It’s a drizzly day and the mood of the house is sleepy. The dog cracks me up on days like this. Her hunting-dog half is handily overmastered by her lap-dog half where rainy days are concerned. The weather has been so mild that the hibernating creatures have woken up and during our morning time we […]

It’s two days after Christmas, and so I’m busily enjoying as many Christmas presents as I can at the same time. I’m still diligently working through Christmas chocolate and sipping a Boylan’s birch beer (these were actually Greg’s present, but he’s been willing to share) (I think). And I’m upstairs on the new laptop, and […]

Good grief, where has the time gone?? Just about every day for the last two weeks I thought of blog entries I wanted to write, and every day there was too much else going on.
So with scant hours left before it’s time, I’ll go ahead and wish all a blessed Nativity Feast.
Christ is born!

As I usually end up saying, I just love Ben Stein. Here’s something from his Web-site (link HERE):

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:
I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when […]

The short cruise I went on ended last Friday, and I’ve got some photos and a drawing of Santa Catalina. Sort of a mini-travelogue, I suppose.

The cruise went to San Diego and Ensenada as well, but for some reason, Santa Catalina ended up being the most photogenic stop.I just had forgotten how pretty it was. […]

“The will of God is a curse to the demon. It is the law to the unregenerate man. It is freedom to those who have attained salvation.”
– Mpn. Anthony of Sourezh

Morality is not exactly a secondary matter in Christianity, but it is a derivative one. Our morality should issue naturally from the plenitude of our religion; if it does not, it is either mere respectability or a matter of instinct, or else — very often — insufferable hypocrisy.
— “Diary of a Russian Priest” Fr. […]

We made it to the Getty exhibit on the Sinai icons, and I’d love to give it two big thumbs up, but I can’t. However, I’m not at all sure that’s not just my problem.
The Getty has done a lovely job presenting both the icons and the sense of reverence that the Orthodox have for […]

Sorry I’ve been such a lazy blogger. It just seems that between work duties, church duties, Christmas prep and travel, I haven’t gotten the nice windows of time that make for worthwhile blog entries. I’ll try to see if I can catch up on some of the things that I’ve had on my mind, because […]