James Bond	Wednesday, August 17, 2005 11:11:53 PM
So, Pierce Brosnan was fired from being James Bond because he was "too old" and Ewan McGregor and Clive Owen as front runners of the role. I had to blog about this because James Bond is all about being tough and gorgeous and having women crawling all over him. Ewan McGregor just doesn't cut it, although that might be tainted by his semi-whining performance in Star Wars. I did not see him in The Island since it only got 2 stars from the critics, so I can't say if he came off any more James Bond-ish there. I would agree that Clive Owen could pull off parts of James Bond - the tough, can beat up the bad guys part. But the suave, martini drinking shmooze? Not totally certain about that. But, I think he could pull it off. Would he want to? If he does, I don't know that he would get any parts in cool film like Closer. He might be typecast with the bad scripts as a bad actor.
Special teams	Tuesday, August 16, 2005 1:56:05 PM
"If we didn't understand the importance of special teams before, we certainly do after today," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "You have to take that part of the game seriously, too." (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=250815023) *LOL* Funny quote. The Giants may be terrible this year and the Eagles may get back to the Super Bowl, but with all of the smug Eagles fans around, it was a tiny bit gratifying to see them be so miserable in the first two minutes of the game. They did rally back and made a good showing against an excellent Pittsburgh Steelers team that will probably make it back to the AFC Championship game again this year, but ha! They can be awful, too. I am only supportive of my friends who are Eagles fans after my Giants are completely, totally out of the running. :D
Healthier foods	Monday, August 15, 2005 11:05:32 AM
Mike's dad was advised by his doctor to stop eating white rice and regular pasta and we were able to point him to whole wheat pastas and brown rice that weren't awful. (If you are interested, after trying 8 varieties of brown rice, the only one we found palatable was Trader Joe's microwave brown rice. And, after trying 6 different pasta brands, the whole wheat pasta that is awesome is from Bionaturae paired with a no sugar, no oil pasta sauce from Colavita that tastes fantastic.) I was recently talking to my sister Becky about choosing foods for dinner. We got on the subject of regular pasta versus whole wheat pasta. I was telling her about the ones that we liked and she was saying that she would love to buy healthier foods for their family, but there was no comparison in the cost. I admitted that it was true and that I don't know if we would be able to afford the healthier options if we were on a tight budget with kids. Our comparison went something like this: (1) our favorite whole wheat pasta is something like $4 for a 1 lb package and she was able to get 4 1 lb boxes of regular elbow noodles for $1 (2) the tiny 16 oz bottle of Colavita sauce was something like $4 and she could get several family-sized bottles of sauce for that amount of money. I was reminded of this conversation this morning when I read this recent study from researchers at the University of California-Davis. http://aic.ucdavis.edu/pub/briefs/IB%2029.pdf So, healthier foods are either not available in lower income areas or are seriously more expensive. It is something we all probably knew to be true, but it is a sad fact nonetheless. I was thinking about it the other day and thought about what my mom did when we were little. She made her own yogurt, cheese, peanut butter, pizza, ice cream, etc. She bought massive quantities of organic fruits and veggies from a farmer's co-op that delivered to the dense city area we lived in when I was little. (It was something like you paid a certain amount with a bunch of other people in the winter time, the farmers used that money to grow the crops, and then it was divided proportionally among all of the people who contributed when the food was harvested.) I don't know if those options are still around. My early childhood was in hippie times and there was more emphasis on things like that back then. I know that time to make everything yourself to try and be healthier is very hard to find. Mom was awesome to spend so much time and energy to try and give us healthier options, although at the time, I was mortified that I couldn't have regular foods like everyone else. I longed for Wonder Bread with the crusts cut off and Jiffy peanut butter with sugar added instead of whole wheat bread with crusts and organic no sugar peanut butter. *LOL* There is no real answer to giving people on lower incomes a better diet for the same amount of money that they are spending now, but I was musing about it this morning.
The unforeseeable dark days	Thursday, August 11, 2005 9:38:33 AM
I was browsing on my friend Beth's site and found a link to The Yards Brewery, a Philadelphia brewing company that makes beers that she likes. It is a terribly homemade website, but it had some gems. My favorite part of the whole thing was this page talking about their move to a different brewery: Being the oldest and only surviving brewery within city limits, Yards has continued its investment in the renewal of our city with the purchase of our new brewery in 2001. Our brewery is located at the corner of Hagert and Martha Streets in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. The facility was originally built to house the brewing operations of the Weisbrod and Hess Oriental Brewing Company. Due to the unforeseeable dark days of prohibition in the USA, Weisbrod and Hess stopped brewing in 1939. Yards has resurrected this building along with the once proud brewing tradition in Philadelphia. Unforeseeable dark days of prohibition. LOL That is just dramatic enough to start my day.
700women.org	Wednesday, August 10, 2005 2:08:50 PM
Help keep the Violence Against Women Act alive before it expires next month. http://www.700women.org/ This petition will sign you up for Amnesty Int'l emails, but you can always opt out of them later on.
WWJD - part 2	Wednesday, August 10, 2005 1:58:05 PM
Very interesting article from Brian McLaren on "How would Jesus address the issues of our day?" http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0509&article=050910 My favorite part is this: IF THERE IS a rising purple peoplehood out there - people who don?t want to be defined as red or blue, but have elements of both, and for whom faith speaks to both abortion and war, both sexuality and ecology, both family values and fair, respectful treatment for gay people - then we will need to learn new ways of communication. I feel exactly this way, so I guess I'm a "purple stater". Which, based on our mixed-up country, I think we pretty much all are various shades of purple. :)
Patient 1	Tuesday, August 09, 2005 11:40:04 AM
*ugh* My head is clogged up today and my throat hurts. Mike only gets sick once per year. Maybe twice. He is basically never sick and I am usually sick. So, last week, we were driving to work and he was starting to complain about his sore throat. He said accusingly (and lovingly) "You had a sore throat a couple of days ago, right?" Me: "No" Mike: "Sure you did" Me: "Nooo. I had surgery and have been drinking toxic Chinese tea, but no sore throat" Mike: "Really?" Me: "Yep" Mike: "I thought you did" Me: "You probably picked it up from someone at work." Mike: "Pax had a sore throat this week!" Apparently after interrogating Pax, Mike came to the conclusion that he did not pick up the sore throat from Pax since he had a different type of sore throat. He has concluded that he is "Patient Zero" and came up with this new virus all on his own after picking them up from all over (me, Pax) and carefully synthesizing them to an all-new virus. Fast forward several days and now I have his exact same sore throat and stuffy head. I know who to pin this on. Mike has dubbed me "Patient One". This morning, he cutely (in his now sick-free way) hopped on the bed this morning to drag me out so I could get to work somewhat on time and wondered what his T-shirt would look like if he had one for being Patient 0. I am not a morning person and am sick, so I decided that he didn't get a T-shirt. He was more like the monkey in Outbreak infecting the world. Mike happens to think monkeys are cute and his fave comic series has a similar monkey in it, so it was not taken as an insult. Should be worse tomorrow if Mike's pattern holds true... Thank God for mentholated cough drops.
e-Fares	Tuesday, August 09, 2005 11:08:00 AM
I get all of these emails about e-Fares to fun & exotic destinations. As well as to places like Cleveland. :) These come from all of the major airlines since I was a travel maven for quite some time. Question - if they all know I live in the Philly area and travel from the Philadelphia International Airport, why do they keep sending me all of these emails where the starting and ending destination is not Philadelphia??? It makes no sense and wastes my time. The soap box is now available.
Panikhida Service	Thursday, August 04, 2005 9:58:00 AM
Now grant rest, O Lord, to the soul of Your departed servant, in a place of light, joy, and peace, where there is no pain, sorrow or mourning. John's dad passed away this past Monday and Mike, Emily and I went to the viewing and Panikhida Service yesterday evening. I've been to lots of Catholic and Protestant services, but never an Orthodox one. It was one of the most beautiful services that I have ever attended. I would close my eyes and feel like angels were singing and heaven was so near to us. Even the incense that the priest used was different than at Catholic services. It was lighter and reminded me of a fragrance used by one of my massage therapists. Because of my experience with that scent, it felt calming. I hope that it brought some small comfort to John and his loved ones who are grieving so much. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. I did some research on the topic and couldn't find anything for Panikhida on Wikipedia, but found a couple of other things that might bring you along for the experience. You can download an English Panikhida Service from the following site: http://storm.prohosting.com/readermb/Slavonic/English-Slavonic.htm. Mike said that it was amazing how much theology was able to be chanted and sung in one small service and repeated over and over. This site tells a little bit about a CD that is very hard to find that has a top choir singing the requiem: http://www.goldbergweb.com/en/discography/1993/5388.php. And Amazon has it to listen to, although you can't purchase it from them. Listen to track 3 and you should get a good idea of how it sounded with the chanting and the singing and 3-part harmony. As beautiful as it is on the CD, hearing it in person sung by normal people (including women) added something that made it so much more real.
Mars Attack	Wednesday, August 03, 2005 11:53:11 AM
One of my cousins emailed me the Mars Spectacular email, so I thought I would post something about the real Mars sightings that are this year in October. I missed the ones in August because I was too lazy to drive out of Philadelphia's lights and find some stars. I will have to make up for it in October. :) PS - Do you get the feeling that the NASA people are tired of answering this question? From Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers: There's an email spreading like wildfire among friends and family about how amazingly close Mars will be to Earth on August 27. The enthusiasm is justified, but unfortunately the message fails to mention that it applies to 2003, not 2005. Mars in 2005 will indeed be close ? not as close as in 2003, but in many ways the 2005 opposition is better for viewing in the northern hemisphere. Mars' closest approach will be on October 29 in 2005, and this year it will be much further north on the ecliptic. That means it will be higher in the sky than it was in 2003, and we northern observers will be looking through fewer miles of atmosphere. From NASA: There's a rumor going around. You might have heard it at a 4th of July BBQ or family get-together. More likely you've read it on the Internet. It goes like this: "The Red Planet is about to be spectacular." "Earth is catching up with Mars [for] the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history." "On August 27th ? Mars will look as large as the full moon." And finally, "NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN." Those are snippets from a widely-circulated email. Only the first sentence is true. The Red Planet is about to be spectacular. The rest is a hoax. Here are the facts: Earth and Mars are converging for a close encounter this year on October 30th at 0319 Universal Time. Distance: 69 million kilometers. To the unaided eye, Mars will look like a bright red star, a pinprick of light, certainly not as wide as the full Moon. Disappointed? Don't be. If Mars did come close enough to rival the Moon, its gravity would alter Earth's orbit and raise terrible tides. Sixty-nine million km is good. At that distance, Mars shines brighter than anything else in the sky except the Sun, the Moon and Venus. The visual magnitude of Mars on Oct. 30, 2005, will be -2.3. Even inattentive sky watchers will notice it, rising at sundown and soaring overhead at midnight. You might remember another encounter with Mars, about two years ago, on August 27, 2003. That was the closest in recorded history, by a whisker, and millions of people watched as the distance between Mars and Earth shrunk to 56 million km. This October's encounter, at 69 million km, is similar. To casual observers, Mars will seem about as bright and beautiful in 2005 as it was in 2003. Although closest approach is still months away, Mars is already conspicuous in the early morning. Before the sun comes up, it's the brightest object in the eastern sky, really eye-catching. If you have a telescope, even a small one, point it at Mars. You can see the bright icy South Polar Cap and strange dark markings on the planet's surface. One day people will walk among those dark markings, exploring and prospecting, possibly mining ice from the polar caps to supply their settlements. It's a key goal of NASA's Vision for Space Exploration: to return to the Moon, to visit Mars and to go beyond. Every day the view improves. Mars is coming--and that's no hoax.
wow!	Monday, August 01, 2005 9:58:52 AM
Kittens accidentally shipped... http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8755085/
Quote of the Week from Sojourners	Friday, July 29, 2005 11:01:44 AM
If Democrats are Pharisees, does that make Republicans Sadducees? "It's a little bit like biblical Pharisees, you know, who basically are always trying to undermine Jesus Christ.... You know, it goes on the same way. If they can catch him in something, they can then criticize and the outside groups will go berserk." -- Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), on Fox News, describing the nature of potential Democratic opposition to Supreme Court nominee Judge John G. Roberts Jr. I love the title that Sojourners put with this quote.
So tired...	Thursday, July 28, 2005 11:13:21 AM
Today is a very tired day. I'm usually tired (thank goodness Mike is driving our little carpool) since I started the new medicine two months ago, but today I could barely drag myself to work. Not sure what is up, but since I have started the Chinese medicine tea, I have been having the most vivid dreams that I remember when I wake up. Usually, my dreams are very vivid and imaginitive, but I can pinpoint my dreams to something I've watched or read or talked about in the previous set of days. But these are just wild and have no bearing on anything. Last night, I dreamt my parents moved us to Texas (even though it felt more like rural Louisiana) and I had to re-enroll in high school even though I was in college. I think I might have been undercover or something, but possibly was just there to start up a high school paper as a favor to someone that my parents knew in the new town or was just mis-enrolled. The principal said that I had to get my picture re-taken for the yearbook, even though I didn't care what the first picture looked like, so Emily and I went to a strange bazar that looked strangely like the Las Vegas strip where I had to compile an outfit together of flea market-type finds and barter for them with gypsies. I forgot to mention that in order to do this, I had to skip out of a dinner with Jeff and Hannah and Mike in a small section of town that looked very much like Savannah, Georgia with all of the tight cobblestone streets and wrought iron. I made up some sort of excuse about having to take a call on my cell phone and left the dinner for a quick run to the bazar while they were on their salad course. Eventually, Emily and I made our way to the flea market booth where the photographer was and had to stand on line with a bunch of thin blonde cheerleader types with really big Texas-style hair. I waited on line and then opted to shop a little more for the perfect Indian-style batik halter top because I was tired of waiting and listening to the drivel that was coming out of the people on line in front of us. Plus, I was afraid they would hairspray my hair into the heights that they had achieved and glob on the makeup. I was really anxious to get back to the dinner, but when I went back to the photographer after shopping for a bit longer, he was closing up shop. But, he reopened it for me because it was me and I got to go inside and have champagne and introduce people to Emily. I then woke up feeling quite anxious to meet back up with Jeff and Hannah and Mike since they had already finished their dinner and needing to call them on their cells to tell them where to meet me and Emily. I'm always trying to do too much at the same time, apparently even in my dreams. It was all very surreal. The night before, I dreamt that I needed to help start a movement to free slaves in my country and trying to figure out the best way to do that while not getting arrested so I could continue the freedom fight. I was having very educational debates with the people around me that is way to long to go into right now. I had another very vivid dream before that (same night) about escaping off of a tropical island before I was killed and knowing I would need to kill someone else to save myself if I couldn't leave the island at that minute. A huge storm came up while I was climbing across the face of a cliff on my way to a cave hidden in the cliff and I was trying to keep the knife that I desperately needed from falling into the ocean without losing my grip on the rocks. Weird stuff. I wonder if I'm just not falling into a deep enough sleep to get rested and am remembering dreams that I often have because I'm not fully asleep. All I know is that it is very entertaining when I wake up to remember them. I feel fairly awake for about the first half hour and then am ready to go back to sleep.
Housing bubble	Thursday, July 28, 2005 10:33:38 AM
I loved reading Jamie's post about the housing bubble. It is so true - you just can't know what to believe and when/if to buy. Not that we are close to buying a house any time soon. :) I hear about this all of the time since I work for a housing builder. Their position is that this is totally natural and is not a bubble at all. In fact, we are just catching up with inflated European market prices. ick. Here is an interesting article that Josh brought in from Time Magazine: http://www.time.com/time/insidebiz/article/0,9171,1009613,00.html. My fave part is when they question Bob Toll about the disputed Las Vegas market slowdown.
An interesting bit from The Shuttle	Wednesday, July 27, 2005 1:50:42 PM
This is another interesting bit from The Shuttle that I think a certain someone would find interesting. The bolded paragraphs are being stressed by me. The conversation is between Betty, who has come to England to see if her sister Rosy is OK since their family hadn't heard much from her after her marriage, and her evil brother-in-law. "You set yourself against me, as a child, Betty," he said. "And you set yourself against me now. You will not give me fair play. You might give me fair play." He dropped his voice at the last sentence, and knew it was well done. A touch of hopelessness is not often lost on a woman. "What would you consider fair play?" she inquired. "It would be fair to listen to me without prejudice -- to let me explain how it has happened that I have appeared to you a -- a blackguard -- I have no doubt you would call it -- and a fool. He threw out his hand in an impatient gesture -- impatient of himself -- his fate -- the tricks of bad fortune which it implied had made of him a more erring mortal than he would have been if left to himself, and treated decently. "Do not put it so strongly," with conservative politeness. "I don't refuse to admit that I am handicapped by a devil of a temperament. That is an inherited thing." "Ah!" said Betty. "One of the temperaments one reads about -- for which no one is to be blamed but one's deceased relatives. After all, that is comparatively easy to deal with. One can just go on doing what one wants to do -- and then condemn one's grandparents severely. ... "Have you any objection to telling me why you decided to come to England this year?" he inquired, with a casual air, after the pause which she did not fill in. The bluntness of the question did not seem to disturb her. She was not sorry, in fact, that he had asked it. She let her work lie upon her knee, and leaned back in her low garden chair, her hands resting upon its wicker arms. She turned on him a clear unprejudiced gaze. "I came to see Rosy. I have always been very fond of her. I did not believe that she had forgotten how much we had loved her, or how much she had loved us. I knew that if I could see her again I should understand why she had seemed to forget us." "And when you saw her, you, of course, decided that I had behaved, to quote my own words -- like a blackguard and a fool." "It is, of course, very rude to say you have behaved like a fool, but -- if you'll excuse my saying so -- that is what has impressed me very much. Don't you know," with a moderation, which singularly drove itself home, "that if you had been kind to her, and had made her happy, you could have had anything you wished for -- without trouble?" This was one of the unadorned facts which are like bullets. Disgustedly, he found himself veering towards an outlook which forced him to admit that there was probably truth in what she said, and he knew he heard more truth as she went on. "She would have wanted only what you wanted, and she would not have asked much in return. She would not have asked as much as I should. What you did was not business-like." She paused a moment to give thought to it. "You paid too high a price for the luxury of indulging the inherited temperament. Your luxury was not to control it. But it was a bad investment." "The figure of speech is rather commercial," coldly. "It is curious that most things are, as a rule. There is always the parallel of profit and loss whether one sees it or not. The profits are happiness and friendship -- enjoyment of life and approbation. If the inherited temperament supplies one with all one wants of such things, it cannot be called a loss, of course."