yeah java - she usually is more supportive and the one reading more and more books to keep perspective. I think she may just be not having a great time right now and honestly, the reality of his tantrums and reading about theoretical tantrums are just so vastly different. She has never had to deal with the level he brings (which is not that often) not with her two kids or nieces and nephews, not with having taught school for 10 or so years - but it is him right now and isn't gonna just stop all of a sudden.

I thought that point was included in the ads.

Never seen the ads. Thought it safer to err on the side of caution.

Lot less sore than yesterday, but still sore. Hadn't realised it had been hurting that badly. Improved range of motion, so it goes in the win column.

By y'all... off to DC!

Arminianism

What is that?

It's often posited as the "opposite" to Calvinism, in that it doesn't believe that anyone is predestined to heaven or hell (although it *does* teach that God already knows who will accept grace, which sounds kind of like predestination, but the difference there -- IIRC -- is that God doesn't choose people's destinies; they use their free will to accept grace or not, and he just knows about it ahead of time).

Arminianism also teaches that a person can lose their salvation, which seems like bullshit to me.

Here's a Wikipedia link, although I don't know how thorough it is: [link]

Unrelated to religion: there was an ice-coated tree/shrub in our yard, and I took some nifty pictures of it.

t /random self-pimping

Tep, those pics are wicked cool. I especially like the B/W ones but then again, I'm a whore for B/W pics.

Very nice. I like the color versions better, myself, especially with the blue sky in the background. It still looks cold, but not grim.

Teppy - those are beautiful pictures.

Was it as icy on the ground?

It was snowing here longer than I had expected it to but I haven't ventured out to see how much snow we got.

Thanks! On the B/W vs. color versions -- I'm torn as to which I like better, which is (1) why I fiddled with making some B/W, to see what I got, and (2) why I posted both color and B/W of the same photos.

The more photos I take, the more I'm reminded that cropping is your friend, in the sense of less-is-more/focus on a small area, not a large area. (Except, of course, when you want a large open vista, and then cropping is of the devil.)

Was it as icy on the ground?

Nothing on the ground -- the tree/shrub is in a sheltered area (possibly under the neighbor's drippy gutters), so the low temps froze the ice in that area but nothing was on the ground.

God doesn't choose people's destinies; they use their free will to accept grace or not, and he just knows about it ahead of time

Interesting.