wine

Yellow Tail, Ecco Domani, Franciscan

Shiraz, Pinot Grigio, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot

Smuckers, of course, is not wine ... just happened to be there and I didn't bother to move it.

No wine for me though. No desire for it or any other alcoholic beverage. I don't think my body likes it.

free "rental"

Father Corapi's personal testimony in audio format is currently a "free" rental. If you like good story-telling, check it out. If you've never heard Fr. Corapi, here's your chance. It's well worth it.

homemade

Although we don't use firewood much, I occasionally keep some. Here is a homemade rack built with wood recovered from a fence nightmare project. It's not very well built, but for now it's working ... two weeks so far. The firewood is from branches I've trimmed from the tree. The bigger chunks are from my neighbor, who trimmed another neighbor's tree. It was a lot of wood, but I only took some of the bigger chunks, leaving probably 95% remaining on the curb for the garbage guys. At the time I took the firewood, I didn't have the rack and didn't know where I would keep it. I used whatever nails I had on hand, and in this case they were galvanized but very long. The nails went all the way through and were very tough to drive in, given that it's a rather flimsy frame and difficult to brace properly for hammering. I contemplated not knocking down the nails but then made some effort to do so. Anyhow, there you have it for homemade.

me

Lest people think that the "religious/spiritual" part of my life is dead ...

Yes, I am still involved in two volunteer gigs at my parish. I had at one time considered dropping out of them, but didn't. On one, they seemed shorthanded as it is, so I stuck. On the other, I spoke to the person in charge and was discouraged from dropping out, so I'm still there too.

Yes, I still go to spiritual direction. I went this morning. Advice is still the same (seeing that I haven't changed any of my habits): develop a personal relationship with God, find time for personal prayer. That is, set aside time dedicated to prayer, and not just pray while I'm doing something else.

I pray my usual prayers in the car as I drive in to work. I pray a little thanksgiving as I drive off from work at the end of the day. And I pray a quick formula prayer as I crawl into bed at night. Those are the usual staple. Other moments of prayer are sporadic.

I am only somewhat involved with the Dominicans, being that my schedule is swamped and my energy is almost non-existent. They had a discernment event some months back and I attended that, and that was the last time I saw them.

I have started reading 3 books and haven't made much headway on them. I seem to have some attention deficit in this department. One is a religious allegory, another is a collection of talks by a monk, and the other is a collection of stories of visions of heaven and hell. I also have the New Testament as an audio book ... I think I'm on Acts. It's been a while since I last played it.

I still listen to Christian (though non-Catholic) radio in the car at lunch when possible. Unfortunately, I've stopped going to mass at lunchtime. I so desperately need to grab a few zzz's during the day and lunchtime affords a few minutes.
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Peace to all.

rechargeable batteries

I don't know if I have a defective batch, but the Duracell rechargeable AA batteries I picked up a few weeks ago seem to self-discharge. Prior to that, I had Energizer ones. I got the Duracell because it was 2650 mAh vs. the Energizer 2450 mAh.

I charged up the Duracells and gleefully put them in my camera. Weeks later, I took my camera out and noticed that the charge was low (maybe around half) even though I hadn't used the camera. I recharged the Duracells and repeated. Sure enough, the batteries were again below half after a few weeks of sitting up.

So, I vote for the Energizers. They've never given me this problem. I can leave my camera sitting up for months and the Energizer batteries still kept their charge.

beware of the Casio calculator

Beware of the Casio calculator: its "%" key doesn't function as expected. When I put in 100 + 10 then press "%" I should get 110. That doesn't happen with the Casio. I have two Casio's, different models purchased at different times, which have the same frustrating "feature."

yummy punch

Tropicana Peach Orchard Punch is yummy. We try to look for alternatives to soda. Usually it's lemonade, tea, Hawaiian punch and maybe occasional other something such as the V8 Splash punches. This peach punch is the best. Yum!

On a side note, I had once thought that carbonation was bad for your health. However, I do believe carbonation has been exonerated of such charges. Still, we look for alternatives to soda anyways. We do try to keep some Sprite on hand for easing upset stomachs; they often get consumed even when there are no upset stomachs.

lamenting the loss of a great feature

"Smart" phones seems to have lost the "alarm" functionality. My cell phones that were primarily phones with added features were great alarm clocks. They were loud. They'd still give an alarm even when they were turned off. They were great.

I inherited the Cingular 8125 smart phone when Gumby got the iPhone. Maybe I just don't know how to use them, but neither one of these are good at being alarm clocks. The alarm isn't very loud, and they only work when the phone is on. That sucks.

My old Nokia candy phone finally died about a month ago. I had been using it for years as my alarm clock. It also had a timer function that used occasionally. Now I'm using my old Motorola to wake me in the morning; it was my cell phone until about a month ago. I could take a lunchtime nap and be confident that the Motorola would wake me. Not so with the Cingular 8125.

Does anyone have tips for extending the usefulness of the Cingular 8125? I've never updated the OS, so it's still Windows Mobile 5.0. Its main feature for me now is that I can play Sudoku on it.