Happy New Year!

Had a happy new year at 3 pm at my Grandma's Assisted Living Facility. It's great fun. We've done it several times. They have a band in, and play oldies, and get all the residents to come and wear feather crowns and top hats and blowing horns and shaking noisemakers. :)

Later we took Grandma to visit her old neighbor at the other building. That was fun, too. :)

Now we're back where we're staying, and we're watching a bit of Down with Love.

Trip Log

It's been a nice week with my BF in the Midwest. We had snow on the ground when we arrived and more fresh overnight. Then we had ice and rain and thaw and so forth. :) We skipped the day trip . . .

We got to spend time with some of my friends and time alone together exploring the town. I got to meditate in the Domes (M. had several books to read while I was busy). We also had an official tour of the Domes, so M. could see them. There were a couple of other MSAE/MUM (see sidebar) graduates with their girlfriends on the tour as well. It was kind of weird--they've grown up and changed a lot, but then, I suppose, I have, too.

Now I'm in the Chicago area with my parents. We dropped M. off at the airport (in Iowa) on our way here. Tomorrow, we'll visit my Grandma. I'd better close now. I ought to get ready for bed. :)

Melt to Ice

So first it melts, and then it rains, and then it freezes. Just in time for us to go on a day trip tomorrow! Well, not if the roads are icy . . .

Merry or Pippin Christmas

It's white and snowy and cold and cozy and fun, here in the Heart Land.

Travel was slowed a bit by cold and technical troubles, but we got in the same day, before dark, so that was good.

We've got lots of plans and stuff to do, and I'm happy because everyone is getting along so far.

Very Merry to you too . . . And very Pippin. ;-)

Silicorn Vally, Here I Come

Our affectionate name for the town I grew up in. It's surrounded by cornfields and full of software start-ups. I head there tomorrow too early to mention. Must check-in on-line and finish last minute errands.

Busy, Busy Elf

I played Santa's Little Helper yesterday and got a lot of X-mas things done. Making and wrapping presents, packaging and addressing them. I've still got a few knitted things to finish up, but other than that I'm done, which is good. I'm starting to feel the pressure of needing to get way to much done in way to little time.

Heretics

Meant to tell about this before, but stuff got in the way. This weekend, I heard part of a really interesting episode of This American Life, about a heretic. You can read about it here and listen to it by clicking on the speaker link on the page. It was really interesting, because it was an interview about a man who had been an evangelical, pentecostal minister who stopped believing in hell. And he also started believing that you didn't have to believe in Jesus to be saved.

I'm not sure that I agree with all his ideas. I don't believe that humans are sinful by nature or that Jesus was the Son of God, or even that his death "saved the sins of the world." I believe in the basic goodness of people. I believe that we create our own heaven or hell based on our actions. But it was really cool to hear about someone switching from believing so deeply in evangelical Christianity to believing in universal salvation and not believing in hell.

I only heard parts of it on the radio, so I'm listening to a podcast of it right now. It's hard to write and listen at the same time. So I'll let you read/listen to it yourself at your leisure. :)