Memory eternal to His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksii II of Moscow! I had the honor of receiving his blessing in 1999 and have heard him speak in person several times. A most impressive person who exuded spirituality, kindness, and humor. May God have mercy on his soul.

Ok, so the Russians won't be celebrating it for 13 more days, but the Scots have already marked the feast day of their patron, St. Andrew. Here are some great photos of the celebration ( Read more... )

A tip of the hat to John Fogerty and the CCR boys... few songs pick me up on a Monday AM like "Down on the Corner." Granted, I'm listening to Big Country's cover of the song, but since CCR has been one of those "soundtracks playing in the background" of my life, I'll give credit where credit is due.

In other news, here's a main reason I'm so glad ( Read more... )

OK, I can tell things are getting busy... I'm hardly posting anymore. I've just finished a 3-hour marathon grading session for the online class I teach, and I'm not done yet. But I'm not complaining, as the alternative is to teach the class "on site" in a 4-hour block one night a week. Yuk...give me online grading any day!

Self-absorbed as I am, ( Read more... )

Whew. Sooo relieved after election night. I'm not one for politics, and normally while I might have a preference in a race I usually don't have strong feelings. But I am sooo glad Obama & Biden won. As usual, I'm uncomfy with the Dems overt pro-choice stance (I tend towards pro-life not only because of my faith but because of my study of prenatal ( Read more... )

It's that time of year...things are getting nuts. I love my job, but doing the "school year" thing makes for kind of a bipolar existence. Typically things are either quite calm or they're crazy. And the craziness multiplies when one is not only an instructor but a student too ( Read more... )

I thought this was pretty wild....

No, I don't mean my emotional life. :-) I mean living in Illinois, which is a staunchly democratic state. The bennie of that, especially when your own senator is ahead in the polls for presidental election, is that there are blessedly few political announcments. Even the Chicago Tribune endorsed Obama, the first time in their 160+ year history that ( Read more... )

*Sigh*

Probably you are getting sick of reading stuff like this from me, but too bad. This is my LJ, and you don't have to read it if you don't want to. Y'all know I am doing my counseling internship this year. I really shouldn't discuss cases here, so suffice it to say a fair percentage of my caseload includes children in really crappy situations ( Read more... )

Oh my. Looks like those Cubs left nothing to chance during the division series against the Dodgers. Check it out. Be sure to watch the video halfway down the page (try it a couple of times if you get the message that it's been removed).

Should my faith be shaken by the fact that the Cubs lost three straight after the blessing of the dugout? Are ( Read more... )