Please Pray

For a good outcome and healing for surgical procedures on Tuesday...

...for my niece, Donna, who will have a hysterectomy

...for Ann's friend, Kay Rohde, who will have spinal surgery


For Paul the BB who has an important meeting on Tuesday.

Update from Eileen at Episcopalifem:

My mother-in-law is having a second hip replacement done this afternoon.

She’s nervous. My husband is nervous – he’ll be at the hospital waiting, always a difficult task. It’s a big surgery, and since this is her second go around, she knows exactly what to expect (which is both a help and a hindrance).

I pray things go smoothly for her, that she has no crises, and the surgery is a success.

Thanks for those of you who take a few moments to remember us in your thoughts and prayers today.

Update on Kay from Facebook:

The dr. Just came out to see us. She is out of surgery. He is confident that he got all of the tumor and that she will eventually recover. We're still waiting to see her. But she is safe.

Thanks be to God.

Update 2 from Paul the BB:

For Joseph Montoya who worked in our travel department and died in an accident and for his father Max who also works in our department.

May Joseph rest in peace and rise in glory. May God give comfort and consolation to Max and those who love Joseph.

Update 3 from Eileen:

The surgery went well..and after spending a bit of time in recovery she is now in a regular room and resting. Thank you all for your prayers and good wishes. It means a lot to me.

Thankful again.

Update 4 on Donna and Kay:

Donna - Surgery went well - she's tired and in some pain - but not overwhelming. May well come home tomorrow.

Dictated by Kay - I'm in Observation waiting to go back to my room. All I can eat is ice chips, but there's more and more motion in my legs! I thank you all for your prayers. The chief nurse just came in, and I'll be good soon.

Again heartfelt thankfulness.

FORREST GUMP GOES TO HEAVEN

And along comes Doug to cheer me up:

The day finally arrived. Forrest Gump dies and goes to Heaven. He is at the Pearly Gates, met by St. Peter himself. However, the gates are closed, and Forrest approaches the gatekeeper.

St. Peter said, 'Well, Forrest, it is certainly good to see you. We have heard a lot about you. I must tell you, though, that the place is filling up fast, and we have been administering an entrance examination for everyone. The test is short, but you have to pass it before you can get into Heaven.'

Forrest responds, 'It sure is good to be here, St. Peter, sir. But nobody ever told me about any entrance exam. I sure hope that the test ain't too hard. Life was a big enough test as it was.'

St. Peter continued, 'Yes, I know, Forrest, but the test is only three questions.

First: What two days of the week begin with the letter T?

Second: How many seconds are there in a year?

Third: What is God's first name?'

Forrest leaves to think the questions over. He returns the next day and sees St. Peter, who waves him up, and says, 'Now that you have had a chance to think the questions over, tell me your answers.'

Forrest replied, 'Well, the first one -- which two days in the week begins with the letter 'T'? Shucks, that one is easy. That would be Today and Tomorrow.'

The Saint's eyes opened wide and he exclaimed, 'Forrest, that is not what I was thinking, but you do have a point, and I guess I did not specify, so I will give you credit for that answer. How about the next one?' asked St. Peter.

'How many seconds in a year? Now that one is harder,' replied Forrest, 'but I thunk and thunk about that, and I guess the only answer can be twelve.'

Astounded, St. Peter said, 'Twelve? Twelve? Forrest, how in Heaven's name could you come up with twelve seconds in a year?'

Forrest replied, 'Shucks, there's got to be twelve: January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd.... '

'Hold it,' interrupts St. Peter. 'I see where you are going with this, and I see your point, though that was not quite what I had in mind....but I will have to give you credit for that one, too. Let us go on with the third and final question. Can you tell me God's first name'?

'Sure,' Forrest replied, 'it's Andy.'

'Andy?' exclaimed an exasperated and frustrated St Peter.

'Ok, I can understand how you came up with your answers to my first two questions, but just how in the world did you come up with the name Andy as the first name of God?'

'Shucks, that was the easiest one of all,' Forrest replied. 'I learnt it from the song,

ANDY WALKS WITH ME,
ANDY TALKS WITH ME,
ANDY TELLS ME I AM HIS OWN.'

St. Peter opened the Pearly Gates, and said: 'Run, Forrest, run.

Glen Beck - "Ticking Time Bomb"

Glenn Beck on Mary Landrieu:

"...so we know you're hooking, but you're just not cheap...."

Bill Press on Glenn Beck:

Look, I'm a talk show host, I am totally for talk show hosts almost getting away with almost anything they say, on the radio particularly. But I'm amazed at how much Fox lets Glenn Beck get away with. I think he is a ticking time bomb, and one day he's going to explode in the face of Roger Ailes, and they're going to be sorry they gave him that television show.

I love Michelle Malkin's two cents worth.

From TPM.

Breaking News From Google

Google informs me:

If you live in America and you have been wanting to work from home, you might be in luck. Google has now released a new "Work From Home Program" that will allow Americans to work for the titan from the comfort of their own homes.

To thousands of Americans this means that they will soon have a safe and bright future working for one of the fastest growing companies in the world.

An employee of Google tells me that she earns $5500 per month in the "Work From Home Program". That's not bad. The introductory kit costs only $2.95, which is quite reasonable.

To see what the program is all about, I need to fill out a form, which I don't think I will do. I'll stay in suspense and imagine all I could do with the extra $5500 per month.

Hey Bloggers, Do You Ever...

...get tired of blogging and blogs and wonder if the time and effort is worth it, and if you do any good at all, and if the time could be better spent in reading a good book, or an even more worthwhile and unselfish activity?


I've got the low-dirty-livin-in-a bloggerland blues
And I'm runnin' out of things to say
I don't need no strife, just drop me in my life
I've got to feel the rhythm runnin' down in my shoes


With deep apologies to Ruthie Foster and her wonderful "Small Town Blues", which is an anthem for me.

Story Of The Day - Riding Home

You may not remember the time you let
me go first. Or the time you dropped
back to tell me it wasn't that far to go.
Or the time you waited at the crossroads
for me to catch up. You may not
remember any of those, but I do & this is
what I have to say to you: today, no
matter what it takes, we ride home
together.


From StoryPeople.

Good For Mary Landrieu

Times-Picayune:

Seldom has something as mundane as tinkering with the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage spawned such sensational condemnation.

On the eve of her pivotal vote last weekend to allow the Senate to proceed with consideration of health reform, it was revealed that Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., had secured a provision in the bill that would make a "special adjustment'' in the FMAP determination, bringing her home state between $100 million and $300 million in additional Medicaid money.

She had sold her vote, critics cried, in what they called the "Louisiana Purchase.'' Both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, in their broadcasts Monday, referred to Landrieu as a high-priced prostitute.

Yes, Beck and Limbaugh are calling Mary a whore, which is, when you think about it, a badge of honor coming from those two bottom feeders. I don't blame her one bit for holding out for the money. The health care system for the poor in New Orleans was not in good shape before Katrina but now is in a worse state, with Medicaid picking up the bill and punching a big hole in the state budget. One reason for the difficulty in getting health care to poor people is that a good portion of the medical infrastructure was flooded, not from Katrina, but from the FEDERAL FLOOD caused by faulty levees constructed by the U. S. Corps of Engineers, the levees which gave way and did not do the job of protecting the city. Only a fraction of the help that was promised by the federal government to the devastated city was actually given.

Mary's vote will cost her dearly in Louisiana, and it will help a little to be able to take home something to attempt to appease the local vultures that will be circling. Don't complain to me about Mary selling her vote, because I believe she did the right thing by voting as she did and by holding out for the money. Good for her.

Heaven II

She said you know what heaven is like?
& I said I wasn't sure & she laughed &
said grown-ups didn't know much at all
about important stuff & I said I had to
agree with her even though I was one of
them myself.


From StoryPeople.

First Sunday In Advent

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.


Psalm 146

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God all my life long.

Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith for ever;
who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The Lord will reign for ever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord!


1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, ‘There is peace and security’, then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labour pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then, let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.


READINGS:

AM Psalm 146, 147; PM Psalm 111, 112, 113
Amos 1:1-5,13-2:8; 1 Thess. 5:1-11; Luke 21:5-19

"Charlie Darwin" - The Low Anthem