Two-Year-Old Piety

We actually made it to Mass this morning -- late, but we still made it! During the Consecration Katie said in a stage whisper, "Is dat Jesus' body now?" and then "Is dat Jesus' bwood now?" And whenever we genuflect when leaving the pew, she always blows Jesus a kiss, unprompted. It's always nice to know something is sinking in.

Ferocious Guard Rabbit

Based on my experience with female rabbits, I don't really find this surprising.

Lipizzaner Lops?

The girls love this video.


I'll bet you didn't know there were rabbit-jumping clubs and tournaments. Leave it to the Scandinavians to think of this.... Well, I guess if your winter is 9 1/2 months long, you're going to think of creative ways to pass the time indoors. Curling is, after all, an Olympic sport.

and of course, you've seen Jack Rabbit Bauer in "Bunny 24", right?

Sweet.

Those of you who aren't living under a rock like us may have seen those PC vs. Mac commercials. (bonus points if you can recognize the "Mac" actor)
Well, the Saginaw Seminarians have come up with an excellent variation on that theme:



Contraception vs. NFP!
(more on YouTube!)

We always knew China was evil

Mattel Recalling More Chinese-Made Toys

I'm beginning to think it might be worth it to fork over the cash for US-made, high-quality, natural material toys. This is just getting scary.

Date Night

For our date night last weekend we went to the Kennedy Center in DC to see:



I hadn't seen it since I was a teenager, and Mr. Pickles had never seen it before. We really enjoyed it. The singing was fabulous, the set & costumes were gorgeous, and the pyrotechnics were a nice touch, too. :) It's funny, though -- I think we're so used to realism in movies & such that the bouncy emoting of the stage actors was hard to get used to. For example, I found it annoying that Christine & Raoul kept running back and forth across the stage when they're supposed to be having their big romantic rooftop scene. But I supposed that they have to make all their movements huge for the benefit of those of us sitting up in the nosebleed seats.

A couple days later we watched the recent movie version, and enjoyed that one a lot too. I just couldn't get over the fact that the actress who played Christine was 17 years old. And the Phantom? Mr. Pickles recognized his voice from the trailer for 300. And Minnie Driver made an absolutely fabulous Carlotta. (Now you all have to go put the movie in your queue so you know what I'm talking about!) :) There's something special about seeing it live on stage, though. Having performed on stage myself, in the dim and distant past, I have the highest respect for people who can pull off a flawless performance like that. The amazing thing was that the role of the Phantom and Carlotta were both filled by the understudies, who were amazing. You wouldn't have known if there hadn't been a notice to that effect.

I'm afraid this performance has whetted my appetite for live drama. Let's see, what's coming up at Wolftrap....

new baby ticker!

For those of you who never look at our footer, I'll save you the trouble and put it in a post too. :)



"Only 228 days to go"... *sob*
(hopefully only 46 of which will be spent lying on the couch and moaning)

Oh yeah -- most likely Joseph Michael if it's a boy, and Rose (or Rosemary) Therese if it's a girl.

w00t!1!

Here we go again...

Keep us in your prayers. Even though I've got good vibes about it this time around, anxiety never, ever goes away once you've lost one baby. Right after I took this test I made an appointment with my OB, mostly to check hormone levels. Everything came back great, praise God! So as far as my input goes, we're good. Now I just need to make sure I don't eat so much that I start to look like the side of a barn by 4 months! Like all my other pregnancies, I've found that the best help for pregnancy nausea is... eating. all. the. time. (Right now I'm polishing off a bowl of Honey Nut O's, even though it's 8:30 pm and I just had dinner 2 hrs ago.) Unfortunately, the copious amounts of vitamin B6 that helped me so much in the past haven't made much of a difference as far as nausea goes -- although it certainly is keeping me from daily plotting the deaths of my family members. (Yay Premesis!) It just seems patently unfair that I've had to undergo the first trimester three separate times in the space of a year. Hopefully this time will be the last for several years! I'm really looking forward to that second-trimester energy surge.

Regarding due date, we have no idea. (when you've been charting for 7 years, you tend to get a little lazy...) It was too early for the doctor to do an ultrasound, anyway. But I'm going to hazard a guess at late March-ish. (Add it to all the other family birthdays then!) So the baby & I will be well enough for the big wedding in June, no fear! It will probably just take us twice as long to get there, since we'll be stopping for breaks every 2 hrs, at least. Ah well. I can guarantee I won't complain. I can't wait to have a squishy little peanut again.


Sweet and Low by Jessie Wilcox-Smith

Developments in Katish

"Brrrrr, I'm all cold and sugary!"

Obsessing

Well, since I've finished read HPDH twice, I've been having fun lurking at HP fansites, especially the Leaky Cauldron, browsing their fan art. Some truly amazing talent there. I came across this one which just made my day:



(you'll probably need to click it to see it clearly)

I'm also allowing myself to visit Jan the Maven's blog -- I tried to avoid it before b/c I didn't want to have anything spoiled! I did end up regretting one visit that I made a while back, b/c a big reveal towards the end of the book ("The Prince's Tale") wasn't as big of a surprise for me as it should have been, since I read a couple of her predictions. But now I'm immersing myself in all the interviews and discussions and dissections to my little heart's content!

J.K. Rowling has done an amazing job. I don't think it's going too far to include her epic with other true myths, such as Tolkein's and C.S. Lewis'. So much of it has the true ring. I admire her for sneaking in so much morality -- hopefully it will rub off on all those unsuspecting, impressionable young minds who have been drinking this stuff in for the last 10 years! :)