Friday, November 25, 2005

I do not observe Black Friday. By that I mean that I do not ever shop on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Ever.

Usually I take the Friday after Thanksgiving off from work. But because I’m trying to save enough leave for my honeymoon, I am at the office today.

It’s a dead zone in the admin section - I’m it. What’s weird is that all of the judges are in today and we have a full docket in court. Friday is sentencing day, so I guess they didn’t want prisoners to languish for another weekend without knowing their judicial fates. Nice, no?

I do plan to meet the Cooties to go see Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire after work. Beau is at his apartment in H’burg working on the final packing and loading the truck for his Final Move into our house tomorrow. We’re both excited about that, although the logistics for the Chastity Watch™ will be interesting for the next month. When he’s in the house up here, I’ll be at my parents. When he’s in H’burg for teaching, I’ll be in the house. The two weeks before the wedding I’ll be at my parents full time again until the wedding.

Anyhoo, tomorrow night we have a Family Christmas Gathering at my parents house. On my Dad’s side of the family we adults draw names for the gift giving and the gathering rotates between my parents and my two sets of aunts/uncles houses. Usually we meet around New Years, but with the wedding on that weekend, Mom moved it up to T’giving weekend instead. So, we have that tomorrow night, which will be fun.

Sunday will be church and then I’ll drive Beau back to H’burg since he won’t have a car (he’ll be turning in the rental truck here since it’s cheaper to rent it one-way).

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation from 1863:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.<

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that Thanksgiving would be the next to last Thursday of November rather than the last.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

One of the things I like most about blogging is the sense of community that’s built around the comments sections. I like feedback from my readers and I like to give feedback to those whom I read. I like the interaction. I like the relationships that I’ve built with other bloggers and non-blogging readers.

I also like the debate that occurs on occasion. I don’t agree with everyone that I read and I know that a lot of my readers don’t always agree with me. So I appreciate when folks post their opposing views and we can have discussion. More often than not, my opinion is not changed, but I value the others’ viewpoints. My own brother-in-law disagrees with me on just about all things political, but we still manage to enjoy the conversations.

I’ve never posted a formal comments policy because the folks who comment here regularly haven’t broken any of my “rules.” Generally speaking, the rules are:

1. No profanity.
2. Keep the comment to the topic of the post.
3. Be pithy.

In the past few days I have gotten a couple of comments that broke all three “rules” above. On the profanity, the built-in EE word censor blocked out the unacceptible words so that’s not a huge deal. However, I really prefer that commenters keep their published comments on topic and I really don’t want your lengthy diatribes eating up my webspace and bandwidth. In the case of the latter, I recommend that you get your own blog. And I do realize that we often go off on tangents in some of the longer threads, but they always start out on topic.

Anyway, this post is in response to a short email exchange I had with a newer commenter. He didn’t like my requests to keep it pithy and on topic or my recommendation that he start his own blog if he didn’t have one already since he has so much to say. What’s a shame is that where I sincerely complimented his writing he fired back with insults. To that I’ll say this: no one forces you to read what I have to say. If you don’t like what I have to say, then move along. 

Yes, I fell asleep about halfway through last night’s TAR8 episode. Sad.

I have no thoughts except that I really can’t wait for this season to be over. They’ve killed the best reality show with this family edition.

Am I repeating myself?

Feel free to spew your own thoughts in the comments…

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

I think there are about 3 of us left in the office right now. I’m seeing a lot of traffic leaving the PTO complex.

Traffic is going to be a nightmare tonight and I have to go to the mall before I go home. I would put it off, but I can’t at this point.

*sigh*

At least I know that traffic around here will be light tomorrow - it usually is. And I’ll be working on Friday, which will be uber-boring.

I was out getting my nails done when I saw the news that Jose Padilla was indicted on 11 charges.

I returned to the courthouse to the news that Abu Ali was convicted on all counts on which he was charged. He faces life in prison. (No link yet. I will update the post when there is a link - FoxNews.com has the yellow Breaking News banner.)

On Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and Elvis.

Teach your children well.

Monday, November 21, 2005

You should be seeing the wedding template. If you don’t see it, then refresh your page or clear out your cache and start over.

White satin background with elements of navy blue, silver, and white. This is my wedding in web format…

We’re under 40 days from The Big Day.

Now that this is done, I shall go upstairs for bead work and TV.

Good night.

The Poseidon Adventure (2005) was dreadful. Sadly, when I remembered that it was on last night, I flipped over to the channel (because I couldn’t help myself), but I had missed the first hour. Most importantly, I missed the capsizing of the ship, which was probably the best things about the TV movie.

Nothing can hold a candle to the original disaster flick. Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Shelley Winters, et al.

In this edition, the ship was capsized by a terrorist bomb. *sigh* Wasn’t the original ship turned over by a tidal wave?

Anyhoo, the casting was a flashback to the 1980s - Steve Guttenburg, Bryan Brown, Rutger Hauer (who is not aging well, imho), and C. Thomas Howell. Wow. The best casting was Adam Baldwin aka Jayne in Firefly/Serenity. Hmmm, I see that Peter Weller played the captain, whom I missed since by the time I clicked over he was long dead and gone. And with the terrorism element, there was a CIA element and so Alex Kingston was present as MI-6 in Bahrain or something like that.

Very, very bad television.

I decided to tweak the template as we get down the wire on the wedding. So the basic format will remain, but the colors will change to those in my wedding. Nothing fancy, just different. All will be returned to the normal spring colors when we get back from the honeymoon.

What’s a bummer is that you can’t really do silver on the web. So it will be shades of gray, but that’s close enough.

Beau’s church hosted a celebration-shower for us on Saturday. This was not your ordinary bridal couple’s shower but a full fledged dinner honoring us. It was quite lovely and humbling. It’s clear that his church family in Harrisonburg loves Beau dearly; he loves them - I know he is going to miss the fellowship when he moves up here permanently. We will have to go back and visit as often as we can, I think.

Thank you to MB and her crew for planning and hosting such a wonderful event for us. We are most grateful for the hard work you put forth and that you all made it such a special night. It was a time of fellowship and worship, with some hymn singing. Beau’s best man’s wife sang two beautiful solos and our wedding pianist played great tunes on their new grand piano during the meal, including a piece called “Jennifer’s Song. A couple read words of wisdom that all of the guests had submitted for us - some were to us as a couple, some were to us as individuals, many quoted great Scripture passages, and a few were hilarious. The whole night was very moving and I was humbled at the generosity of these warm and welcoming people (yes, this means we got some good loot!).

One of the funnier things that was read came from the Kudzu comic strip on October 11. This was submitted by Beau’s pastor who shared that the strip ran on this theme for several days, which you can see by clicking backward and forward through the strips. Too funny.

Anyway, it was a good weekend.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Apparently the blog was down this weekend, but after a quick cry for help from my host tech support, they got it back up and running.

We had a very fun and full weekend that I will recap later. I just got home about an hour ago and I need to get to work on the beads.

Friday, November 18, 2005

...and which lesser Harry Potter character are you?

[via Ith]

Anybody else have such dry skin on your hands that they split without cause? I was just out to make a deposit and I have four new little cracks on both hands.

Ouch.

That said, what I love about winter is that if it’s cold enough outside I can go to the grocery store on my lunch hour and not worry about refrigerated items spoiling.

And there was plenty of Vanilla Diet Coke available, but no Fresca. Hmmm…

I haven’t talked about politics or the war in Iraq for a while - others are covering it quite nicely. However, I do have issues with “democratic hawk” John Murtha’s statement of the other day. He said:

“Our military’s done everything that has been asked of them. The U.S. cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily,” he said. “It’s time to bring the troops home.”

[...]

U.S. troops “don’t deserve to continue to suffer,” Murtha said. “They’re the targets. They have become the enemy.”

Not exactly true.

To the ordinary Iraqi citizen, the US troops in Iraq are their liberators and now their peacekeepers and trainers.

To the foreign insurgents terrorists who are continuing the “battle” with their suicide bombings, we are the enemy. But they are not targeting the US troops as much as they are targeting the ordinary Iraqi citizens. Yes, IEDs are still out there, but the vast majority of those killed in the past several months have not been American soldiers. Just this morning, two terrorist attacks resulted in over 60 Iraqis dead and countless more injured. In one attack, they sent a suicide bomber into a mosque as Iraqis were in there for morning prayer. The other attack was a truck bomb that went into a hotel frequented by journalists. Those were not attacks on US troops.

And for every one American soldier that is killed in Iraq, dozens of Iraqis are killed.

Murtha is wrong. We are not losing the battle - the battle was won when we captured Saddam Hussein in his spider hole almost two years ago; the battle was won when the Iraqi people voted for democratic government representives the first time in over 35 years in January; the battle was won when the Iraqi people ratified their new constitution. The battle is won. We’re just trying to help a fledgling government to take control; to help their new military with training; to help their police; to help reestablish the infrastructure that’s needed for a secure country.

LATER: Maybe Congressman Murtha needs to read this letter from an American soldier in Iraq ...

Mom,

Be my voice. I want this message heard. It is mine and my platoon’s to the country. A man I know lost his legs the other night. He is in another company in our batallion. I can no longer be silent after watching the sacrifices made by Iraqis and Americans everyday.Send it to a congressman if you have to. Send it to FOX news if you have to. Let this message be heard please…

My fellow Americans, I have a task for those with the courage and fortitude to take it. I have a message that needs not fall on deaf ears. A vision the blind need to see. I am not a political man nor one with great wisdom. I am just a soldier who finds himself helping rebuild a country that he helped liberate a couple years ago.
I have watched on television how the American public questions why their mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters are fighting and dying in a country 9000 miles away from their own soil. Take the word of a soldier, for that is all I am, that our cause is a noble one. The reason we are here is one worth fighting for. A cause that has been the most costly and sought after cause in our small span of existence on our little planet. Bought in blood and paid for by those brave enough to give the ultimate sacrifice to obtain it. A right that is given to every man, woman, and child I believe by God. I am talking of freedom.

Freedom. One word but yet countless words could never capture it’s true meaning or power. “For those who have fought for it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know.” I read that once and it couldn’t be more true. It’s not the average American’s fault that he or she is “blind and deaf” to the taste of freedom. Most American’s are born into their God given right so it is all they ever know. I was once one of them. I would even dare to say that it isn’t surprising that they take for granted what they have had all their life. My experiences in the military however opened my eyes to the truth.

Ironically you will find the biggest outcries of opposition to our cause from those who have had no military experience and haven’t had to fight for freedom. I challenge all of those who are daring enough to question such a noble cause to come here for just a month and see it first hand. I have a feeling that many voices would be silenced.

I watched Cindy Sheehan sit on the President’s lawn and say that America isn’t worth dying for. Later she corrected herself and said Iraq isn’t worth dying for. She badmouthed all that her son had fought and died for. I bet he is rolling over in his grave.

Ladies and gentleman I ask you this. What if you lived in a country that wasn’t free? What if someone told you when you could have heat, electricity, and water? What if you had no sewage systems so human waste flowed into the streets? What if someone would kill you for bad-mouthing your government? What if you weren’t allowed to watch TV, connect to the internet, or have cell phones unless under extreme censorship? What if you couldn’t put shoes on your child’s feet?

You need not to have a great understanding of the world but rather common sense to realize that it is our duty as HUMAN BEINGS to free the oppressed. If you lived that way would you not want someone to help you????

The Iraqi’s pour into the streets to wave at us and when we liberated the cities during the war they gathered in the thousands to cheer, hug and kiss us. It was what the soldier’s in WW2 experienced, yet no one questioned their cause!! Saddam was no better than Hitler! He tortured and killed thousands of innocent people. We are heroes over here, yet American’s badmouth our President for having us here.

Every police station here has a dozen or more memorials for officers that were murdered trying to ensure that their people live free. These are husbands, fathers, and sons killed every day. What if it were your country? What would your choice be? Everything we fight for is worth the blood that may be shed. The media never reports the true HEROISM I witness everyday in the Iraqi’s. Yes there are bad one’s here, but I assure you they are a minuscule percent. Yet they are a number big enough to cause worry in this country’s future.
I have watched brave souls give their all and lose thier lives and limbs for this cause. I will no longer stand silent and let the “deaf and blind” be the only voice shouting. Stonewall Jackson once said, “All that I have, all that I am is at the service of the country.” For these brave souls who gave the ultimate sacrifice, including your son Cindy Sheehan, I will shout till I can no longer. These men and women are heroes. Their spirit lives on in their military and they will never be forgotten. They did not die in vain but rather for a cause that is larger than all of us.

My fellow countrymen and women, we are not overseas for our country alone but also another. We are here to spread democracy and freedom to those who KNOW the true taste of it because they fight for it everyday. You can see the desire in their eyes and I am honored to fight alongside them as an Infantryman in the 101st Airborne.

Freedom is not free, but yet it is everyone’s right to have. Ironic isn’t it? That is why we are here. Though you will always have the skeptics, I know that most of our military will agree with this message. Please, at the request of this soldier spread this message to all you know. We are in Operation Iraqi Freedom and that is our goal. It is a cause that I and thousands of others stand ready to pay the ultimate sacrifice for because, Cindy Sheehan, freedom is worth dying for, no matter what country it is! And after the world is free only then can we hope to have peace.

SGT XXX and 1st Platoon
101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)

[Via SGT Hook]