Noel 2007 blog

[boxing day]

Oh, I am so too very tired that almost the first time ever I went back to bed and back to sleep this morning. Christmas Eve? Don't ask. Christmas Day? Excellent dinner (turkey, dressing/stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cran, gb casserole, rolls and butter, creamed onions, olives, mixed veggies, mince pie (baked by Richard) with brandy, California chardonnayl some kind of vin de France, red wine of some type, good company (Patti, Floyd, Miriam, Richard, Carla, me, Ava April, Copper Queen, Dakoda, Easter Angel, Nikki, Spirit of 2004, Tigar). No church...no PM, Cruiser or AM... I don't know how I'll return to Paradise another time. I thought Carla would be driving back and I didn't make a reservation on the Socialist (or on any other) Airline. This afternoon we met Jim and Cheryl at the Humane Society so they could meet, greet and drive home with Kino, their new pup they just happened to meet serendipitously.

Friday 5: What Are You...

ReverendMother actually was early with (for me, tomorrow's) Friday 5, so for the first and probably the last time as long as I'm still living way out Left, I'm playing early. EARLY!

PS The time of ReverendMother''s blog reads Friday morning @ 9:52.

Friday Five: What Are You...

1. Wearing

Long sleeve cotton sweater with wide yellow and 3 blues stripes; Cherokee stonewashed blue painter jeans; black flipflops.

2. Pondering

Life's meaning and purpose, direction and detours, and especially discerning the meaning the purpose and the direction of my ministry in the very near and medium-term future.

3. Reading

Trying to read through the Dead Sea Scrolls to prepare to see the exhibit--in seminary I took a semester-long course on the DSS but still don't know the content. I'm also digging into some books on typography and graphic design.

4. Dreaming

First I'll mention the atypical for me several weeks-long series of dreams of being with people I don't spend much time with and never being able to reach wherever I'm going; for daydreams, a world on Fire with the Holy Spirit!

5. Eating

Nothing at this very moment—I had dinner at Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes for a sort of local Young Life or maybe it was a generic youth group benefit this evening. I especially enjoyed the clam chowder and baked potato--on the potato I did the whole enitre Mexican salsa-condiment thing.

cityfence 2007

American Idols Friday 5

Another Friday 5 from the RevGals, appropriately posted on one of my city blogs.


American Idols! I've never watched the show, but I know of Kelly Clarkson and love her singing "Breakaway" (Avril Lavigne is so good) and "Because of You." True I have a degree in classical piano and organ performance and love attending symphony, but my casual radio listening almost always tends to current pop and oldies, so within the usual guidelines of Friday Five, I'll take my own twist on today's 5.

1) If I could sing like anyone, it would be Jewel Kilcher.

2) I would love to sing the songs "Absence of Fear" by the aforementioned Jewel and "Faces in the Wind"—the only version I know is by Karla Bonoff; music by Craig Safan..

3) It would be really cool to sing at the local 4th and B.

4) If I could sing a dream (duet) trio it would be with Robin and Linda Williams, the song, Don't Let me Come Home a Stranger. You need to scroll down the page for the lyrics.

5) If I could sing on a TV or radio show, it would be the theme song written and composed by me for my own future production of Adventures in Reformation Theology, since that's the kind of topic people always ask me about, so why not go public, esp given the intense popular interest.

Feline Friday Five

Badda Bing Badda Boom Friday Five

Today's Friday 5 is so fun! I challenged myself to play without peeking at anyone else's answers. Since I'm way out on the Left Coast, a lot of Fridays I don't play until later than everyone else, and today isn't an exception :((

This time I'm actually trying not to be my usual formally theological self...

F5, short and sweet.

The questions are simple, the answers unlimited. Go!

Who: My former neighbors, Lisa, Al and their two kids;

What: my decision to adopt their young brown tabby boy cat they'd found in an alley and named "Alley";

When: almost 5 years ago, during spring 2002;

Where: from their house to my house;

Why: they claimed he was outrageously aggressive; I thought he was gorgeous and full of potential--(hey, I need to take some pics and get them online soon!);

Bonus: How: making a deal with them I'd go 50/50 with the cost of his neutering; Lisa brought him to me together with his dishes, some food and a cat bed;

My self-defined extra bonus: So what? since I already had Pumpkin Marigold, an orange tabby girl cat I usually called "PM," I renamed my new adoptee, keeping Alley as the first part of his name and adding a middle name beginning with "M" so I could have both AM and PM. His middle name? Malibu, after the strip beach not far away from the Central Artery in Boston and not the more illustrious California beach of the same name. AM has grown up to be amazing, affectionate and very large!

Summer's Sandals

starstruck hibiscus garlands
decorating orange sandals
enhanced by windchimes’ breeze of the Spirit
surprised me with a burst of hope

sandals! icon of summer's freedom
symbol of discipleship’s unshod liberty:
wear sandals

La Jolla Cove on summer weeknights
De Anza Cove for Fridays
sprinkled by airborne mist
in the company of seagulls
treading sand, tripping across baptismal rocks
we follow the Rock and our Rock is Christ
who named Simon Rocky Peter
who names us friends and servants

Rocky Mountain Low

Fresh fall of Rocky Mountain powder
Very Dry Day
California dreaming...of California
from a blizzard balcony

end o'day caramel slag
Pride's Crossing
Proud's Lossing
proud losing
Mountainy Rocks dusted with freshly fallen snow
Intermountain Westward dreaming
reassembling
Seven illustrated Canyons of Salt Lake City
Protégé's prodigious Nautical Décor
Unfolding unusual Energy