Joe and I are having a 2 day date night in Michigan this weekend. My mom and his are taking care of Em. YAY!

BON is female. BOB is male. If you have a cold, it could be easy to confuse them.

I mean, only if you read the whole board out loud to yourself.

Scientology can have all the wacky backstory and principles it likes; lots of religions have teh wacky somewhere all up in their business.

I just don't think I could live down the idea that the basis for my emotional/spiritual/whateveral well-being was the idea of a second-rate SF novelist. Dianetics is not exactly Sermon on the Mount material, you know? Even a first-rate novelist -- he's a novelist. I like my religions with a bit of personal charisma, and also not headed by somebody whose job it is to make stuff up.

I will say this for Scientologists -- they learned from the Millerites not to predict specific doom; they learned from the Shakers that if you're not in the thick of cultural exchange you might die out; and they learned from the Mormons (and for that matter the early Christians) that sometimes being oppressed is the best thing that ever happened to a religion. If I were mean, I would say that the Scientologists also learned from the crap pop-psych market how to couch doctrine in psychologically-attractive terms, but I am not mean.

Much.

I'm looking forward to a weekend away from the kidlets, but I think that will wait until Isaac is weaned. So, um, yeah, another 6 to 8 months or so. Hey, that's next summer isn't it?

Something like that.

Wow. I just looked at the calendar and Em turns 1 year 7 weeks from Wednesday.

I am boggling.

Oh, and you know that date last night? It involved dressing up in a pretty dress (ref. conversation with ita last week about same), a delicious meal, a bottle of wine, and Serenity (ref. FINALLY!). It was a very good night.

That sounds loverly.

Just came back from the Wallace & Gromit movie, which made me smile until my face hurt. I was also entertained by a Small Child on the way out who was happily saying "Cheese, Gromit!" every once in a while.

See, that picture of Maher inclines me to give him his sippy cup of juice and blanky and go take your nap already. I have too strong associations of thumbsucking with childhood for it to be remotely a ...hithery thing. My little quirk.

Glad the date night went well, Burrell.

The blue sudafed I took is either going to make me feel better, or much much worse.

Wallace & Gromit is next on the list for me. We want to take Franny, but figure we'll warm her up with "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Grand Day Out."

Thanks for the kind words, guys! I'm not familiar with any particular case, but in general freedom of religious expression is not freedom to harm others.

There were at least two little kids led out of the theatre due to being a little over-scared of the action, and a couple climbing into parental arms. Nothing really bad happens, there's just some apprehension.

(I don't think that needs to be white-fonted...?)