Naughty Kitty

Rosie has been on a cord-chewing spree along with her let's-intimidate-Athena quest. This morning I found the answering machine dead. She chewed through the electrical cord on it. I'm not having much luck finding a replacement cord online. It's one thing to ruin the answering machine, but another thing entirely when I'm trying to make arrangements to meet people about car possibilities and car shopping. I'm about ready to banish the cat to the outdoors for the next couple of months. We can't afford to have her ruining phones and headphones and radios and computers!!

Shopping for a Used Car

Now that I have a couple of appointments lined up to see and test-drive some cars, all sorts of safety issues are running through my mind. Meeting strangers that you contact via the internet or telephone? Going for a drive in a car with a stranger? (After all, why should they let me --a stranger-- take off in their car for a test-drive?) Is their car-title clean and clear? What if the person says "cash only"? I mean, the guy may not want to risk a counterfeit bank-check, but do I want to walk around with that much cash (especially when meeting a stranger)?

I'm getting nervous. I'm even thinking about going to a dealer and paying more.

Missing Symposium

I knew I'd have to stay home from Fort Wayne this week because of my job. (I'm so glad Jane and Colin came here to visit earlier this month!) But then Pastor had to miss the week. And now Deacon is ill and cannot head to Fort Wayne either. I can't remember the last time there was no CCA booth at symposium; when Deacon couldn't go, I was always able to sub for him. Bummers.

Been Busy

Phew -- it's not pneumonia or bronchitis. Just a sinus infection. Maggie has been sick for four weeks. No fever the whole time. But it definitely took a turn for the worse this week! Saw the doctor last night, and I'm now thinking that if I'd been home to nag her into using the neti-pot multiple times daily (or if she'd been responsible about using it as I told her to) (or if I hadn't assumed that she obeyed when I did nag her) this wouldn't have developed into the sinus infection. She has plans to do better today. She also has drugs in case it's bacterial. The coughing has been unbelievable, but yesterday was a wee bit better than Wednesday, so I hope we're headed in the right direction.

My drawer has been balancing at work. Hooray! Making fewer mistakes. I still feel bad for the customers who come to me with transactions that I'm not 'smooth with' yet, so that they have a sloooow teller. Some of them are fine with it; others get a tad impatient. But I foresee a day when I will no longer be struggling. I don't know how far away that day is, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel somewhere.

Computer parts have arrived. I hope when the new computer (motherboard and processor) is put together with the old appendages (hard drive, video card, etc) we find that I haven't lost too many functional pieces and that my documents and photos are still there. I did back-up (woo hoo!) the week before the computer was fried, but it would be nice if I didn't have to go to the trouble to restore everything.

Andrew and I haven't had clashing work schedules since the car died, so he's only had to chauffeur me to work one day so far. I wonder how long we'll continue to luck into this?

Naughty kitty has been chewing through cords again. What IS it with her? She destroyed Andrew's phone charger two days ago, and she chewed through Gary's headphone cord yesterday.

On the final stretch of editing Catechist edition. I discovered yesterday (on my second pass over some devotional material) that I am not so thorough with my proofreading on my lunch breaks at work as I should be. I can't be as good a proofreader when I'm reading with my eyes alone instead of while my mouth is reading the sentences aloud. Theology is supposed to be oral/aural, isn't it?

Off to shovel snow and put supper in the crockpot before work. Looking forward to a healthy kid, a repaired computer, a car for Andrew --and thus a less hectic life-- in another couple of weeks!

OUR Father

At Didache last night, Pastor said something he's said a gazillion times before. But I never remember it until he's in the midst of bringing it up in class again.

When we pray "Our Father who art in heaven," the "our" does not refer merely to all us Christians throughout the whole world and throughout all history, joined in prayer. It refers also (and especially) to the Father being Jesus' Father and our Father.



So when we pray the Lord's Prayer, why don't I ever think of that?

Today's Laugh

Sign seen today outside a church:

Bi-lingual Pentecostal services.

(C'mon. Think about that...)

Not Much ...

Nothing has been done toward car shopping or computer replacement. That's a little stressful.

Lots of editing to cram in this week and next.

Went to the company Christmas party today so that Gary could meet the people I work with, the ones who trained me, and the people who were in training with me. Tasty brunch. Pleasant enough company. But staying for second service (with choir) would have been far more refreshing and comforting.

Maggie's EKG on Thursday (her annual cardiology check-up) showed up some quirks. She came home from the appt on the 24-hour heart monitor. Waiting to hear results. Doctor also suggested we contact our family doctor to put us in contact with an immunologist. Maggie hasn't seen an immunologist since she was about 18 months old, and the results then were inconclusive. We realized Thursday evening that her apparent improvement in immune function in her early teens was probably not actual improvement but less exposure to germs; since she joined the academy's choir in Sept 09 she has suffered more illness.

I have a long way to go to become decent at my new job, but at least I'm making headway.

Yesterday's haircut revealed that my recent bad-hair days are not due to excessive length, but due to texture changes and far too much hair loss over the last couple of months.

Back to editing ...

Failing Mechanics

The new year isn't going as happily as people were wishing me last week.

Rachel, Oz has died. Probably our biggest mistake of 2010 was trying to resurrect a 13-yr-old Corolla whose engine had cracked. Putting a different engine in a car with more than a quarter-million miles is not a good plan. I meet the junk man this afternoon to turn over her title and collect enough money from him to pay for yesterday's tow-truck.

My computer was fried yesterday. One tiny little repair/improvement resulted in a crash which means I need a new computer -- or that I at least need a new motherboard and processor and power source and operating system. My sons (of the Nerd Herd) are looking into it for me, and they think many pieces of my current [but deceased] computer can be used in the new computer. Main point of this paragraph (besides the whining) is that, if you need to contact me, you should do it via gmail instead of my usual email address if possible.

I have tons of work to do, especially editing, but right now I have very little ability to concentrate when my brain keeps drifting to "Where am I going to find a car?"

So now the question is, "What is going to happen next?"

Commas with Adjectives

Coordinate adjectives.

I know the rule to use a comma between words in a series. For example, When the child lost his marbles, his Matchbox cars, and his pet snake, the mother lost her marbles. Or Obama promised to pay for my groceries, my rent, and my utilities.

But there are adjectives that may not be equal in importance and therefore should not have commas ... because the words aren't really in a series. For example, The exuberant golden retriever chased the bone under the table. Or The lovely, fashionable Bethany picked up a Wisconsin accent this week. Or Some of the new LSB hymns we sang last year were very good. Or The decrepit, rattle-trap, slow-as-molasses computer makes me scream.

IF you can switch the order of the adjectives,
IF you can put an and between the adjectives,
THEN you use a comma. "The fashionable and lovely Bethany" or "the decrepit and rattle-trap computer."

But if you can't toss in an and, if you can't switch the order of the adjectives, then your words are not "coordinate adjectives" and ought not have the comma. The golden and exuberant retriever? The LSB and new hymns? Nope!


I usually have a good sense of how to employ the commas in these situations, but I've always been a little unsettled because I Learned The Rule in grade school and didn't learn the exceptions. So here's the qualifier for when the comma rule is and is not employed with multiple adjectives. And thus ends my grammar note to myself.

Grungy Grates on the Stovetop

Lesson #1. If you're going to bother turning on the Self-Cleaning feature on the stove, do it for the highest, most intense, longest setting available. The stove is always dirtier than you thought it was.

Lesson #2. The cast-iron grates on my gas stovetop were getting icky. I'd wiped them and washed them, but they were still icky with baked-on spill-overs. I stacked them in the oven while I was cleaning it, and the grates baked clean, quite nicely. Hot dog!

Philip and Tapco on TV

Mom, you're going to want to see this clip!

I Must Be a Grandma

I don't care if the ornaments are clustered in one spot on the tree. I don't care if there are big bare spots. That unevenness is simply evidence that Somebody was here, taking ornaments off the tree, playing with them, making Pooh and Piglet talk to the fireman and the Santa. And that's a happy thing!

Chocolate in the Socks

Lesson learned on Christmas afternoon (the very firstest Christmas in which we hung our socks by the fireplace):

If you want to start a fire for a cozy atmosphere, either
a) remove the socks from their hooks, or
b) remove the chocolate from the socks.

Yup. It's a plan that we shan't forget next year.

Post-Christmas Sale

Sign on the door of the hardware store today:

50% off all Christmas merchandise
Christmas lights
Christmas trees
inflatable snowmen
Santa heads

I giggled as I walked in.
I giggled as I requested the bill for my solar salt.
I asked about the Santa heads.
The clerk was new; I'd never seen her before; she was not amused; she explained what "Santa heads" were and where they were located; she told me these were the heads that you would stick on a light post.
And then I thought it was even more hilariously warped and sick.
When I told the family at supper about the sign at Ace Hardware, they started dreaming up Halloween scenarios of Santa heads on pikes (aka, light posts) all around the front yard. Talk about scarring little children for life... !


Now that I try looking up "Santa heads" online in various places to provide a link, I'm not finding such a thing. I'm wondering if the guys were pulling a fast one on the new clerk.

A Picture of Heaven

Sunday morning. Feast of Stephen, so the nights are still long and the days brief. 6:30, an hour before sun-up on a cloudy day, so the dark of night is not yet banished.

The world is quiet. The whole way to church at this early hour, I see only one other vehicle, and that one is a couple of blocks away on a side street. The businesses are darkened. The windows in the homes are dark; not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse.

I approach the church driveway and look back across the lawn and see the building lit. Light floods from the windows. The church shines, surrounded by darkness. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. In that building is the voice that absolves sinners. In that building is the altar, the mercyseat, the place of God's saving presence, where the body of the King of the Universe gives life, where the angels singing with all His saints unite.

Here is Jesus' manger. Here is heaven.




I wish I'd had my camera. I would have traipsed out to the street (even in the cold) and snapped a photo to capture that icon someplace a little more reliable than just my memory.


Yet, in thy dark streets shineth
the everlasting light.
The hopes and fears of all the years
are met in thee tonight.

Sweet 16

Julie arranged this awesome bow to adorn Maggie's birthday present. She took thin ribbon and threaded 8 long pieces through a store-bought bow and then stapled the ribbons to anchor them into the center of the bow. Then she tied sugar cubes onto the ends of the ribbons. Isn't that just the cutest thing you ever saw?!!!

Hugging

You're "supposed" to hug your kids and tell them you love them. I never did that as much as I should have. When we moved here, and I would see Pastor hug his wife and sons so often at church, I would sometimes feel guilty for not being more demonstrative with my affection for my family.

Then I started the job.
I wasn't home as often.

Now I am driven to hug them more. During my two weeks of training at the nearby branch, I came home from lunch and hugged the kids. When I got to church on Wednesday night for Advent services (coming straight to church from work) I would hug the kids and Gary.

When those absences from your dear ones are forced upon you, maybe that's what makes you more huggy.

Sheep and Shepherds

The last line of the Venite (Psalm 95) says that we are "the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand." I don't know about you, but I tend to think of a pasture as a place for sheep, not for people. I've been pondering on the oddness of "people of His pasture" for a few months. I think Pastor accidentally answered it for me during last Sunday's Bible class.

We were studying Luke 2. The shepherds heard from the angels. They went to Bethlehem to see this thing which had come to pass. And they blabbed it all over the place! They told! They couldn't hold in the joy of the news that the Messiah had come to save sinners! "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

But the Apostle John not only points out Jesus, the Lamb; he also is the one who records Jesus' discourse on the Good Shepherd. Jesus is both the Lamb and the Good Shepherd. Our pastors are shepherds, but they are also Jesus' lambs. Same for us: "I am Jesus' little lamb; ever glad at heart I am...." Still, we (like the shepherds) tell our children and our friends and our neighbors about the Good Shepherd. If Jesus is both Lamb and Shepherd, we who are joined to Him would also be both lambs and shepherds.

And maybe that explains the line in the Venite.


Like shepherds who have heard the angel's preaching, let us go now even unto Bethlehem (the House of Bread) and sing the [tweaked] Easter hymn:
Then let us feast this [Christmas] day
on Christ, the bread of heaven.
The Word of grace has purged away
the old and evil leaven.
Christ our Lord our souls will feed;
He is our meat and drink indeed.
Faith lives upon no other. Alleluia!

Today's Laugh

Philip was telling us today that Matt (who is a doctor) has a t-shirt that says "Trust me, I'm a doctor." We looked up a picture, and this is what we found.

(You have to be pretty geeky to get this, but some of us are highly amused!)

Today's Laugh

A man went to his dentist because he felt something wrong in his mouth. The dentist examined him and said, "That new upper plate I put in for you six months ago is eroding. What have you been eating?"

The man replied, Aall I can think of is that about four months ago my wife made some asparagus and put some stuff on it that was delicious ... Hollandaise sauce. I loved it so much I now put it on everything — meat, toast, fish, vegetables, everything."

"Well," said the dentist, "that's probably the problem. Hollandaise sauce is made with lots of lemon juice, which is highly corrosive. It's eaten away your upper plate. I'll make you a new plate, and this time I'll use chrome."

"Why chrome?" asked the patient.

The dentist replied, "It's simple. Everyone knows that there's no plate like chrome for the Hollandaise!"