Monthly Archives: March 2004

The Best Move Ireland Has Ever Made

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CNN.Com: Ireland bans smoking in workplaces

I think part of the reason I ended up with double-lung walking pneumonia when I was there 6 years ago is that I was forced to breathe all the cigarette smoke. It was so bad that there were times I couldn’t be in a place for more than 5 minutes before starting to smoke.

After living in California (which has very restrictive laws), it was strange to move to the Midwest where there are smoking and non-smoking sections of restaurants. The local places don’t really separate them well and I’m usually gasping for my inhaler after going out to dinner. There’s talk of a ban on smoking in public places in Minnesota and I am overwhelmingly for it. People can go outside if they want to smoke. The ventilation is better then anyway.

And yes, I do believe that “smoker’s rights” is an oxymoron. I’m asthmatic. Your filthy habit has the potential to send me to the E.R., so of course I’m going to support any ban of your habit in public places and throw overwhelming support behind any taxes on tobacco. Deal with it.

Spring Is Busting Out All Over!

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It’s been pushing 70F here in western Minnesota. I haven’t gone for any walks because I’ve had indoor duties but I did take Edda and Freya out on their cat leashes to see the bird feeder and I washed and aired the two afghans I’ve been working on. The second still needs to be bordered but I need to wait to get the yarn for that. In the meantime, I’ve started my next project with some of the leftovers from the donor afghan. I’m working on squares and once I reach 64, I’m going to make them into a blanket. I haven’t quite decided the color scheme yet — all I know is that it will be a black and [insert color] checkerboard pattern. I’m leaning toward blue so that it matches our sheets. I’m also still working on squares for the exchange.

Tomorrow is supposed to be stormy but that gives me an excuse to work on my book (which is probably more interesting as a Silicon Valley native and UCSC alum because I get all the inside jokes) and make more squares. Sunday is church and the annual klub dinner for one of the churches. (Several members have explained to me that klub tastes like ham-flavored wallpaper paste but I’ll “like it once I acquire the taste”. Well… when they explain it so… interestingly…)

Testify!

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Rice seeks another private meeting with commission

She has granted public interviews with dozens of papers including the Irish Times but she won’t testify publicly under oath to the commission. There is something not right about this. EVERYBODY including Rice and Dubya should be required to testify publicly under oath — no special treatment. If this is as heinous a crime as Dubya claims it is, shouldn’t he be the first to publicly testify about what he knew so that something like this doesn’t happen again?

Refusing to testify really gives the impression that they’re hiding something…

Oh yes… and in case anyone wants to complain that Clarke is dissing Bush to be partisan, the guy is a Republican. Hardly partisanship.

Cindy’s Friday Five

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Heather is taking a break today so Cindy created her own.

1) What’s your favorite thing to do when it’s raining out?
Curl up with a book and a cat and watch the thunder and lightning.

2) How often do you go to the library?
Whenever I need a new book.

3) When was the last time you sent an actual letter or card via snail mail, and what was the occasion?
When I responded back to the letter a family friend sent me. (She writes me frequently to encourage me in my pastor’s wivery.)

4) What is your favorite radio station?
The local NPR one.

5) What is your favorite kind of hot tea?
Lipton Lemon n’ Honey!

Parenting Strategies

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Chris blogs about parent-teacher conferences. I recommend reading the post — it illustrates everything I hate about many parents today who refuse to discipline their kids. They (or at least the ones I’ve been unfortunate enough to deal with) don’t discipline their kids because they don’t want their kids to hate them.

News flash: Most kids say “I hate you” because they don’t have the verbal skills to say “I am very frustrated with the approach you have taken to dealing with my behavioral infraction.” Your kids are not going to be your friends and they shouldn’t be. If you are relying on them to be your friends, you really need to get out of the house and develop relationships with people your own age.

I also get the “if my kid doesn’t want to do it, he doesn’t have to do it” with some of my Confirmation parents. I don’t give a rat’s butt if their kids don’t want to go to Confirmation or if they don’t want to go to church, acolyte, write their faith statement, do sermon notes, or take their Confirmation test — they’re going to do it if they’re in my Confirmation class. I would like to throttle these parents because all they’re doing is turning their kids into slackers who will never have decent employment because they’ll be fired the second they tell their boss that they “don’t feel like coming into work today so [they] shouldn’t have to.” I’ve already lost two kids in my first year Confirmation class because I refused to let them have that attitude. (They were already thinking of leaving the church anyway so it wasn’t much of a loss.) My second year kids whine at me plenty and they’ve learned that whining gets nowhere with me, mostly because I really don’t care if they’re unhappy because they have to do something. I’m not getting paid to teach them and their parents have given control of their religious education to me, so I can really do what I darn please.

I think the parents who have this lame attitude are the ones who never heard the word “no” as kids. From the 1960’s onward, there has been this movement to abolish the word “no” with regard to discipline. Apparently, there’s a misguided belief that giving kids limits stifles creativity. It doesn’t — it teaches them boundaries. This lack of boundaries has created an epidemic and it has made me much more aware of how I’m going to raise my kids when I have them. My kids will not get everything they ask for and they will not be raised in front of the TV. Some TV is OK — using it as an electronic babysitter is not.

Mushy Stuff

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It’s my second wedding anniversary today and I woke up to Jon holding a cookie sheet with my breakfast on it. I wasn’t really in the mood for food but I was touched to get breakfast in bed. There were e-cards waiting for me on the computer and my parents had sent us a nice anniversary care package yesterday. I have to proctor the test to one of my kids this afternoon and then hopefully (if this kid’s mother doesn’t just drop him at the door at 7), we’re going to go out to eat.

Confirmation Test

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I gave my first 5 confirmands their Confirmation test tonight. They were tested on the 10 commandments, Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, who Jesus is/why He is important, Biblical names/terms, basic Christian knowledge, and basic Lutheran knowledge. Out of 100 points, the lowest score was 90 and the highest was 105.5 –I’m not sure if the test was too easy or I’m just a *REALLY* good teacher. 4 of the 5 could say the Creed perfectly and the 5th one got 7 out of 10 on it.

I have 3 more this week. Let’s hope they do just as well…