This one is, I suppose, about human nature rather than politics.

I am fairly outraged myself at the current FISA "compromise".  But the bricks that are being shat over the way because Senator Obama hasn't forced members of the House to vote it down are getting to me.

There are legal limits to what kinds of arm-twisting a member of one house of Congress can do to members of the other, and there is no reason for anyone to believe that Senator Obama is failing to do everything he can.

A friend of a friend of a friend put together this information.

Somehow, I don't think anybody in the chain of transmission would mind me posting any of it.

Promoted by Rain for a period of time -- we are running late tonight

As always, the meditation begins at 5:00 PM PDT, 6:00 PM MDT, 7:00 PM CDT, 8:00 PM EDT, or whenever fits your schedule if you cannot participate then.

Well, it was supposed to begin at 5:00.  Sorry.  5:30 or 6:00 your choice.

To begin with, I want to thank (in particular) dirkster42 and Sister Quarterstaff of Undeclared Grace for their largely successful efforts in the late brouhaha to get us to stop yelling and actually start talking about the problems that came to light.  They were ably seconded by several other people, but they were the ones who worked hardest at calming things down enough that we could hear each other.  

Why I mention that situation is because, as it started to settle, some of the ancient stuff in my own life reared up and bit me in the ass.  Judging from some of the diaries that have been posted since, I am far from the only person resident on Prophecy Street who had that happen.

This diary series is intended to be a safe and comfortable space for members to explore healthy lifestyle changes and find support. There is no one diet, no one program to follow. No matter if you are currently following a weight loss and exercise program or thinking of introducing changes in your life, all are welcome!

My work in progress has been progressing, and I found something that I think will suit me.  I thought it would turn out to be succumbing to the itch in my curiosity (speaks the history nut) and nothing else, but I think this will work.  

How it came about is, I like to play with the list of recommendations that Amazon has for me.  I have a list of a couple hundred books I am going to eventually check out from the library, and I buy the occasional one - from Powells, if I can get it.

This diary series is intended to be a safe and comfortable space for members to explore healthy lifestyle changes and find support. There is no one diet, no one program to follow. No matter if you are currently following a weight loss and exercise program or thinking of introducing changes in your life, all are welcome!

I have been working on this for a while now, having made the decision that 2008 would be the year that I get my life together the way I want it to be.  This is the plan I've been working on to address my own set of issues as far as food and exercise go.  It is definitely a work in progress, and I have made allowance for occasional rich food indulgences and once in a while deciding to hell with exercise.  I have also been brought nose-to-nose with the requirement of allowing for occasional illness .

For entirely other reasons, I did have a physical recently.  My blood work came back normal to optimal except for two things:  blood sugar (which was lower than the previous results, actually); and alkaline phosphatase, which I had to look up.

Promoted by Rain until after the meditation

As always, the start time is 5:00 Pacific, 6:00 Mountain, 7:00 Central, 8:00 Eastern, whatever it may be in the time zone you are actually in, or whenever you can fit it into your schedule for the day.

This is something that has come up for me recently from many directions:  

When is the roll-out going to be for the new FAQ?  Does it include the suggestion that everybody start reading with the Coffee Hour(s), and/or Rabbi Brian?

I have gotten into the habit of reading every diary by someone that I don't recognize as having posted before.  I get a chance to offer a lot of newbies encouragement, and it's mostly been fun.

But this last week or so, ....

May your spirits be warmed, and your hearts filled with laughter!  A blessing truly suited for this season, even though (it being Irish) I suspect that whisky was originally involved in it somewhere.

My life is not as smooth as I would like, and there are things I would like to have in it that I do not have.  At least, not yet.  But I have noticed lately, that I am, for the most part, happy.  

There is one ancient habit of thought that has been rearing its ugly head lately; but I notice it now, and can counter it pretty quickly.  And I am, for the most part, happy.

I wish, for all of us, that 2008 be as healthy, prosperous and happy as possible, and that each of us get the one of their dreams that would do them and the world the most good.

Have I mentioned lately that I love you?

Last January several of the members who live in Portland, Oregon, thought it would be a good idea for as many of us as could to get together on Christmas Day at Powells on Burnside.  The subject has come up a couple of times since, as well.

The last time I was at Powells, I checked their posted times.  If I remember rightly, they open at 10:00 AM on Christmas and close at 6:00 PM.  

My preference would be at opening.  But then I do like to poke around for a few hours, have some coffee and/or something and get home with plenty of time to cook my duck for a relatively early dinnertime.

Those of us who live alone or with just one other person and don't do much in-home entertaining have a few factors that those with people constantly in and out don't even have to think about.

One of these factors is lack of storage space if a recipe makes a large amount of whatever.  

For example, my freezer is pretty much full, and I just made a large pot of soup.  If it doesn't get eaten in the next week (which it might - I happen to like turkey soup rather a lot), it will spoil, even in the refrigerator I have, which tends to freeze anything set too close to the back wall.  

LATER:
I ate all the soup, as it happens, but about half of the last pot of beans I made was wasted.

There are places that have reasonably practical advice on cooking for one person or two:
The Mayo Clinic, for one;  Utah State University for another.

I knew there was a reason I wanted to take my daughter on the final day.  Have I mentioned that when you look up "charisma", you see her picture?

She was talking to everybody, and except for when I decided I had been on my feet long enough, I was following her around giggling.

I did miss two of the beers, since they disappeared after I left yesterday; but Anchor's Old Foghorn Barleywine is readily available all year around.  Elysian Brewing Company's (Seattle) Bye-Bye Frost (9.2% ABV), though, I'm not sure of.  It being relatively local, I can probably find it, but at that percentage alcohol, I'm not sure I want a full bottle.

One minor annoyance was that I again managed to get there without a pen; but it gave several other participants a chance to laugh at me (one lady started getting out her pen every time she saw me), so it wasn't all bad.  And I spent some time talking beers with one guy who had been serving a couple days ago.

I swore the first thing I would do when I got home was take a shower.  I just finished drying off, so here I am.

Today I went to the winterbrew festival with my for-all-practical-purposes son-in-law.  As it happens, I had to wait for him to get up and get ready, so it was after noon already by the time we got started.  My daughter drove us into town, since they had company last night till waaaaay late, and she wanted to get some rest and run some errands.

We had a minor delay of about 20 minutes due to the motorcycle parade of donations up to Doernbecher Children's Hospital that ran down Powell and across the Ross Island Bridge beginning not long before we left home.  The finale of that was a TriMet bus stuffed to the roof with toys and flying down the road trying to keep up with the motorcycles.  This happens every year - just not usually on December 1, so I hadn't thought to factor that in to the driving plan.  Needless to say, we went a different route to downtown from what we had intended.