First Reconciliation

Today, my 8 year old, David, had his first reconciliation. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is unique to Catholics, and is one of the biggest "Why do Catholics Do That" questions asked by Protestants. I'm not going to answer the "why" question in this blog. I will just say that there are really good reasons, and you really feel good when you are all done.

But, today was David's day. It was a communal reconciliation service, meaning we did a lot of the parts of the Sacrament as a group before going to individual reconciliation with a priest. I went first, and I have to say that the priest who I talked with was the most welcoming I've ever had. I'm always very nervous about this...you never want to spill your dirty laundry to another person. But, he made me feel so welcome it really put me at ease and made the whole process better. As always, I felt terrific when I was done.

I then went and waited in line with David and Amanda. It's so funny to watch all these 2nd graders sitting with the priests. They are so small, and many of them are smiling when they're up there! When it was David's turn, he sat down, then he got up and ran back to my wife and I to ask us what he should do. We sent him back and just told him to do his best. It was really fun to watch David up there. When he was done, his mom and I both gave him a big hug, then he and I went and prayed while we waited for Amanda to complete her reconciliation.

Afterward, like all good Catholic events, there was cookies and juice. There were way too many cookies, so David had 4 cookies (I had 3). Tonight, we are going to Culver's to celebrate. We told David we could go anywhere he wanted to celebrate, and initially, he chose Burger King. Neither my wife or I were very excited about that, so we suggested a few other places where we could also get dessert. Then he said, "I know, let's go to Culver's", which is better than Burger King, so I guess that's where we're going.

Pirates!

Apparently, piracy is alive and well. No, I'm not talking about piracy of music or movies, I'm talking about genuine, high seas piracy. Off the coast of Somalia, piracy is running rampant. Here's a map I found on msnbc.com that shows where pirate attacks occurred in 2008.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27811485/

Just today, a group of pirates, who had taken control of a Saudi oil tanker, released it for the sum of $3 million dollars. This saga has been going on since November, and was resolved today when the pirates lowered their demands from $10 million to $3 million, which the Saudis paid.

Now, these pirates aren't your Captain Jack Sparrow or Dread Pirate Roberts variety. No, these pirates were armed gunmen who hijacked the ship and its crew of 25 and held them for nearly 2 months awaiting ransom demands to be met. This is nasty stuff! While I enjoy pirate movies as much as the next guy, that romantic portrayal has never been close to the real thing.

As you can see from the map, most of the piracy is taking place in the shipping lanes of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, so you can still take your Caribbean or Alaskan Cruise. On Thursday, the U.S. Navy said it was planning to launch a force to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden. Hopefully, the Navy, along with the Chinese and others in the region can help to quell these attacks.

Book Review: "The Seems: The Split Second"

I know what you're thinking...didn't he just review that book? Well, no actually I didn't. I reviewed, "The Seems: The Glitch in Sleep." I'm now reviewing the 2nd book in the series, called "The Seems: The Split Second". After reading the first one, I was anxious to read the second one, so I got a copy, and read it in about 6 hours over 3 nights. I tend to be a bit obsessive when I have a good book going, so I read them very quickly.

In "The Split Second" our favorite 13 year old Fixer, Becker Drane, is back again, and the world needs fixing, again. This time, the problem is bigger than just one Fixer can handle. Complicating things further is the isolation Becker feels being the youngest Fixer in the Seems, and not having anyone in the world he can confide in. On this latest mission, Becker faces unforeseen troubles, a few heart wrenching moments, and makes a few new allies too.

Overall, I'd have to say I enjoyed this book more than the first. Hulme and Wexler have definitely latched on to a good concept here. This time, the story is more fast paced, the twist and turns a little more unexpected, and we learn a lot more about the characters. We also learn a great deal more about Seemsian lore. Additionally, the footnotes in the book and the appendices bring a lot of humor.

I hope they release another book, and I hope it's soon.

Fred on the Economy

A friend sent this link to me today. This is Fred Thompson on the economy. It's about 8 minutes long, but it's well worth the time. You'll laugh, and you might even cry.

http://patriotroom.com/article/fred-thompson-at-his-snarkiest-best;jsessionid=F87226F66573E3EF24B609732535D653

What Fred is sarcastically pointing out is exactly what those of us who are logical thinking members of society already know. We can't borrow and spend our way out of this recession. That's what got us into this mess. Our economy is rushing towards permanent ruin, and the "experts" in Washington D.C. are hell bent on speeding it along in their misguided attempts to "help".

In my opinion, and this will sound harsh, we need to ride this out. Hard choices need to be made. Companies that have mismanaged themselves through the recent artificially inflated economy need to fail or go bankrupt, so that new, better managed companies can take their place. I realize this will cost jobs and we will suffer in the short term, but we'll be better for it in the long term.

I believe that letting the free market work is the quickest way to fix this. Anything else will just continue to artificially inflate this economy and "kick the can" down the road to future generations.

My New Year's Resolution

My wife has a part time job, and usually works evenings. During normal times, she works 2-3 evenings a week. Lately, it's been more because it's the holiday season, although things are returning to normal.

Tonight, my wife is at work, and it's up to me to figure out supper. I hate this part of the job! Don't get me wrong, sometimes I like to cook. When I have a plan and when we have the correct ingredients. My wife is really good about helping me meal plan when we make our weekly grocery list. However, we haven't been to the grocery store lately because we've been really focused on getting our house organized. So, we're light on ingredients, I have no plan and I'm weak on knowing how to cook things. Complicating this more is the fact that my kids are really picky eaters.

So, I'm struggling to figure out what to make for these kids. I want them to eat something healthy, but in the back of my head, there's this little voice that's saying "just get fast food", which I know is terrible for them, and for me, but it's going to win out and we're going to end up eating McDonald's or Burger King or something like that.

This is the long rambling way of getting to my New Year's resolution, or at least one of them. I'm going to expand my cooking ability so I can better handle situations like this, and so there are more than 5 or 6 things I can cook for my kids. If anybody has any good, simple recipes, send them my way. I won't guarantee I'll use them, but I might.