May there always be a pirate under your Christmas tree!

I don't know his name. I do know that he is young and adventurous. He ran away to sea. I think he joined the navy actually and then deserted and joined a pirate crew where, he figured, he had a a chance of fair treatment. The thing is, I don't think he is nearly desperate enough to be a ruthless pirate. I think maybe he got on the captains bad side for being too soft and was marooned. Some of the other pirates were very fond of him and so they managed to get him left on a island that had some trees and other useful resources. They also seem to have left him a barrel of rum or something and a few other useful items. And so you see him now: Never one to simply resign himself to his fate, he has built a raft and befriended a parrot. (I'll have to think of a name for the parrot too.) They are a very cheerful couple. The two of them spied a ship that dropped anchor off the coast of their island. They watched while a crew come ashore to take on water and planed to stow away aboard that night. It's a rather crazy thing to attempt. He's one man and his parrot, who will undoubtedly give him away. He is armed well but it won't do him much good being so badly out numbered. He's a pretty bad situation. If the navy catches him he'll be in BIG trouble and he's also become an outcast among the pirates. He doesn't seem too concerned about it though. What sort of people are on that ship? There's a story in that somewhere.


I got this great little pirate figure from CC along with the raft. I see these little guys in toy stores all the time. We were never really interested in them before cause we like Playmobile and it's just better not to get into too many little things like that. I think they're pretty neat. There are all sorts of people in all kinds of poses. There not as versatile since they can't move so they don't appeal to kids in that way. If you have a knight raising his battle ax you have hard time playing that he is attending a feast or courting a damsel. But other wise they do what a good action figure (can it be an action figure if it has no moving parts?) toy should do; each figure has character enough in the design so suggest a personality and a story. Each face is just a little different even if it came out of the same mold. Even if they are not so good for acting out a story with at least you know they have one. I think they should do historical figures like Civil War soldiers and western frontier settlers. I really like the fantasy theme they have going now though.
You are never too old for a good toy. Especially pirate toys. One should always have at least one pirate under one's Christmas Tree. This fellow will be living happily on my shelf now. Up with Maleny's Treasure Island and my scull candle holder and other little oddments. I like him there. Maybe there will be other little characters to join him later. Thanks C.C.
Anyone have an idea for a name?

Merry Christmas!!

God thinks more of us than we think of ourselves.
We can see our past and how dark it is. We can see the way we are now, and it's pretty bleak. And from where we are the future looks a bit dreary too. But God has hope for us. He has so much hope for us that He became one of us so that we could have hope too.
God must think an awful lot of us!
Heaven met earth in a manger. Kneel in awe in the stable. God, made weak and little, sleeps in the hay. From here to the cross is just a tiny fraction of the love of God for His creation. Now we have hope of heaven.

May your Christmas be blessed with much love and hope for the coming year.

Merry Christmas!

Dreaming of a white Christmas

I don't believe it. It looks like we will have a white Christmas after all. We never get snow on Christmas! The weather here is very contrary. Temperamental might be a good word. We get some snow in November. A few inches and it melts in early December. Then we get more snow and every one get excited cause it's really deep and it gets below zero at night and sometimes the thermometer doesn't rise above ten degrees all day. "We'll have a white Christmas!" everyone says. Then is warms up and rains. The snow melts in record time and by Christmas there is no sign of it. Everything is greenish-grey. Then it snows for real in January and gets really cold again and the snow never melts completely until March or so.
But one thing that you can always predict about the weather is that it's unpredictable. There have been a few years where there was snow. Those are the years you remember the best so it feels like there is always snow. So unless there is a sudden heat wave between this morning and tomorrow night, it appears we will have snow for sledding and fort building and snowball fights on Christmas morning. Karen is Happy.

More colors!

You remember Jessica? This is her friend Catherine. (Also wearing a black sweatshirt cause I was a mean stage manager and made everyone wear black long sleeves even when it was eighty-five degrees out side) I am not as pleased with her face. But I think I did better on her hair. As usual I got a bit lazy in some sections. That must be the hardest part for me; staying with is till it's perfect and not just trying to get it done after the fun parts are done. This color paper was harder to work with cause it did not blend in with her skin tone. I kind of like it that way. Her face and hair have such warm tones that it's nice to to have the cooler background for contrast.

In other news I made myself a pair of gauchos this week. I just went down stairs and found some left over fabric from Clara's formal (which she still has not finished) and got to it. I had a good time. The finished product was not too bad. They are very pirate-ish. I want to dress up. We let s college student borrow our dress up clothes and I don't know if we will ever get them back. This is very tragic cause my pirate boots were in there and so was my whole gypsy outfit. *SOB* I'll get them back some day.

I'm too catholic to understand this

I've always sort of wondered about those Christians who opt not to celebrate Christmas. I've never had their position explained to me.Thanks Leah. It still doesn't make much sense to me. I guess that's because I don't believe in that whole Sola Scriptura thing. (I believe it to be un-biblical :P)

I think God knows we need to celebrate some times. We are told to rejoice hundreds of times throughout the Bible for various reasons. I think the Incarnation is a pretty good reason to celebrate even if there is nothing particularly special about Dec. 25th. Maybe Jesus was not born on the 25th but it doesn't really matter. He was born. God became man and we chose to remember and honor that moment on December 25th (and also on March 25th on the feast of the Annunciation). In fact, aside from the Death and Resurrection, I can't think of a better reason to be merry.

Then there is all that talk about how so many of the traditions and the very day the feast is celebrated are fundamentally pagan and should be shunned. I don't hold to that at all. The pagans who converted in the early church were no less Christians than the ones who were raised in the faith. Those who bowed before the sun god now bow before the child in the manger. The fitting traditions that honored the pagan god now honor the True God. Sol himself bows. In Mexico there are churches that are covered with carvings and paintings of the Saints and the Apostles all worshiping Christ. Right in there among them you can see the old Aztec gods worshiping Our Lord right with St. Peter and the Archangel Gabriel. Of course the Aztec gods are myth and Christ is real and living but the symbol remains. All these symbols that were precious to the pagans are baptized and welcomed into the Church, redeemed, made new and given new and truer meanings. You see the pagan traditions like the Christmas tree and the holly because they are part of Christ's triumph. Christ has conquered these pagan traditions and made them His. The same holds true for St. Valentine's day and St. Patrick's Day. These are not days than commemorate events in Christ's earthly life but they are still worth celebrating. St. Valentine gave us one more example of true love by dieing for Christ, Patrick brought the light of Christ the darkness of pagan Ireland. They are Christian feasts no matter how the world tries to secularize them. It is fitting that we should have a Christian feast of sacrificial love in place of there pagan feast of love. The pagan feasts in late December celebrated the end of the darkest days of the year. The sun triumphs and the days grow longer. It is fitting that on this day we should celebrate the Light coming into the world, His triumph and the dark days of the world coming to an end.

And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe [Christmas] has done me good and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!

A Christmas Carol ~ Charles Dickens.

Marry Christmas

Oh the wonderful forgetfulness of my dear Jesus!

This story is told about one of the great Saints but I can't find the book I read it in and I don't remember which Saints it was (St. Margaret Mary something or other, I think) so we will call her Mary. She was a nun so we will call her sister Mary.

Sister Mary had a beautiful and deep prayer life. Sometimes Jesus would visit her in visions. One day He appeared to her and told her "I'm sending you a priest to be your spiritual guide and confessor. He's a very good friend of mine." Sister Mary was delighted and the next day, when a new priest came to the convent she greeted him happily and told him about her vision. The priest was skeptical at first. He wanted to be sure that sister Mary's visions were authentic. So he told her to bring him a sign. "Ask Our Lord what my last mortal sin was." So sister Mary went into her cell and prayed and Jesus appeared to her and she asked Him as the priest had told her to.

Jesus smiled. "I don't remember." He said

By this the priest knew that sister Mary's visions were authentic.

~*~
I think it's a pretty sweet story even if I can't give you a source.

Happy Feast day!

It's the feast of Our Lady of Guadeloupe!

"Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything." (Words said by of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego)

Every one needs a mother.
Happy Feast day!

The Wow List

"Two things are infinite; the universe and the stupidity of man. And I'm not sure about the first one." ~ Supposedly, Einstein, but I don't really know. It's a good quote anyway.

I was standing back stage just before a show began. There was a crowd of actors and crew members all crammed into the wings and behind set pieces and up against the walls. We were waiting for the stage manager to cue the overture. I was standing next to the star of the show, Andrew, and on the other side of one of the big black curtains that make up the wings, an actor named Stephen was standing playing idly with his prop. I was talking to Andrew about the movie Willow. Willow is an unholy combination of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, and the George Lucas part is very strong, obviously, because it's his movie. George, buddy, stick with Sci Fi. It made my Wow List, I told Andrew. Not knowing what exactly a Wow List was, Andrew asked, "Can I be on your Wow List?" I told him that he would have to do or say something that proved the infinite capacity of man for oddity and, or stupidity. At that moment Stephen came around to our side of the curtain. "Look guys!" He whispered loudly. He stood with his back to the curtain and slowly leaned back on it until it gave way and he started falling backwards. "It's like a trap door! Only in the wall!" He told us excitedly. Andrew and I looked at each other.

Wow.

Actors and other theater people probably make my Wow List more than anyone else. Like the crew member who left the theater that night with a piece of green duct tape hanging off the tip of his nose. All you can say is 'Wow.' It's a kind admiration. It's admiration that someone can actually take these things seriously. Or admiration that someone thought up something like that and actually said it out loud. Or admiration that it all makes sense to someone. Most of the time they are things that just made me laugh for one reason or other.
For example:

I always wondered why and when Frosty the Snowman will come back. And will he be accompanied by King Arthur. If King Arthur wants to come back, more power to him but does Frosty have to come too?

The Arabian Nights (or maybe it was those Indian fairy tales I read) are full of things that I cannot hope to comprehend. It's probably because I'm a westerner. The East and it's culture are mysterious and illogical to me. I love it. If ever you are about to be in a situation where you are going to be terribly embarrassed, the best thing to do is to simply kill yourself. Makes perfect sense to them. Wow.

The Book of the Dun Cow was a really good book, actually. I am very fond of many things on my Wow List. Dun Cow was a very religious book about love and temptation and leadership and following God's will and a few dozen other wonderful things. But it was about chickens. I can't explain. I don't know. It worked for the author. Good for him. WOW.

Then there are things on my Wow List that I just wish I had thought of first.
That's a creation of Millie's. She's Brilliant. Wow.

It makes life interesting. God must have a sense of humor.

"Positively Three-ish"

If you dig around enough in my closet, you will run across a slip of paper that reads:

Resolve: Blond haired, blue eyed four year old ought to take precedence over latin homework."

After which there is an outline for a speech. The speech had nothing to do with getting out of latin homework. That was a joke on my debate teacher who also taught the latin class. I was in debate and speech class in what (I think) would have been my sophomore year of high school if anyone had been paying attention. I didn't get very far in building a debate case but I did pretty well with the speech part.
So here I am, reminiscing about my waisted youth. Just kidding. I thought I would reconstruct my speech as a blog and add some old pictures. Here is a sample of true Splatness. I hope you enjoy it.

September 2004
~*~

My little sister, Maleny is a space alien. I have been observing her behavior for the last three years and have decided that she comes form a highly developed culture on another planet. She simple does not display normal earthling behavior.
After three years of living among us her tongue is still unused to our language but easily uses words that many adult earthlings struggle to pronounce.
She is undisturbed by the things in our culture that ought to be frightening to a three year old.
I have caught her performing what I can only describe as alien rituals that obviously have great meaning in her culture.

J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy masterpiece The Lord of the Rings is filled with strange words. Professor Tolkien was a great linguist and created several complex languages for the people in his stories to speak. It gives the book a wonderful believability. The languages are beautiful and diverse but for a person who is just learning to handle english, they do not roll easily off the tongue. It has taken my other sister and me about a year to get all the names of people and places pronounced correctly. They feel strange and awkward until you have used them for a while. Maleny has them down quite solidly. In fact she has more trouble with english words than with Tolkien's Elvish. She can't pronounce my name, and refuses even to try. I am accustomed to answering to a variety of babyish renditions of my name. Maleny refuses to use any of them. She refers to me, with superb diction, as Faramir; her "Brover Faramir" actually. All of my family members and several of my friends have been given names from Tolkien's Elvish. She introduces herself as Legolas. Obviously the language Maleny spoke at home was very similar to Tolkiens Elvish. Perhaps the professor even had contacts on other planets. Maleny won't say.

Here she is using her bow and arrow. I'm assuming that the laws of physics are a little different on her planet. As are the laws of attraction. Let me show you.

Meet Saruman and Grima, nicknamed Wormtongue (Yes, Maleny can say those names quite easily) You might want to click on the photo to make it big so you can take a close look at these fellows.
They are rather shady looking characters if you ask me. If I met them at the bus plaza I would probably make a point not to make eye contact. Not the sort of boys you want your little sister hanging out with. You don't want to think about how long it's been since Grima washed his hair. Saruman's fingernails will give you nightmares. Even in a fantasy world they are not the sort of people you want standing where you can't seem them. Anyone from our planet can see that they mean trouble. Most small girls I know would be rather shy of these guys. At Maleny's age I would have been quite terrified by them and averted my eyes whenever possible.
You may notice that these particular action figures have seen better days. The tip of Wormtongue's nose has apparently been rubbed off, or drawn on with a black sharpie, or something. Saruman's staff is a bit bent. The reason for this is that Grima and Saruman have spent a great deal of time smashed together in Maleny's back pack. She takes them everywhere. She is a bit panicked if they are not with her. She will immediately opt to leave any of the nice, respectable action figures home if there is no room for Saruman and Wormtongue. They go to church with her and at home she carries them around in her arms. She talks to them. I hope they don't talk back but you never know.
I can only conclude that the aspects of appearance which tell us that these two figures are bad guys do not imply the same evilness on Maleny's planet.

Lastly there are certain behaviors that seem to have no explanation. She acts in a manner totally devoid of sense of propriety. I have caught some of them on my camera.



For your consideration:
Why does Maleny carefully draw on herself with markers? (I will make no comment on the child's head dress in this picture.) It is a common practice with her. One theory is that she wants to be in the water. Knowing that in our culture unnatural color on the surface of the skin will necessarily end in a good scrubbing, she marks her body with bright colors to draw attention that she could only get from verbal communication in our language otherwise and, as I have pointed out, she feels a little overwhelmed by our vernacular. This theory seems overly simple to me. She is too careful with the markers. The tattooing of the face and body is a fascinating process to watch. The slow uncapping of the marker is very ceremonious. And the very deliberate placement of color and shape bring me to believe that there is a pattern, perhaps beyond earthling comprehension, in the marks she makes. I conclude that this marking and washing are part of an alien ritual.
Why does she dress in news paper and dance in the front yard? She seems to have a defiant disregard for clothing. Or our clothing at least. Dance seems to be an important art form in her culture. I have posted multiple pictures of Maleny dancing in this blog. She has spent a lot of time doing it since she was barely walking. We can assume that Maleny comes from a very far advanced society and they have obviously sent her here for a purpose. I believe Maleny is sending a message to her fellow Aliens. The look on her face is triumphant with a touch of smugness. She seems to be saying "You just wait and see what I have in store for you!"

They are planning a hostile take over.

So if you happen to see this child running around with a laser gun don't be fooled by the sweet little smile and the big innocent eyes.

She's not to be trusted.












Meanwhile, I'll keep an eye on this guy too. He looks suspicious.