ELCA Ads

The ELCA is going to be airing ads. Here's one:







More here and a schedule of where to see them. Glen Beck? Really? Why???

Redid my post on the Ehrman/Colbert Video

Bart Ehrman needs to get over it.

Lutheran Confessions had better link so I changed it on my post. Maybe people out of the US can see it now.

Bono *gets* it.

You should really read his op ed piece. I really am impressed at how he fits the real world into the ebb and flow of the liturgical year.

Bees are our friends - More Irresponsible Journalism

Ugh - this story was on the news this morning and it just ticked me off! Bees Swarm San Diego Beach What a missed opportunity to educate people about bees. Bees are endangered and we need bees. Not just for honey. Just look here at a list of crops pollinated by Bees. He could have used the story to inform people that swarming bees are not aggressive or dangerous and that they should just be left alone and will leave before long.


If you find a swarm of honey bees - do not call the exterminater - call a bee Keeper

Monday Afternoon Skating Video

Yuka Sato - often called "The Skater's Skater" skating to "Sozo" in Brian Boitano's 1996 Special "Three Masters"

More Irresponsible Journalism

I'm sure this is a story that Magdalene's Egg would cover, were Father and Mother and Baby not away

The Vatican is demanding a retraction of a story printed in the the Times of London that in an upcoming visit, the Pope was planning to present Prince Charles with ”a gift that may strike an unwelcome chord”: a facsimile of the 1530 appeal by English peers to Pope Clement VII asking for the annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

As everyone knows, Pope Clement refused that appeal, King Henry married his mistress anyway and renounced Roman Catholicism, establishing the Church of England."

Wonder where the the Times got that idea. Maybe it was in one of those chain emails. Someone should tell them about Snopes.com

Let's Help the Kids Help out in New Orleans

The 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering is this summer in New Orleans. I've only been to one of these -the last one in San Antonio in 2006. I had a great time (well maybe not the 18 hour bus ride) but I couldn't get any kids interested this time around so I'll be staying home. This year all the kids will be involved in service projects helping the people of New Orleans which is still recovering from Katrina. We can be a part of that by buying supplies so they are ready to go when they get there - Check it out: 2009 Youth Challenge

National Pineapple Upside Down Cake Day - April 20

Yes it really is National Pineapple Upside Down Cake Day. And I make a very good pineapple upside down cake. It's a family favorite. For years that was our Easter dessert. And I always made it for the block party cake walk - the church lady in the picture won my cake in the cakewalk in 2003.

And yes, I start with a cake mix. I rarely make cakes from scratch. Cake mix cakes are fine. But of course I gussy it up.



Ingredients 1 Yellow Cake mix (or sometimes you can find pineapple cake mix but it's not necessary because you are going to add pineapple juice)
1 small can crushed pineapple in juice 1 16 oz can pineapple rings - in syrup is better
6 maraschino cherries
1 stick butter
1 Cup brown sugar

Spray your 13 x 9 pan with butter flavored PAM or a cheap equivalent. Melt your butter and add the brown sugar and spread that on the bottom of your pan. Lay the pineapple rings in the pan in the pan and put a maraschino cherry in the middle of each one. When you mix up the cake mix, use the crushed pineapples and juice instead of water.

You want to really have some fun, drain off the juice and mix the crushed pineapple with some rum. MMmmm...now you are talking. You could soak your pineapple rings in rum for an hour before to. But I never did that when I made the cake for my kids or for church.

Pour the batter over the butter and sugar and pineapple rings in the pan. Bake for however long the package says. Wait till the cake cools, run a spatula around the sides of the pan and carefully turn it over.

Christos Anesti

Today is Easter for our Greek Orthodox brothers and Sisters.

Christos Anesti! (He is Risen)
Alithos Anesti ! (Truly he is risen!)
Alithinos o Kyrios (True is the Lord)

Irresponsible Journalism

Melissa Suzanne Huckaby was just minding her own business when suddenly her world was invaded by calls from the press, and death threats. Why? She shares the same name with Melissa Chantel Huckaby, accused of murdering 8-year-old Sandra Cantu. The two women are the same age, are both Sunday School teachers and live 14 miles apart.

Life suddenly scary for the other Melissa Huckaby

Apparently some dufus reporters just found a Melissa Huckaby on MySpace, downloaded her photo and plastered it all over TV and newspapers. It was the wrong Melissa Huckaby. Melissa Suzannne has had to take down her MySpace because of all the threats. Her cousins are afraid to go to school because of the false connection. She's worried about her own daughter's safety.

So what kind of half-assed journalism is this? You just download any old picture you find on the web that matches the name without doing a modicum of research to make sure you got the right person and plaster it all over TV?

SHAME SHAME SHAME on the idiot so called reporters who grabbed the photos, the lazy irresponsible editors who okayed the broadcasting of her photo without doing their homework. I think some jobs need to be lost over this. And she should sue them into oblivion. She's a single mother. She could use the money. Probably to hire some security.

Friday Five- Household Appliances

RevGalBlog Pals are talking about appliances. My mind immediately went to kitchen appliances and got stuck there before I realized they were talking about all household appliances and I got kind of stuck there.

1. What is the one appliance you simply couldn't be without?
My coffee grinder. I am a coffee snob. I like my freshly ground coffee. Yes I buy $10 a lb beans. Not Starbucks. I hate Starbucks. My favorite is Gloria Jeans but the closest I can get it is either Omaha or Minneapolis - both places about 3 hours away. Hmm...I see now you can order it online. I may have to do that! My grocery store has recently started selling Burgees coffee. That's just about as good. I like my coffee strong and black.

I'd have a tough time without my microwave. I use it to boil my water for my coffee. And I eat a lot of left overs. And I have eleven cats so the vacuum is pretty essential. I have an Oreck I got talked into by a salesman at the Nebraska State Fair. It was pretty pricey but I'm very happy with it. And I didn't realize how much I appreciated that "8 pound vacuum" until it was in the shop and I borrowed the church's upright vacuum cleaner. Yikes - that was heavy!

Oh yea and the garbage disposal - I went a week before getting it fixed and that was NOT FUN!

2. What if anything would you happily give up? Hmmm...I have a waffle iron I don't use much - especially now that the kids are gone most of the time.

3. What is the most strangest household appliance you own? I'm thinking pretty hard but I don't believe I have anything strange. I have a food dehydrater --some people may think that's strange.
4. What is the most luxurious household appliance you own? I don't own it but I have a dishwasher in the parsonage - this is a luxury I've never had. It's really wonderful and I will be sad if I ever have to do without one.

5. Tell us about your dream kitchen- the sky is the limit here...

Well first of all I would have a gas stove. I don't like electric, I don't believe you can control the heat as well. And I have that stupid glass top that people say is so easy to clean - um no it's not. I would have a coffee maker with a timer that would have my coffee ready for me when I get up at 4 am. I could probably afford one but it seems really decadent. I would really like a good quality Cuisinart so I would not have to chop onions and I could blend up pesto. I have a little food processor I got at Good Will but it doesn't blend the pesto so well. I would have one of those big counters in the middle of the kitchen to work with, and an opening with a trash can or compost pail underneath. Maybe I'd even keep some composting worms under the sink. I may still do that someday. I would have really good sharp knives. I'd have state of the art pressure canner. And a nice new water bath canning kettle. I need a new one - mine is all rusty. I'd like some sort of device so I could rice more than one potato at a time - which I would only use once a year for making lefse. I think that is the hardest part of making lefse - ricing all those potatoes. Skies the limit I'd have an outdoor kitchen...with both a gas and charcoal grill and a smoker and a refrigerator. Oh and speaking of refrigerators - at my old church they bought a new refrigerator with the freezer on the bottom. That is such a good idea....thinking of older folk like me who really don't need to have to bend over every time I want to make a salad. But I should have to bend over if I'm reaching for the ice cream!

Evangelism Through Child Bearing

I first heard about these people on an NPR interview and one of the proponents seemed to think that Christian women having more babies than Muslim women was the way "take over". My reaction at the time was mostly amusement. Oh here's another crazy group. But these people are not harmless. In this Salon article, "All God's Children", author Karen Joyce who wrote a book about these nuts, Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement, shows how "the Quiverfull movement saddles women with a life of submission and near-constant pregnancies."

Now I know there are Christian traditions --including the "official" teaching of Roman Catholicism that forbids birth control...but these people - Quiverfull-- are just wack. My Roman Catholic college room mate is my age and has ten children. But even she, when she had health problems and her husband got a new job and they moved, was smart enough to use natural methods to avoid #11 The Quiverfull folk tell women whose lives might be endangered by pregnancy and childbirth to look to the early Christian martyrs for examples of sacrificing your life for Jesus. You know, because dying needlessly in childbirth is so the same thing as refusing to acknowledge Caesar as God.

I wonder if in all their home schooling they ever get to the part of the early church where Christianity offered women an alternative to marrying at 13 and having babies until they died?

This is an evil movement. The effect on women who become almost suicidal under the pressure of being perfectly submissive, having baby after baby regardless of their health is devastating. And it absolutely killed any faith of the women interviewed who got out.

It breaks my heart to see that these women have been so traumatized they cannot see the freedom of the Kingdom Christ proclaimed. This is all one former member can take away from the bible: "I don't think you can get equality out of the Bible. You can't get away from hierarchy, strictly defined roles for gender, authoritarianism, submission, dominating." That is so not what Christ was about Somebody is going to after to answer to God for this preversion of the message of freedom and equality in Christ!

The Answer to the Pirates

Dolphins!

China reports Dolphins Foil Pirate Attack.

Bart Ehrman Needs to Get Over It.

Hey Bart - lots of people grow up in fundamentalists churches and later find out God is not the big bad judge in the sky and that maybe the earth wasn't created in six 24 hour days and maybe the four gospel writers all had different perspectives and don't spend the rest of their lives taking it out on the church. Even Steven Colbert doesn't want to hear your whining about it anymore!

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Bart Ehrman
colbertnation.com
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Monday Afternoon Skating Video

Scott Hamilton and Kurt Browning - "Move It" from Scott's 1997 TV Special "Scott Hamilton Upside Down"

LEGO Jesus

I just think this is cool!

Swedish church unveils Lego Jesus statue for Easter

Pirates? Really?

No we are not talking about the handsome and charming Johnny Depp. We are talking about desperate Somalian pirates.

I'm very grateful Capt. Richard Phillips has been freed.

I've been hearing about pirates for a while now and frankly there has been a part of me that has wanted to just go show off US muscle and kick pirate ass. But as Nancy Michaelis points out over at Hunger Rumblings - Somalia has not had any government for 28 years. There's no economy to speak of. This is how people survive. I just heard the one pirate that was lucky enough to be on the US ship and didn't get killed is too young to even be tried as an adult.

Kicking pirate ass is not going to solve the problem. But I have to wonder - why oh why are we spending so much money and time and American lives to make sure Iraq has a stable government and pretending Somalia doesn't exist unless they bother our ships?

Easter Dinner

I like to cook.

My kids are in college now but they came home for Easter.

So I bought an 8 1/2 lb spiral cut ham. Way too much for the three of us but there's nothing like a spiral cut ham and that was as small a ham as I could find.

I was sort of listening to Emeril Lagasse on Good Morning America and this is what I remember of his glaze, besides what I have in the house...

Some lemon juice - maybe a half a cup....about 1/3 cup brown sugar...some honey ...a couple of squirts of honey mustard (he said dry mustard but I didn't have any) ...some ginger..mix it up

Brush the ham with it and then keep basting every 1/2 hour.

Cheesy potatoes. You know that disgusting mixture of hash browns, cheese, cream of broccli (I think you are supposed to use cream of mushroom but my kids won't eat mushrooms and this is the way I can sort of get some vegetables in my son) ...sour cream, butter, and cheese. What I discovered today is that you CAN use frozen hash browns. They were all out of the refigreated bags so I bought frozen and just thawed it out. There's a recipe on the bag. My son loves these.

I roast two sweet potatoes, peel them, mash them, mix with a little cream a LOT of butter, vanilla extract, brown sugar and whip them up then reheat them. This is like a dessert, which is a good thing because I didn't have time to make cupcakes like I usually do for Easter.

I had some left over cole slaw. I cheated and bought the already bagged slaw cut with cabbage, carrots and broccoli - added a little balsamic vinegar, mayo...garlic salt, cayenne pepper ( l like to make it interesting)

Asparagus spears. Now I'm not real fond of asparagus - I used to cut it in the fields as a kid and I watched the geese run through the fields and poop on the asparagus but my daughter loves it. I need to learn to like it since it grows wild in my back yard. I nuke it in just a little water for about 8 minutes, add butter, lemon juice, garlic salt and lemon pepper.

I know -- it's an obscene amount of food for three people.

Today I will simmer the ham carcass and make a ham stock. I use that for making gumbo. Ham stock is what adds richness to gumbo. I make good gumbo.

A Favorite Easter Hymn We Didn't Sing

Welcome Happy Morning

We don't have a Lutheran Worship book ...it's a long story and has a lot to do with Hauge....and this is not a song most Lutherans are familiar with but it is one of my favorite Easter hymns...


Welcome Happy Morning age to age shall say
Hell to day is vanquished heaven is won today
Christ once dead, is living, God forever more
Him, their true creator, all his works adore

Maker and redeemer life and heath of all
God from heav'n beholding human nature's fall
You the true and only Son of God above
Died as mortal man to save us by your love

Source of all things living, you came down to die
Plumbed the depths of hell to raise us up on high
Come then true and faithful; come fulfill thy word;
This is your third morning; Rise O buried Lord!

Free the souls long prisoned bound with Satan's chain
All that once had fallen raise to life again;
Show your face in brightness shine in every land
As in Eden's garden when the world began

Welcome happy morning, age to age shall say!

Venantius Fortunatus, c. 590, tr. by John Ellerton, 1868
Tune Fortunatus, Arthur Sullivan, 1842-1900

Christ is Risen!

Jesus Martinez Gordo

Let the Faithful respond - He is risen indeed!