The color of the dress. There was a debate online today about the color of the dress that someone posted on Tumblr. (Here’s a link to one of the articles on it for those who are interested.) The answer: it’s blue/black or white/gold depending on the light and angle at which you are viewing the picture.
Thank you. Thank you to those who have emailed or messaged me on Facebook over the last few days to express your condolences on the deaths of Trail Kitty and Cullen. It means a great deal to me. I think I’m dealing better with Cullen’s death than Jon is because I was present for it and I know he didn’t suffer. It was also the humane thing to do because apparently, he was having problems moving.
I am eternally grateful to Audrey, the woman who adopted my boys, because she’s given them a wonderful retirement home as they are now retired church cats. She lives in a retirement community for church workers so it is definitely fitting.
Midweek Lenten Soup Suppers. For those of my readership who are Catholic or Orthodox, a number of liturgical Protestant denominations have midweek Lenten soup suppers where people sign up to bring soup and other people bring salads and desserts. (My husband’s internship supervisor commented on Ash Wednesday 2003 that “Catholics fast, Lutherans eat.” At my Episcopal church, 4-5 people sign up to bring soup (homemade or store-bought — both are acceptable), 2 people bring salads, 2 people bring bread, and 2 people bring cookies. Last night, we had four options: egg drop, tomato bisque, chicken tortilla soup, and goulash. I went with the goulash as I’m allergic to eggs and the tomato base of the other two doesn’t sit well with my stomach. It was different than the goulash I was picturing — it was macaroni, ground beef, tomato paste, and a little bit of cheese to hold it together. I definitely needed some comfort food and it did not disappoint! We also do “Lenten interest groups” and mine is on prayer, so that was pretty fun.
A “liberal” reason to hate Susan G. Komen. Some of my Catholic friends are against Susan G. Komen because they get funds from Planned Parenthood. Well… now there’s a “liberal” reason to hate them: they’re partnered with Baker Hughes, a fracking company. They made a $100,000 donation to Komen and are passing out pink drill bits to their fracking sites.
If you’re disgusted by this (especially as 25% of the more than 700 chemicals used in fracking are carcinogenic), sign this petition.
An update on the whole “read the Bible in a year” thing. I just got through Leviticus in the Old Testament which was pretty dry and I’m in Numbers right now which is only marginally better. This is probably why my AP English teacher told us to to read Exodus but not take note of all the specs for the ark of the covenant unless we wanted to build one. 🙂 I continue to be introduced to some wonderful Psalms (strangely, there are some I haven’t read before even though there’s at least one in the lectionary every Sunday) and I’m now into Luke’s Gospel in the New Testament.
Update on Lenten disciplines. When my mother-in-law saw me opening the last can of Coke in the house on Sunday, I may or may not have said something along the lines of “Yes, this is a can of Coke. Sundays are mini-Easters. Don’t judge me!!!!” Yeah… I’m doing just *SO* well at my abstaining of Coke for Lent. 🙂 Otherwise, my prayers are at least happening and I’m getting the extra reading done daily.
Keeping myself sane. Megan at Clearing the Sill of the World introduced me to the wonderfulness that is Tim Hawkins 3 Lents ago and I’m re-posting his “hedge of protection” sketch because it’s one of my go-to YouTube videos when I need some levity.
For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.
