Archive for the 'Friends and fellow bloggers' Category

Meme #1: Kit’s meme

Kasia August 5th, 2008

Kit tagged me for the Ten Things I’d Like to See in Action meme. How could I argue? - the poor woman has a family wedding and then a visit to her mother in the same week. Anything to distract her… ;-)

So. Ten things I’d like to see in action. This has been a challenging one…not just to come up with ten things, but only ten things, ten things that no one else has mentioned, and also to hopefully not have to confess anything on the list when I’m next celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I’m not sure I did so well on the last part…

1) Paris Hilton as a deckhand on The Deadliest Catch. Preferably with her inheritance being contingent on a favorable review from the captain and the rest of the crew. And automatic failure if anyone gets washed overboard as a result of her incompetence. Even if she’s the one who gets washed overboard.

2) A reality show wherein our elected leaders (bare minimum: House, Senate, and President, though state and local leaders and the SCOTUS members would be a welcome addition) have to survive for three months on the average U.S. salary and in an average-sized U.S. home. No credit cards, no HELOC. TBS got mad at me because that was originally her idea. Nothing in the meme says it has to be my original idea. But in the spirit of fair play, and since I didn’t think to give her credit, I change this to: “How fast Congress would jump to fix Social Security if they and their loved ones had to live on it.”

3) Stephen Harper and Barack Obama cage-fighting. Yes, I’m being facetious. But it would be interesting to watch their techniques and see who ultimately won…Tell you what: I’d settle for watching them debate each other on the merits of Canada’s social welfare system. Hint: in this case, the Canadian is going to be less enamored of it than the American.

4) Sara and her beloved actually going through with that Inquisition-themed wedding reception.

5) Kit’s middle child doing one of her Fatima impressions. (Too cute!)

6) Fr. Erik’s skate-punk trap. (Schadenfreude…)

7) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s face when Christ returns in glory. Ideally with a slo-mo freeze-frame option.

It isn’t so much that I want him to go to Hell or anything - I pretty much have to hope that everyone will be saved. I just want to see him realize that the Jews are still “the apple of God’s eye” (as Casper ten Boom so aptly put it). Oh, and it would be nice if God granted him a vision that confirmed that yes, the Holocaust actually happened. And that it was wrong. [wry smile]

8 ) Mac’s infamous worst-hair day. I just am having trouble wrapping my brain around how awful it must truly have been.

9) Jesus saying to me “Well done, thou good and faithful servant…” (As opposed to “Begone from me, you wicked servant,” of course.) Hey, there had to be something serious in this list!

10) A Catholic bloggers’ convention. Bring your dog(s). Lots of liquor, ice cream, Land Shark lagers, chocolate, salt licks, and brown sugar bacon snacks. Mmm. Kit can come up with the menu, provided Wiley doesn’t eat it first. We can make commemorative rosaries with the Exterminatrix of Heresies as the centerpiece… ;-)

Let’s see…who hasn’t done this? I tag TBS, Canuck, Foxfier, and Heather Siekierski. And anyone else who wants to play.

I’m SO glad I’m not the only Tom Lehrer nerd out there…

Kasia July 17th, 2008

I saw this over at Chez Shea, and rejoiced greatly. I honestly didn’t even know there was existing footage of Tom Lehrer performing.

Let’s see if that works or if I have to link instead…I’ve never learned how to embed Link it is…
If nothing else, it may give you an idea of why, prior to meeting The Canuck, I used to say that I would gladly marry Tom Lehrer if I had the opportunity. Even though he’s pushing 80 by now… ;-)

Music is settled! (Well, almost…)

Kasia July 12th, 2008

Canuck and I met with the parish music minister today. She’s really quite a lovely young woman; and while I definitely don’t agree with the amount of Haugen and Haas she plays…well, for one thing, between the two of them they wrote half the Gather hymnal (which, sadly, is what we use at our parish). For another thing, she is quite versatile and does some really lovely classical and choral pieces as well, especially for special occasions.

After an initial rocky start, it was quite a good and productive meeting. It was rocky because…well, Canuck and I had decided we wanted to do what the GIRM suggests, and walk up the aisle together instead of him waiting at the altar for me while my dad or parents walk me up. I saw a post quite a while ago at Fr. Martin Fox’s blog that talked about how that’s what’s actually recommended; and I mentioned it to the Canuck, who thought it was a nice idea.

We both wanted to get away from the “bride as princess” idea, as the Sacrament really involves both of us, and the groom tends to end up a bit like an accessory at a lot of weddings. (And frankly, I was quite glad at the prospect of having someone else share the spotlight during that nervewracking walk up the aisle! With your dad, it’s not quite the same…) And my dad is very glad that we’re not having him walk me up the aisle; I’m sure he would do it if I asked, but he’s more or less of the opinion that it’s an outdated custom. Funny aside: I mentioned that to the priest who’s the main celebrant of our wedding. He said, in his Slovak accent “I think your family thinks, perhaps, too much about politics.” ROFL! Talk about your understatements…

Anyway. So we tell the music minister what we’re planning to do, and it turns out she’s never heard of this. So at first she says, “This is how we do it here…” and lays out the traditional bride-comes-last-with-Dad. When I explain that I was pretty sure it was what the GIRM recommends (blinking back tears because, well, I overreact to things sometimes), she says I’ll have to take it up with the pastor of the parish. And guess who walked into the music room not a minute later? Yup, Father himself, who says “Oh yeah, that’s allowed. In fact, we’re going to be having a meeting in August sometime with all the people who work on weddings - I’d like to bring the liturgy completely in line with what’s correct - so we’ll be working on moving to that as the norm.” Her response? “Oh! Okay, then!”

So - we got down to talking music. I confessed my dislike of Haugen/Haas, so apart from the Mass setting (there’s not much to be done to avoid them for actual Mass settings, I’m afraid, but I think it’s one of the better ones from what I’ve seen) and the Psalm (same thing with respect to not being able to avoid H/H, but it’s really not an overly Haugen-esque melody) , we are Haugen/Haas-free! Hooray!!! :-)

I will post on the actual selections tomorrow, as the list is in the living room and my next stop is B-E-D. But I was just so excited that we’ve got this settled!

Well, almost settled. We still need to pick a piece for the “Flowers for Mary” portion. Ave Maria is so overplayed, especially the Schubert version; and my idea of some sort of solo or response of the Canticle of Mary elicited only the Gather hymnal’s option, which was…um, very Haugen/Haas. You know: the lyrics are changed to neatly fit rhyme and meter, and the tune is bouncy and a little trite. It reminded me of what a professor had said to me in a creative writing course in college, about a short story I wrote: “It wraps up too neatly - you can see too much of the ‘hand of the author’ in it.”

So - we’ll see. How many of you have been to a wedding where the recessional was the Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition?

He’s BA-ACK!

Kasia July 8th, 2008

When I updated my blogroll a couple of months ago, one of the links I removed was to the Waffling Anglican’s site. I was sorry to do it, as I really missed Mike the Geek’s posts, but he hadn’t posted since October, and…well…yeah. I decided I had to be fair about pruning the blogroll, so I chopped him against my better judgment.

Well, guess who’s back? YAY!!! Go take a look-see and give him some traffic…he’s always worth a read. (When he posts, that is. ;-) )

Let them eat cake…

Kasia June 28th, 2008

…at the wedding reception. After all, it’s tradition!

Canuck and I have ordered our wedding cake, deposit and all. Half a dozen of us (me, Canuck, TBS, Jill, and my father and stepmother) traipsed out to Mannino’s Bakery in Sterling Heights (which I highly recommend to anyone looking for a wedding cake or just some yummy Italian-style pastries - based on what I’ve seen thus far, they’re about as good as the fabulous Bommarito’s over here in St. Clair Shores)  for a cake tasting. We tried four flavor combinations: chocolate cake with yellow custard, yellow cake with yellow custard, marble cake with no filling, and cassata (yellow cake with cannoli filling).

Now, I shan’t tell you which flavor we settled on (though they were all quite tasty!), but I will tell you that despite their all being very good and tasty cakes, the votes were unanimously for the agreed-upon flavor. And Mannino’s had an excellent staff member (a member of the family - she couldn’t have been 25 or I’ll eat my hat, but boy did she know her stuff!) helping us, and we came up with a combination of two designs that I think is going to be simply gorgeous.

What I found funny: my stepmother knows me too well. She knows I would have to be browbeaten into buying a pedestal cake plate for this (and if I did it I’d grumble the whole time about how it wasn’t really necessary) - heck, I’m being browbeaten into wearing a headpiece with my veil! - so she wrote down all the particular dimensions and is going to go shop for one and buy it for us. That way she gets the satisfaction of seeing it look “just so”; I get the satisfaction of seeing it look “just so” (even though I probably wouldn’t have missed it to begin with); and no one has to listen to me moan about it. Win-win-win.  :-)

I think I may dream about that cake tonight…

Beloved’s Blog

Kasia June 25th, 2008

My sweet Canuck has moved to a new blog, and being a very devoted Clam, I am taking this opportunity to pimp his blog here.

I’m updating my link - give him some traffic, would you please? Much obliged!  :-)

Dogdini and DJ (no, not that DJ, another DJ!)

Kasia June 24th, 2008

About a week ago, I stumbled onto a blog that I’ve been enjoying. Maybe some of you have been clicking the link from the sidebar for Snarkolepsy? Those of you who haven’t, by all means check it out, though I will warn you that some of the language there is not safe for children’s consumption or for sensitive adults. Be ye thus advised.  :-)

Anyway, I got sucked in by pictures of cute bunnies, and the next thing you know, I was reading a post about the neighbor’s dog, a.k.a. Dogdini, who has an uncanny knack for getting into the Snarkoleptics’ yard.

I’m reading, and I’m laughing, and I’m scrolling down. And then I saw the picture. And the pieces clicked together, and the heavens opened up, and there was a sort of a light and “LAAAA!” song by the angels…because I suddenly understood exactly what the Snarkoleptics are going through.

Their neighbor has a Brittany spaniel.

This may get confusing, because I have often referred to a friend of mine who frequents this blog as DJ, and his wife as Mrs. DJ. Forget that, for the moment. The DJ I am about to tell you about is NOT my dear friend with the awesome wife and the four great kids, three of whom are special-needs. No. Not that DJ.

The DJ I’m about to tell you about is a dog. A Brittany spaniel, to be precise; and as long as I’m working on precision, I may as well use the past tense. DJ was a Brittany spaniel. After a long, full life of raising Cain, he died and is presumably flailing against the gates of Heaven while St. Peter stares in shock at this dog who is actually going to scale the gates.

DJ stood for Dakota Jewel, which was his AKC name. My mother had fallen in love with a Brittany at a pet shop a scant week or two before getting a call from a friend, asking if she could take a rescue Brittany.

My mother knew nothing about Brittanies except that the one in the shop was beautiful, and so sweet and playful! She took the dog. And much as I loved that dog, many was the time each of us rued the day she took him.

Shortly after she adopted him, she took him to the vet to get him checked out and vaccinated. Her vet, a charming man with a fabulously dry wit, said “You do know that saying a Brittany is hyperactive is like saying Attila the Hun was assertive, right?”

On top of “normal” Brittany energy, DJ had been crated for most of his puppyhood. Crated during the day while his owners were at work, let out for three or four hours in the evening, then crated again overnight. That’s a recipe for trouble with just about any puppy, much less a high-energy, good-sized one. And they wondered why he was so frantic when he did get out of the crate. Gee, I wonder.

And Brittanies are seriously high-energy dogs. For a Brittany to be happy, you really need a high-energy person or set of people who will engage with it and keep it active. I mean taking it out for runs a couple of times a day, a lot of play and attention, etc. They’re unbelievably sweet dogs, but I have yet to see anyone really give a Brittany the attention and activity they need. And when a dog is bored, that excess energy is going to translate into inappropriate behavior.

With Dogdini, that inappropriate behavior seems to primarily manifest in getting into the Snarkoleptics’ yard (over a six-foot fence). With DJ…well, let me count a few of his more notable escapades…

1. He had a habit of getting into the kitchen trash. My mother started putting a luggage strap around it, which did confound him for a few years. Then one fine day he figured out how to get the luggage strap off the trash can, and all bets were off.

2. He ate cockroach traps. Seriously - those Combat things? Yeah. Chewed up a box. No ill effects that we noticed.

3. He ate the lion’s share of a wooden spoon, and chewed up a metal frying pan.

4. Like many dogs, he thought the street was part of his territory. So every time the mailman (or anyone else) would come, he would wail out the most unbelievable series of barks you ever heard, and hurl himself against the foyer door. The <i>leaded glass</i> foyer door. One day - you guessed it - the glass gave out and he crashed right through it. Not a scratch on him. When my mom replaced the door, she had to have the glass covered with Plexiglass.

5. I am given to understand that someone I know (neither TBS nor I, and no, not my mother either) left some quantity of a herbaceous controlled substance within dog’s reach. Nobody saw it happen, but the ganja disappeared, Baggie and all, never to be seen again. We can only presume that DJ was a very happy puppy that day…

6. Although his behavior improved for several years with shock-collar training (yes, shock collar - it was the only way my mother found to get him to behave, and she was on the verge of getting rid of him before she found what we dubbed “The Hand of God”), after about age 10 he started to regress. I think it was senility. One day he actually ate vegetables that were roasting in the broiler RIGHT OUT OF THE PAN IN THE BROILER. One might have thought that would shock his system, but apparently not…

7. What finally did him in, after fourteen years of insanity, was - believe it or not - cat food. He broke into the room where the animal food was stored, broke into the metal trash can that held the cat food, and ate about seven pounds of it. You know how dogs will eat until they pop? Well, he didn’t pop, but he did throw his stomach, pancreas, and various other organs waaaayyy out of whack. He was on chicken and rice for a month, was slowly recovering, and then had a stroke in the backyard one day.

I have to admit that I miss him. He really was one of the most loving dogs I’ve ever known, and to this day I can’t see a Brittany without asking the owner if I can pet it and telling them about DJ.

The few of you who knew DJ, please feel free to add in any other stories about him that I’ve left out in the combox. Those of you who didn’t know him, how about some other dog stories? I’m feeling doggy and nostalgic…

And say a prayer for both the Snarkoleptics and their neighbor, eh? I think they’ll both need it.  :-p

Prayers, please

Kasia February 27th, 2008

Sorry to pepper you with prayer requests, especially when I’m barely blogging, but I just heard that the husband of one of my dearest friends was laid off today. The economy here in Michigan is one of the worst in the nation - think “poking an apple that’s been rotting for the last year or three” soft, and they’re a single income family with three children. So, if you could please include J. and R. in your prayers, I would appreciate it.

Prayer request

Kasia February 21st, 2008

A good friend of mine has been getting a battery of tests run today. Would you please remember her in your prayers? To respect her privacy, I’m not including any personal information; but God knows who she is and what she needs.

Thanks.

New blog on the blogroll!

Kasia February 19th, 2008

Well, what do you know, but Miss Jean is blogging! Hurrah! :-) I’ve added her blog, Be Not Idle, to the blogroll - go take a peek!

While you’re poking around, maybe check out Jaibee’s Critical Mass, which has been on the blogroll for a while but not long enough (as I am always behind in updating my blogroll). And speaking of not updating my blogroll, I realized the other day that when I did my massive update a while back, I had failed to put up the Archangel’s Advocate’s blog. Mea maxima culpa!

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