HOORAH FOR HEATHER MORIJAH

South Dakota's very own, & soon to be our, Heather Morijah, got into more than a smidge of trouble recently for her MPEACHW license plates. The state's DMV came very close to forcing her to get rid of her plates merely because she doesn't like our current top banana. The weather over here has been quite smashing lately. I cut the grass this morning. It's a boring job but at least it only takes a little while. I completely overlooked Sunday's Holy Name Society meeting because it was early this month. They're usually on the second weekend. KrissyKrissyKrissy will be back on Friday. Lately, I've been trying to get back into the habit of walking at least close to a mile at a time. I've been trying to take a nice long walk each day. I've always been quite a horrendously sedentary character, so I need some help with figuring out exactly how this exercise thing's supposed to go. Yesterday I was watching "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?" & one of the contestants was from Commack.

GOOD MOVIE

Last night I watched about half of a movie that KrissyKrissyKrissy recommended. It's MYSTIC RIVER starring Sean Penn & other big names & directed by Clint Eastwood. Of course you know what they say: Would Mae West? Clint Eastwood. I can't handle long movies well, so I was forced to break it up. Today I went for yet another of my walks. I need the exercise. It gets easier each time I do it. I think KrissyKrissyKrissy said she'll be visiting some of Ed's relatives for a while. All I can really remember is she'll be gone until Friday, just in time for the famous dance. I gave blood yesterday at my parish church & everything worked out quite well. At my old KofC council they give each donor a free meal. Here we just get junk food. There was a new phlebotomist there named Bobbie Jo. It was her first day on the job. The seasoned pros kept helping her. I see Paris Hilton is threatened with jail. Of course, since we have the best criminal justice system in this country that her $ can buy she's in the clear. Ask the Kopechne's how much time Ted Kennedy has spent in jail.

FIRST HOLY COMMUNION

Yesterday, all the local young.uns received their First Holy Communion at 10:00 a.m. Mass at O.L.Sorrows. There were more than a few of them. When it was my turn, four decades ago this month, only my friends Earl, Jo.Anne (whom I'm now finally back in touch with) were there. As far as I know, Earl & family may be somewhere over in Puerto Rico. Today the church is having a blood drive from one o'clock to six o'clock. Blood drive people have been calling me like crazy lately. I can't stand the phone so I'll never forgive them. Giving blood isn't a great feeling but I've always been very conscientious about it. Ever since my days in N.Y. with my old job & KofC council I've given donations a million times over. KrissyKrissyKrissy got home a smidge late today. She was busy with something she couldn't get out of. My mother wants to find out about some kind of skin cancer stuff that's going on around here. I suppose that's interesting. All my relatives are now getting agitated over the big thingy that's coming up for the fourth of July weekend. They'll be driving each other stark raging nuts over the course of the next few weeks. On top of that there's Stacy's shower next week. Naturally, I woke up with a headache in the middle of the night just in time for what I expected would be a miserable Sunday but I took a headache pill and all worked out well. Unfortunately, Maria very badly hurt her nose & they thought it was broken. Her sister Josephine is also very sick.

BIG ANNIVERSARY

Today is my parents' 51st anniversary. I suppose we shall be going over to visit Uncle Frankie & Fran. I've been noticing lately, on a lot of my favorite sites, that very many extremely young.uns, including teeny.boppers & people in their twenties are quite smitten with the Beatles. That's always especially good news considering that there's nothing good available these days. Yesterday I watched a special about Adolf Hitler on the History Channel. April 29 was der Fuhrer's 118th birthday. April 30th through May 1st, which is also precisely the half.way point on the calendar to Halloween, is Walpurgis Nacht. On that day, in 1966, Anton Szandor LaVey founded the Church of Satan. It's a day for the forces of evil to reign supreme & goes back to ancient Nordic mythology. I know all sorts of artsy.fartsy stuff. Today is also El cinco de mayo. That's good for all of you who are Hispanic or have an interest in that kind of thing. My old pal Mary, who now teaches Spanish, knows about that. I still can't believe KrissyKrissyKrissy has yet to see my blog.

NICE DAY

The weather continues to amaze me with how groovy it's been. Tomorrow's my parents' 51st anniversary. I guess they must have gotten married quite a while before I was ever born then, huh? Well, of course, KrissyKrissyKrissy's back from her N.Y. jaunt. I'd never, in a brazilian years, be able to put on that much mileage. The weather's nothing to brag about lots of times either on very big trips. It's a long way between here & N.Y. even once in a while never mind regularly. Fran travels insane distances too but at least she stays within the state. I have major anxiety attacks with all that boredom, monotony, etc. Patience on a trip isn't exactly a strong point of mine. I absolutely invented "Are we there yet?" I'm getting quite a bit through that Waugh book. He's always been a very favorite writer of mine. Before I forget, the Friday dance must reign supreme on all our agendas today.

SCHOOL DAYS

I was just looking through a list of my old elementary/high school classmates on the classmates website. It's nice to see so many people from St. Gabriel's & St. John the Baptist are still out there somewhere. Those names bring back memories of the days when I was still a handsome young hepcat. Last night I watched the rest of that Coast Guard movie. OO RAH!! Bonnie(Delaney &...) Bramlett was even in it. The Bramletts were featured on many Eric Clapton albums in the 70's. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it lasted for over two hours. I've never been even the least bit good at things that just go on & on &.... Lately I've been really trying to get back into my walking. If I don't I'll only end up gaining weight. This month is O.L.Sorrows big lottery for the Pick 4 ticket. I have to keep track of the newspaper every morning to see how it's been going. Here's a smidge of artsy.fartsy history: Shakespeare & Cervantes are supposed both to have died on the same day, April 23, 1616. Leonardo da Vinci died on May 2, 1519.

LOYALTY DAY

I just found out on tailrank's site about W's having officially declared yesterday as Loyalty Day. He flatly refuses to bring our troops home, but he touts his loyalty every chance he gets. Anti_war t_shirts are now illegal in Oklahoma & Louisiana & may even be banned nationwide. I'm no liberal, most certainly, but they're right about how pathologically evil W. is. Today's weather is a smidge cooler than I like it. Hi, Rose. KrissyKrissyKrissy, who's in N.Y. by now, I reckon, told me you read my blog, so thanks a bunch. Yesterday's headache, annoying though it was, is finally & at last gone. Fran & Uncle Frankie both showed up last night. KrissyKrissyKrissy got me to watch "The Guardian" with Sela Ward, Ashton Kutcher & Kevin Costner. Hey, doesn't everybody like a good Coast Guard movie. I watched a little over an hour of it & shall see the rest tonight.

HAPPY MAY DAY! YAY MAY!

May's always struck me as such an undeniably groovy kind of month. Today is nice so far. I have a smidge of a headache but all is nice. All the computers seem to be spoken for right now. I've started reading Evelyn Waugh's "Vile Bodies" again. I keep getting mail from my New York connections telling me about the recent flood over there. It could have been much worse. Today's the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker so I went to Mass at St. Joseph's Church. There are at least a couple of computers free right now. This month, my beloved high school, St. John the Baptist in West Islip, N.Y. will be having their annual Family Feast from Wednesday the 16th to Sunday the 20th. I'm very sorry I can't go this year. I highly recommend it to anyone who's in the area.

RELIGIOUS SCAM

There's some Rev. Ewing in Oklahoma who's been sending out letters to people on his mailing list. I got one a while ago, and I even recently got a book from him too. It all seems too nice to be even the least bit dishonest. On an entirely superficial level, the folks over at St. Matthew's church in Oklahoma appear to be just a bunch of Bible_thumping, God_fearing, Praise_the_Lording, sola scriptura Holy_Rolling Protestants from the Bible Belt. I found out at the Ripoffreport & modemac's websites that they've been taking advantage of gullible simple minded people by promising them that if they give them a tithe, all their problems will be solved & God will reward them abundantly. They include in their mailings all sorts of entirely false stories of people who gave them $ & were miraculously given all sorts of miracle cures, financial windfalls etc. from then on.

VERY NICE DAY

Today is the very first genuinely marvelous day I've seen in a long time. It's been so swell I even took advantage & went out for my very first walk of the new season a couple of hours ago. I walked all the way down to Wyomng Ave. past the funeral home, Methodist church, library, convenience store etc. I've been stuck with more than a bit of a spare tire lately, to my chagrin. That's because of all the pigging out I've been doing lately. Tomorrow, finally & at last the brand spankin' new month starts. May's always been a very favorite of mine. On the seventh I shall be giving blood over at O.L.Sorrows in West Wyoming. Will W. finally have to give us the satisfaction of starting to get out of Iraq on Oct. 1st or what? Hey hasn't this garbage already gone on about as long as WWII(Archie Bunker's Big One)by now anyway? Uncle Frankie showed up last night & hung around for a while. KrissyKrissyKrissy has once again recommended a movie that I've literally never even heard of before.