30 April 2009

Laying In and Laying Low

OK, maybe not the most grammatically correct title, but it works for me. :-)

Here in Sacramento, swine flu has been reported, so I'm doing my best to minimize exposure for both myself and DH. I just completed a grocery run that should hopefully, when combined with stuff we had already, hold us for two weeks (by then, this should be winding down or over, right?). I went early enough that stores were lightly populated and did not take DH. He's the one with a job right now, so it would be a bigger problem if he were to miss work and lose income. Better that I be the one exposed to the general population, since it would be inconvenient but not a major problem for me to be ill.

Long's (in my area, in the process of becoming CVS) was setting up a display of cold/flu stuff, hand sanitizer, gloves, and masks. WalMart did not have such a display, but did have hand sanitizer readily available on entry (I did employ some on my shopping cart handle as well as my hands. You never know).

The grocery run went fine, but I'm still bewildered about the bagger at Trader Joe's who thought putting a 1/2 gallon container of soy milk on top of a loaf of bread was a good idea.

At this point, the only exposure we're likely to have is DH going to work and our church attendance. Usually on Saturday, we go out for lunch, but I think this week we're getting something delivered. Must remember that it's Fast Sunday this week.

Big project for the next few days: finishing DMIL's Mother's Day gift, which is a plastic canvas needlepoint tote bag she requested (this is the second one, she's used the first one to death). I'll probably wind up having to ship it express, which is my own fault for not finishing the project sooner.

Traffic was pretty light (in Sacramento, this is always a good thing) and the general intelligence level of that traffic seemed higher than normal for here. Sacramento drivers are crazy.

29 April 2009

Just Some Stuff Stuck In My Head

Various stuff just churning around in my head today:

1. The Miss California pageant is not something I normally have any interest in, but I do take strong exception to their admonishing Carrie Prejean that exercising her right to hold and state beliefs that are not completely politically correct somehow does not "represent" California. I'm sorry, which way did the majority of voting Californians vote on gay "marriage"? As I recall, being someone who voted in favor of making sure California was using God's definition of marriage (man and woman, not two of the same sex), the gay activists LOST that round. That would strongly suggest that the majority of Californians were represented by Miss Prejean's defense of the true definition of marriage. I happened across a rather interesting article on the subject here.

2. I've been seeing a lot of strident anti-religion discussion online lately. Leaving aside that a lot of those remarks are borderline literate at best (News10's comments section offers the best examples of those), I've come to the conclusion that atheism has two source causes:
a) the arrogance of thinking that we humans are just so brilliant, special, etc., there can't possibly be anything greater than we are.
b) simple rebelliousness such as we see in any teen who doesn't want to deal with behavioral rules. Refusing to acknowledge a greater power that has the wisdom and authority to set rules for us allows the "I can do whatever I want" mindset. Well, take a look at society as a whole and see how well we're doing with that idea. Think the "no right and wrong, just do what you feel like doing" is working out well? OK, so it's now fashionable to reject faith as not scientific enough. Last I knew, truth is not determined by fashions that change constantly, but by reality.

3. I'm sure we've all heard about the Mayan calendar ending at the end of 2012, and all the apocalyptic things that are alleged to take place at that point. I think "The X-Files" has even addressed this (not that I get my science, history, etc., from Hollywood, please note (smile)). Myself, I subscribe to the calmer theory that what's going to happen when the Long Count calendar runs out is going to be very comparable to the transition from 1999 to 2000 or an odometer rollover in your car. However, if along about June, I get word of two special witnesses of Christ preaching in Jerusalem, as discussed in Revelation 11, I reserve the right to rethink that position. If those two witnesses show up about June, the prophesied 42 months of their preaching will end in December 2012. We shall see.

27 April 2009

Starting Out

Well, here I am entering the wonderful world of blogging. At this point, I don't have a lot to say that I can think of.

Basic bio: I'm 39 (as of this writing), female, married. Felix and Ava are my cat and dove (respectively). We live with my husband Bob in Sacramento, CA. Bob and I are active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Bob was born and raised in the Church, I converted in 1994 at age 24. Bob and I were married in 1995 in the Los Angeles Temple.

Felix joined the family a month after the wedding. We agreed we needed a cat, so off I went to the shelter (Bob had to work that day), where the cat they were calling "Soldier" made it clear he was claiming me. When I got him home, he got the point across that the name the shelter had given him was not his name and I needed to find the correct name. After a few days of getting to know him, I started trying out names on him, and "Felix" was the one he reacted the most strongly to, so that's his name now. No, I had not heard of the "Felix the Cat" cartoon when I named him, I was thinking of the Odd Couple character.

Ava adopted us near the end of 2002. I had opened the door to go take a walk one very cold evening and caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Turned out to be an injured ringneck dove. We took the bird in, not sure it would survive its injuries. A "found" ad in the local paper failed to turn up the bird's original owner, so a new family member was added. We initially named the bird "Avery", thinking we had a male. When we moved to Sacramento in 2004, a neighbor who was a vet tech and familiar with doves, was also sure we had a male, based on amount and volume of cooing. So "he" surprised us one morning when we found the wreckage of an egg in the cage. As best we can figure, she unloaded the egg while on a perch. She was duly renamed. :-)

My major interests are reading, needlework and crafts, and Sudoku.

I doubt I'll update all that frequently, basically when something's on my mind.