The Clam Rampant

Kasia July 9th, 2008

Mmm, where to begin…

I never told you how the sangria turned out. It was actually pretty good, and for a first effort I think it was outstanding – we used a recipe we found on the ‘net and modified it slightly to suit our tastes and what was on sale.

We used white wine – I didn’t even know you could use white wine for sangria, but there you have it – a big bottle, with a shot or two of Bombay Sapphire (Canuck’s gin of choice), some sugar, and a whole mess of fruit: strawberries, raspberries, lemons and limes. We’d bought oranges, but there wasn’t room in the pitcher for anything more. We let that marinate overnight, and by the next day, it was a yummy fruity treat!

One note – I strongly do NOT recommend adding club soda or tonic to the sangria for fizz. It was revolting. By the way, what IS the difference between the two? If I want fizzy sangria, I’ll add ginger ale or Seven-Up, thanks.

We went to see Wall-E, and it lived up admirably to all the positive reviews I’d heard about it. I highly recommend it.

The parishes in Chatham just had a massive personnel turnover – the Diocese of London is clustering, merging and closing parishes just like Detroit has had to do, and this July was the big change-over. The small Czech/Slovak parish we’d visited so many times, St. Anthony, is finally being closed; and of the five remaining parishes in town, there are now two clusters of two plus an ethnic (Polish) not-quite-a-parish.

Much as I’m sad to see restructuring, because of what it means more broadly, so far I’m pretty happy with the changes. We’ve only visited one parish so far since the changeover (obviously), but the priest seemed OK – didn’t set off any warning flags – which is especially nice because he’s the pastor of the closer cluster to Chez Mère de Canuque. I was dismayed to see that the parish was using GLASSWARE (ok, maybe it was crystal, but it’s still NOT acceptable as far as I know!) to distribute the Precious Blood, so I only received the Host and walked past the Blood. However, it was this pastor’s first week, so I can understand even if he sees the issue he probably hasn’t had a chance to take care of it yet; I am hoping that he will address it on his own. If it’s still going on by the end of the summer, I will write him a letter asking about it. The other cluster is now being pastored by a priest who worked with Mother Teresa at some point, so I do want to check them out…

In other news, my car turned over 260,000 miles today. Forty thousand more before my pride will allow me to replace the car. Hopefully both the car and my budget cooperate. 

• Cars - they eat at the table with you , Catholicism , Chatham , Domesticity , Stuff I do , Welcome rain in the spiritual desert that is Chatham
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Kasia July 7th, 2008

As my beloved mentioned in his blog post, we went to check out Chatham’s first effort at a “Taste Fest” on Saturday.

Now, when you call something a “Taste Fest”, call me crazy, but I expect there to be, you know, food for sale.

Chatham’s no Detroit (for better and for worse), but they do have, you know, restaurants. They also have at least a small variety of ethnic groups that could have been tapped to serve food. I’m thinking of the Italians, the Portuguese, the Poles, and the Slovaks, at the very least, plus of course your garden-variety Scotch-Irish and French-Canadian folk. I mean, I know poutine is gross, but I’m quite sure the French legacy has left more to French-Canadian culinary palette than that…

Anyway, it wasn’t so much of a “taste fest” as a combination block party and sidewalk sale along the main drag of town, King Street. They’d rented some of those inflatable kids’ romper rooms (think Moon Walk) and had those set up in the street, as well as some musicians stuck at various intervals playing Nirvana, some light jazz, and what sounded like a so-so Janis Joplin cover. Some of the restaurants had extended their tables out into the sidewalk/street area, and a lot of the shops had either put out tables of wares or were inviting people in to check things out.

Canuck and I did, however, see a sign advertising Breyer’s ice cream, which is my absolute favorite brand; and it was quite hot, so we went in to buy me a cone.

Well. That shop is owned by an earnest Pentecostal man, who was dead set on trying to save us from the Big Bad Catholic Church.

I should mention he was raised Catholic.

A lengthy discussion ensued, which included his following us out to the sidewalk as the shop got busier and we tried to let him get back to, you know, his livelihood.

Next time I have some money, I’m picking up a copy of Deacon Alex Jones’ No Price Too High and an extra copy of the Common Ground DVD Father John made with Kensington Community Church and dropping them off as gifts for him. Canuck joked that the Pentecostal churches probably all have “Wanted” posters in the back with Deacon Alex’s picture on them, warning people against talking to him or reading anything he writes. I hope not – it would be a shame to completely waste my money…

What drove me the most bonkers about the whole encounter…well, two things. First was how he clearly misunderstood Catholic doctrine in several areas, including that pesky little question of salvation. He obviously thought it was “works salvation”, no matter how many times and different ways I tried to tell him it wasn’t.

Second, he was all over the map with his apologetics. I’m a very linear thinker, and I tend to proceed from A to B to C with bridges in between. Throw me six different trains of thought in as many minutes, and I’m apt to get dizzy and not be able to respond effectively. It wasn’t quite the “buckshot” approach that the Jehovah’s Witnesses use, but it wasn’t entirely dissimilar from that either. Drives me up a wall…give me a point and let me counter it, then counter my point. Don’t go skipping from one topic to another to another and another!

You know. Kind of like this somewhat scattered post. Don’t do that. 

• Apologetics , Autobiographical ramblings , Catholicism , Chatham , My Beloved , Stuff I do
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