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.
---
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.

milestone

Lookee. The principal balance on the student loan is finally less than the principal balance on the mortgage. I had to pay more on the student loan than on the mortgage for three years before I got to this point. Yup, like paying for two houses.

This is It

Trailers and stuff here.

There is no denying that Michael Jackson was very gifted. Absolutely genius. As has been said, "Nobody moves like Michael."

Yeah, go see it and be entertained. Some might be inspired.

kudos to NASA

Yay. Nice launch of the test rocket.

iPhone app picks

iPhone rocks! Gumby has one and I've been setting it up. Here are the chosen free apps in alphabetical order:

Alarm Clock Free: I don't know what it does yet, but it looks like a nice clock interface.
AOL Radio: So we can go beyond our music collection and listen to other stuff.
Around Me: Mainly so we can find near by eats.
Balance: We're going on a trip; this will help tally up the cost.
Catholic Calendar: Because it's Catholic. And it's free.
Catholic Lite: A little too lite; candidate for deletion.
The Catholic Directory: So I can find near by parishes, their phone numbers and mass times. Also has the mass readings.
Dictionary: of course
DigiDrummer Lite: just for fun
Drum Meister Lite: more fun
eReader: in case we get a hankerin' to reading a book
ESPN ScoreCenter: for those rare moments when we actually want to know the score
Falling Balls: mindless fun activity; candidate for deletion
Google Mobile: find info fast
iTV: 'cause we don't have a TV Guide
iDict: In case we have to communicate in another language.
iHandy Level: just handy
Note Me: 'cause folks have said it's good
NYTimes: news
Pac-Man Lite
Quick Graph: Never had a graphing calculator. Neat to see stuff graphed in 3D.
Shazam: to ID music we hear and like
Space Shooter: mindless entertainment
Soduko: of course
uDrummer Lite: fun
USA Today: another source of news
Virtuoso Piano: fun. This one lets you do glissandos. It will span the whole keyboard, but difficult to do so smoothly. It's the same graphic, but the pitch changes.
The Weather Channel: weather, of course. This is in addition to the weather app that comes with the iPhone already. This one might get replaced ... still to be determined.
Yelp: mostly so we can find near by eateries
Feb 2011 update: (too many to discuss them)

digital camera review links

The following sites are not hard to find. They'll show up on a search for digital camera reviews. These are just the main ones I'd look up instead of wading through all the links that are available.

Jeff's picks at Digital Camera Resource Page My favorite page for doing a quick look. Nice large photos, picks are arranged by price and there is a brief commentary for each pick.
Dave's Picks at Imaging Resource Here the picks are arranged by function if you need it that way. If you scroll down, there are picks arranged by price. It's a longer list to browse and the pictures of the cameras are much smaller. If Jeff's picks were too few, maybe Dave's list will do the trick for you.
Ken Rockwell My favorite page if I don't need a lot of options. He gives a "This is the best camera, hands down" opinion. He does have some other picks but if you're tired of thinking about it, take the "one best camera" advice and run with it.

Steve's Digicams and Digital Photography Review (links below) have a list of favorites as well. If I see a camera show up as a favorite on all of these sites, then I figure it must be good. These lists are good place to start. I really don't want to read through the entire plethora of digital cameras on the market, so I start with these shorter lists. From there, I can check out in-depth reviews of whatever camera I want to zoom in on.

My favorite sites for an in-depth review:
Steve's Digicams This is my first love as far as camera review sites goes. The format has changed recently. I'll have to get used to it.
Digital Photography Review Steve can't review them all. So between Steve and this site, I should be able to find most any model.

Then if I want to see what the "general word on the street" is on a camera, I'd browse a larger set of websites. For example, I think the micro four-thirds format is promising. I would scan several articles on that instead of heading straight for the in-depth review.

Each of the above sites have other features as well. They're worth checking out. Have fun.

annoying

It is safe to say that Beyonce's singing annoys me. There is no depth to her singing; there is a serious lack of expression.

persimmons

Persimmons. I had picked them from the tree at the other property just last Saturday. I've been seeing them change to a brighter orange as they sit on the counter. Now they seem ripe already. I had one. It wasn't bad. Probably one more day of ripening would be safe.

flashlights ... hee

Like it? You can get it on the Animal Rescue Site.

took the day off

I decided to take the day off today. We took the critters to get blessed, on the occasion of Feast of St. Francis (of Assisi). We had three crates in my car: one for each of two cats and a medium one for the Labrador. We were late getting there and almost missed it. And since we were late and most people were gone, we were able to park right by the curb. Father came over to bless them in the back of the car; all the crates faced outward. Minutes later the other Father was picking up the holy water bucket when he saw us and offered to sprinkle them. Fortunately, all the critters came forward to the crate doors and they all got sprinkled.

Then we went to check on the other property, then stopped on the way back to get pie slices, then another stop to get lunch to go.

Unfortunately, we took too long to get back. The black and white cat is on diuretics for his heart condition, and urinated just as we got in our neighborhood. Oh well. That's why I had a mat in there, just in case of such accidents.

The cats are in a big cage at home. They get to come out when we're home and can watch them. Today they pretty much spent the day in their cage.

You see, I took the day off. I had lunch, then took a long nap. Woke up, took a shower, went out and got dinner, fed everybody, then washed dishes, and I'm going to go to bed in a little while. Cat bathing, crate cleaning, and house cleaning will have to wait until tomorrow at best.

update: Yes I did bathe the cat on Sunday. He's very sweet and gave me no problems. Then I took him out to the front porch and dried him with a hair dryer. He did try to leave a few times but that was all. No hollerin'. No biting or scratching. I did it outside since all that hair was flying. The time before, I had bathed him without blow-drying and he was pretty badly matted afterwards. So now I know I have to blow-dry him. It took a while.

random shot

good pen

The Uniball Jetstream Sport is a very smooth writing pen. I give it my stamp of approval.

personal problem

I have a problem. I have a problem with the "Lamb of God" being set to really festive, yahoo, hoe-down, rollicking good fun music. "Lamb of God" is where we acknowledge that Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for our salvation, and we beg for His mercy. I prefer this to be a moment of serious contemplation ... contemplation on the greatness and mercifulness of God, the significance of the sacrifice, our sinfulness, and our need for His mercy.