'Nuff Said

(and this is for you too, ML)

Read the entire script of the Monologues today. Others have said so many things so much better than I could, so I think I can sum it all up in a relatively short "review":

As a Catholic, I was saddened.
As a woman, I was demeaned.
As an English major, I was appalled.

Yum....

Flourless Chocolate Brownies

8 oz. chocolate (She recommends semi-sweet, but I used Ghiradelli's bitter-sweet chocolate which is really, really dark)

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups ground almonds
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Over low heat in a heavy saucepan melt butter and chocolate together.

Take the pan off heat and add the sugar and vanilla. Let the mixture cool a little.

Beat the eggs into the pan with the ground almonds (I measured the almonds first and then ground them in a mini-processor and it worked fine. Mine were a bit mealy, so I recommend that when you think the almonds are done grounding and you can't get them any finer, grind them for about 30 more seconds.)

Turn batter into a 9-inch square baking pan and bake fr 25-30 minutes (I baked mine for 35) by which time the edges and most of the top will have set but it will still be a bit wiggly in the middle when shook. Allow to cool and then cut into 16 (or, if like me, 9) pieces and serve. Brownies will be a bit fudgy and gooey - not at all cakelike.

Everyone is Polish on Dyngus Day!

Are you ready for today's local festivities? (I wonder what the Secret Service will do to any interested suitor who douses Chelsea with water?)

Apparently, there's more to the tradition than what filtered down to our family. It seems that girls are first supposed to "swat boys with pussy willows, and boys respond by dousing them with water." Buffalo officials are worried that a local pussy willow shortage could result in "not as many romantic outcomes."

And in case the water thing gets out of hand on this cold March morning, lets remember the origins of this holiday:

During the years of the first Millennium of Christianity, baptisms were celebrated exclusively during the Easter season, particularly Holy Saturday and the Octave of Easter. Tradition states that Prince Mieszko I along with his court were baptized on Easter Monday. Thus, Dyngus Day and its rites of sprinkling with water have become a folk celebration in thanksgiving for the fact that the first king of Poland was baptized into Christianity, bringing Catholicism to Poland.

Imagine Dad's Surprise

when he was reading the Scotsman today and saw this!


It's practically like being famous! Sort of. A little bit.

Received Today

We regret to inform you that the Voge-Klejeski wedding scheduled for April 12 in Duluth has been canceled. Please remember to cancel any accommodations that you have made. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause you.
Sincerely,
Brady & Donna

A Little Entertainment For Gianna

Surely, "mind over matter" is a valid skill to practice during a psychology class.
I've never heard of it before, but apparently, she's not the only one with this idea.

Don't feel obligated to read this at all; I'm just remarkably frustrated by this whole thing. GLOBAL WARMING HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PSYCHOLOGY! A few thoughts:

• If you're going to make us read such edifying and scholarly articles such as "How Mankind is Sleepwalking to the End of the Earth" (published in that well-known scholarly journal The Independent/UK), please at least make sure they're more recent than 2004; even I know that there's a lot of new research in the last 4 years.
  
• Also, electricity is NOT a "basic human right"
  
• It's okay, though; I knew how this was going to go when he introduced the unit by saying, "Now, I know that there are some conflicting opinions. You may agree with these [articles], or you may have a lot of issues to work through."
  
• And finally, the winner of the Absolute B.S. Award: "The scary thing is, whenever you have prestigious scientific bodies making computer models, in every case, they have been right. In every case, invariably."
  

</rant>

Oh My Gosh!

It just occurred to us that we didn't have any dancing girls at Mass yesterday!

I may have found a dress I like! It looks more elegant in person than it does on the site. I'll try it on with the jacket I found at Herbergers to see if it can work together.

(That would be a great thing to cross off the list.)

Email Subject Line of the Day

"Horses and Children Need You!"

Thanks for the reminder, Em - I found it

God calls men to image Himself, God the Father, whereas women are called to image His receptive creation. Hence, women are called to image something they already are, whereas men are called to image something that they are not: they are not God, but they are called to be like Him. This is, fundamentally, a terrifying prospect. Hence, the preparation and training and education of men is so critical and so important: a boy must learn to become strong and to have courage, to learn to hold on, in preparation for his life task of giving himself fully to God, to a woman, or to a mission.

It is tragically easy for a young man to feel that he is completely unable reach this goal, and to give up, especially in the absence of a father or male mentor. Seeing that men are gifted with a goal-orientation, the temptation simply to not even try to start what he doesn’t feel he can finish is very potent. A woman’s perennial temptation is to feel unloved: a man’s is to feel inadequate.

Catholicism gives us a very concrete, very real image of what a man’s life task will cost him, an image that stands in every Catholic Church as an inspiration and a warning: the image of Christ’s male body, crucified naked on a cross. What man doesn’t understandably find this daunting? It’s certainly not in line with most male career goals!

And marriage means submitting to this public crucifixion for the sake of one, very human woman. Woman is the crown of God’s creation: but she can also be demanding, fickle, unappreciative, and mean. When men are faced with her as a goal and the cost involved, it can be temptingly easy to turn away from women altogether. When a boy has never been under the tutelage and care of a strong and loving father: or sometimes when he has been abandoned to a dominating and self-sufficient mother, he can doubt his ability ever to give himself to a woman, ever to be strong enough to protect, comfort, and satisfy her.

(Source)

Priceless

Maybe it's a sign?

How else could you interpret it when people want to give you large amounts of money to fund your travel?

Shoulda checked with Bill Gates, Indiana....

So apparently my computer doesn't realize that St. Joe County et al. have started participating in DST. I was trying to figure out why my clock wouldn't adjust when I noticed, in tiny print at the bottom of the screen, "This region does not participate in Daylight Savings Time". I was kind of annoyed. Until I realized that all I had to do was change my Time Zone setting from "Eastern - Indiana" to "Eastern". Problem solved. I think it's bedtime.

Ugly and Stupid

People who have been injured while walking and texting on their cell phones may be in luck.

A London street is experimenting with padded lampposts to protect those not paying attention from banging into them, ITN reports.

A study conducted by 118 118, a phone directory service, found that one in 10 people has been hurt while focusing on their cell phone instead of where they were walking, ITN reports.

The test lampposts will be given a trial run in London’s East End on Brick Lane. If the trial is successful it will be rolled out in Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.

The survey found that almost two thirds of respondents lost peripheral vision while texting, and more than a quarter wanted lines on the pavement to create routes for texters to walk while using their phones.

The study claims that 68,000 people were injured in the U.K. last year while chatting or texting on their cell phone, Infomatics reports.

118 118 will provide the padding, and in return will be allowed to advertise on them.

Thanks to Dad for the tip.