photo source I’m 35. Maybe it’s the humidity, or the grandmultiparidity, but boy, do I feel old. When I was younger, I used to be able to lose weight by cutting out condiments. No kidding: skip butter or mayo for a week, and that was enough to dramatically improve my bathing suit shopping experience. Now it takes the organization, effort, and emotional upheaval usually associated with a military operation in Bosnia just to achieve stasis on the scale. How to... Read more
In a world where Jay Leno asks people where Illinois is, and people don’t know, and then that’s considered funny, I think it’s our duty to bring back The Joke. So I’ll tell you my favorite joke, and then you send me yours. If it makes me laugh, I’ll post it next time, so you can grab a piece of my rapidly-dwindling traffic before it disappears completely due to people realizing that, although I talk more when I’m tired, I... Read more
The fabulous Jen at Conversion Diary invented this neat reciprocal deal: you post your seven quick takes on any topic at your blog, and leave a link to your list at her blog. Links all around! Just don’t forget to link to Jen, and take a look at her blog, if you haven’t already — she always has something new and surprising to say about her life as a Catholic convert. After a long winter and a damp and chilly... Read more
I do not like okra. It’s pretty much the worst vegetable you can imagine, kind of like the Newt Gingrich of the produce world: hairy and fibrous on the outside, seedy and slimy on the inside. It just makes you wonder, why is it even here? What is the point of this food, other than to make you glad when it finally goes out of season? And yet there it is in the supermarket. Every week I pass... Read more
Well, what’s the good of having your own blog if you can’t show off your pretty kids? I was going to join in on Wordless Wednesday, a sort of community blogging project which encourages you to speak volumes without using words, and everyone who joins in gets links to each other’s photos. But I got kind of hung up on the “no words” part. I tried, I really did. But then I just kept talking. Well, some of my readers... Read more
(photo source) Yesterday was the summer solstice: the longest day of the year. If you attended St. Peter Homeschool, you’d know that this is because the earth and the sun are aligned in such a way that the shadow of the moon falls directly on both poles simultaneously, which cools the oceans to the degree that the earth becomes slightly heavier, slowing its rotation and prolonging the nighttime, which, in turn, prolongs the day, too, because of 24 hours in... Read more
(photo source) Glenn Gould is the second person I ever heard who plays Bach properly. The first one is my father, who is not a very good pianist. My father has the ear of a great musician. He takes orchestral scores to bed as a little night reading. Haydn eludes me, but his music brings my father to tears. Once, when he was striving to explain sonata form, I coolly answered that I’d rather let the music just wash over me, instead of wrecking the... Read more
Today I’m over at Inside Catholic, making vaguely incendiary statments about Rush Limbaugh, Elton John, Israel, and The Black Keys. Look, Ma, no toilet jokes today! See you there? Read more
Welcome, Conversion Diary readers! I’m so glad you stopped by, and I hope you stick around. I must warn you that things here are a little different from what you may have become accustomed to at Jen’s site. I have almost no control over the appearance of my poor patchy little blog, for one thing. I’m serious, I can’t even find my cursor right now. At her site, on the other hand, you will see a striking, cohesive design, thoughful,... Read more
A friend of mine, a lovely woman, is having a baby soon. (Really soon. We compared notes yesterday on how significant it really is, driving-to-the-hospital-wise, when you can’t shake the feeling that the baby is not so much getting into position as trying to make a break for it) And I’m throwing her a shower. Her personality blooms at the crossroads of thrift, elegance, quirkiness and artistry, so although the party would be small, I wanted it to be special. ... Read more
I Have to Sit Down
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