Just wishing everyone out there a merry and joyful Christmas.





(Also, I've made progress on programming my game. Found a few gifts for my nieces and nephew, too.)

50 years from now:


"You know what your grandparents did for fun? They played the PlayStation 3!"

"But--"

"PlayStation 3!"

"But--"

"Number three!"

"*sigh*"

Fashionista Pooky is not in a "stripey" mood this morning.

Called the pastor and accepted the nomination to serve as the congregations' layperson attending the state conference. It really seems clear that God wants me to do that. Going to be something of a learning experience, I'm sure.



We went out and looked at Dad's "Christmas Star". It really did look eight-pointed to the naked eye. Went back inside and looked it up online (careful -- that link's to a Java applet). It was Jupiter. At KJ's behest, lugged out the telescope and had a good, if chilly and initially troublesome, time looking at it. Based on our observations, Jupiter is a white, vaguely circular, amorphous blob that may possibly have rings. Eh, that's what you get for living in the suburbs. Jupiter didn't stick around very long, unfortunately.

Then, again at KJ's suggestion, we moved the telescope out onto the lawn so we could get a look at the Moon. I was dubious about this, because A. the Moon was nearly straight up and I wasn't anxious to test the friction that held the 'scope's tube in place, and B. the Moon was distinctly bright and full.

Now, I'm going to explain something about telescopes as best I can in my slightly frosted state. Telescopes do not magnify. They collect light. They collect it and focus it down into your eyepiece, and from there onto your eyeball.

So think of a bright Full Moon you may have seen. Pretty bright, isn't it? Now imagine all that light concentrated down to, oh, one-quarter square inch or so. That's going to be pretty intense! You do not want to look at a bright Moon through a telescope, trust me! (At least not without a decent filter in the way.)

What I did was to use the little finder 'scope on the side to get the Moon pretty well in our sights (and even at that, being careful to avoid looking at the Moon for more than ~10 seconds or so, my retina was often numb with afterimage afterwards). Then I held my hand before the eyepiece, adjusted the focus and my hand appropriately, and there was the Moon projected impressively onto my hand! (KJ tried it and said she thought she could feel the heat, although it might have been her imagination.) I went inside and got a big white envelope to hold up in place of my hand, and there was the Moon in some detail projected safely onto the envelope.

Same concept as the pinhole-in-a-shoebox method of seeing an image of the Sun that you may have heard of, you see.

Anyway, KJ found another reasonably safe way of observing the Moon through a telescope, and that was with a digital camera squarely in between eyes and eyepiece. I cannot recommend this as I suspect that that might be enough to burn out the light-collecting doodads in some cameras, but KJ seems justifiably pleased with some of the photos she got. There was a short video of the Moon on the envelope I was going to upload, but I can't find the thingummy I use to get this computer to recognize the camera's memory card right now, so maybe later. EDIT: Here is a link. Not much to look at, possibly, but hopefully it gets the point across.

We also took a particular look at a reddish star in Orion, which evidently was Betelgeuse. But we were getting tired and a bit numb, so we soon went inside.

A good time all around, despite the chilliness.

Penny's so amusing when she's trying to figure out where The Cat is.


Less amusing when she catches on, though.


Oh dear, Pooky just jumped onto the little white table and then up by the TV and circled around behind it. I fear the TV's days may be numbered, next time Penny suspects the cat is in the room.





Happy Giving of Thanks, all!

So Thursday, Pooky escaped from the yard again. This time right under KJ's nose. *rolls eyes* She's doomed herself to not going outside without a leash for the rest of her life. Well, maybe aside from when we visit KJ's folks up north.



KJ's been working over my room upstairs for the past few days. Neatened it up quite a bit, really.

Yesterday she made home-made pizza. Turned out well.

You probably can't imagine what it is like to be so lost and
frightened that you will listen to any voice which promises change.
--Hugh, "Descent Part II"

There was a burst of laughter at that line.

We've taken Pooky to a park several times over the past few weeks. Both times, she's quickly headed for the fences separating park from people's backyards. Evidently she's not happy being out in the open in a strange place. (She actually managed to squirt through a gate the first time, in fact, and almost got her leash and collar all the way off into the bargain.) Besides fences, she's also developed a second tactic for reducing her exposure to potential hostiles . . .
( Pictures )

KJ's got a video of chirping birds running on her laptop. Pookie, after staring at the speakers for a minute or two, has started batting her paw underneath the computer, evidently trying to grab the birds.



. . . And now she's evidently decided this is too weird/embarrassing for her and is sitting on KJ's other leg, studiously ignoring the noises.


KJ's started another bird video, which began with a loud trill that really got Pookie's attention. She's glancing over at the computer but not making any move to attack. Finally she's gotten down and walked off a bit aimlessly. Silly Pookie.

Been seeing a lot of ex-Rams' names on NFL broadcasts the past two or three weeks.


Um, I really don't think the Vikings taking on the one-win Lions counts as a "showdown", even if they do share the same division.

I had no idea KJ was so good at throwing spirals. With an old cloth football, no less.

Pooky managed to clamber out of the backyard this morning. Hard to say, but I strongly suspect she deliberately does it when she thinks we aren't looking. So far she doesn't seem inclined to go more than a house away without us following. Plus she stays up by the houses, so it's awkward trying to catch her. I crossed the street and got on her far side when she was wandering into the cul-de-sac between houses, then came up the driveway and trapped her (although it took her ten or fifteen seconds to catch on that that was in fact what had just happened). She tried to squirt by me but I wasn't having any of that.

She's pretty well-behaved, considering she's a cat. About the only bad habit that she should know better about is scratching at the furniture, rarely, to get attention.

Parents-in-law were visiting this weekend, and what does church service lead off with but the tune I picked out for use in our wedding (and which, it turns out, never really penetrated KJ's brain)?

Last week KJ stayed home because of a few hurts. I was liturgist. Used to be, whenever KJ came to visit I would be liturgist. (OK, so maybe it only happened two or three times. The pattern was there.)

Alas, the photos from the directory shoot didn't arrive in time to send a copy back to Wisconsin with the in-laws. Maybe they'll arrive tomorrow . . . ?

KJ made some very nice cilantro-lime chicken last night.

Went and got her brother today for purposes of further visiting.

Pooky has been very amusing lately.

KJ admits to deliberately keeping quiet whole her brother and I have theological "debates" (her word).

Gah, I need to update LJ more often.


So since July our church has been facing facts and preparing for a merger of some sort with a certain nearby church. Neither one has the funds to keep running by itself, the membership just isn't materializing, both buildings need massive maintenance, etc. Neither congregation wants to give its building up, of course, but at least one will have to do so.

Or so we've been assuming. At the end of service today (quite a good sermon, incidentally, and I did quite a good job as liturgist) the pastor told us that a nameless party had expressed strong interest in the other church building and was willing to buy it and then lease it to the other congregation for an unknown, lengthy period of time. The other congregation would be responsible for leasing and utilities; everything else would be paid for by the buyer. The pastor said that his position was that if this went through, his recommendation was for us to keep our own building as well, as a proper long-term investment (and also, I assume, as a fall-back if the other congregation eventually gets pushed out). And then some of the money from the sale could be used, possibly, to repair our building.

This is a sensible plan, I think. What doesn't seem sensible is that the trustees have stopped their decision-making process on the matter until the other church comes to a decision on the offer. Unless people's schedules already conflicted with the next few trustee meetings, they should be kicking around a few scenarios at the very least. One way or another, something will have to be done soon. What if the deal falls through and there's nothing else immediately out there?

I also wonder who would want a church building but not be planning to use it for services. It's not a very large building -- that would be our place -- so there's got to be some overlap between the parts the buyer intends to use and the parts the congregation would use. I fear there might be some unpleasant re-decorating ahead.

Going to camp overnight at Meramec Caverns with KJ and her brother. Whee!

Watchmen has very good camera work, but it's very sordid.


Getting more settled in. KJ's bookcase is set up and has a number of books encased. Plus we moved the TV out of the bedroom onto the top of the case.

Pooky and Penny still at odds philosophically. Pooky seems to have recovered from her trip to the vet, in which she had her shots renewed, her ear oiled, and her coat de-fleaed.


Also, my car passed 50k miles about three weeks ago.

Still busy with college and getting things arranged for KJ. Also still waiting on nearly all of the wedding photos. If the rest don't come soon, I'll just put up what we have (when I'm at home, of course).



Penny and Pookie have yet to come to an understanding. Penny isn't nearly as hyper as she used to be, but she's still quite direct and she still gets upset when she's kept from socializing with someone in the Approved Doggish Manner. KJ says Pookie likes dogs, but even at that, the fact is that Penny is just too sudden and in-your-face for Pookie's comfort. Penny's gotten Pookie alone once, and that evidently ended with a hissing Pookie crouching on the floor at the far edge of the guest bed while Penny stuck her nose under the bed and whined at her.

So Pookie stays mostly downstairs and Penny stays mostly upstairs. And Penny wants to be downstairs with the Cat, so she stands at the basement door and sniffs and whimpers and barks and scratches a bit, which are the very behaviors that annoy Pookie. And Pookie has, over the past week or so, been allowed to occasionally go upstairs and even outside for short periods of time while Penny is occupied elsewhere, so Pookie sometimes sits at the foot of or on the basement stairs and meows, which are the very behaviors that will "egg on" Penny if she's at the top of the stairs at the time.

I've tried carrying Penny up to Pookie and just putting the two within a few inches of each other so Penny can get her initial sniffing over and done with, but Penny is so ADD that half the time she either immediately turns her head and investigates something else that catches her attention. (Well, come to think of it, some of that is due to her wanting to get out of my clutches and approach Pookie from a different angle. You do not have the time to do that, Penny. Take what you're given.) And then she gets upset when I carry her away after a few seconds of Pookie being annoyed, because she didn't get to investigate the Cat.

Wedding was wonderful; honeymoon was wonderful; KJ and I are doing well; Pookie and Penny have yet to come to an understanding; classes + looking for a job + insurance situations are keeping me occupied; still waiting on pictures from KJ's brother.