Happy Thanksgiving!!

Just want to wish all my readers a Happy Thanksgiving! Here's a link to a Thanksgiving column I enjoyed reading.

day-after-election-itis; Yay for cousins!

Just tonight when I logged onto my e-mail, I found the latest installment of James Howell's eReligion & politics series: the morning after. I have been thinking a lot about those who are devastated by McCain/Palin losing out to Obama/Biden, and wishing I could give them some comfort and encouragement. I don't think they would accept it from me (and indeed, none have yet actively sought out my shoulder to cry on, figuratively speaking) but I think this short essay could be quite helpful.

The "Yay for cousins!" refers to my cousin Philip and his wife Silvia and their two young children who visited here from yesterday afternoon until early this afternoon. I hadn't seen Philip since he was a pre-schooler, so it was exciting to reconnect and to meet his family. The children were especially sweet and funny, and it lifted my spirits so much to spend some time with them on a couple of walks today. Meanwhile Mom shared her memories with P & S, through photo albums and stories, and they were so appreciative to learn more about their extended family. All-in-all a wonderful day for everybody!

Anonymous comment; Obama charitable donation issue

I have had to remove an anonymous comment because it contained what I consider to be fabrications about Obama's dealings with Rezko and with Kenyan politician Odinga, as well as more of the kind of unfounded character assassination and hyperbole that was rampant in the video I referred to in my post of October 31. I refuse to allow commenters to use my blog to further their own agendas.

Having said that, I will address one point that "anonymous" raised because it illustrates a common problem with so much of what has been going on with attacks against Obama. The anonymous commenter claims that, according to their tax returns, the Obamas made very small contributions to charity when figured as a percentage of their taxable income from 2000-2006. This is true. The a.c. also claims that John McCain was much more generous over the same period of time. I don't know whether this is true or not, and I don't really care. But I have two comments to make about this issue:

First, comparing the Obamas' charitable contribution figures to John McCain's for the same actual calendar years is comparing apples and oranges. I'm not even sure if there is a way to make justifiable comparisons, but it would seem that comparing McCain's figures for when he was the same number of years in the workforce as Obama, taking into account whether law school and college loans (did he have any?), housing costs, putting money aside for his children's future, supporting extended family and so on cost him the same as what they cost Barack and Michelle Obama over this period of time...is there any way to make a fair comparison? Do you see what I'm getting at here? These are candidates who are in completely different stages of their work lives; family circumstances for both of them have been very different; the benefits McCain receives due to his military service; Cindy McCain's personal financial status vs. Michelle Obama's -- all these things, and more, make McCain's financial picture very different from Obama's. I am not saying this to excuse the Obamas' possible lack of generosity, only to say that making reasonable comparisons of the two candidates' financial situation in any way is not really possible. How individuals, whether public figures or not, approach charitable giving is a complex matter, and usually changes a lot through the course of a person's life. Perhaps this is the reason that so little mention of this w.r.t. the current campaigns is to be found recently in the mainstream media.

Second, I would hope that everyone who has the financial means to do so -- including all the current candidates for public office -- would be willing to "put their money where their mouth is" and give as much financial support as possible to genuinely worthy causes. But whether this has been the case or not with the Obamas does not carry anywhere near enough weight to make me want to vote for McCain and the Republican party.

Much of what McCain and the Republicans stand for -- as well as their methods, their perspective, and what they have done over the past eight years -- is so opposed to what I believe, and much of what Obama and the Democratic party stand for is in line with my belief or at least somewhat close. I don't totally agree with the Democratic platform, of course, but it comes much closer to my own views in most cases. I also believe that while Obama is not perfect by any means, he is basically a decent human being, intelligent and creative, well-educated, capable of providing strong and thoughtful leadership for our country, and sincerely committed to finding and implementing the most reasonable and moral solutions to the huge problems that face our country at this moment in time.

One last thing: I will continue to delete comments which contain personal attacks on any candidate, and I have changed the way comments are handled (at least for the time being) so that I will be reviewing comments before they are posted. Please be patient with me if I am not able to review your comment immediately after it has been presented; I am currently only able to be online once or twice a day. But rest assured that I will attend to comments asap when I am online.

Barack Obama probably doesn't need my endorsement, but...

Far better writers than myself have been putting out millions of words lately in support of Obama's candidacy and in explanation of the issues, but I felt compelled to add my two cents worth after receiving a panicky message last night from an individual I know who shall remain anonymous here. The panicky message, entitled "Watch this about Barak Obama before you vote!" included a link to a YouTube video chock full of misinformation about Obama and misleading footage of the WTC collapses on 9/11 and other violence intended, I assume, to instill tremendous fear into the heart of the viewer and to convince the viewer that Obama was somehow responsible for 9/11. It didn't work on me -- well, at least I wasn't filled with fear... but I was moved to reply with my own views backed up by extensive references, should this individual be interested in knowing the truth of the matter. The subsequent reply I received back indicated that my efforts were futile and the references ignored. So I thought to myself just now, why not turn my reply into a blog post? At least my hard work wouldn't go completely to waste!

I watched the video you sent the link to. I watched the whole thing. It really got me thinking...

I am a supporter of Barack Obama because I believe his platform, especially on social justice issues, is what this country needs at this time. Furthermore, Obama has the intelligence, will, and political capital to get people to work together at all levels to solve the difficult problems facing our country right now and in the near future. You can find out more at these links:

Obama on the issues

A thoughtful, brief analysis of this year's candidates and party platforms

A thorough analysis of Obama's platform in the light of Christian values

Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama on Meet the Press

I've also compiled a list of sources for impartial, well-researched and documented information in response to the video:

On Obama being Muslim (link here or here), and about Muslim support for Obama and the American Muslim view on the election in general,

On William Ayers and Obama's connection to him, reliable info is here and here),

A general rebuttal of the views of Jerome Corsi, who appears to be the source of much of the video's misinformation.

Since I sent that reply, I have come across a couple more sites that I also like very much:

The Top Ten Reasons Conservatives Should Vote For Obama

and

"A Citizen's Guide to Voting"

hmmm...seems like there was something else, but I can't remember what. Oh well. It's time to try to get some sleep anyhow. Tomorrow Mom and I are going to drive up to the mountains in search of rain.

(If anyone wants the video URL and/or my longer, snarkier first draft of my reply, drop me an e-mail and I'll send them.)

Thinking people, part 2...

I didn't know there was a third site for the cause! It's http://www.catholicsforobama.org/ and it looks at least as good as the other two. (My source tells me that this one was linked to an article in the NCR.)

Wish I had more energy to write about all this, but I'm beat. Even too tired to watch my Netflix movies, which are gathering a thick layer of dust....

Calling all thinking Catholics...

Today these two links came to my attention, and I want to share them with my readers (on the off chance they haven't already found them...)

Roman Catholics for Obama/Biden

Catholics for Obama/Biden

My hope is that before folks succumb to the rhetoric of McCain and Palin on the abortion issue and on Obama in general, they will consider examining the analysis of the issues on these excellent sites.

Political post

Just wanted to post a link to the L.A. Times' lead editorial this a.m. It is one of the better editorials I have ever read.

Another day trip!

Saturday held another opportunity for Mom to have a break from me for the day! My Aunt Carrie and some of Mom's neighbors and a window washer and his wife kept things exciting here at Braemer* while I drove off into the mountains in search of St. Andrew's Abbey. It's a Benedictine community about 60 miles or so northwest of Redlands, on the north side of the San Gabriel Mountains in the high desert. The views on the drive over the mountains were spectacular.
This photo was taken on CA 2 right before the Grassy Hollow Visitor's Center, facing, I think, about SSE.

I didn't know if I would like being in the desert, but it was beautiful, the air was cool, and it was so very peaceful and quiet. Just what I needed. I arrived at about 11:30 and almost didn't make it past the bookstore/gift shop in the welcome center -- I could easily have stayed there all day, reading and browsing among my friends, the books -- but they close for a couple hours in the middle of the day for Mass and lunch, so I was forced to move on :) (Thank goodness!) It was a wonderful afternoon of rest, peace, and meditation.

On the drive back I took a few photos of the desert, which had these wonderful joshua trees everywhere.

Also, on the approach to I-15 on CA 138, there were these enormous white rocks that I just had to stop and take a few photos of. The photos don't really do them justice, however.

*Braemer is the name of the apartment complex my Mom lives in.

nothing like world travel to broaden the mind...

Here's an interesting suggestion for changing the requirements in the Constitution for the post of Pres. and VP....

current events

The Blessing of the Waves happened at Huntington Beach on Sunday a.m.... I wasn't there but Father Christian was! Father Chris went body-surfing after the ceremony... He also told us that for his part of the prayer service, he used a cleaned-up version of the prayer from this column by Dana Parsons.

I was in HB Sunday for the Sts. Simon and Jude Parish Festival. It was unlike any I have ever been to: they had an actual midway with about a dozen rides!





It was great to be there with Fr. Dan; he was really working the crowd!

Fr. Michael made a big "splash" by allowing the parishioners and other festival-goers to attempt to flush him... [check with me to see a photo of Fr. Michael - I removed it from here after seeing a story on the ever-present, ever-vigilant CNN about people stealing photos from blogs and photo sites for commercial use.]

A sane voice, a breath of fresh air!

This is the most cogent piece I have read yet on how/why a Catholic can, with good conscience, vote for Obama. My mind was already made up already, this just adds fuel to the fire.
I know we're all supposed to be obsessing about how to rescue Wall Street, but once in awhile perhaps it's good to take a break and get back to the business of living. I'm going to go work on the quilt top I'm putting together for Aunt C.'s quilting group...it feels good to be doing something totally unrelated to what my day-to-day is, and something that will benefit someone in need besides!

note: posting times on this blog are EDT -- I'm not up in the wee hours posting, I promise!

Anger, Peace...

Just a quick post to alert my readers to a column that I think is very important, with a message that resonates on several different levels. Let me know what you think.

a week of respite

During this week off from medical appointments and other medically-related time constraints, Mom and I are relaxing a bit and catching up on things that we've gotten behind on in the past month or so of Mom's intense cancer treatments. So, I've been catching up on looking stuff up on the web. This morning I came across this article which gives me a lot of hope, not so much for the immediate future but for the long term. A breath of fresh air amidst the mainstream media glut of campaign "news", dire predictions of financial disaster, people hanging upside-down, and so on....

Farewell, Beijing...

Well, I suspect my readers have been as caught up in the Olympics as I have, more or less. In addition to watching the various events (some of them over and over and over again) and getting my Mom's take on them (like her comment on the water polo: "If they are going to have Water Polo, they ought to have to use horses!"), it's been fun to hear the back stories of the athletes and the Games, and to read about them as well.

I'm going to miss the daily special "Beijing 2008" section in the LA Times devoted to the Games, with its chatty columns and terrific photographs, even though I didn't have time to read most of them...yet. (Almost all of them are in a stack in my room, with the exception of a couple that I donated to the box-packing effort when I forgot and took all the other newspapers out prematurely to the recycling center...)

Anyhow, there were a couple columns today that I thought would be of interest to other Olympics aficionados. There was one with a different take on the medals stats, and another with lots of questions (my readers mostly know how I love questions!)

A day or two ago there was also this one about how the Chinese handled the Games and their population's involvement in them.

Oh, and one more link from this morning's Calendar section, this one to a little known historical aspect of the Games: the artistic medals!
Well, I'm off to reconstruct my pre-Games life... but I'd love to hear my readers' take on the Games. It might help us all through the withdrawal...

New feet!

First pedicure ever!

once a mother, always a mother

It seems to me that the never-ending job of a mother is to help her children to find worthwhile activities, suited to their interests, for them to participate in. Hence my reason for posting the link above! (Be sure to read the "About" part of the page...)

Hey -- after all, it was listed under "Kids & Family" in the newspaper!!

today has been a good day...

...with a lot of help from a cousin and a friend, and I'm sure others' prayers and loving thoughts figured in there heavily, as usual! Thanks all! I feel very much peace this evening.

Click here (or on the title above) for a visual treat! I haven't had time to go to this great website for a few days, so I was glad to have a few minutes just now and find this photo.

just a couple of links for Star Wars fans, waiters, and foodies...

I found these two articles in the L.A. Times today really interesting, and I thought some of my readers might, too.

The first one brings back such memories of Joseph and Hank playing with Hank's Star Wars spaceships (I know I'm not saying that correctly, but cut me some slack, I am really beat...)

The other reminded me of conversations with Hank about waiting tables, and with certain family members and others about food...

Banana Peach Bread

Just wanted to post this link -- I had ripe bananas and some fresh peaches, nectarines, and a few leftover blueberries, and found the recipe linked above. So far it seems to be turning out great! I substituted yogurt for the sour cream and used the fruit listed above instead of using canned peaches. Will add an addendum about how it tastes later...I just pulled it out of the oven and have to leave in a bit for pilates class...

Update: Delicious and moist!

I can't remember what I was going to blog about...

So, I can't recall what were the earthshaking things (oops, not literally!) I was going to blog about...it was one of those falling-asleep moments when everything becomes crystal clear... So I'll just say that it's morning here and it looks deceptively cool and inviting out the front windows of my mom's apartment.

The pictures I take just don't convey what I'm really seeing. So just take my word for it -- bright blue sky, big trees, lots of shady lawn, flowers, quiet, quiet...

Here are some other views of Redlands and the surrounding mountains, in a different season...

The title of this post links to one of the prettiest buildings in Redlands, the Morey Mansion. But there are lots of other really great houses here, too -- I mean, the architecture is unusual and the house are really well preserved. Almost everybody has a garden, and the town is awash in roses, crepe myrtle, and other beautiful and exotic flowers that I don't know the name of. Outside mom's back door there is a lemon tree which is covered in lemons (mostly green at the moment) and several rose bushes, and further on there are some large bushes behind someone else's patio that are sometimes covered in morning glory vines with huge purple blossoms -- they were recently cut back but they still persist, as morning glories will! (I know they look blue, but they are really purple!)


My exciting outing of the weekend, since I managed to miss the dance performance Friday night at the Redlands Bowl (I am very sad about this!), was a little nostalgia trip to what is commonly known as "the Fifth Avenue Pool". I went there as a child with my aunt and her children, among them my cousin Mary. This time it was Mary and her 20-year-old son Luke and his girlfriend and me. I remember the pool, an old reservoir, as being huge, so big you can barely swim across it... well, like many places of my youth, it has shrunk down quite a bit! But the water is still cool, if not cold, and there are lovely old trees to shade the lounge chairs and patio tables. Even a slide, if i could only have worked up the nerve to go down it -- no fear of the sliding part, just embarrassment about being about 45 years older than the other kids using it!) Anyway, I came home refreshed from the good company and a dip in the pool.

My missing paternal grandfather -- found!

Today while my Mom was going through some photos, she came across one that had special significance for me. It was a photo of my paternal grandparents, and though I knew my paternal grandmother, I had never in all my 55 years seen (that I can remember) a photo of my father's father, who died in a car accident in 1926 when my Dad was two years old. For those of you who may be interested, here they are, Bill and Bess Lackie:

My Mom thinks this was probably taken at Bess' parents' house, though Mom never went there herself.
On the back of the photo, it reads:

Pet. if you will send this
picture back to me I will
send you some more
that you can keep
Ever your brother
W Lackie
this is Bess and Bill

(I'm not sure of the "W" -- it could be "H".)

Earthquake!

Yes, we felt it here in Redlands! It lasted from 5-7 seconds or so... It felt to me like some huge piece of furniture or maybe a grand piano was being moved upstairs, causing a lot of rumbling and the building to shake... actually, that's what I thought it was at first, until I realized what a dumb idea that was... We are all fine here. Mom didn't even notice the quake, though her sister, Carrie, did. Of course now it's all over the news.

If you click on the link above, and move your cursor to just below the "R" in San Bernardino, you will see where we are.

long time gone...

This post is just to say a brief hello before I fall into bed... The days are long and the nights very interrupted lately. But I am glad to be with my mom. Her condition at the moment is complicated, but her mobility is improving, that's one good thing. Also, she is not in much pain at all from the hip now.
Mostly I am doing well, just haven't had much sleep in recent days. But I do nap almost every afternoon and hope to get back to swimming & exercising tomorrow!
I miss all of you and hope to be back in more frequent contact at some point. Maybe just posting here will be all I can do for awhile, though.

Going Green!

Check out Sally and Sadie's new book, Going Green! I am excited that this is finally in print, and hope that it will sell very well!!

More photos...this time, my own!

Here are a few photos from my recent trip to Baltimore. Some are from the Longwood Gardens, and some need no explanation :)

Wow!

Hi, all!
Click on title for an amazing photo.
Will try to post again soon!

Constellations

Just sitting here among the random clutter that accumulates in a week or so (that's how long since I dumped the last pile on the dining room table to be sorted out) and wondering if I will ever get back to posting more often... Yes, I will, when this current storm of students abates, which won't be long now: all the schooled kids' exams start in three to four weeks. But in the meanwhile...

I had a conversation with a student about constellations recently, and we talked about the Ancients seeing their gods and heroes in the stars... then this poem came in the daily Poem-a-Day e-mail a few days ago. A happy confluence of events!

I hope all the folks in NC and Indiana will go out and vote today! Keep the momentum going!!

new links

I've added a few new links to the list in my sidebar: xkcd, which I ought to have had a long time ago; Anamorphic Sidewalk Painting, just because i think it's amazing; and a link to Timmy Abell's website, which I discovered the other night when I was looking for Jim Taylor's cd "Come Before Winter" (my favorite cd ever.) Timmy Abell is a fantastic folksinger for children and families, and Jim Taylor...well, you'll just have to listen to his music sometime -- I can't do it, or him, justice in words.

Maybe someday I'll have time to do a "real" post again...sigh....

National Poem in your Pocket Day

Just a quick note to let my readers know about this special day coming up Thursday!
I found out about it from this article in the Charlotte Observer.

I'll probably be carrying Milne, but not sure which poem... How about you?

quick funny! ...for all you advanced students out there...

Click on the title above to read something that will make you smile, I can almost guarantee it!
I'll try to get back to posting more often one of these days, now that my "far" travels are over for a little while.

Happy Pi Day!

No time to write much today, but I direct my readers to the article about Pi linked in the title of this post.

All my theme songs for today involve circles....

A newsy week...

...but most of it is other people's news, so I'll keep mum for the time being and let them share it, or in other cases, just let the story unfold.

So in the meantime, I have a movie recommendation: The Painted Veil. I just watched it, and it is wonderful. The acting (mostly panned by Lawrence Toppman, but I'm not so choosy as he is, I guess), the story, the score, the cinematography -- all so well done, so rich. Those of you who speak French -- you would love this song that is in it near the end, and if/when you do see it, I wish you would tell me what the song is about.... I am very sad that I never learned French. The music reviewer linked above doesn't agree with me about this, but I thought the song very appropriate, and quite beautiful.

Another item of interest -- completely different topic: Kay McSpadden's latest column will resonate with those of you who are regular readers of this blog (well, as regular a reader as you can be when I'm such a sporadic writer!) Actually, it will resonate with anyone who is a regular reader of anything -- books, magazines, cereal boxes, billboards, whatever. Please consider her plea seriously and do what you can to help. My reading this column this evening came on the heels of reading an article I had clipped awhile ago about the alarming number of, and rise in, dropouts from high school and middle school. I believe there is a very close connection between the two issues of early reading experiences and students failing to complete their education. As many of you know, I am a strong supporter of homeschooling, but the reality is that the vast majority of the young people in this country do not have that option. So I believe that it is only right and just that we do whatever we can to improve the schools and enhance opportunities for students who are attending school. There is a lot of bad going on in education today, but there is a lot of good, also. Kay McSpadden is an example of the best of the teachers out there, and I believe she can help us all find ways to participate in improving the futures of schooled students. (She recently published her first book, Notes from a Classroom. I have it and started reading it just the other day...a great read!)

Okay, I know these are really two different blog posts, but I'm too tired to try to figure that out now. I've been battling the flu since Wednesday night and hope to get past it soon.

Update: I realized this morning (3/9) that there really is a connection between my two topics above: there is scene near the end of the movie, not really essential to the plot or anything, that has a bunch of Chinese orphans lining up and receiving a book each, one by one... I don't know why the director put that in there, but it did serve as a reminder to me that I wanted to write about the article by Kay McSpadden.

instability

Help! My Firefox has become unstable -- for the past couple months it has been having this bad habit of locking up on me at random moments. I have tried defragging my hard drive and uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox, but I don't know what else to do. I have looked on their site for a FAQ addressing this but what I found hasn't helped so far, except that they recommend I run the program in Firefox Safe Mode. I'm doing that. So far so good...but is that a fix? Any suggestions???

More for the Foodies :-)

Just noticed this article in yesterday's Observer's previously untouched Food Section. The title of one of the recipes, "Lighter Than Mom's Tuna-Noodle Casserole", caught my eye. I think some of my regular readers have expressed interest in Tuna Noodle Casserole (a la Grandma) on occasion... maybe this will be a healthier version, if not tastier (because of course, there is nothing quite like the original!)
Also, some of you might be interested in another approach to cooking dinner -- the write-up was in Co-op America's newsletter, Real Money.

need calculator

Just a quick note before I drop into the bed, to see if anyone out there has a used TI-83 or 83+ they can part with... One of my students, who is in dire financial straits already, had hers stolen (along with a lot of other stuff, lots of it irreplaceable) from her mom's van on Saturday. She called tonight to ask if I knew of where to get another or if I had an extra I could loan her. So I'm putting the word out there, as I don't have an extra... Any help you can give will be much appreciated. Thanks!

Update: I have had at least one offer already (see comments) but if anyone else sends calculators (or if you are local I can pick them up) I will put them to good use. I always have or know students who are in need. Recently I have begun to do some volunteer GED tutoring and they need calculators, too.

For all you foodies out there...

Click on the title for an article that was in the Ch. Observer yesterday. I don't have time for a post right now -- I'm headed out the door to a long Thursday -- but thought I'd give everybody an opportunity to start the day with a chuckle, the same way I went to sleep last night after reading this article. (Apologies to Rachel Ray, wherever you are...)

collecting

Having seen Everything Is Illuminated* over the weekend, and having had discussions recently with various people about clutter (a perennial problem for me), this morning's StoryCorps segment immediately caught my attention... It is either a springboard for new ideas of things to "collect" or a cautionary tale -- I choose the latter :]

*The protagonist collects things... Everything Is Illuminated is a really good movie, and the soundtrack was especially wonderful. I think it would be even better on the big screen, as the scenery is beautiful as well. For you dog lovers out there: there's a dog in the movie that is absolutely fantastic. She was almost my favorite character, and she's in almost every scene.

Smiley Library

Last night while looking for links that discuss "book addiction" I discovered this humorous piece and through it found the blog Library Dust. My interest has been piqued, and this morning (when I ought to be getting ready to go to work) I started reading back posts from the beginning, and came across this one. It's all about Smiley Library! That's the public library in Redlands, CA, where my aunt and uncle and cousins have lived for the past 40+ years, and now my mother lives there, too. So I've been there lots of times. I even watched, with my dear cuz Mary, some of the filming of a movie there late one night a year or two ago. What a hoot that was! (I wish I knew what movie...)
Reading about Smiley brought back memories of visiting other libraries in small towns I have visited over the years. When my kids and I traveled (in their growing up years) we often visited towns and cities that were new to us. The two places we went to loved to explore in particular were the local grocery store and the library. In addition to Smiley Library, some libraries that stand out in my mind are the ones in Dublin, GA, Haddonfield, NJ, Burlingame, CA, Atlanta Ga (the old Carnegie library with its squishy floors and the Ida Williams branch, now the Buckhead branch) and the first library I ever went to, which was in Minneapolis, Minnesota -- it was a children's library and I loved it very much.
I'd put more links but I've gotta run!
Addendum: I left out two of the best libraries: The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County and the York County Library. Both are fabulous!

Update: Now that I have posted this, the "Library Dust" blog has been taken down. The author has started a new blog, On the Job, but it just isn't the same!

Books, reading, and good news....

The thing about reading slowly that frustrates me is that there are waaay more books that I want to read at any given moment than I have time to read even if I had years to read them all... For example, I have three books on tape out from the library (I listen to these in the car; I'm currently in the middle of two of them) and I am reading at least four books (mostly from the library) and have at least two others out from the library that I want to get into asap -- one is about one of the current presidential candidates and the other is Perfectly Legal by David Cay Johnston, the author I referred to in yesterday's post. (I couldn't get his latest book at the library so I decided to try this one in the meantime.) Anyway, "book greed" is how I like to think of it, but that's really too charitable a description. There was a period of about 6-8 years when I couldn't get through even the shortest novel (for reasons that are still somewhat unclear to me) but ever since I got back into reading a few years back it's become sort of an obsession. When I was a kid I read all the time (albeit very slowly) and now I feel as though I am getting like that again.

On another topic: I have my first real Rock Hill student next Friday! Finally the next phase of the transition has begun!

p.s. Don't hesitate to click on the link in the title. It cracked me up -- and I think I'll still be chortling about it when I wake up in the a.m., like when Lizzie posted her "That's an airplane?!" comment....

David Cay Johnston on Fresh Air

Just wanted to post the link above for anyone interested. I am not a die-hard Fresh Air fan, but this segment really struck a nerve -- very well done and a real eye opener. David Cay Johnston is the author of Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill) which sounds (from the interview) like something we all should read. What got my attention was they were talking about Cabela's, a huge store out in the middle of Nebraska... I've seen lots of signs for it when travelling in that area. For more, go listen to the interview.

I'll try to post again soon. I'm still writing Christmas cards and "treading water" in other respects.