Albertsons at Closing Time

This story requires some explaining, as do most of my stories. We do our
bulk shopping at Costco, but our smaller scale and specialty purchases are
done at Albertsons. I end up calling my wife during the evening commute to
see if there is anything I need to pick up on the way home. About ten
percent of the time I will be diverted to the store to pick up a missing
ingredient, or tortilla shells, or diapers. Sometimes we don't realize we
are missing something until late in the evening, and then I make a run to
the store around midnight when they close.

After ten p.m., the store is especially busy, not with shoppers but with
stockers. It is hard to move around the piles and crates of foods that line
each aisle, so it usually takes longer than I expect to finish shopping.
One thing that Albertsons recently installed has been a tremendous blessing
to people like me who show up with a full cart at 11:55 p.m.: the
self-checkout machine. For those of you who have never seen them, a
self-checkout machine allows you to scan and bag your own groceries and then
pay via credit card or cash. They really speed up the shopping experience.
I suspect that the real reason for the machines is to eliminate the number
of workers needed by the store; a machine is probably cheaper than a
salaried worker.

But I digress. Albertsons issues frequent shoppers a card that identifies
them as special people who then qualify one for special prices on goods
throughout the store. It also activates a special coupon dispenser which
spits out coupons for things one frequently purchases. We seem to get
nothing but diaper coupons. The tradeoff to saving on special deals is that
Big Brother is watching.

All of this brings me to my story, when I first started wondering if maybe
instead of Big Brother watching me it was Big Sister. The scanning machines
have a fairly neutral sounding female voice which announces the price of
each item, and will also give certain commands, such as reminding you to
look for items in the cart before completing the sale. I say the voice is
neutral because there is little inflection of the voice with the exception
of the way the voice says certain amounts of money. For example,
"ninety-nine" seems to end on a high note when compared with, say,
"thirty-nine." Maybe we should be more excited by the item that costs "two
ninety-nine" than the one which costs "one thirty-nine."

The only reason why I have given this so much thought is that recently I
heard the machine start to say different things than what I would expect on
the programmed expressions. It all started one night when I stopped by to
buy milk, bread, and other things I jokingly refer to as the 'Armageddon
four-pack.' After scanning my Albertson's card, I heard the usual 'card
accepted' phrase, followed by:

"Hi, dadwithnoisykids!"

I looked around. The closest person to me was a man standing by the
manager's booth. He noticed my puzzled look and came over to see if I
needed any help. I told him no, and started scanning my groceries:

"Two thirty-nine."
"Five ninety-nine"
"I haven't seen you around much, dadwithnoisykids."

I stopped again. No one was around me.

"Did you get your hair cut? You look really cute on my scanner."

The thought that a woman was flirting on me, Mister
Happily-married-and-unavailable, was unnerving enough, but to think that it
was a machine was a little too much for me to bear.

I finished quickly and drove home. I couldn't tell anyone. I decided to
not use that scanning machine again.

Nothing unusual happened for a couple of months, and I forgot about the
incident. But then it happened again last night.

I had fallen into the habit of avoiding that one scanning machine, and I
happened to be using the one next to it. After scanning my card, the
machine said,

"Dadwithnoisykids, I haven't seen you in a while. Have you lost some
weight?"

I am at the point in life where I believe some things should just be ignored
for the greater good, and this seemed to be one of them. I glanced around
to see that I was alone, and decided to just ignore the voice.

"Why don't you come and see me sometime, dadwithnoisykids?"

This voice came from behind me. From the other machine.

"Leave him alone. He is with me and you will just have to take care of
somebody else."

I suddenly found myself between two scanning machines fighting for my
attention.

"He is with me"

"I saw him first, and he really wants to be with me. Right,
dadwithnoisykids?"

"See? If he really wanted to be with you he would answer. He's mine and
that's the way it's going to be."

I thought I could just ignore this argument and finish scanning my things.
Bad idea. I scanned a bunch of flowers for my wife, and the machine stopped
working.

"Who are these for? Her?" The voice sounded upset.

"Those are for me. Right, dadwithnoisykids?"

I refused to be drawn into a conversation with these voices programmed into
the scanning machines. I looked around for the worker who is assigned to
watch over the scanners. An older woman, obviously tired from being on her
feet all day, and tired of dealing with high-maintenance customers, walked
over to assist me.

"Ma'am, have these machines been acting up lately?"

She eyed me with a look of suspicion, "what do you mean?"

"Well, this one isn't working, and the other ones seem to be making strange
noises." I just couldn't tell her about what I had heard.

"Don't know anything about that. Why don't you try this machine?" She
indicated the one that started all the talking.

"No, I would prefer that one," I said, indicating one a few aisles away.

She gave me a look bordering on disgust, and walked away. I started
scanning my groceries.

"You never sent me flowers!"

That was enough. I left the scanner and headed toward the lone checkout
line, where a young woman was reading some magazine with an immodestly
dressed woman on the cover. As I walked by the other scanners, I heard
their female voices plaintively call after me:

"dadwithnoisykids, come back!"
"Come back, honey!"
"Sweetie, come baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!"

As I drove home, a horrible thought struck me.

What would those machines have done if I were buying a pregnancy test for my
wife?

Medical thought for the day

Remember my dizzy spells? I am fine now. My wife noticed that this medication for treating dizziness has some serious side effects. See below:

Side effect of medicine...

...for dizziness!

Ketchup Haiku

I love ketchup on
all my hamburgers and fries
even on liver.

A special thank you for the people from the Heinz company in Pennsylvania
who have started to monitor my blog.

God bless you!

Role Model for Our New Bishop

Perhaps our new bishop could take St. John Fisher as his role model. Read about St. John Fisher here.

Odd Post in the Kitchen

Someone posted a cryptic message about taking over Scorpion Stalking Duck on the Noisykid Kitchen Blog.

I shall have to change the code for e-mail postings.

Rumor has it Dallas will get a new Bishop soon. We shall see. We need more bishops who are prepared to die for their people. Maybe not literally die, but rather be ready to 'die to self,' forsaking all the world offers in exchange for their souls.

I am reminded of one of Rudyard Kipling's short stories, called 'The Head of the District'(maybe Chief of the District?) where the natives yearn for a strong leader. We natives of the Dallas also yearn for a strong bishop.

Please pray for Bishop Grahmann and even more for his successor.

ADDENDUM:

- From The Head of the District, by Rudyard Kipling:

"Rest assured that the Government will send you a man!"

"Ay, ...for we also be men. And by God, Sahib, may thou be that man!"

Read the story. It is one of my favorite Kipling stories. I pray that we are sent a man to lead our diocese.

Saturday Lenten Thoughts and Musings

The Noisykids made this:

In this issue:

1. Commentary on St. Lydwine by St. Alphonsus Liguori
2. Scorpion Stalking Duck is Reorganizing
3. An inspirational story for married folk, followed by a special prayer
4. Stewbean is still missing.

St. Lydwine, early victim of 'checking,' hits the ice.


Comment on St. Lydwine by St. Alphonsus Liguori

St. Lydwine(1380-1433), a pious girl who is the patron saint of skaters, suffered for most of her life from various ailments which began one day when she went skating. She was a very pious girl who offered up her sufferings for the benefit of sinners. Her story is rather yucky to read. Yucky but inspiring.

St. Alphonsus had this to say about her, which is a consolation for all who suffer:

Let it, then, be your endeavor, during the remainder of your life, to love and have confidence in Him; and do not become sad when you find yourself in afflictions and tribulations; for this is a sign, not of His hatred, but of the love which God bears toward you. And therefore, in reference to this point, I will here cite for you the example of the virgin St. Lydwine; and I know not whether there is to be met with among the annals of the Saints an instance of any other soul suffering so great affliction and desolation as did this holy virgin.

St. Lydwine, pray for us!




Reorganization is in Effect

Starting April 1, 2007, Noisykid Kitchen, LLC, doing business as SSD/MetaltrAch, will assume 100% control of the assets of Scorpion Stalking Duck. This will not change any of the creative aspects of Scorpion Stalking Duck. It will only change the management and administrative structure of this blog.

In short, a blog run by Noisykid Kitchen will be a leaner, more aggressive, and efficient blog!

Dinner menus will be published and will be listed in separate categories.

Duck Stalking Scorpion will remain as an independent entity managed by dadwithnoisykids and a skeleton crew of moonlighters who manage the help desk.



A Touching and Inspirational Story

A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They shared everything. They talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside.

She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totaling $95,000.

He asked her about the contents. "When we were to be married," she said, "my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll."

The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness.

"Honey," he said, "that explains the doll, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?"

"Oh," she said, "that's the money I made from selling the dolls."

A Prayer:

After an appropriate amount of time spent in meditation, I would ask all the married women to recite the following prayer:

Dear Lord, I pray for Wisdom to understand my man;
Love to forgive him;
And Patience for his moods;
Because Lord, if I pray for
Strength, I'll beat him to death because I don't know how to crochet.

From dadwithnoisykids’ oldest brother, whose wife does not crochet.

Stewbean still missing!

The above manatee, Ekyu Manatee, has been ill in the local animal hospital after we fed him spinach. He appeared to be in a coma, but it turned out to be a nap. He was not able to answer any of our questions, so the news he has of Stewbean will have to wait.

Ice cream, anyone?

Various Lenten Reflections

Oremus!

Please pray for our friend Denise who is not felling well. I think my recent experiences have prompted a lot of people to have their blood pressure checked. After they get it checked, they e-mail me with comments such as:

"I just went skydiving with my hair on fire and landed on a porcupine, and my blood pressure was 115/53!"

That makes me feel soooooo good.




Ice Cream as Medication

I am serious about this. We have been praying for more children, but God knows that we can't just sit around waiting for Him to do all the work. So we have discovered another dietary supplement for increasing our chances of having another Noisykid or three. See what I am talking about at Our Magnum Opus. My wife went to the store as soon as she heard about this medical breakthrough.





Sitemeter as Ego-booster

I like to look at Sitemeter(better known as ego-booster), particularly the 'Referrals,' to see how people find my blog.


There is no thrill like that of seeing my blog listed in the top ten of 184,678 references for Scorpion Duck Marmalade Alabama.




Sometimes I find things more interesting than my own blog, like Camel Spiders.

They sound as if they are more fierce than scorpions.

Here is one:


Creepy.

On a better note:

You[Jesus], however, did not stop with this[dying for love of us], but foreseeing all that would happen across 19 centuries from the moment of these outpourings of your love to my appearance on earth, you desired to make provision even for this! Your heart was not satisfied that I should be nourished only with a memory of your infinite love. You remained in this vale of tears in the most holy and singularly miraculous Sacrament of the Altar!

St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe

Eucharistic Procession at St. William Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas

Another Pro-Life Rap Video

But first, what I am reading right now. I will review it sometime:

Seen at the Roman Sacristan's Blog:






Today I passed the 5,000 hit mark.

Thank you.

Happy Fourth Birthday

Today we celebrate the birth of our FOUR year old son. He went to Mass and received a blessing. The pictured pinata was not destroyed.

Lenten Thoughts

This Lent, the stuffed animals are on a retreat lasting all for forty days. Here are some pictures from Ash Wednesday, as they process into the old copy paper box which has been prepared for them.

Mr. Moose, Mr. Aardvark, and Miss Bear will join them in spirit, as they are obligated to tend to their respective vehicles.

Mr. Hedgehog, in the foreground below, mentioned to me that they will be observing a strict fast while on retreat. When I mentioned to him that stuffed animals do not normally eat, he said, "perhaps we should make some other sort of sacrifice. I hadn't thought of that before now."

In order to raise the bar of my posts, I must resort to plagiarism. Here are two quotes from reading I have done recently. Well, one my wife read to me:

On the Priesthood:

"A quarter century of priesthood means consecrating and absolving for a quarter century, that is to say, celebrating over nine thousand Masses and forgiving thousands of faithful.

"In addition, it means sowing the word of God, both in church and in private conversation with souls, preparing them for that last walk into eternity. All this exemplifies how much is involved in parochial work… How great the result each of us knows. Simply tremendous!

"How many souls, thanks to priestly zeal, have approached God and been saved! How many souls in Heaven will testify about those who helped them reach their final destination! Such persons will enjoy an immense gratitude, and a love so much the greater as their sacrifice was greater.

"A quarter century is a period during which a priest accomplishes very much for the salvation of souls. St. Augustine said: if you save a soul, you ewill be assured of salvation. What should be said of him who has saved countless souls."

- St. Maximilian Kolbe, from a discourse delivered during the celebration of a priest’s 25th anniversary of ordination, September 4, 1939.

From For the Life of the World: St. Maximilian and the Eucharist by Fr. Jerzy M. Domanski, O.F.M. Conv.

Priests need our prayers and sacrifices as well, for the devil would love to see them fail. Please offer some prayers for the priest who celebrates your Mass. I always think of my brother's ordination, when the newly ordained priests are prayed over by the bishop and the other priests at the ordination. To see some of the old, lame, grizzled looking priests there is quite a stirring moment.

Another argument against television:

"The familiar faces of my books welcomed me. I threw myself into my reading chair and gazed around me with pleasure. All my old friends present – there in spirit, ready to talk with me any moment when I was in the mood, making no claim upon my attention when I was not."
- George MacDonald
Found in Homeschooling with Gentleness: A Catholic Discovers Unschooling by Suzie Andres

I like how books do not bother us, clamoring for our attention as the television did. One of my first blogs was on this subject, and how we have lived without a TV now for almost 12 years. Trashing our TV took years to do, and the last straw was Lent, or rather Easter, when we started watching it again. It did not take long before we realized we were better off without it.

Another shot of the animals processing into the box. It looks more like a mad rush for the door than a solemn procession.

Pray for the Poor Souls

In particular a man named Michael, who died four years ago today.

Cat Update:
Assuming that you care, there are only three cats left from this picture taken in December. While we were on pilgrimage, one of the orange cats left, as did the multi-colored one. The gray one developed a love for automobiles, which ended when the cat decided to bail out of the engine compartment while the car was moving. The black cat and one of the orange ones remain, along with the mother of the orange cat and the cat I call 'Homewrecker.' I could blog on these creatures all day - but I won't because of my allergies to cats.

Stewbean Update:


This manatee("Call me Ekyu, Ekyu Manatee") showed up on Friday night, late, saying he had information about the Water Strider. He was exhausted, and was given a place to sleep and all the spinach we could buy at the grocery store. Apparently spinach is not as close to seaweed as we thought, and now he is sick and unable to talk. We hope to get some information out of him after he recovers, if he recovers.

Lent is Nigh

St. Charles Borromeo, walking in procession.
He wore a rope around his neck as a sign of penance.

Wednesday begins Lent, and with it a time of serious discernment.

There will not be many blogs during Lent.

I wish you all a prayerful and penitential Lent.

Saturday Wrapup

Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the crypt below the altar at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Mobile, Alabama.


REPENT!



This is a good snip from George Weigel's excellent book, Witness to Hope, the biography of Pope John Paul II:

The wellspring of reconciliation, John Paul writes, is the cross of Christ. Its vertical beam symbolizes the human need for reconciliation with God, and its horizontal crossbeam represents the need for reconciliation within the human family.(1) Because the Church is the Body of Christ, its "central task" is "reconciling people with God, with themselves,, with neighbor, with the whole creation."(from Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, Sections 7.7 and 8.5)

One of the ways the Church lives out that ministry of reconciliation is to remind the world of the reality of sin. For reconciliation is impossible without naming the evil that had caused division and rupture in the first place.
(Page 473)

Well said. Good food for thought before the start of Lent.

Other News:

This picture was taken by a surveillance camera at a convenience store in Costaguana, on the Pacific Coast of Central America. The character in the right foreground has some of the features of Captain Merrill Stewbean.

Stewbean, along with First Mate Buster Crabbe, Chef Tortoise Tuus, and one unidentified passenger disappeared in the Gulf of Mexico two weeks after leaving December 26, 2006, on a Cruise from Port Aransas, Texas.



The last contact was a text message from somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico.



A reward has been offered for any information leading to the return of Captain Merrill Stewbean and his crew and passenger.

Attack of the Killer Fish

from here on February 4, 2007.

I laughed and laughed and laughed at the motto of this blog: anyone reading this is not practicing custody of the eyes.

The Near Death Experience, Again

I tried to post this via e-mail twice, so it may show up again and again:

For the past few nights I have found myself awake at 4 a.m., usually because of body aches and cramps in my legs. There hasn't been much I can do for this except take Tylenol and pray the Rosary. Our Lady's Beads continue to be a powerful sedative for me.

All this 'down' time has given me a lot of time to think. I don't consider this time as idle time because I really don't have much energy to goof off. So I have been busy contemplating just what happened to me on Sunday, and putting into context with the previous 42 years of my life.

It has struck me, that once again, my life was spared. There are lots of minor examples of this, like times I ran stop signs, or fell asleep on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, or witnessed crashes on the freeway. But there are now three times when I have been made acutely aware that, but for the grace of God, I would not be sitting here in this chair tapping away at my little PDA's keyboard. One of the three occasions happened in the 70's, when my oldest brother and I were kept from riding our bikes right into the field of fire of a sniper who was shooting people in the street. The next was in the 90's, when a helicopter I was to fly in crashed the day before I was scheduled to fly in it. All three crewmembers died from the rapid deceleration of striking the ground at high velocity. See my post for December 1, 2007 for more thoughts on this incident.

And now, I realize that if I had not told my wife to take me to the emergency room on Sunday when I did, I would have suffered either a stroke or a heart attack. Both of these would have had terrible consequences not only for me, but also for my family.

Along with the realization that my life has been spared, I realized that in all three instances I had some measure of free will to save myself. I could have ignored the advice of a stranger and ride up the hill into shooting range of the sniper. I did not have to moonlight as a doctor on a helicopter, with all the risks that accompany flying. And on Sunday, I was granted, before I would have collapsed, the freedom to put in motion the steps necessary to save my own life.

It is terrifying to think how much God respects me as a man, when He allows me to have the freedom to decide my own fate. But of course He allows us the freedom to sin or practice virtue, to go to Heaven or to Hell, every day of our lives.

All this thinking about being spared and free will have ended up with the question, 'So what are you going to do about this, this instance where you were spared?' My mind keeps on coming back to this question. Such a tremendous blessing from God demands a response from His creature.

I do not know what to do right now, but I will have Lent coming up here next week to use as a time for contemplation. I plan on spending more time in prayer and discernment, with the goal of asking Our Lord what more He asks of me.

Some things I will NOT be doing:

I won't run off and become an environmentalist wacko.

I won't take up yoga, or any other quasi-religious behavior.

I won't grow a beard - tried that a few years ago, looked like five o'clock shadow after six weeks.

I won't join Al Gore in any endeavor.


The easiest solution to doing the will of God would be to ask my wife, the woman who knows me the best and loves me the most, what she would want me to change in my life. Until wifeofdadwithnoisykids wakes up, I will keep asking Our Lady(another woman who knows me the best and loves me the most) to help me with this question.

Drawings of Some Friends of Ours

Here is a picture of some dear friends of ours, four of the children from Our Magnum Opus.

Drawn by our 14-year old boy Noisykid.



Click on the picture to get a better view of the details. He got his artistic talent from his mother.

Serious Pro-Life Rap

Saw this at Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex.

This contains no curse words or vulgar language, but touches on the issue of abortion.

About Scorpion Stalking Duck

In order to make people understand the warped mind of dadwithnoisykids more, I have added the List of Labels to the sidebar.

In this way, anyone coming by to petition for the removal of this blog from the Catholic Blog Awards Nominees will have easy acess to proof.


The Humility of Dadwithnoisykids

For a while, I have been posting on Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo's great book Humility of Heart. Well for the last week I have been afraid to pick it up because it inspired such fervent prayers for humility that I think God responded in kind.

This last week has been a trial of physical proportions for me, but even more so one of emotional and spiritual suffering for my wife and children. I would go so far as to say that the physical problems I have encountered this week are miniscule compared to the sorrows that my wife and children have borne while trying to give me a place to rest and recover.

So, even in the humiliation of being sick, I find that my little cross is nothing compared to those of my beloveds.

It does help keep down the self-pity!

So what does this have to do with Humility of Heart?

Well, I am going to follow the example of Herbert Cardinal Vaughan(1832-1903), the translator of this book into English. It is said that he kept this book with him all the time, filling it with notes and constantly referring to it. At the end of his life, when he apparently went to retire at some nice estate, he decided to translate the book into English. So while others were playing golf, he was busy doing this tremendous work which has benefitted so many. He completed this task shortly before his death.

For a guy whose experience with Italian is limited to what he hears in those Italian restaurants which play language records in the bathroom, the gift of Cardinal Vaughan is immeasurable.

So I plan on keeping the book close by, referring to it occasionally. It is hard to pull out quotes which I can post for your edification, because nearly every word(except and, but and or) strikes to the heart of me. But some are so choice, I just have to print them. Like this great big swift kick in the rear end:

"In Paradise there are many saints who never gave alms on earth:
their poverty justified them.
There are many saints who never mortified their bodies by fasting or wearing hair shirts:
their bodily infirmities excused them.
There are many saints too who were not virgins:
their vocation was otherwise.
But in Paradise there is no saint who is not humble. "(#1)

Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
make my heart like unto thine!

Buy the book. It will be on my gift list this Christmas!



Please note that dadwithnoisykids does not receive royalties from the endorsement of any product, book, DVD, hairspray, Love Spud, or any other item which has an implied or explicit approval associated with it.

Nominated?

I have been nominated for

BEST NEW CATHOLIC BLOG

(I think)

If you go to the Catholic Blog Awards Website, you can see what I got nominated for and vote for my blog.

For now, I need to rest more and pray for a speedy recovery.

Here is a picture of the Love-Spud, sold only at the Gift Shop! The perfect last-minute St. Valentine's Day Gift!

What Ails Me?

In the preface, or forward to a book I have somewhere called "Medical Ethics for Nurses" there is a quote from Bishop Fulton J. Sheen to the effect that every good doctor( or nurse) needs to have an incision and a good sense of humor. Over the past sixteen years I have striven to cultivate the latter while trying to avoid the former. I have been quite successful until recently.

For the first time since I was an infant, I was in a hospital as a patient. In the past week I have been having problems with vertigo, dizziness, and on Sunday, intense chest pain. I had to say the words I never wish to hear; namely, "honey, take me to the emergency room now," and "hi! I think I am having a heart attack."

Oddly enough, just saying those words gave me some measure of peace. But these few words were probably the hardest words I have ever said.

After the dust has cleared, it appears that I did not have a heart attack, but that the heart was suffering the effects of high blood pressure on it. I am on medications to control my pressure, but I still feel weak as a newborn kitten. An MRI done of my brain confirmed what one of my partners always suspected, that there is nothing in there of any concern.

For the first time in my life, I got to experience a hospital from the other side. I never realized just how vulnerable one is as a patient, subject to midnight blood draws, blood pressure measurements, and the mysterious 4:30 wakeup to ask if I had had a bowel movement yet. Throw on top of that the sleepless times, filled with worries and fears about the future - more often about how I would provide for my family than about any future suffering. Add to that the recriminations about not exercising more and eating less, second-guessing my doctors, and just the constant question 'why?'

After much prayer, especially the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, it is apparent to my wife and I that while only God knows why He gave me this little cross, there are indications that He was preparing us for this little sidetrip. At the last moment in January, we changed plans for vacation and took our children to see Mother Angelica's cloistered nuns, and the Benedictine monks in Alabama. We then took our children to see my grandmother and my youngest brother in Florida, something which may never be possible again. A lot of what we did we may never do again as a family.

All the while, we treated this as a pilgrimage, begging God to send us more children.

God always answers these requests in His own way. The last time we stormed Heaven with prayers with this intensity and purpose was in 2004, when we were praying for the Little Flower to intercede for us. Did she ever. On the final day of the novena my wife had a severe gall bladder attack. She had surgery to remove the offending organ, and within three months was expecting our youngest daughter.

So now it looks as if it is my turn to suffer a bit, hopefully as a prelude to another Noisykid. I don't think I will need surgery for my present ailment, but that is not clear at this time.

What is clear is that the next girl, whenever she shows up, will be Faustina.

Thank you for your prayers.

New Patron Saint of the Moment!

Oleksa Zarytsky

Profile
Greek Catholic. Entered the seminary in Lviv in 1931.
Ordained in 1936. Pastor of the Archeparchy of Lviv for the Ukrainians.
Imprisoned for his faith in 1948, he was sentenced to ten years in the forced labour camps, and sent to Karahanda.
Released in 1957, he was soon arrested again for his faith, and senteneced to three more years.

Died in prison; martyr.
Born
1912 at Bilche, Lviv District, Ukraine
Died
30 October 1963 of gastritis and complications from high blood pressure at the forced labour camp at Karaganda
Beatified
27 June 2001 by Pope John Paul II at Ukraine
Canonized
pending

Saturday Thoughts

Here is a movie I really want to see. I haven't seen a movie in a theater since 1998, and this one looks really interesting:



The quote at the beginning looks to be from 1 Kings 19:11-13, but from my poor reading of German, the quote appears to be that of God not being in the strong wind, nor the earthquake, nor the fire, but rather in the soft wind. This does not correlate with what I found in the Douay-Rhiems Bible. I am confused. THANKS TO HISTOR THE WISE, I FOUND IT IN 3 KINGS 19: 11-13, where Elias meets God on the mountain.

Anyhooo....

Every year, I go on a silent retreat at a retreat house run by Opus Dei, and while we do not go to such extremes of mortification over the four days, it still is an edifying time for me. It is a chance to step back from my busy life and take stock, to spend the time in prayer and thought. Blogless.

When there is no talking, the mind ceases to concentrate on the next thing to say, the next witty or sage pronouncement that I am constantly searching for in my day to day life. In the silence, no noise coming in and nothing preparing to go out, God will speak to me...provided I am not humming the 'Batman' theme song to myself.

After a few days, I am ready to return to my Wife and Noisykids, to a house where someone is cooking Play-Do in the microwave just to see what will happen, and toilet paper rolls are scattered about the floor of the bathroom like spent shell casings of some monstrous gun, rather than being neatly stacked away. While I feel a slight pull to the quiet of a contemplative life, my calling truly is to that of a man in the world trying to bring himself and his family closer to God every day.

Saint Scholastica and Saint Benedict, pray for us.

Patron Saint of the Moment

Saint Ulrich

Born 890 in Canton Zurich, died 983 in Austria. Bishop. Patron Saint of dizziness and vertigo.

I have taken him for my Patron Saint of the Moment, since I am experiencing vertigo.

I can see several connections with this saint:

1. I lived for a year in Canton Zurich when I was a child.

2. The main bookstore at the University of Michigan was called Ulrich's.

3. There is a story that St. Ulrich gave a goose leg to a messenger, and the goose leg turned into a fish on Friday(he is pictured with a fish). This goes along with a joke I love about a convert to the Faith who is found 'baptizing' a piece of meat with gravy, intoning, 'you are now a trout.' Since we observe not eating meat on Friday year-round, I sometimes joke about doing this with chicken or beef.

4. He is also the patron Saint against mice, and we have cats to limit the mouse invasions.

Saint Ulrich, Bishop, native of a beautiful part of Switzerland, pray for us.

Now an unrelated video, about 10 minutes long, of the Joint Strike Fighter. Reminds me of my time in the Air Force:

Benedict XVI Quote

"We commend ourselves to the constant intercession of the Mother of God and of our protector saints so that they will support and help us not to fail in our good intentions, so that they will encourage us to intensify all efforts, praying and working with confidence, convinced that the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

"He will give us complete unity when and how it pleases Him.

"And, strengthened by this confidence, let us go forward on the path of faith, of hope, and of charity. The Lord is guiding us."

-from Pope Benedict XVI's General Audience, January 24, 2007.

Cool Video from the Roman Sacristan

These are test pilots, except for the first one, where the guy doesn't land....

thanks to Roman Sacristan