Fay! Say hello to the roomie and K and all, for me! Wish I could come hang out with y'all.

So, this is my first day off work in a very long while. And I have a headache. BOO. I wouldn't leave the house, except that there is next-to-no food in the house. Hmm. I could order, I suppose, but...so lazy, I am.

Beverly, insent in a few minutes.

the Nefertari range of Lush-style hand-made cosmetics that we have here in Egypt is, whilst horribly expensive and fairly limited, bloody lovely.

SO GOOD. I bought a few bits and bobs to bring back as presents for friends. Though not all of them reached their intended targets.

Fuckity.

The minivan is having fits. First the CVJoint boot is ruptured, and had to be repaired. Then the thing has been starting poorly and I'm told a cylinder isn't firing. Now I just parked it out front only to get out and hear, smell, and then see a steady stream of my coolant pour onto the ground from the undercarraige directly behind the driver's seat.

Apparently it was the coolant tube back to the rear heater, which we've never used. However since it connects directly to the radiator, th entire thing is draining onto the ground. Or at least into a big pan I've placed under the leak, so as not to contaminate the local watershed.

Crud, crud crud. And that's just the highlights.

ETA: This on a vehicle that still needs a new head gasket and a front end alignment.

We're Lutherans.Easter Sunday brand,(that is not a synod, of course...just I was raised a backslider who showed up on holidays, which is okay apart from not giving stuff to rebel against) but a lot more heathenish than Garrison Keillor Lutherans. In many ways GK was spot-on from the church-going ones I've met. I think Lutherans are more likely to fill up with coffee and casserole than the Spirit.

I could spend hours at this site.

I went out and bought everything I need to make chocolate covered Oreos for Halloween. Now I just need to motivation to go make them. My back is still hurting today, and it needs to get better before 11am tomorrow.

I forgot to mention yay for Laura being back online! I am glad the damage wasn't too awful, and I hope you have your regular electricity back soon.

Since I know this was where English happy-clappy Christianity ws discussed, I feel the need to add the following.

I've been to an English church revival service. I've hung with the English happy-clappy crowd. And there are only three differences between them and the American happy-clappy folks:

• Accents
• Cultural References
• Lack of a "One God + One Political Party" belief

The American happy-clappy sorts have a bit of a range to them, from the sincere emotionalism of the Vineyard charismatics to the bad hair of Jan Crouch. The British... they're trying to imitate the Americans, only it kind of comes out like Jesus As Taught On Blue Peter. Or, an exaggerated version -- almost a parody -- of American charismatic Christianity.

This one revival meeting I went to they had the Christian ministers of the community come up and had them "annoint" the assembled Christians of the town with olive oil (Tesco, extra virgin). So, in happy-clappy procession, we all filed to the front. Now, in our local Presbyterian church here, annointing would mean the Sign Of The Cross on the forehead. Not at this meeting. Ever hear the story of how Ashcroft had a bucket of oil dumped on his head to "annoint" him when he signed up for... Senate? or AG? Anyway, think like that, only there were 1000 Christians, so dumping was not an option.

Try "flinging." Anglican pastors in full cassock FLINGING olive oil.

It took me two days to get the oil out of my hair.

Anyway, the point is that only 1 in 10 or 1 in 11 Brits attend church, compared to the bare minimum 1 in 3 in this country. So, they have to borrow some memes and attitudes from the Americans, and God bless them, they don't know how silly it makes them look.

I'm actually not sure I'd agree with my husband on this one--at least, I'd say the English church I attended, while borderline happy-clappy, didn't strike me as a bad re-tread of American evangelicalism. And FWIW, these days it seems like one or two British musicians are creating all the (often bad) contemporary Christian choruses getting sung to death in the American church. The culture flows both ways, IOW.