I hereby retract any statements I made prior to this date about it being butt cold.


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I mentioned earlier this month, or possibly last month, that my church choir would be singing Vivaldi's Gloria in worship this year. And we did, this morning! In fact, we parts of it twice; we did eight of the 12 movements -- nos. 1-3, 6-7, and 10-12, if you must know -- scattered throughout the traditional service at 9:00 a.m., and nos- 1, 3, and ( Read more... )

UPDATE! I'm still reading naught but Harry Potter fan fiction, but things are improving slightly in that I've moved past just re-reading old favorites and looking for ones I haven't read. I read a couple of pretty good Harry Potter/Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossovers (and a third that was so dreadful I dropped it after the first ten chapters) and I ( Read more... )

Here are some ways I might have described the weather today, were I still in college:

• Butt cold
• Ochen cold
• Colder than a witch's tit

I was introduced to using "butt" as an all-purpose intensifier by my college pal Dick Z., who lived in the room next to me. His reasoning was that if "butt" could be used to mean "very" in the phrase "butt ugly," ( Read more... )

Speaking of church responsibilities, last night was the Deacons' annual December potluck, which meant I had to prepare a dish to pass after work last night. I had mentioned to my sister when I was at her house on Thanksgiving that I needed to think of something to prepare for the potluck, and she suggested I make the chicken Divan recipe that her ( Read more... )

Stress is getting to me. It's not bad stress, the sort born of unhappiness or despair, but rather the kind caused by not having as much time to relax as one might wish. Between the two jobs and the additional travel time associated with that and my church responsibilities and the cold weather and the reduced daylight ... it all adds up ( Read more... )

Speaking of church, and cooking, I made a simple pasta salad for the annual Advent wreath-making event last night. The pasta and dressing part of the salad could hardly have been simpler; I used a Betty Crocker product called Suddenly Salad. The back of the value-sized box suggested gussying it up with a bag of winter vegetable mix, some halved ( Read more... )

I'm strictly a Windows guy, but I did have two pretty good experiences with apples today. One was a Liberty, which was pretty good but was a little more tart than I like in an apple; the other was a Priscilla, which was sweet and crisp and probably as good as any apple I've ever eaten. Best of all, they were as fresh as fresh could be, each having ( Read more... )

I'm feeling a tad lazy today, so here's a little article I wrote yesterday for the church newsletter, modified slightly to remove some personal information.

I first came to Christ Presbyterian in the spring of 2010, but it wasn't until this month that I attended one of CPC's signature programs: the Friday night English Conversation Time. I'd taken ( Read more... )

The heat wave here in Madison broke just in time for the two picnics I went to this weekend. That was good planning on someone's part ( Read more... )