Ganked from darksumomo

Secular America, it appears that the Church has had enough of your shenanigans. (The Western Confucian via The Marmot's Hole)

One photographer's battle against anorexia in the modeling field.(Probably NSFW) (Ibid.)

Need to pick up the season's hottest political tomes? Look not further than The Other McCain! As a further inducement, the taste Amazon gives Stacy off these sales goes to support independent news reporting of the sort not often done by the lamestream media, and keeps Mrs. McCain happy. Honestly, who could deny a woman like that the pleasure of a jingly tip jar?
"But I already have a glut of books/hate politics/want to get something for my SO!" you say? Well, that's already been covered, with some helpful tips on maintaining a happy marriage supplied along with some tasteful art. (YMMV)

As for me, well, I don't have a wife and six kids, but I wouldn't mind a little traffic through my portal either. Take a look at my bookstore or take advantage of Amazon's Black Friday Deals.

Last but not least, The Dugout gives thanks for Joe Mauer.

I'm beginning to understand why, given his druthers, Dad preferred to get up as early as possible and attend the first Mass at the chapel. This ensured that he was able to avoid the kind of cantor I and several hundred of my fellow parishioners were subjected to at the 5 PM Mass today. The kind that has a great vocal range and doesn't get that most people don't. The kind that likes to sing EVERYTHING, in spite of the fact that it's not a High Mass. The kind that picks weird Eucharistic Prayers and makes the speakers howl because she can hit the high notes REAL LOUD. The kind that I want to take to the next death metal concert in the area and duct-tape to the stage right in front of the speaker stacks.

The kind that, as Leo Rosten once quipped, on being told of a death in the congregation, would whip out a tuning fork, strike it, and intone, "Gevaaaaalt!"

I'm sure she's really a nice person and not nearly as egotistical as I'm thinking she is. Still, I'm going to the 0630 Mass next Sunday if it kills me. For somebody whose preferred worship style is closer to the Friendlies than to full-blown High Church Catholicism, all this high-falutin' singing (without an organ, even!) gives me a pain in several parts of my body.

I made a bunch of calls yesterday, fired off a bushel of resumes, and filed an app with H&R Block to come back. Unfortunately I missed the window for taking tax prep classes (that needed to be done before Labor Day) but what the hell - three and a half months of part-time work will do my wallet good. I might just be able to scrape enough work together between Alexandria, Fairfax County, and H&R Block to get caught up on some of the bills around here. Am also going to sign up for baseball reporting with STATS again; P thinks I should get more heavily into baseball writing and blogging, maybe revive the Rebel Baseball Review, but I want to take this one step at a time. Whether I'll actually have time for any of this once Civ comes to Facebook next year is a good question. ;)

In the meantme, I'm going to get up and head over to the Blessed Sacrament parish festival today, because, well, I've never been to a parish festival. Also, sitting in the apartment all day is not good for me; I need to get OUT now and again and see people. Maybe even interact with them in meatspace. I know, this is a strange concept for many of you to grasp, but trust me, it does me good.

Getting out will be facilitated by the amputation of the foot wrap part of the Profore bandage, which had largely come unmoored from my foot anyway. This is a Good Thing as far as I'm concerned, since now I can put a sock on my right foot and get it in my regular shoe, as opposed to the Clown Shoe. In a related item, the Clindamycin doesn't seem to be harrowing my GI tract as bad as it was last week. Maybe my intestinal bacteria have grown tougher. Maybe it wasn't the antibiotic to start with. *shrugs*

Oh yeah: Aaron Static has his October Power Hour up and available for download. DO EET.

Finally

Well, as I said to those of you on Facebook, I went and kicked the tires at Blessed Sacrament, lit a fire, and filled out paperwork to sign up with the parish. The church building is modernist, but not oppressively so; the 1100 Mass is fairly traditional, with a choir and altar boys/acolytes and eucharistic ministers helping hand out Communion, so it's quite the three-ring circus. People actually took the time to talk with me a little when I handed in my paperwork, which was a pleasant change from every parish I've been to since...well, ever. This may actually be a parish community where that phrase isn't an oxymoron. So I'll be going back next week, probably to an earlier Mass, but not the 0900 Mass because that's the folk Mass. I hate folk Masses; they have really bad associations for me going back to my days as an Air Force brat in the 1970s, and if I can avoid them, I will.

On the secular side of things, I met with Messrs. therevdrnye and Groark at Five Guys for lunch and we discussed anime, manga, RP campaigns past and current, and the state of things in our respective lives. That was over too soon, but therevdrnye came over to my place and I dragged the drafting chair out of the kitchen into the newly-cleared living room for him. (Someday soon I will acquire actual chairs people can sit and relax in, or at least sit.) More discussions of RP campaigns followed, mostly revolving around Twilight 2000, until he had to shove off and retrieve his laptop, which was being beaten back into submission by some technically-inclined friends of his of the Mac persuasion.

So here it is 2200. I have an appointment tomorrow at the VA, and even if I didn't I'm too ragged out by the day's activities to want to stay up half the night playing internet spaceships. Even if lag-free fleet action is in the offing. Going to take pills, shoot up, and go to bed.

Spent some time flailing around last night trying to install a couple of games that my brother gave me a while back, but the first one wouldn't run after being installed and the second one locked up during the install when it couldn't find the now-defunct web site of the publisher. Oh, well. Wound up downloading the freeware version of Steel Panthers and playing that instead.

Also went through the three boxes sitting next to my desk and (mostly) emptying two of them. One of the boxes had a number of the books I've been looking for since I moved in, such as Bill James The Politics of Glory, Pournelle & Stirling's Go Tell the Spartans, and P.J. O'Rourke's Give War A Chance. I missed them all very badly and am very very glad to have found them. Now to assemble the last bookcase so I have somewhere to put them.

I'm a little reluctant to do this because of the crappy weather and the way my leg felt after Friday's sub orientation, but I'm going to go out to Blessed Sacrament and see how the 1100 Mass is. Since my morning glucose was 87 (wtf?) I'm going to take care of that first, though. Not taking Communion anyway, so...*shrug*

I don't really have the heart to go back and review the gameday threads from the weekend for the Twins and Sox. Bad enough that they lost without rubbing my own nose in the details. I guess I'll be half-heartedly cheering on the Angels and Phillies (because sod the Yankees and Dodgers, seriously) but I don't really care about the Angels, and the Phillies- well, yeah. I used to love them when I was a Twins fan, but now that they're the dominant team in the Nationals' division, it's a little bit harder. I'd sure rather see them win the pennant than the stinking Dodgers, though.

Also also not posting Giamatti's paean to baseball here; I know too much baseball history to do anything but utterly despise the man, no matter how purty he writes.

( An extended thanks to my friends and family )
Well, I should be in bed; right now, sitting up is not good for the leg, so I'm going to fill the dishwasher and then go get horizontal.

Oh sure, he had some help from Venice, the Papal States, his father Charles V (King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor) and a bunch of English Catholics who risked the wrath of Queen Elizabeth to fight the Turks. There was also, as Victor Davis Hanson says, a scientific and cultural advantage working in favor of the numerically inferior Papal League. Michael Novak has a good article here at NRO with appropriate props to the Blessed Mother as Our Lady of Victory.

I still think the best description of the battle came from G.K. Chesteron, though, who wrote this epic poem about the battle.
( Cut to spare my f-list )
To quote Baron Bodissey, "We are in a new phase of a very old war."

Got released from the Day Job ~1400, promptly called the Night Job to see if there was anything cooking. I was rewarded with a six-hour shift and oodles of gratitude from the tax preparers and office manager, who no longer had to try and cope with the phones and walk-in customers while at the same time trying to do right by their appointments. There's two paydays between now and Detour, so I should be able to head west with a decent roll in my wallet.

Not much else going on...will be swinging by the Night Job tomorrow morning to make sure they're covered. Hopefully they will be since I need to do laundry and would rather get it out of the way in the morning along with some baking.

Law of the Fish successfully complied with today. Going to have a little yogurt and a lot of sleep.

Talked with Father McGill today (he's celebrating the funeral Mass) and we ran through the details.

First and most important, DO NOT go to the Visitor's Center at Arlington National Cemetery. The Mass will be at the Old Post Chapel on Fort Myer. (Directions to the Chapel.) Bring identification with you, and be at the chapel NO LATER THAN 2:15. We're going to start without you if you're late.

I'll be doing the readings and the eulogy but would be happy to hand off some of the readings. E-mail me or call me.
Communion will be available, and y'all damn well better have gone to Confession if you plan on receiving. Let me know by Monday if you will be so I can let Father know how many he needs to be ready for.
There will be an organist, but we're not expected to sing along.

I am hoping that Monsignor Sokolowski, who concelebrated Dad's funeral, will be there, but since we didn't remember to call him until this weekend I'm not promising anything on that front.

Stuff Catholics Like is not only funny but also (mostly) accurate. Worth reading even if - or maybe especially if - you're a Godless Protestant or apostate dog. ;)

Ganked from darthbeckman @catholicism.

Actually, the Pope has been here since yesterday, but the big mass at Nationals Park is this morning. No, I'm not going; I don't feel worthy, and unlike the Speaker of the House, I'm not nearly big enough a hypocrite as to think I deserve to be there.

Speaking of venial sins, while the traffic was indeed horrible today, blaming my tardiness on Benedict XVI would be just wrong. I was soggy and hard to light this morning, which I don't really understand since I got to bed early enough last night after getting the laundry done. Anyway, I got out of the apartment with what normally would have been ample time, but Gallows Road was super clogged and very slow. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) work is going to be very slow today since I'm waiting for responses to e-mails and don't have anything else going on.

I'll be calling around this afternoon to various staffing managers letting them know that this assignment will be over tomorrow and that I need something to start on Monday.

I managed to clock a tad less than 32 hours this week, which is pretty good considering that I missed two hours on Wednesday what with Mom being sick. They're looking forward to having me back on Monday, and I'm looking forward to going back.

Word from Kaiser on my compression hose is that I have to take a lymphedema self-care course from them before they'll sign off on some new ones; that's doable. All I have to do is call to make the appointment...and get my money & paperwork in to make sure I stay covered under COBRA. $255/month isn't that much considering the level of care I'm getting. Speaking of paperwork, I apparently forgot to certify to Wells' pension admin people that I wasn't married, so they sent the forms back and had me attend to that. I returned it via Priority Mail, so God and Wells willing, I'll find the pension lump sum distribution in my mailbox when I get back from Detour.

Conformed to the Law of the Fish today but got distracted and never got out of the apartment for the 7:45 Mass. More time in the penalty box :(

Not sure what I'm going to do with myself tomorrow; the Goonmeet at Carpool is directly opposite Anonycon in Crystal City. I missed the last meet at Dr. Dremo's on account of being sick with the pneumonic plague, but I'm not missing this.

( Mark 15:16-39 )
I need to take some time this afternoon and find a church that has services tonight. Washington's much bigger than the Twin Cities, so it shouldn't be so hard, but finding one at the right place and time might be. While most other folks in this office are getting off early on account of Easter, the auditors are here so nobody in accounting will be leaving early, and that includes me. Just as well; I need the money.

Keep jiggling the beads, brothers and sisters. We may yet get Russia back on track after all these centuries of backwardness, schism, and misery. I mean, if even the former General Secretary of the CPSU is making pilgrimages to the tomb of St. Francis, who's to say there's no hope for the likes of Vlad Putin and his gang of not-so-merry thugs?

(Instapundit)

First day of Iodosorb, and things went pretty much okay except for the mildly painful burning sensation that started around 3 PM and didn't let up until I finished dinner around 1830. Leg feels okay now. Or maybe I've just gotten used to the low-level pain, I dunno. We'll try it with just one pad tomorrow (I went with two this morning in a feeble attempt to attain full wound coverage) and see if that helps any. In possibly unrelated news, my blood sugars today were all below 85. Scary.

In any case, I felt too ragged out to think about going to Ash Wednesday Mass, so I guess I can tack on another couple of weeks in Purgatory. Unless being sick gets me off the hook. I'll find out when I get there, I suppose. In the meantime, I'm going to load the dishwasher and go to bed.

The Feds and Virginia both accepted my e-filed returns today. w00t.

I will write 100 times, "I will not discuss religion ever again with strangers I meet in bars," since based on tonight's sample and other unfortunate experiences, it seldom ends well. Best results approach zero if one of the random strangers is a Protestant trying to convince his Irish Catholic divorcee GF that they should get married in the Lutheran Church instead of waiting for the annulment tribunal so they can get hitched in the Catholic Church. Tonight's sample ended with me calling the Lutheran BF an asshole after he compared Catholics to Nazis. He followed me out to the truck hollering and yelling but couldn't quite work up the nerve to take a swing. So much the worse for him; he did have the sense to back away from the truck after I told him "I don't want your apology, I want you to get the hell away from me and away from my truck." Maybe he thought I was going to run him over if he didn't. *shrug*

Appointment with new primary care physician this morning turned into appointment with nurse practitioner who specializes in diabetes treatment. It went pretty well. She gave me a referral to a wound care clinic for my leg, a new prescription for Cozaar since she didn't like the looks of my blood pressure, and a slew of tests that I got done at the lab on the way in to the office. Next appointment is with the real doctor in two weeks, and we'll see what happens from there. For now, I'm continuing with the Actos, Glipizide and Glucophage and seeing what that does. NP is a woman on a mission: she went into this specialty after her daughter was diagnosed as a Type I diabetic at age six. As long as she doesn't drag my kids into this I think we're going to have a good professional relationship.

Paid back Leo and Luis for past lunches at the Worst Kebab Place Ever today. Leo ordered me an Afghan gyro, which had authentic gyrobeast slices and was not burned. This made up for the last two (burned) lamb kebabs, but I'm still not impressed by the place.

Almost making up for the religious tonteria this evening is the discovery of beatonna and her website, wherein reside such cool things as this cartoon about Prince Edward Island: land of my paternal ancestors! And potatoes! Did I mention potatoes? I wish I'd gone somewhere where they served potatoes instead of pasta tonight. :(

joelrosenberg is fuming about Christmas, and in the course of responding/sympathizing, it occurred to me that I never quite got around to compiling my list of holidays correlated with the Seven Deadly Sins.

Christmas is obviously Greed, the 4th of July is Pride, and Thanksgiving is Gluttony. Any suggestions for the others? Since I think there are more holidays than Deadly Sins, I'm open to suggestions using venial sins as well. :)