All Hallows Eve

For the record, yes we let our children dress up and mock evil on All Hallows Eve.

Someone really famous once wrote that to laugh evil in the face is the best retort.

So, we start out by singing the obligatory Hallowe'en song:

Hallowee-ee-een
the witches flying high
have you see-ee-een
their shadows in the sky

O beware!
Don't you dare
to even boast
or a ghost
to your dismay
will hear you say
that you don't care
to say a prayer
and it will come
and pull your hair.

I have no idea of the origin of this little ditty, but I remeber my Mom teaching it to me when I was 3... and we sang it every year as halloween approached.

We also celebrate All Hallows Day (All Saints Day) by letting the kids dress up as their favorite saint.

This year the children have chosen:
Saint Anne with a little Blessed Virgin Mary by her side,
St. George
St Martin of Tours
St. Robert Lawrence

Have fun, y'all!

Round Up

The week was weird. Way weird. But ended up really nicely.

Tonight was The Fall Festival! We had a blast! It is just absolutely wonderful to catch up with friends in early autumn.

This year, for once, I was not playing the paranoid parent. How wonderful that most of my children are now old enough to run amock without catastrophe!

My one regret is I never seem to have enough time to visit with everyone as much as I'd like.

I've been collecting thoughts over the course of the past week.

So... here we go:

One more reason to love RON PAUL

One hefty dose of the Cure required after sorting through boxes full of misery and angst, vintage 1987-1994
Just imagine my spirit singing this to my mind and body,
and you'll hear what went through my head ad nauseum Saturday nite.
and why, yes, yes, I did choose the Berlin concert for a reason.

Music that seemed to providentially play on the radio, in the order listed below,
after round one of slaying my historical dragons

Fergie "Big Girls Don't Cry"
Lyrics
Video **Parents, consider yourselves warned**

John Mayer "Why Georgia?"
Lyrics
Video

Nickelback "Far Away"
Lyrics
Video
Alternative video using clips from The Notebook (a GREAT movie!!)

Went out in tears, came home quite happy from an evening out with the multiples' group.
Mexican food, a funny movie, and coffee until after midnight will do that for a gal.

Songs for NOW
The Cure "Doing the Unstuck"
Lyrics
Video

Ya know, torching misery is most excellent therapy.

On the beauty of foundation breads

Several weeks ago my favorite political guru gave me a foundation bread recipe. To be honest, I have yet to make that recipe, for I fear little hands will get into the mix.

I have used my french bread recipe (from my bread machine) to make pizza dough and cinnamon rolls.

Had never considered that one could use one recipe to do many things. Corny, but true.

Now that I am enlightened, we are enjoying a whole lot more tasty homemade treats.

Thanks!!

Rain, Rain, Go away!

Some days just don't go right. Very busy at work finishing up a 5 month long endeavor, now double-timing a second project, and then it rained.

Some neighbors gave us a couple of beautiful African Pygmy goats - but apparently they are dumb as rocks when it comes to near-freezing rain, such as the kind we received this morning.

After trying to convince said rocks-for-brains that the shelter over there was just as good as the one with 5 goats, and failing - I proceeded to drag, slosh, and curse said goats up to the other shed. When dragging failed, I threw them over the shoulder.

Oh, and then the dog got out of the field. So I dragged him up as well. Threw all the numbskulls into the pen and drug, slushed, and pleaded the "Why me?" back to the house.

Couple of hours later, meathead dog digs out under the gate and proceeds to chase chickens. Mind you, it's still pouring rain - and no, my dears, we ain't singing. So I then go to remove a poor chicken from the jaws of death.

Oy vey.... getting closer to the BBQ pit every day.

IMF economist is blogging...

And he has some interesting things to say. From an "overvalued" US currency, to international capitol management.

A choice quote:

Of more pressing immediate concern is the fact that capital is currently flowing to many countries whether or not they are ready to receive it. There are large current account surpluses among emerging markets (a big change from 1997, when most emerging markets had deficits). Indeed, a number of large oil exporters and Asian exporters of manufacturers will have sizable surpluses for as long as we can forecast. This constitutes capital that has to be invested somewhere. We think capital from these countries is increasingly not flowing so much "uphill" to developed countries (as it did over the past 5 years), but rather "around the hill" to other emerging markets and poorer developing countries. But is everyone really ready to receive such large amounts of capital and to carefully manage its macroeconomic impact?

If I'm right, then the major risk today is not imminent crisis but rather that the capital flows arising from the global boom will not be well managed-leading to the buildup of vulnerabilities. Thus, the danger is that when the party ends - and it is hard to know when this will be - there will a lot of mopping up to do.

Take a gander here...

Round Up

My prayer group is studying the 4 basic temperaments.
We're able to laugh at ourselves and each other a whole lot.
Which is a very good thing.

I heard this song on the radio a couple of weeks ago, and thought, wow, that's nice.

Enjoy!

Another Side of You

(Lyrics here)

I read the Holy Father's new encyclical is to be published soon.


I can't WAIT to read it! I wouldn't have a thing if I didn't have hope.

Speaking of which, here's another country tune for your listening pleasure.

Some People Change Montgomery Gentry

(Lyrics here)

Finally, the Financial Times reports that the IMF considers the dollar "overvalued."

Confirmation 2007

Tonight we had the privilege of witnessing 50 children from St. William receive Confirmation.

Congratulations to all. It was truly lovely!

Sweet Baby!

We were so excited to get to see Baby Daniel tonight!

He is as alert and adorable as pictured at the LQ's blog.

Thanks for letting us in the door and seeing your little miracle!

Oktoberfest and Revisionist HIstory

Wunderschön!!!

Oktoberfest was great fun this year!

After a very full day of sorting through boxes we never unpacked when we moved here 4 years ago, we partied big time with friends at the KC Hall.

Who'da thunk I would ever be able to do both in one day? Yay, us!

While sorting papers into "keepers" and "burn, baby, burn" boxes, I found my transcripts from high school.

I had no idea, until yesterday, that I have been engaging in my own revisionist history.

I asked my Mom, "why have you let me think I was such an awesome student all these years?!"

"Well," said my very sage Mother, "You excelled where you wanted to, and I guess the rest just didn't matter. Forget about it! That was almost 20 years ago!"

20 years ago...the only thing this realization proves is... I have a weird capacity to remember the good, and completely forget the bad, unless the bad was too horrendous to forget. Those things which terrorized my spirit have been pushed to the corners of my consciousness. The good, however, shone forth as a beacon, preserving me from despair in innumerable instances.

These handicaps (or, perhaps, blessings) have served me well on my journey thus far.

I have been afforded, and accepted, opportunities to do everything I had hoped to, in spite of my mediocrity and failings.

Perhaps this is why Karol Wojtyla's assertion resonates profoundly within me,

"The evil of our times consists in the degradation, indeed in a pulverization, of the fundamental uniqueness of each human person." (1968)

For, in retrospect, the things I cherish are those which make me who I am.

Not extraordinary, phenomenal, or even particularly brilliant, just an einzigartig unvergleichlicher Mensch.

I can only look up and say, "Thank God!"

Cue Marley, one more time...

Feast of Carols 2007

2 shows this year! Nov 30 and Dec 1! 6-10 pm

I can hardly wait!!

We so very much enjoyed the music, entertainment, and scrumptious food last year.

Anybody want to come out this way for some real Advent fun?

I can even hire extra sitters, if anyone wants to split the cost. ($1/hr/child---hard to beat!)

The Art of Brainstorming Flipped Upside Down

In an attempt to ramp up our creativity, we were taught to brainstorm.

I personally hated this activity, because I was already a very tangential thinker.

Looking back, I can see that, although I have always been repulsed by brainstorming, the praxis became the norm for me as an adult.

The consequences have been painful, and mostly unfruitful in a day-to-day sense.

My mind races through all possibilities, then succumbs under the weight of the mental diagram.

So, I am trying to give up something which seems ingrained in my thought processes.

This is not easy.

Please pray.

A+ Honor Roll

For the longest time, mi madre has wondered where all my "perfectionism" comes from.

I always argue I'm not a perfectionist, I just want to make sure I've done all I could to effectively communicate.

I think I finally figured it out.

C = AVERAGE, right??

For me, a C would be the equivalent of "Couldn't do it right"

Shamefully silly, eh?

Now that I am the mother of 5, average looks pretty durn good, most days.

Internally, however, it might as well have been an F.

Therein lies a gargantuan problem.

I used to get A's effortlessly. ABSOLUTELY NO serious effort on my part, and I made honor roll.

Repeatedly.

Did "they" set me up for failure in later life, or WHAT?!?!

no, nein, non, no, nyet...

My *perceptions* set me up for an ***average*** life.

Long story short, I don't make the honor roll every day, but I sure am getting better final grades than I thought possible in this wild, weird school of life.

Thank You God!!!

Paying out the nose...

If you're ever seen a cellular commercial - you always see people talking, accessing the internet, sending text messages... and so I thought it would be fun to take apart the costs they charge you.

First, lets talk voice. You're paying a few cents per minute... roughly 2-12¢. A minute of voice calculates out like so: 64 KBits/second * 60 seconds / 8 bits per byte = 480 KBytes. Lets say the average is 6 cents per minute.

Now, lets talk SMS/Text messaging. An average text message is 160 Bytes. For this, you're typically paying a flat rate of 25¢. Wow... pretty expensive?

Now lets talk about Data... IP packets routed over the internet. They charge 10 bucks for 4 MBytes (if you prepay) or 1¢ per KByte (always rounded up).

So, to leverage this all out:
Voice = 81920 bits per cent
SMS = 51 bits per cent
Data = 1024 bits per cent (by the kilobyte)
Data = 419430 bit per cent (prepaid... use it or loose it)

It's all the same to the network. It's simply "multiplexed data" from the phone to the central office. Only there is it separated to the switching network (phone) or internet (sms & data).

I wish I could just buy bits instead of minutes, special packages, add-on offers, et cetera. It would be a lot less smoke and mirrors.