of print
• Clean out stuff in front of the built-in bookcase, and move the rocker there.

We'll see how much of that I actually get done!

R.I.P. the US Constitution and freedom of choice

Pelosi(Lugosi)-Care has passed, and with it goes our economy, our freedom, and our future.

Nice of Congress to criminalize those who might decide they have other pressing bills (like the monstrous taxes we will now be paying, taxes that will stifle our businesses and ruin us for generations) to pay, and forego buying the public plan that we will all be forced onto--they will be subject to a huge fine and up to five years in prison.

Nice of Congress to set up more bureaucracy, more regulations, more taxes....and exempt themselves from any of it.

To those who think this was a good idea--have you EVER seen government do ANYTHING efficiently, and for less money than the private sector? I haven't.

Now, since Obama's bowed to a Saudi king, apologized for all America's sins real and imagined, installed a shadow government that does not have to answer even to Congress, and wrecked our economy and our future, all that's left is for him to cede our sovereignty. Word is that's coming in the next few months, or even weeks. The first post-American president will dissolve the republic in favor of a world government. You just watch.

PS to the President, who scornfully and insultingly referred to those of us who disagree that this malformed bill is the way to make our health care system better as "teabaggers"---that's beneath the office of the President, sir. But you've shown repeatedly that you have no idea what it means to be the President of the United States, so I am not surprised.

Shoes, phones, and revise-and-resubmits

So. I bought new shoes on the Internet. Usually a risky thing to do, but so far I have had decent luck with them. I hate shopping, and especially shoe shopping, so I thought I'd try these Easy Spirit shoes that looked like they would be okay.

They felt fine this morning; just the right amount of support and looked a good deal more feminine than the boots I usually wear.

Then I walked from my truck to my office in them, and I thought I was going to die. They are the Shoes From Hell. So, I checked my office mail, got the stuff I needed for the meetings I had on the other side of campus, and walked back to my truck to change into my old boots. I thought I was going to do the last 50 yards in my stocking feet, it hurt so bad. So these new cute brown shoes are now Sunday-go-to-meeting shoes; wearable when I don't have to walk all over creation, at least until they stretch out a bit. I am back to my black boots with the crack in the right shoe, just over my big toe. Good thing I brought black socks with me to the parental homestead.

Then, after the second meeting of the day, I was walking down the stairs to the 2nd floor where I would have yet another meeting. Took my phone out of my pocket and went to push the button to read my e-mails---and the phone flipped right out of my hand, landing face down on the third step from where I was standing. The CONCRETE step. The back of the phone popped off and no amount of CPR would revive the poor thing. Since I had an hour until the next meeting, I raced off to the Verizon store to see if I could get a replacement. Well, I could, after I paid for this month's phone bill (which included another nasty surprise, an extra $50 in charges for a certain daughter who called overseas last month) and waited two days for the new one to be shipped to me. The guy at Verizon was going to ship the phone to the HomeCity address and I said "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" which startled him a bit....but that would be ALL I needed, to have the phone ripped off by my lovely neighbors.

It's being shipped, instead, to the parental home which works out fine since I will be here anyway Thursday.

And then there was the decision on an article I submitted last July--major revisions. Reviewer #2 was very nice, oddly enough (Reviewers #2 being generally, as my friend Lisa says, "a$$hats") but #3 was weirdly nasty and #1 wants substantially more work. My PhD adviser, who is a co-author, thinks we can pull this one out so I will defer to his judgment and work my tail off to make the changes. Bleah.

Oh blast. My System Administrator just sent me an e-mail saying my inbox is over its size limit. Students here are on Gmail now and they get 100 times the storage that faculty and staff do. Something is wrong with that picture.

Supposed to be working on a grant, but..

here is what I am embroidering when I can steal a few minutes. It's a fan worked on moire with silk floss and silver thread. I've just started it, so I'm not terribly far along, but it's going to be pretty when it's done, I think. The filling is done in chain stitch, not my favorite, but it is going faster than when I first started. The other panels of the fan are lavender chain stitch and trellis work with beading and silver pearl purl. Silk floss is slippery and tangles easily which drives me a little bonkers. When it is finally done, I'll mount and frame it.

Requiscat in Pace

My good friend P died the other day. She was up in years but you'd never know; she was a tiny bundle of energy. I hadn't seen her in months, as she had a stroke while visiting her daughter in the South last May, and never got well enough for her husband to bring her back home. I was hoping that, with the move back to HomeCity, I'd get to see her, even in a nursing home--but that was not to be.

She was my first mentor, incredibly supportive and encouraging. She came to my PhD graduation and I think she was just as bust-your-buttons proud as my parents were. She loved it when we visited her, and got a huge kick out of my kids.

I will miss her.

Isabelle's Daughter

One of my many hobbies is genealogy. I've gotten quite far in my dad's lines, going back to the 1600's and sometimes beyond that.

My mother, though, is a different matter. She was adopted as an infant, and we knew only a few facts about her birth and her biological family. I've searched before for her father and mother, with no results.

Until Saturday night.

On a whim, while simultaneously watching my hockey team play and noodling around on Ancestry.com, I idly typed in my grandmother's name and pressed "Search all records."

Up popped the 1930 census, and there she was--with her father and mother and younger brother. I knew it was her, because her mother's name was the same as my mom's birth name. I was floored. After all this time, after all those searches, I had found her.

But of course, I couldn't just call my mom and tell her this news on the phone. I had to WAIT until I saw her in person. FOUR AGONIZING DAYS. But during that time, I found out lots of other things, including the amazing fact that her maternal grandfather worked for a time on a farm. That farm belonged to my dad's sister-in-law's family. As my friend Robert would say, worlds within worlds.

So on Tuesday I sent my mom an e-mail and told her to stay up until I got back from class, that I had something important to show her. When I got to my parents' house, I made her sit down and then I simply said, "I have found your parents."

She cried.

Student funny

In one of my classes, I have students design an experiment to optimize the range of a model trebuchet. Usually I have them try for the longest distance, but this year they got to besiege a castle.

When Youngest Daughter went to England last summer, she bought me a cardboard castle that is sturdy enough to withstand the barrage of projectiles from a tabletop siege engine. I took it to class and the students had so much fun that they didn't want to go home.

So, when the experiment was over, they had to analyze the data and write up their results in a report. Team Two's lab report had an opening paragraph so delightful I had to share:

"The tiny invisible residents of the little white castle have been irritating the professor of the Design of Experiments class. The members of this team have come to the good professor's aid by laying siege to the castle...the objective is to drop two or more missiles into the courtyard of the castle to show the residents what to expect if they fail to 'toe the line'...

Godspeed, Best Friend

My best friend is heading to Iraq tomorrow night for a year's stint, helping the Iraqi courts and working on their elections.

My initial reaction was cautiously jealous; after all, who wants to send their best friend to a war zone? But on the other hand, what an opportunity--and for those of us unfit for the military but who love our country (no "global citizens" here, we are proudly and firstly Americans), what a chance to serve her.

We went down to see BF last month to spend some time, and more importantly, to anoint her and pray specifically for this mission. As devout Christians, we believe beyond the shadow of a doubt that God is in this assignment, and that He has a purpose for BF in Iraq and those of us at home.

So, while I will miss BF tremendously, I am also tremendously proud of her for taking on this challenge and trusting God's direction. We are hoping that my yearly teaching stint in Kosova will coincide with her every-three-month furloughs. That's in God's hands as well.

Travel safe, BF. We are praying daily for you and for your work. I am looking forward to having lots of tea and gingersnaps together when you get home.

I make grown boys cry, Part Deux

So the Vomiter is still sick apparently. No news on Fever Dude.

I got this response from a friend to my post:

---

I think it is time for you to contact the CDC and alert them to your test schedule. Clearly there is a public health risk from such illness-inducing examinations that produce high fevers and vomiting, and immediate recovery the next day. No wonder people weep to be in that environment. I believe the virus that causes this illness is called the H9N10-- the Holy crap! I have No chance of passing virus.

I laughed so hard I thought I'd cry.

I make grown boys cry, and other tales of woe

So. It's Week Five, and that means midterms.

I teach this fun little two-credit course that has 20 students in it from mostly non-engineering majors (which was a surprise to me, I figured I'd have all engineering nerds in it). Tonight was the open-notes midterm. One student, who missed the first two weeks of class to go to football camp (our school has no football team, go figure) and thoughtfully let me know AFTER he'd missed class, supplying me with his cell phone number so I could call him up and fill him in on all the fun stuff we'd done--well, he took sick a couple hours before the exam and sent me a message. He said he'd been vomiting all day but he thinks he'll be well enough to take the test tomorrow.

Another slacker dude who still owes me the project proposal that was due last week caught a fever an hour before class. He thinks his 100 degree fever will be all better by noon tomorrow.

The third little snowflake was out getting a new Mohawk haircut and skateboarding with friends at a soon-to-be-demolished apartment complex on campus. He didn't remember there was an exam until half an hour after class had started. He also didn't remember that it was open notes.

He cried through the first ten questions, looking at me pitifully as he wept, hoping in vain that his noisy gulps of sorrow would move me to have compassion on his snowflakitude. That Mohawk sure makes him LOOK like a mean dude, but hey. Give him a couple questions about gastraphetes and man, he'll dissolve into a puddle of tears faster than you can say "half-pipe".

Actually, he's a nice kid and he hung around after everyone else had gone so I could assure him that no, the midterm was not worth 40% of his grade and he'd survive this fiasco.

Where have I been?

Goodness! Such a long time between posts.

Well. I've been busy. Driving back and forth to HomeCity and UniTown, packing up and cleaning the condo, cleaning up the HomeCity house, working--it's been a tough September.

I turned in the condo keys yesterday. Fingers crossed on getting the security deposit back! With Eldest Daughter still out of work, I need the money. Most everything is moved back to HomeCity, except for some leftovers sitting in the parental units' garage.

Tomorrow Mom and I head to the City Too Very Far Away to spend the weekend with ED making apple butter. Should be lots of fun! We have apples and jars and books for ED to sell on Amazon, and the inevitable computer packed with work to do over the weekend. Ugh. I wanted to get on the road by 9 a.m., but couldn't get out of a noon meeting so we won't start until about 1 p.m. Pewp.

As part of the cleanup going on in the HomeCity house, I've been pulling out all the kids' stuffed animals and taking photos of them. Then I send the photos to all three so they can decide which animals stay and which go. Sometimes there's a surprise addition to the picture...

The general consensus was that the cat on the left could stay, all the rest had to go.

Here's dust in your eye

Dang. I got the yellow bedroom pretty much cleaned out, started to put together Youngest Daughter's futon, and realized I was missing the two pieces of hardware that link the top and bottom sections together. I think they are in a small gift bag I used to put fragile stuff in, which means they are in my truck, which is in UniTown at my parents' house.

Oh well.

So that means I get to watch football instead.

Got a survey from the RNC asking my opinion on hot button issues. Then they asked for money. Well, I will send the survey back, but I will not enclose a check. I will instead write them about how steamed I am that they ran miserably against Obama and how, after 50+ years of Democratic rule, my city is collapsing but they don't mount a viable campaign in urban areas. When they start building up the party in the cities, THEN I will support them with money. I think the case can be strongly made that the Dems are largely responsible for keeping blacks poor and dependent, and for fanning the flames of racial tensions (Are you listening, Jimmy "race-baiter" Carter?).

Okay, I just saw the creepiest commercial with Erik Estrada and (shudder) Carrot Top...wow how freaky is he?

I dunno, is it possible to be more tired?

Friday I cleaned and moved stuff.

Today I cleaned and moved stuff.

Tomorrow I will clean and move stuff.

For the forseeable future I will be cleaning and moving stuff.

I was ready for bed at 8 p.m.!

Good news, Eldest Daughter's MRI came out okay. She got some different meds so hopefully those will work out for her. Mom and I are going there in two weeks to make apple butter. YUM.

Random stuff because I'm incredibly busy

• Best Friend and Family went to the 9/12 march. A great time was had by all participants. Wish I could have gone! My only contribution was to clip a tea bag to my office door.
• Moving is about 2/3 done at the condo. I'm real tired of going there after class each night and working for two hours. Can't wait for it to be finished.
• Kitties are adjusted to being back in HomeCity. I didn't bring their toys because there are boxes everywhere and all their toys would just get lost.
• It's FOOTBALL SEASON! My boys are doing well so far.
• I got a really nice letter from the dean thanking me for my efforts as committee chair last year. That was unexpected, and I was amazed.
• Things are heating up with the department changes. The separation may take place much, much earlier than we thought. Fun, wow.
• Please pray for Eldest Daughter, who had an MRI today in an effort to find out why she has been having headaches almost daily. :-(
  

Never forget

God be with the families of the victims on this day. God be with our soldiers as they hunt down those responsible for this atrocity, and for the people who support such disgusting acts.

God be with us, who remain, and help us not to falter.

Off for a visit

Heading down South tomorrow to see Best Friend and her family before the academic year begins.

We had the college-wide meeting today, and the Dean said nothing about the changes coming down the pike, but the rumors have been flying anyway. One of my colleagues asked me where I was going--she'd heard our department was being broken up. We have a meeting Thursday to decide the name of our department and where we want to go with it. Yeah, that's going to be fun.

Today I moved a ton of stuff out of the condo and back to HomeCity, including the kitties. KittyMama was whining to go outside, but we won't let her. She's too old, and she seems to have some arthritis in one of her back legs. Kitty Son is sprawling on the wood floor, getting underfoot, and climbing all over the boxes piled up in the living room. I have a lot of stuff left to move out, but the biggest and heaviest furniture is out of there now.

I'm beat. I'm scratched, bruised, sore, and even have a nice burn from making cookies for Youngest Daughter. Even my fingers hurt, ha ha.

The louse who is my Congresswoman

Refuses to hold town meetings because she says it's beneath her dignity. I've been trying for an hour to send a message through her contact web site. It keeps saying that the network connection has been reset--which means either she's pulled the plug on her e-mail, or she's getting bombarded with messages from angry constituents.

So here, Louise the Louse, is what I want to say to you:

Excuse me? It's beneath your dignity to speak to your constituents? It's beneath your dignity to hear the concerns and opinions of the people who employ you?

You should be ashamed.

Be assured I will tell all my family and friends what you have said, and urge them not to vote for you. I will work to defeat you in the next election.

You are supposed to represent US, not the Democratic Party.

My grandfather's sawmill

When we visited my aunt a couple weeks ago, she gave us a binder with photocopied pictures of our family and a couple original photos. We had never seen pictures of our great-great grandparents, so it was a real treat.

This photo (don't know the date) is of my grandfather (second from left), his brother (second from right) and his father, my great-grandfather, (far right) at the sawmill. Grandpa bought the sawmill from his dad, and then ran it for several years.

It's the first time I've seen my grandfather with hair...I would not have recognized him, except for his stance.


In this next photo, my great-grandfather (the same one in the sawmill photo) appears with the Electric Star Lodge I.O.O.F Degree Team. The notation on the back of the photo says they won the silver cup. Great-grandfather played the piccolo, and marched with the Patriotic Sons of America in local parades. I have both his piccolos; one is wood and the other has an ivory cap.

Great-Grandpa is the man on the left in the last row, holding something that looks like a staff.

Random stuff

• I was searching for the fingernail clippers to no avail--Youngest Daughter took them with her. But I found a pair in her old purse, which she never cleaned out. I also found lots of change. Buddy Barrel money!
• One big bookcase and all the telescope paraphernalia went over to my parents' house for storage. YD's room is looking more and more bare.
• Today I hope to take her futon apart.
• I need more boxes for all these books!
• Kitty Son is following me everywhere. Literally everywhere.
• I talked to a colleague about the work situation, and she invited me to come to her department. It's not a perfect fit, but it's a lot closer than anything going to come out of this cobbled-together, artificial construction the Dean has proposed.
• Last night I watched How Green is My Valley for the very first time. Great movie, and Roddy McDowall was wonderful.
• On tap for today--more Dean data work, packing, and mailing stuff to all three kids. Fun, wow.
• Today is Spouse's birthday. He always says how much he dislikes birthdays, then wanted to know if his present was coming in today's mail. Ha!
  

I have only one thing to say about the dominant news story of the past few days: Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.

The truly empty nest

After 26 years of being parents, we no longer have a child at home. We took Youngest Daughter to school yesterday and left her at the dorm. We had a nice ride to the school, managed to unload the truck in three or four trips, and then set up her room--moving furniture around, making the bed, setting up the computer, etc. Then we had dinner and it was time to leave.

The kitties are a little puzzled and Kitty Son just spent a few minutes on my lap, which is a very unusual occurrence. They aren't sure what's going on, but they know something has changed.

I'll see YD next weekend, as we go down to Best Friend's house for the Labor Day weekend, so I am looking forward to that. There is a lot of work to do to get the condo packed up and cleaned out, and that will keep me very busy over the next couple of weeks. Lots of changes, at home and at work, this fall.

Now I have three kids to miss. Sigh.

Packing (and moving) is the pits

We are getting Youngest Daughter packed up and ready to go to college. The condo is an absolute mess of boxes, totes, bags, clothes, books--quite a maze to get through. The cats are happy with all the piles to climb on and under and through, and Kitty Son tried to get himself packed away in YD's new trunk.

We are also moving out of the condo (lease ends September 30). That means more mess, as we pack up literally everything. I am very glad I chose September 30 and not the end of August for the move; that gives me more time to get the work done.

The big meeting with the Dean was Friday. His plan, which he declined to share with us before the meeting, was nothing spectacular and actually the only (and very obvious) way to solve the issue at hand. I was disappointed that he had nothing new or innovative to suggest. He gave us a week to think about the plan, but cautioned us that this plan had the Provost's blessing and could be immediately put into motion; if we rejected it, we'd have to come up with an alternative that may or may not be approved by the administration. So, the decision was moot. We voted not to wait the week, and gave our consent. We are all sick of talking and thinking about this thing and just want to get on with our jobs.

Where I've been

Well! Lots of stuff has happened in the past eight days.

Son came home Friday the 14th (actually, early on Saturday the 15th) to help Youngest Daughter shop and pack for school. They tooled around HomeCity on Saturday with Son's friend Nick, for whom I have a special fondness. Then we came to UniTown to the condo so Son could see how huge Kitty Son has gotten in his absence. We spent a nice Sunday together packing up YD's books and stuff, then my parents came over to see Son and eat cake and ice cream with us.

On Monday we drove back to HomeCity, packed Son's duffel bag full of frozen meat, and took him to the airport. His bag weighed 52 lbs--so he had to take a book out in order to get under the weight limit for free checked baggage. Just as he got through security, Eldest Daughter's plane taxiied to the gate. He got to see her when she got off the plane, so for a few minutes our entire family was under one roof--the airport terminal.

Eldest Daughter was a bit hungry and we were a lot hungry, so we went to a local diner and had something to eat. Then we drove over to Sister's house, but just missed her by a couple of minutes. We visited with Brother-in-law for a bit, and then ED, YD, and I went back to UniTown to get ready for the next day's trip.

ED, my parents, and I drove to Neighboring State Tuesday morning to find some of our ancestors. In the flurry of packing the van and making sure we had all our genealogy stuff, including masking tape and interfacing and COOKIES, Dad forgot his baseball hat. He remembered about half an hour after we'd left the house. My Fort McHenry hat didn't fit him at all, so Mom suggested we stop at a Burger King and get Dad a crown...now THAT would have been a sight to see!

Our plan, originally, was to talk to Cousin Frances about Grandpa Amos and anyone else she remembered, then drive to the town where most of our family lived since the mid-1800's and look for the family cemetery. Cousin Frances had recently broken her leg and was in a personal care residence, but we had no luck trying to find her. We called the number we'd been given three times with no response. So, we gave up and headed south to the town.

It was too early to check into the hotel, so we decided to look for the cemetery first. Mom went into the restaurant and came out with a police officer who gave us directions to the cemetery, and off we went. Uncle L was going to meet us at the hotel, so Dad stayed behind to intercept him. We found the cemetery with no trouble--except it wasn't the right one. I'd seen photos of the family cemetery on the web, and it had white picket fence gates. This one was stone and too well-kept and open. Uncle L said he knew of a couple places where other family members were buried, so off we went in search of them. But we were stymied by construction, and finally Uncle L had to go home.

By that time, we were hungry again, so we checked into the hotel and then went to a restaurant for dinner. When we got back to the room, I turned on my computer and found an image of an old map of the county showing the location of the family farm. We had YD send us an image of the Google map of that area (for some reason the hotel's internet wasn't working) and we thought we saw something in a clump of trees right in the general area where the farm was. We called Mom and Dad's room and asked them if they wanted to go with us at 7 a.m. to search the farm area. They were game, so we went to bed with some hope that we'd find the right spot in the morning.

After a yummy breakfast we headed out to the farm site. It's still a working farm, and the people who live there are our relatives! Dad walked down the lane between the house and barn and soon spied the white picket fences marking the entrance to the cemetery. After asking permission of the current residents Bonnie and Ron (who had a huge book full of information about our family) we went to the cemetery to take pictures and rubbings of the stones. It was an awesome time.

When we'd finished at the cemetery, we drove into the city to the historical society, and spent a couple hours looking through voluminous papers on three of our family surnames. We gathered a ton of information and shot about 700 photos of the different letters, pictures, and records. Then it was off to lunch, a short visit to my grandparents' graves, and an afternoon at Aunt D's house. She has been compiling records too, and gave us an album with photocopies of family photos. I had never seen most of these pictures, and they went way back three or four generations. So exciting!

Around 4-ish we hopped back in the van and headed home. We have lots of material to go through and collate, then we'll send copies to Bonnie and Aunt D.

ED flew home today, and now it's back to work for me, school packing for YD.

Tomorrow is our big meeting with the dean to determine the fate of our department. Should be fun. NOT.

Here's our new home security system

Works for me.

Happy Birthday, Eldest Daughter!

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Eldest Daughter,
Happy birthday to you!

May you live long with us,
May you live long with us,
May you live long, may you live long,
May you live long with us!

Njech nam zhje stolat,
Njech nam zhje stolat,
Njech nam zhje stolat Eldest Daughter,
Happy birthday to you!

Finished!

I finished Eldest Daughter's pillowcase around noon today. Hurrah! I still need to wash it, to remove the markings for the design, but all the embroidery is done.

Before I start on the next one, I'll do something a little different; either a silk and silver fan piece or a long and short stitch sampler project that I've been following online.

This summer has been really productive. I've submitted two journal articles, attended two conferences, and finished ED's pillowcase. Pretty decent!

I did it!

Finished and submitted: two journal articles. Yay!

So, for the rest of the day--taking it easy. Reading, watching television, and working on Eldest Daughter's pillowcase.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......

A Tale of Two Presidents

No words are necessary.

Thank you, Kitty Mama

I went to bed at a reasonable time last night, read for a while, and then went to sleep. At 3:30 a.m., Kitty Mama, who was curled up next to my head, decided to hack up a hairball.

Needless to say, I was fully awake for quite a while after that. Sigh.

There's quite a brou-ha-ha going on at UniTown these days. The Faculty Senate was asking for input on issues it should address this coming year, and someone brought up the increasing number of administrative positions--vice this, assistant that, associate whatever--that are being created. The college prez weighed in, saying he was watching this discussion with great interest, and someone popped off a rather snarky e-mail back to him. Seems office size, parking space, and salaries are points of contention. Interesting to watch, this is.

Less interesting and more anxiety-producing is what is going on in my own department. One faculty member, the most likely to be chair should we decide to morph into a real academic department, is taking on what I think to be more of a decision-making and behind-the-scenes discussing with the deanery and other players, including our faculty and current director, than I am comfortable with. I called him on it when we were in Wisconsin, and last night, after receiving an e-mail from him that seemed to be more of the same, shot him another e-mail asking who gave him authority to have these conversations without the rest of the faculty present. Some of us don't even know he has had these conversations at all. His big issue with the present leader is, supposedly, "transparency"--so I asked him if this activity, which to me smacks of machinations behind our backs, is an example of what his idea of transparency.

As of yet, no response. My fear is that his irritation with our director over loading and other issues is building because he can't stop picking that scab, and he is going to cause a rift in the relationship between the rest of the faculty and our director. We have been an extraordinarily collegial faculty group, and I do not want to see that relationship ruined. Argh.

Too much crap going on everywhere (don't get me started on national stuff). One piece of good news--Eldest Daughter's bank was very gracious yesterday when she had a problem, and she has been approved for 20 more weeks of unemployment. We are still praying, though, for a job, and quickly.

Still nada from Lenovo

So I called them again. Went through the whole story again. The guy says "Let me put you on hold for two minutes."

I proceeded to tell him exactly what was going to happen--first, on hold for two minutes. Then he'll come back and tell me that they processed the refund June 29. Then I will tell him my bank has not received it. He'll ask me if I have checked with my bank. Then he will put me on hold for three to five minutes. Then he will come back and say he will initiate a request to track the money, and I should wait two MORE business days.

He says "I haven't said that, I just want you to hold for two minutes." I said sure, but you WILL say that.

Guess what? I was right.

But this time, I demanded a valid e-mail address, a call from a supervisor within two business days, not from a line operator, and an urgent troubleshooting request, not a typical "Where did we put that money that no longer belongs to us?" casual query. Got the e-mail address and the agree to escalate the problem.

I've asked the bank for an official letter stating the money never arrived into my account. Let's see what happens now.

Still waiting for my Lenovo refund

They are supposed to call me today with information on where it is. I am not holding my breath. Every time I call them, the first question is "Have you checked your bank account?"

No, dipwad, I just thought I would assume it's not there. Argh.

In another annoying news, I stupidly read Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Eat, Pray, Love". I plead temporary insanity. What a whining bunch of nonsense, and she manages to insult Republicans repeatedly (her sister said the worst thing would be if her unborn child turned out to be a Republican) and equated Christians with the Taliban. I suppose she doesn't think Republicans or Christians read, or at least doesn't want us to read her writing.

She plays to the Democrat liberal audience, and that is all she is interested in. They have to establish their bona fides as liberals--by bashing Bush (even still, when he's out of office), by equating conservatives/Republicans with the Taliban, and outright calling us "creepy fundamentalists" because we believe in God and His desires for us.

I know a woman who is contemplating marrying an Anglican priest, but who doesn't believe in Christianity. He is from the liberal branch of Anglicanism that denies the basic tenets of Christian teaching. Why call yourself a Christian if you don't believe the theology? I don't understand it. What do they teach in church, then? Anything but the Bible? Well, actually, that does happen. I went to my friend's Presbyterian church a couple of times many years ago. The first time, the "sermon" was a travelogue on Chicago. Second time, a book review (not a religious book). The third time, God--and anything remotely connected to Him was mentioned only 8 times in the whole service. That's incomprehensible to me.

Anyway, bashing Bush and Republicans and Christians (specifically, Catholics and fundamentalist/evangelical Protestants) is like gang symbols. That's how they identify each other, and they assume everyone thinks like them so they never realize how insulting they are. But of course they are "tolerant" and how dare we suggest they aren't.

Wiped out and pizza in the dark

What a week--Thursday and Friday in Wisconsin for a conference, then Saturday and Sunday at Dad's church for their 40th anniversary and Dad's 10th anniversary as pastor. I made two batches of cookies on Wednesday for the celebration, then was up at 4:30 a.m. Thursday to get to the airport. Up at 4:30 a.m. again on Friday for the conference sessions (5:30 Wisconsin time, but 4:30 our time) then we got to UniTown around 12:15 a.m. on Saturday. Ugh.

The anniversary went well; my aunt and uncle and three cousins came in from states south of here; Little Brother flew in from North Carolina, and friends T and J and their kids drove from Indiana. Eldest Daughter arrived Friday which made me very happy and she picked me up from the airport, bless her heart.

Big Brother and I did okay on The Holy City despite only 20 minutes of practice an hour before we had to perform it. We had a guest soloist sing the lyrics and at some point in this piece each of us covered up somebody else's mistakes, ha ha. The piano part has a lot of octaves and it's been months/years since I've played anything like that, so my hands were pretty sore by the time we were done. I looked at BB and said "Gee, we should do this again!" He didn't seem enthralled by that idea...

After the service we all went to a Chinese restaurant and much food was consumed. The relatives left for home, Mom and Dad took LB to the airport, and ED and I went back to the condo to flop tiredly on the sofa. She left Monday morning after a mandatory shopping trip to the best grocery store on the planet, and I went back to bed for the afternoon. I could still use a couple more hours of sleep, but tomorrow is a graduate seminar and I have two students presenting. Maybe Friday I can relax. We shall see.

Today, after my usual Tuesday meeting, I went to Mom and Dad's to install a new ink cartridge in her printer. I hadn't had any lunch, and it was 5 p.m. and I was hungry, so I invited them to come with me for pizza. We scooted over to the condo to pick up Youngest Daughter and went to Salvatore's for a white pizza. It had just started to rain when we got there. YD had brought a small umbrella, and I offered to get my big huge one out of the truck for Dad and Mom, but he said he didn't think we needed it.

WELL. Just as we were diving into our white pizza, there was a huge crack of thunder and the power went out. Suddenly all the bantering and chatter in the kitchen area completely stopped. The lights came on a minute or so later, and the pizza guys, looking a little shaken, came out front to check the TVs and to take a look out at the torrential downpour. We teased them about the silence, and one said "It is really dark back there!" A couple minutes later there was another big crack of thunder, followed by the sound of the frightened delivery guy yelping like a little girl, but the power stayed on.

A few minutes later he came out with a delivery bag, saw the rain, and went back into the kitchen to get a hoodie and a plastic bag. Poor guy, he had to go out in that torrent. We had a good chuckle at his expense.

By the time we were done eating the power had gone off and on again, but the rain had let up quite a bit. It's coming down pretty steadily now, though.

These look like C4 to the airport X-ray machines...

as my colleagues and I found out yesterday, en route back to UniTown from the very nice and welcoming community of Menomonie, Wisconsin.

Now THIS is a Presidential First Pitch

Monday, Monday

I have a ton of work to do this week, getting ready to go to the exciting metropolis of Menomonie, WI for a conference on Thursday and Friday, then my dad's church's 40th anniversary on Saturday and finally his 10th anniversary as pastor on Sunday.

Big Brother and I are playing a special for Sunday (well, he is playing solo trumpet and I am accompanying him on the piano) and our only chance to practice will be Saturday night. I won't have any chance to practice the accompaniment until then either, so it will be an exercise in sight reading for both of us. I've played this piece before, but a long time ago. And therein lies a tale...

My dad plays trumpet too, and this piece, The Holy City by Stephen Adams, is one of his favorites. He practiced and practiced and practiced it, and finally the big day came when he was to play it for Sunday service. I was accompanying him, and things were going pretty well until I noticed out of the corner of my eye that he was beginning to sway back and forth to the music, swinging his trumpet as he moved. "That can't be good," I thought--and then it happened. He swung the horn a bit too much and it collided with the music stand. Pages of music scattered all around us and we came to an abrupt halt. Dad made a lame joke, re-assembled the music, and we finally finished the song. Whew.

So of course, when Dad told me BigBro was going to play this song, I *had* to remind him about this little fiasco. Hee hee.

Big Bro e-mailed me a few days later, and we did the "He said/No he didn't" shuffle about who Dad said had (or was going to get) the music. I found it online and we are all set for Sunday but I sure hope there's no repeat of the last time!

Anyway, I am making good progress on non-work-related stuff such as Eldest Daughter's pillowcase and my bagpiping, but I need to get down to business with two journal papers and two projects I am doing for the Dean and my Director. Oh, and that conference presentation. And a journal article review due the 24th. And a batch of chocolate chip cookies for this weekend, when the family from Neighboring State will be at my parents' after the anniversary celebration. Ack!

Here's the latest view of the pillowcase, although I've done more since I took this.

Loooonnnnnng day

Had to take the truck in to get the oil changed and the headlamp fixed (I was a One-eyed Jack for a couple of days). That meant two hours plus, waiting at the dealer's. Their Starbucks kiosk was closed. I hadn't had any breakfast or lunch, so I got a Snickers and a bag of chips from the vending machine. Ugh.

But, now I'm home and happily ensconced in my chair with a big steaming mug of tea. Ahhhhhh. There are very few situations that are not made better by a nice big steaming mug of tea.

A fantastic e-mail

posted on one of my friends' blogs:

"If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom , a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?

If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to a non-existent 'Austrian language,' would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?

If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to remember to pay their own income taxes, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the fourth of May (Cuatro de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?

If George W. Bush had mis-spelled the word advice would you have hammered him for it for years like when Dan Quayle was when he spelled potatoe as "proof" of what a dunce he is?

If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of tax-payer funded jet fuel to go plant a single tree on "Earth Day", would you have concluded he's a hypocrite regarding environmental issues?

If George W. Bush's administration had okayed tax-payer funded Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually "get" what happened on 9-11?

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how he inept he is on his own and is actually being controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans , would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had proposed to double the national debt in one year, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, would you have approved?

If George W.. Bush had then proposed to double the debt yet again within the following 10 years, thereby putting your children and grandchildren in such massive debt that it threatens the national treasury, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, with no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of tax-payer dollars to take Laura Bush on a 'date night' to a play in NYC, would you have approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can't think of anything?

Don't worry. He's done all this in a mere 5 months -- So, you'll have three years and seven months to come up with an answer.

Naive, incompetent, and uninformed American voters did this to themselves.

Real Americans are starting to wake up. Let's hope it's not too late."

Breathing again but stressed anyway

So the tenure thing was a mistake. They had the wrong date on their records, although my hiring letter had the correct one. That means I can relax a bit, since I don't have to rush with CAREER now, and I don't have to worry about getting the tenure packet ready. Whew. All this excitement is exhausting!

Just got an e-mail from my colleague S, who wants to meet to talk about our meeting with the provost and the assignment he gave us--we have to write a white paper about our vision for our department. Meetings, meetings, meetings. This summer is a tale of meetings and doctor appointments (people and pets alike!).

I had the bright idea that after dropping Youngest Daughter off at school in August Spouse and I could go on to visit a couple Civil War battlefields. We could do that in one day, and return to HomeCity late at night, so at most we'd be gone 48 hours. He said no, because he is worried the robbers will return. I am so sick of being held hostage to the house and those (#*$&#*%&^@ thieves. The conversation went downhill from there, as every suggestion I had about fixing things up--from putting in a more secure door to getting an alarm system--was met with a litany of excuses why we can't do that, or why it's hard, or what other things need to be done first. I'm a more impulsive person, I guess, because I figure what you don't start never gets done. So Friday, after I go to the eye doc and get new contacts, I'm buying a wallpaper steamer at Lowe's, pricing steel doors, and tackling some of the things on the "must-do" list because otherwise--well, nothing will get done. It was up to me to do such basic things as shut the d*** dresser drawers that the (*&#% thieves left hanging open, for Pete's sake, and I want this house sold and out of my hair by summer 2011, so time is a-wasting and apparently I'm the only one who is willing to tackle the job.

My biggest worry is that Waxman-Markey will get signed into law and we will be, essentially, screwed. The cost of refitting this old house to meet some arbitrary and probably unreachable energy standard will doom us. At that point, we'd be better off to just abandon the place and move anyway. I think that will happen to a lot of places; between the massive tax hikes to pay for Obamacare and the porkulus bill(s), middle class people won't have the funds for expensive retrofits but will also be unwilling to be stuck in dangerous neighborhoods like ours has become. So the outcome of this pie-in-the-sky idealism over energy (I am being charitable; I really think the aim of the Dems is to shut down our economy totally, and turn us into a socialist state) will be abandoned buildings, bankrupt homeowners, a ruined real estate market, and high home prices. Thanks a pantload, Congress.