Link of the week

Via happycatholic (thanks! I really needed this one)

Book-a-Minute classics
Got another book report to do? (What a great catchphrase!)

For Uncle Everett (12/3/15-4/27/06)

An Irish blessing

May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
And the rain fall soft upon your field
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

In today's news

Nothing official...just my own personal thoughts.

God Bless you, Fr. Moran (from the Washington Post)

Notre Dame High School reunion 6/25/06

Are you an alumna of Notre Dame High School in Lemay? Check out the latest information on this reunion at ND_Alums_Remember Yahoo! Group.

What will they think of next?

Add this site to your list (both links courtesy of PK)

Inflatable churches

I guess the high heels won't puncture anything.

For something fun, check out this article about the Volkswagen plant in Germany.

Out and about on the 'net

Iraqi bloggers weigh in on a changing nation (from Yahoo!)

Points to ponder

From the Sunday Washington Post:

China, Vatican Edge Toward Accord
Church's Willingness to Break Ties to Taiwan May Be Key to Establishing Normal Relations.

I'm no scholar, but something about this doesn't seem right. Normal relations with a Communist government? Weren't Catholics praying for the conversion of Communist China, along with the
Russians?

Shaking Spain out of its siesta
Old habits really do die hard.

A quote: "The more balanced a person is, the more that person can bring to the company," she said.

Arrgh! No April Showers at my house

We have a problem, Houston. Either the Girl Scouts completely missed our neighborhood or there aren't any around. I did get a bag last year, but none this year.

Anyway, I'm going to pass my April Showers products along at my local Dierbergs store. You should do the same, if they missed you. Families in need will thank you.

Goodies on the 'net

I'm just vegging out to BNL while I'm in one of my favorite wifi hotspots before I study and run errands this afternoon.

Here are a few goodies I've run into today. Enjoy!

• The latest on the"cool" jobs from Money magazine.
• Whoops! Ben & Jerry's offends a few folks with their new ice cream name, Black & Tan.
  
• I guess this will be another gaffe for Dr. Miller to add to his list.
• And because of Ben & Jerry's I found the junkfoodblog. Go see Steve and discuss chocolate amongst yourselves. ;->

Word of the day - splog

I found an article about this in my e-mail today from InternetWeek:
http://internetweek.cmp.com/186500466

April Showers starts this weekend

The Girl Scouts of Greater St. Louis will be collecting toiletries, soaps, shampoo and personal products, starting this weekend in their annual April Showers campaign.

These products are collected, then distributed through Operation Food Search to folks who rely on food pantries for products they cannot buy with food stamps.

You can drop off items at any metro St. Louis area Dierberg’s grocery store or call the April Showers hotline at 1.800.727.4475 Ext. 2387

Say it with a T-shirt

I came upon this article while I was surfing in a free moment. It makes a valid point.

Flowers That Lack Power To Get a Message Across, Say It With a T-Shirt

I can't sleep

For some reason, even though I am tired, I cannot sleep.

Yes, I've gone down the laundry list of things that could be keeping me awake, but none of the usual suspects, like late afternoon caffeine are on my list.

Maybe I'm just free-associating too much.

I have to run over to the ND Alums group and see what is going on there. I got my digest today of posts via e-mail (since I can't camp out on that site, due to work and other interruptions) and it's made me think. Maybe we should create our own T-shirts. Note to the other Colleen: You go, ND Girl, go!

Tonight, as I have for the past few Mondays, I've made an extra effort to spend time with my son. Normally, we do something fun around the house, like bake cookies or play a game. Today, we took a ride in the car and dropped off dinner for one of our friends. (One of these days I will learn how to cook for less than 8 people.) He was thrilled to see the ham and other Easter goodies, including dessert, I made for lunch yesterday. I was thrilled with the thought that I that I would not have to eat the rest of the six quart bowl of potato salad that remained all by myself if my husband gets bored. As a stopgap, I usually freeze extras for later, but you can't freeze potato salad. Molto grazie, Giacomo! Bon appetit! :)

On the way back home, we took the long way and listened to Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits album, which is now on my iPod and in the car. Surprisingly, the charge didn't suddenly disappear from the battery like it usually does. I guess the hold button really does work now!

My little cherub liked bouncing around in his seat to the music, and we quickly made our way home. He went to the bathroom to take his bath, without the usual protestations. He played a little in the tub and in a few minutes, he was ready to snuggle on the couch. We watched one of his favorite nighttime movies, Chicken Run (aka Chicken Noodle in our house). Before I knew it, it was nine o'clock and the sleep timer turned off the TV. Bubba (not his real name) burrowed into the afghan and fell asleep. I put him to bed, and here I am.

I'm still thinking, but I'm trying to stop. Hopefully, those ideas will stay on the drawing board until tomorrow. Ciao!

Easter!

I'm finally back. This has been a very exhausting week. I took the day off yesterday and worked like crazy around my house getting ready for Easter.

I started at 645AM prepping my baking. I baked two devil's food cakes and two of my famous Imperial Pound cakes (see an old Blogger post for the recipe). By the time I finished with everything around 10AM, I had to turn on the air conditioner, because the house was hot and stuffy. We reached a record high of 92 degrees (F) yesterday, when normally, this time of year, it's about 66 degrees.

After I did that, I emptied trash, cleaned the floors, washed dishes and proceeded to dye a couple dozen eggs after I had gotten my errands run and shopping completed. Then, it was off to pick up Bubba (not his real name) , take him out to the fish fry for dinner and bring Dad's home (since he was feeling under the weather).

Later in the evening, after I went back to the store to pick up the forgotten strawberries I need for strawberry shortcake Sunday, I put them and all the other stuff I bought away and Bubba (not his real name) and I proceeded to make a powdered sugar glaze for the devil's food cakes. We dyed some purple (since one cake was for Sis--it's her favorite color) and some green. He really enjoyed stirring the dye in and watching the glaze change color.

DNA schmeeNA

I saw a post on a local website recently about this issue, and today it's in the New York Times.

Seeking Ancestry in DNA Ties Uncovered by Tests

For the low, low price of $50-400, you too, can uncover your genetic heritage. At ancestrybydna.com, you can even break down your heritage based on maternal and paternal relatives, separately.

One fellow is even suing the state of Israel in order to emigrate, according to the article.

An interesting article

I found this today in the Washington Post

In France, A Generation Divided

It is too bad things cannot work for some people. There are a lot of smart people there sitting around waiting for something to happen.

It's opening day in STL, NDHS alum news

Here in St. Louis, the throngs of Cardinals fans are in the streets and on the sidewalks and in Kiener Plaza picking up every freebie they can before the game starts. It's 1130AM and the game doesn't start until 310PM and I've seen them mulling around since 730AM when I got to work.

Red is the color of the day, although you do see a few brave souls venturing out in whatever they want. My radio reception in the office is spotty, so I'm not going to listen to the game, but I may go by PK's desk and look at the monitor over the concession stand, which is just outside his desk and across the street. He has a monocular so he can actually read what's on the flat panel TV.

All I have to do, is make it back to the office in one piece. It may take a few minutes more though.

Susan Kammerer Cunningham '80 has created a Yahoo! Group for any Notre Dame High School alums. Click the link below to join and add your $o.o2 and read some very interesting posts about the changes at Notre Dame High School in St. Louis, MO.




Click to join NDHS_Alum_Speak

Blog item of the week

Gotta thank Happy Catholic for this one (check the sidebar). I guess it's just a Madonna kind of week.

You Know You're a Catholic Nerd When ...
Someone asks you your favorite Madonna song and you say Hail Holy Queen.
Me? I only wish that's the Madonna that sprang to mind.

[NOTE: you're not the only one, girlfriend! ;->]

Offbeat item of the week

I ran into this on today on cnn.com:

Feds try to seize suspect's fancy teeth

So if someone pries his teeth out in jail, can he sue anybody? This opens a whole new can of worms.

Happy Friday! Thoughts from the window today

I'm people watching from my favorite wi-fi spot in downtown St. Louis.

In terms of fashion, the colors are quite varied today. I can look here and there and see every color in the spectrum. Luckily, since this is during the day, you see mainly business casual, outside of a suit on a lawyer or banker strolling down the street. Just you wait...it'll be a sea of red on Monday!

I know it's Friday, and where I work, it's Jeans Day, which is anxiously awaited every week. It's not like some people know that, though. Some people in my department wear jeans every day. The nice thing about it is that our boss does not care. He would comment if you came to work in your robe and bunny slippers, but after the shock wore off, he'd leave you to work at your desk.

Due to my lapse of memory, I could not locate my jeans this morning, so I decided to wear the first thing on my clothes rack, which are the summer khakis and khaki jacket. I figured I'd be festive and wear a red shirt for the celebration picnic lunch upstairs (the Cardinals home season starts Monday), until I remembered that it's still Lent, and I can't eat any of those hot dogs, anyway. Maybe they'll have some goodies I can eat later!

Last night, I decided to multitask the oven. I made pizzas for dinner (just frozen ones, no homemade) and then I made pumpkin bars and applesauce bars, so we could take some with us to the fish fry tonight. In an effort to thwart my child's bad habit of eating the icing off the bars and nothing else, I topped them with powdered sugar and a shake of cinnamon. I made the pumpkin bars with raisins in them (a slight deviation in the recipe) and they really rose high and stayed that way, which seemed unusual. Hopefully, he'll eat them.

One more reason....

I'm glad I don't sign export documents anymore.
Woman pleads guilty to illegal exportation from today's Post-Dispatch.

This woman did plead guilty, but there are lots of firms and their clients asking them to be dodgy on export documentation. It's no wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

On the bright side, NBC has already hired Katie Couric's replacement. That was quick.

Back to work. The storms are on their way back today.

Patisserie Maghreb

Yum! I ran into this tasty article in the NY Times today.

To Lure the French, Don't Be Too Sweet
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/29/dining/29past.html

This article also references a very interesting Algerian food blog here. Learn everything you need to know about steaming couscous.

http://mybookofrai.typepad.com/cuisinealgerienne/

80s net radio worth a look

When I'm not tuning into my iPod, I found a couple of 80s stations I really like:

http://www.radioskipper.com

http://www.radionigel.com

Plays a lot of stuff you don't hear on other 80s stations -- dance mixes, etc. I really enjoyed this yesterday, and you don't need broadband to pick it up well, since the streams are smaller (under 100k).

My favorite yesterday was "Rapmaster Ronnie".

Of course, if you can't get your internet radio and you enjoy Madonna, go to her website at http://www.madonna.com where you can play a selection of her songs right from the main page. (I occasionally go there when I have streaming issues and don't want to listen to a local affiliate station when Rush Limbaugh is on the air there.)

Is spring really here?

I walked out of work today at lunch to the wail of the emergency sirens over at Busch Stadium. There have been lots of changes there since baseball season is almost upon us (the first home game for the Cardinals is next Monday, April 10). I'd suspect it's an inspection since I saw a few fire trucks at Clark near the Westin toward the MetroLink station.

Yesterday, the nice folks from the St. Louis City street department implemented the obviously ADA-compliant street lights. It's not a big deal in a car, but now, the Walk/Don't walk signs talk and beep...over and over and over again. Jim, our security guy at the front desk, is already getting complaints from certain corner office occupants. I guess it's good to be a peon on the third floor for once! :)

Outside of that, the hot dog guy is back in Kiener Plaza. He's been occasionally mobbed, so I'm sure a few people are happy he's back. The crews from the Parks Department are getting the fountain ready for next week and the first game, when people will mull there waiting for the baseball game, enjoying the weather and/or looking for a ticket scalper for opening game tickets.

There's still construction on the Hilton, which makes driving by Market and Broadway a little harrowing at lunch. Thankfully, the concrete finishers completed the sidewalk, so I'm back to my old route which was torn up for the last three months for construction.

It still needs to warm up a bit, but the signs are all here. Spring really is here! Go Cardinals!

Blog comment of the week

I ran into this one on one of the Catholic blogs, since the subject of female altar servers in Arlington, VA was in the news this week.

The commenter mentioned an interview with a reporter and a nun:

"..the interviewer tried to catch her off guard by asking her if she thought women should be ordained priests. For a second you could sense her surprise and then indignation. She responded that if women were ordained priests and had to say Mass then they would really do ALL the work."