— 1 —

I’m taking part in Run for Courage on Saturday. We’re raising money for organizations that help victims of sex trafficking become whole again. You *know* you want to sponsor me. And no, I’m not running. My philosophy on these things is “I only run when chased” and I have a feeling that if I tell that to the leader of our team, she’ll chase me for 3 miles. (She’s a half-marathonner. I put nothing past her.)

— 2 —

You see that cute little boy on my sidebar? His name is Brett and he needs a mama. Are you possibly his mama? Go check out his profile and show him some love.

— 3 —

We’ve had a pretty interesting discussion on social services going on here since my Quick Takes last week. We’ve talked about problems with various social programs, discussed experiences, talked about solutions, and I hope this series of posts has been a starting place for some conversations about “the 47%”. My offer still stands: if you have experience (life or otherwise) in this area, I’d love a guest post. My email address is jen at grace-filled dot net.

— 4 —

I had a guest post this week over at Life Happens When. Go on over and read how life happens when you have a premature baby. There’s a lovely picture over there of me asleep with Daniel in the NICU.

— 5 —

Holy NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles season premieres, Batman! Those were some amazing season premieres. I like NCIS as a show more than I like the spin-off so I probably enjoyed that one more though I did like the complete twist at the end of NCIS: Los Angeles. On Wednesday morning as I was sleepily putting Daniel’s lunch together for school, it struck me that there are some parallels between ghost in C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce and the villain episodes leading up to the season finale and then the season premiere for this season of NCIS. Both the ghost and the villain lost sons and allowed their grief to cloud their judgement. This clouded judgement resulted in them both making foolish decisions. In the case of the ghost, she gave up heaven. In the case of the villain, he planted bombs on Navy ships, blew up the NCIS building on the Navy yard, killed an FBI team trying to take him down, and ended up losing his life at the end of the episode.

— 6 —

To the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee: you both suck. There were ten straight smear ads on in the three minutes before the NCIS season premiere started. 10 of them. Have I mentioned that they only covered three Congressional races? Yeah, I’m serious. Both of those groups sponsored the ads and it was actually split 50/50 down the middle. To both groups: those ads are bad for our souls. Either find something positive to say about your candidate or accept that a lot of us will be flipping channels. To the DCCC: I want the money I contributed to you back.

— 7 —

I want autumn to come. It’s supposed to be in the high 90’s this weekend. I wish I could magically be transported to New England or the Upper Midwest where the leaves are changing, the nights are cold, and the temperatures during the day aren’t horrific.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.