It's an interesting weekend. We have six house guests. Marie's brother and wife and four sons are down for a wedding at Notre Dame. We live about 55 minutes from campus, so they're staying with us. I drank too much wine last night (Yellowtail, Pinot Grigio), but we had a nice visit. Today, we're watching the four sons while the parents go to ND. They're good kids, so it shouldn't be a problem. And if it is a problem, it's Marie's ("Woman! I ain't got no time to be no wet nurse! I gots works to do! Shut them kids up. I needs my quiet!").
And then there is tomorrow's outing.
Readers may recall that I took my three oldest boys to a Tigers baseball game last summer. The outing lit a sports fire under Jack (10) and Michael (8). They're enraptured with sports, just as little boys oughtta be. A month ago, I was sitting at the drinking club with an old friend who has an 11-year-old boy. He said the exact same thing happened with his boy: he took him to a Tigers game last summer, and the boy's mild interest in sports flared up. While drinking a few more beers, we talked about getting tickets to the Detroit Lions. A few days later, we had assembled a father-son outing with a group of twelve. We head to Ford Field tomorrow, an early Christmas present for Jack and Michael. And here's the kicker: we're going in a Hummer limousine. My old friend married into money, and his father-in-law is providing the car and the driver (one of his employees, who is also bringing his boys). My cost for a 3-hour drive into Detroit: $10, and I'll probably have to kick-in $10 to help pay for parking. It would cost me over $60 to drive there myself and pay for parking. I'm really looking forward to it for myself, but even more so for my boys who are beside themselves with anticipation. It's not often that you find an activity that you greatly enjoy and that your young sons greatly enjoy.
Sears still hasn't delivered (exercise machine broke a month ago; we have extended warranty; Sears has failed to fix it). The part hasn't arrived and we have no follow-up appointment. I want to pull the pin out of the hand grenade and send the legal letter with the promise of a consumer protection lawsuit, but my patient wife tells me to be nice. Then I see this notice from the American Family Association:
Sears has thrown its support to the LOGO network. LOGO is the 24-hour cable television network dedicated to programming for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders according to a homosexual advertising website. It is carried on many cable systems around the country. Many of you have been forced to accept it as part of your cable package. Sears is now helping to make it mainstream!
I can't let such things color my decision to file suit, but I was only holding off because Sears seems like such an upright organization (put another way, their shoddy service warrants a lawsuit, but I held off for non-legal reasons). Come Monday, I suspect I'll start shooting. Wish me luck.
What do you use for your homepage? I found a great one a few months ago: Mycatholic.com. You don't have to be a Catholic to like it. It's customizable and has a ton of great options. It even has an easy-to-use RSS feed service. They're in the middle of a fund raiser. I'll probably make a donation, though it has to be through Paypal, and Paypal has completely botched up our account (we received a new credit card after the old one expired; Paypal discontinued our expired card; we tried to input our new card's expiration date and security code; Paypal says "this card is already assigned to an account"--most frustrating, and there's no number to call and the Paypal help sites aren't helpful). Anyway, if we ever sort out Paypal, I'll make a donation. That's how much I enjoy their site.
This country needs a constitutional amendment against whining:
A nonobservant Jewish man, whose polling station last month was in a room connected to a Catholic church, has filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming that casting a ballot on church property is unconstitutional and amounts to a breach of church-state separation, reported the Associated Press.
Something tells me the man's vote wasn't terribly swayed by the religious paraphernalia he had to walk past in order to get to the polls. He's not worried about himself, though. He's worried about the weak-minded people who might switch their vote because they see a crucifix.
Pitiful man. Pitiful state of the First Amendment that makes such suits viable.
Until next week, may the holiday season warm your soul.
