Holy Thursday

Do this in memory of Me.

Living Stations of the Cross

On March 14, 2008, our church youth group performed a Living Stations of the Cross. They did an awesome job. Our youth group leaders did an incredible job putting this together in only a few, short weeks. The pictures at the above link do not do them justice, but it's the best I have. Three of our kids performed: Kenzie was a Weeping Woman in the eighth station, Alex was a soldier that escorted Jesus to the cross (and hammered the nails), and Connor was Jesus.

Parental Rights Are Out the Window in California

As a homeschooling family, I guess we won't be moving to California, where a judge recently ruled against homeschooling your children. With the expense, waste of money, and demonstrable failure rate of our public schools, I can't believe people will allow this ruling to stand. In that state, now you must be a "credentialed" educator to teach kids, even your own. Of course, the state will determine who gets those credentials, and what requirements must be met to receive such credentials; as if a credentialed government employee is better suited to take care of children than their parents, including all areas of their education.

I can understand the need to fix abusive situations, but you need to show abuse before you start denying all parents the right to raise and educate their own kids.

I'd go into this more, but I have to get back to homeschooling my kids...

Stupid Cat Is Back

After two days and three nights in a tree, the cat showed up this morning. I really thouight we'd seen the end of it. I'd love to know how it got down without breaking something.

HAL

It appears we have adopted HAL, the Heuristically-programmed ALgorithmic Computer, as our washing machine. After comparing these images, there's no doubt about it.

HAL 9000, from 2001: A Space Odyssey:

HAL, from our laundry room:

Economic Stimulus Rebate

I was initially perplexed at the government's plan to send us money that isn't ours through this economic stimulus package rebate. Upon further thought, we decided to stimulate the economy by buying a new washer; the new steam, high efficiency, front-loader type. It's supposed to use a fraction of electricity and water compared to old washers. It just arrived. Now I have to spend the next few days reading the manual. I think this thing was designed by rocket scientists. It does kinda look like Hal fro 2001: A Space Odyssey, doesn't it? I hope it doesn't start talking to me.

Cat In A Tree

Our stupid cat has gotten stuck in trees before, but never like this. You can't really see her in the picture, but she's higher than I can reach, even with my longest ladder. The firemen couldn't even reach the tree because the yard is a swamp from the rain last night. This could be the end of our stupid cat. I saw some giant bird (I think it was a Turkey Buzzard) dive-bombing her a little while ago. It would serve her right to get eaten by bird after all the dead birds she's left on our back deck in the past.