QUIET WEEKEND

All has been going quite calmly lately. I have to lector later today at 5:00 Mass. Nothing much besides that is happening this weekend. At least it hasn't rained or snowed lately. We haven't seen Uncle Frankie around lately. I have no idea what he's been up to lately. Next weekend is the big Super Bowl party. It will be entirely too fattening for me. The American Legion parties over in Levittown were always an especially annoying time with all the drinking & carousing. On top of that I really don't even like to bother with sports anyway. My mother, Rose, Noreen, & Michelle all have birthdays coming up very soon. Joey's wife, Katie, recently had their little baby son, whom they have named Colin James. Jennifer & Java are next to have their daughter.

BUSY TIME

I just got an e mail from Mary Ellen's son Joey over in North Tonawanda. Katie's in the hospital & their son is supposed to be born soon. That's really good news for one & all. I should most certainly hope for their sake that the weather's not so bad. This morning when I went to Mass at O.L.Sorrows I found a list of cards for the weekend. Each parishoner is asked to take three cards. One is to be mailed to Sen. Arlen Spector. One is for Sen. Robert Casey Jr. One is for Cong. Paul E. Kanjorski. We're asking them to put a stop to the absolute poison that is FOCA. The assumption that if a woman doesn't want her baby it's her business could be applied to the Caylee Anthony case. According to that assumption, if her mother didn't want her, it was her right to murder her. Last night I watched the first episode of the new season of "Burn Notice". I also watched a half hour of a rerun of it during the day. Cousin Vinnie hepped me to it. I've never really liked anything on current TV but somehow I've decided to give this show the satisfaction of a chance. I just can't stand it that it's on until 11:00 p.m.

MISSED WASHINGTON TRIP

Surprisingly, I got a call last evening from one of the guys who are in charge of the pro_life trip to Washington, D.C. He told me there was an opening & I could have gone. Unfortunately, though, by then I'd already told Fr. Walsh's secretary, Norene, that I'd be available this morning to lector at 9:00 a.m. Mass. Having never expected to get an opening on the bus I took it for granted it would be a good idea. I'm really hoping for better luck next year. Michelle, Gino's wife, & Noreen, the other Michelle's sister, are now both on my Facebook friends list. Both their birthdays are this month. The weather's been nightmarishly cold lately every morning but at least there's no real snow or rain to make it unbearable. Cousin Vinnie's very favorite show, "Burn Notice" will be starting its new season at 10:00 tonight. I shall try to stay up a little later than I'm used to so I can watch it. As much as I utterly despise staying up late at night, sometimes I can handle it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COUSIN ALAN

Today Cousin Alan, in Michigan, turns sixty one. Yesterday Uncle Frankie came over again with candy. He & my parents were rambling on all day about the Super Bowl party on Feb. 1 & all the arrangements they have to make for it. Mary Anne called last night too. There was snow yesterday but it didn't amount to anything. Today's Obama's first full day in charge. Yesterday he was on TV absolutely constantly & today there's not a periodical to be found that doesn't have completely insane amounts of coverage of it all. After a while it gets so stale but it's obviously unavoidably mandatory. Tomorrow is a National Day Of Prayer & Penance for Life sponsored by the USCCB. I missed a chance to go to Washington, D.C. but Fr. Walsh will have me lectoring at the Mass at St. Joseph's. I got a call from Norene, his secretary, today, asking me to pick up something at the rectory for it.

PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA II~

By the time I've finished writing this, Obama will have already been sworn in as the country's forty fourth president, the very first ever black, to have held the office. Everyone's been waiting with bated breath for the ultimate moment of truth. Nobody's ever been able to stand W. He & Cheney have always reminded me of a late model Nixon & Agnew. According to CNN, about two million people are expected to show up. Right now I'm trying to connect to CNN by way of Facebook, so I can see the inauguration. Unfortunately it's not quite working out. A few days ago I watched something on TV about Rutherford B. Hayes . I don't know anything about him. He's one of the much more obscure presidents, Ulysses S. Grant's immediate successor. Uncle Frankie showed up for a while yesterday. It turned out to be just a typical visit. Nothing much appears to be going on with him lately except that he now has a mustache. When I got up this morning to make the coffee, the kitchen sink, once again, couldn't come up with any cold water because of the weather.

PARTYING YESTERDAY

It most certainly wasn't exactly a party. Fran was home for the weekend so my parents & I went over to visit her & Uncle Frankie for a while. I was supposed to go to the Holy Name Society last night for a meeting & the installation of officers but I chickened out because I couldn't handle another full meal. Lately the weather has been consistently absolutely miserable but manageable. My car doors were frozen shut this morning. Uncle Frankie came over for a while last night & he & my father watched the Steelers' game. I've never liked sports so I watched old sitcoms. Instead of "ALF", though, I watched an interview with Robert H. Bork, the famous conservative judge, on BookTV. Unfortunately, when I called someone from Pennsylvanians for Human Life to see if I could get a seat on the bus to Washington, D.C. on Thursday morning, he said there were no available openings. He took my name though, just in case. It would have been really nice if I could have gotten there just in time to make a statement right at the very beginning of the new administration.