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.

CARMELITE MEETING

I was more than a little afraid yesterday that this morning's meeting may have been cancelled but it never happened. As usual around half of us showed up. Sister Catherine was there. I got a pastry & cup of tea while I was there. As frequently happens the meeting involved more current events, small talk & other irrelevant things than things that were relevant to our being there. After Mass, right before I left, I made sure I got a ticket for their St. Patrick's Day contest. The temperature this morning was zero. The cold water in the kitchen still wasn't working as of the time I left. I just got yet another notice yesterday in the mail about a blood drive. This one's on Jan. 26 over in Wilkes_Barre. Knowing me I shall most probably be there.

FROZEN

Happy fiftieth birthday to Tim, an old St. Gabe's classmate of mine. He's the first of my classmates, of the ones I know of, to hit the big one. Nunziata's birthday was this month to. She's married to cousin Java. Today's temperature was absolutely bitter at about two degrees. Schools are closed & everything's slowed down. Upon first getting up to get dressed today I couldn't put the cold water on in the kitchen sink, although the hot worked quite well. I should most certainly hope tomorrow's Carmelite meeting won't have to be cancelled because of the weather. Last month it was cancelled because of a big blizzard. I now have fewer than a hundred pages left in "Sense & Sensibility". Of course now that Uncle Frankie's back in circulation he's regularly showing up with his candy, cookies & pasta fagioli.

INSPECTION

To my undying chagrin, my inspection took all day yesterday but at least it is now over with. I got there at 7:00 a.m. They got started on my car at around 11:00. My father, having been a little ill, wasn't available to drive me home. Somehow I ended up getting stranded there until after noon before I ended up getting a ride home from an employee who's in charge of that. There was less trouble with the car than I'd expected so I was quite happy. I spent my time there reading "Sense & Sensibility" & watching Ellen De Generes, whom I don't like, Regis Philbin, & "The View". At least Beatle Paul was on "The View". Although I've never been even the least bit impressed with most of the hostesses of "The View", Elisabeth Hasselbeck has always struck me as quite an interesting character because she shares my obsession with torturing the liberals quite mercilessly. Beatle Sir Paul was on yesterday's show. Does Regis Philbin really say "incidentally" entirely too frequently? I have no idea because I normally only see him on reruns of my favorite game show. A woman from Copiague, N.Y. even sent him a comment about it. Last night I watched Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" in which he uses the sixteenth century Mayan Indian culture for a metaphor for today's world. He's always been quite a favorite of mine too. There was even more snow last night & this morning. This morning, after Mass at St. Joseph's, a guy I know from the Holy Name Society reminded me of the bus ride to the March For Life over in Washington, D.C. next Thursday. Tomorrow is Tim's fiftieth birthday. He & I were in the same class at St. Gabriel's.

QUIET DAY SO FAR

Nothing much is going on these days. Happy birthday to Vic over in Lindenhurst. I never get to see any of that crowd in person anymore but the internet lets me keep in touch. Tomorrow is my big day. My inspection at Jack Williams is very early in the morning & will most probably take pert near all day to get over with. I have to get up insanely early for it but I haven't slept for a significant length of time since the JFK/Nixon debates anyway. Unfortunately Mistletoe, over in Finland, has a headache right now. She's one of my Facebook connections. I can't stand headaches. So far this year, I haven't gotten one. Uncle Frankie is still out of commission. He must be really run down these days. Yesterday I read a lot more of "Sense & Sensibility". I just found out on the site, 4marks, that there's a new board game out, Vatican the Board Game, that is all based upon how men become Pope.

SNOWY WEEKEND

The blizzard lasted all day & all night Saturday. Sunday turned out not to be so bad. I got through the local roads quite well. Shoveling & scraping the snow off the cars wasn't as hard as I'd expected because it didn't end up amounting to as much as we were threatened with. There was a major accident on the Cross Valley Expressway recently though so not everybody got a break. Unfortunately Fr. Richard John Neuhaus died recently. He was a very big name in Catholic intellectual circles. Among other things, he founded "First Things", a favorite magazine of mine. Yesterday I finished reading "Cymbeline" & started re_reading Jane Austen's "Sense & Sensibility". I saw the movie a while ago too. Unfortunately I have to make sure I'm up & out insanely early on Wednesday for my much dreaded car inspection. At least those things are only once a year. Happy birthday to Vic from Lindenhurst. His birthday is tomorrow.