JZ, I've been thinking about you all the time recently. (For better or worse, you're how I put a face on the best of Cathoicism.)

Like I said, Weakland is someone I respect enormously. And I get -

No, I don't get. But I'm trying to understand how incredibly painful this all must be for you. To be truthful, I'm not sure how you stay there. But I also get that that's not at all the same for me as for you.

D'oh. I'm so out of whatever, the 2 moms thing never even occurred to me. . Though from a mainstream Catholic community back 15 years, I'm clearly not thinking in that mindspace anymore. THANK GOODNESS.

HA! Sara! That's precisely the issue. If he were baptized, it would mitigate the two mommies bit.

We also picked a preschool. It's in the neighborhood we hope to move to next spring, the one that has actually super good schools, even public ones. But we took the check up today and the kids were all outside playing and it's the right place, I think, for Noah. Or it's an okay place for him. I'm sort of bereft about Aria and him not going there, but really, I am too impatient to wait to see if we really will get one of the elusive spaces.

Plus the preschool we chose? They do an ice cream social each year and we went last year and liked it. They are also the cheapest option we have ($790 a month) and they do sort of fun and interesting academics, more so than other schools we've looked at.

AND the director remembers us from a preschool cattle call. She remembered that we had twins and remembered our faces.

AND, we can do some part time summer transition before school starts. He'll go for mornings for 2 weeks before labor day, then another full week before the first day of school. It's the best way we can arrange it.

OK, here's my love of my parents: I sincerely doubt my dad believed in god when I was born, but mom still did. We went to quaker meetings where I mostly got schooled in the new and old testaments. Sorta. Really what I learned was the quaker (of the west) manner, which was this whole witnessing and human rights thing. And then I watched (and fretted) as my faithless father practiced those principles alongside those who believed.

What I got (and what he didn't) is that there is a conduit there, a bridge. He crosses it but denies it existence. I see it, but I haven't crossed it in practice.

Fretted, huh? What was it about doing the same things but without the spiritual underpinning that was upsetting?

(That's an honest question, not snark.)

What I got (and what he didn't) is that there is a conduit there, a bridge. He crosses it but denies it existence. I see it, but I haven't crossed it in practice.

I think I know what you mean here, but can you elucidate?

I kind of went a little nuts with the polish about a week ago, at Head2Toe beauty, that has discount prices, and ordered: China Glaze: Dorothy Who?, C-C-Courage, Electric Lilac, Grape Pop, Cosmic, Meteor Shower, Stella, Let's Groove, Skate Night, Watermelon Rind, Grape Juice and Orly Nail Polish-Velvet Rope

I LOVE all of them, except Stella, which is going in the give away pile. Tonight's color is Grape juice.

Wearing the brown cassock of a Franciscan, Father Cantalamessa took note that Easter and Passover were falling during the same week this year, saying he was led to think of the Jews. “They know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence and also because of this they are quick to recognize the recurring symptoms,” he said.

Violence? Has there been violence against Catholics (collectively) over this?

I swapped two of the songs on the musical quiz (both Julie Andrews shows). I got 20/25 on the uncomfortable synopsis quiz. Four of the misses were shows that I've heard of but don't know.

Check out this poster for a lost Bond film. [link]

I'd wager that there is just as much abuse (and perhaps more) in Central and South America and Africa as there has been in the US and Europe.

In Africa there are a few other issues for the church to deal with. Like Rwanda, and insisting that using condoms promotes the spread of AIDS.

Fretted, huh?

It was the daily stuff. Worried about my dad being arrested and what that would mean to the family (my young self was worried about the car being confiscated, because of course they wouldn't arrest my dad! But no car was bad for us! Several of his compatriots went to prison in AZ.)

Liese,my dad, I love him. He's got a good heart. But also he's got a serious chip on his shoulder when it comes to any religion (got to be back to being thrown out of school. Or not.) He'll align himself with their actual actions, but he holds pretty much all faiths in contempt intellectually. He's done more in person for the things I believe in than I.