All five

Shamrock brewery in Pueblo

We went to the Pueblo Chili Fest this weekend. The smell of roasting chilis is awesome. Then off to the CSU Pueblo football game where the Thunderwolves stomped Ft. Lewis.
Enjoy the photos of Joe and Jillian, Chris and Max.

poor little car

All in all, the little car rolls on.  Some one has a good cut on their hand from the fender well.
 
 
 

Happy Birthday!

Man, I am getting old.  And my body tells me so.

I went to lunch with my Mom and Dad at Margarita at Pine Creek.  What a wonderful place and awesome food.  It was very enjoyable.

On a whim I decided to buy myself a birthday present.  I can dream can't I?  I stopped at the Ford dealer to see about a 4WD Explorer.  It sure was little parked next to the Expedition.  I decided I had better not buy that one.  But I did not give up dreaming.

I came home and called USAA about the cost of insurance and a loan. Talk about easy.  I was already preapproved. They talked me through finding what I wanted from their website. I could have purchased a car from their services right then and there.  The dealers will even deliver!

I did send for some information/pricing.  Who knows, maybe someone will offer me a great deal.

After all, it IS my Birthday.

I talk funny

because I get most of these.

A LICK AND A PROMISE

 

'I'll just give this a lick and a promise,' my mother said

as she quickly mopped up a spill on the floor without moving

any of the furniture.

 

'What is that supposed to mean,' I asked as in my young

mind I envisioned someone licking the floor with his or her

tongue.

 

'It means that I'm in a hurry and I'm busy canning tomatoes

so I am going to just give it a lick with the mop and

promise to come back and do the job right later.

 

'A lick and a promise' was just one of the many old phrases

that our mothers, grandmothers, and others used that they

probably heard from the generations before them. With the

passing of time, many old phrases become obsolete or even

disappear. This is unfortunate because some of them are

very appropriate and humorous. Here is a list of some of

those memorable old phrases:

 

1. A Bone to Pick (someone who wants to discuss a

disagreement)

 

2. An Axe to Grind (Someone who has a hidden motive)

 

This phrase is said to have originated from Benjamin

Franklin who told a story about a devious man who

asked how a grinding wheel worked. He ended up walking

away with his axe sharpened free of charge)

 

3. One bad apple spoils the whole barrel

(one corrupt person can cause all the others to go

bad if you don't remove the bad one)

 

4. At sea (lost or not understanding something)

 

5. Bad Egg (Someone who was not a good person)

 

6. Barking at a knot (meaning that your efforts

were as useless as a dog barking at a knot.)

 

7. Barking up the wrong tree (talking about

something that was completely the wrong issue

with the wrong person

 

8. Bee in your bonnet (To have an idea that won't let

loose )

 

9. Been through the mill (had a rough time of it)

 

10. Between hay and grass (Not a child or an adult)

 

11. Blinky (Between sweet and sour as in milk)

 

12. Calaboose (a jail)

 

13. Catawampus (Something that sits crooked such as

a piece of furniture sitting at an angle)

 

14. Dicker (To barter or trade)

 

15. Feather in Your Cap (to accomplish a goal.

This came from years ago in wartime when warriors

might receive a feather they would put in their cap

for defeating an enemy)

 

16. Hold your horses (Be patient!)

 

17. Hoosegow ( a jail)

 

18. I reckon (I suppose)

 

19. Jawing/Jawboning (Talking or arguing)

 

20. Kit and caboodle (The whole thing)

 

21. Madder than an wet hen (really angry)

 

22. Needs taken down a notch or two (like notches

in a belt usually a young person who thinks too

highly of himself and needs a lesson)

 

23. No Spring Chicken (Not young anymore)

 

24. Persnickety (overly particular or snobbish)

 

25. Pert-near (short for pretty near)

 

26. Pretty is a s pretty does (your actions are

more important than your looks)

 

27. Red up (clean the house)

 

28. Scalawag (a rascal or unprincipled person)

 

29. Scarce as hen's teeth (something difficult to

obtain)

 

30. Skedaddle (Get out of here quickly)

 

31. Sparking (courting)

 

32. Straight From the Horse's Mouth

(privileged information from the one concerned)

 

33. Stringing around, gallivanting around, or piddling

(Not doing anything of value)

 

34. Sunday go to meetin' dress (The best dress you

had)

 

35. We wash up real fine (is another goodie)

 

36. Tie the Knot (to get married)

 

37. Too many irons in the fire (to be involved in too

many things)

 

38. Tuckered out (tired and all worn out)

 

39. Under the weather (not feeling well this term came

from going below deck on ships due to sea sickness

thus you go below or under the weather)

 

40. Wearing your 'best bib and tucker' (Being all

dressed up)

 

41. You ain't the only duck in the pond (It's not all

about you)

 

Well, if you hold your horses, I reckon

I'll get this whole kit and caboodle done and sent

off to you. Please don't be too persnickety and get

a bee in your bonnet because I've been pretty

tuckered out and at sea lately because I'm no spring

chicken.

I haven't been just stringin' around and I know I'm not

the only duck in the pond, but I do have

too many irons in the fire. I might just be barking

at a knot, but I have tried to give this article

more than just a lick and a promise

jigsaw puzzle

If you need to kill lots of time...

jigsaw puzzle

There are lots of puzzles/games to play on this site.

busy, busy

I say I want a simpler, quiet life.  I think it is just a dream.  We stay so busy that I am not sure which way is up.  I am not the most organized person to have ever graced this world.  I am so bad it is a wonder that I get anything done.  I do leave lots undone or put off until another day.  I did vote.  That is done and now I can move on to other thoughts.  I still need to pray for who ever is our new leader and the advisers around them.
My sister from Florida is in town and I have had a chance to spend time with her and my parents.  Sunday we are going up to the mountains to spend the day at the cabin.  Kelly is coming from Denver to visit too.
The weather has been wonderful so it should be a nice day to go to the mountains.
Tim is still in Greenland.  It turned into a much longer trip than he expected.  He will make it home one of these days.  We are already thinking about our ski trip for this year.
Joe is waiting to hear from our government about his waiver for joining the Air Force.  He may still be here when it is time to go skiing.  Keep him in your prayers, please.
We spent Saturday at the church.  They had a High Mass and a procession with the kids dressed as Saints.  There were all kinds of games and activities set up for the families to enjoy.  The children that were dressed as Saints had the chance to give clues as to who they were and see if they could stump any of the judges.  A few of the kids were able to stump Father and they were pretty pleased with that.  We were there with 2 goats, 2 chickens and Betty.  We were the petting zoo activity.  There was even a little lawn tractor and wagon for the hay rides. 
Some of the kids were afraid of the goats and chickens.  I was informed that one little girl only likes one legged chickens because they don't bite!  One little 2 yr old was kissing and hugging the goats and the dog.  I think if I had gotten the chickens out of the cage she would have hugged the chickens too.
I think the families had a very good time.  Many thanks to the people that did all the hard work to put that on. 
Max won a cake at the cake walk.

Have a Blessed Day.

please think before you vote

A Profile In Courage - Homily by Rev. Noah Waldman

 

Our Lord asks us to follow him not only in word and promise, but in deed and action, even when that action requires heroic courage. In this regard I would like to speak about a hero of mine: Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Munich from 1917 to his death in 1952. (As an interesting side note, the last man Faulhaber was to ordain to the priesthood was one Joseph Ratzinger, our present Holy Father.)

 

As you might imagine, the years between 1933 and 1945, marked by the reign of Hitler, were especially difficult for Faulhaber. However, rather than choose to remain quiet out of fear of the Nazis, Faulhaber instead chose courage. At every opportunity, he spoke out against the crimes of the Nazis, on occasion risking his own life to do so.

His Advent sermons of 1933, delivered in the vast Munich Cathedral, the Frauenkirche, drew thousands of Munich citizens—standing room only—who came to listen to the Cardinal fearlessly challenge National Socialism, to assert the rights and freedoms of the Catholic Church, and to call for the protection of the Jewish People.

 

By the 1940s when Hitler’s final solution became clear to all, Faulhaber ordered yellow armbands with the Star of David to be placed on the statues of Christ and Mary throughout his archdiocese, in specific response to the Nazi treatment of Jews. Faulhaber’s courage made the Nazis cower. No one in the Gestapo dare take these yellow arm bands down. So, Munich, the birthplace of the Nazi movement, became the center of Nazi resistance. And although Dachau was located just ten miles outside Munich’s city limits, within Munich Hitler and his policies were weakened severely by the courage of a single man.

It remains one of the perplexing questions of history, how it could be that a great people such as the Germans could have been fooled by a man with such a diabolical political agenda. Especially Germany, the country of the Frederick the Great the philosopher-king, which was arguably the most enlightened and free nation in Europe. Because of reparations which Germany had to repay as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany’s economy was in freefall. (If you think the current crisis in the Unites States is a problem, what we are enduing is nothing by comparison.). The German currency of the time, the Reichsmark which was introduced in 1924, was worth less than the paper it was printed on. Hyperinflation was so pronounced that it was cheaper to burn money than firewood.

So when Hitler came to power he fulfilled much of his agenda. He did revive the German economy, almost miraculously. Hitler also reestablished the order to a society falling into disarray, and he grave Germans a new sense of pride. So, in a sense, Hitler “saved” Germany—or so it seemed to many in 1934.

 

But Hitler’s plan to "save" Germany was founded upon of principles of utmost evil: The killing of the innocent; genocide of neighboring peoples and the plundering of nations; eugenic activity on handicapped, the infirm and the aged, all in the name of progress toward a "master race"—a utopian ideal to create a society which would last not for 1000 but for 10,000 years.

Hitler wanted the Church to remain quiet in the face of all this, and to ultimately replace the Church with what amounted to a new religion based on German identity. Hitler’s desire for the Church was a cry many of us hear today: The Church should not interfere with policies of the state.

---

We see through the lens of history, that there are times when the Church must speak out against the state to defend the rights of those who have no voice. When the matter at hand is the killing of the innocent, or the manipulation of human life for the purpose of a national agenda to create a master race of people who will never succumb to sickness and be as beautiful as the models and stars on the television and internet, or the objectification of women—the Church must speak out.

History has not looked with any kindness on members of the Catholic clergy or hierarchy which, during Nazi domination, did little or nothing to help the plight of the Jewish people. History has condemned them, and rightly so.

We as members of the Church are the hands of Jesus, our mouths are the instruments of his voice. Jesus, who always spoke out against injustice and oppression, asks and requires us to be agents of change in the world, to bring about policies in our own nation and in the world that will defend human life, most especially for the innocent and weak who have no one to speak for them.

As a Jew who became Catholic in my early 20s, one of the most painful issues I have had to deal with in my own soul and with speaking with my own family is how to answer the question: Why didn’t the Church do more to stop Hitler and to help the Jews? Frankly, we know the Church did a great deal, probably more than any other institution in the world to help the Jewish people.

But questions remain. How could so many German Christians at the time have supported Hitler? How could they have viewed their economic prosperity, the strengthening of their public institutions and army, and the pride of their own nation as being of greater value than the killing of the innocent? Is there any way to defend that? Is economic prosperity more important that life? Is the right to a particular quality of life more important than the right to life itself? Who will define that quality? Is mass murder allowable if the state is feeding the hungry?

---

Looking back at the Third Reich, I think all of us in this church today, and probably everyone in the United States of America would agree that there is no excuse for what happened in Germany.

But then I ask you: When we go to the polls on November 4, why will so many Catholics not support the overturn of Roe vs. Wade? Yes, there are many issues facing our country, many of them serious. War is serious, and so is the matter of immigration, economic reform, taxation, the need for health care, and so on. But we must keep in mind that since 1973 when the Supreme Court decided that a human being in the womb was not protected because of property and privacy rights implied in the 14th amendment, we have as a nation aborted nearly 50 million people.

Let us also not forget the 30-40 million women whose lives have been scarred because they were told that this procedure would be good for them and help them, and who day after day have to convince themselves somehow that they are forgiven.
Before I conclude this long homily—and I thank you for your attention today—I want to say to anyone here affected by abortion that Jesus has the power to make all things new: It is Jesus’ job to forgive sinners. God understands the pain of loss and human frailty, which is why his forgiveness and mercy towards those who have suffered through abortion is so abundant. The Father forgives as soon as you ask. But emotional healing takes many, many years, and it hurts terribly. Thank God that today, the pro-life movement has greatest love and sympathy for women and those who have gone through abortion. Project Rachel here in St. Louis is a place of tremendous comfort and peace. Thank God also that the pro-life movement and the Catholic Church has in place real programs to help women who choose not to have an abortion, so that they can survive financially and medically through such difficult times. We must never forget that our goal to stop abortion, while necessary, is only the first part of our call. The second part is for us to support with love and financial assistance the women and families who will struggle to raise their children in the face of seemingly insurmountable struggles. It takes strength to choose life in our world today, and for us to be effective ministers of the love of Jesus, not only must we protect life, we must be present and willing to help nurture that new life into adulthood; we must be there especially for the poor and for single mothers.

Moreover, the Church does not condemn those who have suffered through the abortion experience. Rather, the Church stands by such people to offer them forgiveness, compassion to know their sins are forgiven, and that God loves them dearly. The Church, however, does condemn those who willfully have made abortion the law of the land, who support its spread, and who propagate this terrible lie—this "big lie"—that causes death and personal loss.

I pray that, when historians looks back at the late 20th and early 21st century and the Catholic Church, they will be able to say that it was our Church that stopped the brutal killing of the innocent; that it was our Church that was the true voice of women’s rights; that it was our Church that never abandoned young mothers and young children; that it was our Church that shone the light of Jesus’ love in the world’s darkness.

You and I have the obligation, therefore, to speak out against the lie that abortion is not killing; the lie that abortion is good for women.

We do this primarily by praying to end abortion; we do this by supporting women who have endured abortions; we do this by assisting women who courageously choose to endure difficult pregnancies; we do this by refraining from investing in companies that promote abortion and human manipulation; we do this by abstaining and opposing anything in the entertainment industry that treats women as objects whose feelings and personal worth are disregarded; and, finally, we do this according to our votes.

I will close this long homily now with two questions. First: If every Catholic in Germany had opposed Hitler, would have been a Holocaust? The answer requires some nuance. Many Christians were under compulsion to join the Nazi Party, lest they experience utter loss of livelihood, and often the abduction and murder of family remembers. However, Cardinal Faulhaber’s courage and the example of Munich demonstrates the triumph of human dignity in the face of tyranny: If every diocese in Germany had a man as brave as Cardinal Faulhaber, I do not think the Holocaust could have happened. No tyrant, however brutal, can carry out any program without the consent of the governed; the power of a leader is proportionate to people’s willingness to be led.

The second and final question, therefore, is this: If every Catholic in the United States showed the courage of Cardinal Faulhaber, and voted only pro-life, what do you think would happen?

---

Given Sts. Joachim and Ann Church, St. Charles,
Saturday, Sept 27, 5:00 pm Mass, and
Sunday Sept 28 7:15 am and 10:30 am Mass
(This homily, with few alterations, was also delivered
at St. Clement of Rome, Des Peres, Respect Life Sunday 2007).

voter guide

when you use a blog format and are paying for it there should be a way to figure out how to use it.  I am beginning to think that I should give up on this whole blogging thing.

Please disregard my ignorance and click on the link.  Please think before you vote and encourage others to get out there and VOTE.  For every vote that is not for McCain, is one for Obama.  And he really scares me.

WallBuilders

voter guide